Lessons Learned

by Earl Sewell

  “Where have you been, Mike?” he asked.

  “What? I just came home from school,” I said.

  “Don’t play with me. School let out over an hour ago and you live less than a block away.”

  I sighed and rolled my eyes a little as I tried to think of a lie. “I stayed after school to do some extra-credit homework,” I said but I could tell he didn’t believe me. “Why are you always on my back?”

  “I wouldn’t be on your back if you weren’t acting so strange. What’s gotten into you? Is there something going on?”

  “Nothing, man,” I said and was about to head up to my bedroom.

  “My name isn’t ‘Man.’ It’s ‘Jordan.’” I stopped and stared him in the eye. He must’ve thought that I was afraid of him, but at that moment I wasn’t. Over the course of the football season, I’d put on a lot of muscle and I’d grown slightly taller than him. I was younger, stronger and felt as if I could take on anyone who tried to harm me and that included Jordan.

  “You just remember that you are to come directly home from school everyday until further notice.” Jordan used his index finger to thud and jab me in my chest. “Remember that you’re grounded for that stunt your pulled last night.”

  “All right, you’ve made your point,” I said as I backed away from him.

  “You just remember this. Every move you make and every breath you take—I’m watching you.”

  “Can I go up to my room now?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he said, and I quickly turned and sprinted up the stairs. I hated the fact that he was taking out his frustrations on me. I went into my room and shut my door. I sat at my computer and turned it on. I decided I’d watch a few clips from the Ultimate Fighter on YouTube. A moment after I entered my room I heard a knock on my door.

  “What?” I yelled out.

  “Hey, you.” It was Keysha.

  “What do you want?” I asked, irritated.

  “Jordan’s in a bad mood.” She stepped into my room.

  “Yeah. Tell me something I don’t know. He’s on my back today for no reason at all,” I said.

  “I think he’s crabby because he has to go to court to fight my mom over visitation rights,” she said.

  “Is that what it is? He’s taking out all of the frustrations he has dealing with you on me!” I accused.

  “What?” Keysha truly looked stunned.

  “You heard me. He’s taking out his anger toward your mother on me. And that’s not fair! That sucks, Keysha, and I’m tired of it!”

  “Mike, it’s not like that,” Keysha said smoothly. She thought she could make nice, but it wasn’t going to work. Not this time.

  “Just leave, okay. Get out of my face,” I said and turned my back to her.

  Keysha didn’t say another word. She exited my room and quietly closed the door.

  Over the next several weeks, Sabrina and I continued to secretly date each other. The more we hung around each other the more I liked being with her and spending time with her. Before long, Thanksgiving had come to pass and the month of December had arrived. I told Sabrina that the best birthday gift she could give me was to have sex with me so that I could lose my virginity. She said that she’d seriously consider giving me my wish. That made me very anxious for my birthday to arrive.

  nine

  KEYSHA

  Thursday, December 20th

  I could hardly believe that Christmas Eve was just four days away. It was so exciting to be in a home with a family that actually celebrated the holiday. When I was still very young my mother took me downtown and told me that we were going to play a game called “down on your luck” and all I had to do was sit on the ground with her and look very sad. I didn’t even think twice about it and gladly went downtown with her. We found the perfect spot on North Michigan Avenue and sat. Then she just started talking as loud as she could. She said, “Please help me get some food so that I can feed my baby.” She just kept repeating that phrase and I just kept looking sad and the next thing I knew people just started giving her money. Five bucks here and twenty bucks there. It was amazing how many people gave without question. My mother took in close to nine hundred dollars that holiday season. She didn’t care that we had to humiliate ourselves, she justified it by saying she worked hard for it. These days I’m so thankful that all of that madness is behind me.

  Barbara, Jordan, Mike and I spent a lot of time preparing the house for the holiday. We cleaned it from top to bottom and pulled out all of the Christmas decorations. We put everything up with the exception of the tree which we would be doing later this evening once Grandmother Katie arrived. I hung stockings, the Christmas wreaths and placed poinsettias all around the house. Barbara and I had gone grocery shopping earlier so the freezer was filled with food. I could hardly wait for all the cooking to start so that I could sample everything.

  Over the past few weeks, my skin finally cleared up. I pinpointed the soap that caused my breakout. My hair also stopped falling out which was a big relief because it had finally started to grow again. My court date was pushed back until February 12th, my birthday. That sucked because that meant I’d be spending my seventeenth birthday in court. But for now, I wasn’t going to worry about that. I was just happy that this Christmas didn’t look or feel like the Christmas I had last year. Last year, my mother pulled one of her disappearing acts and I spent the entire holiday at home, alone and hungry. I could’ve hung out with my crazy girlfriend Toya Taylor at the time, but she had her own issues. I didn’t feel like spending all night listening to her complain about her baby daddy and why he hadn’t purchased any toys for their baby.

  It had snowed a few times and the weatherman was predicting that we’d have a very white Christmas because a massive storm system would drop eight inches of snow on the ground on Christmas Eve.

