“No one’s fault, but I’m still sorry. These can both be a thing, you know.” His smile widened as he reached to set a hand on the side of her face.
Court made a soft sound and spun on her heel. “I’ll bring the car around,” she called as she hurried toward the parking lot.
Alice shook her head, gazing after her friend before turning back to Hatta. Eyes flickering over his face, she pushed onto her toes as he bent forward. Their lips met, and a wave of warmth moved through her. The funny flutterings from before returned, dancing up and down her spine, along her arms and legs. His arms slipped around her waist, and hers wrapped around his neck, their bodies meeting in the middle. Her fingers slid into his hair, and his danced up her back, earning the faintest shiver. The kiss was slow, careful; he was still healing.
When he pulled away, Alice could barely hear anything over the beating of her heart. She pressed another quick kiss home for good measure. This was really happening. One good thing to come out of all this mess.
The sound of the Camaro rumbling toward them made Alice draw back, but not too far. Her hands slid along his arms, minding the bandages. “Now I have to figure out how I’m going to get away from my house long enough to go on another mission so soon.”
“Still in trouble?”
“All the trouble.” She withdrew from him reluctantly as the Camaro pulled up.
Hatta held the door open as she climbed in, then closed it behind her. “Be safe, ladies.” He waved as Court drove off.
Once they were on the road Alice shoved her fingers into her hair and tugged. Tomorrow. How the hell was she going to manage any of this by tomorrow?
They reached a red light, and Court tapped her fingers against the wheel. “So, it really might come down to me fake abducting you to get this done, huh.”
“Maybe. I got no other ideas right now.”
“What if we kept driving? You hang out at my place, and I don’t even take you home until after you get back.”
“I can’t do that to her. And I can’t be responsible for what she’ll do to you.”
The corners of Court’s lips pulled back in a grimace. “That bad, huh?”
“Courtney, you know my mom.”
“Yup, yup. So, on a scale of one to ten, just how screwed are we gonna be at the end of all of this?” Court asked as she guided them through traffic.
“Hella.”
Three
LOST
Alice made it home a whole twenty-five minutes ahead of schedule, waving to Court as she headed for the front door. She didn’t get halfway up the stairs before Mom came out, purse on her shoulder, keys in hand.
“Good timing.” Mom twisted the deadbolt and checked the handle.
“What for?” Alice stepped to the side as her mother moved past her and down the stairs.
“I got a call from Valencia Hills. Gotta go see what your grandma’s up to, come on.”
“You want me to come?” Normally Alice loved visiting her Nana K—who was a riot, and could throw shade with pinpoint accuracy, to hilarious results—but she only had so much time to prepare and come up with an excuse for pulling another disappearing act tomorrow. “What for?”
“You ain’t got nothing better to do than sit up in that room, and I can’t trust you to do that, now can I?”
Alice winced. Still fair, but ow.
“Besides, it’ll give us a chance to continue our talk, so hurry it up,” Mom called before ducking into the car without waiting for a reply.
Heaving a sigh, Alice clomped down the stairs after her. The absolute last place she wanted to be was stuck in close confines with her mother for half an hour, likely answering more questions about Chess, which would just lead to more lies, or trying to pick up where they left off before Courtney’s call.
Alice couldn’t believe she’d almost said something about Wonderland and all that went with it. Now she’d have to come up with a believable reason for her breakdown earlier.
“How’s Chester?” Mom adjusted her mirrors, which was her shifting them, then shifting them back, since those things were always perfect.
“He’s stable.” Alice glanced out her window, not really looking at anything. The lies used to come so much easier. “Didn’t wake up while we were there. Think it was the pain meds.”
“Poor thing. Think I’ll make some cobbler tonight so we can take it to him tomorrow.” Mom backed them into the street.
A jolt of panic straightened Alice’s spine. “We?”
“Oh, yes. You’re still grounded, so next time you go, it’ll be with me. This thing with Courtney was the last time. I wasn’t playing.”
