“Ma, I think that’s him. Sevyn. Daddy’s lawyer,” I said, lifting my finger up, so that I could point at him. We were standing in the back of the line, and my mom squinted her eyes too, so that she could get a better look at him.
“That is him. My God. Girllll, if only I was a few years younger,” she voiced, and I laughed, but I couldn’t even say that she was talking crazy because Sevyn was fine, and I mean that in the most respectful way.
I told Blake’s crazy ass that I was going to hire him to be my father’s attorney, and of course she had to tell me how she would have fucked him. I don’t think that there was another man alive that I would find so attractive that I would risk my relationship with Tank. I was stupidly in love. In just a few months, this man has brought out so many feelings inside of me, that I didn’t even know existed.
We made it through security, and I was able to get a locker for my mom, and I to store our things. Next, we were lined up, and put in a room, where we were going to wait to be called. The second we made it to that room, we spotted Sevyn, and he was standing up against the wall, with his briefcase in his hand. It was as if he was waiting for us. We saw him, and both my mom stood right in front of him. He looked at the two of us and offered a friendly smile.
“Hey. I’m Dionne,” I spoke first.
My voice shook a little bit, which was crazy because I wasn’t the nervous, or shy type. I think what made me a little nervous was the knowing that I was standing in front of a man that held so much power. Not only that, but the way he represented my father would determine if he came home or not. In a sense, it’s as if my father’s freedom was in his hands.
“How you doing, Dionne? It’s nice to finally meet you. Is this your sister?” he asked, and I giggled, as I turned my head, so that I could look at my mom.
She was standing there with a smile on her face, just eating it up. I didn’t know if Sevyn was trying to be charming, or if he genuinely didn’t know that this was my mom. I never told him that I was bringing someone with me, so it wasn’t like he was suspecting that my mom would be here with me.
“No. This is my mom,” I replied, and when I said that, his eyes bucked, and he looked at me like he didn’t believe me. It was a look that I was used to getting from people when theywould find out that my mom has three grown daughters, and that I was her oldest, and was 38 years old.
“Wow. I wasn’t trying to be flip by asking that. I genuinely thought that you two were sisters. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said to my mom, reaching his hand out, so that he could shake it. My mom extended her hand for him.
“Nice to meet you as well. I’m Antoinette,” my mom replied.
From there, Sevyn was able to get the attention of one of the guards, letting him know that we were all here, and if he could take us to the back in one of the rooms. It’s as if they worked on his command because I know for a fact that if myself, or anyone else would have requested that, they would have probably laughed in our face, and told us to sit our ass down, and wait to go in the visitation room with the rest of the visitors. When Sevyn said it, the guard quickly moved his feet, and he led us to the back.
The room that he took us to was small. It had enough chairs for all of us. My mom and I took our seats, while Sevyn was on the other side of the table, and he opened his briefcase, and started pulling out different folders. I’m sure those folders held all kinds of information regarding my dad.
“I’m sure you already looked over his case, and everything. I’m sure you also were able to see some of the trouble that my dad got in while he’s been locked up. Can you give me your honest opinion, and not sell me a dream? How much faith do you have that he’ll come home?” you could hear the desperation in my voice because this was something that I really wanted. I didn’t want anything else in the world as bad as I wanted my dad home.
Sevyn looked up from the files that he pulled out, and he placed his eyes on me. His eyes left mine for a second, just so that he could look at the door, and then they landed back on me.
“I went through your father’s case. I’ve been studying Dionte ever since you called me. I did the math. You said that he went in when you were one years old, and your currently 38, so of course, I wondered why it had to take 30 plus years for him to finally get his chance at a parole hearing. That alone told me that something was off, so that’s when I started doing my digging. The stuff I found weren’t new charges. Just things that happened while he’s been incarcerated that added more time to his already lengthy sentence, and as you already know, that’s what kept pushing his parole back. The stuff that I saw were all just disciplinary write-ups. Nothing too extreme. No assaults on staff, no new felonies, or the things that I would be worried about. His last offense was something that happened a little over three years ago, which was a fight that he’d gotten into. Prior to that, he does have other contraband charges, refusal to follow certain orders, and although they aren’t big offenses, those kind of infractions add up when you’re in a facility like this, and you take that shit with you when you go on to your parole hearing,” he started out.
