by Teisha Mott
“He left us to sort out a work thing…”
“Phillip abandoned you? In a New York nightclub?”
“No!” Samantha was not going to let her father blame Phillip for her mistake. “This was not Phillip’s fault. I was depressed after Micah broke up with me. He was only trying to cheer me up. I was supposed to have stayed until he came back for me!”
“This is so surreal!” Andrew groaned. “Why, why, why are we having this conversation, Samantha? You were always the smart one, the sensible one, the careful one. You are the one we never had to worry about. How could this have happened? How could you have been so irresponsible?”
“It was just a big, big mistake, Daddy,” She cried. “I never thought…”
“You’re damn right you never thought!” Dr Persaud yelled. “You never thought that you were not done with school. You never thought about your mother and me. You never thought about your sister and your cousins when you dragged them into your bullshit…”
“Andrew!” Mrs Persaud demanded. “Just stop shouting!”
Dr Persaud leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He was usually a rational man, but tonight, he was faced with a trial he never dreamed he would have ever faced in his life. Both his girls were sensible girls. They didn't get drunk in nightclubs and go home with random men. They certainly did not get pregnant and hide it from their parents. Those things happened to wayward ghetto girls, not his girls. And his Samantha Doll in particular should have far more sense than to sleep with a Lothario like Jeremy Malcolm. He had never met the boy personally, but from what he had heard, Jeremy Malcolm was a braggart and a liar, just like his slimy, Puisne judge father, Peter Malcolm.
"Does Jeremy know?"
"Andie told him," Samantha told her mother. "But I don't want Jeremy to be a part of this..."
“So you want to do this – have a baby -- by yourself?” Her father asked.
"I don't know if I have a choice," Samantha tried to explain. “Jeremy said he did not want me calling him saying I was pregnant…”
“I see!” Dr Persaud interrupted. “He wants to have all the fun with none of the responsibilities? He thinks is so this thing go? Wait till I catch that bastard…”
“Andrew, you’re going to give yourself a stroke!” Mrs Persaud warned. “I’m not telling you again to control yourself!” She turned back to Samantha. “What do you mean he didn’t want you calling and telling him you were pregnant?”
“He just meant that since we didn’t use anything…” she blushed and continued her explanation. “He wanted to be sure that nothing like this had happened, so he got me some Plan B,” Samantha explained.
“You said this happened on your birthday. We were in New York for your birthday. How come we never got any wind of this?”
“Because our other little brainiac upstairs dragged us off to Connecticut!” Dr Persaud surmised, looking at Samantha. “Am I right? Is that why Andie suddenly wanted to go to Yale? She wanted us out of your way so you could meet with Jeremy and plan how to cover up your little tryst?”
Samantha did not answer. She realised that Nikki was right when she said ‘Be sure your sins will find you out’.
“So if he got you Plan B, how is it possible that you’re pregnant now?”
“They didn’t work….”
“And why not?” Her mother asked.
“Because I probably took them too late…”
Dr Persaud sighed. “You took them too late?” He shook his head. “Have you lost your damn mind, Samantha? Why didn’t you take them right away? Do you want this? Do you want to be pregnant right now?"
Samantha swiped a tear from her face. “No, Daddy. Of course I don't! I - I don't... I’m so sorry!”
“You certainly have every reason to be!” Her mother said. “Go to your room, Samantha. Your father and I have to talk alone.”
She rose silently and left the den.
“And you need to apologise to Andie and Theresa!" Mrs Persaud called after her.
Samantha did not look back. She could feel her parents’ eyes on her as she slowly made her way upstairs to her room.
Andrew looked at his wife. “What the hell are we going to do?”
“What can we do? She's an adult..."
“You’re certainly calm about the entire thing!” Dr Persaud commented.
“Calm? I'm not calm, Andrew! I'm shattered! How did I miss this? How didn't I see?"
"Because, our children are genii!" Dr Persaud noticed. "So far they have been using their powers for good, but now..."
