by Amarie Avant
It was the fourth quarter. Two minutes and fifteen seconds on the clock. Always a fan of football with Otis, Raven knew the rules of the game. The other team had the ball, were winning by one point, and the potential to score again.
How had this awkward boy grown into such a strong and confident person? It was clear he was calling the shots while his team members huddled together. Arms carved in steel were raised in exaggerated movements, probably explaining the way the game would play out.
If she hadn’t been feeling the pull of attraction to him yet, watching him now was the last piece.
~~~
Brinton Prep just intercepted the ball. Liam shouted the motto, uplifting his team members as they huddled together. He looked into the bleachers, spotting Raven with his friends; she was gazing in his direction. With a sudden burst of adrenaline, Liam was ready for any move his opponents made. Like a scene out of a science-fiction film, each of his opponents morphed into Chris as Liam got behind the center. Exhausted but ready to win, butterflies fluttered in his stomach as he crouched down.
He shouted numbers to throw off the defense. The center hiked the ball; Liam did a five-step drop and saw his two primary receivers were double covered. Sprinting down the field, Liam dodging linemen back and forth, broke a tackle over a safety as he zeroed in on the end zone, almost being hit by a cornerback. Leaping off his toes, he lunged into the end zone as time disappeared.
After the game, Liam hurried outside of the stadium, noticing his dad with his friend Alvin.
“Junior, you ready?” Jonathan asked.
“Just waiting for Raven.”
Under a weak street lamp, Liam thought he noticed a flicker of concern in his father’s eyes. What was that all about? Elise never approved of Liam and Raven’s friendship, but Jonathan never shared those feelings. Hell, Jonathan rarely exposed any sentiment out of the courtroom. Usually when his father came to a game, they would go and fill up on pizza and hot wings, father and son. It appeared Alvin was also going to join in on their bonding time. What was the issue with having Raven join, too?
~~~
The Pizza Spot had all of the makings of a great, cheap Italian pizzeria, from hay scattered on the wood floors to the red and white checkered booths. The restaurant smelled like fresh dough, mozzarella, and the best sauce in town. It was packed with sports lovers and families. Waitresses wearing football, hockey, and basketball jerseys came around with cold pitchers of beer or soda. Big televisions were situated for panoramic viewing of the sports network.
Raven noticed Liam's father had given her a wary look when they arrived. But why?
Jonathan had saved her from juvenile hall one time, not a year ago. In the middle of a church service, Raven walked into the sanctuary and kicked a man straight in the balls. She'd gotten in a few good punches, too.
In the past, the sherriff and pastor made it their duty to save her from many of her bigger fights. But the guy she had accosted at church was a grown man, he had clout in both of the Carolinas. And he was also molesting one of the kids in her children's choir.
When the sherriff dragged her down to the station, and she finally rehashed the story one of the children told, he apologized, almost crying, said he’d look into it, but he couldn't help her. The guy was pressing charges. Reverend Jackson and the sherriff, who were good friends, argued about it. Then Jonathan came by. He'd cared. The attorney saved the hot-headed girl.
Yet as the four ate dinner, Jonathan didn't engage her as usual. He had always given her every bit of respect that Elise refused to. Maybe that was just it. He compensated for his wife's cold shoulder. Lord knows why, but the day she snapped and beat a man in the middle of the church, Elise came to church. Go figure, because the woman rarely did. And Elise stared at her like she was a rabid animal.
“AJ, I believe I owe you fifty dollars.” Jonathan patted his friend on the back while they watched highlights from college football games.
Raven’s head cocked to the side. Being slighted by Liam's father was a distant memory now. She glanced at Alvin, the same man who often enjoyed Sunday dinner at her grandparents’ house over the years. Could he be Charlene’s “AJ” from the Valentine teddy bear? The box of items she and Liam found in her grandparents’ attic, the very day Liam vanished, had been filled with her mom’s high school yearbook, a diary, and a Valentine teddy bear. The bear had CS, for Charlene Shaw, and the infamous AJ initials. Of course, she knew his name was Alvin Jenkins, but his quiet demeanor, old-school afro, and plain looks didn’t indicate a likely match for her beautiful mother.
