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“Thanks,” I responded even though I knew he was being sarcastic.
His décor comment was aimed at the three foldable lawn chairs I had in the living room situated in front of a sixty-five inch TV that had been in the box on the floor of my home office for months. I’d planned on mounting it on the wall but hadn’t gotten around to it. When Key told me I could stop by and pick up some of my things, I decided to bring it too.
“I guess you got the essentials, huh?” Pops asked.
“Yep,” I shrugged. “You want a beer?”
“Yeah, I’ll take one,” he said while still looking around. “The rehab work is top notch.”
“Thanks, but this is all Keeva. She always has the vision. I just have the financial know how.”
He chose one of the lawn chairs in the front room and sat down. I retrieved two beers from the fridge and passed one to him.
He took a long drink from the bottle before he began to speak.
“What did you do to Keeva?”
How did he know?
“Sir?”
“Your mother stopped by your house yesterday to drop off the lemon cake that she bakes that Keeva loves so much. She said Keeva told her that you moved out, but didn’t tell her why. Your mother called me cussing me out about something that happened between me and her thirty years ago. She told me to come over here and find out what you did.”
My mother and father divorced when I was five years old. Although they didn’t work out as a married couple, they worked well together co-parenting me. They both understood the importance of me having both parents in my life. When I started going through puberty, I moved in with my father because they felt like I needed to be closer to him to help me through my transition. When I was in trouble, my mother would always let my father discipline me. It wasn’t a surprise that she sent him to me.
“So? What did you do? Bought a car without telling her?” Dad asked.
“Do you really think we would be living in separate places if I purchased a car? I wish it was just a car. I could take that back and ask for forgiveness. I can’t take this back,” I said while looking at the television’s black screen.
“You messed around?”
I nodded without looking in his direction.
“What made you do something so stupid?” Dad asked.
“Maybe I learned from the best?” I shot back. I was offended by his statement. All the shit he’d put my mother through, and he had the nerve to ask me why would I do something so stupid.
“Whatever, I ain’t teach you that shit, and if I did, your ass is grown now. If you would’ve done that dumb shit when you were a teenager or even in your early twenties, I may have shouldered some of the blame, but naw, Son. This is all you. The quicker you come to that conclusion, the better off you will be.”
“Are you saying you didn’t do the same thing to my mother?”
“No, I did! I did it more than once! I ain’t proud of that because I broke a good woman. I changed her with my shenanigans. If I could take it back, I would.”
“I would too,” I lamented.
“Then why did you do it?”
“I don’t know! I’m tired of people asking me that same dumb ass question. I don’t know why I did it!”
“I know why you did it,” he nonchalantly answered.
“Enlighten me please, because I have no idea.”
“You did it because you wanted to. People always trying to make something more complicated than it has to be. You did it because you had space, time, and opportunity. That’s the answer. People gone tell you that it’s because there is something missing in you or because of your upbringing. That’s all bullshit. You are a grown ass man. You’ve been grown for a long time. You did it because you wanted to. You thought you could get away with it, but now you realize that women are smarter and will always find out.”
I pondered his words for a few minutes.
“One night, I came home to your momma after being out in the streets. I walked through the front door and found a big brown suitcase sitting next to it. I went further into the house and saw your momma sitting on the couch, smoking a cigarette. She only smoked when she was angry, so I knew she was mad.
