Authors: Keith Thomas Walker
“I had to stand up for your honor. He said he’s sorry for pushing you, by the way.”
Mia pulled back and looked into his eyes. “He said that?”
“I ain’t gonna lie to you.”
“
My hero
,” she said and kissed him. Bubble-lip and all, it was still a good kiss.
* * *
The following Saturday Mia went to Claire’s. As gung-ho as the girls were about Tyrone a couple weeks ago, Mia thought she’d get support for The Plan, but no such luck.
“Girl, you can’t change no man. School? A savings account? Mia, you need to quit playing. All that stuff’s gonna take forever. You expect Tyrone to do right for that long? I told you to give him some and then go on about your business.”
And that came from Gayle. Mia couldn’t believe it.
“You’re the one who told me to work it out with him!”
“I don’t remember that.”
“He just wants your money,” Vasantha said.
Mia’s mouth fell open as she stared at her hairstylist in the mirror. “Vasantha, I know for a fact you told me to get with Tyrone.”
“I said get with him, I didn’t say try to turn him into Mr. Right. He’s a
thug
, girl!”
Mia was dumbfounded. She looked around the room in awe. “So, no one here remembers telling me Tyrone could make a good man?”
“Uhn-uhn.”
“Naw.”
“
Hell
, naw.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“I didn’t, either.”
“Nope, nope, nope.”
Mia laughed. “I’m gonna start wearing a tape recorder in here. You twofaced heifers don’t even remember your own advice half the time.”
“If
I
said you should go with Tyrone, I would remember that,” Gayle said. “I told you thugs know how to
lay pipe real good
, but I never said to
be with him
, like in a regular relationship.”
“Well, I am with him,” Mia said. “And we’re gonna make it work. Everything I told you about is going to happen.”
“You’ll probably get him to enroll in school, but that’s gonna be the end of it,” Gayle predicted.
“Once he sees how hard it is, he won’t stay,” Vasantha agreed.
Mia didn’t expect anything different from Mama Ernestine on the way out, and the matriarch did not disappoint.
Today she wore blue jeans with a denim blouse and a wig she called the Lady Sings the Blues. “Mia, you’re a smart woman. Don’t let that boy mess up your head. You go offering him his own business, and yeah, he’ll say anything to get that. But it’s not going to work. You can’t fix no man. You should know better than that.”
Despite every woman she knew being against The Plan, Mia still left the beauty shop, as always, a fresh, vibrant, and confident woman.
* * *
She took the kids to see Crystal on Sunday. It may have been different during the week, but on the weekends Crystal’s center was a lively place. Relatives from all over the state came to support and bring a bit of cheer to their addict sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, and moms and dads, too.
After just one week at the facility, Mia thought Crystal looked a lot better already. She gained a little weight, her makeup was neat and stylish, and Crystal’s face and hair had a glow to it.
“Well, look who’s getting all pretty and healthy again,” Mia told her. Crystal rolled her eyes. The kids still didn’t know what brand of sickness kept their aunt at this
odd
hospital.
“She looks fine. Can she come home today, Mommy?” Mica asked.
“Yeah,” Crystal said. “I feel fine,
Mommy
. Can I come home?”
Mia frowned at her. “She has to stay here for three more months,” she told Mica.
“
Two months and twenty-four days
,” Crystal corrected.
“Seems like you know
exactly
how long you have to be here,” Mia noticed. “So quit asking to leave until that time is up.”
Crystal sat back in her chair and pouted. That was all she had in her power to do, so she took full advantage. She refined, tweaked, and sported that pout eleven weekends straight. The only time Crystal had a smile on her face was the last time Mia drove to Grapevine to take her home.
“You don’t know how much I
hated
that place,” Crystal said on the drive home.
“What was so bad about it?” Mia wanted to know.
“
Everything
. All the boys there are
ugly
. They only let you use the phone once a week, and you only get thirty minutes. The food
sucks
, you can’t go
nowhere
. And they make you go to all these stupid meetings.
And
they make you work,
every
day, but you don’t get the money.”
Mia listened, her heart sinking with each word. It sounded like the whole three months had been in vain. “So, you didn’t learn anything?” she finally asked.
“Yes, I did,” Crystal said immediately. “I learned to stop blaming everyone else and take responsibility for what I did. I learned to admit I have a problem with drugs. And I learned how to avoid those situations that lead me to my drug abuse.”
Mia was surprised. “So, you
do
have a problem with drugs? That’s news to me.”
Crystal smiled. “Yes, Mia. I do. I used heroin and I abused it. And I lied about how much I used, and I lied about how much I wanted it. I’m sorry.”
“Wow. Is this the new and improved Crystal? You sound more mature.”
“I am,” she said. “I met a lot of people who
really
had drug problems. I’m not saying I didn’t, I’m just saying theirs was
worse
. Some of them lost their kids, houses, businesses. I don’t ever want to end up like them.”
“That’s good,” Mia said. “What about your
next
boyfriend?”
