Page 28 of Heavy Is The Crown

Traci scoffed. “And? What that mean?” She turned off the stove, setting the skillet aside like she had all the time in the world to break him down. “You been out long enough to know what you ain’t gon’ do. But what about what you are gon’ do?”

Same conversation. Different day. And he was tired of it. But Traci had enough energy for them both.

“You moving like you waiting on something to fall in your lap,” she continued. “Like I’m supposed to just sit back and watch you lay up in my house without a plan.”

Kenyatta exhaled slowly, choosing his words carefully. “I’m trying, Mama.”

“Try harder.”

Strike three.

Kenyatta leaned forward, frustration tightening his chest. “You act like it’s easy. Like I don’t got no record, like people ain’t shutting me out the moment they see my name on an application.”

Traci didn’t react at first. Just stared at him, arms crossed, then sighed like she’d been through this a thousand times before. “Boy, you think you the first man in this family to have a felony?”

Kenyatta frowned. “What?”

Traci wiped her hands on a dish towel. “You think you the only one who done had to get it out the mud? Your uncles, your cousins, they done all been through the system. Difference is, they figured it out. And you?” She shook her head. “You still sitting here looking for excuses.”

That hit different. Kenyatta’s pride flared hot. “So, what you saying…I ain’t trying hard enough? That I’m just sitting on my ass?”

Traci gave him that look. The one that made him feel twelve years old again. “If the shoe fits.”

Oh, she was pushing it.

His pride burned, but he swallowed it down. He wasn’t about to give her the reaction she wanted. Instead, he leaned back, tapping his fingers against the table. “I actually might have a job lined up.”

Traci’s face didn’t change, but her body stilled just for a second. He caught it.

She folded her arms. “Yeah? What kinda job?”

Kenyatta hesitated. Here we go. “Maintenance work. Pops put me on to it.”

The room went quiet. Too quiet.

Traci’s lips pressed together, and just like that, her whole energy changed again. She turned back to the stove and started scraping the already clean skillet.

Kenyatta sighed. “Mama.”

“Mmhmm.”

“You hear me?”

“Oh, I heard you.”

Kenyatta exhaled, rubbing his temples. “Man, why you always do that?”

Traci turned slightly, eyes sharp. “Do what?”

“Act funny every time I bring up Pops.”

Traci scoffed, setting the skillet down a little harder than necessary. “Boy, ain’t nobody actin’ funny. You just don’t see that man the way I do.”

Kenyatta’s jaw tightened. “Mama, this ain’t about y’all; this about me getting a job.”

Traci sighed, shaking her head. “Whatever. Just don’t hold your breath on nothin’ that man say.”

Kenyatta sat back in his chair, shoulders tight. He didn’t expect congratulations, butdamn.

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