Page 32 of Memphis

“Zaccai, calm down! You know Bo is already promised to Layla. Plus, that girl is off limits to both of you. She’s an employee!” our mother fussed.

Promised to Layla.

That statement fucked my mood completely up.

“Don’t look at me like that,” my mother directed to me.

I had no idea how I was looking at her, but I assumed my frustration with the whole Layla situation was written all over my face.

“Your father made this agreement to end the war between our family and hers. You know that! You have to follow through with this!” she continued.

Leaning forward at her dining room table, I locked eyes with her. “A war that had nothing to do with me or Layla. That was between my father and hers long before either of us were born. She’s a beautiful woman. I’m sure she can marry whoever she wants. She doesn’t need this arrangement, and neither do I. I’m not marrying a woman because of some old Chicago street shit.”

“I’ll marry her,” Zaccai offered. “She fine as hell! Bo, you crazy.”

“It was more than Chicago street shit, as you put it. That truce kept your father alive, which allowed him and I to create you, and Zaccai, you know the terms. A son and daughter from opposing families are to marry. Layla’s father only had one child. Your father chose Bo,” my mother said.

“But I’m the oldest!” Zaccai whined. This nigga was always whining!

“Her father is old and sick, right? I bet he ain’t messed up about that agreement now. That was years ago,” I pointed out.

She shook her head. “To men like him and your father, a man’s word and honor are everything. He most definitely expects you to marry his daughter, or there will be hell to pay.”

I shifted my eyes to the wall behind my mother, scratching my forehead. “Look, this ain’t what we’re here for, Ma. We covered all the business, so I think this meeting is over.”

“Fine, but youwillmarry Layla within the next two years, Bo. What you do between now and then is up to you, but no children. Save that for your marriage,” she said.

“I don’t even want no damn kids,” I told her.

“But you will have children…with your wife.”

I shook my head before leaving the table and my mother’s house.

18

Then…

“How you get an apartment already? You ain’t even started this new job, yet!” was how my father responded to my announcement at the dinner table. My sisters looked to be near tears, but neither spoke.

“I just told you, Daddy. I got a sign-on bonus from the company, enough to put down a deposit and get a bed and couch. That’s really all I need right now,” I replied, adding to the laundry list of lies I’d already told him.

My big bear of a father stared at me, concern and something else in his eyes—fear. “What kind of company you say this is?”

“Mills-Thomas. I’ll be working as a pharmaceutical rep for them. I’ll be traveling all over, and it’s good money, Daddy.”

“Healthcare, Memphis? I would think you wouldn’t want anything to do with that system after…”

That’s when it hit me. Mama. Her loss was why all of them, my family, were taking this news so hard.

So, I stood, abandoning the plate of neck bones and greens “Aunt” Pauline had cooked for us, and stepped around the table to hug my daddy. “I miss her, too, but it’s time for me to try to figure life out without her. I’ll still be living here in town.”

“Not The Village. You said the apartment is in Parkton,” he grumbled.

“It’s the same thing, Daddy,” I reminded him.

“Parkton is changing, getting dangerous in some parts.”

“I won’t be living in those parts.”

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