Free Snapped (Urban Renaissance) by Tina Brooks McKinney Page B

understand.” He turned and walked out the door.
    That was the beginning of the end for my relationship with Merlin.
     
     
    I staggered down the aisle. I had no intentions of going to the wedding, but liquor has a way of making you do stupid shit. I had spent the entire week drinking until I passed out. I was so upset with Merlin I didn’t know what to do.
    “If I could just get him to listen to me, I’m sure I could make him change his mind,” I muttered out loud.
    The church was full with the students Merlin went to school with, and, I guessed, Cojo’s family. I don’t even remember how I got to the church; I was so drunk. I looked around to see if Ronald was there, but I didn’t immediately see him. I took a seat a few rows from the back. I would have walked up closer, but I wasn’t sure my legs were going to support me.
    “This is some bullshit.” I was getting angrier by the second.
    Merlin stood facing the altar with the priest and waited for his bride. He turned around and looked to the door at the back of the church, and I saw the eagerness on his face. Suddenly, he didn’t look like Merlin to me; he was Ronald. I shook my head in confusion.
    “Ronald.” I struggled to get out of the pew. I could not believe that my dream was finally going to come true. I rushed down the aisle to get to him. “I’m coming, Ronald,” I whispered. I didn’t see Cojo walk up the aisle until she joined hands with Ronald.
    “No!” I yelled.
    All eyes were on the front of the church, so no one was really paying me any attention. She looked lovely, but there was something wrong. Cojo was wearing my dress! I looked down to see what I was wearing, and I was appalled to see I was wearing blue jeans and a tattered robe with slippers on my feet.
    “This isn’t right.” I looked up to see if Ronald noticed that she was wearing my dress. He wasn’t even looking at me; he was staring at Cojo.
    “How did you get my dress, you bitch?” I reached for Cojo, but she jumped behind Merlin.
    “Ms. Meadows? What are you doing?” Her face was twisted up into an awful grimace, and she kept turning her head as if she smelled something foul.
    Merlin frowned. “Mom? What are you doing?”
    “She’s trying to steal you away from me, Ronald.” I reached out to Cojo again, but Merlin guarded her well. “Let go of that heffa and let’s get married.” I saw the ring that he was about to place on her finger and I grabbed it from him. “Give me my damn ring.”
    “You’re drunk.” He turned his nose up at me and looked at Cojo.
    Everyone in the church was talking with shocked looks on their faces.
    “Who is that?” the crowd whispered.
    “I think that’s Merlin’s mother.”
    “Get out of here.”
    “What the hell is she wearing?”
    “I think she’s drunk. I heard she wasn’t stable, something to do with Merlin’s father.”
    “Who is this Ronald she is talking about?”
    “That’s Merlin’s father.” I slipped the ring on my finger and it fit perfectly.
    “It fits, Ronald. She tried to ruin things for you and me, but I’m not going to let her.”
    Cojo started to cry. “You’re trying to ruin my wedding.”
    I reached for her again, but only managed to grab the flowers out of her hand. “Let’s do this, Ronald. I’ve been waiting all my life to be your wife.”
    “Mother!” Merlin yelled.
    I didn’t understand why he was yelling at me on the day that I was finally marrying his father. I reached for Cojo again and managed to grab the bodice of her dress. I yanked it hard, trying to get the dress so I could finally get married. I felt the fabric tear, and I yelled out in frustration. “Give me my dress, bitch.” I had lost all rational thought.
    I wanted the heifer to go away. I could see the anger on Merlin’s face. I never thought I would live to see the day he’d hit me, but he did. He slapped me across the face, breaking me out of the trance I was in.
    “Merlin?” My head started spinning. I