  I’d already done most of my Christmas shopping with money Jordan had given me but I still had to pick something for Mike. It was hard to shop for someone who had everything. I got Jordan a power-tool set and an electric buffer so that he could wax his prized Trans Am car until he rubbed all the paint off of it. I’ve never seen anyone wash and wax a vehicle that sat in the garage all of the time. He even washed and waxed it during the winter months. I got Barbara some very nice earrings that she’d talked about purchasing on more than one occasion when we were shopping together. I got my beloved Wesley a gift card from iTunes as well as some new shirts.

  I got Grandmother Katie tickets to a stage play about the life of jazz singer Billie Holiday which was playing at the Chicago Theatre during the holidays. She actually told me to get the tickets for the both of us because she said that she thought I’d enjoy it. Since I had no clue as to who Billie Holiday was, I did a Google search on her. I learned that she was born in 1915 and was one of America’s great jazz singers, but she had a very difficult childhood. At the age of ten she had been raped. By the time she was a teenager, she was emotionally messed up and sent to reform school. Once she got out of reform school, she and her mother moved from Baltimore to New York. While there she was raped again by a neighbor. She ended up working in a brothel as a prostitute and even went to jail. In the 1930s, she started singing in nightclubs for tips just to survive.

  I went on to read more about her life and hoped there was some video of her on YouTube. And sure enough there was. I sat and listened to her music and the sadness in her voice and thought to myself, Wow. I don’t have it so bad. One of my favorite songs by Billie Holiday is called “God Bless the Child.” Something about that song just touched my heart in a very strange way.

  I was sitting on my bed in my room reading a copy of Seventeen magazine. I was reading an article on how to tone and tighten up my abs when I heard a car horn honking. I got up, walked over to my bedroom window and then saw Grandmother Katie had just arrived. I was so excited that I rushed out of my bedroom and down the stairs to greet her at the door. I know that it’s silly for a girl who is almost seventeen years old to be excited about seeing
her grandmother, but I was. Grandmother Katie had even brought Smokey, her black Labrador retriever, since she planned to say with us through the New Year.

  “Hey,” I said to her as I walked out of the house and into the cold air without a coat on.

  “Hey, Keysha, child if you don’t get back inside that house without a coat on, you’re going to get sick coming outdoors like that,” she lovingly scolded me.

  “I’m just happy to see you,” I said as I gave her a big hug.

  “I’m happy to see you, too. Now get on inside. Let me take Smokey for a quick walk so he can do his business,” she said. Once she walked Smokey, I helped her take her bags up to the spare bedroom and helped her to get situated.

  “Just look at my ankles. They swell up these days for no reason at all,” she complained as she sat on the edge of her bed and removed her shoes. I was about to close the door and talk to her in private but Mike came in.

  “Hey, Grandma,” he said before coming over to give her a hug.

  “My, look at how big you’ve gotten. It seems as if you’ve gotten bigger since I saw you a few weeks ago at the state-championship game.” I could see the pride she had in her eyes for him.

  “I’ve been working out a lot. I’m going to try to stay in shape. I’m even going to join the track team in February,” Mike said.

  “Good for you,” she said. “How are your grades?”

  “You know that I get all As and Bs, Grandma.”

  “Good. Well, I know what you want. I didn’t get a chance to e-mail it so I made a DVD and I put it right here in my pocket so I wouldn’t lose it. Here you go.” She handed it to him.

  “Oh! Is this it? Is this the entire State Championship game that you videotaped?” Mike’s voice rose several octaves due to his excitement.

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Oh, you are the best!” Mike said as he gave her a big hug. He then rushed off to his room to watch the DVD.

  “He is so full of himself,” I said sarcastically.

  “He’ll outgrow it,” said Grandmother Katie. “So. How have things been going for you, young lady?” she asked.

  “Drama as usual,” I said as I sat beside her and began explaining to her everything that had happened to me regarding my health and the sudden departure of Wesley. She felt sympathy.

  Later that evening everyone had gathered in the family room to decorate the Christmas tree. Jordan and Mike had just gotten the tree situated in its stand. Barbara was removing all of the tree decorations from boxes and Grandmother Katie was working on untangling the Christmas lights. I was standing at the stereo and had just put in a Christmas CD that I’d burned on the computer. The voice of Chris Brown suddenly filled the room.

  “Ooh, Chris Brown is so fine!” I said as the melody of his voice gave me chills of delight.

  “He’s not all that,” Mike said just to be disagreeable because I knew for a fact that he’d been practicing all of Chris Brown’s dance moves.

  “Whatever, Mike,” I said and tried to ignore him. We spent several hours decorating the tree, listening to Christmas music and talking. Once we were done with decorating the tree, we all sat in the family room and watched the DVD of Mike’s football game. I had to admit to myself that Mike was a very good athlete. I also had to admit that being around all of them made me very happy and I didn’t want a thing to change.

