Mom’s purse was lying on the kitchen counter. I searched her wallet for a credit card—any one of them would do. I pulled her American Express out of its little compartment, booked my flight, which was leaving in two hours. I scribbled a note for Mom, told her not to worry and that I would call her later. I stuck the note on the refrigerator door, stuffed three hundred dollars into Mom’s purse and eased the front door shut as quietly as possible.
I knew Michelle’s window was on the east side of the building because she talked about being able to see the tennis courts from her bedroom. I counted the floors until I was able to determine which window was hers. I tossed a Skittle at her window. Nothing. I tossed another one, and still nothing. When I tossed the third one, the bedroom light popped on. Michelle poked her head out the window and looked disappointed when she saw it was me.
“What do you want?” Her greeting told me she was still a little salty about our argument the other day. I’d hurt her feelings and never really apologized.
“I need your help,” I said anyway.
“So?”
“So, can you take me to the airport? I’ll give you some gas money.”
“What, Marcus? You’re losing it.”
“I’m serious.”
She scanned the sidewalk, saw my luggage resting against the curb. “Are you crazy?”
“I have an emergency.”
“Why should I do this, Marcus?” She was backing down, softening up a little bit.
“Because I’m your friend, that’s why.” I was reeling her in.
“Are you…my friend?”
“Forever and always,” I said.
She thought about my request for a moment. I stood there, my luggage on the sidewalk.
“I’ll be down in a minute, Marcus.” Michelle shut her window and was downstairs in record time.
She insisted that Andre go along for the ride, just so she wouldn’t have to drive back home by herself, so we stopped by and picked him up. The three of us drove down the highway in Michelle’s old Kia Sephia with the two missing hubcaps. At three o’clock in the morning, 50 Cent was rapping in our ears. She didn’t have much bass in her speakers, but she had the stereo pumped as loud as it could go and the windows rolled all the way down because she didn’t have air-conditioning. The three of us were hyped at the crack of dawn and discussed everything that had taken place over the course of the summer.
“I thought you were gonna stay, Marcus, and go to school here,” Michelle said.
“That was the original plan. But after I thought about it, Houston is no place for me,” I told her, “and my mom really doesn’t have room for me in her life. She has her new husband-to-be, Leon.”
“She’s going to be pissed about you leaving like this, Marcus,” Andre said, “without saying goodbye.”
“I know.”
For the first time, reality had set in. I had to admit, the way I left was wrong. But I was angry at the way my mother had handled the whole Rena incident. She hadn’t even given me a chance to explain my side of the story. She’d already had me changing diapers and warming formula for a baby that wasn’t even mine. Pop would’ve at least heard my side, given me the benefit of the doubt first. But Mom didn’t even do that. Aside from all that, Indigo needed me. Her situation was much more serious than mine, and I needed to be there for her, to rescue her. That was my job.
I couldn’t believe that I would actually see her beautiful face in just a matter of hours. I missed her so much, and hoped that she was ready to let go of this stupid pact—a pact that should never have been made anyway. And I needed to check on Nana Summer, make sure she was all right. My decision to leave was an important one, and I would just have to face the consequences later. But for right now, I had an electronic ticket to Chicago O’Hare airport waiting for me, and I couldn’t be late.
“Marcus, you hurt my feelings the other day, when you snapped at me for no reason,” Michelle confessed. “That wasn’t even cool.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I was just upset.”
“I don’t know why you wasted your time on a girl like Rena anyway.”
“Me, either,” I said. “I hope she’ll be happy.”
“Me, too,” Michelle said.
In front of the airport, Michelle pulled her car up to the curb. I immediately hopped out and pulled my luggage out of the trunk.
“I’m gonna miss you, Marcus,” Michelle said. “Thanks for being my friend.”
“Anytime,” I told her, and put her in a headlock.
“Will you keep in touch?” She almost had tears in her eyes and started getting all mushy.
“Of course. I got the digits,” I told her. “Take care of Andre here.”
“I will.” She smiled. “Especially now that we’ve decided to go out.”
“You mean go out as in boyfriend-girlfriend go out?” I asked, shocked.
“Yeah, silly!” she said.
“That’s right, dog. I think she’s hot,” Andre said. When he placed his arm around her, I knew they were serious.
“Wow” was all I could say.
Andre and I gave each other dap.
“Take care of her, bro,” I told him, “because if you don’t, I’ll have to come back to Houston whip your behind.”
“It’s been real, Marcus,” Andre said.
“No doubt.”
I waved goodbye to my friends as I stepped through the automatic doors. Michelle and Andre had definitely made my summer worthwhile.
My head was filled with thoughts of Indigo as I squirmed in my seat. Excitement rushed through me when I felt the wheels of the plane hit the runway and the pilot announced that we were in Chicago. As the plane taxied to the gate, I pulled my cell phone out to see if I had any missed calls from Indigo. She had left me a text message:
Uncle Keith picked me up…. Come to Nana’s house.
