Lawd, Mo' Drama

by McKinney, Tina Brooks

  Our eyes locked as we rode that wave together. Then, satisfied, we disengaged. He gave me a towel that he had in his desk drawer and I wiped up the excess that dripped from my pussy as he gave me this “and you know this” grin. The phone stopped me from acknowledging his prowess. He gave me another look that said, “Aren’t you going to get that?”

  I snatched up the phone, suddenly feeling very ashamed of myself. I listened for a few seconds and placed the caller on hold.

  “Your wife is on line one,” I said, giving him the evil eye as I climbed off his desk. I closed the door behind me, but it was loud enough to let him know I didn’t appreciate the way he had treated me. His face was beet red, and his eyes would not meet mine.

  LEAH

  “Thank God it’s Friday!” I screamed when I got inside my car. It had been a long week, and I was looking forward to some down time. The twins were getting along well at the day care center, Kayla has adjusted to being away from her siblings while she was in school and I had Craig Richmond to thank. At lunch today, I had bought him a card telling him just how much I appreciated the extra care he was giving Mya.

  Every night for the past two months when I picked the children up, I always found Mya in his office. For the first time in her life, she seemed content. Her behavior had even improved at home, and I was beginning to feel like a normal life was achievable for us.

  I hadn’t heard any more from Coy about Kentee; except a brief message on my answering machine earlier that day stating that he was out on bond. It was a good thing my number had been changed, and we had moved from what I now deemed “his house.” Since Kentee lived on the other side of town with his girlfriend, I felt confident I would not run into him or his family during the course of our daily lives.

  As a getaway, Coy had invited me to take a trip with him the following day and I had already cleared it with Momma to watch the kids. I was starting to feel like a young adult; instead of an indentured slave. I pulled into the day care center full of inner joy, and I was looking forward to a quiet night with the kids.

  The center was quiet for a Friday and, as I was accustomed to doing, I stopped by Craig’s office first to collect Mya, but the door was shut. Hesitating for a few minutes, I knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” Craig said, and I could not help but smile. God had really delivered blessings to my family lately. My smile quickly disappeared when I walked into his office and noticed his somber face.

  “Oh, Lord,” I said as my entire body started to shake. I’d had this nagging fear that something was wrong all day but had refused to entertain the thought.

  “Leah, please sit down,” he said, rising out of his chair.

  “What happened?” I asked, unable to contain the fear racing through my blood.

  “Mya had a rough afternoon,” he said.

  Frantic, I looked around his office for my daughter. I had deluded myself into thinking my troubles with Mya were over since she seemed to be doing so well at the center.

  “Where is she?” My voice rose along with my anxiety level.

  “She’s resting right now. She sure has a lot of fight in her,” he said, rubbing his jaw.

  “Why didn’t you call me?” I asked, wanting to get pissed at someone, and it didn’t really matter who.

  “It happened about an hour ago. She was having a really good day until then. She actually played with the other children and even napped when they did. Normally, I take her out of the class at naptime because she’s too wired to nap with the other children.”

  When I didn’t respond, he continued.

  “I usually take her to the observation wing with me, and she stays there or in here until you come to get her.”

  “I knew she was spending a lot of time with you, but I didn’t realize just how much.”

  “I don’t mind at all. While she plays, I work on whatever I have going at the moment. Have you seen her drawings?”

  “Her what?” I asked, like he was talking French or some other foreign language.

  “Her drawings. That’s what she does when she’s with me.”

  He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out ten pictures that Mya had drawn. She was no Michelangelo but she did have talent. I had never given her a crayon before because I didn’t want her writing on the walls.

  “Mya did this?”

  “Yeah, she did. Most of them were done the first day she was here but she does at least one a day for me.”

  Craig smiled as I reviewed each picture in awe. If he hadn’t told me Mya had drawn them, I would have sworn they were drawn by a child at least ten years old instead of two. There was so much attention to detail. She had even drawn our family, minus her father, and that picture made my heart ache.

