“Wah you a smile bout?” She flips the camera and holds up the ultrasound pic.
“Like, I knew I was pregnant, yeah… but from mi get dis? It feel real,” she says, giggling. I smile, watching her light up. The pride in her eyes damn near choke me. “It hit mi now. I’m really someone’s mom,” she adds, sitting up straighter.
I smile too. She look happy in a way mi wish mi could actuallyexplain. I have no words. She sets the photo down, eyes still locked on me. “So… weh you a go now?”
“Just waiting pon mi uncle fi reach,” I say.
“Okay,” she says with a soft smile, then: “What business y’all dealing with?” Always curious.
“Him a open a hotel. Mi partner wid him, so mi deh yah fi sign some documents and work out wi percentages,” I explain.
She nods. “Oh, that’s big. Congrats baby.”
“Thanks,” I say, then pause. “Wah you eat since you reach home?”
She holds up her plate with Cobb salad and nuggets. “Hot,” I grin.
She flicks her wrist and do that lil’ gesture the girls do these days. “Periodt.”
I laugh.
“Mi love it. Mama add nuggets too,” she giggles again.
Then I hear Miss Cherry calling from the other room. “Nickoi! Your uncle reach!”
I exhale hard. Zara pouts. “Guess that mean mi affi go now.”
“Nuh fi long b. Soon as mi finish up, mi a call yuh back, Mami.”
“I know,” she says softly. “Mi just a wait. Keep mi updated though, okay?”
“Mi soon link yuh… heart a love,” I tell her. She kisses the screen before it goes black.
21
Demand
“This is just one of my mansions, my boy,” my uncle says, a grin curling around the cigarette in his mouth as the smoke coils upward.
I glance around the grand foyer. The house is massive. A cathedral of wealth. Twin staircases curve like royalty down into a marble-floored expanse. Light from an enormous crystal chandelier shimmers across the glossy tiles, and sunlight pours through a stained-glass dome above us, casting colors on the gleaming white walls.
“No joke… mi love the look,” I admit, nodding.
He chuckles, pleased. My uncle’s my father’s older brother, the only one who always showed up. He was there when my father died, standing strong in the middle of our grief. I never really knew what it meant to be broke, my father had always made sure of that. But when he was gone, my uncle keptstepping in. Whether it was to lend money or just be present. The same way Nature move.
He gave me business advice when I took over as a teenager. Schooled me on moves, put me on game. Since then, every year, I throw a party for my father, honor his name and no matter what, my uncle shows up. Rain, sun, or flight delays. He’s a real one. And he’s one of the few genuine ones left in the family.
“Come along. We’ve got business to handle,” he says once he’s done giving me the tour.
We pause at the railing of the grand staircase, and he whistles for someone. A woman walks up. Moves like a helper but talks like she owns him.
“What can I get you, Orion?” she asks, hand brushing his shoulder. The way she calls him by name makes me pause.
Everybody knows you don’t just call a badman by his government name, unless you’re close. Real close.
Must be his woman.Butshe’s dressed like a maid.
A nuh my business that stillz…
