A sample of Hot Tea and Mercy
Hot Tea and Mercy
By Rae Lashea
Copyright © 2022 Rae Lashea.
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First Edition, Limited Edition Pressing
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ISBN 978-1-949759-57-0
Chapter one: Shandell
"HOT TEA AND MERCY. Hot tea and Mercy. Please please please get me hot tea and Mercy,” Shandell O’Brien whispered through whimpers as tears streamed down her face.
She lay on her left side in a fetal position in incomprehensible discomfort, wishing she could turn over but fearing the agony that she would experience as pain shot through the right side of her abdomen, radiated up her left thigh, and settled excruciatingly in the middle of her rectum where the tumor of inconceivable size rested. Nestled comfortably in the space that it decided to inhabit seven years ago, seemingly as a hemorrhoid; it grew and grew, folding over itself and covering most of Shandy’s butthole so much so that it brought tears to her eyes whenever the thought of moving her bowels came to mind.
Upon the realization by Shandell and the doctors that the culprit of all her grief was colorectal cancer and that the only way to eliminate the tumors would be through chemotherapy and radiation, Shandell took a bold and courageous stance and decided that she would not undergo the toxic treatment but rather use alternative and holistic methods to cure herself of the impending doom and havoc that colon cancer can and has wreaked on the lives of so many before her, including her grandmother at the age of eighty-seven, her father at the age of seventy-four, and most recently, her cousin at the tender age of fifty-six. At fifty-three years old, Shandy planned on beating cancer, in fact annihilating it to smithereens.
"Hot tea and Mercy, hot tea and Mercy, hot tea and Mercy", she whispered through tear-filled whimpers, which no one heard as she laid on an air mattress in her one-bedroom apartment in an East Side housing project in Atlanta, Georgia. It wasn’t that she did not have any family, she just chose to distance herself from them over the years. Embarrassed about her situation, not wanting to hear the many taunts against her decision not to undergo chemo, and a general disdain for the fact that no one else got pregnant at the age of sixteen and dropped out of high school, Shandy saw herself as a black sheep; a poor black sheep that was at the mercy of public assistance, public housing, and Medicaid.
Shandy was a beautiful girl with long curly hair, brown skin, and a big smile full of large white teeth that she wanted to have molded for her future dentures. She had a clear complexion marked only by a smattering of milk chocolate brown freckles on each of her cheeks. She was 5’7" and had slender fingers with strong, pretty nails. Shandy did not feel pretty and spent most of her life depressed for reasons unknown to anyone, including herself. She felt unloved, unhappy, underappreciated, and undersexed. Worst of all, she battled with her weight which always seemed to win.
She was on the larger size all of her life, reaching two hundred and ninety pounds at her highest weight. She always felt that people would appreciate her better if she was skinnier. That she would be respected more. That she would be able to enjoy tantamount sexual experiences if she was smaller. Over the past three years, Shandy’s family watched her wither down to a mere one hundred and twenty-five pounds. With sunken cheeks and a fragile frame, everyone had encouraged her to get the chemotherapy treatment that the doctors were offering, but when Shandy looked in the mirror all she could see was the small body she had always wanted. If she could just get rid of the illness, she thought, she could start living the life and having the sex that she had always wanted. Despite the pain, Shandy secretly appreciated the disease because it made her what no one and nothing else could: thin.
Chapter two: Nella
"YOU ARE BIGGER THAN YOUR JOB, JIM. You are bigger than your career. You are even, believe it or not, bigger than the entire profession. You, my dear, just have to believe in yourself and have the confidence to move forward boldly, courageously. You can and will find another way to make money. You just have to have faith and rely on your talents, abilities, interests, and experiences. The key is knowing what all of those things are and where they intersect," Dr. Nella allowed a long pause to idle in the air so that her words could sink into the head, heart, and spirit of her client. "That concludes our session for today. Call to schedule your next session once you have landed a new job."
Nella knew that the pain of not seeing her would encourage, inspire, and indeed force her client to find new employment faster than anything else could. She hoped he would still do all of the things that she told him to, but in the meanwhile, he had bills that needed to be paid. Besides, she
End of provided excerpt. The source sample ends mid-sentence.
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