  On Christmas Eve we all gathered around the dinner table as a family. I’d spent the day helping Grandmother Katie and Barbara cook. We had roast beef, corned beef and a turkey. I made the macaroni and cheese while Grandmother Katie made the stuffing and baked pies. It wasn’t easy with three women in one kitchen trying to cook at the same time, but we made it work. I’d never seen so much food on the table in my life but I was definitely thankful for it because I know what it feels like to have an empty dinner table during the holidays. Jordan blessed our food and we all ate.

  Afterwards I was so stuffed that I felt as if my stomach was going to burst. I helped Barbara put away the food while Mike and Jordan went into the family room to watch some college football game. Grandmother Katie took a seat in the living room to let her food digest, but it only took a few minutes before she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Once I was done helping Barbara, I went up to my room and called Wesley to see how things were going for him.

  “Hey, baby.”

  “Hey,” he answered.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Nothing much, just sitting around chilling. My dad and I are watching the game. We ate not too long ago. What about you?” he asked.

  “It’s about the same over here,” I said but then heard Wesley and his father shouting at the television.

  “Why did he throw that pass?” I heard Wesley say.

  “Let me let you go. It’s obvious that you want to watch the game and not talk to me right now,” I said, hoping he’d catch the hint to pay more attention to me.

  “Okay. I’ll call you back later,” said Wesley and hung up the phone.

  I couldn’t believe it. He actually got off the phone to watch some silly football game. I wanted to be mad at him but I couldn’t be because I understood that he was spending time with his dad and there was no way I could ever be mad at him for doing that.

  ten

  MIKE

  Saturday, December 29th

  December 29th had finally arrived and when I awoke I was so ready to lose my virginity. That was the only thing on my mind. Sabrina and I had been dating just over a month and I was ready to take our relationship to the next level. We’d been talking about it for weeks and the anticipation was killing me. I wanted to be at her house first thing in the morning but I had to wait until her parents went to work. But that didn’t stop me from sending her a text message which she responded to right away.

  Sabrina: Happy B-Day. I can’t stop thinking about U.

  Thank U. What were U thinking?

  Sabrina: Just thinking.

  R U nervous about today?

  Sabrina: A little. U?

  Nope. Can’t wait 2 C U.

  Sabrina: Same here. Did U get protection?

  Yup. U know I luv U right?

  Sabrina: I hope so.

  U don’t have 2 hope. I’m telling U.

  Sabrina: How do I know U R 4 real?

  Cause it’s true.

  Sabrina: Can I trust U?

  U know U can. Y U ask?

  Sabrina: Just need 2 B sure. Don’t want U 2 go around telling everybody.

  U no I will not do that.

  Sabrina: My folks R calling me. TTYL.

  Sabrina quickly logged off without saying anything more. I became a little nervous because all of a sudden she seemed as if she wasn’t so sure about what we’d planned. But since she didn’t call off our date, I was still excited about seeing her. I took some time to download a few more sexy songs onto my iPod so that we’d have some good music playing when the time was right. Once I was done, I put my headphones in my ears. I grooved to the music and practiced grinding my hips in anticipation of what was to come later during the day. I was so into the music and my grinding dance moves that I didn’t notice that Grandmother Katie had walked in my room. I turned around and saw her looking at me disapprovingly.

  “Oh! What are you doing in here?” I asked feeling very exposed and embarrassed.

  “No. The question should be, ‘What are you doing in here?’” she asked.

  I laughed a little to try and play it off. Grandmother Katie looked at me suspiciously. “That was nothing. I was just messing around, that’s all. What’s up?” I asked.

  “What are you up to, Mike?” she asked.

  “Nothing, Grandma. I was just in here dancing, that’s all. What’s the big deal?” I asked getting very defensive.

  “You just make sure you keep the horse locked up in the barn. You don’t want any ponies running around before you’re ready to tend to them. You understand where I’m coming from?” she asked.

  I had t
o think about what she meant for a moment but then I caught on. “Oh. Don’t worry about that. I’m not really into girls like that,” I told a bold-faced lie to my Grandmother.

  “Well, you look like you’re trying to get into something.”

  I stopped responding to her because I didn’t want to accidentally slip up and let on to what I was planning to do later that morning.

  “I came in here to tell you happy birthday,” said Grandmother Katie.

  “Thank you.”

  “Come on downstairs when you get a moment. Keysha and I are going to take you out to breakfast this morning.”

  “Oh. You guys don’t have to do that. Just saying happy birthday is cool. Save your money.” I hoped she’d take the excuse.

  “No. You’re coming to breakfast with us. This is not something you can just say no to.”

  “Oh, come on! Do I really have to?” I complained.

  “Do you have a problem spending some time with me, Mike?” she asked. The expression on her face was a very serious one, it was obvious she didn’t like my tone of voice.

  “It’s not that, it’s just—” I tried to apologize.

  “You want to put your grandmother down for some little girl who has a hot behind.”

  I was stunned at how Grandmother Katie knew what I was thinking. I guess she really knew that she’d gotten to the root of the matter by the surprised look that formed on my face.