Page 10 of His Strings Make Her Legs Sing
I couldn’t really argue with her. Callira loved her mother, but if I told her that she never had to come over here again, she wouldn’t object. “You having a man is not the issue, dummy. It’s the type of bum ass niggas that you choose to deal with.”
Ole boy put his blunt out and stood.Let’s see what stupid shit he’s about to say.“Look, homie, I’ve sat here and let you play on my top. I’m trying to be cool, but you have one more time to talk shit and I’m going to beat your goofy ass.” He stepped into my wingspan. “It’s not my fault that your retarded ass daughter is sensitive because her bitch ass daddy is sensitive too.”
My blood pressure pressed against the top of my head. It threatened to cause it to explode. I glanced at my daughter’s mother to see how she would handle this shit. When she popped her hip out and gave me thathe said what he saidlook, I knew that moment that my daughter wasn’t safe around this woman. I didn’t need a second incident to decide to protect my daughter.
My head tilted. I weighed my options on what I wanted to do.Should I just kill him or beat his ass? Both can land me in jail, but murder for a much longer time.With a decision made, I punched that nigga dead in his face. See, there was a certain spot on everyone’s face that had the capability to put their ass to sleep. Homie was on the floor taking a little nap.
Iesha jumped before she basically slid her ass on the floor over to him. “Why would you do that?” She shook goofy’s shoulder. “Baby, baby, are you alright? Get up, Dorian.”
“Look, on some real shit, you don’t have to worry about my daughter coming over here as long as you’re with this goofy. I know y’all dummy vibes matched each other, but nah. You let this nigga sit here and call our fucking daughter that disgusting shit. Yeah, fuck that. She’s not safe here,” I roared.
Iesha looked at me with fire in her eyes. I knew whatever she said would piss me off further. Instead of waiting for her to say whatever stupid thing she would say, I turned and started my way out of her house. To my back she spoke. “Fuck you, Citrell. Good, because I have a fuckin’ life so you not hurtin’ me. I have other things that I can do on the weekend rather than sit in the house with that little girl. Let her fuck up your weekends!”
Something told me that she wanted to call our daughter what her man did which was disheartening. I hated this girl to the point I would risk going to hell behind it. I walked out of Iesha’s house hurt that this might be the last time Callira spent time with her mother. Regardless of what it was between me andIesha, I wanted her in my daughter’s life. I just had to settle on the fact that Iesha was not the mother she needed.
“Oh, you had to be there, Citrell,” my mother raved. “I wish you could have been there. I was in the freezer aisle about to break down. I’m not sure what happened at her mother’s house, but Callira showed her ass in that store. There was a young lady in the store who was like a Callira whisperer. She was able to calm her right down.”
I got to my mother’s house about an hour after I left Iesha’s house. I needed to calm myself down before I got here so I went back home to smoke a blunt on my back deck. After my blunt, I took another shower because my baby didn’t like the smell of weed. Weed gave me a more calming high than edibles, so I needed the calm.
When my eyes and jaw tightened from my mother’s words, she threw her hands up. She caught on to my silent question. “No, it was none of that. I asked her when we got home. You know good and well if it were something like that, you would have heard about me on the news because I murdered that ho.”
My biggest fear in life was that someone abused my baby girl in any kind of way. My daughter was diagnosed with down syndrome when she was two months old. It was a devastating blow, but not the end of the world. Every day we made strides to her greatness.
When she was diagnosed, Iesha’s silly ass went around telling folks that my baby was autistic. The two were not the same. Only 5 to 18 percent of individuals diagnosed with downsyndrome were also autistic. My baby did not fit into that percentage.
With what happened this weekend, it was understandable that Callira was agitated. My mother’s story of her having a complete breakdown in the store was on brand because of the trouble that individuals with down syndrome often had managing their frustration. “Well, she’s not going over there as long as that nigga is around. I’m happy that someone stepped in to help. God has angels all around.”