Every few seconds, she’d stare. Then had to make herself turn away, feeling somewhat ridiculous. Okay. Raven, you’ve played ‘Go Fish’ with him since you were a baby. Calm down! Liam took her hand beneath the table, as if sensing her inability to breathe. She smiled and clutched his hand tighter, as the revelation smacked her in the face. I’ve played cards with my FATHER!
Making a mental note of his features, she compared them against her mother’s tenth grade high school picture, which was embedded in her brain. Alvin’s skin was lighter than hers, which made sense, because her mother was a rich dark chocolate. A bubble nose, smack dab in the middle of his face, made her uncertain. Charlene’s nose was petite. His nose made his beady eyes look even smaller, and his lips were but two lines. Sipping on a can of Sprite, Raven had a rush of energy. How would she go about talking to her father–Alvin Jenkins?
~~~
This night was becoming a mystery to Liam. First, there was Dad’s vague expression when he invited Raven to dinner. Then he thought about tackling the fact that Monica had to be the one to tell Chris about them seeing each other. How do I tell Raven about Monica?
To top it all off, on the way to his car, his father told him to come home for dinner on Sunday. Liam hadn’t been home since his mother had forced him to live in France. He was practically the only consistent inhabitant of Chateau Delacroix, one of his grandparents’ palaces. There was a wealth of servants on rotation, and he never got to know any of them. Elise had come to visit, but they didn’t talk much, didn’t have that mother-son bond.
“You’ve been quiet for a long time,” Liam mentioned as they sped down the highway toward Bellwood.
“Alvin Jenkins!” Raven exclaimed. Other than the guy being funny-looking, Liam didn’t get what she was laughing about. “All this time…he comes over to get his car fixed all the time, the transmission, and then his brakes and…and he comes to Sunday dinner a lot! I can’t believe he’s AJ!”
“AJ?” Liam cocked an eyebrow. He wanted to pull over and talk, but they would be cutting it too close to her curfew.
“Remember in the attic, the Valentine teddy bear?”
“Wait, wait, you think Alvin is your father?” The man looks like a blowfish.
“He has to be. Granted, I haven't read Charlene’s entire journal. I skimmed and found that she always went to AJ’s football games. And your dad mentioned the ‘good times’ when they played for Bellwood High... He just has to be!”
“So what? My dad was a football player at Bellwood High, they played together.”
“But your dad’s name isn’t AJ, dummy.”
“All I’m saying is you don’t look anything like him.”
“Good thing, too!”
Liam almost laughed. Intuition kicked in. “I don’t know, Re. Alvin is a…good guy. Is it logical for him to deny—?”
“So you’re saying my father isn’t a good guy?”
He took a deep breath and glanced at her. She’d only asked about her father once in her lifetime, well, as far as he was certain. The outcome wasn’t as expected, so he decided to take a measured approach. “All I’m saying is you’ve only asked Annette about your father once—”
“Correct,” Raven replied tartly.
“Do you remember that one day? Our thirteenth summer, where it seemed you’d inadvertently signed me up for a mega triathlon?”
She bit her lip for a second in thought.
“Liam we don’t have time to go jogging down memory lane.”
“Oh, you don’t remember... Dirt bike riding,” he began to list off an arsenal of the activities Raven facilitated—in her defense, they started the day bright and early. “Just to further nudge your memory, it was that very afternoon we ended up in the gorge.”
A half-smile warmed its way on her face. “Hey, hey, hey, you don’t seem to have suffered any mental problems. No harm, no foul, and most importantly, no concussion,” she joked. “But, I did show you the best day of your life.” She chuckled, using the line he always told her.
Liam laughed. That day would forever be imbedded in his mind. Elise didn’t have a nurturing bone in her body. None of the women in his family did. They were either on a power trip, like Estella, his nana, or they were nonexistent, such as the women on his father’s side. But that day when Raven had held him closely, frantically doing everything possible to keep him awake…
The entire day was one of the worst days of her life, filled with worry and angst from the start. To him, it had started off as one of the best days of his life. Raven had challenged him on their many daredevil missions before they’d called it quits. Yes, it was the best day of his life, because of Raven’s nurturing after he fell.
