Page 19 of Another Constant

He blew smoke from his lips as I approached. “When I married Ashley I thought we had forever in this shit. Thought everything was perfect, then time happened and we hated each other. Well shit, she hated me, but I still loved everything about that woman. Even the child she produced for me, the child that is the spitting image of her.” He glanced in the direction of my house. “I gotta get outta here for a while, Kinga. I can’t stay here and be reminded of a split second decision I made that will affect her for the rest of her life.”

His words hit me like bricks. “What does that mean?” I was dumbfounded as fuck while I asked.

“I need you to keep her for me, Kinga. I need to figure myself out without worrying about my daughter. I need you to st?—”

“I got you.” I didn’t know why I said that shit, but absolutely nothing in me knew anything about raising a fucking child. Then, to make matters worse, my auntie would be no help because her inconsiderate ass had long decided Chicago wasn’t her scene anymore. She went south and had no intention of coming back.

He nodded. “Just for a lil while.” His eyes went back to the house. Then he looked at me. A minute later he pulled an envelope from behind him and handed it to me.

“What’s this?’

“The legalities. Even though I have the letter you had ol’ boy draw up for me, I still don’t ever want Ashley’s folks anywhere near my child. I had it drawn up this afternoon.” He ashed the blunt and put it behind his ear.

I nodded. Every base was covered for it to look like Ashley picked up and ran off on him. As long as he didn’t allow his bleeding heart to drip, nobody would know I had B clean up, frame her running off, and dispose of anything incriminating. B’s folks owned a cemetery, so the one thing that would never be found was the bodies, even if they put Sherlock himself on the case.

“You don’t wanna say bye to her?”

“Nah, I can’t. I’ll call from time to time, but I gotta get out of here.”

I just looked at him, seeing the thunderous storm in his eyes. Of all of us, he felt everything, so I knew turmoil filled his veins, weighing him down with every motion. I wouldn’t push, shit I just hoped he'd come back soon because his departure would leave a lot of questions for the little girl in there. A lot of questions I didn’t have the right answer to give her.

“What am I supposed to tell her?”

“That I love her and it’s for the best. Shit ain’t forever, bu—” He had a tear in his eye, so I pulled him into a hug, rising above this for the both of us. That's all I could do at this moment.

“But nothing. Go take care of yourself, man. I got it.”

Shit, I think.

* * *

Days past first. Then a week and before I knew it I had been uncle-daddy for almost a month. At first Aja asked a million questions, wondering where her parents were, but somehow I was able to distract her enough to which she just stopped asking questions all together. Maybe she realized I wasn’t gonna answer her questions, so she stopped asking. Either way I was attempting to settle into this for her and my sake, especially with the life I led. I wasn’t necessarily the kid-friendly type, meaning I had a lot going on in my world.

“Uncle King, where are we going?” Aja asked

“To check out this school. While you are with me, I can’t have you halfway out the city if it’s an emergency. I gotta be able to get to you, shorty.” I was probably talking to her like she was too old, but I didn’t know shit about having a kid with me full-time. I was learning while Sora and Blaze helped me out from time to time when they could.

“Oh. Am I going to be with you for a long time?”

“I don’t know, short fry. Why?”

“I just asked. If I am, can we decorate my room? It’s boring and I miss the toys and stuff I had at home.”

I felt bad…like shit because Oden still had yet to call and check in, so I didn’t know where he was. For all I knew, he was backpacking through the fucking mountains. “Yeah, we can get that together. After we get this school shit together.”

We pulled into the parking lot of a private catholic school close to my house. I was about to put her ass in public school, but Sora talked me out of that shit.

“This place is big.”

“It is. Better be a good school for how they tryna hit my pockets,” I mumbled, helping her out of the car.

“Your pockets, Uncle? They’re hitting you?”

“Nothing, baby girl. Nothing you need to be worried about.” I patted her head, kicking myself in the ass because my auntie had already told me to stop saying certain shit around her. It was hard to filter how I talked out of nowhere, especially when I never had to before.

We entered the school, immediately greeted by an old ass woman sitting at the front. She looked mean as hell. I could tell by the hair on her chin she was giving somebody hell on a regular.

Old ho didn’t greet me either, just blinked those big ass eyes, waiting for me to speak. Instead of cursing her ass out, I nodded and simmered down because this wasn’t about me. I had to get baby girl enrolled.

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