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More than I didn’t know what to say to Austin, I was absolutely stunned by that declaration.
When I walked through the door of the garage, Frankie shouted, “She’s at the top of the steps, waiting on you.”
I scoffed. Little Miss Momma must have been alerted to me pulling up. Instead of heading into the kitchen, I made my way to the front foyer of my home, laying the jacket of my suit over my left lower arm. Sure enough, her tiny stature was at the top of the stairs. She wore her little dress pajamas and had one leg crossed over the other and a hand on her hip while holding on to a spoke in the railings.
“Daddy, time to read Bible!”
My head bounced back at that demand.
Excuse me?
This girl was too much. That’s when I noticed her new hairstyle. The fresh parts between her braids.
“Hi, Chivon?”
She waited a beat before replying. “Hi, Daddy.” Her eyes circled as she thought about her next words. “Howvasyou day?”
That’s more like it…
No words had ever soothed me as the ones coming from this tiny being. She was more than I’d ever deserved. In less than three years, she’d taught me so much about myself. I was now a vulnerable man. Frail and fragile, and at risk to whatever the world could throw at me on a whim by way of hurting her. She was like an old soul, full of love and purpose. She’d be three years old in a matter of weeks.Damn… My baby was growing so fast, but still, I had no idea how I’d survived before her light.
“It was long, Blueberry.” I scratched my head, straining. “Really long.”
“Sorry.” I heard the pout in her voice, and my head shot up.
“For what?” I smiled wide, hard, and genuinely. “I’m home. With you. You know what that means.”
Pushing her index fingernail against her teeth, her little body curled as she giggled. She was my lodestar, my reason to exercise faith each day.
“You home.”
She may not have understood, but she knew how to respond. When I was with her, all things were made right or hopeful again.
I winked at her. “You brush your teeth yet?” She shook her head. “Go brush your teeth and Daddy’ll be up to read to you.”
She was off before I finished my sentence and shouted, “Okay!”
Shaking my head while chuckling quietly, I paced to the kitchen. Frankie was there clipping coupons. I believed she was the only person who still did this. She’d leave them behind for Consuela.
“You look like shit,” she murmured as she licked her thumb and swiped through the pages.
“Thank God I don’t feel like it.” I was just tired.
“Shi-Shi was here.”
I steeled, pulling the pitcher of lemonade from the fridge. “Hello, Frankie. Good to see you. How was your day?”
“Well,” she hummed, nose wrinkling to bring her oversized glasses closer to her eyes. “I had my daily apple this morning, and in the course of putting in eight hours at the tea shop, I had my daily poop.”
My head fell to the side. “Nice, Frankie.”
She shrugged. Then I heard Jug limping into the kitchen behind me.
I placed the pitcher on the countertop and strolled over to the cabinet for a glass when he announced, “You missed Shi-Shi, yo.”
Again, I paused. Then I swung my head over to him. “Yo, whaddup, dawg? How was ya day? I see you limping. What’s up with that?”
He pulled up to a stool and dropped himself onto it. “Damn, man. My leg. My shit been swollen since yesterday.”
