From Sinner to Saint

by Jones, Janice

  Trina appeared in the doorway just as Kayla made her declaration. She became ill as well. Here was her son, the cause of World War III breaking out on her lawn and everybody missing the prom. He was only two weeks from his high school graduation, and now some fast-tailed heffa was sitting on her porch, telling him she was pregnant.

  “How far along are you, little girl?” Trina stepped on the porch, startling both kids.

  Antonyo really wanted to puke now that he knew his mother had overheard Kayla. He just knew he surely would be evicted before the night was over.

  “I’m seven weeks pregnant, ma’am,” Kayla replied.

  “Does your mother know you are pregnant?” Trina asked.

  “Yes, ma’am. She took me to the clinic yesterday.”

  “Do you plan on keeping this baby?”

  “My mother said she doesn’t want me to keep it, but she’s not giving me any money for an abortion because I shouldn’t have been so stupid. She said I have to give it up for adoption.”

  “Well, I guess today is your lucky day. I’ll pay for the abortion. Antonyo, that will be your graduation present, so don’t ask me for anything else.” Trina retreated into the house and slammed the door.

  Ten days later, Kayla aborted the pregnancy. Two days following the termination, Antonyo graduated from Redford High School.

  Sheldon was a no-show.

  Chapter 6

  The day started out like every other day had since Antonyo received his high school diploma one month ago: He and his mother argued about him not having a job.

  Antonyo wanted to chill before he started the fall semester in community college. Trina debated that thirty days was a long enough vacation for her playboy son. If he had time and ingenuity enough to juggle his mini harem, he could apply some of that effort toward earning a living. She felt he should now help out with the tasks of running the household. Antonyo was an eighteen-year-old man now, and it was time for him to learn some responsibility. The two stood in the kitchen, feuding as they had been for the past few weeks.

  “Antonyo, I am sick and tired of supporting you while you run around trying to sleep with every little thing in a skirt. If you want to continue to stay here, you have to get a job and help pay the bills.”

  “Mama, you act like you have to take care of me. What do you mean, support me? I don’t ask you for anything.”

  “Oh! So I guess the rent and utilities on this house get paid by the bill fairy. The food that you eat enters the refrigerator through osmosis.”

  “You would have to pay the bills and feed yourself even if I didn’t live here, Ma.”

  Trina fell into a chair and buried her head in her arm on the kitchen table. Exasperated with her only child, she took deep breaths to calm herself, in an effort to keep from pounding him upside his thick skull. She then began to pray. She asked God to give her patience and to restore to her some peace. After a few moments of feeling no peace, she prayed that when she again lifted her head, Antonyo would be gone, because she was truly tired of talking to him. But alas, when she reopened her eyes, he was still there. She assumed God wanted her to handle this with her son.

  Antonyo waited for his mother to dismiss him before he left the room. He assumed she was praying, something she had been doing a lot of lately. Out of respect, he courteously waited for her to finish.

  “You just don’t get it, do you, son? I am trying to teach you to be a man, Antonyo. You’re right, I don’t need you to help me take care of myself. I just want you to learn how to start taking care of yourself.”

  “Ma, I’m doing just fine, but if you want me to start pulling my own weight around here, cool. Come up with a fair amount and I’ll pay it.”

  Of course he was talking about giving her money that he scammed out of some or all of his female friends. That, however, was not going to teach him responsibility. Trina wanted her son to stop using and abusing the young women he dated, but she was simply not getting through to him again today.

  “Fine, Antonyo! I want you to give me two hundred and fifty dollars a month. Now, get out of my face.”

  Antonyo nodded his head in agreement. He left the house without a worry as to how he would handle his new fiduciary responsibility. Between India, Ashley, and Bianca, covering it would be absolutely no problem.

  Since the night of the prom, Taylor had remained true to her word and had not spoken to him ever again. Brittany decided Antonyo was not worth all the drama he caused, and cut ties with him as well. After his mom bailed him out and gave Kayla money to terminate her pregnancy, he decided he wanted nothing else to do with her. He just wished his mom could have forgotten about Kayla as easily as he did. Trina ragged on him for more than two weeks about putting her in such an awful position. She yelled and screamed at him, vowing to never do anything like that again. She continually told him about how guilty she felt for betraying God by paying for the abortion. He couldn’t understand why she took it out on him. Though he was grateful to not have to deal with becoming a father, he never asked her to give Kayla a dime.

  For the life of him, Antonyo could not comprehend his mother’s aversion to his lifestyle. Since he’d turned sixteen, he never had to ask her for anything other than the obvious food and shelter. If the females he dealt with did not have a problem sleeping with him and giving him money, each knowing he was not seeing any of them exclusively, then why should she? In his opinion, Trina acted as if she believed he beat these girls into submission. In reality, however, he had never hit a female in his life.

  If his mother thought that he was going to settle down and do the straight monogamous commitment thing with any one female, she had another think coming. It mattered not that she kept quoting scripture and verse to him about disrespect, fornication, arrogance, and greed. He was having entirely too much fun in mack-daddy mode. Why settle for one when he could get away with having them all?

