Lawd, Mo' Drama
Page 25
When my sister-in-law had dropped off Kayla and Malik last weekend, I was surprised to learn that Kentee had also attended the party. He was talking smack about getting back together with his family, and everyone believed he was sincere; especially Kayla. She came home with all this talk about what her daddy said. I was shocked that he had filled her head with empty promises.
The bottom line was he was talking shit in front of his family, but he had yet to discuss any of his plans with me. The bad news was that Kayla had given him our new unlisted phone number, and his dumb ass was using it frequently to harass me; not to discuss reconciliation. When I really thought about it, I could not blame her. So I tried to ignore the apparent pain in her eyes when she did not hear from her father when she wanted to. She expected him to be walking in the door at any moment, and that it was not happening fast enough for her, so she started making up shit.
“Mommy!” Kayla screamed as she raced down the hallway into the kitchen. “Guess what Daddy said? He’s going to be home by my birthday and he’s going to take me shopping!” Kayla jumped up and down in excitement. My blood started to boil, and I could not figure out who I was angrier with, Kentee for filling her head with bullshit, or me for not straight-out telling her that her father was full of it.
This was another aspect of child rearing that my mother had neglected to educate me about. She had never blasted my absentee father, and I was so sure that he had done some shit that would have made me mad. I found myself emulating her actions; even though my gut told me to dash that fire.
“That’s nice, honey,” I said between clenched teeth. It was a good thing Kentee was not in the room, or I would have shoved a spoon up his ass and fed him his own shit!
“I’m so happy I saw my daddy,” she said, beaming from ear-to-ear like it had happened the previous night instead of a week earlier.
“Did your daddy tell you where he’s been?” I asked sweetly, still gritting my teeth.
“He’s been away on impotent buzness,” she said with immense authority as she struggled over the large words. I fought back against saying anything about the heifer he was staying with on the other side of town or his short stint in jail.
“I told Daddy about my new school and our new house and everything. He said he wanted to see where we lived, so I showed him!” she declared.
“I’ll be damned!” I said loudly, before I could stop myself.
This was the first time that she had divulged that information. I wanted to make sure it was the truth and not make-believe.
“You showed Daddy our new house?”
“Uh huh,” she said, smiling.
“But you were over your aunt’s house, and you don’t know how to get here,” I said, shaking my head to dispel my gathering thoughts.
“Yes, I do. Auntie lives on Baker Street. That’s 24.5 miles from here; off Fairview Road.”
I was so shocked. She could have blown me over with a sneeze.
“Where did you learn that?”
“It was on the invitation,” she said with the biggest smile. Hitting myself on the head in frustration, I remember giving Kayla the invitation to play with, and it had directions to her aunt’s house with a map. To make Kayla happy, I had marked on the map where we lived so she would know how far we would have to travel to see her cousins.
My own child leaking information to the enemy wasted all the trouble I had gone through to keep where we lived a secret. I fought to keep from strangling her on the spot.
“Baby, I was trying to surprise your daddy with our new house, and you spoiled it,” I said.
Tears welled up in her eyes and dripped on her plump cheeks. Her shoulders quaked and her little hands balled into fists.
“I’m…I’m…sorry, Mommy,” she wailed.
Instantly, I felt ashamed for beating up on her; especially since I knew how sensitive she was. I was blaming her for doing what little children do; telling every damn thing they know.
I scooped her up and smothered her with a massive hug. I kissed her all over her face and neck.
“Sweetheart, it’s okay; Momma isn’t mad at you,” I said, wiping away her tears. I made a solemn vow not to use my anger at that deadbeat husband of mine against my children. Kentee would expose himself eventually without any help from me.
Kayla’s small arms were wrapped around my neck so tight that I could barely breathe. She let me go when the phone rang. Lately, she had become a phone hag, and she struggled to get free to answer it.
“Hello,” she said like she had not just been in the depths of despair.
