Hey, Cree. It’s Arlie. When you have time, I need you to call me. It’s an emergency.
Within a couple of minutes, she called, sounding irritated as fuck. “If this about Bilal’s triflin’ ass, I don’t want to hear it. Majesty ain’t seen his ass in two weeks, and she’s been whining for her daddy. He need to do better, Arlie.”
I closed my eyes and swallowed the lump in my throat. When I remained quiet, she said, “Hello? You there?”
“Yeah.”
She was quiet for a few seconds. “Arlie, he’s gone, isn’t he?”
“Yes. We’re still at Methodist.”
“Fuck!”
I was crying all over again as I stared at his body. He didn’t realize how his lifestyle had hurt everyone he loved in this moment. Daddy had talked until he was blue in the face and so had Mama.
“Are y’all going to your dad’s house after the funeral home gets him?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. I have to go and get Majesty from daycare. I’ll see y’all soon.”
“Okay. I’ll text when we’re on our way there.”
“Thank you, Arlie.”
I disconnected the call, then texted Kimaji.He died, Maj.
My phone rang immediately, but I no longer had the emotional bandwidth to talk on the phone. My cup was empty. I didn’t want to converse. I didn’t want to think. I didn’t want to process anything. My internal server was refusing to connect anymore. I stared up at my dad as he paced back and forth, then stood and kissed my brother’s head. I needed space, so I walked out of the room and went to the waiting area. Kimaji had sent a text message, but I didn’t want to even read it.
I didn’t want condolences. I wanted my brother back.
I hadn’t spokento Arlie or Kimaji in a couple of days. I’d gone back to work yesterday and was in Vegas. We were about to fly back today. Taking a chance, I sent Arlie a text.
Hey. Just checking on you.
I could see her gratitude before she even hugged me. When I heard her yell, Kimaji and I made our way to the door. Kimaji listened to her conversation to figure out something had happened to her brother. I didn’t even know she had a brother. I didn’t know much about her at all. By her response to the phone call, I came to the conclusion that whatever had happened, it was serious.
I called my mama and had her send Noah my phone number. I didn’t want to take the chance of him not answering had I called him. So to avoid all that, I just went through my mama. It had only taken him a minute or two to call me. He thanked mefor letting him know. I knew Noah was all about family, and he would understand why Arlie needed to be home.
When Arlie didn’t text back, I sent a message to Kimaji.Hey. Arlie okay?
I sat at breakfast, thinking about how much I’d gotten to know Kimaji in such a short amount of time. She seemed so genuine, and that was refreshing. We had a lot in common. We both liked smothered potatoes, which was crazy as hell. She loved rap music and R&B. She also loved some rock and pop music. Like me, she loved showing off, it seemed. We were siblings for sure. She told me how she used to brag about Arlie being her best friend all the time and used her name in Houston to get what she wanted.
We’d laughed about that. I was definitely one to name drop if I thought I could benefit from it. When Arlie left, we talked for another hour and agreed to keep in touch. I bought her a few books, although she’d rejected my money at first. She’d racked up a nice amount of books. I read occasionally, but she was an avid reader, which was cool. I’d dropped nearly three hundred dollars on books. What sealed the deal for me was knowing that math and science were her strong suits. When I told her I had a master’s degree in chemical engineering, she nearly came unglued.
She said her mother was good at math and science as well and was a chemistry teacher now. Knowing what I knew about her past, I was impressed.Maybe meeting her wouldn’t be that bad.Kimaji didn’t know why her mother gave me up. She said she’d only been told it was for financial reasons and that the timing wasn’t right, but she could tell there was more her mom wasn’t saying. I wouldn’t be the one to enlighten her.
My phone chimed, so I picked it up from the table to see a text from Kimaji.
Her brother died. She’s not taking it well at all. She’s been in her bedroom, refusing to eat or leave. Her dad is staying with her to make sure she’s at least drinking water and protein shakes.
That was why she was refusing to respond to my text. I hated that for her. I hadn’t had anyone close to me to die. My mama’s brush with death happened before me. I surely didn’t remember my own experience. I was only about eight months old or so. I didn’t remember Aunt Sonya’s suicide attempts that I’d heard about. I remembered when Aunt Sonya’s ex had supposedly died. I wasn’t close to him though. Hell, I was barely close to anyone in the family around that time.
Nick and I had grown up together, but he had separated from me before we were teenagers. Our personalities didn’t gel at all. His dad, Uncle Corey, wasn’t feeling the way I talked to my parents, so they stopped coming around, even after Uncle Corey married my dad’s sister. I also remembered when Nick’s mom was killed. I was only around nine or so. Again, I wasn’t close to her either.
My grandmother had died before I was born and before my parents had even gotten married. My grandfather died when I was a teenager, but I really didn’t feel the sorrow like everyone else. It was weird to explain. I spent a lot of time at his house with my mama, but he and I really didn’t have a connection. Maybe I really was a problem.
I texted Kimaji back.I’m in Vegas, but we’re heading back today. I’ll head to her place when I leave the airport.
