by Traci Bee
“Who’s that?” Angela asked.
“My father,” Simone said. “He just walked in. Something’s wrong with the van. He said he may have to find me a jump.”
“Yeah, Jordan may as well stay here, especially if the van’s acting up. I’ll take her to Ms. Kennard’s house tomorrow since she just has to go. Give me her number so I can call her.”
● ● ●
“Ma!” Alicia walked into Angela’s room. “Some man wants you at the door.”
“Who is it?” Angela barked as she grabbed Ms. Kennard’s number and scooped Jordan up in her arms.
“I don’t know,” Alicia said, heading back into her room while Angela walked towards the front door.
“Wow! How old is your baby?” the man cooed.
“Seven months,” Angela shared, speaking through the screen door.
“Oh, I didn’t even know you were pregnant. I live around the corner on the next street. My wife and I use this street a lot to avoid the traffic light. We see you and your husband out here working in the yard. She’s a good combination of both of you.”
“Thank you.” Angela smiled, never bothering to correct him.
“Sorry for stopping by so late. The light was on, so I figured I’d bring you this,” he said, handing Angela a few pieces of mail. “We have the same house number. I guess the mailman put it in our box by mistake. Congratulations on the baby,” he said as he trotted down the steps towards his car.
“Thank you,” Angela said, closing the door. “Everybody thinks you’re my baby,” she said as she kissed Jordan on top of her head.
Tossing the mail on the end table, she placed Jordan in her seat and starred at her granddaughter as her mind drifted back to five years ago. Five years ago when the doctor told her and Ricardo that the little girl that they were expecting had stopped developing in Angela’s womb. Due to Angela’s age, the pregnancy had been deemed high risk. That being the case, Angela and Ricardo decided to keep the pregnancy hush, hush until she reached her third trimester. But the third trimester never came.
“She probably would’ve looked just like you,” Angela said to her granddaughter, Jordan.
Ricardo hated Simone, but he cherished Jordan nearly as much as Angela did. It was hard for anyone not to. With eyes as bright as the moon, silky jet-black curls, and dimples engraved in her golden-colored cheeks, one glance in Jordan’s direction and she stole your heart.
Picking up the phone, Angela dialed Beatrice’s number.
“Hi, Ms. Kennard? How you doing? This is Angela, Simone’s mom.”
“Ms. Kennard?” Beatrice gasped playfully. “Why we so formal? Girl, we kinfolks now, thanks to little Miss Jordan. Is that her I hear cooing in the background?”
“Yeah, that’s her. We sitting here waiting on her momma. No telling where that girl is. I’m so sick of Simone’s mess.”
“Oh my goodness. Is everything okay?”
“Oh yeah, everything’s fine. It’s going on nine o’clock, and like I said, we’re sitting here waiting. It’s nothing new. I won’t be surprised if she doesn’t even show up. Her famous excuse is her father’s van is broke. I bet she gets her to you on the weekends with no problem, and she never has a problem dropping her off. It’s just picking her up.”
“What!”
“Chile, please. I can tell you some stories about missy. I don’t know what she’s doing, but whatever it is, she needs to stop. You would think having the baby prematurely would make her change her lil’ habits.”
“What you mean by that?” Beatrice asked, taking Angela’s bait.
“Just think about it. She didn’t lose her job, her apartment, and birth this little baby two months early for nothing. All that should tell you and everybody else something. Not to mention it’s late and I’m still sitting here waiting for her.”
“Oh my God, Angela.” Beatrice was stunned.
“Yeah, I’ve been trying to talk some sense into her, trying to convince her to get herself together.”
“Lord, what in the world is going on with Simone?”
“Chile, who knows? But whatever you do, don’t mention this conversation to her. I don’t want her going off on the deep end ’cause I’m telling her business. Anyway, I was calling to let you know that more than likely I’ll be dropping Jordan off to you tomorrow. It’s looking like she’ll be here all night again.”
“Angela, this don’t make any sense. I thought Simone was doing good. I mean, she looks good.”
“Yeah, everybody thinks that. Just pay closer attention.”
