by Cydney Rax
“Is that a yes or a no? Damn, girl, I wish you’d open up your mouth and talk.” Alita wasn’t in the mood for Elyse’s weird behavior. “Why is all that sweat on your forehead? You look like you burning up.”
Elyse avoided eye contact with Alita.
“Well, you look like you just robbed a bank and scared the police about to come pick your ass up.” Alita cackled. She swiped a few napkins from the dispenser, stood up, and dabbed the sweat from the girl’s head.
“No,” Elyse told her, trying to dodge Alita. “Don’t.”
Elyse rolled up a shirtsleeve. She scratched her arm repeatedly. She looked like she was suffering from a bad case of eczema.
Right then Nate started to walk past them.
“Hey, brother-in-law,” Alita yelled. He waved and came over.
“Hi, Alita. Hi, Elyse.”
Nate placed his hand on Elyse’s shoulder. She stared into space, scratched her other arm, and ignored him.
“How’s my favorite sister-in-law?” he said, looking at Alita. “And what brings you here?”
“Your sweet little wife brought me here to get something to eat. You know how us poor folk love getting a handout here and there.”
She stretched out her hand.
He laughed, then closed her hand and balled it into a fist.
“Isn’t this more like your style, Alita?”
Alita cackled with him then sat down. “I was just playing anyway.”
“Sure you were.”
“Nate, can you tell me why is my baby sister is here in a work uniform?”
“That’s the thing. Elyse isn’t a baby anymore. She’s a grownup that needs to do something with her time. That’s why she’s now on the payroll.” He gave Elyse a friendly hug as her eyes fell to the floor. Beads of sweat returned to her forehead.
“Okay, she’s a new employee, but I swear she don’t look like she wants to work here, Nate.” Alita was troubled by Elyse’s despondent mood. And being around people that rarely talked much made Alita nervous. She never knew what was going through her sister’s mind. Was she depressed? Was she going insane? Was she plotting to shoot up the place?
“Elyse, baby, talk to me,” Alita said, feeling nervous and despondent. “You all right with this? Is working here what you want to do?”
Elyse rubbed the floor with the bottom of her shoe.
“See what I mean?” Alita said, exasperated. “How in the hell is she going to be working here when she can’t even form a basic sentence?”
“Don’t worry. She won’t be a server and work with the public,” Nate replied. “We’ll keep her in the back, out of sight, where she can wash dishes. Or she can set condiments on the table when we run out. We’ll keep her busy doing things that won’t require much interaction.”
“I don’t know about that. After Mama died, it was nice of you to take Elyse in. But when she got older, I thought y’all just wanted her to help out with Natalia and Sid and be there when they get home from school?”
“She can do both. It’s not good for her to just lie around the house playing video games all day.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Hell, if Leno takes a break from his homework and plants his feet in front of that damned TV too long, I make up any type of chore to keep him busy. Or I ask him ‘how’s that homework coming along?’ Kids! Anyway, I won’t hold you up from your work, brother-in-law. See you later. Elyse, smile or something. Hell, stop looking like you about to go to a funeral.”
Elyse, unable to tolerate Alita’s negative barrage, abruptly stormed away.
“I guess I’m pissing off people left and right,” Alita said to herself. “Maybe I should do like Burgundy said and think first before I speak.”
She thought about it. “Hell, no! That ain’t happening.”
Soon her food was brought to her, and she devoured the breakfast and seriously considered the state of her life. Her ex-husband, her lack of a love life, her son, and her future. By the time she was done thinking, Burgundy came and took a seat right across from her.
“Well, Sis. What have you decided about going back to Reeves?”
“I’m not going back,” Alita said. “I need to move forward.”
“What?”
“I need to face the fact that I made the decision to become Mrs. Washington. I need to put on my big girl drawers and just deal with shit. Grow up. And prove that I am a woman that’s strong enough to accept the hand I’ve been dealt.”
