AllFreeNovel
Share Us
JOÃO
“Mama!” I shouted as soon as I walked through the front door.
The light in her room was on, which meant that she was awake. I shut and locked the door behind me, shutting off the front light. Then, I kicked off my shoes and turned up the heat in this damn house because it was fucking cold outside.
When Imani had told me that she spotted Mom on Main Street, I believed her. I didn’t know why; I had trusted Mom for years to do the right thing, but … I couldn’t stop thinking about Mom going back down to where she had gotten raped.
“João, it’s almost two in the morning.” Mom wiped her tired eyes and padded out into the kitchen. “I’m tired.”
I glossed over her once, looking for any fresh needle marks on her arms, any sign that she had gone down there to get high. The thought killed me on the inside because not only would that mean Mom was on drugs again, but it would also mean that Ana would lose her.
Like I had when I was a child.
“Did you leave tonight?” I asked her.
Mom froze for a moment, then regained her composure. “Did that girl tell you that?”
Something about Mom calling Imani that girl pissed me off. Mom knew her fucking name and had met her multiple times. Imani had even come over to watch Ana with me a couple times, had joked around with Ana that we were dating.
“You know what her name is, Mama,” I said through gritted teeth, balling my hands into fists and seeing red. “Don’t try to turn this around on her when you’re acting suspicious about where you’ve been all night.”
“I’m not acting suspicious. I’m tired and in pain.”
“So, you didn’t go out?”
“No.”
“You didn’t fucking leave this house?”
“No, João. Drop it.”
“You’re fucking lying!” I shouted.
“You’re going to wake Ana.”
“Then, let me wake her up. Tell me where you were.”
“You might be an adult, João, but I’m your mother. I don’t have to answer to you about where I’ve been. I don’t ask you what you’re doing when you’re out during all hours of the night, do I? Drop it and drop Imani, too, while you’re at it.”
All I wanted was to punch a fucking hole straight through our wall. She was lying. I could tell by the guilty look in her eyes. She could tell me that she had been here all night, but she hadn’t been. She had left.
I glanced around the kitchen, looking for something. “What’s this?” I asked, holding up the pills on the table.
“They’re the pills the hospital gave me for the pain,” she said, looking me right in the eye. After crossing her arms over her plush robe, she marched back through the hallway. “I’m going back to sleep.”
I almost believed her. She was almost that convincing.
But Imani wouldn’t lie to me about this.
I searched every kitchen cabinet, our shared bathroom, the living room, and even Mom’s and Ana’s rooms while Mom slept. There had to be something that I was missing. Mom wouldn’t go to Main Street to fuck around. She must’ve been looking for something.
After finding nothing, I collapsed at the kitchen table and rubbed a hand over my face, the bottle of pills that Mom had gotten from the hospital in front of me. I snatched it in my fist and wanted to hurl it at the other side of the room.
But it was full.
Last time I had checked it, the bottle had been half-empty.
“João,” Ana mumbled, padding into the dark kitchen in her green Princess Tiana pajamas. She climbed up into my lap and wrapped her small arms around my shoulders. “I’m tired. I want to go to bed.”