“Man, this is crazy,” Beatrice mumbled, more to herself. “Listen, Angela. You’ve had Baby Girl all day. You want me to come get her from you tonight?”
“Oh, no, she’s fine. I’ll just drop her off to you tomorrow. Have you taken her to see her daddy yet?”
“No, and I know it’s killing him. I thought she was a little too fragile for the ride at first, but now that she’s put on a little weight, I can take her. Plus, my oldest son is off this weekend, so he’s going to tag along so Kevin can see his baby. Hopefully, seeing her will cheer him up some. He’s been down in the dumps for so long. You know he knew the man he accidentally killed.”
“He knew the man?”
“Yeah, he tended to him at the nursing home where we used to work. I had to leave that place after that.” Beatrice sighed. “Now I’m up here at this doggon’ hospital working like a slave. Every time you turn around, they calling me in to work a double shift. I told them don’t call me this weekend.”
“Well, I bought Baby Girl some cute little outfits. I’ll put a few in her bag so she can look extra cute for her daddy.”
“Okay, thanks, Angela. And listen, you make sure you call me if you need me. I don’t have a problem coming to get her.”
“Yeah, but she’s fine. Like I said, I’m use to it. Listen,” Angela added, “I have some pictures of Jordan that I could send to Kevin if you want.”
“Oh, good idea. Here, take down his address.”
Hanging up the phone, Angela sat on the couch with a conniving smile plastered on her face, amazed by her performance. The web of lies rolled off her tongue so effortlessly.
“Something smells good,” Ricardo said, startling Angela from her thoughts as he walked in from work. He smiled at Jordan as she sat in her infant seat, kicking her little legs. “What she still doing here?”
“That’s a good question,” Angela responded. “I haven’t heard from Simone, and look how late it is. That girl wasn’t bit more ready for no baby.”
“I could’ve told you that.” Ricardo sat on the couch and lifted Jordan from her seat. “So what’s the story?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Well, stop babysitting,” he said with Jordan cooing in his arms. “That’ll fix her.”
“Yeah, that may fix Simone, but it’ll do more harm to Jordan. No telling who Simone will get to watch her. Plus, it’s a lot of things you don’t know.”
“Like what?” Ricardo stepped right into the sticky web. Angela repeated the lies she’d just shared with Beatrice.
“Damn, we need to do something,” Ricardo said, looking at little Jordan.
“Well,” Angela said, “if she keeps it up, we may have to go to the courthouse and see about getting custody.”
● ● ●
Beatrice picked up the phone that connected her with her son. “Surprise, Big Daddy!”
Damn, Kevin thought as he marveled over the little life he and Simone had created.
“I already checked her out, too. She’s definitely yours.”
Kevin frowned. “Hell, I know she mine, but damn, why she so small?”
“She was premature, remember? She’s gotten a lot bigger, though. Ain’t she gorgeous? A good combination of you and Simone.”
Kevin fought back tears as he marveled at his daughter. “She’s my complexion, but to me, she looks just like Simone. How’s Simone doing anyway?”
“Well, I th
ought she was doing good. I mean, she looks good. You can’t even tell the girl had a baby. But her mother’s been complaining that she’s not picking Jordan up.”
“What, she working late or something?”
“I don’t know what’s going on. She’ll get it together. Hey, Jordan,” Beatrice cooed as she held Jordan in her lap. “You see that funny looking man. That’s your da-da.”
For the duration of the visit, Kevin did his best to maintain, but every tick of the clock stabbed at his heart as reality set in. Jordan’s first words, her first steps, her first day of school, her first everything—all of that, he would miss.
Chapter Fifteen
End of Summer, 1989
The neighborhood playground was decorated with police cars early in the afternoon. Simone surveyed the crowd and spotted Big Bob with his hands spread across the back of a cruiser. A few of his boys sat along the curb with their hands cupped behind their heads.
“Simone!” Lavon growled, appearing from out of nowhere.
“Damn, girl. You scared me. Where the hell you come from?” Simone asked. “I was on my way to your house.”