Burgundy looked taken aback. “And what brought on this sudden turnaround? You’ve only been here maybe thirty minutes.”
“See, it’s like this. I sat alone at this table. And at first I didn’t know what to do with myself. I wanted to try and play it off and act like I was waiting on someone to join me for lunch, right? I don’t want to look like the loser woman who is single and has no date, no man in her life that loves her. And I felt like everybody in this restaurant was staring. Feeling sorry for me. Hell, I think one of your servers came to my table at least five times asking me if I was okay. He was trying to make conversation with me, and I know exactly why.” Alita rolled her eyes. “But no one has to feel sorry for me. I’m okay being divorced, without a man in my life. I don’t have to prove anything to anybody, including changing my name back to Reeves.”
Burgundy smiled in admiration. “There must be something in the French toast today because this is the most grown-up thing I’ve heard you say in a long time, Lita.”
“I know. And hopefully it won’t be the last one. Somehow, some way, I’m getting my shit together. Starting today.” Alita lifted her glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, took a tiny sip, then stood up.
“You ready to go yet, B? ’Cause I am. I got things to do. I want to get home and try and crank up my car, kick it, lay hands on it with some anointing oil or whatever I need to do so I can go pick up Leno from school.”
“Wait. Can’t he walk home or catch the bus?”
“No. My son is a target. He’s black, he’s a future superstar athlete. I don’t feel right unless I know for sure where he is.”
Burgundy got up so they could get ready to leave the restaurant. She hurried into the kitchen.
“C’mon on, Elyse,” she yelled. “I might as well take her home with me. You do wanna go home with me now, right?”
“Home. Right now.”
“Humph, I see that she can talk when she wants to,” Alita said. Burgundy agreed to let Elyse punch out and get off the clock. They all left Morning Glory and drove away.
While in the car, Burgundy activated the telephone in her car. She got Shade on the phone but begged Alita to keep quiet.
“Hey there, friend,” she said when Shade answered.
“What’s up, Burgundy?”
“Nothing much. I’m in my car. I have my little sister here with me, and we’re on our way home right now. How has your week been so far, Shade?”
“I’m living the life.”
Alita’s eyes grew real big.
Burgundy easily laughed. “I’m sure you mean something very nice and positive when you say that, right? You haven’t been on any hot dates or anything like that?”
“Nah,” Shade uttered in his very pleasant deep voice. “I had a hot date with the gym. That means I got to hit the gym four times,” he said with a laugh. “I’m trying to get in shape so I can eat all the good food I want during the upcoming holidays.”
“Sounds good. I’ll try and bake an extra pie or two for you, my friend,” Burgundy said.
“You do that. Hey, I don’t mean to rush you off the phone, but I’m on my way to a meeting. We’ll talk later this week? Or I’ll just see you at the bookstore?”
“Sure, that’ll work. Bye, Shade.”
She hung up.
“What ya think, Alita?”
“Girl, please. You can’t tell nothing ’bout no man just by listening to his voice on the speakerphone.”
“Then that means you’re going to have to meet him in person. I’ll thin
k of something for the two of you.”
“You need to quit,” Alita complained. “Just stop it.”
Burgundy laughed. “Never that.” Soon she dropped Alita in front of her apartment.
“Thank you, B, for everything.” Alita waved goodbye and watched her sister drive away. She hoped that she could start up her own car and try and change the oil herself before she left to get Leno. His school let out at three, and she wanted to come home and relax a few minutes before handling her car maintenance issues.
Alita inserted her key in the door and closed it behind her. The chilled apartment felt like a walk-in freezer; its quiet as still as a country road in the wee hours of the morning.
She kicked off her shoes and decided to get dressed in something more comfortable. Alita walked down the hall toward her bedroom. She stopped at the door and was about to enter it when she heard a snicker.
Then a moan.
Did I leave the TV on?
The moan grew louder. Alita ran across the hallway and found a baseball bat that she kept in between the washer and dryer. She crept down the hall, braced herself, and opened her door.