"Don't joke about this Andrew!" Mrs Persaud retorted. "Sam has been sick for days now. She hasn't been eating, she's looked horrible.... When I measured her for her dress for Ravi's party it was clear that she had put on some weight. I didn't say anything because I didn't want her to feel bad... God! How did I miss this?"
"You couldn't have known, Jan! This is Samantha we're talking about!"
"But I’m a mother! I'm her mother. I should have known!"
Dr Persaud sighed. He took his wife's hand. "Well, it just goes to show no parents are perfect, not even us. No child is perfect either -- as much as we wish or pretend that they are... Children do things. They make choices we don’t like. They mess up. They disappoint us. They get pregnant... The only question is, what do we do now?"
"I suppose we have no choice but to be supportive!" Mrs Persaud shook her head. "Grandma? Oh crap! I don't know if I should go up to her room and hug her or smack her!"
“Well, I know I have to eventually apologise to her for going off on her like that!” Dr Persaud sighed again.
“Yes,” his wife informed him. “And you owe Andie an apology too.”
"Yes, I do! By the way, what was that about a bet?"
***
Jeremy was tired. He was so, so very tired. As he struggled to pull out the sleeper couch in the living room of Nathan's apartment, he realised that all his past sins had finally caught up with him. Of all the girls he had ever messed around with – and there had been many – why did Samantha have to be the one he knocked up.
"Here’s a pillow and some sheets!"
Jeremy caught the bedding Nathan chucked at him. "Thanks for the cotch, Nate. I really appreciate it!"
"Whatever. I'm only letting you stay here to get Andie off my ass, and it’s just for tonight so you better go stay with your father or find a hotel!" He brushed Jeremy aside. “Move, before you break my couch."
Jeremy stood back as Nathan worked on the bed. “So I heard you’re joining Foreign Affairs,” he said. “Congrats, man.”
“Thanks!” Nathan grunted.
“See, there’s some benefit in dating James Moreno’s granddaughter!” Jeremy tried to joke.
Nathan did not take it in the spirit that it was intended.
“You always have to hit below the belt, don’t you Jeremy?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say… “I’m sorry…”
“Yeah, in more ways than one.” Nathan rolled his eyes. He finished with the couch and went to the kitchen and poured himself some juice.
Jeremy could kick himself. He could not believe that was how he had opted to break the ice with Nathan – by intimating that he had gotten his job through nepotism. Silence once again dominated the apartment.
Jeremy decided to try again.
“Working at Foreign Affairs is a big job! First foreign affairs, next UN. Can’t wait to have you in New York! You and me could go prowling at some of my favourite watering holes, just like back in the day…”
“Don’t count on it!” Nathan bit. He flopped to the armchair and flipped the TV on, feeling slightly guilty for not offering Jeremy a drink.
Jeremy sighed. “Look, I know we’ve had our issues, Nate,” he said. “But don't you think we should have gone past them long ago. Yo, we were best friends since we were eleven …”
“Don't get it twisted!" Nathan remarked. "We were never best friends!"
Jeremy was taken aback. “
What are you talking about?” He questioned. “Of course we were best friends!”
“Best friends do not treat each other the way you have treated me. They don’t do things to spite each other, and get each other into trouble on purpose.”
“Nate... “Jeremy could not believe what he was hearing. “C’mon man. Don’t be like that.”
“We weren’t best friends,” Nathan insisted. “Why did you just jump up and decide that we were best friends?”
“Because we had so much in common,” Jeremy told him.
“Like what?” Nathan asked. “Like pulling pranks and screwing around with girls? Because if I recall, that was all you, not me!”
“No,” Jeremy shook his head. “I meant we were both good at mathematics, and we were on the swim team, and we both did not have fathers….”
Nathan raised his eyebrows. “What? You have a father.”
“Who? You mean Judge Malcolm?”
“No, I mean Judge Judy!” Nathan said sarcastically. “Of course I mean Judge Malcolm.”
“Some father,” Jeremy mumbled.
“What are you talking about 'some father'?” “He was at every PTA and parents day, and all he does is brag about you!”
“In public!" Jeremy said. "Well, let me tell you something, yout’, things aren’t always what they seem!”