“Girl,” Lavon whispered in excitement as she nearly dragged Simone down the sidewalk, “one of them Jamaicans threw their bag of shit on the ground when the police rolled up.”
“And?”
“And I found it!”
Simone stopped dead in her tracks.
“Yeah, c’mon,” Lavon said, tugging on Simone’s arm as she led the way to her apartment.
Inside, Lavon closed her bedroom door and dumped the contents of the brown paper bag on her bed.
“Look at this shit!” Lavon tossed the tiny crack-filled baggies in the air. “I know this gotta be more than three thousand dollars’ worth of crack! Here,” she said, tossing half of the baggies to Simone.
“What the hell I’m supposed to do with this?”
“Girl, we fuckin’ partners, you know that. This is fifteen hundred dollars apiece!”
“Yeah, but who the hell gon’ sell it?” Simone picked up the tiny baggie and examined the hard white substance. She’d never seen the infamous drug before. “It looks like pieces of soap.”
“We can get Big Bob to sell it. Matter fact,” Lavon said, picking up her phone, “I’ma page him.”
“I hope he calls back,” Simone said. “The police were searching him a minute ago.”
“That ain’t nothing new. He don’t walk around wit’ his stuff on him. Watch, he’ll be knocking on my door in a few minutes.”
Lavon and Simone sat outside on Lavon’s patio in the plastic lawn chairs, fantasizing about their big plans for the fast money.
“What’s up, ladies?” Big Bob stepped onto the patio. “Which one of y’all paged me?”
“I did,” Lavon whispered, anxiously waving her hand for Big Bob to come closer.
“What?” He frowned as he squatted down next to her chair.
“You know the police was looking for them Jamaicans,” she whispered.
“Yeah, them hot-ass muthafuckas. One of them threw their shit down. I hope somebody find that shit.”
“Somebody did.” Lavon smiled a toothy grin.
“Who? You? Y’all found that shit?”
“Yeah! It’s like three thousand dollars’ worth of halves, too.”
“Hey, hold up,” Big Bob said seriously. “Don’t y’all tell nobody else that shit.”
“Come on now. We look stupid to you?” Simone asked. “The only reason we telling you is ’cause we need you to sell it.”
“Oh yeah?” Big Bob chuckled. “And what I get?” He winked at Simone.
“What, you want us to pay you?” Simone asked, ignoring the suggestion in his wink.
“Naw, I tell you what, Simone. Go to the movies with me, and you ain’t gotta pay me nothing,” Big Bob offered. “It might take me a minute to get rid of it, since the strip is blazing. I’d have to nickel-and-dime it to you, but I’ll get rid of it.”
“Okay, but if I go to the movies with you, you gotta sell mine and Lavon’s.”
“A’ight, but we going today.”
“Okay, and Lavon’s going, too.”
“Ah, see,” Big Bob stood. “You messin’ it up.”
“Come on, Bob, please,” Simone begged. “And if we going today, we need to go soon, ’cause I gotta pick Jordan up from her grandmother’s.”
“Okay, let me see if my man Donté wanna roll so Lavon don’t feel like the third wheel. I’ll be back in ’bout five minutes.”
After the movie, rain poured from the skies, drenching Simone, Lavon, Big Bob, and Donté as they ran from the theater to Donte’s black Audi.
“Hey, Simone, I know you gotta pick up your lil’ shorty. You want Donté to swing you past there?” Big Bob asked as he climbed in the front seat.
“Yeah, if he don’t mind. It’s not that far from here,” Simone said from the back seat.
“Naw, I got you.” Backing from the parking space, Donté cracked his window and pulled a joint from his sun visor. He heated up his car lighter and asked, “Y’all want a hit?”
“Fool, what the hell you doing?” Irritation flooded Big Bob’s voice. “Ain’t you taking Simone to pick up her daughter?”
“Yeah, man. I said I was.” Donté fired up the joint and took a long drag. He blew the smoke toward his open window, but the bulk of the cloud floated to the back.
“Donté, you blowin’ that funky shit all over the place, and her baby gotta get up in here!”
