Page 14 of Taming a Menace
“I didn’t jump on Brad. I just hit him in the mouth,” I explained.
“Who the hell is Brad?” he asked.
“The white guy Chad or whatever his name is.”
As if he was summoned, Big Mouth came wandering out of the back holding a towel over his swollen lip. Realization seemed to come over Sonny once he came into view.
“Oh, you’re talking about Brent.”
“I don’t know his name. I just know he was talking crazy. Somebody needs to let him know that if he’s going to refer to somebody as anN wordhe might as well call them a nigger.”
“Key, go home and cool off. Let me handle him.”
“You got it, boss,” I said with a casual shrug.
I didn’t bother looking back at Brent as I made my exit. I knew he wasn’t a threat. He just didn’t have any manners. God forbid I had to be the one to teach him some because it was going to be a hard learned lesson.
I went to the back and grabbed my keys from the ring near the door before stepping out into the night. The crisp air welcomed me out of the mugginess of the prep room, causing me to take a deep breath.
Downtown buzzed with the sounds of the few stragglers leaving the multitude of bars and clubs in the area. A few people strolled along heading to their cars or their eateries of choice. I kept my stride, not worrying about them as I strolled to my truck. All I wanted to do was get home.
It was only a short walk to my truck, so in no time at all I was sliding into the driver’s seat. After cranking it up, I turned the radio to the old school station that had kept me company during my shift. Hearing the late-night host’s smooth voice was my cue to pull away from my spot and head home.
The drive from Downtown was about twenty minutes, and with little to no traffic on the road I seemed to make it even quicker. By the time I pulled into my usual parking spot, my body was tired, and my feet were hollering for mercy. As taxing as the job was on the body, I wouldn’t trade careers for the world.
There was something about disconnecting from everything and focusing on creating that gave me peace. There were so many demons and negative thoughts swirling in my head on a regular basis that sometimes I just needed to disengage.
Cooking got me through some tough times. I took an interest in cooking when I was around eight or nine years old. My mom would always let me help in the kitchen. I was such a mama’s boy that my brothers teased me for always wanting to be right under my mom’s skirt. The desire to be close to her had me in the kitchen with her while she cooked.
Eventually she let me help her prepare our meals by cutting potatoes or shredding cheese. Menial tasks led to her teaching me the basics. Losing my dad at eight years old was a shock to my system. My mom took time off work to be home with us. While she was home all we did was cook, cook, cook.
Cooking made me forget the heartbreak of losing my dad if only for a little while. Just like my mom, I used cooking toescape. By the time I was ten, I could prepare a full meal for the family.
My older brothers Kross and Kannon were into sports and old enough to join the teams at school. I wasn’t a joiner. Even if I was, I couldn’t get along with the other guys long enough to stay on the team. The couple of times that my mom was able to force me to play team sports, I got into a fight and ended up getting kicked off the team.
She eventually got a girl that lived a few houses down to babysit for me until my brothers got home. For a while, I didn’t mind at all. Like I said, I didn’t play well with others.
Taking a deep breath, I opened my car door and got out. As much as I missed having my own place, I liked the feeling of home that came from living with my mom. My older brother offered to let me move in with him and his wife once I was released, but I wasn’t about to be a burden on him. I had money stashed away that would allow me to move whenever I was ready. For now, it was cool living with my mom.
I felt like I owed her for all the time we missed while I was locked up. I refused to let my favorite girl see me caged away like an animal. She was the only one in the world that saw the best in me when other people were so determined to see the worst.
My mom felt like losing my dad changed me from her sweet boy into the monster I was today. Although I didn’t agree, I knew his absence was the root of many of the problems we faced today.
Living with my mom gave me a sense of harmony that I missed during the three years that I was gone. I missed her like crazy, but as much as I wanted to see her, I valued her opinion of me more. Something told me that seeing me locked up would allow her to see the reality of who I was. I wasn’t the precious, misunderstood angel she prayed for each and every night. I wasalreadythe demon that she feared would take over if her prayerscouldn’t save me. The change had happened years ago right under her nose.
I was quiet as I entered the house and went straight to my bedroom. It was already after two which gave me just under six hours to shower, sleep, and get my ass to the court mandated anger management sessions that I hated. Anger management hadn’t helped when I was sixteen. It didn’t change me when I was twenty-three. Now as a thirty-four year old man, I was almost certain that there was nothing these folks could tell me that I didn’t already know.
It’s not like I wasn’t self-aware. I knew who I was and had accepted it a long time ago. Other people were the ones who had a problem with my so-called anger. What I couldn’t understand was why they couldn’t stay away from my angry ass. All I ever wanted or needed was to be left the hell alone.
“Ugh!” I grunted, hoping to scare away the person who continued to call my phone over and over.
If it weren’t for my phone vibrating under my head, I probably could have slept another couple of hours. I was exhausted. It felt like I had just laid down, now my phone was ringing off the hook. There had better be a fire or some kind of emergency, or I was about to let whoever was on the other end have it.
“Yeah!” I answered without bothering to open my eyes.
“Boy, don’t you yeah me. What the hell are you doing? I’ve been calling you for the past thirty minutes.”
“I was trying to get some sleep, Ma. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”