Nathan was looking at him. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Jeremy sighed. “Nate, I never told you this before, but my father – I know it sounds weird now -- but my father…. Remember in first form when you came third and your mother took you to Disney World?”
Nathan nodded.
“Well, if you recall, I came second, and my ‘father’ told me I had no goddamn ambition!”
Nathan was in shock. He had not known that. "He didn't say anything like that, yout’!"
“Yo, I’m quoting him verbatim!" Jeremy assured him. "And that isn't even the worst thing he ever told me. When I didn’t make P&A valedictorian, he said I better get a job because he was not sending a loser like me to Graduate school. That’s not a father, Nate. A real father doesn’t treat his family the way my father treated me and my mother and my sister. You thought I had this really grand and perfect life, but growing up for me sucked, and I never showed it, but all I had was …” He paused thinking perhaps he was sounding a little too emotional.
“All you had was what?” Nathan probed.
Jeremy stared off, not wanting to say anymore.
“All you had was what?” Nathan pressed.
“I mean, y’know,” Jeremy fumbled. “All I had was my best friend…”
There was silence in the apartment once more. Nathan had turned red with embarrassment. Jeremy stared at the TV; glad that he was too dark skinned to turn red. Finally, Nathan spoke.
"I ever told you about my father?” He asked.
“No,” Jeremy replied.
“He was the best dad,” Nathan told him. “When I was little, he would take off work sometimes and take me to the park for ice cream. Just the two of us. He walked me to school and came to all my school stuff. He was awesome. All my friends loved him!”
“And your point?” Jeremy asked.
“He was a Futures Trader,” Nathan continued. “Stole 15 million dollars from his company!”
Jeremy looked at him, his mouth open in shock. “You lie!”
“Nope! Swear to God!”
“So your father isn’t dead?” Jeremy asked. “He’s in prison?”
“Oh no, he’s dead, as dead can be,” Nathan told him. “When I was nine, rather than go to prison, he shot himself in the head. Right in front of me!”
“Jesus, Nate!” Jeremy thought that was way too much information. He realised that he really did not know anything about Nathan. If anyone had reason to act out, it was Nathan. It must have been beyond traumatising to see his father blow his brains out.
“Yeah!” Nathan scoffed. “Now, you really want to bitch about who has the worse dad, and who had the harder life?”
There was silence in the apartment once more. For the first time in his life, Jeremy was at a loss for words. There was so much he wanted to ask Nathan and to say to him, but he did not know where to begin.
Nathan flipped through the TV channels, wondering whether his package truly included 3ABN. After two weeks of searching, he was still unable to find it!
“So how about we swap fathers?” Jeremy said, hoping Nathan would realise he was only trying to lighten the mood.
Nathan scoffed. “You’re such an ass!”
“I know! And I know it sucks as far as excuses go, but I blame my father!”
“Yeah,” Nathan agreed. “Sorry your father is such a prick!”
“Sorry your father killed himself,” Jeremy returned.
“Yeah, well… So are Mom and I, but we get on.”
“I saw your mother at the mayor’s ball,” Jeremy informed him. “And I saw Joie, too.”
“Yeah, she told me she saw you,” Nathan said.
Jeremy was glad he was actually having a civilised conversation with Nathan. “Joie has really gotten big. What is she now? Twelve?”
“Almost thirteen,” Nathan confirmed.
Jeremy shook his head, feeling like an old man. “Wow. I remember when she was just two and we used to put her in the box wagon we made and push her ‘round your backyard. You remember?”
Nathan remembered. His grandmother used to scream at them to be careful with the baby.
“She is pretty,” Jeremy surmised. “She looks like you!”
Nathan laughed barkingly. “My yout’, you saying I’m pretty?”
“No!” Jeremy said, chucking him. “I’m saying you look like a girl.”
The two burst out laughing.
“Little Joie turning thirteen!” Jeremy sighed. “Wow. Children not staying on the ground again, bwoy!”
“Not if they can help it!” Nathan agreed. “I mean, look how long it took for us to reach thirteen! It doesn’t look like it took Joie that long at all!”