“Yes, He does,” my mother said with a smile. “If you keep Callira away from her mother, can’t you be held in contempt of court? I don’t want you to get in trouble.”
I waved the thought off. “I could, but I’m not worried. If she happens to grow a brain and takes me to court, I have what I need.” I tapped on my phone, then held it up. The recording of the conversation Iesha and I had earlier played. I was far from a fucking dummy.
My mother smacked away a tear that fell. “I should slap the shit out of you for falling into that woman’s pussy trap. Oh, wait! I got a business card from that angel in the grocery store. She owns a tutoring, aftercare type of business and specializes in special needs. Maybe we could use her because Callira said that she liked her.”
My baby girl was down for a nap. I would probably look into it because my mother homeschooled Callira. I knew that she needed a break. My mother had her mainly during the weekdays for school and on the nights I was in the bar, which was not every night. The main night that I was there was on karaoke night and brunch, which Callira came with me most of the time.
“Here it is.” She handed me the card. “She was such a beautiful soul.”
I looked down at the card.Brilliant Minds, owned by Sundae and Wynsdae Jacobs.There was no damn way the world was this small.
Earlier The Same Morning. . .
I can’t believe I just fucked a man that I met the same night.That was not something that was normal for me. I wasn’t ashamed that I did it, but I was surprised. From the first note that left his guitar when I was on the stage, I knew I would fuck him eventually. I just didn’t think eventually would be the same night or morning . . .Whatever.
I was so delusional with desire about getting the dick that I let him transport me to his home. That was a crime documentary set up if I had ever seen one. The way that man touched me gave me goosebumps. Hell, I had them now just thinking about it. There was a roughness about his hands that felt like it could exfoliate my skin but in the same breath moisturize it. It was the best feeling ever.
When I woke up cupped in his arms, I panicked. I forgot where I was for a moment. It was sad that I couldn’t even blame it on the alcohol because my ass wasn’t drunk at all. My damn drink of the night was a non-alcoholic mocktail. What I did was because of pure desire. I was hungry for him, and he let me eat greedily. I slid my ass out of his bed and army crawled my fluffy ass across his floor. It was like I was scared if I walked the wood floors would tell on me.
Now I was in a rideshare on my way to the grocery store near my house which wasn’t too far from where he lived. It was crazy that we lived on the same side of town. I wondered how I had never seen him before.Maybe he’s new to this side of town.Yeah, that had to be it. I lived in Cayce, but he lived in a part of Columbia that was close to Cayce.
There were a few things I needed from the store. Some things were for me and the others for my sister. When we went grocery shopping, we bought things for our homes that the other liked. We spent a lot of time at each other’s house, so it just made sense. Plus, Wynsdae’s likes were not mine when it came to food. We rarely shopped together because while I liked to peruse around the store, she liked to get what she needed and go.
I looked down at the list I had on my phone. I needed some ice cream. My sister thought it was nasty that I mixed rocky road and butter pecan. The closer I got to the aisle, I saw a small group of people standing at the end of the aisle.What the hell isgoing on?The closer I got, I heard the elevated voice that came from the aisle.
“That’s a damn shame. People need to learn how to control their children,” one of the onlookers said as I walked up. Her nose was turned up.
When I looked down the aisle, I saw a beautiful older woman leaned against the freezer door as an equally beautiful little girl walked back and forth down the aisle as she hummed. I watched to truly take in the situation. From the little girls’ physical attributes, I knew that she was a down syndrome child. The ones standing around me that murmured about her bad behavior probably didn’t notice because of her beauty. There was a nasty connotation that individuals with the disorder were not attractive for some reason. That was crazy to me.
The little girl had certain attributes I noticed that told me what it was. I was trained to see these things, however. She had a little button nose with a flatness at the bridge. Her eyes slanted upward ever so slightly. I noticed that every two freezers, she knocked on it at a beat that complemented the song she hummed. That could have signaled that she also had an obsessive-compulsive disorder.
