Synergy

by Georgia Payne

  “Just my sons dad, he didn’t pick him up this weekend.”

  “Oh, that’s sad. Who’s looking after him?” Joy asked.

  “My mom. She was just asking when I was back.”

  “Running her ragged already?” Joy joked.

  “No, my baby’s so good.”

  “How old is he?”

  “He’s 2. Almost 3.”

  “Awww. What’s his name?”

  “Tushaun.”

  “Tushaun” Joy repeated before breaking into a smile. “Must be lovely to have one that young.”

  “He’s amazing” Dee gushed, and Joy smiled as she saw her face transform. All mothers are biased towards their children but still, Joy could tell how much she meant it.

  While Joy didn’t know a lot about Dee as a person or who she was other than her son’s girlfriend, the way she spoke about her child made her feel reassured that she was going to be a good mother to her son’s child. It was something she had been thinking about ever since Jason told her he was about to be a father. Knowing he was away a lot for work, she wanted to feel reassured that the child would be well looked after. She wanted to know that she could see her grandchild whenever she wanted, not necessarily only when her son was around. Sometimes she’d worried that she would never get the chance to have grandchildren of her own based on Jason’s hectic lifestyle. He was committed to his career and he’d never chosen anything over it. While Joy was proud of her son and all his accomplishments, part of her wanted to see him be a ‘normal’ man, and have the things that other men his age have. She wondered whether this would be a turning point for him, whether he would take a step back from his craft to be a family man, but something told her he wouldn’t. She knew her son better than anybody else, and she knew he would more than likely try to fit everything in, make everybody happy.

  Joy could tell Dee wasn’t raised the way her son was raised, there was a clear class division just by what Jason had told her about where Dee lived, and the way she spoke sometimes, but she didn’t judge her for it. She knew not everybody could be lucky enough to make it out of a difficult place, and Joy had struggled when her son was little. She struggled to pay the bills, to put food on the table, and she practically bankrupted herself to send her son to all the things he wanted to do, singing lessons and acting lessons, theatre and singing groups. He was an ambitious child and she never had the heart to tell him they couldn’t afford it, so somehow she scrimped and scraped the money together. She was lucky to have a husband that worked, and once Jason was old enough and at school, she got herself a job too. She didn’t look down on anybody because they didn’t have money or nice things, she had been there herself, maybe not to the same degree as some, but she understood. Joy had always prided herself on judging people accurately, and she could always tell when somebody had a good heart. Dee did.

  The rest of the day was spent in the garden until it was time to get ready. Dee and Joy of course thought that time came around a lot sooner than the men did. Dee still found it weird getting ready for the night without having a drink, or at least a smoke. She loved smoking weed because she felt it brought her back down to earth. Whenever she was stressed, angry or nervous, she smoked and she felt relaxed. Weed was a good way to start the day, to clear her head. It was a good end to the day, to relax. She loved it at all moments for different reasons, and while she wouldn’t consciously smoke while she was pregnant, she did miss it a lot. While a lot of people believed weed wasn’t addictive, including Dee herself, she had to admit she did feel like it was a necessity in her life. She wasn’t sure what she would do if she didn’t have weed at times.

  Drug use and alcohol was never really something that caused a lot of controversy where Dee was from. It was pretty much the norm for people to smoke weed and drink, sizzurp being a drink of choice for a lot of people her age right now at parties. She’d drank it, she couldn’t lie. Her mother had struggled with a drug addiction herself as she was growing up, and she smoked weed alongside her heavier stuff. When her mother finally did give up the drugs, she continued to smoke weed. In fact, Monique was the one who introduced Dee to her first drag at thirteen. Her mom’s logic was that if Dee was going to smoke it anyway, she would rather she was open about it and did it safely at home rather than smoking something she was unfamiliar with. Detroit as a city was struggling with homelessness more as the years progressed, a lot of people addicted to drugs and out of work. Dee thanked her lucky stars everyday that she had a roof over her head, regardless of how bad it may be.

  As she got ready, Dee couldn’t help reality check herself of where she was going, and where she’d come from. She knew people probably wouldn’t believe her if she’d told them this stripper from Detroit was going to an album launch party of a famous singer, never mind the fact the famous singer was her new boyfriend, as well as her baby’s father. She still didn’t know what Jason saw in her, but she tried not to think about it too much, knowing it would probably drive her crazy. She’d never been to something as big as this, and she was nervous about what to expect. She didn’t know if she’d have to take photos, or answer questions. Would people really want to speak to her? What would they ask her about? She didn’t know if there were things Jason didn’t want her to speak about, or things she shouldn’t say. She figured she’d probably have to be on her best behaviour, making sure she kept it classy and not hood, and kept the cussing inside her head. She knew it wasn’t the time to be showing out and being ghetto.

  Though Dee knew she had to go now, she felt a fight or flight response brewing inside, and everything in her wanted to choose flight – a flight back home to see her son and her family. She tried telling herself it was only one night, a few hours at most, but she couldn’t lie, she wasn’t looking forward to it. As she finished the last of her makeup, she looked at herself in the mirror one last time, turning around to see her butt in her dress. She thought it was hard to stay classy when she had a butt as big as hers. Dresses were constantly riding up because of it, so something that would have looked classy on somebody else looked short and sexy on her. As she looked herself up and down, she failed to notice Joy coming into the room, till she spoke and made her jump slightly.