“Ah, nigga, stop fuckin’ trippin’. This that good shit. It don’t smell like that bullshit y’all pushin’ on the corner. Y’all don’t wanna hit this muthafucka?”
“Simone,” Big Bob called out, rolling down his window, “we can swing past the way and jump in my truck. I’ll take you to pick up your lil’ shorty.”
“Stop cryin’ like an ol’ bitch…damn.” Donté took another drag and tapped the joint out in the ashtray. “Y’all fuckin’ happy now?”
“Who the hell told you that shit don’t stink?” Lavon asked. She couldn’t roll down her window because the rain was coming down in buckets.
“Ah, now there you go.” Donté shot Lavon a look of annoyance in the rearview mirror. “Gimme the five dollars I spent on your damn movie ticket!”
“You ain’t said shit.” Lavon crumpled up a ten-dollar bill from her purse and bounced it off of Donté’s head. “Buy some air freshener with the change.”
A bolt of lightning cracked the sky as Donté pulled in front of Ms. Kennard’s building. Simone and Lavon leaped from the car and sprinted to her apartment.
“Dang, is she home?” Lavon asked as Simone knocked on the door over and over.
“I guess not,” Simone said, stomping down the steps. “Miss Kennard knew I was coming to get her.”
“Hey, Simone!” One of her old neighbors stood at the top of the steps.
“Hey,” Simone said. She recognized her old neighbor, but for the life of her she couldn’t recall her name.
“I seen your little girl. You and Kevin made a pretty little baby.”
“Thank you.” Simone smiled. Damn, what the hell is her name? “Have you seen Ms. Kennard by chance?”
“No, not today. Why, something wrong?”
“No, I’m just here to get Jordan, and she’s not home. Can I use your phone?”
“Sure,” she said, leading the way to her apartment. “C’mon up.”
Inside the apartment, Simone picked up the phone and called Angela, while Lavon waited by the door.
“Hey,” Simone said, “have you spoken with Ms. Kennard? I’m here to pick up Jordan, but nobody’s home,” Simone smiled as her old neighbor headed into the kitchen.
“Yeah, Jordan’s here with me. Ms. Kennard said she’d been calling you since five o’clock. They called her in to work. Where were you?”
“I went to the movies.”
“Why would you go to the movies knowing you had to pick Jordan up?”
�
�I’m here to get her now.”
“It’s thundering and lighting outside and you shoulda..”
“Ma,” Simone said, cutting her off. She didn’t have time to go back and forth with her. “I’m on somebody else’s phone, so I can’t fuss with you. I’m on my way.”
“Simone, you may as well wait until tomorrow. It’s raining and—”
“All right, bye,” Simone said, hanging up the phone. “Thank you,” she hollered toward the kitchen.
Her old neighbor came out of the kitchen with a can of air freshener. “No problem,” she said, filling the air with aerosol. “Take care, Simone.”
● ● ●
Beatrice pulled herself from her car, exhausted after working all night. She could barely keep her eyes open. Her body craved the warmth of her bed, and in a matter of minutes, she’d satisfy the yearning.
“Hey, Ms. Kennard!” her neighbor chanted as she headed over to her car. “You coming from work and I’m going.”
“Girl, I’m so tired I could fall out in the middle of this parking lot. How you doing this morning?”
“I’m fine. I saw Simone last night,” she said, approaching Beatrice’s car. “She was looking for you. I let her use my phone. Her and her girlfriend lit my apartment up.” She chuckled. “I don’t know what the hell they were smoking, but whoa. I was spraying my apartment all night.”
“Huh?”
Damn, her mother said she was doing something she ain’t had no business doing, Beatrice thought.
“Hey, now don’t get me wrong. I take a little hit on occasion, too,” she whispered. “But it don’t smell like that. See you later,” the neighbor said as she climbed inside her car.
● ● ●
Kevin sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the pictures of Jordan that Angela had sent him.
Dang, look at you, Kevin said to himself. Lining the pictures across his mattress, he read the few lines Angela had scribbled.
Hi Kevin,
Hope all is well. I figured you might enjoy these pictures. Give me a call when you can. There are some things that I really need to discuss with you.
Take care,