As the cab sped through the streets of Chicago, I took in the sights. I’d never been to the state of Illinois, but it seemed to be an interesting place. Chicago was a big city like Atlanta, with huge buildings and long highways. Nana lived on the South Side, in a neighborhood filled with huge brick houses that had been built many years ago. As the cab slowed at the curb, I looked up at the two-story house and knew I was just seconds away from seeing my favorite two girls in the whole world. Before I had a chance to step out of the car, Indigo was standing on the porch waiting for me. Her hair was a wild mass on her head, and she wore khaki shorts and a tight-fitting T-shirt.
A half smile on her face, I wondered if she was just as excited to see me as I was her. Whatever exhaustion I’d felt from being up all night seemed to disappear the moment I saw her. I paid the driver, pulled my luggage out of the trunk of the cab and made my way up the stairs. No words were spoken between Indigo and me; I just held her in my arms. I didn’t want to let go. If letting go meant that I’d risk losing her again, then I wanted to hold on forever. I kissed her lips and knew right then that our pact was over.
Chapter 24
Indigo
When I saw Marcus, everything bad that had happened seemed to disappear. For a moment, I forgot all about the accident and about Dugan trying to take advantage of me. As always, Marcus showed up and was there for me. In just a matter of hours, he’d managed to fly all the way from Houston to Chicago, just to rescue me and to give Sabrina’s boyfriend, Dugan, a black eye. That was all Marcus kept talking about—how he was going to punch Dugan in the face and make him wish he’d never put his hands on me.
Sitting on the back steps at Sabrina’s apartment, I’d had time to rethink my entire life as I prayed that Uncle Keith would receive my message. He had received it, and when he pulled up out front, I sighed long and hard and rushed to his car. I didn’t feel like explaining what had taken place. I just snapped my seat belt around me and looked straight ahead.
“You okay, Indi?” Uncle Keith had asked.
“I’m fine now,” I told him. “Thanks for picki
ng me up.”
“Did something happen in there? Did Sabrina do something to you?”
“No,” I simply said.
I began to stare out the window, and Uncle Keith let it go, didn’t ask any more questions. He just drove us home to Nana’s house in silence, and I was grateful because I really didn’t want to talk about it.
I peeked in at Nana, who was home from the hospital and resting in her bedroom. I wanted to wake her up, because I really needed a hug. I needed to talk to her, tell her all that had gone on and ask her if I’d done the right thing. I wanted to know if I could have handled things better. She looked peaceful as her stomach moved up and down and light snores escaped from her mouth. I decided to plant a kiss on her forehead, and then pulled her door shut before creeping downstairs.
I had pancake mix all over my face, the counters and the floor as I mixed it up in a bowl. I knew that Marcus would be arriving soon and wanted to cook him breakfast. It was a challenge without the assistance of Nana, who made the best pancakes I’d ever had in my entire life. I stirred the batter and dropped vanilla flavoring into it before spooning it into the hot skillet. Although they were a little burned around the edges, I hoped they tasted better than they looked.
“And just what do you have going on in here?” Nana asked, standing in the doorway of the kitchen in her robe.
“I’m making breakfast. What are you doing up?”
“I smelled something burning.” She laughed.
“I can’t make them like you, Nana. Can you help me?”
She didn’t answer, just grabbed the batter and stirred it a bit. She made nice round pancakes and cooked them until they were golden brown. They weren’t like mine, lopsided and burned, and I was grateful that she had taken over. I felt guilty for not making her get back into bed. She had no business in the kitchen flipping pancakes while recovering from a diabetic coma. I wanted to stop her, but I couldn’t bring myself to. The vanilla aroma was floating through the air, and I knew it would be only moments before Marcus pulled up.
After he gave Nana and me hugs and kisses, I escorted him to the kitchen, where I had cooked pancakes, sausages and scrambled eggs. I loaded a plate filled with all of it and slid it in front of Marcus.
“Aren’t you gonna eat?” he asked.
“No, I just want to watch you eat.”
And that was exactly what I did. I watched as syrup drizzled down his chin, and I realized then how much I’d missed him.
After breakfast, Marcus insisted that we take a cab ride over to Sabrina’s apartment. He claimed that he wanted to have a conversation with Dugan. I had no idea that he really had intentions of roughing Dugan up until we pulled into the complex. We knocked on the door, and when Dugan swung it open, Marcus looked at me.
“This him?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, and before I knew it, Marcus had Dugan in a headlock.
“Marcus, stop!” I yelled.
Dugan’s breathing was heavy as Marcus let him go.
“Man, what’s your problem?” Dugan asked Marcus.
“You’re my problem,” Marcus said. “If you ever put your hands on my girl again, you won’t live to tell anybody.”
“Well, tell your girl to stop making advances toward me and we won’t have this problem again.”
I glanced at Sabrina, wondered if she believed that I had made advances toward Dugan or if she knew the truth—that he was a sleazebag. I couldn’t read her face at first.
“Indi, you’ve caused enough trouble here,” she said. “I think you and your boyfriend should just leave.”
I couldn’t believe she said that. She couldn’t possibly have believed that I was the one who’d betrayed her. And if my gut instinct was right, I wasn’t the first person Dugan had done this to. What hurt was the fact that she believed him over blood kin. Sabrina and I had been family a lot longer than Dugan had been her boyfriend. We had history. We used to play in the water sprinklers together and eat peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches in her backyard. We’d received the same whippings, and watched Tom and Jerry on the Cartoon Network more times than I could remember. And she was asking me to leave.