Liam never told Raven he hadn’t hit his head too hard at the bottom of the lake. No, he knew her agitation, which had them on a death mission all day, was because of her desire to ask about her father. Something told him that there were certain mysteries that should never be solved.
To think, the townspeople always talked crap about Charlene, but they never once mentioned her father. So he’d lied. The bloody gash on Liam’s forehead while diving into the gorge was more show than anything. That evening, after the scare, Raven asked Annette.
“Granny seemed white as a ghost when you asked, Raven.” I think your father has left bad blood between your family. Even worse than Charlene.
“I’ve only asked Granny about Charlene once, too.” Raven’s voice sounded defensive. No, desperate. There were undertones of desperation. As children, she downplayed her need for parents. But he always knew that somewhere under that hard exterior, a girl mourned empty memories.
“Okay. Granny is stubborn and overly dramatic at times,” Liam said. To gear the conclusion in her favor, he mentioned the one serial killer who got caught when they were nine. The man wasn’t active while they were kids. The sociopath had just been caught that year, and had a slew of charges of abduction and murder of young black women, trailing back from the seventies.
“Yeah, that asshole ruined our lives for an entire summer as Granny watched the trial. No outings and the psycho was already behind bars.”
“Exactly.” Liam nodded. “Okay, say Alvin is your father. What do you want to do about it?”
Raven was raised on the foundation of independence; though there was no way in hell Liam believed Alvin to be her father, he knew she would already have a plan in action. He pulled up to Raven’s home, just in time.
“I’m going to talk to him first thing in the morning.”
“I’m coming with you.” Liam decided now wasn’t the time for a goodnight kiss. Their friendship was in limbo. Treading those waters was overwhelming, but he sensed that it was not the appropriate time for seducing Raven.
CHAPTER 10
Raven looked up at the dingy white shutters framing the windows of Alvin Jenkins’s home. The once-yellow paint was chipped and faded. She held Liam’s hand as they walked up the dirt sidewalk and onto the porch. Before she knew it, he’d put his hands around her waist and lifted her up.
“What are you doing?” The words came out in a squeak. They hadn’t touched, not besides holding hands or that quick kiss she initiated on New Year’s Eve.
“This porch is missing planks,” he said, looking in her eyes as he held her up.
She noticed how sandy brown his blond hair was as the sun glinted off of it. Guess that’s what it looks like all the way up here? She inhaled the scent of his confidence before he placed her back on solid ground. Able to regain her bearings, Raven murmured her gratitude. “Thanks.”
For a moment she’d forgotten why they were on a rickety, old porch, and whose house they were at as she looked up at him. His jaw had become more angular, stronger, and it coupled well with his self-assurance. Even if Liam looked like a pug, the ambition radiating from his golden skin made her gulp with wanting. With a grin, he leaned past her and knocked on the door.
The door cracked open to a dark living area illuminated by one lamp. A wheelchair surrounded Alvin’s mother. Ms. Jenkins had on a cotton nightgown with pink roses that ended just before two stumps where legs should have been. She asked, “Who is it?” looking in their direction with the empty eyes of a blind woman.
“Um…it’s me, Raven Shaw, and I have Jonathan Lemaître Jr. with me.” The lady didn’t know them personally, but surely she had to know her surname and Liam’s given name.
“Oh, yes. Alvin talks about you all the time, Raven. Come in.” Rolling back on her wheelchair, she made a slight squeaking noise from the rubber moving swiftly across the distressed wood flooring. It was surprising that she was able to move so fast with those feeble arms of hers, into the tiny walking space in the living room, not hitting a thing.
“Sit down.” Ms. Jenkins patted the flannel love seat and did a 180-degree turn in front of her guests.
Raven and Liam stepped inside. Their eyes attempting to adjust to the darkness, they sat, taking turns sneezing with each inhale of the dust.