  Two weeks after his mother gave him the duty of paying room and board, Antonyo handed her his first payment. And like clockwork, he paid her on time for the next three months. While Trina accepted the money from her son, she was still appalled that he had learned no real life lessons. Antonyo had not earned one red cent of the money he gave her. She could, however, take a little solace in the fact that her only child was at least attending community college and doing seemingly well in his three classes.

  Trina awoke early one morning, her day off, deciding to prepare her and Antonyo a big breakfast. This being the one day during the week that Antonyo had no classes, she decided the two could spend the morning in each other’s company. While in the kitchen, she looked through the front window and noticed an unfamiliar car parked in her driveway. Antonyo’s car was parked in front of the house. Trina went to his room to investigate.

  She knocked on the door, awaiting his response. Upon receiving no answer after the third knock, she determined that he was probably sound asleep, so she went in to wake him. There he lay in bed, snuggled closely to a human figure with honey blond braided hair peeking from beneath the covers.

  Trina stood in the doorway dumbfounded, but the moment she got her bearings, she began yelling. “Antonyo Ian Demonté Simms, you and your little hoochie hooker can get out of that bed right now!”

  Antonyo bolted upright at his mother’s voice. Her loudness woke him like a bucket of cold water. “Ma . . . What–what’s the problem?” he stammered.

  At the sound of Antonyo’s voice, his female companion slowly slid her head from under the covers. “What’s going on, Tony?” she asked sleepily.

  Hearing this tramp speak as if she had every right to be in her home, in her son’s bed like they were united in holy matrimony and Trina was an intrusion to their slumber, sent Trina into a fit of rage. “AAAAARRGH!” she yelled just before she leapt onto the bed. She began pummeling and choking Antonyo with every ounce of strength in her body.

  Antonyo was stunned by his mother’s actions. He had no idea why she was trying to kill him with her bare hands. At fi
rst all he could do was try to protect his head with his arms. When his mother reached for the handset to the cordless phone that sat on the nightstand to use it as a weapon, he took the split second to grab her, trying to restrain her swinging arms. Bianca, Antonyo’s companion, had long ago fled the bed. She sat crouched naked against the wall, fearing for her own life.

  Antonyo and Trina were now standing, him naked as a jaybird, while Trina struggled, trying to loosen herself from her son’s grasp. “Let me go, fool,” she yelled over and over again.

  “Ma, what did I do?” Antonyo asked incredulously.

  Trina, not believing her own ears, was amazed that her child could stand before her and question her as if he were truly clueless as to why she had become enraged. In her shock, she limply dropped her arms to her sides and lowered her now hoarse voice to barely above a whisper.

  “What do you mean, ‘What did I do, Ma?’ You have the nerve to stand there with your naked self and that naked heffa over there on my floor and ask me what you did? Boy, are you crazy? Get out of my house right now and take that tramp with you.” Without another word or a backward glance, Trina stormed out of the bedroom.

  After Antonyo and Bianca got dressed, he apologized to her, walked her to her car, and explained that he would call her later. He then went in search of his mother, finding her in her bedroom.

  Trina was still so furious, the sight of Antonyo almost made her throw the television remote control at him. She refrained, however, not wanting to destroy her property. Trina, instead, opted to launch another verbal attack. “What are you still doing here? Didn’t I tell you I wanted you out of my house?” she said in a heated but quiet tone.

  “Yes, you did, Ma, but I don’t understand why.” Antonyo was still at a loss as to why his mother had thrown a hissy fit.

  Again, the urge to hurl something at him came over her, and again she suppressed it. She realized this fool seriously had no clue about how he had caused her such fury.

  “Antonyo, what makes you think you have the right to have female company spend the night with you in my house?” she asked.

  “Because I pay rent and contribute to this household just like you do,” he answered evenly.

  No, he didn’t, Trina thought. This boy actually thought he had the same rights and privileges in her home as she did. Heck, she had never even had a man spend the night with her in her home.

  “You know what, Antonyo? All this sex with all these little girls has really caused you to lose your mind. It would not matter to me if we split the rent and all the bills evenly down the middle; you would still not be allowed to have your ignorant girlfriends laying up in my house. It was bad enough that I gave you money to abort a child, totally going against what I know to be right in the sight of God. I am not about to give you the okay to have premarital sex in my house. I am a Christian who is doing her very best to live right, and in this house, we will serve God. After this little stunt, it is very apparent that you have no plans to do that, therefore, you need your own house, where you make all the rules and do whatever you want to do.”

  “But, Ma—”

  “But nothing, boy! I don’t even want to hear it. I just want you to pack your things and get out. Today! Now! Leave!”

  Antonyo thought about continuing to argue with his mother, but realized his urging would be futile. She was too angry right now. Instead, he left the room, packed a small bag, and headed to his aunt’s house. He figured he would stay there a few days, giving his mother a chance to cool off.

  When he arrived at his aunt’s house, Treecie was waiting for him at the front door, knowing he would be coming after speaking with her sister.

  “So, yo’ mama done kicked you out, huh, playboy?” Treecie asked with humor.

