Lawd, Mo' Drama

by McKinney, Tina Brooks

  When she stopped whimpering, I went to tuck in Kayla and Malik. Both had fallen asleep, but neither bothered to put covers around themselves. I covered them up and went back to get into bed with Mya. She was in a deep slumber, but her eyes were wide open.

  I was so wired that I could not get back to sleep. I got up and ironed all of our clothes and took a bath. I took extra time with my makeup and hair. I wanted to make a good impression; especially since Mya was going to come in so beat up. Looking at her face, I could understand why people thought I abused her, but for the life of me I could not understand what was going on in her brain.

  I had taken her to a succession of doctors, and none of them could identify the problem. Something was wrong with my baby, and I was determined to find out what it was.

  I let the kids sleep while I fixed bacon and eggs for breakfast. Then one by one I dragged them from the bed and into the bathroom to get dressed. Mya was so listless I was afraid to take her to the day care center, but I had to give them all a chance to get used to it before I dropped them off on Monday.

  I pulled into the center about ten-thirty; both Kayla and Malik got excited. They saw the jungle gym in the front yard and assumed they were going to McDonald’s. Mya did not put up a fuss as I unloaded her from the car seat. I carried her as Malik and Kayla ran ahead. The lady at the desk remembered me from the day before and came to my rescue. She bent down and talked to Malik and Kayla.

  “What’s your name?” she asked Kayla.

  Smiling broadly, Kayla spelled it for her. The lady wrote her name on a tag and put it on Kayla’s shirt. Glowing, Kayla turned around and showed me.

  “See, Mommy?” she said with pride.

  “Ain’t that nice.” I struggled to hold back a smile. She was so proud of her handwritten name tag.

  Malik grabbed the lady’s hand and boldly shouted, “Malik, Malik, Malik!” The lady wrote down his name using a different-colored marker. She stuck on his name tag, and he beamed as well.

  “I got one, too!” he shouted, clearly pleased.

  “I’m going to take them into the classrooms, but I’m sure Mr. Richmond will want to see your daughter. What’s her name?” she asked as she prepared to make her a special name tag.

  “It’s Mya. M-Y-A,” I spelled out to assist her. Small tears formed in Mya’s eyes, and I felt it was because she could not tell the lady herself.

  “My name’s Mrs. Simpson,” she said, smiling at Mya. She left us alone as Mya lifted her head to look around at her surroundings. I felt her tense up in my arms, and I waited for her to start screaming, but it didn’t happen.

  Mr. Richmond came down the hall with a big smile plastered on his face. He stopped in front of us and lifted Mya’s head from my shoulder where she buried it when she saw that he was there for her.

  “May I?” he asked as he gently lifted her from my arms. Mya surprised me and did not act a fool. She wrapped her legs around his torso as if he were her own daddy. That was a first. Mya did not take to strangers.

  “Leave them with us for a few hours. We need to establish a relationship. We want them to be comfortable here. If you can, come back between four and five,” he said, winking at me.

  I backed out of the door without a peep out of Mya. Checking my watch, I realized that I had a good six hours to kill.

  I dropped off my completed child support claim forms that I had filled out in the wee hours of the morning. I also began checking out the other HUD houses that were available. Since I had a little deposit to work with, I was feeling more confident. On every application, I noted the urgency of my need to move. Although I would have liked to move before I started to work, I realized the wheels would not turn so quickly. I did let each realty agent know that if the application was approved, I would have to move and sign all documents on a Saturday. That did not appear to be a problem.

  My next stop was the police station. I filed for a restraining order that would keep Kentee away from us until we moved. I had to let them hear the tapes. That bothered me, but not as much as it would if he came and actually tried to harm us. I was given a case number, and I called Coy to let him know what it was.

  “Hey, baby,” he said when he answered the phone.

  “It’s done,” I said with a huge sigh.