ShitshitshitSHIT. Her mind sputtered over any intelligible responses that didn’t involve words that would end with her momma knocking the taste out her mouth. She stammerred out an “o-okay,” but it wasn’t okay. Now, on top of coming up with a plan to get away tomorrow, she had to figure out how to keep her mom from popping up at Grady asking for a missing boy who was injured in an accident that didn’t happen.
Groaning, Alice slid down in her seat slightly.
“S’wrong now?” Mom asked, eyes on the road.
“Just tired.”
“Ahh. Staying up late to sneak outta the house will do that.” There was an edge to Mom’s words that laced the side-eye she shot at Alice. Luckily the look was brief. “So, you gonna tell me what all that was about, this morning?”
“All what?” Alice fidgeted with the end of one of the straps on her pack and did her best to ignore the Really? look her mom aimed at her.
“All that blubbering. You said ‘he’s gone,’ and when I asked if you were talking about your daddy—” Her voice caught the slightest bit, but Alice still noticed. “You said no. So what’s going on?”
Mayday, mayday. Her thoughts went about three different directions at once, but ended up going nowhere. “I … That was…”
Janet Jackson started singing again, her voice echoing through the car. Alice’s gaze pinned to the screen on the center dash where the words The Office hovered over the Answer and Decline options.
Mom grunted. “I gotta take this.” She tapped her steering wheel. “Hello?”
Alice nodded, trying not to look as relieved as she felt. Rescued by the Queen once again. She was gonna have to write Janet a letter or something after this second save, out here doing the lord’s work.
That call kept Mom occupied for most of the ride. Apparently, she’d worked from home the rest of the afternoon, which explained why she was there soon as Alice got home. Mom and a few coworkers had a trip coming up this weekend, and today was supposed to be one of their prep days. Hard to prep when you’re not there to … to prep.
Every time Mom apologized for the inconvenience of it all, she shot a this-right-here?-is-your-fault look across the car. Even though Mom still had the rest of the week to get things taken care of—at least that’s what she kept telling Carlos, who sounded like a worrier—Alice was sure she’d hear about it sooner rather than later, since she was the reason Mom had to leave work in the first place. And especially since those looks had progressed to I’mma-kick-your-ass and this-ain’t-over, respectively.
They stopped long enough for Alice to run in and get Nana Kingston some fried chicken and okra from her favorite place before pulling up to the large senior residence where Nana lived now. She moved in maybe six months ago, after it was determined she couldn’t be by herself. Her episodes happened more frequently; she’d forget who she was, where she was, or she’d think she was in some other time completely. It was like her mind had been rewound some years and started playing again right at that point in the past. Those were the hard ones because sometimes her mind would wind back to a year before Alice was born. Talking to your grandma while she had no idea who you were was heartbreaking.
Even with all that, Nana K was still able to function, but the minimal staff here made sure she always had someone around to help ground her, and made sure she took her meds.
Two glass doors leading into the building parted, and Alice braced herself for a frankly disrespectful blast of heat to the face. The whir of the industrial fan clashed with the otherwise peaceful decor. It was like a Better Homes and Gardens magazine had a baby with HGTV, and that baby threw up everywhere. Not that Alice had ever seen more than a cover for BH&G, but she felt it fit. She wrinkled her nose, the smell of plastic plants, a hint of dust, and spices from the food she carried mingling together. All of that was suddenly and completely overpowered by a wave of extremely floral perfume, which meant Ms. Clara was manning the sign-in desk today.
“Hey, Clara,” Mom called to the receptionist, a woman around her age or a little younger. Alice figured forty-ish.
“Hey, girl!” Ms. Clara beamed at Mom. The two of them had only known each other a few months but greeted each other like old friends with loud laughter and smiles. It made Alice grin. She liked Ms. Clara.
“How’re the kids?” Mom went on.
“Somewhere bothering they daddy and not me.” Ms. Clara had two small children that Alice had met a couple times. Both boys. Nice, polite young men, according to Nana K. “What you bring me?” Ms. Clara made a show of sniffing dramatically, her round, light-brown face all rainbows and joy. She was the only person who probably wore more makeup than Courtney and looked twice as fly. Nothing against Court, but there was no besting Black women when it came to a beat face.