  “What happened today?” I asked when I could finally tear my eyes away from the pictures.

  “To be honest, I don’t know. When I went to get her at naptime, she was already asleep. I saw no need to wake her, so I instructed Beverly, the teacher, to call me when she woke up. Since she never napped with the other students, I wanted to be there. Beverly got busy with the other students and, before she knew it, Mya was up.”

  “I can’t take this; tell me what happened,” I cried to him.

  “I’ll have to let Beverly tell you. I wasn’t in the room, so anything I could tell you would be hearsay.” He punched two digits into the phone. “Ms. Simmons is here. Can you get someone to sit with the kids and come into my office?”

  “Right away, Mr. Richmond,” she said over the speaker, then hung up.

  Craig tried to be reassuring. “Leah, calm down. We both knew this wasn’t going to be easy.”

  “Are you giving up on Mya?” I asked, giving voice to my worst fear.

  “Of course not, I’ve grown attached to those kids; especially Mya. I can’t turn my back because we’ve hit a bump in the road. If I was that kind of man, I wouldn’t have started this center in the first place.” He reached across the table to squeeze my clenched hands. He drew back his hand when his office door opened and Beverly entered.

  “Hi, Ms. Simmons,” she said as she took the other vacant chair in the office.

  “Please, call me Leah,” I said, trying to diffuse the tension in the air.

  “Please tell Ms. Simmons what happened when Mya woke up from her nap,” Craig said with a smile.

  “She woke up screaming. She was one of the last ones to wake, and it took me a moment to get to her. By the time I did, she had scratched up her face pretty good and was banging her head against the floor. It shocked me because she was sleeping so well,” she said, wringing her own hands in torment.

  I gave her hand an understanding pat. Mya’s outbreaks often took me off guard as well, and she was my child. I understood how quickly Mya could change from sugar to shit.

  “She banged her head quiet a few times before I could restrain her and all the other kids were in hysterics. Mr. Richmond was finally able to get her to stop,” she said, nodding her head at Craig for approval.

  “Thanks, Beverly. I can take it from here,” he said, dismissing her.

  She got up from her seat and left the room, but not without saying, “I’m sorry.”

  “There is one more thing I would like to discuss before you go see to Mya. I got the results from her hearing test today and it confirmed my suspicions that Mya is not hearing as she should be. Our doctors recommend that she be fitted for a hearing aid.” Craig handed me the results and I scanned the pages but I could not concentrate on the words.

  I rose from my chair. “I need to see Mya.”

  “Of course, but we need to plan a course of action.”

  I sat back down. “Course of action?”

  “Yes, there’s something else going on that we’re not aware of and we need to address it as soon as possible.”

  “Hell, I could’ve told you that! I’ve taken her to every doctor I could think of—at least the ones I could afford—and they aren’t telling me anything. If you have some mir
acle up your sleeve, by all means, tell me!”

  “I know what you mean. When my son was sick we took him to doctor after doctor and they couldn’t tell us what was wrong until it was too late. I don’t want to wait this one out. Your daughter’s very special. I want to take her to the doctor my son saw for an assessment. We can’t afford to wait on our doctors to get back to us.”

  “A specialist? I can’t afford it!” I said, wanting to call the words back but facing the hard reality of my life.

  “Leah, you have insurance now. They’ll pay for it. If they don’t, I will. I’m still waiting for our doctor’s assessment of Mya. Just give me permission to set it up and I’ll handle the rest. The only thing I need from you is a permission slip to take her to the specialist and an authorization for the testing.”

  “Will they hurt her?”

  “No, of course not. Don’t forget I love that little lady also,” he replied with another smile that was beginning to melt my heart.

  “Where do I sign?” I asked, relieved I was no longer alone in the situation.

