“Take your time. I saw your ankles looked swollen in Target.”
She looked down with a frustrated sigh. “Yeah, they are. My body is going through the wringer at the end of this pregnancy. I keep telling myself I don’t have much longer to go.”
"Well, you are doing a good job." She smiled.
“Come on. Let's get those big ankles elevated and your Crunch Bars beside you.”
She laughed all while wincing in pain.
I walked her up the stairs carefully and offered to pick her up several times, but she said she needed to walk.
We were moving slow but she was alright until we got to her door and instantly stopped in our tracks once we saw the door hanging off the hinges.
“What the hell!” Pernelle was about to walk in before I put my arm out to stop her.
“Don’t walk in here first. Let me check.”
My hand slipped to my waistband, and I stepped inside, and the strong smell of bleach and piss hit my nose. Pernelle's spot was completely trashed, clothes everywhere, couch cushions ripped, drawers dumped, and bleach stains splattered everywhere like somebody was trying to erase her whole existence.
I heard Pernelle creeping up behind me, gasping once she saw the disaster that happened in her shit.
“Oh my God”
“Go back out there, P. Let me make sure the mutha fucka who did this is not still here,” I told her again, checking the rooms, with slow, careful steps like a police officer on a sting.
Once the coast was clear, I came back out. Her eyes were glossy, her lip trembled, and her whole body shook.
“You think one of them muthafucka’s related to Efunny did this?” I asked.
“I, I don’t know.”
Her voice cracked, and I pulled her close, wrapping my arm around her waist.
“Hey. Look at me. It’s alright. Don’t sweat this shit. I’ll replace everything in here with something better.”
“How could someone do this. My stuff. All my stuff.”
Pernelle had never shown me weakness before and always had an attitude with her chin held high. Seeing her fold like this did something to me. Her being upset affected my seed.
“What am I supposed to do now?” she whispered. “This was all I had, and it’s all ruined.”
“P,” I said, lifting her chin gently with my fingers. “Look at me. I told you that I got you. I’m taking you to my spot tonight, and later this week, we’ll find you somewhere else to live. Now stop crying. You making me want to spaz and that's not good. If I go shoot up Efunny family spot I won't be free to take care of my daughter.”
“Okay,” she sniffled, sounding like a scared little girl.
At that moment, I knew if my daughter ever cried like this, I’d break the neck of whoever made it happen. Daycare worker, schoolteacher, family member, anybody could get it about my daughter. But whoever did this shit has to see me eventually, I'm not playing about Pernelle no more. She's family to me now. I'm already feeling what Hov was talking about.
I got in my car and took off towards Brooklyn when my phone rang with a call from Bria. Why I smiled when I saw her number, I don’t know. I hadn’t fucked her, and that’s usually the kind of stuff that got reactions out of me. Things like looking forward to pussy that I liked in the past.
“Hello?”
“Yo,” I replied after our lines connected.
“Hey, are you busy?”
“Always, but what you need?”
“I need to see you. Can I come over to talk?”