“This for Momma.” Mom gestured to the plastic-bag-wrapped Styrofoam in Alice’s hand and moved to sign the two of them in.
“She been wild today, y’all, watch out. Hey, Alice.” Ms. Clara waved, flashing purple nails long as Alice’s fingers.
“Hey, Ms. Clara. What my nana up to?”
“Chile, you know how she be.” Ms. Clara flicked the end of some luscious lashes with one of her nails. “’Bout to run these nurses right. Allegedly, she shook up a whole case of Coke that was headed to this private party for one of her neighbors, old white woman who can’t mind her business.” Ms. Clara sniffed a laugh. “We try and tell folk not to be bothering Mrs. Kingston, she not here for no foolishness, but what do we know, we just young and ignant.”
Alice couldn’t help laughing, shooting a glance at Mom, who looked equally amused. “She really did that?”
“I said allegedly. Her neighbor certainly thinks so, but there’s no way to prove it. No one saw your grandma till after the party, and she goes, ‘Looks like you shook things up, Susan.’”
Mom’s eyes went wide. “She did not.”
Ms. Clara grinned and shrugged, sitting back in her chair. “You didn’t hear it from me, though.” The spray-painted Fat & Fabulous that curved across her chest in colorful cursive matched her bright eyeshadow, and her fire truck red curls matched her lipstick.
“Other than alleged soda vandalism, how’s she doing?” Mom asked.
Some of the joy left Ms. Clara’s face. “Yesterday was bad after you left. She kept asking for Sydney. Took her a while to get to bed.”
At the mention of her father, Alice felt a twist in her chest that sent a sharp sting to the back of her throat and eyes. Mom nodded and released a somewhat shuddering breath. “Thank you, Clara.”
“Anytime, girl. Y’all tell her I said hey, and she need to come down here and visit me soon!”
Mom led the way into the main atrium, through the sea of couches and chairs strewn about, past the little café that hardly ever had more than a couple sandwiches and some huge slices of vanilla cake in the display, and toward the elevator. The facility was nice enough, the little apartments pretty fancy.
On the way up, Mom muttered to herself. “She was fine when I left, she was fine.”
Alice reached to take her hand. “Sounds like she’s doing better today. And I know she’ll be good when she gets some of this chicken.”
Mom released a slow breath and nodded, smiling. “Nothing like Max’s to make you feel right.”
On the third floor, Alice led the way down the hall toward Nana Kingston’s little apartment. She had a corner, so her place was a bit bigger than the others, which was a good thing because this woman was a pack rat and a bookworm all rolled into one.
Alice knocked loudly. At first there was no answer, and right when she started to try again, she heard a voice holler from inside.
“That better be Midge with an apology for talkin’ shit like she won’t get hers, or I’ll—” The door yanked open, and a plump, dark-skinned woman that stood eye-to-eye with Alice, unless the silver Afro atop her head counted, stopped mid-rant. She blinked brown eyes so rich the color seemed to swirl behind her gold glasses and smiled wide enough it made your face hurt. “My baby!”
Alice returned the smile and pressed forward into the tight hug. “Hey, Nana K.”
Nana K pressed loud kisses all over Alice’s face, then swiped at the burgundy lipstick she no doubt left under one eye. “My girl. Hey, Missy,” Nana K called to Alice’s mother.
“Hey, Mom. We brought you Max’s,” Mom sang and gestured to the bag.
“Oh, my girls and my favorite chicken, thank you, Jesus.” Nana K clapped her hands together then led the way into the apartment, though she paused and threw a suspicious look over her shoulder, eyes peering over the rim of her glasses. “You get the okra?”
“Two larges.” Alice patted the bag.
“My girls. Come on, come on!” Nana K shuffled into the small kitchen, gesturing for the two of them to sit in the den/dining room.
