Page 29 of The Prodigy

More pouting. I leaned over to taste her lips one more time, and her little moan almost made me stay.

I met Kittora at the barbershop. She ain’t have nan son or nephew, but she would find reasons to come up in there and hang out. That’s how I knew she was for the streets. But even after we started fucking, she turned out to be cool. She was easy to talk to. I used to talk to her about a lotta the shit that was on my mind, and she listened. She was good at that, too. Thankfully, she wasn’t the talking type. I hoped it stayed that way.

I made it home in twenty minutes and went straight to the study. After doing some looking around on the net, I made a decision. And a purchase.

I was just closing out when Mama walked in wearing a housedress, a beer in one hand and a cig in the other. She didn’t look anything like herself, but I guess that happens when you’re grieving.

“You got a minute?”

I nodded.

“How do you feel now that it’s all over?”

I shrugged. “I don’t really know, to be honest. You?”

“I’ll miss him, but I made my peace with the fact that I lost him a long time ago.”

“Mama. You can’t let one little thing undo all the years y’all were together.”

She blew out a smoke ring. “Fucking another woman is one little thing?”

“In the grand scheme of things. Right?”

“Wrong.”

“I know he hurt you. It hurt me, too. But what’s the point of dwelling on it? I’d say he learned his lesson.”

She chuckled. “That, he did.”

We sat with that for a moment.

That’s the thing about betraying your family. Not only do you hurt them in the moment, but you rob them of their right to grieve you completely when you pass. You leave a legacy of confusion, tainted memories, and resentment.

I loved my daddy, and I always would, but I hated him for that.

Mama drank from her beer. “So how do we go about finding your assassin?”

“No need to find him. He’s exactly where he should be. Six feet under.”

“Who sent him?”

“I wish I knew.”

“Find out.”

“I mean, I got people on it, but it ain’t that easy.”

“It is for you.” She smiled fondly. “You always been smart. I think God gave you extra smarts. Probably gave you Jaz’s brains by accident.”

“Ease up, Ma. For real.”

“Oh, you know I’m just playing around.”

She wasn’t, and we both knew it.

“Speaking of, I got a question for you. What’s the deal with Jaz and Milo?”

Mama shrugged and blew a puff of smoke to her right. “Far as I know, he’s looking after her.”

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