I chuckled. “What are you going to build?”
“A house! We can live in it!” he said with his hands in the air.
“Oh, wow! I can’t wait to see it!”
He ran off, and my thoughts immediately went to Chozen. He was getting a degree in architecture. Closing my eyes for a moment, I gathered my emotions once again. Grabbing my phone after hearing it chime, I looked at Chozen’s message.
How are you feeling? Is your leg still hurting?
“Is that him texting you?”
“Yeah. He’s asking how I’m feeling.”
She nodded, her eyebrows scrunched together. I hated that expression on her face. I knew it was one of sympathy. I didn’t need sympathy, but I knew I would get it anyway because she was my mother. I knew how much she loved me, Daddy too, and they would take this from me in a heartbeat if they could. I was their only child now. My brother had gotten killed on the streets years ago, thinking he was big shit in the drug game. They showed him he didn’t mean shit.
“I’m going to be okay, Mama. I can’t worry about it if I don’t even know what it is yet. I’m gonna call my doctor and make an appointment.”
“Good. I’ll go with you whenever you go.”
I nodded then was about to text Chozen back, when he texted again.Can I call you now? Are you busy?
I smiled slightly.I’ll call you when I get home.
There was no way I would talk to him through Bluetooth and let Xavier hear me talking to a man, other than his father, before I had a chance to explain things to him. He was a smart kid, but I knew as soon as he heard the voice, he would automatically ask if it was his punk ass daddy. Standing slowly, I fixed my clothes. I was grateful no one was in STK Steakhouse earlier, being that I was in sweats and a T-shirt. I was completely underdressed for the ambiance.
“I’m going to head home, Mama. I just want to take a shower and lay in bed, rubbing my legs together while eating ice and scrolling TikTok. I truly miss rubbing my feet together.”
She chuckled. “You and that ice. I’m glad you’re going to make an appointment. They will do blood work and check your iron level. You could be anemic eating all that ice.”
That was another symptom of multiple myeloma. I nodded and gave her a tight smile. I grabbed my to-go container then walked over to her and kissed her cheek. “Thank you for always being here for me, Mama.”
She frowned. “Girl, where the hell else I’m gon’ be? I’m your mama. I love you so much.”
She pulled me in her arms and hugged me tightly. When she released me, she said, “Instead of TikTok-ing, you need to call Chozen. He was probably chosen by God just for you. Boop!”
I rolled my eyes at her foolery as she laughed. “Mama, don’t ever in your life say that again.”
She laughed even louder as I made my way out of the door. “See you later, and I love you too.”
When I got outside, Xavier was taking off his tool belt for his papa to put up in the storage house. My dad turned to see me and smiled. “Hey, baby. You leaving already?”
“Yes, sir. I’m tired,” I said, refusing to tell him I wasn’t feeling well.
My mama could handle the truth better than he could. He worried so much until he would make himself sick. His blood pressure was through the roof when I had to get my leg amputated. He ended up getting admitted into the same hospital I was in. I slowly made my way to him and hugged him tightly and kissed his cheek.
“Be careful, baby. See you later.”
“Okay, Daddy. I love you. Come on, Xavier. Go tell Momo bye.”
“Okay, Mommy.”
“I love you too, sweetness,” my daddy said.
I went to the car and started it, letting the A/C cool it off a bit and leaned against it, waiting for Xavier. Things had to get better. I thought I’d already experienced the worst with the amputation.God, please intervene.
Ikicked back in my recliner and opened a bottle of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. It had been a long ass week. I was supposed to talk to Azari Wednesday night. She never called. I texted her to see if she was okay, but she didn’t respond. Here it was, a week later, and I still hadn’t heard from her. She didn’t show up in class today or Monday, and I was starting to worry. I even said that in my text messages. Anything could have happened to her.
I called hospitals and looked up car accidents in the area. Still nothing. I didn’t know what was going on, and it was driving me crazy. I set my bottle on the side table and grabbed my phone. I called the one person I knew could locate her if I really needed him to. If she didn’t want to talk to me anymore, I wished she would have just said that instead of ghosting me. I wasn’t a fan of poor communication.