“Oh, okay. I’ll get her,” she answered. Acting proper, she handed the phone to me. “It’s for you,” she said and skipped down the hall.
I was so stunned by her mannerisms that all I could do was shake my head.
“Hello,” I answered.
“Hey, gurl. What’s up?” Sammie said.
“Nothing, gurl, just another day in the life of Leah. What’s up with you?”
“We’ll tell you when we get there. We’re having an impromptu birthday party for you today. We know you can’t get out of the house, so we’re bringing the party to you!”
“Oh my goodness!” I exclaimed. “We?”
“My sister is coming with me. She wanted to meet you, and she suggested the party!”
Laughing, I said, “My birthday isn’t for two weeks!”
“I know, but you’re so close to Thanksgiving that we decided to do it early. Do you have plans for the evening?”
“Uh, no. When are you coming?” I asked, looking around the living room, assessing the damage.
“Open the door,” she responded. Gasping, I hung up the phone and rushed to the door. Sammie and a woman who could only be her twin stood on the doorstep. The resemblance was uncanny, and I kept looking from one to the other with my mouth hanging open.
“Damn, Sammie; it looks like you were cloned!”
Jasmine stepped forward and grabbed my neck, giving me a kiss on my cheek.
“My sister told me you were good peeps, so consider yourself a friend of mine,” Jasmine said.
They had really surprised me. Sammie pulled the door shut after they brought in the bags they had with them.
Among the things they’d bought was a big cake and I was down with that. The cake came with enough candles to burn down the White House. I was so overwhelmed by their kindness.
I could not hold back the gratitude I was feeling. A few moments earlier, I was contemplating genocide again, and now I was about to party hardy.
“Lawd Jesus! You don’t know how much I needed to see a friendly face!” I said happily.
“Where are them bad-ass children?” Sammie asked.
“Trust me; they’re not far away. I’m shocked that Kayla didn’t run her fast ass down here to see who’d come in.”
Glancing at my watch, I realized her favorite cartoon was on, so she probably didn’t even hear me open the door.
Sammie and Jasmine put down the bags, and Sammie went to the refrigerator and pulled out some ice trays to fix cocktails. Jasmine went to the phone and called Pizza Hut to order the food.
“Damn, how long have you two been planning this?”
“We decided a couple of weeks ago when we called you about joining us at the PJ party. We knew that you wouldn’t be able to skip out on the kids, so we brought the party to you!” Sammie said.
She passed out glasses to everyone, and we had a toast to the new “old ass” in the group.
“Here’s to the old, soon-to-be crippled lady in blue,” Sammie said, raising her glass.
“Look, beotches! No matter how old I get, you two cows will be older!” I snapped back.
“Oh, damn.” Jasmine laughed. “She got us on that one.” We all cracked up.
“What happened at the party?” I asked as we sat down to talk.
“It was crunk up in there!” Sammie and Jasmine said in unison. Their voices were so similar, I kept doing doubletakes to see who wa
s talking. The main difference between them was that Sammie was heavier than Jasmine. Other than that they were practically identical.
“I feel like I’m drunk and seeing double and I haven’t even tasted my drink! What is this, anyway?” I asked, holding up my glass for inspection. The drink was a pretty pink color and had a little umbrella in it.
“Cosmopolitan!” they shouted in unison, which caused us all to bust out laughing and Kayla to run down the stairs to see what was going on. She stopped short when she saw Jasmine. Her mouth dropped to form a large O, and she keep looking back and forth between Sammie and Jasmine, trying to understand what she was seeing.
“Kayla, this is Jasmine. She’s Sammie’s sister,” I said, trying not to laugh at her bewilderment.
“How come my sister don’t look like me?” Kayla asked.
“Your sister is a lot younger than you are. Give her time,” I said.
“Hi,” Kayla said, coming over to me and burying her face in my chest. She could be shy at times around strangers.
“Gurl, if you don’t get your narrow behind over here and give me a kiss, I’ll have to take back the present Ms. Jasmine and I bought you.”
