She rushed over to his side of the truck, yanking the door open. “See what the hell you do? Why is his face like that?”
“Ma, this isn’t Court’s fault.”
“Yes it is,” she argued. “You’ve hanging with your thug of a damn brother. You’re not a fighter.”
“I ain’t got shit to do with this.”
“Yes, you do because you’ve been sneaking around here seeing him when I told you to leave us alone. Why don’t you listen?”
“Ma, stop. Court didn’t do nothing. A boy tried to jump me on the bus.”
“Go in the house.”
“Damn, stop yelling at him and shit.”
“Maleek, say bye to your brother because you won’t be seeing him again. We’re moving.” Her glare focused on me, eyes shifting. Anger lounged in the pupils.
“Fuck you mean y’all moving?”
“Ma, I don’t want to move.”
“I’m the adult, Maleek,” she fussed. “Didn’t I tell you to go in the house?”
“I’m moving to keep you away from us. I don’t know what kind of trouble you’ve brought around here, but I have to protect me and my son.”
“Oh, and I ain’t your son?”
“You haven’t been in a long time.”
The silence was deafening.
Her words slapped me in the chest.
Cars rolled down the street behind us.
“Leave before I call the police like I should’ve done in the first fucking place,” she threatened.
“Damn, you gon’ do this shit to me? Take my fuckin’ brother away from me when I ain’t done shit.”
“It’s life. You took my husband away from me, why should you be happy?”
That pain in my chest.
She’s said that shit time and time again, it never got easier to hear. She blamed me ever since his death. At first, she didn’t verbalize it. Then her hate for me grew overnight and this where we’re at.
“You don’t believe that shit. If anything, I tried saving Pop.”
She slowly titled her phone to her ear. “Like I said, get the hell off my property.”
“Ma, why the fuck you be on this hateful ass shit?” I asked.
“911, what’s the address of the emergency?” the operator came through her line.
The fucking wind was knocked outta me.
“And leave that girl alone that you’ve been parading around here. You’re going to end her in a world of trouble because men like you don’t know how to love. You cause pain.”
All I could do was back away, gaze still on her.