My heart was racing with each word that he spoke to me because I didn’t know where he was going with this. He still didn’t get to the part where he let me know if he had faith in my dad coming home.
“But that was then. I’ve done plenty of parole hearings, and what I can say is that most times, what matters is if there has been a shift in the behavior over the years. During your time of rehabilitation, do the members on the parole staff trust that you can go out with the rest of society, and actually show that you’ve changed, and you learned something? My faith comes in that there is enough staff on board that are all willing to hear him out. I can do my part, but Dionte has to do his part and sell himself too. Make it believable that he’s changed, and he’s ready to come home,” he replied, and it was hitting me now how serious thiswas getting, so my eyes got a little misty, which caused a tear to fall.
My mom, who never let me shed my tears on my own whenever I was in her presence, reached over, and she put a hand on my back, softly soothing me.
“I’ll explain the rest once your father gets here. I’ll leave you with something, so that you can have somewhat of a peace of mind. I know what it feels like to grow up missing the man that was supposed to teach you everything. My pops was gunned down on my first birthday, prepared to walk in the house to give me my birthday presents. I don’t have a single memory of him. So, when you reached out to me, telling me that you had to spend the past 37 years without your dad, trust me, I don’t take that kind of stuff lightly. Shit, Ima fight for him like he’s mine. I don’t want you to lose out on your pops twice. You lost him once to the system, and I don’t need a second time to be on broken hope. I wouldn’t let that shit happen,” his words warmed my heart, and it gave me that push of belief in him that I needed.
As I was wiping my eyes, the door to the room that we were in opened. My dad walked in, and for the first time that I’ve been coming down to see him, they had him chained up. His hands, and his feet were shackled, and that immediately angered me.
“Standard procedure, Dionne. I see it in your eyes that you’re ready to go off. Because this is a private room, with no officers standing inside, they’re required to restrain him?—”
“Restrain him for who, and what? He isn’t going to do anything to anybody. They have his wrist bound, and his ankles shackled like he’s a monster. I don’t like that,” my voice cracked, as I stood up.
“And I understand that. It’s not about him being a threat. I know he isn’t a threat to you, or anyone else in this room, but that’s the prison’s rules, Dionne. Its only because of the kind of setting that we’re in right now. Had we would have been out inthe open, you know that you wouldn’t have saw him like this,” Sevyn said to me.
“Chill out, baby. I know you don’t like seeing this shit, but this what we gotta do, so that we can sit down, and take the proper steps for me to come home. Come here,” my dad sounded cool, and like he wasn’t fazed by the shackles. If he wasn’t, I wasn’t going to stress myself about it, either.
The guard ended up leaving and letting Sevyn know that he would be back in thirty minutes to get him because that’s all the time they were giving us.
I walked over to my dad, admiring his handsome face, and I wrapped my arms around him, hugging him, happy to see him, even if it was under these conditions. I kissed him on his cheek, and then I pulled away. His eyes left mine, and they went over to my mom, who was turned in her seat, looking at him.
He tried to keep a mug on his face, but that smile was itching to come out. My parents hadn’t seen each other in years. Hell, once I was old enough to make this drive by myself, my mom stopped showing up. Plus, her and my dad used to get into petty arguments all the time, where they couldn’t hold a civilized conversation, so they hadn’t seen, or spoken to one another in years. He didn’t know what my mom looked like with her pixie cut. Last time he saw her, she had thick hair down her back. My mom looked damn good too, and he knew it, which is why he was standing there with that big smile on his face.
“Shit, they need to put the shackles on her. Ay Sevyn, don’t let that pretty face fool you. Her ass will do some motha fuckin damage,” my dad joked, talking to Sevyn as if the two of them were home boys from way back.
They only had one interaction with each other over the phone the other day, but it was brief. Sevyn laughed, as his eyes darted over to my mom, and then back towards my dad.
