Ashanti

Chapter 3

Ashanti hides in the church entrance practicing her yearly confessional, she repeats the phrase, "Mother forgive me I have sinned, mother forgive me I have sinned." until she reaches the front of the line after the nuns in front of her finished their sessions. Some good, some bad, none exiled...Yet.

"Mother forgive me, I have sinned." Ashanti practically whispers the phrase to Esther, Esther nods and prepares her bible for a scripture reading.

"What have you done?" Esther asks, assuming that the sin was listening to unholy music, or forgetting to clean one the pews.

"I allowed a man to climb into my sheets to have sex with me before holy wedlock." Ashanti looks up at Esther and sees her face, frozen. Esther exhales, she looks at the nuns that are also in shock. Esther dismisses them all, especially the ones behind Ashanti.

"You broke the law of our holy lord, for what? That man who swept you so easily?!" Esther shouts, Ashanti begins to cry and puts her head down. "I have warned you, many times! Yet you still act in the whorish ways of your mother! You're lucky you're not exiled, I would've told everyone about your nasty habits, you ignorant sheep!"

"But Mother please, I know I've done wrong, but I'd like to fix it! Anything mother, please!" Ashanti drops to her knees and starts reciting the holy bible. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters..And God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness." Tears rolled down Ashanti's face while she screamed the words Father Cassidy didn't get to until Esther said:

"Rise, child. You are forgiven. This evening, you and the man you spoke of will have dinner with me to discuss what you two have done. You're dismissed, bring the nuns behind you forward." Esther sets her bible down and puts her hands on Ashanti's shoulders before Ashanti nods and leaves the church.

At Noon

Ashanti spends the entire subway ride home trying to call Oliver, but unfortunately, he was unable to be found. When she got to her apartment building, she tried texting him, telling him to call her. Yet somehow, nothing. Ashanti's anxiety was slowly eating her up inside, her chest pressure was so close to knocking her over. She needed to smoke, so she quickly ran to the elevator and pressed her floor number. She thought about knocking on Oliver's apartment door, but she ended up just going inside.

12:30pm

Ashanti runs into her apartment, and grabs her bible, her lighter, and her disguised box full of backwoods. Ashanti was told to read the bible backwards anytime she had an anxiety flare up. So, Ashanti starts from the very last page, after the acknowledgements, she begins reading from the bottom part to the top while attempting to light her cigar in a hassle.

Like normal, the first puff she took practically carried her anxiety away which is why she started smoking in the first place.

Ashanti lays back and watches the smoke slowly leave her apartment window forming another letter. This time, it was the letter A.

Jack & Harlon Grocery Market

4:30pm

Ashanti watched in horror as the automatic vegetable refresher rinsed off the cucumbers. The water slowly drips from the vegetables in a blood-like fashion. She turns to the squash, its shape is oddly circular, two dents in it resembled eyes. Ashanti puts her hand on the squash, the somewhat soft and squishy texture resembles Father Cassidy's skin.

The droplets slowly reach Ashanti's hand, she blinks, sees blood, and opens her eyes again. Ashanti slowly turns to the other sets of vegetables; all shaped the same way. Circular. Each vegetable resembled a head.

The one she was holding was Father Cassidy, the one leaning beside it was a black man. Older, Ashanti slowly begins to realize that he shared some features that were somewhat similar to hers. They had the same eyes, the same nose, and the same curl pattern- That's when she realizes, it's not just anyone. It's her grandfather.

November 25th, 2004

Esther slowly puts the turkey in the middle of the dining table, it's so hot that the oil Esther used to cook it was still sizzling. Ashanti's eyes light up in happiness, she happily reaches for the literal silver platter it was resting on, but then it burns her. She screams as Esther runs back into the dining room and holds Ashanti's hand down, increasing the burn.

Ashanti begs for Esther to let go, but she gets no response, until eventually the plate cools off.

"Ashanti Miranda, you must learn that things cannot and will not be handed to you on a silver platter." Esther throws Young Ashanti's hand off the table and stabs the turkey. "That's something I wish your grandfather would've known."