Page 53 of Caged Heart
"Me too. We'll tell somebody, and we'll have them do something about it. I promise you, Carmi."
"Thank y—."
"Cousin Carmi?" My words get cut off by the sound of someone calling my name?
My eyes looked up, and there my favorite cousin was, standing in her scrubs. I smiled because I hadn't seen her in years. She was older than me but never made me feel like a baby.
"Cousin Dee?"
We called each other cousins in front of each other's names because we loved to tease each other.
"Girl, you're not gonna stand up and hug me?" She asked, and I was surprised that she even wanted to speak to me after how much my mother hurt her family.
I quickly stood and took this opportunity to hug her. We held onto each other momentarily until she finally let me go.
I let her go for a moment as I introduced her and Monica. They both exchanged greetings, and then Dee pulled me in for another hug.
"I missed you, Carmen. So much."
"I missed you too. I'm so sorry about mom and everything." I confessed.
Dee, whose full name was Denise, let me go, and I stared into her big brown eyes. Her father and my father were brothers, and she looked just like her dad, who, in turn, looked like mine, from the dark brown soft-to-touch skin tone to the button nose and the high cheekbones.
Denise held my hands in hers as she looked at me.
"Carmen, is that why you haven't reached out to us? Because of everything auntie did? Oh, Carmi, we're family! We wouldn't have ever turned our backs on you. We thought you didn't want to speak to us. We contacted you many times, but auntie said you wanted nothing to do with us. Like at all."
"She did what?"
"I thought you knew. That's why we didn't reach out as much anymore. She said not to bother talking to you. I figured one day, we'd be able to bump into each other, so I could ask why, and you're not even active on social media, so it's not like I could reach out."
"Oh Denise, I would have never intentionally tried to shy away from all of you. There was just too much going on. I wish I knew."
My anger towards my mother spiked. How could she? How could she keep me from my family while they tried to contact me? Was it the money, and that's why she didn't tell me my dad's family wanted me? Wanted to keep in contact with me.
"Well, at least we're both here now, in the present. Let's keep in touch, and I wish I could chat longer, but I must return to work." Denise said with a sad smile. She handed me her phone, and I added my number in, then texted myself so I had her number.
"Okay, done."
"Okay, cousin Carmen," she said with a smile. "With everything, I forgot to ask… why are you here? Are you alright?"
"Yes," I nodded. "I'm alright. Just visiting my boyfriend's brother, and a lot happened, and I wanted to just check in on him."
"Is he okay?"
"Yeah." I nodded at her.
"Okay, good, but is everything good with you, mostly? I want to make sure you're okay."
"I'm okay, cousin Dee. I promise I'm okay now."
"Are you?" She asked, eyes full of concern.
"I am, I promise."
Dee stared at me momentarily and then reached out to further smooth the hair out of my face, tucking it behind my ears.
"Okay, okay but message me or call me. We need you to come out and be around our family again."
