Fairplay, Denver Cereal Volume 6 (31 page)

The doctor’s voice faded away as Valerie’s
eyes locked on the image of her baby. The baby seemed to know
Valerie was looking at her. She stretched her hand out to
Valerie.

“
Look,” Mike pointed to a
bulge in her belly. Entwining their fingers, he put her hand on her
belly with his hand over it.

“
Wow,” Valerie
said.

They touched their baby’s hand until the
baby turned away to suck her thumb.

“
She’ll be here soon!” the
doctor said. “So you’d like me to sell these photos to People
magazine?”

Valerie laughed.

“
We’ll see you next week,”
the doctor said and left the room.

Mike helped Valerie up.

“
Did you feel it?” Valerie
whispered.

He looked at her for a moment and grabbed
some paper towels to wipe off the gel. Unsure of what to make of
his silence, she dressed quickly and they met her security detail
to get out of the doctor’s office. The security guys got them past
the paparazzi and into a waiting car. They rode in silence to the
Detroit Street garage. When the garage door closed, Mike looked at
her and smiled.

“
Did I feel her?” Mike
asked. “Oh my God, Valerie. She’s amazing!”

Nodding, Valerie began to cry. Mike’s long
arms wrapped around her. They sat in the warm garage crying and
hugging each other and their baby.

CHAPTER ONE
HUNDRED & SEVENTY-FIVE

Circles

Monday evening—6:35 P.M. MDT

“
Okay Sissy,” Sandy
pointed down the baking aisle of the Five Points Safeway. “Can you
grab the ultrafine sugar? It’s next to…”

“
I know where it is.”
Still charged up from her dance practice, Sissy twirled down the
wide aisle.

“
Nash?” Sandy looked
around for the boy. He ran over with a dozen eggs.

“
You think we still have
time?” Nash asked.

“
What’s your watch say?”
Sandy pointed to the countdown timer on his watch.

“
Eleven minutes and four
seconds,” Nash said. “That’s not enough…”

“
We’d better hurry,” Sandy
smiled. “Go get the ice cream while I look at the
strawberries.”

Nash took off. Sissy came back with the
sugar.

“
What else do we need?”
Sissy asked.

“
Just a few more things,”
Sandy said. “I appreciate your help.”

“
I’m glad Teddy gets to
come back,” Sissy said. “What did his Mom say?”

“
Blah, blah, I don’t need
to put up with his crap, blah, blah, I’m a drug addict not an
alcoholic, blah, blah, blah,” Sandy rounded the corner to the fruit
and vegetable section and stopped. “She seems to think it’s all
right to be falling down drunk in front of Teddy. But he’s been
living with our rules.”

“
Children of addicts can’t
be around drugs or alcohol. Period,” Sissy repeated. “Well, I don’t
care what she says. If she was that drunk, Teddy shouldn’t be with
her.”

“
Right. I’ll tell you
Teddy’s Dad is furious. I don’t think Teddy’s going to be forced to
see her for a while.”

“
Maybe when he’s older
he’ll want to see her,” Sissy said.

“
Maybe,” Sandy said. “I
don’t see the strawberries. Do you?”

“
Over here,” Sissy trotted
over to the organic section. “Should I pick?”

“
No, let me,” Sandy pushed
the cart to the organic section. “Can you tell Nash I forgot
whipped cream?”

Sandy was looking at the strawberries when
Nash tossed the vanilla ice cream in the basket.

“
Two Points!” Nash said.
Sandy gave him a mock clap and he bowed.

“
She forgot the whipped
cream,” Sissy said.

“
I didn’t,” Nash pulled
the whipped cream out of his pocket. “Are you getting raspberries
too?”

“
Delphie doesn’t have
enough?” Sandy set a plastic clamshell of strawberries in the cart
and went to look at the others.

“
She didn’t think so,”
Nash said. “You want me to…?”

“
No, I’d like to get them
myself,” Sandy said.

“
Why do you have to look
at them yourself?” Sissy asked.

“
I guess it’s something I
got from Mom,” Sandy said. “You remember, Sis, we would go to all
those fruit stands. She would chat and look at fruit. She always
wanted to make sure she had exactly the right fruit for her
pies.”