  “Don’t you look lovely” Joy admired, and Dee found herself blushing slightly, something that she never did.

  “Thankyou. You too.”

  “Oh, this old thing” Joy joked. She was wearing a white dress, down to the knee, paired with some silver strappy heels. She looked good for a woman of her age, Dee had to admit. Even though she was taller than her, Joy now appeared shorter as Dee’s heels gave her the extra height to stand above her. She didn’t worry about being pregnant with heels, practically everybody she knew was still wearing stilettos near their due date.

  Jason and his stepdad Paul were waiting downstairs for the women to finish getting ready, having already opened a beer or two while they waited. As Dee and Joy made their way downstairs, they could hear laughing and joking coming from the men, they sounded jovial. As the women entered the room, Dee following behind Joy, their laughter stopped, and instead, they admired the women as they came through the door.

  “Very nice” Paul commented, kissing his wife on the cheek lovingly, before he handed her a glass of wine he’d already poured for her arrival.

  “Wow” was all Jason could manage as he watched Dee enter the room, before Joy stepped in.

  “Doesn’t she look lovely, boys?”

  “Great” Paul chimed in, taking a sip of his beer.

  “You look beautiful.” Jason said, resting his hand on the small of her back as she stood next to him. He rubbed his thumb over her back caringly as he took a sip of his beer. He felt himself blush a little bit after he spoke realising his parents were listening and probably could tell how smitten he was with Dee; they always knew exactly how he felt.

  Chapter 26 – Twins

  “How does it feel to have a boyfriend so famous? Where did you grow up? Do you like the album? Where did you tw
o meet? When’s the baby due? Is it a boy or a girl?” It felt like the questions from reporters, photographers and the like just kept on coming, with no break. The flashing lights from the cameras was something Dee wasn’t used to, and every time she blinked, she saw little bright spots. Just when she thought she’d regained her sight, another one would go off inches from her face and she’d have the struggle again, all the while questions were being thrown left, right and centre. Some had more calming, down to earth voices, while others were rough and ready, and didn’t even give her chance to answer before they followed with something else. There were definitely a fair few that Dee wanted to punch, but she had to keep herself composed not only for the sake of Jason and his family, but for her own reputation.

  The party itself wasn’t bad and Dee’s only disappointment was that there was a free bar she couldn’t take advantage of. However, there was also free food so it wasn’t all bad. She never passed up free food; it was almost ingrained into her that that was something you just don’t do. Back when she was a child, her mother couldn’t always afford snacks or treats, so whenever an opportunity presented itself, you took it.

  While everyone was in high spirits, no one was sloppy drunk or wild, and she couldn’t help but think it was like no party she’d ever been to. A party wasn’t a party in Detroit unless someone was being sick. For the beginning of the night, Jason stayed close beside Dee, showing her off like she was a trophy to anybody that came into close proximity, but by the middle, he was nowhere to be seen. She tried to remember this was his career, and she knew he probably had to keep up appearances, make everybody happy, but she couldn’t help but feel a little pissed off. She was never really left alone since Joy or Paul always stayed close, or at one point, when they were whisked off somewhere, Tom was on hand to talk to her.

  While she didn’t have anything against Tom personally, she felt there was something between them, stopping them from getting along. Part of her thought he probably didn’t approve of her as a partner to his friend, but Dee had never been concerned with what people thought about her. She knew if he admitted he had a problem, she could confidently tell him where to stick his opinion. There was nothing particularly that he’d said or done, but she found they quite often had awkward silences, like there was nothing to say. Something was off about the guy, and she couldn’t put her finger on it, still, she put up with him.

  Dee had got to listen to songs from Jason’s new album, which was playing during the event. She thought it was weird to hear him sing and remember that was a voice she’d heard for years, never paying much attention, and not even realising he was who he was when they met. Towards the end of the night, when everybody was a little merry, including Jason, he took to the stage to thank everyone for the support and coming out, before he performed one of his well known songs for everybody. Everybody was dancing and cheering, and generally in awe of him, again, something that was weird to watch from Dee’s perspective. She felt almost as if she were in awe of him too as she watched, though she would never say it out loud. She’d never been a feelings type person, she found it hard to give compliments or even take them for that matter. The night overall wasn’t bad, though she was happy when it was time to leave. She knew tomorrow she could wake up and get a plane back home to see her son, who she was missing already; she’d never been so far away from him.

  Dee thought about the arrival of the new baby, and everything that Jason had been offering over the months. The offer of a new home and money was something that was hard to think about. She was a proud person and she would never in a million years think about taking money off someone, though currently paying the bills was starting to become difficult with not working at the club. In a regular job, she would get maternity pay for the last few months, and she’d be able to work pretty much until she dropped she imagined if she was in an office or something, but working as a stripper was different.

