Page 1 of Body Language
1
Prologue
Mama hadn’t moved in hours.
She laid there, curled on her side, hair matted to her face, lips dry, eyes somewhere far away. My baby brother whimpered in my arms, and I rocked him the way I’d seen her do before she stopped doing it all together. The box fan blew hot air from one side of the room to the other, and our empty fridge hummed in the background.
I was twelve.
And life had knocked my mama out cold.
“Mama,” I said, “we outta food. I think Huxley needs milk or somethin’. You gotta get up now.”
She blinked once. Slowly.
Then turned her face to the wall like I wasn’t even there.
“He just ate.” she whispered. “He just needs to sleep it off.”
Her voice didn’t sound like hers. It sounded borrowed and lost.
I looked down at Huxley.
He was almost one, and I was all he had.
Mama finally sat up and looked around like the walls were pressing in.
“I just need some air,” she mumbled. “Watch your brother.”
She walked out in a faded robe and house shoes. She was gone for a while, so I put Hux down, tucking him in with a towel since she hadn’t washed our sheets.
I peeked through the dusty window and that’s when I saw him.
He looked too clean to be from around the projects. Gold chain. Fresh cut. Smooth voice. A man who smiled like pain was a product he could package.
“I ain’t tryna get in your business,” I heard him say. “Just saying it gets better.”
Mama shook her head, crying with her whole body.
“I can’t sleep. I can’t think. I just—my husband left me. My oldest is being more of a parent than I am. I got a baby that won’t stop crying and no money to even keep the lights on.”
He nodded slowly, like he understood.
Then he reached in his pocket.
“You can’t pour from an empty cup, sweetheart. You gotta numb the hurt just a lil’, so you can be there for your kids.”
He handed her something wrapped in foil.
She hesitated. Just a second.
Then took it with shaky hands.
And that was it.
The moment that man thought he gave my mama relief…he gave her ruin instead.
Three days later, the power shut off.