“
Pies?” Sissy’s eyebrows
went up with doubt. She trailed after Sandy as she pushed the cart
to the front of the store to look at raspberries. Sissy repeated,
“Pies?”

“
Pies, torts, scones,”
Sandy said. “You remember those amazing scones she would
make?”

“
Our Mom?” Sissy asked.
“Patty?”

“
Right, Patty,” Sandy
grabbed a plastic clamshell of raspberries and turned it over.
“Nash, I think we have enough chocolate, but would you
mind…?”

“
I’ll get more,” Nash
said.

He was about ten feet away when she
yelled:

”
Nash!” He spun in place.
Sandy yelled. ”You know what kind?”

“
I know,” Nash
said.

“
Sandy, our Mom, Patty,
she never baked anything,” Sissy said.

“
Sure she did,” Sandy
said. “She used to make brownies for our birthdays.”

Sissy looked at Sandy like she’d lost her
mind.

“
Come on,” Sandy stopped
turning over plastic clamshells of raspberries to look at Sissy.
“You have to remember the brownies.”

“
Our Mom never made
anything,” Sissy said. “She barely cooked.”

Sandy stared at Sissy. Her ears heard the
words Sissy was saying, but in her mind, she watched her Mom
baking. Sandy shook her head.

“
Sandy,” Sissy grabbed her
arm. “Our Mom never celebrated our birthdays. She said it was a
primitive ritual. You used to give us little gifts and bake us
cakes and stuff. But Mom never did anything.”

While her body stood in the middle of the
bustling Safeway, Sandy’s mind slipped away to…

…
someone was singing
‘Happy Birthday’ to her. She could smell the chocolate on the air.
She felt warm and very loved. Looking up, she expected to see Patty
but she saw…

“
Mommy,” Sandy
whispered.

“
Sandy!” Sissy said. “Are
you all right? You kind of blanked out and…”

Sandy nodded. Her eyes scanned Sissy’s face.
Feeling a well of love for her sister, Sandy hugged Sissy.

“
Now go scout the lines,”
Sandy said.

Sissy ran to check which line was moving the
fastest. For the briefest moment, Sandy’s mind returned to her
Mommy.