  “Good, because I know where he is. Your man has been busy, and it’s only a matter of time before we have him. It’s crucial that you let me know if he contacts you, or even worse, if he tries to get in your house.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  Coy didn’t mention anything about trying to see me again, and that was okay. At least he was still willing to help me.

  “What are you doing tonight?” he inquired and my heart soared.

  I didn’t want to let him know how happy those few words had made me, so I just mumbled, “The same old same old.”

  “How ’bout I bring some movies and we just chill?”

  I paused a few seconds to rethink my plans. I would not be able to chill with him until at least ten p.m. and, by that time, I would be ready for bed. If I wanted to spend any quality time with him, I would need a sitter.

  “What time are we talking here?” I asked.

  “About seven or eight,” he said.

  “I’ll have to call you back to confirm. I need to see if my mother will keep the kids.”

  “That’s cool. Just hit me back on my cell,” he said.

  Glancing at my watch, I still had a good three hours left to kill. I decided to pay a visit to Marie’s grave. It had been a while and I was feeling guilty.

  I sat on the grass facing Marie’s grave and I could not stop the tears from falling as I tried to bring her up to speed with all the things that had been happening in my life. It was coming up on the third anniversary of her death and, despite my own problems, I could not rest until I paid my respects.

  Marie was the first true friend that I ever had and, even though a number of years had passed, my pain was still as fresh as if she was just taken away from me. For a moment, I could not catch my breath as I rubbed my chest over my aching heart. I remained silent as I collected myself.

  Marie’s grave was covered in flowers and well-tended. I could see that her children had also visited within the last few days. Through my tears, I saw the picture propped against the headstone as an anguished wail escaped my lips. I reached for the picture with trembling hands. Kiera was wearing a gown and the resemblance to her mother was uncanny. But the biggest surprise was Kendall. He had shot up like a weed and was so handsome.

  “Damn, Marie, your ex was only a sperm donor. There ain’t no denying that these are your kids!”

  I laughed for the first time since I had parked the car. They both were smiling broadly in the picture and I wondered what the occasion was. I turned the picture over but it offered no clues. I made a mental note to call Ms. Morgan when I got home. It had been too long since I had spoken to her and the kids.

  “Girl, what can I say? I wish I had listened to you about Kentee. As much as I hate to say it, you were right.”

  I shook my head and leaned back, staring at the cloudless sky. Bitter memories flooded my mind and I choked back another sob.

  “I’m sorry I haven’t been to see you in a while but things ain’t going so hot for me. I’ve got three kids now. Did I tell you? Yeah, gurl, I had twins and that shit ain’t no joke. Mya and Malik are two. Wow, it’s been over two years since I’ve visited but life is kinda hectic.”

  I laughed again at my understatement. Who the hell was I fooling? I was ninety-nine percent sure Marie was looking down on me and screaming. She always accused me of walking around in denial and it hurt to know that she was right about that also.

  “I do have good news. Motherhood has forced me to grow up. How come you didn’t hip me to that shit?” I smiled as a visual of Marie formed in my mind. I wanted to make this an upbeat visit but my problems were weighing me down.

  “Who am I kidding?” I raised my hands for emphasis. “Marie,
this shit is hard. Mya is special. She demands all my time and energy! Sometimes I feel like giving up. It’s no wonder Kentee left me.”

  I wailed. Ominous thunder rumbled loudly in the sky, causing a chill to run up my spine. My shoulders shook as another burst of tears overcame me. I pulled my legs to my chest and lay my forehead on my knees. I gave up all the pretense and bravado and had a soul-cleansing bawl. Marie knew my heart and, I had no doubt in my mind that she also knew of my troubles.

  I was so preoccupied with my thoughts, I did not see the woman who approached Marie’s grave from the right. Startled, I swiped at my face attempting to erase the crazy evidence of my pity party.

  The woman was very attractive and looked familiar but I could not place her. She carried a small arrangement of pink and purple flowers that she laid on Marie’s grave.

  “Sorry to interrupt you. I tried to wait until you finished but it seems like you have a lot of catching up to do,” she said, taking a few steps backward.