“He’s going to be a nerd,” Crystal predicted. “I’m not messing with no more rappers. No more thugs.”
Mia smiled.
“And how’s everything’s going with
your
thug boyfriend?” Crystal asked.
“It’s going fine,” Mia said. The more she thought about it, the bigger her smile grew. “Every day we’re getting a little more
thug
out of him. You know he started school last month?”
“Quit lying.”
“For real.”
“What
kind
of school?”
“He’s going to ATI. It’s a twelvemonth program. He’s going to know how to work on
any
car when he finishes.”
“You got Tyrone in school?”
“
He
filled out the application himself, Crystal, and he wakes up for classes on his own. I merely
suggested
it.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“No one does.”
“But ain’t he still gonna be a
mechanic
when he gets out?”
“That’s just phase one,” Mia said. “I didn’t tell you about The Plan?”
“What plan?”
“When Tyrone finishes at ATI, he’s going to get a good job at one of the bigger auto shops. While he’s working there, he’s going to go to the community college and get an associate’s degree in business.”
“Please.”
“
And then
he’s going to open his own shop.”
“Tyrone’s gonna do
all that
?”
“You’ve been gone a long time. A lot has changed.”
“Tyrone’s not going to do all that.”
“He’s already started,” Mia said. “And he’s doing just fine. He sees the kids every Saturday, and he takes them to the library and the museum sometimes.”
“
I’m
supposed to keep them while you’re at the beauty shop.”
“Like I said, Crystal, a lot of things have changed. They’ve been going to daycare after school, and I want them to keep going there.”
“Why?” Crystal asked. “You don’t trust me?”
“If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t be picking you up. I actually think the daycare’s good for them. They get a lot of work done. They don’t have as many distractions. TC’s teacher says he’s doing better in class.”
“TC was already doing good.”
“Yeah, but she says he’s more focused. He talks less and doesn’t seem bored like he used to be.”
“Sounds like everything’s going great with me out of the way,” Crystal said.
“You’re not going to start crying, are you?” Mia asked with a wry smile.
“I might,” Crystal said. She crossed her arms and stared out of the window.
“Tell you what, I’ve been leaving at five to pick the kids up from daycare, but maybe if I have to work late, you can get them instead.”
“I can pick them up from
school
.”
“No. I want them at daycare until
five
. I don’t want it to be like it was, Crystal. I want you to work on your own life more. I’ve had the kids for the past three months,
all by myself
, and nobody lost a finger. I’m glad you’re coming home, but I’m not going to use you like I did. Tyrone gets the kids on Saturdays, and they stay in daycare after school. I want you to go to school and do something with
your
life. Tyrone says he’s going to get his associates before you.”
“Yeah, right.”
“You shouldn’t underestimate my man,” Mia said. “We wouldn’t even be trying this if I didn’t think he could do it. He beat Sydney up for me.”
“He what?”
Mia laughed. She knew that would get her attention. She told Crystal the whole sordid story, even about the one lick Tyrone took during the fight, and they laughed about it the rest of the way home.
A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
The Plan was going according to schedule, but Mia didn’t tell her sister about a problem that nearly did them in when they first enrolled at ATI. Tyrone was definitely a skilled mechanic, but many of his automotive techniques were of the shade tree variety. Mia would never forget the day he brought his first textbook home. He flipped through it, growing more perplexed by the page.
“This some bullshit,” he said finally.
“What’s wrong?” Mia asked. They were in her living room on a warm Wednesday night.
“This is too much stuff. Nobody does it like this. I don’t even know what some of these parts are.”
“They’ll teach you,” Mia comforted.
“Yeah, they’ll teach me the
wrong
way,” Tyrone mused. “Like right here,” he pointed to a complicated diagram. “You don’t have to do all this to change out a fuel pump. A lot of this is unnecessary.”
“I had to learn a lot of unnecessary stuff when I went to school,” Mia said. “I memorized the periodic table of elements. No one cares about that. And I’m still waiting for someone to ask what a
pronoun
is.”
“That’s different. They taught you stuff you don’t need. These people are trying to teach me the
wrong way
to do something.
“How do you know it’s wrong? Maybe it’s just different.”
“It’s a lot of extra steps.”
“Oh,” Mia said, finally getting it. “So you know a
better
way to do it?”
“A
whole lot
better.”
“That just means you’re
better
than the average mechanic, Tyrone. The next time your teacher shows you something that doesn’t look right, tell him how it could be done easier. But be polite about it. The other students might appreciate it.”
And she was right. Tyrone told her so three weeks later.
“You remember what you said about how I should tell my teacher if I know a better way to do something?”
“Yeah,” Mia said.
“The guy teaching our class, I think he just got out of school hisself. He showed us how to change brakes today. Took him thirty minutes.”
“You’re faster than that,” Mia guessed.
“For real. When he got finished, I told him I knew a
different way
to do it, and he let me try.”
Mia smiled.
“And I did them brakes in like ten minutes,” Tyrone said. “Everybody was trippin’. The teacher said he was going to do it like I showed him when he taught his next class.”