“Yeah, mama? What’s up?”
“Hey, you busy, baby?”
“Not really. Just visiting my son. What’s up?”
“I was calling to let you know that Gio is awake.”
“Oh, is he snitching yet?”
“No, but he is asking for you.”
“Asking for me for what? He want me to come finish him off?”
“No, of course not. He said that he wants to talk to you.”
“Hell no, I’m not walking into no trap.”
“It’s no trap, baby. Trust your mother.”
“I trust you, but not him.”
“Well, if you don’t want to come over here to talk to him, could you at least talk to him on the phone?”
“Yeah, I guess. Give me his number, and I’ll call him when I can.”
“I got something better. He’s right here. I can hand him over the phone.
I heard movements before I heard him clearing his throat, and for the first time in my life, I wanted to hang up on my mama.
“Hello?”
“Hello, what do you want?”
I snapped back because I was still on that type of timing.
“Listen, son.”
“I’m not your son.”
“That’s what you think, but your mama is saying otherwise. There is a way to prove if you are or not, and, no matter how mad I am for what you did, if we're family, we're family and would be close family at that, so I could forgive you.”
“Nigga, since when has family mattered to you? You're the same man who tried to kill your nephew at your brother’s funeral.”
“That’s because I was mad, angry, pissed off. Plus, you know Jehovah would’ve killed me too because he was angry about his father. We both were, but that is a part of why I’m back in New York. I have too many open issues that need to be settled.”
“Nah, you only came back here to set me up. Tell the truth.”
“Look, I thought I was doing the right thing, but God keeps showing me otherwise. First, I lost my brother, then my mother’s love years ago, then I lost all my money and was broke, wandering the streets, having to come up like I never had shit. I was in Jersey working like a slave on cars until I got linked up with a drug dealer named Benzo, who hooked me up with somework. I came up off that work, moved to upstate New York, and continued to come up, so far up that the feds started looking into that entire operation then I got busted, and offered me fifteen years if I didn’t give them someone better. You know that snitching is the new get out of jail free card.”
He went silent, and I sat silent too because I didn’t have shit to say so far.
“Crew, I’m not sure if you ever been down before, but when your back is against the wall, everyone and everything feels like pressure keeping you stuck. That’s why I put a lot of blame on my nephew. I hated Jehovah even more once I got busted because I told myself that had he not run me off, I wouldn’t have been in a city where selling drugs put you under a microscope. So, I can be honest and tell you that I wanted him to go down first and everything else around him, to follow. I thought I knew what I was doing coming here to try and get collateral for my freedom, but those bullets you put in me showed me I had no clue what I was doing or who I was dealing with. Like I told your mother I tried to set you boys up because in my head it was my freedom or y’all. That along with envy for Hov had me doing a lot of stupid shit, but again, there is nothing in me that could ever make me give up my son. I mean, I thought I didn’t have any kids, so of course, the first one I have will be special to me.”
“Gio, I’m not your kid.”
“Yes, you are, and it didn’t sink in until your mama told me. All I’m asking for is a test. If you are my son, you can hate me forever, but I’m never hating you, and I’m never putting you in a position to lose.”
“So, if you’re not my father, then there is a chance that you will still send me to jail?”
