Page 33 of The Heart of a Capricorn
My heart dropped to my stomach when she said his name. He and I weren’t together, so I wondered why she called me. I hoped she wasn’t telling me she was pregnant or something by him, because it wasn’t my business. It would have hurt me, but there wouldn’t have been anything I could do about it.
I sat up in my chair. “What about him?” I tried to keep the attitude out of my tone because I could hear that she was crying.
She sniffed a couple of times. “This is his cousin, Shamika. He—he.” Her voice broke, and I heard her sniffle again.
I tried not to rush her because, clearly, something was wrong, but my patience quickly ran thin.
“He was in a small plane crash, and he died.” As soon as the last word left her mouth, she sobbed loudly in my ear.
My body froze as tears sprang to my eyes and dropped on my desk. It felt like my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth because I couldn’t open it.
“What? What do you mean? Where is he?”
“Him and a group of his friends rented a small plane to celebrate his birthday, and something happened with the plane. It went down, and he died.” She wailed.
I never met Shamika, but I knew that was Brice’s favorite cousin. She lived in Tennessee, so they didn’t see each other that often, but I knew he talked to her all the time.
I covered my face with my hand and cried. We sat in silence on the phone for a minute before either of us spoke.
“When did this happen?” I asked. It wouldn’t make a difference, but I still wanted to know. I wanted to see if I would be able to see him one last time.
“It happened late last night. We are still at the hospital. He held on for a while, but eventually, he succumbed to his injuries. I know how important you are to my cousin. You can come see him if you want.”
Before she could finish her sentence, I had my stuff gathered and was already heading out the door.
The sound of my phone pinging pulled me out of that conversation. I looked at the phone, and it was a reminder that it was Brice’s birthday. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t taken it out of my calendar. I felt like taking it out would be like erasing Brice from my life, and I couldn’t bear that.
I threw the phone on the other side of the bed, then I grabbed the pillow next to me and held it over my face.
“Ahh!” I screamed multiple times into the pillow.
When I felt like I had gotten my feelings out, I picked up the phone and called Brice’s mom.
The phone rang a few times before she finally picked up.
“Hello.”
I could tell by her tone she was about to be on some bullshit.
“Hey, Ms. Anita. I called to check on you.”
She sucked her teeth. “I don’t know what the hell for. It’s not like you give a fuck about me or anybody else in this family.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and counted to five. My eyes stung from the tears that had gathered in them.
“Ms. Anita. I’m not sure why you think that. I’ve been nothing but nice to your family, even when everyone wasn’t nice to me.”
There were some people in Brice’s family who I didn’t get along with, because they assumed that I thought I was better than them. I was just more reserved around people I didn’t know, so when I first met them, I didn’t say much. Eventually, I loosened up and became friends with some of them, but the others never learned to like me. They would say slick stuffwhenever I came around. I even got into a fight with one of his sisters.
I heard her click her teeth again. “Well, it’s not like they don’t have a reason not to like you. We know you had money left from that fund you started for him, and ain’t gave us a single dime. Not even me, and I’m his mother.”
I closed my eyes and sucked in all the air that my lungs could hold, then let it out. I knew how hard this day was for her, so I tried not to get smart with her, but she made it difficult.
When I found out they had trouble getting the money for the extravagant funeral they wanted to have for Brice, I started a fund to pay for it. There was some money left over, but it wasn’t a lot, so I gave myself the rest of it. I considered it payment for taking care of everything, because they all couldn’t get along long enough to finalize the details.
“Ms. Anita, I’m not trying to go there with you.”
“Girl, say what you have to say,” she snapped.
