“Did you tell him?” Nyna asked watching Big Mama sway her head.
“I figured you’d come home eventually and handle your business.”
Nyna frowned. “I don’t have any business here.”
Big Mama chuckled. “Don’t let what you went through cloud your vision of what you’re going too. There’s businesshere. Unfinished, barely started, business. Business you allowed Veya’s passing to put a halt to.”
“You’re talking about DJ?” Nyna asked before scoffing. “He hasn’t been waiting on me.”
Big Mama buzzed in laughter bringing her tea to her lips. “He’s probably messed around with a few here and there but no one can get close to him. Because no one is you. So you, my dear, you have business.”
“You don’t want me to cry about all of this first and get over it?”
“You’ve been delayed and set back with every opportunity to return back to Lavendale but you’re here. I’d say you’re over it. I’d say you’re ready to move on.”
Nyna pushed out a sigh and attempted to change the subject. “Why didn’t you have Thanksgiving dinner?”
“Honestly since you left the holiday’s haven’t felt the same without you and your sister. Y’all aren’t in the kitchen making jokes and laughing. I had no one to teach recipes to anymore.”
“But you had DJ?”
“Not in the beginning. He was still on his revenge tour wanting to avenge his brother and it almost cost him his life,” Big Mama shared making Nyna’s eyes grow in size. “Uh uh, that’s for him to tell you. He’s coming over for Sunday dinner tomorrow you two can catch up then. You should let me do something with all that hair of yours.”
“Right now?”
“After you rest. You need it.”
four
DJ
If it weren’t for his phone reminding him that he a standing Sunday date with Big Mama he would’ve slept through the alarm, first and second service. The last time he did that, she was parked sideways in his driveway attempting to find a way in to make sure nothing had happened to him. The terror in her eyes made him vow to himself to never put her through that again. So if taking her to church meant losing out on sleep would keep that terror at bay, he’d miss out on sleep. Maybe they trauma bonded but they were – for a while – the only anchor the ones gone the other had.
His heavy hand patted the other side of the bed he found his phone and stopped the alarm. It took a few minutes for him to shake the sleep from his being and get out of out the bed. After stretching and wishing for more sleep, he trekked to the bathroom to ready himself for church. Dressed in a dress shirt, slacks and his chain and gun tucked he was out the door and enroute a few blocks over to the house that used to make his heart race.
When he arrived, Big Mama was stepping out of the house dressed to the nines as if she could sense he was close by. It wasthe fourth Sunday, she was dressed down in a casual dress and how somehow was going to manage to outdress the rest of the elder women at church.
“None of those fly hats today?” DJ asked meeting her at the bottom stare and reaching for her hand.
“And cover up my good hair? I think not. Maybe next week,” she sassed holding on to his hand as he assisted her to the SUV. “Thank you for coming to get an old lady.”
“It’s just us?” he posed looking back toward to the door hoping to see Nyna.
“Mmhmm. She needs to rest,” Big Mama replied climbing inside and looking at him. “You do too. I can watch online.”
“Nah, you already put that ‘fit on and everyone needs to see it. I’ll be cool.”
“Fall asleep in service and I’m recording it and showing everyone who will watch,” she shared before pulling the door closed.
DJ drove her to church, participated in the praise and worship with her and honestly this was the only thing that kept him from turning back to the streets. No one had ever showed him how to be a man. He learned how from the streets. Big Mama gave him nourishment. Nyna and those eyes gave him purpose. Charlie could’ve called him whatever he wanted, what mattered is that he knew he was meant for Nyna and he wouldn’t allow anything to stand in the way of that. He knew when she left in a tearful goodbye that she would be back and he’d be ready for her.
Big Mama called his attendance at Greater Hope Temple of Praise his time to prepare himself to lead and control himself and lead a family. She’d tell him, “I know what kind of woman I raised, she needs a leader not because she’s weak, but because she can do it all on her own and if you can’t lead her she has no use for you.”
He found it funny but the honesty was on point. Nyna was a leader and a woman who could figure it out without much help. What got him remotely close to stealing her heart, like he did cars, was that he offered her a solution before she could see the problem. He offered her safety before she could feel the flames of danger. He offered her space and stillness before the chaos started to war. And then there was a point where there wasn’t anything he could do. Not just for her, for him too.
That space in his life was dark – weighted.
Big Mama’s, “well” In agreement with whatever the bishop said brought him out of his head and his mind off of Nyna for a moment.
