My sisters laughed like it was funny, but you know I didn’t play that mess when it came to my niece, so of course I didn’t laugh, as I continued to lie on my side, wiping her face, and once she calmed down, I proceeded to pat her, knowing that she was going to fall asleep because her little ass was tired. She had been running off the walls since I got here. Hell, her ass was the reason I had fallen asleep because I was playing with her at one point, but she’d tired me out.
My grandma came over to the living room where we were all chilling. She came with a plate in her hand, and on that plate, it was single slices of red velvet cake. It was a cake that she told us she made this morning. Nobody was seeing my grandma in the kitchen when it came to baking. She could literally bake a cake with her eyes closed, and it would still be better than anyone else’s. She had napkins that she handed to Free, and Tommie, who took one, thanked her, and then she came over to me.
“Can you put it in a sandwich bag or something for me? Ima leave soon. I’m tired,” I let her know.
As if me telling her that I was tired meant that I was sick, she reached her hand out, putting it on my forehead, so that she could see if I had a temperature, but I didn’t. I had been on the move since early this morning, and now my body was feeling it. I was just waiting to get the text from Tank, telling me that he was on the way home, and then I was going to leave. I was still shaken up a little behind what happened at my warehouse with Garrus’s son, so I wanted to get home at the same time as Tank.
“You need to go home, so that you can properly lay down in your bed. Laying on this hard ass couch isn’t good for your back,” my grandma fussed at me, always trying to be in control.She was so damn sassy, standing before me with her hand on her hip.
My grandma was the original ‘it girl’. Before my mama came along and was the hot girl, and then my mom gave birth to four hot girls herself, it was my grandma. Fine as hell. When I see throwback pictures of my grandma, I already knew that she was telling the truth when she would give us a rundown of her past and boast about all the niggas that she used to have. Born and raised right here in Miami, Florida, and fashion has always been her thing. With her being into fashion the way that she was, she knew how to design her own clothes. She would literally see a woman out in an outfit, and instead of going to the store, and trying to purchase the outfit, she would just design it herself. She knew how to create a look, style her own hair, do her make-up, just all the things. Back when my sisters and I were younger, my grandma was the one that would make our clothes for school, so anything that we would wear, none of the kids would have it.
Even with her being older now, 71 years old to be exact, not much about her had changed. She was still the woman that she thought she was! Her hair, that was once jet black was now a beautiful silver, and it was still just as long, and healthy as it’s ever been, and that’s because she didn’t miss her early Saturday morning appointments to the hair salon, so that she could get her blow outs. Her skin complexion was more so the color of Free’s. Caramel complexion, and she stood about 5’6. She was who my mom, Free, and Tommie had inherited their coca cola frames from. Back in the day, my grandma used to be stacked! She still was though.
She stood before me in a long, flowy cheetah print moo- moo, with brown Louis Vuitton house shoes on her feet, and you literally couldn’t tell her ass shit.
Once she saw that she wasn’t going to get a response out of me, she walked away and went back into the kitchen. I lookeddown at Liberty, and she dozed off. I was so in love with my niece, so as she lay next to me, with her head resting on my arm that I had extended on the couch, I leaned in and placed little kisses all over her face. Her lip was poked out, as if she’d gone to sleep sad that her mama didn’t allow her to have anymore candy.
“You hurt her feelings, Freedom. Even in her sleep, she’s sad,” I called out to my sister, not looking at her because I was too busy looking down, being mesmerized by my beautiful niece.
“I can’t wait for your baby to get here. Ima give him or her candy at this time of the night, and we going to see how you feel about that,” Free talked shit, and at the same time, our mom was walking into the family area where we were.
She sat on the same couch as Free. Just towards the end, and when she sat down, she crossed her legs. I was staring at her, just taking in her beauty. I had to give it to her, her ass was sticking to her word, and she wasn’t fuckin with my daddy like everyone had predicted that she would. I just knew that she was going to be all over him when he came home.
