“Nah. Not Antoinette. She looks innocent,” Sevyn replied, feeding into it.
“Yeah aight. Ain’t shit innocent about her ass. Shit, you came down this far to come see me, you might as well give me a hug then,” my dad said to my mom.
“I came down here to support my daughter,” she voiced, but her ass still got up, so that she could walk over to him, and hug him.
“And to see me,” he just had to get the last word.
I think they both needed that hug. Even though my dad couldn’t hug her back because of the way he was shackled, he still needed to feel her arms wrapped around him. The two of them looked good together. They literally fit one another. My mom was short, and thick as hell, and my dad was tall, muscular, built like a damn quarter back, so there different sizes made them look really good.
They were high school sweethearts, and you could very much tell that the love was still there. I knew that my mom didn’t want to remove her arms from around him, but she eventually pulled away, and my heart melted when I saw my dad lean his head down, so that he could kiss her on her forehead.
My mom and I went back to the table, taking our seats, and my dad came over as well, and he sat next to Sevyn.
“What they in here feeding you, man? Ima get to the case in a second, but damn,” Sevyn couldn’t even keep it professional if he tried once he saw my dad, and how ripped he was in the orange jumpsuit that he was wearing.
My dad laughed, and I just sat here, smiling at him, taking in how handsome he was.
“Shit, all I do is work out. I don’t be eating all that processed food that them niggas be eating with their commissary money, either. That’s why them niggas getting fat, while I’m in this motha fucka getting swole. You see that stallion sitting acrossfrom me? I gotta be able to lift that up when I get home,” he said about my mom, and I could have screamed when he said that. Sevyn laughed while my mom sat there and rolled her eyes.
“Nigga please! You won’t touch me!” she spat.
“Bet I touch all over you. Let’s go Sevyn. Come on. I’m ready,” he turned his attention to Sevyn, ready to start.
This was the back and forth bickering that my parents would do all the time. There was no doubt in my mind that he was going to come home, and they were going to get back together. The love was too strong.
“Ima jump right in because these thirty minutes are going to fly by. Stand up right quick Dionte,” Sevyn started, getting right to the point.
As if my dad trusted him and didn’t have to question anything that Sevyn was telling him, he quickly stood up from the chair, hands in front of him that were still shackled, with his feet on the ground.
“Alright. Walk over there to the wall, and face Antoinette, and Dionne. I’m going to stand behind them,” Sevyn ordered, getting up from his chair, with the folder in his hand, and he walked over.
Just like he said he would, he stood behind me, and my mom. I didn’t have a clue what was going on, but I was intrigued.
My dad took his spot, going over to the wall, and he stood in front of it.
“Alright. Pretend we’re the members of the parole board. We’re going to make this a mock hearing. Convince us that you’ve changed. Show us that you’re ready to go home,” Sevyn said to my dad.
I could see the uneasiness in my dad’s eyes. You could tell that he was caught off guard with this. I’m sure that he thought that today would only consist of going through his files andlistening to what Sevyn had to say that would bring him home. I’m sure nothing prepared him for a mock parole hearing today.
My dad picked up his chained hands, and he scratched his head. He looked from me to my mom, to Sevyn, and then at the floor. He did that for at least one minute, and then he cleared his throat.
“Shit, I been locked up for over thirty years. I’m ready to come home to my family. I feel like I learned my lesson,” was all he said, and I rolled my eyes hard because I didn’t hear the fight in his voice.
My daddy was hood. There was no way around it, and I knew that public speaking wasn’t his thing, but if he wanted to come home, he was going to have to make it his thing and let all that hood shit fly out the window.
“And that’s it? That’s what you going to say? Nigga, they going to send your ass right back to your fuckin cell,” Sevyn was hard, but with what was at stake, I understood that he had to be.
“Nah. When that day comes, I’ll have a speech written and everything. I didn’t think that I was going to come in here with a homework assignment. You should have told me that over the phone the other day, so that I could have at least prepared myself for it. I ain’t the kind of person that you can just throw shit on me like this. I gotta practice what I want to say,” my dad was nervous, and he was scared, and that surprised me because I never really saw him show either one of those feelings.
Behind me, I could hear Sevyn exhaling through his nose. Right after that, he removed himself from standing behind my mom and I, so that he could walk over to my dad.
“Look at me,” Sevyn said to my dad in a demanding tone. My dad picked his head up, and he looked Sevyn in his eyes.
“Your life on the line. Whether you get to walk out of this bitch or die in this motha fucka is on the line. I put you in a position to prove to me, your baby mama, and your daughterthat you’re ready to come home, and you failed. You had over thirty years to come up with something persuasive to say about you being tired of this place, and how ready you are to come home. Look at your daughter, man. She a grown woman now. I mean this in the most respectful way, but you got a beautiful daughter sitting behind me. Just before you walked in this room, her face was leaking tears, asking me if I had faith that you were coming home. I hear fear in her voice. Dionte, she’s scared because once again, your freedom is in the hands of someone else. Someone else has to make that call on whether they see fit if you’re ready to go home,” Sevyn got on him, and my dad took it, looking him in his eyes, hanging onto his every word.
“I also know when I’m looking in the eyes of a woman that loves a man. Despite your shortcomings, I see it in Antoinette’s eyes that she still loves you, and she’s ready for you to come home too. She wouldn’t have come down here this morning if she wasn’t ready. I say all that to say, if you really want to go home, and experience the kind of love that’s waiting for you outside these doors, you gotta take this shit serious. If you can’t convince us, how you going to convince the real parole committee? Show us that 37 years didn’t just pass the fuck by. Show us that you learned something from this shit. Get right, nigga. Try that shit again,” Sevyn tapped my dad a couple of times on his chest before he walked away.
I liked Sevyn. I had no idea if this was the way that all attorney’s talked to their clients, but I liked that Law was just a regular person, and he was treating my dad like a regular person. You saw the passion in what he was doing too. There wasn’t any judgement from him, either. He was just a man that wanted to get his client out of prison, so that he could reunite with his family.