All she could see was the silhouette of a female sitting on top of a body that was stretched out on her bed. The woman arched her back then wailed.
An acidic aroma hit Alita’s nostrils as soon as she entered her bedroom. The odors of semen, vaginal secretion, sweat, baby oil, and honey clogged the air. She drew her hand over her mouth. Tiny pieces of French toast rose up her throat. She swallowed her lunch back down, then yelled, “What the fuck is going on?”
The female jumped out of the bed. Then, not knowing what else to do, she yelped and got back in bed. She slid underneath the covers and pulled the blanket over her body.
Alita flipped on the light switch and yanked a string. The ceiling fan made whirring sounds. Alita went and opened a window.
“Damn, it stinks in here. Leno?” she screamed.
But she didn’t hear Leno speak a word. Alita snatched the covers off the bed. The girl was crouched in a ball; her hands covered her face. But the boy lying beside the chick wasn’t Alita’s son.
“What the hell is this?” Alita demanded.
The guy was speechless. He looked to be around seventeen. The chick was very skinny, and Alita couldn’t tell how old she was. Upon a closer inspection, Alita recognized the young man. He was Phil Proctor, one of Leno’s teammates. Phil’s nickname was “P Square.” And Alita knew his mother, Kennisha, because she had a reputation for being a shit starter up at the high school when she got reprimanded for trying to date one of the married assistant coaches.
“Phil, if you don’t get your nasty ass out of my bed! Where’s Leno? And what is this little whore doing here with you?”
The girl screamed and finally hopped out of the bed. She placed the cover on her like it was a cape. She wildly searched for her clothes, picking up a shirt and tossing it back on the floor.
“Nasty-ass whore, get the hell out of my house and never come back. You don’t belong here!” The girl was crying. She dropped the comforter from her shoulders and tried to simultaneously pull on a shirt plus a pair of shorts.
“Phil,” Alita screamed. “I asked you where’s my son?”
Phil gave her a blank look.
Furious, Alita stormed out. She was headed for Leno’s bedroom, which was on the other side of their split apartment. Before she reached his door, she passed the bathroom that was primarily used by Leno. The sound of the shower stopped her.
“They better not be taking a shower.”
Alita turned the knob, but the door wouldn’t open.
“Leno, get your narrow ass out of that bathroom right now. I come home trying to get ready to go and pick you up, and you’re already here? Why the hell you taking a shower at this time of day? Who you got in there with you? Why aren’t y’all in school? Are you trying to ruin your life, son? Is that what you’re doing?”
It took several minutes for Leno to open the door. His big brown eyes grew even bigger as he walked out of the bathroom dressed in a bath towel.
Alita ran in the room. The shower curtain was drawn. She yelled, “Come the fuck out, you little whore.” She yanked the shower curtain to the side. No one was there.
“Mom, what you doing?”
She said nothing. Leno walked through the apartment, and Alita followed him.
“Mom, where are my friends?”
“Your friends are the last thing you should be worried about. I want to know what Phil was doing in my bed with that little girl. And you in here showering? What were y’all about to do? Have a threesome?”
Alita clapped her hands over her mouth over that quick slip of the tongue. She wished she would have thought carefully about what she wanted to say before it she said it. Leno was smart enough to know what a threesome was, but she prayed her son had never had one.
“Boy, I swear to God if you weren’t already naked I’d whip your ass with an extension cord. That’s what my mama used to do to us before it became illegal to discipline your kids the right way. By putting the fear of God in them.”
The plans she had for Leno seemed to be falling apart. That could not be happening.
“Leno, you’re going to have to do better, son. You don’t understand it now, but I’m trying to save your life. And you’re bent on trying to destroy it. You and Phil ought to know better. And before you even ask, yes, I am going to tell his mama about this.”
“Mom, please leave Miss Kennisha out of this. She don’t need to be all up in our business.”
