Jake and Onyx fought off and on verbally for forty years. Jake's Mama Dear spoiled him to no end and he put her on a pedestal and used Onyx and the kids as a footstool, and Onyx became bitter. Some marriages roll on skates, some ride on roller coasters, some roll over speed bumps, and Onyx endured pains of a person on a morphine drip. Jake was quite at times and some friends and relatives thought of him being intelligent and respect him because he played football in high school, college and in the Army. He was seven years older than Onyx and been around the world and Onyx was born and raised in California and stayed in her comfort zone. They lived in two different worlds. Every now and then, Jake often told Onyx she was a jalopy and he was going to trade her in for a new model, claim the house was his, and he was going to put her out of his house and let his Mama Dear raise their son Jason. Onyx was tired of hearing Jake' threats, and was forced to stand and defend herself because it was the same old song and broken records. Onyx lashed back telling him they were blessed to have a home and it was God house because he is the reason for the season, and if Jake ever thought about taking Jason from her, for his Mama Dear to raise, she would kill his mama, him, and the Judge, and he would have to literally pick her up and throw her ass out on the lawn.
Onyx tried to respect Jake as a man her husband because he was the dad of her children, but when he tried to control her and the kids by trying to put the kids against Onyx and tried to control everyone in the household. Onyx gain strength and put her foot down and watched Jake's every move. The more he tried to downsize Onyx, the more the kids were pulling away from him. He wanted full control of his family but couldn't control himself. Jake took all the bedroom doors off the hinges so he could go in and out as he pleased. Onyx dared him to take her bedroom door off. Their granddaughter had to dress in the bathroom and the boys room were a pig sty, and Onyx had to stay on them to keep their room clean. Onyx enrolled in a seven-step program, thinking she had a problem.
Jake was paranoid, the house was thick with tension, taking Onyx through all kinds of avenues. Jake became jealous; thinking the kids loved Onyx better than him and wanted something on her, to make them think differently of her.
Five years after Jake's death, Pumpkin confronted Onyx and said her dad told her about their sexual preferences behind closed doors to make her think her mother was a sex freak. Onyx was celibate fifteen years before Jake's Alzheimer's and dementia developed. Jake was in his early sixties when his health began to go down hill, and was suffering many ailments.
While Jake was in the hospital, Onyx bought Jake a new bed and linen and cleaned Jake's room. She decided to look in his closet and found old boxes falling apart. She lift a musty old frail box, sat it on the floor, and sat on the side of the bed looking through old black and white photos of Jake when he was in the Army fighting for his Country, high school pictures, playing football, pictures of girls, and ran across an old piece of paper folded. Carefully unfolding the paper, the title was “My Name is Cocaine. It was typed and looked as though it was one of those letters you see floating around the office.
Beware my friend, my name is cocaine, coke for short. I entered this Country without a passport, and ever since then I've been hunted and sought by junkies and pushers and plain clothes dicks mostly by user who need a quick fix. I'm more valued than diamonds, more treasured than gold, use me just once and you too will be sold. I'll make a school boy forget books' I'll make a beauty queen neglect her looks, will take a renown speaker and make him a bore, I will take your mama and make her a whore, I'll make a school teacher forget how to teach, I'll make a Preacher not want to preach. All kinds of people have fallen under my wings, just look around; you can see the results of my sting. I've got daughters turning on their mothers, sister robbing their brothers, I've got burglars robbing the Lord's house, and I've got husbands pimping their spouse. I'm the king of crime and the prince of destruction. I'll cause the organs of your body to malfunction, and will cause your babies to be born hooked, and I'll turn the honest of men into crooks and make you rob, steal and kill. When you're under my power you have no will. Remember my friend, my name is Big “C,” some call me the White lady; I've destroyed actors, politicians and sport heroes, I've decreased bank accounts from millions to zero, I'm a bad habit, too tough for the man; I've caused the law to invest in the batter-RAM. Yeah, I'm raising hell all over the earth. Don't believe me, just check out Bryhurst. I've got them standing on the corners, yelling “Rock,” I made it where shooting and stabbing are common on the block, well you know, what will you do? Remember my friend; it's all up to you. If you decide to jump on my saddle, you better ride me well, for on the white horse of cocaine, I'll ride you straight to hell!
That frighten Onyx, but then she knew that was Satan. She sat visualizing Jake's face. He was a stone paranoid drug addict until Alzheimer's and Dementia took over.