I'LL Always Love My Mama

by Dominique Wilkins

I’ll ALWAYS Love My Mama

  By

  Dominique Wilkins

  Copyright 2012 Dominique Wilkins

  All rights reserved. No reproduction, copying or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted without written permission, or in accordance with the Copyright Act 1956 (amended).

  Published by Dominique Wilkins

  Cover Art: stockfreeimages.com

  Editors: Emily Zhang & Jeyrin

  www.AuthorDWilkinsGOODbooks.com

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  AuthorDWilkins@mail.com

  Author of 5 star titles:

  The Bad Parent

  God Loves You

  Theresa in Wonderland

  The Audacity of You and many more!

  Chapter 1

  Audrey Fitzgerald had two sons - Erick and Robert. They were a year apart, but to Audrey, they were twins. The only time she separated them was if their interests and hobbies took them in different directions.

  Her husband, Thomas, lived with them but was non- existent (as far as they were concerned). He only came alive for his family and friends. At home, he simply worked then came home to man the TV. Audrey often played the role of both the boys’ mother and father.

  Erick was the oldest and liked hanging out in the streets with the older bad kids. He talked back to his mother and disrespected his father (not verbally, but he’d always ignore him or shoot daggers at him with his eyes). His father never said anything to him in response because he said that he couldn’t. If he touched him, child protective services would lock him up so fast that he decided it was in his best interest to wait it out. Thomas figured that Erick would be in jail soon enough.

  Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol. (Proverbs 23:13-14)

  His school never expelled him or suspended him because their goal was to stay open. They provided a daycare service for the kids and a pay check for the staff. It seemed as if expelling a child was against the rules. The school was government funded. No kids meant no check. No check meant no school and no job. Though there were times that Erick would do something that was unavoidably wrong that either the school was forced to call home or the police would be sent.

  Audrey spent all of her life on her knees. She would often fall asleep on her knees as she prayed before getting into bed at night. At ten years old, she prayed for God to take Erick away, because Audrey was convinced that at the rate that Erick was going, someone would take his life. She was no longer in denial. She realized that she couldn’t do anything with him. So, God sent the police to lock him up.

  Not long after, the police found Erick with a loaded gun on him, which was later traced back to an armed robbery. Audrey decided that no matter what, she would never stop praying and visiting him in the juvenile corrections facilities. It was never too late for God to change him.

  Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. (James 5:13)

  Chapter 2

  Robert, on the other hand, was a passive child who enjoyed a far less eventful life. He was more of a follower than a leader. One day when he was seven years old, his friend Ronald had come over to play as they had done so many times before. The two boys liked to go out back and play on the concrete pad behind their house, where a neighbor’s garage once stood.

  Audrey didn’t mind them playing there because her house sat in the middle of the block, which put them in the intersection where the two alleys met, allowing her to see them, while to others it was a blind spot.

  The two played with their bikes and their miniature toy soldiers and police figures. Eventually, as she randomly checked on them, she noticed that they had changed to playing cops and robbers. She could tell, because she could see Robert was wearing his Sheriff’s hat. It was not unusual for the two to run back and forth, in and out of the house, getting more toys and props until the darkness closed in on them.

  But this time, since the neighborhood was getting more dangerous and Audrey was almost done with her chores in the back of the house, she was just about to call Robert into the house to end the games for the day when she heard it.

  To her, it sounded like a sonic boom, but she didn’t hear any of the emergency sirens or screams that would follow one. Like a track star, she jumped over her mop bucket in the middle of the floor and burst through the back door. She jumped down five stairs to reach the ground, risking a fall or blowing out one or both of her knees. She was fully aware that her bones were breakable and fragile at forty years old, but she couldn’t reason with her heart that was beating a mile a minute. Nothing was going to stop her until she made sure her baby was okay.

  She didn’t realize how much time had flown by until she had gotten to their play area and saw how dark it was as she tried to assess the situation under the high alley light. Next to the platform, the shrubbery had become overgrown from the vacant lot. She wasn’t aware of how tall and thick they had gotten until they made shadows on the ground, as they swayed to and fro under the light.

  Audrey found Robert standing on the platform looking at the bushes, upset.

  “What happened, Robert? Where is Ronnie?” She asked.

  “Nothing, Mama. Ronnie and I are playing ‘Cops and Robbers.’ He thought I wouldn’t catch him if he hid in the bushes, because he knew you’d be mad if I went over there and got dirty in my school clothes, but I was smarter than that, so I just shot at him from here. Now he’s mad that I out-smarted him, and he won’t come out and admit it.”

  “Robert, where did you get that gun from?”

  “Ronnie brought it with him from home because he said mine doesn’t make the smoke anymore when we shoot them. Why do you ask, Mama?”

  “No reason. It’s late, and it’s time for you to go in the house and for Ronnie to go home. Give me the gun. Put it in my apron, go in the house, and take a bath, so you can be ready for dinner.”