I didn’t hesitate to step out into the hallway and tramp down the stairs of the apartment complex. As I stood in the middle of the parking lot, I knew that I would never return to this place. Marcus followed and pulled his cell phone out to call the police. They were there instantly. The heavy white officer jotted down all the details of the incident and then headed up the stairs toward Sabrina and Dugan’s apartment. Later, Dugan was being escorted out the door, his hands behind his back in handcuffs. Sabrina was close behind, her daughter on her hip with a bottle hanging from her mouth.
Sabrina was in tears as Dugan sat in the backseat of the police car. As it turned out, Dugan had outstanding warrants for his arrest. Aside from a drug trafficking charge, apparently he’d also sexually assaulted a woman just a month earlier. The woman had filed a report, and the police had been looking for him ever since. I guess they found their man, thanks to Marcus and me.
I felt sorry for Sabrina as she stood there watching her man being escorted to the Cook County jail. Even though I hadn’t forgiven her yet, I felt sorry for her. She had placed me in a bad situation by forcing me to drive us home because she was too drunk to remember her own name. I felt bad about the family that I’d hit. Marcus insisted that we do the right thing and go down to the police department and explain what had taken place. Luckily, they let me off with a warning and told me that the family was doing fine. I was happy to hear that. Dugan’s insurance was going to cover the damage to their car.
Sabrina was my older cousin who I had looked up to most of my life. She’d always been much prettier, a much better dresser and better dancer than I was. Her grades had always been exceptional, when mine were just mediocre. She had the hottest boyfriends and her life was always more exciting than mine. Until this trip to Chicago, I had wanted to be Sabrina. But looking back, I discovered that I just wanted to be Indigo Summer, an average girl, with an average life, wearing average clothes, making average grades and doing average things. I didn’t have any babies, and my boyfriend was an exceptional guy who cared about me.
Nana was standing in the doorway when we made it back, her hands on her hips as she tapped her foot against the floor.
“Somebody want to tell me what’s going on?” she asked. “Sabrina just called over here hysterical because they were hauling Dugan off to jail…said something about you having something to do with it….”
I hadn’t planned to share any of this with Nana. She didn’t need to be involved in the situation; she needed to recover instead of worrying herself to death. But she wanted an explanation, and I wasn’t about to avoid giving her one. She might have been sick, but she was still my Nana, and still had the power to rearrange my behind.
“Dugan’s on his way to jail because he tried to molest me.”
“What?” She was appalled, and even more so when I told her all that had gone on.
I told Nana about going to the nightclub and how Sabrina was so drunk that she wasn’t able to drive us home. I told her about the car accident and how Dugan had forced himself on me.
“I bet Sabrina didn’t tell you that the cops were looking for Dugan because he’d sexually assaulted someone else,” I said to Nana.
“No, she didn’t tell me any of that,” Nana said. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, baby. I love Sabrina to death, but I knew that she was bad news.”
“And there I was wishing that I had her life. It seemed so exciting, Nana.”
“The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence, Indi, but that’s not always the case. You make the best of what you have, and that’s all you can do,” Nana said. “You’re still young, and you’ll go through many more lessons.”
I nodded in agreement. I knew that there would be plenty more experiences just waiting to happen in my life.
“And what’s your story, young man?�
� Nana asked Marcus. “Why are you in the Windy City and not in Houston?”
“Indigo called me, and when she told me what happened, I had to come and rescue her,” Marcus explained.
“So you came to save the day.” Nana smiled and nodded. “And do your parents know where you are?”
Marcus dropped his head, looked sheepish.
“I left a note.”
“You left a note.” It was more a statement than a question, and Nana was no longer smiling. “You got ten seconds to get your mama on that phone and let her know where you are. And then I want to speak with her when you’re done.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Marcus said.
“I don’t know what I’m gonna do with you two.” She was smiling again.
Marcus dialed his mother’s number and began to explain where he was, and why. I could hear her yelling from clear across the room, and I feared for his life. I knew he could handle a lowlife like Dugan, but handling his mother was a different story.
Chapter 25
Marcus
It was hard explaining to Mom that I had high-jacked her credit card but that I had done it with good intentions. Once she stopped yelling and calmed down, I was able to explain my side of the story. She was still upset, but at least she wasn’t yelling anymore.
“I received a phone call from Rena’s father,” Mom finally said. “He says that you’re not the father of the baby.”
“I told you that, Mom.”
“Why did you lie about it in the first place, Marcus?”
“Because Rena asked me to play along. Her father hates the guy who is the real father.”
“So you decided to take the fall for someone else?” she asked.
“I was protecting Rena,” I explained.
“I’m sorry for not believing you, son. It’s just that…”
“It’s okay.”
“Your father has done a wonderful job with you. He’s helped you to become quite a man. I’m not sure if I can do such a good job.” The tone in her voice was much softer now. “Are you planning to go back to Atlanta?”
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