“Present!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands and jumping up and down. “Gimme, gimme!”
“Kayla! You know better than that,” I said firmly.
“Sorry,” she said, hiding her face but peeking nevertheless.
“I’m still waiting on my hug,” Sammie said.
Kayla shuffled over to Sammie and gave her a big hug. Jasmine held out her arms to be hugged as well, and reluctantly she hugged her also. From behind her back Jasmine produced a bag that held stuffed toys for all three of the children.
“Give one to your brother and the other to your sister, okay?” Jasmine asked.
“Okay,” she said, turning to leave.
“Excuse me, missy,” I said.
“Thank you,” she said and took off running down the hall.
“We’ve got something for the birthday girl, too.” I started bouncing up and down, clapping my hands.
“Gimme, gimme!” I exclaimed and we all busted out laughing.
“Leah, I know your momma taught you better than that!” Sammie shouted as she handed me a flat envelope. The envelope contained a gift certificate to Xceptional Designs, a full-scale beauty salon. It entitled me to a full day of beauty.
“Oh my goodness! I can’t thank you two enough,” I said.
“Thank Jasmine. You know I’m the broke bitch!” Sammie said.
“But the thought was there, and I don’t have the words to say how much this means to me. I was sitting here feeling sorry for myself before ya’ll called. This is what I needed!” My voice was cracking.
Sammie looked at me, surely noticing the stress lines around my eyes and the unnatural slump of my shoulders.
“What’s wrong, boo?” Sammie asked.
“Men!” I responded, taking a huge gulp of my drink. “You can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them!”
“I second that,” Jasmine said.
“Where is the fine-ass Coy?” Sammie asked.
“Beats the shit out of me! We had this perfect date and bam, now he’s MI-A!”
“M-I-A?” Jasmine asked.
“Missing in Action,” Sammie and I shouted as one.
“When was the last time you talked to him?” Jasmine asked.
“Six days, two hours, and forty-three minutes,” I said, sighing. “He spent the night after our last date, but he couldn’t get it up, and when I woke up, he was gone.”
“Do you think he’s embarrassed?” Sammie asked.
“At first I did, but he was acting funny way before that. I had to practically beg him to come in when he dropped me off.”
“That is strange, ’cause the nigga was sure feeling you! I tried to get his attention and he totally ignored me!”
Draining my glass, I held it up for a refill. Jasmine jumped up to refresh all of our drinks.
“I like her,” I whispered to Sammie.
“Yeah, me too!” she responded with a bigger smile.
“So, what’s up with Greg? You two been kicking it?”
“Gurl, the nigga is sprung! He calls me fifteen times a day. He’s starting to get on my last nerve,” Sammie said.
“Girl, he was really tripping when he saw Buddy trying to cut in on his action,” Jasmine said, retaking her seat.
“Who the hell is Buddy?” I asked.
“The DJ from the evening show on V-103. I introduced him to Sammie, and he’s been running around trying to sniff her dirty drawers.”
“Is he cute?” I asked.
“He’s alright,” they answered again as one.
“Look, ya’ll are going to have to stop that Doublemint shit. It’s hard enough watching you without ya’ll speaking in unison!”
“Sorry. I like the way he rolls. Top of the line, all the way, and he don’t mind sharing, if you know what I mean,” Sammie said, winking.
“Must be nice,” I said, feeling jealous. I was at the age where I should have been partying and having fun but my life was not turning out that way.
“Oh, shit; I forgot to tell you the latest shit! Sammie, you know I took Kayla and Malik over to my sister-in-law’s last week when Coy and I went out. Kentee was there. Kayla told her father we moved, gave him our phone number, and showed him where we live!”
“Damn! Has he called you?” Sammie asked.
“Hell yea; talking shit! He told Kayla he was coming back home. Can you believe that shit?”
