“I’ll think about it, baby. Now back to you and these two brothers. Do they look alike? Oh, you’re not going to let them train you, are you?” Horror flashed across my mother’s face.
“Mama, what? No!”
“Oh! Thank God. It’s cute when it happens in a book, but I can’t imagine my baby girl being hammered from both ends at the same time.”
“Yeah, we may need to switch your genres.” I shook my head, looking over to the monitor to check on Baby Leader.
My mama kissed her teeth. “Girl, how do you think you got here?”
“Not by being tossed, I hope.”
“Tossed?”
“It’s the same thing as trained.”
“Oh.” She waved. “No, but all the shit your daddy done did, I should have let his homeboys have a turn or three.”
“Oh God! Mama, please… Let’s not keep that portion of this convo going. But, no, I have not slept with Shio, that’s Tunan’s brother. We didn’t get far, and I married Tunan before I knew they were brothers. And I’m not being disrespectful when I say this, but I can’t give you the details of our marriage, Mama. Just know it isn’t typical, and we both benefit.”
“Unlike you, I know how to mind my business. I also understand everyone has to make their own choices in life and live with their own decisions. I like Tunan, and y’all can keep screaming that bullshit about it being fake, but you didn’t see the way he watched over you in that hospital. But you’ll see. Time reveals all.”
I hadn't heard from Tunan since he left, and I hated to admit that it stung. When he was around, I was constantly reminding him that what we had wasn’t real. The sex was good, and yes, he was attractive, but we were just doing each other a favor. Still, it was when he wasn’t around that my mind got the best of me. Ididn’t know if I missed him or just missed having a man in my space and a dick in my guts. It was all confusing.
“Glee told you, hunh?” I shifted my thoughts once I realized what she was insinuating.
“Yep. And if you weren’t recovering, I’d drag your ass all up and through this house for how you handled my baby. She didn’t want to tell me; I had to force her because I know you. I knew you were here being mean. I knew you were in here using her life as an excuse to starve yourself.”
“Mama—”
“Let me finish, Charisma… I should have been here, so I can’t talk too much. But you were dead wrong. We both failed Glee to some degree. I should have stopped everything and run here, and I’ll forever regret that. This city just has this dark cloud over me. I let your father make me forget how much I loved Jagoda Bay. I was the one to convince him to take the job here.”
My mama and daddy were college sweethearts. They were both attending JBU before it was torn down and rebuilt. She was originally from southern Florida, and he was from here. When they graduated, he had several job offers and was about to take the one in New York, but she convinced him to stay here. She never went back home after that.When she divorced him, she took a job in Sparkling City, packed us up, and we lived out the remainder of our childhood there. She wanted to go back to Florida, but I wasn’t having it.My dad wasn’t a good husband, but he was a great father. We all agreed that he at least deserved to be our dad, even though my mama hated his guts for many years.
“Anyway, the cloud is gone now, and I see very clearly that I should’ve been here when my baby girl gave birth. I should have paid more attention to what Glee had going on at BU, and I’ll forever have to live with that. But we can’t be nasty to her. Asmuch as you hate it, Glee is an adult, and she looks up to you, Glow.”
My mama paused, clenched her eyes closed, and then looked back at me. “She’d looked up to you so much so that at one point, she tried to stop eating like you.”
I remembered that, even though I tried to force the memory from my memory bank. That incident was when I started forcing myself to eat more. I didn’t want my sister to become anorexic, so I put on a front and hid it as much as I could. Above all, I tried for Glee’s sake.
“She’s my baby, and now she has a baby.” I wiped at my eye that was misting.
“And she is also an adult. She is free to make her own decisions. Just like you went and married the brother of your boo, your sister is free to live her life. You don’t hear me calling you outside your name and trying to attack you. Besides, your sister did good. I see y’all got the taste for attractive men from me. At least they ain’t light skinned.” She scoffed. “I saw one at the hospital with colored eyes, and I know he’s hell.”
I giggled. “Mama, stop. That’s Jisei’s husband, Ezio. He’s in love with her, and he doesn’t cheat.”
Don would kill him if he did, and then we would raise him from the dead and jump him.
“I should have known that was Little Ezee’s daddy. I wanted to slap his ass just off the strength. But he did make a cute little boy, so I guess he’s alright.”
My daddy did a number on my mama. She was nearly a colorist, treating all light-skinned people with disdain, like she wasn’t one herself, with two light-skinned daughters. She told us to date only men with melanin and said she wanted melanated grandkids. My mother was way too much.
“Glee can be your baby, but just remember she’smybaby girl. She’s your babysister. You were madder than your no-good-ass daddy. He’s actually excited to be a Paw-Paw.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Mama, you and Daddy looked kinda cozy, no lie.”
“Girl, I almost forgot you were my daughter and called you something real nasty. Your daddy ain't shit to me. He is always trying to be nice. He is especially laying it on thick because he wants to bring his ole lady to meet Lee Lee.”