  “Oh, that’s okay. I thought I had the place to myself.”

  I rose to my feet. I brushed the dirt from the back of my jeans and attempted to control the wild wisps of hair that had been dancing in the wind. She was casually dressed but her hair was sculptured. I could not shake the feeling that I had seen her before.

  We stood there in silence for a few seconds. She lowered her head and closed her eyes. I watched her, trying to figure out where I knew her from. Remembrance danced around the edges of my mind but I could not hold it still long enough to grab it.

  She turned to leave. “Have a nice day.”

  “Wait!” I reached out to touch her arm, stopping short of actually touching her.

  She looked down at my hand like it contained a weapon. “Yes?” she inquired in a guarded manner.

  I felt real foolish for detaining her. “Your face looks so familiar to me.”

  “I saw you at Marie’s funeral.”

  “Oh, okay,” I replied. I rubbed my hands on the seat of my pants and held out my hand to shake hers.

  “My name is Leah,” I said, smiling at her. She was obviously a friend of Marie’s and any friend of Marie’s was a friend of mine.

  “Uh. My name is Kia.” She seemed uncomfortable as she took my hand and barely closed her fingers around mine.

  “Nice to meet you. Your name sounds familiar but I can’t place it. Were you a relative of Marie’s?”

  “Uh. Well. Uh.” Her face was getting red and I was sorry I was pressing her for details that she obviously didn’t want to give. Strange.

  “Please forgive me. I didn’t mean to pry. Marie was my best friend and I thought I knew all of her friends,” I explained, backing away to give her some space.

  A single tear rolled down Kia’s face, piquing my curiosity once again as to her relationship with Marie. “She dated my brother,” she whispered as she lowered her head.

  Realization dawned on me and I struggled to control my emotions. She was the sister of the guy who killed my best friend. No wonder she was uncomfortable. Rage began to build inside my body and my knees trembled. I felt the urge to reach out and snatch a handful of her long brown hair. Standing straighter, I withdrew my hand.

  “I see.” I turned my back to her to keep from hitting her smack dead in her mouth.

  “Wait, please don’t prejudge me. I also cared about Marie,” she said, as if that would make things any better.

  I began to gather my purse and belongings strewn about on the ground. I was hot. I wanted to scream at her and demand that she leave. I wanted to ask her why this had to happen! I wanted to choke the shit out of her!

  “Wait,” she said again, too loudly for the deserted graveyard. I looked around to see if anyone was watching us.

  “What?” I snapped back, only wanting to get as far away from her as I could.

  I instantly regretted snapping at her when she started crying harder. I forgot that she had lost someone who she cared about as well. Her shoulders slumped and she swayed on her feet.

  “Can we go someplace and talk?”

  “About what? There’s nothing to talk about.”

  “Don’t you want to know what happened?”

  She had me there. I did want to know, more than anything, but I also didn’t want to give her any satisfaction.

  “Please,” she prodded.

  Slowly I turned to face her. Her eyes were wide and pleading. Tension drained from my neck and shoulders as I unclenched my hands.

  “I’m listening.”

  “Not here, please. Could we go for coffee or, better yet, a drink?”

  I glanced at my watch. I still had a couple of hours before I had to pick up my kids. I was torn between my desire to know and a more overwhelming urge to run. Curiosity won out. I followed her to a small bar and grill on Peachtree Street. We didn’t talk until we each had taken a sip of our Long Island iced teas.

  “Thank you for coming. I’ve wanted to contact you for some time but I didn’t know how.”

  “Yeah, everybody that you could have asked is dead,” I stated sarcastically.

  I didn’t mean for it to sound as harsh as it did but I couldn’t help it. Neither of us spoke for a minute and I was getting anxious. I looked at my watch and tapped my foot impatiently on the floor.

  “You’re angry and I can’t blame you. I was angry at first.”