  What many people didn't realise about that type of job is that most strippers aren’t employed by the club as such, they’re self employed ‘independent contractors’, meaning Dee actually paid money to the club to dance there. Any tips she earned she kept, and that was her wage, so when she became pregnant, the club didn’t have to fire her, though they would have asked her not to come back till after she’d had the baby should she not have left of her own accord. Maternity pay wasn’t in the equation. It wasn’t an ideal situation to be in, but with no high school certificate, jobs were hard to come by, and people in her area did what they could to survive. Every day was a new hustle and challenge.

  Dee knew she was lucky to have met someone like Jason who had money, because it meant the expensive baby things were all paid for by him, meaning she didn’t have to rely on handouts and help for those too. She’d kept some of Tushaun’s old things just in case she ever had another baby, and while she was happy to use those, Jason had insisted she buy new ones anyway, feeling it was his duty to help her out with things like that.

  It was late by the time they’d all got back to Joy and Paul’s home, and they were all ready to head straight to bed, which they did. They were all evidently in high spirits, and it was nice to go to bed on such a high. Dee could see a sparkle in Jason that she hadn’t seen before, which she could tell was from his love of music and his industry. She thought it must be nice to do something you truly loved and enjoyed and get paid for it, a total win-win situation. They chatted idly as they got ready for bed, Dee changing into a pair of comfortable pyjamas and taking off her makeup in the en-suite bathroom mirror. She left the door open as she wiped her face, and Jason watched her from inside the bed covers. He yawned as he flicked through the TV channels with the remote. He’d learnt just from a few short months with Dee that she liked to fall asleep with the TV on, the background noise helped soothe her to sleep. She told him that sleeping in silence was impossible, because her mind worked on overdrive.

  Evidently, there was nothing decent on at this time of night, so eventually he just stopped flicking and left it on whatever was on. He knew they probably wouldn’t watch it anyway, and that it was only there for the background noise, so he put the remote to one side and shuffled lower in the covers, turning on his side to see the TV. A small child was screaming in a supermarket, and a mother looked utterly embarrassed as she tried to peel him off the floor. In the background, Supernanny stood to one side and shook her head. Jason chuckled lightly; he didn’t mind a bit of Supernanny. Dee soon finished up in the bathroom and turned off the light before joining him in bed. She shuffled down into the covers and turned onto her side too, as the pair watched the show silently for a minute.

  “How come these parents don’t do shit when their kid’s bad” Dee questioned. “You the damn parent, you letting ‘em rule!”

  “I guess not everyone’s cut out to be a parent” Jason observed, as Supernanny took the parent to one side, and started to explain the procedure for dealing with the boy’s bad behaviour.

  “On another note...” Jason started, as he remembered his grandmother’s words the day before.

  “We should start thinking about names”

  “I know” Dee agreed. “That’s the hardest part”

  “You got any ideas?” Jason asked her.

  “Um...I like Devon, for a boy. Or Darrell, or Tiann.”

  “Darrell’s not too bad. I always liked Olivia for a girl.”

  “Mmm, I don’t know”

  “Or Nora.”

  “We ain’t calling her Nora, that’s like an old woman”

  Jason chuckled. “An old woman?”

  “Yeah, it’s like Margaret or something”

  “No it isn’t!”

  “What about....Zavier for a boy?”

  “You think it’ll be a boy?” Jason asked.

  “Yeah, I don’t know why.”

  The two of them went silent for a minute, thinking in their own heads for more names as they continued watching Supernanny on the screen intermittently. The little boy on the screen was now t
alking to the cameras, and his name appeared underneath in a caption.

  “Rio” Jason read the little boy’s name aloud from the screen, and as his brain registered it, he repeated it again.

  “What about Rio?”

  “Rio” Dee repeated, almost in a whisper, and before Jason had prepared himself for her answer, she rolled over in the bed and faced him, a smile on her face. It was a strange look, because though she was smiling, Jason could see there was pain hidden there too.

  “Let’s call him Rio” she said, and at that, her eye’s began to fill up with tears, something Jason hadn’t seen very often. Every time he had seen her emotional, she’d managed to avert the tears, remove them almost as if they never existed. This time, one fell effortlessly from her face before she wiped them away. Her face still showed a bittersweet look; her mouth was curled and smiling but her eyes showed the pain.

  “Hey, what’s wrong?” Jason asked, smiling at her encouragingly, hoping she would confide in him about whatever had made her emotional. He knew pregnant women could get over-emotional, and while he was prepared for her to laugh it off, something in him thought it was more than that.

  “I had a brother called Mario” she started, sniffling. “We used to call him Rio.”

  Jason listened intently and his heart pulled in his chest at her words. Used to, he thought, past tense. She’d never mentioned another brother before, and he wondered why she’d never said anything. Was he young? Was he ill? Or was it an accident?

  “What happened?” Jason asked, rubbing her arm affectionately under the covers. He didn’t want to pry or make her upset, but he needed to know.

  “He was killed in a shoot out when he was thirteen.”

  “How old were you?”

  “Nine.”

  Jason watched her sympathetically, his heart wrenched as he saw the pain before her eyes. He couldn’t imagine how horrible that must have been.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t imagine how hard that was.”