Page 68 of See No Evil

“You’re talking too nice and sweet. Don’t make me cry.” She smiled at him, and he smiled back.

“I can’t go nowhere but run towards you, Des, because if I was to ever leave your side, I’d be runnin’ away from home, and Ilovebeing home, baby, ’cause that’s where my heart is. The only place I’ll ever want to go is deep inside of you.”

He kissed her, cradled her close.

Everything was how it should be. She was feeling good. Feeling safe. Feeling legendary…

Chapter Twenty

“Why do youkeep callin’ me?”

Legend was on his way home from class, when the phone rang. It had been a rigorous exam, and he was mentally exhausted. On top of that, he had a million things to do. Talkin’ to Mama wasn’t supposed to be one of them.

“Because you’re my son. And I love you.”

He turned down the radio, then tossed his cigarette out of the window.

“What do you want, Mama?”

“I called you on your birthday, and you didn’t call me back, but I expected that.”

“Good. Glad I met your expectations. That’s at least one of us.”

“I’m going to ignore your nastiness towards me, Legend, and say what I need to say.”

“God knows you’re good at ignoring important shit, like kids poundin’ on windows when they’re ten stories in the air, or boyfriends touchin’ babies, but be my guest.”

“Your birthday passing made me think of the time you asked me, ‘Mama, why’d you name me Legend?’ You said you were gettin’ teased about your name at school by some of the kids. I told you that I was readin’ a book one day while pregnant with you, and one of the lines in the book said,‘The Legend ofOakmoss Catholic Church still exists, and the angels of heaven guard it with their big, silver wings.’I don’t know why that line stuck out to me, but it did. I envisioned it, and I saw you as my angel child, ’cause the doctors said I wouldn’t be able to have no more babies after Tarik. I liked the name. I asked your daddy if he liked it, and he said he did. He thought it was different, and fitting. After you were born, he always called you and Tarik,‘pequeños reyes’.”

“Yeah, I remember that. Little kings.” He turned the corner, almost home.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Tarik, Legend. I know I shoulda been payin’ attention more the day he died, but you don’t remember whatreallyhappened that day.”

“Yes, I do.”

“I know you were troubled by seein’ it happen. You were just a baby yourself, only four years old, so you couldn’t possibly remember what—”

“I remember. I remember everything. No matter how much weed I smoked in the past, how many bottles of liquor and alcohol I’ve downed, my memory is intact. I remember shit nobody else does. My mind is a steel trap. