“You just got here,” Jenna said disappointedly.
“I have to go see Nana. Mrs. Watkins has been calling her off the hook trying to get in touch with me.”
Hearing the DA’s name, her friends knew what it was about and knew not to pry. They nodded.
“I’ll be back later. Hopefully, little Efran will be awake, so I can take some pictures.” Liana hugged Jenna. “Too bad we all can’t go out. I know those stitches in you—”
Jenna stopped her. “Please don’t mention it. You’re going to mess around and talk up the pain.”
“Be back later.” As Liana walked down those long flights of steps, she couldn’t believe how easy it was for Wayne to move on. I can’t believe I fell for that You-were-the-only-one-I’ve-been-with bullshit. What else did he lie to me about? Her question triggered memories and feelings of the night she found Ron’s house key in Wayne’s bushes.
She climbed into her SUV and slammed the door. She gripped the steering wheel as she steadied her breathing. I have to ask him. If I don’t, it’s going to eat away at me for the rest of my life. Her grip on the steering wheel was so tight her forearms throbbed. She let her hands fall into her lap and leaned back. After a couple of minutes of deep breathing, she drove off.
***
When Liana turned onto Nana’s block, her stomach did a back flip when she saw Wayne’s utility truck parked in front, and his father mowing the front lawn.
I shouldn’t even be surprised. This is how my luck works. She parked across the street and took her time getting out of her truck. She knew Wayne would probably be sitting with Nana in the kitchen, and she would want her to sit down with them as if nothing ever happened.
She slammed her truck door shut and made up her mind that if Wayne was talking to Nana, she would hightail it out of there before Nana got a chance to tell her to sit down.
Nevel glanced up at her as she approached. He did a double take when he realized it was her. He smiled and waved her over as he cut off the lawnmower. He approached her with open arms. “How you doing?” He hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. She hugged him back stiffly.
Nevel felt her cringe when his dirty work gloves landed on the back of her shirt. “I would have taken off my gloves, but I got a nasty cut on my hand. Don’t want to get any blood on you.”
“It’s good to see you,” Liana said, forcing back the urge to retch when he mentioned cut and blood.
“It’s good to see you, too. I heard you doing real good for yourself down in the city.”
“I’m barely making it.”
“That’s not what Nana’s saying.”
“You know how she is.” Liana cut her eyes looking for Wayne. “She’s always exaggerating when it comes to me and what I’m doing.”
Nevel grabbed the lawnmower’s handle to start it back up. “Wayne’s in the backyard.” Nevel smiled at her as he started the lawnmower. Liana smiled and headed to the side door of the house, wondering why he was being so nice to her. She could hear the clipping sound of hedge cutters coming from the backyard. She breathed a sigh of relief thinking she could stop in and see Nana and be out before Wayne even knew she was there.
Nana was in the kitchen deep into her television show, which was why she didn’t hear or see Liana until she was right up on her.
Nana looked up surprised to see her. “Girl, how many times I have to tell you to make some noise when you walk up in here?”
“It’s good to see you, too, Nana.” Liana gave her a big hug.
Her grandmother hugged her back and scrunched up her face. “You need me to send you some money for food? I can damn near wrap my arms around you, twice.”
“Nah ah, Nana.” Liana pulled away from her. “Why would I need you to send me money when I’m doing real good for myself? Isn’t that what you’re telling everybody?”
Nana waved her hand. “You know how I exaggerate when it comes to you and what you’re doing.”
“Oh yeah, I do.”
Nana cut her eyes at her.
“What, Nana? I’m agreeing with you,” Liana said, smiling.
“Keep thinking you can pull fast ones on me. You hear?”
“Nanaaa,” Liana whined.
“Nana! We’re done, we’re out of here,” Wayne said, as he walked into the kitchen through the same door Liana just entered. Liana and Wayne stared at each other. Liana could feel her heart pounding in her head. She instinctively folded her arms across her chest and lowered her chin, guarding her throat, as the first memories that came to her mind were Ron’s house key and the night Wayne had her pinned to the wall by her throat.
As if reading her mind and body language, Wayne immediately held his head down in shame. Liana, realizing her reaction had betrayed her, tried to clean it up by forcing a smile on her face.
“Liana, this is Wayne. And Wayne, this is Liana,” Nana said sarcastically.
“Haven’t seen you in a while,” Wayne said, trying to clear the lump in his throat.
“Yeah,” Liana said, exhaling hard, trying to expel her nervousness through her mouth, “It’s been awhile.”
Wayne turned his attention to Nana. “We got two more houses to go before we can call it a day.” Wayne turned and left, but not without stealing a glance at Liana.
Liana watched him walk off and kept staring in the direction he left in, as if he was going to reappear and tell her that they needed to talk.
“Leave that man alone!” Nana said, jolting Liana out of her trance.
“What?”
“You heard what I said.” Nana walked back to the stove to check on her dinner. “He found himself a good woman.”
“What are you trying to say Nana?” Liana put her hands on her hips. “I wasn’t a good woman?”
“You broke that man’s heart so many times that he doesn’t bother putting it back together.”
“That’s not fair, Nana. He broke up with me the last time.”
“Only because you were trying to break a bat over his head. I would’ve broken up with you, too.” Nana turned the oven down to one seventy-five, and lowered the fire on her collard greens. “He hooked up with a nice girl who lives on Pearl Street. What’s her name again?”
“Tomboy Tammy.”
Nana swatted her with the hand towel she had draped over her shoulder. “Don’t be jealous of her because she got more meat on her bones than you.”
“Nana, please. Ain’t nobody trying to look like He-man.”
“Well, just make sure you don’t start no shit.” The kitchen phone started ringing, interrupting their conversation. Nana answered it on the third ring.
“Hello?” Nana answered. “Yes… yes she is, finally.” She looked at Liana.
“Who’s that?” Liana mouthed.
“Hold on.” Nana handed her the phone, and walked back to the stove. “You know who it is.”
“Hello?”
“Liana, hi,” DA Watkins started. “I’ve been trying to track you down for a couple weeks now. I’m glad I finally caught up with you… Liana? Are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here.”
Uncertain on how to interpret the aloofness she picked up in Liana’s voice, Mrs. Watkins decided to chitchat a little before getting into the real reason of why she called. “Your grandmother tells me that you’re living in the city, now. Queens to be exact.”
“Basically.” Liana decided to get right to the point. “So, when do you need the letter?”
“Oh… well… the Parole Board will be meeting next month, actually in 27 days.”
“Do I have enough time to get the letter in?”
“We’re cutting it kind of close, but you would have to get started on it right away.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Mrs. Watkins got quiet for a moment. “Liana, I don’t want to seem cold, but your letters are the strongest argument we have against your father’s release.”
“You’ll be hearing from me in a couple days.”
“
You might want to give me your phone number in case—”
Liana hung up on her. She had no love for her father, but speaking to the person directly responsible for convicting him and making sure he spent the rest of his life in prison curdled her blood. Liana watched her grandmother get on her tiptoes and reach into the cabinet for a glass pitcher A question buzzed around her in mind like pestering fly. A question she never had the courage to ask Nana. At the moment, she realized that it wasn’t the question she was afraid to ask; it was the answer she may receive. She sat back down and took a deep breath.
“Nana, let me ask you something.”
Nana busied herself with cutting lemons for her lemonade, but Liana knew she heard her.
“How come you never write a letter to the Parole Board?”
Liana’s question was sharper than the knife Nana was holding in her hand. Liana knew she struck a nerve, because Nana stopped cutting halfway through one of the lemons. She wiped her hands on the hand towel and sat at the kitchen table. The expression in her eyes told Liana that she knew it would only be a matter of time before Liana worked up the nerve to ask her that question.
Nana folded her hands, placed them on top of Liana’s, and punctuated each word by squeezing her hands on top of Liana’s. “Judge not… lest… you be judged.” Nana’s eyes held so much pain in them that Liana was forced to look away. “Lee was a good man. I sensed it when Anna first brought him to the house. He had some slickness in him, but I knew from looking into his eyes that he truly loved my baby. But when he got addicted to that crack…” Nana closed her eyes as two decades of buried pain rose to the surface.
Liana shook her head, regretting that she asked the question. “Forget I even asked, Nana.” She started to get up.
Nana kept her glued to her seat with a firm grip on her hand. “I was devastated that afternoon when the two detectives came here and told me Anna was dead. And when they told me the circumstances of how she died, I refused to accept it. My daughter in a crack house? with two men?” Nana’s voice started to quiver. “Oooo, chil,’ I was mad at the world. All the good I’ve done, and to have my daughter… snatched from me like that? I became bitter. And believe me when I tell you, if I was given the opportunity to flip the switch on the electric chair with Lee in it back then, I wouldn’t have hesitated.”
Tears welled in Liana’s eyes as she felt Nana’s heart along with her pain wrap around hers.
“Lee was arrested, tried, and found guilty. For me to write a letter every time he goes before the Parole Board would be me judging him again and again and again for the same crime. A crime that he turned to God and asked forgiveness for. A crime that he turned to me and asked forgiveness for.”
“Did you forgive him, Nana?” Liana’s words came out so low that her grandmother had to read her lips.
“I couldn’t put my baby’s soul to rest in my heart and move on with my life if I didn’t.”
“God, Nana,” Liana’s tears came down like a pouring rain. “I wish I was as strong as you. I wish that I could… forgive him, but I can’t. I try, but when I look at what he took from me… he didn’t just rob me of a mother, he robbed me of a father as well. How can I forgive him for that? I feel like if I forgive him, it’s like I’m saying what he did wasn’t that bad.”
Nana let a thin smile stretch across her face. “Baby, when it comes to forgiving him, it’s not about him. It’s about you moving on.”
Liana stared off in the distance. “I’m sorry, Nana, but I can’t.” She stood up and kissed her on the cheek. “I just stopped by to let you know I was in town. I didn’t plan on coming here and dumping my issues on you.”
“Chil’ please. That’s what I’m here for.”
Liana kissed her on the cheek again. “I’ll stop by tomorrow before I go back to the city.”
“And make sure you give that DA lady your phone number, so she can stop ringing my phone off the hook.”
Liana gave her two thumbs up before walking out the side door. As she sat in her truck replaying the kitchen scene in her head, she couldn’t get over the fact that when Wayne was leaving, she had to literally grind her teeth together to stop from calling after him. A quivering sensation started rippling down her legs, along her arms, and up her chest. Liana calmed her breathing while she pulled out her cell phone, and dialed Jenna’s number.
“Hey,” she spoke into the phone when Jenna picked up. “I’m on my way back. You want me to pick you up something to eat?” She listened to Jenna as she rattled off what she wanted from Roy’s Caribbean spot. “Hold up,” Liana said, looking for a pen and a piece of paper. She wrote down Jenna’s order. “Damn, girl. You sure you ain’t pregnant again?”
“Don’t even wish that on me,” Jenna said. “If I never get pregnant again, that’s too soon.”
Liana started her truck. “I’ll be there in a little while.”
CHAPTER 11
“You sure we’re getting in?” Liana asked Reese, as they drove by Sneaky Pete’s and saw the line of people, waiting to get in.
“Don’t worry. I told you I’ll get us in,” Reese said.
“You better,” Elizabeth said, as she found a parking spot around the corner. “I’m not even trying to wait on nobody’s line.”
“I said I got this.” Reese flipped her hand at Elizabeth.
As they walked up the block and past the people waiting to get inside, Liana got a good look at the behemoth working the door. He had his massive arms folded across his doublewide chest, as a red-boned cutie tried to work her magic on him to get in. He smiled as he politely removed her hand off his bowling ball-sized bicep.
Liana shook her head, mad at herself for allowing Reese to talk her into coming here on her last night in Albany. “We should’ve just spent the night with Jenna. After all, that was the main reason why I came up here,” she said to Reese.
Reese discreetly unbuttoned the two top buttons on her blouse, and put a little more umph in her step.
“Didn’t you just see how he dismissed home girl?” Elizabeth said to Reese.
“I’m not home girl,” Reese said, as she locked eyes with the human wall and smiled from ear to ear. He cracked a smile and winked at her.
“How you doing, Jabbar?” Reese said, as she walked up to him with her arms wide open.
Jabbar unfolded his arms and allowed her to disappear into his embrace. “After seeing you, I’m doing just swell.” The red-bone’s face got even redder as she sized up Reese.
Jabbar stepped to the side and opened the door for her. She waved Elizabeth and Liana over as she stepped past Jabbar.
“These are my girlfriends Elizabeth and Liana. Y’all, this is Jabbar.”
Jabber nodded. “Ladies, enjoy yourselves.”
Elizabeth and Liana nodded back and smiled.
Red-bone put her hands on her hips. “I know you ain’t just let them up in there, and I’ve been waiting for an hour to get in.”
Jabbar smiled. “You’ll be going in soon enough.”
“Soon enough is right now.” Red-bone tried to walk past him. Jabbar folded his arms across his chest and stood between her and the door. Red-bone had a better chance at passing through the eye of a needle than getting by him, but she tried pushing past him anyway. Before she had time to react, Jabbar grabbed her by the wrist. His grip sent volts of pain shooting up her arm, all the while, Jabbar smiled as he placed her back in line and told her to be patient. She massaged her wrist as she pouted. Too embarrassed to turn around to see if anyone saw what happened, she got off the line and walked away mumbling under her breath.
It had been so long since Liana had been to Sneaky Pete’s. She felt out of place. Most of the females had on outfits that were so scarcely tailored that they looked like the women just snatched them right off the designer’s mannequin while he was still in the process of making them. The fellas were the exact opposite. They were draped in denim, flannel, silk, and linen. They further covered themselves with platinum chains, iced-out
bracelets, watches and rings. Liana felt like her ears were being assaulted by the thumping music pounding out of the speakers. Reese grabbed her by the hand pulling her out of her daze and toward the bar.
“Three Pineapple Cosmos,” Reese shouted to the bartender, as she bopped her head to the music.
The bartender returned with their drinks, and held his hand up when Reese reached in her purse to pay. “The drinks are already paid for.”
“Oh really? By who?” she asked with plenty of attitude.
The bartender pointed to a brother at the other end of the bar. He smiled at Reese when she locked eyes with him, and he winked at Liana when she finally looked his way.
“Tell him, thanks, but no thanks, we can pay for our own drinks,” Reese said, reaching into her purse.
Elizabeth put her hand on top of hers. “Hold on Sister Scorned, we came out tonight to enjoy ourselves, and part of enjoying ourselves is not spending our money, right?”
Reese cut her eyes at her.
“Am I right?”
Reese mocked the smile the brother was flashing their way and mouthed thank you, before rolling her eyes and passing Elizabeth and Liana their drinks.
“Now, that wasn’t hard, was it?” Elizabeth asked, as she sipped her drink.
“Humph, that was the easy part,” Reese retorted. “The hard part is prying his paws off you.”
“Oh, please,” Liana said, sipping her drink.
“You know how these men are. They buy you a drink, and they think they own you.” She looked at Liana. “You saw when he winked at you? Mark my words, he’s gonna be sniffing your tail all night long.”
“Did we come here to have fun or did we come here for a man bashing convention?” Elizabeth gave Liana and Reese a hard stare before heading to the dance floor. “You know where I’ll be.”
“There’s an empty table over there,” Reese said, pointing.
They weaved through the crowd, and sat down. Liana looked around and smiled at the men she made eye contact with.
“It’s not the same without Jenna,” she said to Reese, who was looking at Elizabeth shake her butt on the dance floor with a light-skinned brother.
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