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“What—”
My dad pointed hispinky at me.“You’ll be finishing your studies in Wyoming. End of—”
“Did you tellGrandfather this!”
“My father doesn’t run this household, I do. End. Of.Discussion. You are excused.”
When Ijumpedup, the chair fell back, and Iwalked out of his office slamming the doorhard as I could, breaking it, and it popped back open slightly. Getting halfway down the hallway, I thought about some moreshitI wanted to say, so I turned around and walked back to his office.I stopped right outside the door when I heard my mother say, “Sometimes, I wonder what if Denim would have matched with Demetria instead of Dymon. He just embarrasses us so bad. He just acts like he hates us. I’m so sick of him.”
Pushing the broken door in, I stood there with the craziest look on my face.
“Dymon…” my mom whispered.
It was like the wind had been knocked out of me. I couldn’t believe that I’d heard my mother say that.
“Um, how much did you hear?” my father asked.
“Enough to know that I’m not wanted here anymore.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Dymon.”
“Mother, what did you mean when yousaid something about matching? Matching what?”
She sighed before walking around my dad’s desk and offering me the same seat that I’d knocked over just a couple of minutes ago.
I shook my head. “No, I’d rather stand.”
“Please… sit. Just do what I ask you to do for once,” she hissed.
When myfather waved his hand out toward the seat, I knew he wasn’t asking me to take a seat; he was telling me.
Ipicked the seat up and dropped down in it.
“When your sisterwas born, she had some very rare disease calledFanconi Anemia. I couldn’t remember no one in our family being born with anything, so it was something that had us all complexed. There was so much to learn. All we knew was that our baby girl was going to be in for a life of pain for as long shewould be on this Earth. Your father and I are privileged people, so we used some of that to get her in all types of studies and trials, but nothing was making her better.None of us were a stemmatch for her. Ourlast choice wasto have us a baby created to match her.A lot of tests and a long process went into creating Denim, onlyfor her to not match. I believe the doctor messed up something, but at least he made her smart. We tried again two times after that, I miscarriedboth of thembecause of the stress. That first doctor had to retire early because of anaccident,and I felt like my life was over. The stress of trying to be a wife, a mother to two rowdy boys, a sick and in pain little girl,a unique baby girl, and a tad bit of postpartumhad me with one foot in the casket.”
She grabbed a napkin off my dad’sdesk anddabbed at her eyes, but I didn’tgive a fuckabout that. I didn’t like where my mother was going with thisfucking conversation.
“Your grandmother convinced me that I was being a bad parent by continuing to let my daughter suffer. She’d been through needle stick after needle stick. At this point, the hospital and therapy bills had teetered into themillion-dollarrange. I wanted to give up. I needed to give up for her. A life of hospitals shouldn’t be her life.
“One day, she looked up at me and told me that she was tired of the hospital, and that’s when I knewit was time to let go. Your father wasn’t ready to let go. He suggested that we try the embryo thing one more time. We found another doctor to create another perfect embryo.He was so sure that this embryo would be the one, but I wasn’tsure, so… I didn’t connect with that baby in my stomach. The baby didn’t connect withmeat all; barely kicked, but the doctor said the baby wasjust fine. Like I’d donethe others, I didn’t read to my stomach, or even put the headphones on it. I just wanted the pregnancy over and to save my daughter’s life. If the stem cells from that embryo didn’t work, I’d made up, in my mind, that I was just going to have to stop treatment on my daughter and let her live out the rest ofherdays as happy as she could’ve.”
I looked at my father, who sat stoic while looking at me. His eyes looked soblank;I wasn’t sure if he wasactually staringatme orwas just looking in my direction while his mind was many miles away.
“When my water broke, the contractionsdidn’t even hurt as bad as they did with the other children. As soon as I got to the hospital, they barely had time to prep me before I started pushing. When I pushed out that perfect little boy, he didn’t cry at all.The doctor evensmackedhis behind a couple times,andonly a whimper came out.His largeandbrightbrown eyesrolledaround as if he couldn’t believe what world he’d been born into. When I stared down into his face, the light bouncedin his eyes, producing a sparkle,and I said the first thing that popped in my mind;Dymon.”
She looked at my father and then back at me. “Your father thought that it was a girl name, so we switched a fewletters around and made it what it is now. You were perfect in my eyes and then we finally found out you were a match…”
I stood up. “And there it is. After getting Metri fixed, you forgot all about me. Then you wonder why I am the way I am; ‘embarrassing’ as you say, butthat’s okay.Wyoming seems like the perfect place for unwanted boys.”
“Dymon…” they both calledafter me.
“Dymon…”
“Dymon…”
I woke up to a smack across the face. When I opened my eyes, Diesel stood over mewith his face scrunched up.
“Nigga, wakeyo’ass up. I been callingyour name for the last five minutes.”