I talked to my dad about it, and according to him, my mama was acting crazy and wasn’t trying to give him any play. Those were his exact words. I think when it came to men, my mom was just scared to be vulnerable again, and deal with another man. All our dads had put her through hell. Tommie’s dad was a real-life piece of shit, and she would go at it so bad with him when we were kids. Then, Nivea’s dad spent so much time taking my mom to court, fighting to have full custody of Nivea. Free’s dad was cool, but he was the one that my mom would often spend the block with, and their shit was forever toxic. She’s been hurt a lot, and she has it made up in her mind that although my dad was home, and he’s changed, she still felt like she wouldn’t be the only woman that he came home to entertain. In a way, I felt exactly where she was coming from because Lord knows that I wouldn’t mess around with a man that just finished serving 37years in prison. On the other hand, I’m biased because that’s my dad, and I wanted to see the two of them work it out.
The TV was on the news because it was all that my grandma wanted to watch whenever we were at her house. That, and lifetime movie network. Seeing the reporter on the TV, and the headline that was at the bottom, it had gotten my attention, causing me to look over at the screen.
“We begin tonight with breaking news out of Miami’s courtroom,” she started, and from there, the camera was no longer on the reporter.
Instead, the screen changed, showing the front steps of the courthouse building, where there were reporters standing around. Right there, coming down the stairs, there he was with his hands in handcuffs, and there were two sheriff officers that were on each side of him.
Had this would have been probably five months ago, and I saw his face, I know that I would have taken it hard. The same way that I reacted that night at Tank’s moms house, upon seeing Tank’s father in that picture, I’m sure that would have been my reaction. Not anymore. I promise with each day, I was healing from this and not allowing something that happened in my past to control me anymore.
You could see him clear as day. His head was down, as if he had the nerve to be embarrassed, and shamed about what was going on.
I glanced over at my mom, wanting to see her reaction, and our eyes locked.
“Where the remote? Let me put something else on,” she tried to say.
“Wait. Ma, isn’t that Torrence? Oh my God. That’s your ex, right? What the hell did he do?” Free’s outburst caused my grandma to come into the family room, and she found theremote that was sitting on the entertainment center, and instead of turning the TV to another channel, she turned it up.
She turned it up, and she put her hands on her wide hips. I could feel Tommie’s eyes on me, and she was staring at me with eyes that were filled with sympathy. I think she knew. I felt like my mom had told because there was a time when I felt as if Tommie was clinging to me, and she really wanted to ask me about it, but she just never brought herself around to asking it.
My eyes left Tommie, and went back over to my mom, and she looked as if she just wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
“After days of testimony, the jury has finally reached a verdict in the DUI case involving 58- year- old, Angelo Vasquez. Mr. Briggs was arrested three months ago after driving under the influence and hitting Mr. Vasquez one evening. Mr. Vasquez remained hospitalized and on life support for several weeks following the incident,” she continued.
“Briggs. Briggs? Isn’t that Tank’s last time? I don’t know if I’m tripping, but don’t he kinda look like Tank to ya’ll? Why am I thinking that all of a sudden?” Free asked out loud.
She sat there with this confused look on her face, and you could very well see that she was trying to figure out if she looked crazy for even thinking that. She was spot on though.
Although Tank did have a lot of features of his mom, he still looked a lot like his dad though. It wasn’t anything to the point where I would get freaked out, but it was enough to look at him, and just know that him, and Torrence were kin to each other.
Nobody answered Free’s question. For sure, my mom wasn’t going to say anything. Tommie wouldn’t say it because she was still keeping it to herself if she did know, and my grandma was too busy being glued to the TV to even hear what Free asked.
“Earlier today, jurors found Mr. Briggs guilty on all charges. Mr. Briggs has been convicted of vehicularmanslaughter, and he received a sentence of twenty years in state prison,” was all I really needed to hear, and from there, I tuned out.
“That’s goody for his ass. I hated when you were even messing around with him. Just be doing shit,” my grandma fussed. My mom dropped her head, as if she was in pure shame, and my heart shattered a little bit when she started crying.
