by A'zayler
“Terrance-Lee, he was a black man, but he spoke Spanish. She couldn’t understand a word he said sometimes, but she loved it anyway. She would sit and listen to him for hours speaking Spanish and never asked what he said. Much like what you just did.”
Taryn felt a sense of contentment wash over her at the thought that she was like her mother. She hadn’t known her and often wondered what she was like. To now gain bits and pieces of her was nothing short of amazing.
“So my father wasn’t fully black?”
“Oh no, ma’am. Terrance-Lee was a man of many faces. Like your mother, he too was a free spirit. The two of them together were unforgettable.” Habesha’s words got lower toward the end of her sentence. “When they died, it nearly killed my mother and I. It didn’t seem to bother my father one way or another, but it took us months to move past it. The burial was private.”
“None of my father’s family came?”
“Yes. A few of his sisters and his father. His mother passed when he was a child.”
“Do you know where any of them are?”
“I’m sorry, I do not.”
“So why didn’t you all come for me? I mean…” Taryn stumbled on her words. “If you all knew I was there, why let me go to the system and not save me?”
Habesha wiped the new tears that were forming. “My father was very angry. He wanted nothing to do with you. Though it was very bad judgement on our parts we chose to side with him and leave you where you were. I’m so sorry.”
Taryn nodded her head in disappointment. The rest of their dinner went pretty much the same, Habesha and Taryn doing most of the talking with Iyasu chiming in occasionally and Demoto saying nothing at all. Hours had passed before it was time for them to go. Taryn exchanged numbers with her aunt and promised to meet her again before they flew out the next day.
“So, what do you think?” Taryn asked Demoto as soon as they got into the car.
He shrugged. “They seem cool.”
“That’s all you have to say? They seem cool? Come on Demoto, now I know you have more to say than that.”
“I really don’t. They seem cool. I’m glad you got a chance to meet them.” He looked over at her and could tell she wasn’t pleased with his answer. “I think its dope that you found out what your parents were like though.”
“I knowwwwww,” Taryn sank down in her seat.
“I wish I could have met your mama. If she looked anything like Habesha’s sexy old ass, then I probably would have been busting both of y’all.”
Taryn looked at Demoto with her face frowned up and they both started laughing.
“Why you gotta be so stupid?”
“I’m just being honest. Habesha could get the dick with her old ass.”
“She probably don’t want that young dick.”
Demoto sucked his teeth. “Girl what you talking ’bout? I already got your ass hooked, from what Habesha said your mama was a freak for foreign niggas. You must be crazy if you think Habesha wouldn’t hop on this good African dick.”
Taryn shook her head and looked out of the window. “I can’t deal with you right now. Calling my mama a freak and shit.”
“Her daughter is one, so I just figured the apple didn’t fall to far from the tree.”
Taryn punched Demoto in the arm and rolled her eyes. “You make me sick.”
They laughed and joked for the rest of the ride home. On their way to the house, they stopped at Mr. Buck’s house and scooped up Ayo. He was already asleep so Demoto laid him down as soon as they got home. Him and Taryn both moved around for a little while longer before getting into bed themselves.
They were both lying in bed awake trying to fall asleep, but with so much on their minds it was hard.
“You sleep?” Demoto asked.
Taryn snickered before saying no.
“What you laughing at?”
“You remember the first night I ever spent the night at your house and Alicia called? You was trying to whisper and then gon’ ask me was I sleep after you hung up.”
Demoto smiled at the memory. “Damn, that was years ago and it don’t even seem like it’s been that long.”
“That damn Alicia.”
“Man, fuck her. I ain’t worried about that right now.”
Taryn rolled over, so that she was facing him. “Well what you want to talk about?”
“How two people with family problems end up finding each other? One of us should have had a family for the other one to join or something.”
Taryn scooted over so that she was lying on his chest. “You ain’t never lied. We both hitting bad.”
“After meeting your people today you might not be as bad off as me. I ain’t gon’ lie, I wasn’t feeling it at first because I thought it might be some shit behind it, but it turned out better than I expected. I have so many fucked up family issues of my own, I just figured everybody else’s family is the same way.”
“What’s going on with your family, Moto? You keep saying stuff about them and that’s so out of the norm for you. You never even want to talk about them.”
He released his built up frustration in a deep sigh. “Too much shit, but mostly it’s my mama. That bitch ain’t shit. She thinks she’s so fucking slick, but I got a trick for her ass,” Demoto said as he thought about the video tape of Adisa’s murder he’d put in route to Cameroon. She would be getting it soon and he couldn’t wait. He was already setting up his game plan in case she decided she wanted to retaliate.
“What happened?”
“Nothing for real. I just know she’s up to something. When I figure it out, I’ll tell it to you. As of right now it’s nothing to worry about. I’ll handle that when it’s time.”
Demoto lay back and prepared to go to sleep. Little did he know that time would be coming a lot sooner than he thought.
*****
“Ayo, stop crying baby. I said I’m going to get you some animal crackers.” Taryn said as she used her key to unlock the door.
She had just picked Ayo up from daycare and was struggling to get her, Ayo and their groceries into the house. She had gone grocery shopping before picking him up, and now she was thinking she’d made a mistake. He had been getting on her nerves about his animal crackers since she got him from school. All she could think as she drove home listening to him cry was that she should have followed her first mind and left his little crying behind at school until she finished doing everything she had to do.
“I want aninal crackers,” Ayo said in his best attempt to say animal crackers.
Taryn set the arm full of groceries down on the floor in the kitchen before giving him her attention.
“What did I just say? Huh? What did I just say?”
Ayo stood still, looking at her but not saying anything.
“Go ahead and tell me. You standing there crying, so clearly you have enough energy to talk. Tell me what I said.”
Ayo stuck his fingers in his mouth and continued to cry. Taryn shook her head and walked past him. She didn’t have the time or the patience to be dealing with Ayo and his spoiled shenanigans right then. Taryn pulled the door to her apartment up and hopped back down the stairs. She made three more trips to the car before she’d finished getting everything.
If Demoto hadn’t been out of town on a contract, she would have waited until he got home to get the food out, but the way her kitchen was set up, she couldn’t wait any longer. They refrigerator and the cabinets were on E.
“Ayo come in here and get the darn crackers.” She yelled out to him. When he didn’t come right away, Taryn walked into the living room to give them to him.
“Ahhh,” she screamed.
There was a large burly man standing in her doorway. He was very fat and very tall. He took up pretty much the entire frame. Taryn grabbed her chest as her eyes went to Ayo. He was standing in the center of the room staring at the man. He looked just as scared as she did. In the back of her mind, Taryn kicked herself for not locking the door after her la
st trip up the stairs.
She had meant to, she just figured she’d do it after she set all the bags down like she normally did. Taryn stood frozen from fear for a few seconds longer before she found her voice.
“Umm… what do you want? Who are you?”
The man stood still, saying nothing.
“You need to go.” Taryn’s voice cracked.
Again, the man said nothing, but this time he moved. A medium height woman walked from behind him. She was brown skinned with big features. Her nose, eyes, and lips were fairly large, and she had short dread locs that didn’t even reach her shoulders, with a brightly colored dress. Taryn stared at her strangely because in a very odd way she looked familiar. She looked like someone she had seen before.
The lady looked her up and down and smiled. She stared at her for a long while before her eyes went to Ayo. It was like a beam of light shined across her face in that moment. She took a few steps until she was all the way inside the house before kneeling down. When she kneeled Taryn took a few steps closer until she was standing directly behind her baby.
She had no clue who these people were or why they were in her house, but one thing she was sure about, was that they weren’t going to harm her baby. They would have to go through her to get to him, and she was going to fight like hell to make sure that didn’t happen.
“Ma’am, do I know you? What do you want at my house?”
The lady looked up at Taryn, and again she smiled but didn’t say anything. Instead, she turned her eyes back to Ayo and held her arms out for him to come to her. Instinctively Taryn grabbed his shoulders, holding him to her. The eyes of the strange woman looked up at her and it was a hard look, one that held a ferocious amount of power, eyes that didn’t retreat from a challenge. Ones that made you feel small and very uncomfortable. Eyes that appeared to be looking through one’s soul.
A pair of eyes that she’d seen a million times on her son, and her husband. A pair of eyes that Taryn had become all too familiar with. Taryn shrieked and stepped back, still holding onto Ayo’s shoulders, causing him to stumble. Taryn shook her head from side to side as the reality of her situation hit her. That couldn’t be her. What was she doing there? Thoughts ran through Taryn’s mind as the lady reached out her hand again toward Ayo.
“Ayo, come to Grandma.” She looked from Ayo to Taryn and smiled.
Oh no! Demoto!
To be continued…
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