Page 19 of His Strings Make Her Legs Sing
He shifted to turn toward me. “My mother gave me up for adoption when I was like two months old. The story was that she got pregnant at eighteen by her boyfriend who was twenty-four years old. When he found out that she was pregnant, he told her that he didn’t want any kids, and that if she had me, he wouldn’t fuck with her. She was too far along for an abortion, so she had me and gave me up.”
“Wow. Did your parents tell you that?” My chin turned side to side. “It’s crazy that she chose a man over her child.”
He tittered. “Tell me about it. Callira’s mother recently did the same, but I got my baby. To answer your question, no. My parents didn’t tell me. My mother wrote me a letter that she wanted them to give me when I turned eighteen. She told me in the letter about the shit. She told me who my father was just in case I ever had a medical emergency and needed something or if I wanted to find him.”
When I asked him if he ever looked for his father, he nodded his head. “Yeah, when I was like twenty, I did. He got locked up when I was three for murder. I went to visit him a year after I found him. He basically told me that he didn’t want my mother to have me because she was his side chick. He wasn’t willing to lose his main girl over getting his side chick pregnant. Long story short, he went to jail, and my mother turned to drugs to deal with the love of her life leaving her and overdosed not long after.”
I didn’t know what to say. That was a lot. “I don’t really know what to say.”
He kissed my forehead. “Baby, there’s nothing that you have to say. I’m blessed to have been adopted by the best damnparents. God was watching out for a nigga. My father taught me everything he knew about the plumbing business, and my mother taught me everything she knew about music.” He kissed my lips, then said, “Since we’re in this deep ass space, tell me why you got your cats.”
My heart dropped a little. There was no way I couldn’t tell him after what he told me. Well, there was a way, but I wanted to tell him. “Um, there was a time that I was in a slightly abusive relationship, and I got pregnant. I wanted my baby, but I didn’t want a connection to that man for life. My sister didn’t know that my guy at the time had a little hand problem.”
Anger was engrained in Citrell’s face. “So, when you found out you were pregnant, who did you tell? I feel like you didn’t tell your sister.”
“No, I didn’t. Ironically, I told my father. He listened to me, let me cry, and asked me what I wanted to do. When I told him that I wanted an abortion, he didn’t judge me. I scheduled the procedure on a Thursday that my sister would be out of town for the weekend. My father told my mother that he was going on a fishing trip. He took me to my appointment and took care of me over the weekend.”
He didn’t say anything initially. His eyes were soft. “What happened after that weekend?”
I huffed. “We never told my mom or sister. To this day they don’t know. I went into a functional depression. One day, my daddy showed up at my house with my babies. It’s been love ever since.” He asked what happened to the dude and I laughed. “My daddy fucked him up and that was that.”
We both just laid there for a moment in silence. “Damn, all of that was deep. Glad we got that out of the way,” Citrell finally said.
I wasn’t sure why that was so damn funny to me, but my laughter came out hard as hell. “It was heavy, wasn’t it? I’mhappy you told me, but wait. You said that Callira’s mother recently chose a man over her child. What’s that about?”
He told me what happened. He also told me the origin story of him and Miss Iesha. “My baby girl is better off without her.” He held me a little tighter. “And look at me, making better decisions about the woman that I want to be with.”
My heart was filled with anger toward his stupid baby’s mother and hurt for Callira. I kissed his lips. “Yeah, you picked a winner this time.”
I wasn’t sure how it happened, but the next thing I knew, Citrell’s dick was back in me. That exhaustion I had earlier slipped from me, and I found my second wind. The way this man fucked me shouldn’t be studied because that would mean I’d have to kill a heifer for studying my man.
A Short Time Later . . .
Today was Callira’s first full day in the center without her grandme. It had been a month since she had been coming for two days a week with her grandme. She came in at one in the afternoon and stayed until we closed at six. Rella stayed the entire time the first few times, then she would shed off time after that either at the beginning or the end. Today, the plan was to drop Callira off and come back at five forty-five to pick her up.
Since Callira had been here, we had implemented a karaoke day, which was one of the days that she came. For the last two hours, provided everyone had done all of their work, we did karaoke. My baby, Citrell, donated a very nice karaoke setup for us that included a stage. The students loved it. What was moreamazing was Citrell working to start a family karaoke night at Wicked Strings with a more family-friendly selection from six in the evening until nine on Thursdays.
“You ready?” my sister asked.
Am I?“Yes, I’m ready. It shouldn’t be that much of a transition, I hope. Rella was only here for an hour last time. I feel like I keep her pretty occupied. Plus Princess being her new best friend helps a lot.”
The other little girl that has down syndrome connected with her immediately over their Cabbage Patch Kids collection. That was amazing to me because I didn’t know that they still produced them, but they do. They had some that cost almost three hundred dollars because they were handstitched. The next day after they became friends, they both brought in their favorite doll.
My sister sat on my couch against the wall in my office. “Yeah, you’re ready. That little girl loves you. I can’t wait until you and Citrell tell her that y’all are in a relationship.”
I smiled at the thought of when that day would come. Citrell and I had discussed it already. Our relationship had progressed quickly, but beautifully. His mother and my parents knew about the relationship. We were planning a family barbeque after Callira was told. One thing I loved about my man was how he supported me and my business. It had been a crazy time for Brilliant Minds.
Since the newscast aired, we had to hire two additional teachers as well as teachers’ assistants to accommodate the growth in our enrollment. I cried when I saw that we had fifteen new students in the time span of two weeks. One of the teachers that we hired was a special needs teacher since my class had doubled.
“I’m excited about going back to Wicked Strings tonight. Do you know what you’re going to sing?” I asked Wynsdae. I did a little jiggle in my seat.
Marco and Citrell told us over dinner the other night that patrons had requested that we come back and do more of a show than karaoke. That was crazy to me, but we were excited to do a small set in the middle of karaoke.
“Yeah, I know what I’m going to sing. I love the songs that you plan to do too. We might end up doing the songs together and just switching leads depending on the vibe.” She had a good point. We were good at detecting the vibe to see where we needed to go next.
My sister and I sat in my office until it was time to go to the front to receive Callira. About fifteen minutes later, she arrived with all the energy in the world. “Sundae! Wynsdae! Look, my daddy bought me a new doll.” She held it up but didn’t give us a chance to really see it before she dismissed herself. “Princess, look!”
“Chile, that little girl has been on one hundred since her daddy gave her that doll yesterday,” Rella commented with a chuckle. She stood there for a moment with love glowing all over her for her granddaughter. “Let me get out of here. Her daddy is coming to pick her up today. My man is taking me to an early dinner.”