  Craig gave me all the paperwork and told me to bring it back on Monday. I went to get the kids and I cringed when I saw Mya’s face. I knew how brutal she could be to herself but it did not lessen the shock or the anguish I felt when I saw her.

  “Oh, baby,” I said, gathering up her tiny body in my arms and taking her to the car. I vowed before God, I would do anything He wanted if He would just protect my baby from herself.

  “Good night, Leah. We’ll see you all on Monday,” Craig said. “If you need anything over the weekend, here’s my number. Just give me a call,” he said, handing me his business card with a personal number scribbled on the back.

  “Thank you,” I said, leading the other kids to the car.

  SAMMIE

  Work was a struggle that day and I didn’t want to deal with it. I had toyed with the idea of calling in but, since I had recently received a promotion, it would have been a bad idea. So, I kept to myself, did my job and, when the day was over, I did the happy dance all the way to the car. Conveniently enough, the boss man didn’t show up. He was probably as ashamed of his behavior as I was of mine.

  Pulling out my cell phone, I decided to hit Jasmine up to see what she had planned for the evening. Eyeing my phone, I was surprised to see that I had a message. I was anal about my phone and refused to turn it off during the day; even though it was against company policy. Instead, I kept it on vibrate, stuffed it in my bra, but I had forgotten to put it on vibrate that day. I hit the button to hear the recorded message. It was from Greg and my heart could not make up its mind whether it wanted to gallop full speed ahead or stop altogether.

  “Hey, gurl, how was your day? I was just checking in to see what you’ve got planned for the weekend and to make sure everything is going well. Hit me back when you get the chance. I get off at six.”

  Stalling, I called Jasmine first to see what she had going on.

  “Hey, sis,” she said, answering the phone.

  “What’s up?” I asked, smiling at her greeting. I was getting used to having a sister around and I felt like she enjoyed it as well.

  “Just chilling,” she replied.

  “You hanging tonight?” I asked, hoping that she would have some time to spend with me. If she was busy, I would end up calling Greg and I knew what time that would be. Not that Greg was a bad lay; I just didn’t want to encourage a relationship with him when we were strictly about fucking.

  “I really haven’t made up my mind yet. What do you have in mind?”

  “I was hoping you’d want to go out and party a little. I heard on the radio that Frank Ski is having his five-year anniversary party at different clubs all over the city. We could hit a few and get our groove on.” I snapped my fingers to the imaginary music in my head.

  “Hey, I also heard about that. I’m down. We have to get there early. On the radio, they said to come right after work. How quickly can you get ready?”

  “I’m almost home. I need to take a bird bath and throw on my clothes.”

  “What does that mean? How long?”

  “One hour, tops!”

  “Cool, I’ll pick you up.”

  I raced into my apartment and started tearing through my closet looking for something to wear. My choices were limited and I was disgusted. I opted not to bathe, and dashed back out to the mall to pick up a little sumthing, sumthing. Since my hair was still in braids, I didn’t have to fool with it. Throwing on a wraparound dress and stuffing some shoes in a bag, I raced out of the house in less than fifteen minutes.

  I had acquired my gift of shopping from Marie. She was the only woman I knew who could visit the mall on her lunch hour and come back with ten outfits. I couldn’t pick mine out nearly as fast but I was getting better.

  On the way to the mall, I called Leah to see if Greg had blabbed his mouth to her new friend. She answered the phone sounding very depressed.

  “Aw damn, gurl, you sound like someone just ran over your dildo with a cement truck!” I said.

  “Gurl, if I wasn’t so depressed that would be funny. Plus, Negro, I’m mad at you. I ain’t heard from your ass in over a month. What’s up with that?” she said, not even pretending to be amused.

  “What’s wrong, boo? Is Coy acting the fool?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

  “Naw, it’s not Coy. It’s Mya. I thought she was doing so much better since she started at the center but she had one of her fits today and it threw me for a loop. She’s been doing really well and I thought the dumb stuff was behind us!”

