“Good morning!” she beamed, offering me a huge plate of homemade bread, bacon, sausage links, eggs, and beans.
I looked around the plate at her, and she dropped her head, making me laugh. My mother was the type of mom who never apologized, she’d just buy me something I wanted or make me some food. Like when I was twelve and she whooped the shit out of me for something Hell did. When she found out that it wasn’t me, instead of apologizing, she took me out for a meal. Even at my big ass age, she was still up to the same antics.
“Hurry up before it gets cold,” she said, shaking the plate at me. Still, not willing to say the wordsI’m sorry.
“Thank you,” I chuckled and took the plate from her hand. I took a seat at the dining table, and she quickly joined me with her own plate.
“Homemade bread?” I asked, lifting a piece to bite into.
My mom shrugged.
“I just felt like it, Makari. It’s been a long time since I made some bread.”
In other words, she’s finally realized the error of her ways and was really sorry. I just simpered and started eating.
“I’ve been thinking, how about I hire a housekeeper for you,” she said.
I frowned.
“For what? I’m hardly here anyway.”
“Boy, just let me do what I do.” She waved me off. I just hunched my shoulders and told her to go ahead. She was gonna do whatever she wanted anyway.
“I will make some calls and get someone in by next week. It would be nice to have someone bring some groceries or something for you. Thank God I thought to bring my own, otherwise there wouldn’t be anything here to make.”
I nodded and finished off my food before going for a second plate.
“And I won’t intervene anymore, I promise,” Mom said in a low voice. I turned to look at her, realizingthatwas how she apologized.
“Thank you.”
My mama was a grown woman and could make her own choices. There was nothing I could do if she wanted my father around her, but I did have a say so in my own life, and he wasn’t wanted.
At least now, we were finally on the same page.
I spent a few hours chatting with my mama before my brother called to say he needed me to meet him somewhere.
I arrived at the address he gave me and instantly felt pissed off knowing that our dad was there too. But I knew Hell. He wouldn’t try to get us in the same room, so it had to be something major going on.
My brother only cared about the relationship he and I had, so he never tried to fix the shit between me and Orlando. He had his relationship with Pops and I had mine. End of story.
Hell played referee though because every time I saw Orlando, we got into it, and although I knew I should just ignore him, unfortunately he knew how to push my buttons and make me react.
However, seeing as everyone from The Society was in attendance, I made a vow to ignore Orlando if he tried to piss me off.
Making my way inside, I found my brother and, of course, he was with Orlando. My brother stood to his feet to greet me with a hug. I didn’t even bother to look in Orlando’s way and neither did he. Thankfully, whatever was about to happen was more important than me, and I was grateful for that.
It had been many years since everyone affiliated with The Society was in one room like this. All the sanction leaders from all the boroughs and those out of state were in attendance. Yeah, something serious was going on.
I took a seat beside Hell and looked around the room. Some people I knew and others I didn’t.
“Did someone fuck up?” Orlando questioned Hell. Probably what everyone in the room was thinking. My brother shrugged and continued to look down at his phone.
I noticed Sony sitting across the room with his pops. His eyes were on me. I turned my nose up at him because for some reason, that nigga moved sus to me. Always watching whatothers were doing instead of focusing on his own shit. I only tolerated him because he was Kelechi’s best friend, but even then, I made sure I had very little interactions with him.
Ignoring Sony, I looked around the room again, expecting to see another face. Shakur. It had been years since I saw that nigga, and after seeing him last night, I couldn’t stop wondering why he was back all of a sudden.
Sony had told us they got into some type of disagreement and Shakur fled behind it. That story never sat right with me even after hearing it a million times over. I didn’t know Shakur like that, but from the little I did know, I couldn’t see him running away.