“Yeah, like bad pennies, their bad asses always show back up. You can walk through a parking lot and never find a dollar but bad pennies are everywhere!”
“You still didn’t tell me about the party!” I said.
“Oh, the party,” they said, standing up and slapping each other five.
“You missed the throw down of a lifetime!” Sammie continued. “They got buck wild at the PJ party, and it almost turned into a big freak-fest! Those people would’ve been screwing on the floor if it wasn’t for security.”
“Damn, and I had to miss it!” I said, feeling sorry for myself once again; even in the company of friends.
“Hey, do you think you can arrange for a sitter for next Friday?” Jasmine asked.
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Porsche Fox, from the radio station, is having her birthday party for all the Sagittarians. You’re a Sagittarian, and I can get you on her VIP list,” she said.
“I don’t want to go alone.”
“We’ll go with you, silly, and if you can’t arrange a sitter, you and Sammie can go, and I will watch the kids.”
“Gurl, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Mya can be a real handful!” I said. As if on cue, Mya chose that moment to act out. Jumping up, I raced down the hall to my room, where she had been previously playing. Jasmine and Sammie were quick on my heels.
Mya was laid out on her back on the floor. Her hands were clenched, and she was beating her head on the floor and screaming at the top of her lungs. The pencil she had been drawing with had broken, so I surmised that it was the reason for her little outburst. I snatched her by the shoulders, trying to keep her head from hitting the floor anymore, and tried to rock her into the quiet mode.
I looked up at Jasmine, and saw the same horror in her face that I felt every time Mya acted like that. This fit clearly showed Jasmine that she didn’t realize what she was trying to sign up for.
“Sammie, take Jasmine to meet Malik. He’s in his room upstairs.”
“Sure,” Sammie replied, pushing Jasmine out of the room despite her obvious desire to stay.
“Damn, how often does that happen?” Jasmine said.
“This one was mild,” Sammie replied as they stood outside my bedroom door, trying to talk low so I could not hear them but I heard every single word.
“And no one knows what triggers this?” Jasmine asked.
“Not so far. Lucki
ly for Leah, she recently enrolled then in a new center that seems to care enough to try to find out what’s really going on inside Mya’s head.”
“She’s such a pretty little girl,” Jasmine said.
“Yes, she is and, on a good day, she’s so sweet! But it’s like something is going on in her head that only she can hear,” Sammie said.
I heard them finally make it to the steps and head up to Malik’s room. I went out into the hallway to see if I could make out the rest of their conversation. My house had some thin-ass walls and voices carried well.
Sammie paused in front of Malik’s room and knocked as Kayla came down the hall. She must have still had all three stuffed animals still in her arms because Sammie asked, “Kayla, why didn’t you give your brother and sister their toys?”
“I was about to,” she said, obviously not happy about being caught acting selfishly.
By that time, I was at the bottom of the steps, watching as well as listening.
“Good, you can give Malik’s to him now!” Sammie said.
She marched into Malik’s room without knocking and must have thrown the stuffed football player at his head.
“Stop it,” Malik whined as if he had not experienced that type of behavior from his sister before.
“Hey, Malik,” Sammie said, trying to stop the fight before it happened. I was glad because I had enough to deal with downstairs without having to run interference between my other two children.
“This is my sister, Jasmine. She bought you the stuffed animal.”
Malik came out into the hallway to give Sammie a hug and then also hugged Jasmine. “Thank you,” he said with his head bowed, not bothering to look at either one of them. They went into his room to look at some of his drawings while I returned to Mya in my room.
The festive mood we tried to create was gone as we gathered in the living room. I was sure the stress was evident on my face.
After several unsuccessful attempts to start up a conversation with either Jasmine or Sammie, I gave up and suggested that we call it a night.
“Look, ya’ll, it’s getting late and I spent the better part of my morning getting ready for work. Please don’t be mad at me for cutting the party short. And thanks so much; you two really made my night,” I said, genuinely smiling; even though I felt like crying.