She busted out some plates, forks, and Pepsi cans, and it didn’t take long before the three of them were cackling and talking around and between mouthfuls of food. It felt nice to laugh, even if it was about a lot of nothing. Mom caught Nana K up on some gossip at church, Nana K pleaded the Fifth about the soda incident, it was all good.
Then Mom took a long drink from her can. “Mom. Clara said you were having some trouble last night?”
“Alice, baby, you full?” Nana Kingston asked.
“I’m okay, thank you, though,” Alice said, glancing back and forth between her mom and grandma.
“Mom,” Alice’s mom pressed, though gently. “You lost track of things last night? How you feeling today?”
Nana K lifted her chin slightly. “So I got a lil turned around, ain’t nothing to worry yourself about, nothing for Clara to be worried about, neither. That why you’re here? She call you?”
“She’s just concerned.” Mom arched an eyebrow. “She said you ain’t been down to visit her for a while.”
“Well, I was down there just last … last…” Nana K trailed off. She looked around the room, her eyes going glassy and far off, like she wasn’t really noticing Mom or Alice or anything. Then her hands started shaking, and she reached for the sweater on the arm of the couch, pulling it in and pressing it to the lower half of her face.
Alice exchanged a look with her mom as something in her stomach wound tight. “Nana K?”
Nana Kingston whispered under her breath, the words lost as she glanced around, with her face scrunched up in fear. Then she shut her eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Not here. I lost him. W-where did he go…”
The burn behind Alice’s eyes slid to her throat, and suddenly it was hard to breathe. “N-Nana K?”
“Mom.” Mom tried as well.
“He’s late … so late … important.” Nana K kept bunching the material of the sweater in her fingers.
“Mom. Hey.” Mom slid out of her seat and onto her knees in front of Nana K. “It’s okay. We’re here. We’re right here. See?” She took hold of her elbows gently and leaned in to catch Nana K’s wandering gaze.
Nana K blinked through tears, her eyes finally focusing on Mom. She sniffed once, then twice. “I’m late.”
“It’s okay, Mom. Where’re you supposed to be going?”
For a few moments, Nana K didn’t say anything, just sniffled and fidgeted with her sweater. Then she gradually lowered it to her lap, wiping at her face.
“Do you need to run som
e errands?” Mom asked.
Nana K shook her head so hard her jaws trembled a little.
“To the store?” Mom tried next, careful to keep her tone soft. “Do you need to go to the store?”
Another few moments of silence before Nana K started nodding slowly, lifting the sweater again.
Mom nodded in turn. “Okay, we’ll go shopping.” She started cleaning up the plates and leftovers.
Face hot and achy from the effort it took not to burst into tears, Alice moved to help when a gentle touch at her shoulder made her look up.
Mom smiled at her, brown eyes glistening with her own unshed tears. “I’ll take care of this and get your nana ready. You go and grab us some iced coffee for the road. You remember how she like it?”
Nodding, and shaking a little, Alice got to her feet. “H-half-and-half, no sugar.”
“That’s my baby.” Mom kissed her cheek and took the plate in her hands.
Alice fidgeted briefly before stepping past her grandma but pausing long enough to kiss the side of her head. She didn’t get so much as a sidelong glance.
Swallowing thickly, her crumbling heart in her throat, Alice hurried from the apartment, shutting the door behind herself. That’s when the dam broke, for the second time that day. The helplessness and frustration from before rushed back in, for a whole new slew of reasons. God she hated seeing her grandma like that. Hated that she didn’t know how to help, that she locked up. Then there was this … sour feeling that always crept in, telling her she was failing her grandma. She was being a bad granddaughter, a bad person. Most days she could fight that feeling back, but today? The lingering sting of her recent failures only made it worse, and she fought to breathe around sobs as she hurried for the stairs.
By the time she reached the café, she’d managed to rein her wild emotions back under control. Slow, careful breaths helped keep it that way. The little lobby café was never really busy, but it was almost closing time, so a few folks were down here for last call. Two white women stood at the counter, perusing the menu like there was more than five options. It wasn’t a damn Starbucks.
A Dream So Dark Page 4