  “Man! She be bugging big time. I got to pay rent, but I can’t have company. I got to contribute like a man, but I still got to follow her set of laws like I’m a child.”

  “That’s the way of the world, young buck. As long as you live under somebody else’s roof, you have to live under somebody else’s rule. And the same thing goes here. Now, you know how I feel about you. I love you like you my own, but your mother is my only sister. I have to respect her wishes to some degree, you know. She doesn’t want you here at all, but I’m not gon’ just set you in the street, so you can stay here for two weeks; then you got to figure something else out. I suggest you start working on that now.

  “By the way, don’t be bringing them tramps up in my house thinking they gon’ spend the night here either. That’s what motel rooms are for.”

  Antonyo listened to his aunt in slight amazement. Knowing that Treecie would agree with his assessment that his mother was overreacting, he was somewhat caught off guard by her standing there reciting and telling him about respecting rules. When had she ever cared about rules? However, he knew she would always back her sister’s play. Searching for a new place to lay his head concerned him only minimally, though. He was certain that after his mother cooled off, she would let him come back home.

  Three days after leaving home, Antonyo went back to hopefully convince his mother to let him return, only to be sorely surprised when Trina stuck to her guns. She refused to let him move back in to her home. What Trina did do was give him her speech about responsibility, Christianity, and being man enough to take care of himself again.

  “I’m sorry, son, but you cannot move back here. I have tried explaining to you that the measure of a true man is how well he takes care of his responsibilities and how much integrity he has. It has nothing whatsoever to do with how much booty he can get. God did not purpose you to sleep with and take advantage of these females the way that you do, but you choose not to listen to me. Now I’ve got to show and prove. It’s time for some tough love and hard knocks lessons.”

  Okay! Wait a minute. What just happened here? Did his mother really say she was kicking him into the streets in an effort to teach him a lesson? What the heck was he supposed to learn from being homeless?

  “Where am I supposed to live, Ma?” Antonyo asked in a whiny tone.

  “I’m going to help you out one last time, Antonyo. I’m going to give you a couple of suggestions. Suggestion number one: get one of your girlfriends to let you stay at her house. Suggestion number two: ask one of your girlfriends to give you money to find your own place and pay your rent for you.”

  Trina was being sarcastic and Antonyo knew it. He also knew that she was serious about him not being allowed to come back home. Her tone gave every indication of being truly fed up with his ways.

  He went to his room to pack all of what he could fit in his car and he left, not having a clue as to how he was going to find a place to live in the next ten days. While driving around thinking about a solution to his present dilemma, he found himself downtown at Belle Isle Park, one of his favorite spots to hang out and chill with the few male friends he had. This was often the place where he would initially meet a lot of the females he dealt with since leaving high school.

  Finding today’s weather quite pleasant, Antonyo sat on a bench in front of the water, contemplating what his mother had said. He had never lived on his own before. The two-hundred fifty dollars he paid his mom for room and board came easily, but he was certain having to pay full rent and utilities along with buying food and other necessities would be quite a bit more expensive. Would the women he dealt with, even collectively, be able to help him with such a huge task?

  Antonyo had been sitting and thinking for a little while when someone approached and sat next to him on the bench. He remained uninterrupted in his musings until the squatter spoke.

  “Excuse me, but you were sitting here so pensive, I thought I might come and try to see if I could be of some assistance. You are far too handsome a young man to have all that worry on your face. Are you hungry? I have half a sandwich that you are welcomed to.”

  Antonyo looked up and into the face of a beautiful woman holding out her sandwich to him. She dressed very professionally, wea
ring a navy blue pinstriped blazer and skirt accompanied by matching blue-and-white three-inch pumps. Her jet black hair was shiny and stylishly cut. The stranger’s makeup was flawless, proficiently applied to her cinnamon brown skin, and her brown eyes twinkled as she smiled at him.

  Wow! was all Antonyo could think. Not being the least bit hungry, Antonyo took the outstretched ham and cheese sandwich from the woman just so she would not leave.

  “Thank you. My name is Antonyo Simms. What’s yours?” Antonyo took a bite of what he assumed to be his companion’s leftover lunch as he awaited her reply.

  “I’m Regina Caffey.”

  Even her name sounded authoritative to him.

  “I’m sorry you caught me looking so down. It’s just that I’m having a little problem with my mom, and I need to figure some things out,” he told her honestly, though that was not usually one of his best traits.

  Antonyo’s conversation caught Regina off guard. He sounded a lot younger than he looked. She then chided herself for jumping to conclusions. Perhaps the attorney skills in her blood read something into his brief dialogue that was not there.

  “Antonyo . . .” The rest of her words hung in the air as he cut her off, preventing her from continuing.

  “Only my mother calls me Antonyo. Please call me Tony.”

  Regina lifted an eyebrow at his statement. She figured if he wanted her to call him Tony, he should have said so when he introduced himself. She became surer now than before that he was indeed younger than he looked.

  “How old are you?” she finally asked.

  “I’m eighteen. How old are you?” he responded.