“And it gets worse with every generation!” Jeremy thought they sounded like two old men, not young, twenty-somethings, fresh out of graduate school, with their entire lives in front of them. “Can you imagine when we have our own children and by the time we look ’round they’re big and grown?”
Nathan glanced at him through the corner of his eye. “You will find out soon enough…”
Jeremy was suddenly dragged back to reality. Nathan was right. In a few months, he would have a child of his own. He was going to be a father. “Damn!” He muttered. “Can you believe it?”
“You and Samantha!” Nathan agreed. “I would have never thought of you and Samantha. Not in a million years!”
“I’ve thought of it,” Jeremy confessed. “I thought of it a lot. Just never thought it would happen, at least not like this…”
“So what really happened?
"Cliff Notes version, or full length?”
“Cliff Notes!” Nathan decided. “I really don't need to hear the gory details.”
Jeremy put on a look of pure innocence. “Please, my brother. You ever know me to kiss and tell?”
Nathan gave him a nasty look. Of course Jeremy’s favourite past time back when they were in school together was giving the blow by blow accounts of his ‘conquests’.
“People grow up, you know!” Jeremy rolled his eyes. “I don’t do that sort of thing anymore, and definitely not with Samantha!”
“Good to know! So, what happened?”
“You know I interned at Persaud Financials, right?” Jeremy told him. “I was in Investments with Phillip Javar. We went out to a club the Friday night before Samantha’s birthday. Apparently, Samantha had just broken up with Micah and Phillip wanted me to come and try to cheer her up. Of course you know Sam hates me, but after a few tequila shots, man, we just went crazy. The next morning, the guilt –slash–rage–slash disgust set in and she treated me like I was diseased. I guess I was not a part of
her master plan. I was hoping we could have something but… We were done before we even start…”
Nathan noticed his faraway look. Realisation hit him. “Yo!”
“What?” Jeremy asked.
“You’re in love with her aren’t you?”
“Man, what you think?” Jeremy asked. “She’s Samantha Persaud: beautiful, smart and sexy as hell… the woman is frigging perfection!”
Nathan shook his head. “You get ketch yout'. Never think you had it in you.”
Jeremy gave him a scornful look. “What? I’m not somebody’s pickney?”
“No, no!” Nathan quickly defended. “It’s just that you’re you -- the ‘J-man’. ‘J-man don’t play stuckie’!” Nathan mimicked. “That was your favourite phrase.”
“Rahtid! You can believe I ever said that?” Jeremy laughed. “I was such a punk.”
“Better you say it than me!” Nathan pointed out. “But I know what you’re talking about. Never know it could catch me either, till Andie. It’s surreal, how women can just change you…”
Jeremy looked at him, embarrassed. “I never said I was sorry for what I did to the two of you…” he began.
“No need to apologise!” Nathan gave up and turned off the television. “I shoulda told you before that the bet was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I wouldn’t have met Andie otherwise… I should thank you.”
“Does that mean I can be your best man when you two get married?”
“Don’t hold your breath!” Nathan told him. “I don't know that I’m ready to make you my friend again. Have to watch you prove yuhself first. Besides, you should be picking out a coffin, ‘cause when Dr and Mrs Persaud find out about this, they are going to kill you!”
137
Just Perfect!
chapter seven
Saturday, May 24
Samantha lay on her face with the covers over her head. It was morning, and she realised, despite her fervent prayer the night before, she had not died in her sleep. She wished she had. Anything to avoid that particular day. Last night had been lurid. With the help away, they had all gone to dinner at the Ravi P. It had been a quiet, strained affair. Samantha recalled that her father would not even look at her. Her mother had kindly asked about the due date, and her appointment with Dr Creary, how she was feeling, and warned her not to have uncooked salmon, and the soft cheeses that she loved so much. She waited for one of them to bring up Jeremy. No one did. Not even Andie. As a matter of fact, Andie had not spoken one word to her. It was the worst thing in the world having her little sister cross at her. The only person who was pleased with the situation was Christopher. He was beyond pleased to hear at the ripe old age of 'ten and three-quarters’, he was going to be an uncle.