Rita didn’t flinch. She absorbed it quietly, completely, with a stillness that most people mistook for calm but was actually a woman processing information at a speed that would put a computer to shame.
“Mmhmm. That’s the least of his rap sheet,” she said. “His daddy’s blood runs thick. Calvin raised a monster because Calvin was a monster. I prayed it would skip a generation, but the Lord said no.” She looked at me directly. “Where is the body?”
“He’s alive.”
Rita blinked. “Alive?”
“Mehar has him. In a cage. In a warehouse. Has been for about six months.”
“A cage.” Rita repeated it slowly. “Like a dog cage?”
“Like a dog cage.”
“Oh Lord.” She pressed her hand to her chest and then did something I wasn’t expecting. She laughed. A short, sharp laugh that came from somewhere deep and surprised both of us. “Oh, that girl is crazy.”
“Grandma, this is serious?—”
“I know it’s serious. I’m not laughing because it’s funny, I’m laughing because it’s familiar.” She waved her hand. “I had a man chained up in a?—”
“When?”
“Never mind. That’s not the point.” She collected herself, smoothing her hands down the front of her dress. “The point is, Thad is my grandbaby. And as terrible as he is—and Lord knows he is terrible—his father just stood in my foyer asking about him with shaking hands. And those babies in Frederick are growing up without a father.”
“I know.”
“So this girl needs to make a decision. Either she kills him and we handle the aftermath, or she lets him come home. There is no in between. Keeping a man in a cage for six months isn’t justice, Quest. It’s torture. And torture has a way of turning the torturer into the thing they hate.”
“I’ve been trying to get her to let him go. She’s not ready.”
“Then she needs to talk to somebody who understands what she’s going through. Not you, you’re too close to it now. You’ve got feelings for this girl and feelings make people stupid.” She pointed at me. “I want to talk to her.”
“Grandma, you can’t just?—”
“Bring her to my birthday. I’m turning eighty-five and I want the whole family there. Zainab, Prime, the babies, Justice, and this Mehar girl who’s got my grandson locked in a dog cage and my other grandson out here roller skating.” She picked up her tea and took a sip like she hadn’t just issued a royal decree. “I’ll talk to her myself.”
“She’s not going to just?—”
“Quest.” Rita looked at me. “Bring her.”
“Aight.”
“Good. Now eat the rest of that pie before it gets cold. And tell me more about this skating date because I know there’s more to the story and you’re going to tell me every detail or I’m calling Zainab.”
I sat back down at the kitchen table and ate the pie and told my grandmother about the roller rink and the neon lights and the woman who fell four times and got back up every time and the hallway where I almost kissed her but didn’t.
“You should’ve kissed her,” Rita said.
“I know.”
“You won’t make that mistake twice.”
She was right. I wouldn’t.
20
MEHAR
Every day I went back and forth about getting rid of Thad. But my ego still liked having his ass chained up in that cage. I relished in it. He played me and now I was in control of his life. I took all my frustration about my father and Ahmad on him.
