AllFreeNovel
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Dressed in a Nike tee,shorts, and slides, Pops didn’t look a day over fifty. I welcomed him into my home for the first time in the past year. The last time he’d visited, renovations were still underway.
“Happy birthday, old man.” I chuckled, checking him out. “You got somebody waiting for you to pull up on ’em or something?”
“This lightweight. Something I just threw on. And my birthday was yesterday, nigga.”
“I know. I’m sorry I—”
“Until you’re better, I won’t hold it against you. Now, where the Hennessy? I know it’s in here somewhere.”
“At the bar right outside of the kitchen. I’ll show you.”
“Nigga, I can find my own way. Go sit your frail ass down. I’ll bring you a drink, too.”
“Nah. I’m good, Pops.”
“You? Good?”
“I think I’ve consumed enough in the last two years to last a lifetime. I think it’s time to sober up and face reality. It ain’t getting no better at the end of each bottle, so what’s the point, right?”
“That might be the best damn thing I’ve heard out of anybody’s mouth all month. Let me sit my ass down, too. If you’re not drinking, then neither am I.”
He was a rider, always had been. His sacrifices made it possible for us to be the men we were today.
“Appreciate that, Pops.”
“We’re a team, Malachi. You know that, son. That’s why it’s been hard knowing you forgot that over the last two years. Leaving us all in the dark, we’re all worried about you.”
“I know. I’ve never forgotten. It’s just some things you have to go through on your own. Nothing either of you could’ve said or done to make me feel better about Anna’s death.”
“What’s changed now?” he questioned, taking a seat across from me.
I stared out into the yard, past the carport and over toward the small home where she rested her pretty head nightly. My grandfather’s eyes followed mine.
“Oh, son,” he scoffed, understanding what was being explained without words.
“Her.”
“Who is she?”
“Aussie’s new caregiver and homeschool teacher. She made it here a month ago, almost.”
“Well, it didn’t take you long, huh? Just couldn’t help yourself,” he sniggered.
“She hasn’t left me much of a choice. I didn’t make it past the first night, Pops. She’s on another level. The shit she knows about me, about the life Anna and I lived, about the family, and just about everything. I don’t understand and I probably never will. I just need help making sense of it all.”
“Sense of what? You’re saying a lot while saying absolutely nothing. Talk to me, Malachi. Spit it out.”
“It… it sounds crazy.”
“Spit it out.”
“She was in an accident the night Anna was murdered. They had pronounced her dead around the time Anna was shot. One minute there was no signs of life; she was dead and gone. The next, she has a heartbeat. For two years, she stayed in a coma.
“The day she woke up, it was as if she’d never been in that car accident and her life hadn’t been snatched from her. She started having these visions and shit that somehow led her to Berkeley, led her to me. She’s from Channing, lived there her whole life.”
He nodded, remaining silent.
“Say something.”