  “Okay, Mama.”

  Audrey waited for a moment, until Robert was out of sight, before she looked around frantically for witnesses, then made a mad dash to the bushes whispering Ronnie’s name. Just as she feared, she got no response. She kicked around with her feet and felt around with her hands until she found him: he was dead.

  It was too dark to see where he had been hit, so she felt his wrist for a pulse and ran back to the house when she didn’t find one.

  "If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible.” (Leviticus 5:1)

  She screamed up the stairs to Robert, “Baby, I ran out of some ingredients for dinner. I’m going to the corner store and will be back in a jiffy, okay?”

  “Okay, Mama,” he replied from the tub.

  She grabbed her keys, a couple tall contractor garbage bags from her husband’s things in the basement, a pair of black work gloves, her trench coat, and her car keys. When she backed out of her yard, her car rested directly next to the slab and the bushes. Apparently, she moved fast whether she was coming or going in the alley, since she never noticed how covered that area had become.

  She went into the bushes with her materials and came back with Ronnie in the bag to head to his new resting place.

  Audrey would dump her bag into the large dumpster behind an over-crowded low income apartment building where it was already a high crime location and scavengers frequented the alley, raiding the garbage for aluminum cans and any other recyclable items that
they could find. Thieves and wrong-doers would also use the area for dumping. It was a great place for her to dump her problems there where no one would question her activities or attempt to remember anything about her.

  She threw her emergency blanket in the bag on top, tied it up, then mustered the strength of “The Incredible Hulk” to lift the already heavy bag up and over into the large dumpster to either wait for its discovery or garbage day.

  She went back to her trunk, put on her trench coat to cover any dirt or stains she may have collected on her house dress and apron, and returned to the car. She said a quick prayer of forgiveness and glanced at the clock before she vacated the scene and headed home.

  It seemed like the whole ordeal had gone on for hours, but actually, only twenty minutes had passed.

  Chapter 3

  Back at home, she had kept the gun and wrapped it in her apron and stored it in the back of her collection of shoes in their boxes. When she entered the house, she saw that Thomas had made it home and was lounging in his favorite recliner in front of the TV, while Robert sat on a nearby couch. Robert was watching the TV too, but they didn’t appear to be watching it together.

  Neither of them noticed her come in, so she slipped into her bedroom and put on a clean house dress and tucked the other in the bottom of the dirty clothes hamper. This time, when she came out of her room, Robert saw her and followed her to the kitchen.

  “Mom, did Ronnie go home, yet?”

  “Yes, baby. Some man that he knew showed up and walked home with him. Have a seat, I’m going to warm this food up, so you can eat in a few minutes,” she told him.

  While they ate dinner, Ronnie’s mother called, looking for him. Audrey told her the same thing that she told Robert, that he walked home with someone that he knew, but she couldn’t quite describe him because she was preoccupied with the food that she had on the stove at the time. Audrey went on to tell her how sorry she was that she could not be more helpful. When she hung up, Audrey told Robert that Ronnie’s mother said that he never came home. She went on to tell Robert that if he saw Ronnie, to be sure to tell him his mother was worried sick about him.

  Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight. (Proverbs 12:22)

  Two days later, after Ronnie still hadn’t showed up at home, the police came by asking them questions about the last time that they saw Ronnie and what details she could give about the man she saw walk away with Ronnie. Audrey gave the police the same distracted story that she gave everyone else. It was her story, and she was sticking with it.

  Chapter 4

  Years went by, and Erick continued to rotate in and out of the penal system, but Audrey still made her way to see him on his visiting days and hearings. Eventually, her husband Thomas decided that he was tired of coming home to a broken home and stopped. He packed a suitcase and left. Fortunately, he remembered to “Quick pay” her money every month to help out with the bills. It wasn’t much, but it was consistent.

  But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8)

  Robert was all Audrey had, but the older he got, the more she seemed to lose him. He had always been a follower, but now as he got involved with girls, he allowed them to run his time, his life, and his money. Everything he did was to please and impress those women, even if he disrespected her along the way.

  Every week, he would have a different woman in and out of the house, right before his mother’s eyes. Most times the women wouldn’t even speak back if Audrey greeted them.

  Audrey tried to wait until the women had left before she went upstairs to make his bed and clean up the rooms, but a few times, when she heard the feet come down the stairs and leave out of the door, she’d go upstairs to find a naked woman still there in his bed, screaming for her to get out, after Robert had left for work for the day.

  She never fussed or nagged at Robert because she was scared to lose him. He was all that she had, and he was basically the one paying the bills. She hated the way that they disrespected her, but she would hate being alone even more.

  The day came when he moved the infamous Latonia in with them. Latonia was the most disrespectful women of them all. They had only one kitchen, so Audrey would do all of the cooking, three times a day, but she never got a “Thank you” or a “Do you need help?”

  Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)

  Latonia quickly bore children for him - one after another. This prompted Latonia to force Rob into taking his money and making some much needed renovations to the house so that they could have a nursery for the children.

  Audrey decided that her grandbabies made everything all worth it. Latonia had no interest in being a mother, nor did Robert have any desire to be a father. He actually began to act more and more like his father than ever. Audrey loved her girls. They were the children that she never had and she treated them that way. They were always doing something together, whether they were reading, singing, having Bible study, or just crowding into Granny’s bed eating snacks in front of the TV.

  Chapter 5

  Latonia decided that the girls needed a room of their own when they got older, so she went back to him and told Robert that they needed more room. In response, Robert obediently told his mother, “Latonia and I have been talking and we decided that the downstairs looks like it has been stuck in the 1960’s in comparison to the contemporary look upstairs. It is time to give this floor a face lift too.”

  Audrey’s face lit up, “That would be nice! I always wanted to upgrade some things, but since your dad left, I couldn’t afford it. What do you plan on doing?” She asked.

  “Well, we’re going to first start with your bedroom and do some painting, giving it an accent wall and then have an electrical outlet placed in the center of the wall to mount a TV. Then, we are going to go to The Room Place to buy a new bedroom set to match it.”

  “Oh, wow, that is wonderful! The springs in my mattress have been poking through for years now. Now, I won’t have to layer my bed with comforters to have some cushion underneath me! I will need to pack my stuff up, so you can clean the room out. When should I start?” Audrey asked excitedly.

  “Right away; I’ve got a painter coming in a week.”

  “A week? Boy, I’ve been in that room for over twenty years! It’s going to take me a lot longer than a week to pack all of that stuff up!” She laughed.

  “You’re right. So, that’s why we’re just going to throw everything out. Latonia thinks that the kids are older now and need some room. So we’re going to take you to the new Senior Living building in Gage Park. That way you can make friends, and you won’t have to pack so much stuff. It’s really nice there, and you can relax and not worry about chasing behind kids. You’ve done enough. It’s time to relax and enjoy peace and quiet.”

  “Peace and quiet?” She repeated, dumbfounded.

  “Yeah, Mama, you’re going to love it, and we’re going to come visit you all of the time. That’s how close you will be.”

  “Oh, okay! Why didn’t you say that first? Latonia’s always been so considerate.” She said sarcastically.

  He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother is a son who brings shame and reproach. (Proverbs 19:26)

  Chapter 6

  When the next week arrived and Robert came downstairs to take his mother to the senior living home, he found her sitting at the table with a blank look on her face. She sat there, still dressed in her house dress, with a shoe box in front of her and a note folded up on top of it. Robert said, “Mama, are you okay? Why aren’t you ready to go? The workers will be here in an hour.”

  Just then, the doorbell rang, so Robert went to the door to find the police on the porch. The female officer said, “We’re here responding to a call.”

  Robert r
aised his brow in confusion, “I’m sorry, officer, you must have the wrong address. No one here called you.”

  “Is this 773-588-2300?” She asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, this is where the call came from. Can we come in?”

  “Sure, but no one is here except my mother and me, and we were just on our way out.” He replied.

  “We received a call that someone wants to report a murder. So, if it is okay with you, we would like to come in and speak to your mother.” The police woman said, getting frustrated.

  “What’s wrong with Mama?” A voice from the bottom of the stairs asked.

  It was Erick. He was out of jail and coming to visit. Robert repeated what the police had told him moments before. They all proceeded to the kitchen to see Audrey. When Erick saw his mother looking defeated, he pushed past everyone and bent down on his knee to get eye level with his mother and whispered, “Mama, what’s wrong?”

  She put her head down and squeezed the note tighter. Erick saw it and took the note from her, reading it quickly to himself.

  The note read:

  To Whom It May Concern,

  Robert Fitzgerald killed Ronald Banks, and the gun with his finger prints is in this shoe box for proof. Before he takes me to an old folks’ home, take him to jail…

  Audrey Fitzgerald

  Erick thought quickly. He folded the note up, put it in his pocket, and took the shoe box as he stood and gave an embarrassed smile, then faced the police. He told them, with tears gathering up in his eyes, “I am sorry for the false alarm, but as you can see, my mother has gotten old in age, and I’ve been incarcerated way too long. My poor mother thought that I had been murdered, because she has not seen me in a while. Apparently, I’ve lived in the streets for so long that she thought the streets had killed me.”

  He turned to face his mother and said, “I’ll always love you, Mama. The people at the halfway house have set me up with housing, and it isn’t much. It is just a one room apartment, but I want you to come share it with me.”

  Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

  (Proverbs 22:6)

  Audrey matched Erick’s tears and nodded. Even the policewoman fought back tears as she apologized before leaving.