“Leno, you don’t have any business, okay? Only business you have is to take your ass to school, go to practice, and come straight home. You already know the rules, but since you enjoying breaking rules, you are now on a punishment.” Alita found herself laughing. The whole thing seemed ludicrous. Could she put a boy his size on punishment? A boy who was an internet sensation?
“I wish I could whip your ass with a lead pipe, but grounding you is the best I can do right now.” She stopped pacing and flung herself around to face her son.
“Phil,” she yelled, “get in here.” Alita knew that the naked girl had left by then, but the young man still hung around. Within seconds Phil came and stood next to Leno.
“Wait here,” Alita demanded. She hurried to the kitchen and came back with a butcher knife.
She waved it around. “You know what I feel like doing right now? Huh? Since you two wanna be so damned grown and go around fucking little girls. Do you even realize what you’re doing?”
“Ms. Washing—” said Phil.
“Shut up,” she screamed and continued to jab the air with the knife. “You need your little penises sliced off. Mm hmm. Because that little itty-bitty thing is what gets a lot of men in trouble. Especially guys like you. Young men that have talent but who have no common sense. Young men with parents who are constantly pushing them to succeed and working hard to make something good out of their lives.” Alita thought about men who were in the public eye: athletes, politicians, actors, and so on. Men who were filled with incredible talent and an amazing ability to touch the world with their God-given gifts. Yet they ruined everything because they were weak when it came to sex and gold diggers, chicks who were skilled at having their way with men. Physically unattractive men who were uniquely gifted, but if they did not have money and fame, these women would never even look their way. These chicks were professional men fuckers, and the cost to be with them added up to millions. The men fell for their lies time and again, thinking the woman was down for him. But the lying chick knew that she had her eyes on his bank account all along.
“Your little penises can get you in big trouble, you hear me? And you’re too young to be caught up in the bullshit. Excuse my French, but I always keep it real with Leno. I have to. Sugarcoating shit and trying to call it sugar won’t work around here.”
Leno looked like he was so angry at his mother that he could knock her upside her head. But he stood and lis
tened.
“Leno, did you have sex with that girl? Did you?”
“No, Mama. No. I was taking a shower.”
“Why take a shower in the middle of the afternoon? Do you think I’m stupid or something?” She thumped Leno hard upside his head. “You’re a man, and you’ll get horny. But have you ever heard of masturbating? It’s a lot less drama involved. Because when you mess around with chicks like the one you brought in my bed, my bed, you little prick, you can end up with diseases that you can never get rid of. You can get a girl pregnant, and you may not even stand her ass after you find out she’s having a baby. You think you’re in love, but you’re much too young to know what love is.”
“Ha,” Leno said. “If you really knew what love was, you wouldn’t have run my daddy away.”
Alita pushed Leno against the wall. “You don’t know what you’re taking about. I did not run him away; he ran me off with his behavior. He was acting like you, except he was married with a child and had zero dick control.”
Leno burst out laughing.
“Ain’t nothing funny, Leno. I’m trying to tell you what your daddy hasn’t.”
“You don’t know what he’s told me.”
“You’re right. I don’t know. But regardless, you two boys will not mess up your lives.”
“You’re not my mother,” argued Phil.
“As long as you in my house fucking in my bed, Phil, you best believe I will tell your little stupid ass what to do. And Leno, until you work, pay all the bills, and make the decisions for my house, you are not a man. Having a dick does not make you a man. Being responsible does. I get so sick of stupid know-nothing kids trying to tell grown-ups what to do.”
Alita felt so angry that she began to perspire. Her skin actually heated up. She wiped her forehead and was blind with rage.
“Who was that little girl? Is that your woman, Phil?”
“Hell, nah. Just some girl.”
“Does the girl have a name?”
“Uh, I dunno.”
“By not telling me her name, I hope that means you’re trying to protect her. Because if you really don’t know her name but you’re trying to have sex with her, then that’s a damned shame.”