“Oh, Raven, I remember the last time I was at church, ’bout ten years ago. You were singin’ at the top of your lungs. You were the cutest lil’ bitty thang. Alvin tells me you still sing, and you’re head of the adult choir now, and you still real tiny! And Junior, you was so fat, I was surprised when Alvin told me he went to your game… I expected you to be on the defense, trying to sit on the player with the ball…and shucks, Alvin told me you was the one running that ball. I said ‘that lil’, fat white boy? He told me you was buff now.” She gave a snicker and kept right on talking. “He said you were more like your Dad when he played football. I mean, that Jonathan was a fine, young man. You look like him?”
Raven chuckled under her breath. “Ohhh, Ms. Jenkins wants some little, fat white boy in her life...”
Liam elbowed Raven softly. “Well, yes, Ms. Jenkins, I guess I do.”
“Mmmmm, your pappy was a pretty one.” The old battle axe seemed to be licking her chops, thinking of the days before her vision failed her. “So what brings y’all by?”
“We’re looking for Alvin,” Liam said as Raven silently laughed.
“He’s at work. That boy works six days a week. Bless his heart.”
“When will he be home?” Raven’s heart thumped. It had taken all her energy not to ask him if he was her father last night, especially in front of Liam’s dad.
“He works ten-hour shifts, just started… He should be back tonight.”
Ms. Jenkins carried on the conversation for another hour or so. She asked the kids about school, their graduation in a few months. Liam closed his eyes and leaned on Raven’s shoulder, pretending to be asleep. With every touch, Raven felt all excited inside.
Then as if they were the ones keeping her busy, Ms. Jenkins finally let them know she needed to take a nap. “I need y’all to run along now. You done just tired me all out.”
“That old lady can yap!” Raven said as they walked toward her home.
He took her hand before they crossed the street as the Greyhound bus zipped by.
She smiled wickedly. “Thanks, Fatso.”
“That lady called me Fatso for over an hour. I don’t need to hear it from you, too. What’s your rush?”
“Monica got off work early today. She said she would be at my house soon. I can’t spend all my weekends with you, or I won’t have any friends, Fatso.” Raven pinched his cheek with a smile, but he still looked serious. “What’s wrong, Liam? I’m sorry.
I’ll stop calling you fat. Should I call you buff?” She licked her lips, but her eyes were bright with laughter as she tried to squeeze one of his arms, feeling pure strength.
“Have you told Monica what Chris tried to do to you?” Liam took her hand, stopping her in the grassy knoll in between Alvin’s house and the street that Raven lived on.
“No. Quite frankly, if you hadn't happened by, you wouldn't know, either.”
“Who do you think told him about you spending so much time with me?”
“You think she told Chris?” Raven let go of his hand and folded her arms. “Oh, I get it. Monica moved into town right before your disappearing act. Well, don’t you worry Sir Goldie Locks, she didn’t replace you as best friend. To be honest, I don’t believe in stupid titles anymore. Hello, like I just said, you think she told Chris. Right? Man-the-fuck-up and agree!”
Liam just glared at her. They had a standoff for a few moments before he spoke, “I didn’t say that, Raven, but you better take a moment to breathe before cussing at me again.”
She gave a sideways glance.
He grabbed her arm and yanked her to his chest, almost a little too hard. “We aren’t kids, Re. And trust me, baby girl, I’m all man. Man enough to take off my belt the next time something nasty comes out of that gorgeous little mouth of yours.”
Raven glanced to the ground. The Liam she used to know would meet her eye to eye, because they both were short, and damn it, he didn’t argue with her. But she’d started this mess. Perhaps this was the aftereffects of the children’s choir meeting she conducted last night. Josh acted a fool, and now she was too.
Though Liam’s warning scared her, Raven’s blue eyes turned a dark shade of indigo. She did sensor her words. “First of all, you and I, we aren’t doing anything worth telling. Second, there’s nobody I know who’d gossip about us, since as I’ve said, we aren’t doing anything. Regardless, I still won’t stop being friends with Monica because you think she gossiped. You don’t know her. And she’s been here for me since day one of our friendship. How about you?” Yeah, I got right on that soap box to ask him one single question.