“
Thank you,” she whispered
and ran to catch up with Sissy.

~~~~~~~~

Monday evening—6:35 P.M. MDT

“
Did you forget
something?”

Assuming it was Jeraine, Tanesha opened the
penthouse door. Jeraine’s mother stood on the other side of the
door.

“
Mrs. Wilson!” Tanesha
smiled.

Jeraine’s mother, Dionne, gave Tanesha a
beautiful smile and stepped into the penthouse. Even wearing jeans
and a T-shirt, Mrs. Wilson had an air of dignity and class. Tanesha
adored the woman.

“
I thought you were Jer,”
Tanesha said. “You just missed him. He went for a run.”

“
I waited for him to
leave,” Mrs. Wilson said.

“
Come in,” Tanesha
said.

“
Lord have mercy, this
place is awful,” Mrs. Wilson wandered through the penthouse.
“You’re not going to live here, are you?”

“
No,” Tanesha
laughed.

“
Good girl,” Mrs. Wilson
said. “Is there a place we can talk?”

“
There’s a balcony,”
Tanesha said. “The traffic’s not too loud this time of day. Can I
get you anything?”

“
Is there anything here?”
Mrs. Wilson asked.

“
I bought some tea,”
Tanesha laughed.

“
I brought cookies,” Mrs.
Wilson held out her arms. Tanesha hugged her. “I can’t tell you how
delighted I was when Bumpy told me you might be back in Jeraine’s
life.”

“
You’re still not speaking
with him?” Tanesha asked.

“
No,” Mrs. Wilson raised
her eyebrows in the universal ‘I’m still mad at my child’ look of
mothers. “I am not.”

Tanesha moved toward the kitchen to make
tea. Mrs. Wilson followed her and began opening cabinets.

“
Alcohol, expensive
alcohol, of course. You mind?” Mrs. Wilson held the bottle over the
sink. Tanesha shook her head and Mrs. Wilson began emptying the
bottles. “My son has to be the tackiest man on the planet. I’m
surprised there’s not a huge picture of his genitals hanging on the
wall.”

“
I threw it out,” Tanesha
said.

“
Of course you did,” Mrs.
Wilson said. She leaned her head out of a cabinet to look at
Tanesha. The women laughed. “It’s really nice to see you, Miss
T.”

“
You too,” Tanesha said.
“Why aren’t you talking to Jeraine?”

“
Did he tell you about the
last time he came to our home?” Mrs. Wilson asked. “Now how much
Whey Powder does one man need?”

“
He’s bulking up,” Tanesha
said.

Mrs. Wilson laughed at the idea of her tall,
muscular son needing to ‘bulk up.’ Tanesha finished making their
tea about the time Mrs. Wilson finished her kitchen inspection.
They carried their tea to the balcony on the West side of the
building. They sat at a teak outdoor dining set. As if to welcome
them, the clouds shifted to reveal the splendor of the Rocky
Mountains.

“
What did he do the last
time he was at your home?” Tanesha asked.

“
He was high,” Mrs. Wilson
said. “He was cruel to his sister. Then he left with three girls
from the neighborhood. Bumpy tried to speak with him, but he was
too high to care.”

“
When was
this?”

“
Maybe two weeks before he
was arrested,” Mrs. Wilson said. “I told Seth not to bother with
him, but that man cannot resist a lost cause. Now my son is home
and… What’s he like?”

“
He’s trying,” Tanesha
said.

“
Your patience no doubt,”
Mrs. Wilson laughed.

“
Well, that too,” Tanesha
said. “What I meant is that he wants to redirect his life. He seems
pretty serious about it. He went to rehab. I think he’s been clean
since before prison. He’s not drinking. I don’t know why that stuff
is here. I doubt he knows it’s here.”

“
Who set up the
apartment?”

Tanesha shrugged. Mrs. Wilson raised an
eyebrow.

“
Probably one of his
‘posse’,” Tanesha said.

“
Posse?’ Mrs. Wilson
laughed. “What is he? Butch Cassidy?”

“
I haven’t met any of
them,” Tanesha laughed.

“
You’re wise beyond your
years, my dear.”

They laughed.

“
All joking aside,”
Tanesha said. “He quit the record company and seems pretty intent
on going to med school.”

“
That’s what I wanted to
talk to you about,” Mrs. Wilson said.

“
Jeraine going to med
school?” Tanesha asked. “Or me? I really want to be a doctor, not a
nurse.”

“
If I could have been a
doctor, Tanesha, I would have.” Mrs. Wilson smiled. “I had two
babies and Bumpy. Nursing school was enough. No, I wanted to talk
to you about the record company.”

“
What about
them?”

“
Jeraine ended his
contract?”

Tanesha nodded.

“
He’s looking for other
representation?”

“
I think he’s signed with
Schmidty,” Tanesha said. “You know, Seth’s agent.”

“
Jammy came by the office
last week,” Mrs. Wilson said.

“
Jammy,” Tanesha said.
“That’s right. He was one of Bumpy’s Boys.”

Mrs. Wilson smiled at the memory of her
husband’s little league team.

“
I need to get serious
with you,” Mrs. Wilson said. “And I need you to promise never to
tell my son that we had this talk. Can you do that?”

Tanesha nodded.

“
Have the music people
come to ‘talk’ to you yet?” Mrs. Wilson asked.

Tanesha flushed.

“
Were they
cruel?”

Tanesha nodded. Mrs. Wilson looked away.
Remembering she had the cookies, Mrs. Wilson opened her bag and
pulled out a tin. She opened the tin and held it out. Tanesha gave
a little clap for her favorite Ginger-Spice cookies. Mrs. Wilson
smiled.

“
What happened?” Mrs.
Wilson asked.

“
Some man came up after
church. He said he wanted to talk to me,” Tanesha said. “He
corralled me by the curb and said some horrible things.”

“
That’s just the start,”
Mrs. Wilson said. “When Bumpy left the music life, they came to my
home and threatened me. They preyed on my every insecurity. I was
ready to call the whole thing off but Bumpy…”

Mrs. Wilson gave a soft smile for her
husband. Her eyes turned toward Tanesha.