Page 3 of Falling for Autumn
I sat on the toilet for ten minutes before I grabbed both sticks. Silent tears dripped down my face as I cried. “Oh, God, why me?”
Chapter 2
October Rasaun Patterson
“What’s so important that I had to drop everything and come over here, Polo?” I asked my dad as I cut into the pork chop that he had placed on my plate. It was smothered in gravy, and he had made mashed potatoes, green beans, and cornbread to go with it. I wasn’t sure what he was up to, but knowing my dad, it was something.
He could cook very well, but he seldom did, unless he wanted something.
“That’s what I want to know,” my sister, Kember, declared, walking into the kitchen.
“Hey, Sis. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. Daddy called me to come over, and he said that it was important.”
“Told me the same thing.”
“Girl, go wash your hands and fix your plate.” Polo fussed.
“Daddy, how do you know I haven’t already eaten?” she asked.
“She didn’t eat, Pops,” my ten-year-old niece, Emerald, declared as she came in the house shortly after her mother. Her eyes were glued to the tablet in her hand, but somehow, she managed to avoid bumping against anything.
“Girl, wash your hands and hush your mouth,” Kember stated, snatching the tablet from my niece’s hands.
“Moooommy. You didn’t eat because you said Pops would be cooking. So, why did I get my tablet taken?” Emerald whined.
“Girl, what did I tell you? Go wash your hands so you can eat.”
I watched as my niece marched out of the kitchen to do what her mother said, while my sister headed for the sink and washed her hands. “I swear she’s getting hardheaded more and more every day,” Kember complained.
“Hmm, . . . wonder where she gets that from,” I mumbled as I bit another piece of my pork chop.
“Don’t you start on me too.”
“Neither one of you had better start. I’ve got some things to discuss, and I don’t want to hear y’all whining.”
Kember glanced over her shoulder at me before she snatched two paper towels off the roll. “Well, Daddy, if it was that urgent, why couldn’t you just tell us over the phone?” she asked, as she prepared a plate for her daughter.
“Because that way y’all can hang up on me. I know this way you gon’ have to sit and listen.”
I slowly lowered my pork chop as my stomach turned. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to hear what the topic of this conversation was.
“Pops, did you make your good honey cornbread?” Emerald asked, blazing back into the kitchen and accepting the plate that her mother handed her.
“I did, baby. I knew that you were coming, and I made it specifically for you,” Polo lied.
I rolled my eyes, and Kember shook her head as she fixed herself a plate. This nigga fixed and ate that honey cornbread at least four days of the week.
Emerald sat down at the table beside me.
“Pops makes the best cornbread, Uncle October.”
“Don’t I know it, baby,” I replied, kissing her forehead. I loved my niece to pieces. She had become my everything. I had only wished that I could have been here for her when she was born. She and her mother had a tumultuous start, but they had come through it all.
Kember sat down at the table with her plate, and Polo sat on the other side of her.
“All right. We’re a family, and we’ve always been a family. I instilled in y’all from an early age to always put family first because that was your mama’s priority. Sometimes, family is all you got, and we can’t let each other down.”