  “Damn, since you haven’t mentioned anything else about her, I assumed she was adapting well.”

  “Negro, please! I ain’t talked to your ass!”

  “Anyway,” I replied with attitude.

  “Craig, the director, said she had a great day but when she woke up from her nap, she started scratching herself and banging her head on the floor. She looks terrible, Sammie. Her head is all swollen and her lips are cracked.”

  “Wow! There is one consolation that comes out of this,” I said.

  “What’s that?” she asked, clearly not able to see any saving grace out of her daughter’s trying to take out her own face.

  “She did it in front of witnesses who can testify, if necessary, that you’re not abusing your child!”

  “You know, you’re right but it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. She’s resting now.”

  “I’m headed to the mall to get a little sumthing to wear to the club. Jasmine and I are hanging with Frank Ski and his morning show crew.”

  “Sounds like fun. I wish I could come. Hell, if anyone needs to let their hair down, it’s me!”

  “I know that’s right! Why don’t you ask your mother to watch the kids?”

  “She’s watching them tomorrow. Coy’s taking me on an all-day outing.”

  “Oh, this sounds serious. Where are you two going?” I asked, pulling into the parking lot at the mall.

  “Don’t know; it’s a surprise. Hell anywhere will be different for me. I rarely have a chance to interact with adults outside of work and talking with you and Momma.”

  “Lawd, I’m so happy those days are over for me!”

  She killed my mood. “So what’s up with you and Greg?”

  “Why? What did he say?” I asked, feeling scared. I didn’t want Leah to know about the graveyard.

  “Hey, I haven’t spoken to him.” I could see her holding her hands up in the air.

  “Oh, I thought maybe Coy talked to him and told you something. Look, I’m at the mall so I’ve gotta dash. I have forty minutes to find an outfit and make it back to the house. Jasmine is picking me up.”

  “Ya’ll two are doing the damn thing, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, gurl, and it feels good! Talk to you later.”

  Clicking off the phone, I raced to the little hoochie boutique that carried plus sizes. After flinging several dresses to the side, I found a short, pink spandex dre
ss that would go well with the black sandals I had brought with me. The dress had a halter top cut low in the front, and even lower in the back. I wouldn’t be able to wear a bra, but I was not bothered. Despite my size, I frequently went braless. The dress had a split up the back that stopped dangerously close to the bottom of my butt cheeks, and I had to have it.

  The price almost made me put it back on the rack but, as I admired myself in the mirror, I realized I would be wearing it when I left the mall.

  I had exactly fifteen minutes to get back to my house before Jasmine arrived. I quickly charged the dress and strutted out of the mall, ignoring the stares.

  In the car, I pulled out my cell phone again and dialed Greg’s saved number. He answered on the first ring like he was holding his phone in his hands.

  “Hi, it’s Sammie. Is this a bad time?”

  “No, ah, I was about to uh, make a call. Yeah, make a call,” he stumbled, trying to convince himself into a lie.

  “Oh, want me to try you later?”

  “Naw, I’m cool. What’s up?”

  “I’m about to hang out with my sister. We’re going to celebrate Frank Ski’s anniversary.”

  “Oh. I was kind of hoping we could hang out tonight,” he said, clearly dejected.

  “Sorry, boo. Why don’t you run by the club? We’re hitting Visions for happy hour; then we’ll following the crowd until we get tired.”

  “After thinking for a few seconds, Greg said, “No, I don’t think so. I have a lot of things I need to do in the morning.”

  “Dang, you’re going to miss me in this sexy ass dress!” I sighed. All my assets were hanging out, and I wanted him to see me.

  He suddenly grew interested. “Is it hot?”

  “Like an oven baking biscuits!” I smoothed out the wrinkles that formed as I sat down.

  “What time will you be there?” I could envision the drool coming out of his mouth.

  “My sister is picking me up in about ten minutes, so we should be there in about an hour.”