  “You’re damn right, I’m angry. Marie was the sweetest person I’ve ever known. She didn’t deserve to die. I’m angry because her children are growing up without a mother!” My voice started to rise and I was getting mad stares from the other patrons. Kia didn’t say a word. Her eyes refused to meet mine.

  “Marie was good for my brother. He came a long way when he met her.”

  “A long way? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “When his wife left him, he snapped. He lost the will to live. He wouldn’t eat or sleep. Hell, he wouldn’t even take a bath.”

  “Obviously we aren’t talking about the same man.”

  “That’s why I said Marie was good for him. He started caring about his appearance again. He was getting his life back in order.”

  “Give me a break. I don’t have time for this shit. You’re trying to set that nut up to be some sort of saint. In case you don’t remember, he shot my friend in cold blood!”

  “He wasn’t responsible for his actions. He’d only been out of the hospital for two months when they met,” she said, trying to keep her voice down so I had to move in closer to hear her.

  I took a sip of my drink. “Humph. So I guess next you’re going to tell me that he wasn’t taking care of your mother.”

  “Is that what he told her?”

  “Hell, yeah. He said that he’d given up his condo and moved in with his mother because ya’ll didn’t have time for her.”

  “Ow, that hurts,” she responded. Silence filled the space again as I reflected on what she’d said. “Norman lost his condo when he got fired from his job. He wasn’t taking care of Momma; it was the other way around. He stayed in that hospital nearly eight months. When he got out, he had to be supervised to make sure he stayed on top of his medicine.”

  I was stunned. Suddenly I remembered Marie complaining about the fact that Norman never spent the night. She thought he was a momma’s boy and couldn’t stay out. Things were starting to make sense.

  “We didn’t find out until after his death that he had stopped taking his medicine and seeing his therapist. We suspect he was with Marie all those times he told us that he was going to the doctor appointments but we’ll never know for sure.”

  I started to get mad all over again. “Why didn’t you tell Marie about his history? This entire thing could’ve turned out differently if you would’ve shared this information.”

  “I beat myself up about that at least twice a day. I wanted to tell her but he seemed to be okay. We were all so happy that we overlooked the small signs.”

  “Dag, he seemed so…uh, normal.” I was no longer angry
with her. Truth be told, she had lost as much if not more than I had.

  “So, do you know what happened to them?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. Even though Marie was dead, I was uncomfortable talking about her personal business. I concentrated on the melting ice in my glass as I forced myself to remember.

  “Norman started off fine. He was the perfect gentleman and had a way with her kids that really got to Marie. Then he started to change. He was rushing the relationship and that frightened Marie.” I considered mentioning the fact that he had a little dick but, at that point, it seemed irrelevant.

  “I can imagine how he was acting simply by the things I saw when he’d come home from her house. He was bouncing off the walls, but he was happy.”

  “Well, he started dropping by unannounced and Marie was real funny about that. She didn’t even want me popping up on her so she lost it when he showed up. She tried to discuss it with him and things went downhill from there.”

  A tear rolled down my cheek and I quickly swiped it away. Kia reached across the table and grabbed my hand, gently squeezing it.

  “Thank you. You don’t know what it was like not knowing. Norman and I were very close. I thought he told me everything but I guess he decided to keep this to himself. He never let on that they were having problems.”

  Draining my glass, I stood up to leave. “I’ve got to pick up my kids. You take care of yourself, okay?”

  “You, too, and thanks again.”

  Kia didn’t get up and when I reached the door, I turned back to look at her one more time. She had her head down but I could tell that she was crying. I wanted to go back and comfort her but I was out of time.

  I considered going back inside to get her number so we could stay in touch but talked myself out of it. Lawd knows I had enough drama in my life and it would be my luck that she would turn out to be as nutty as her brother.

  “Sorry, God, not today,” I said, pulling out quickly just in case she was thinking of keeping in contact with me. I had one more hour of freedom left. I had given the center my cell phone number. So far, no one had called me. To say I didn’t want to do a drive-by was an understatement. That is why I went to Momma’s. She would keep me occupied until it was time to pick them up.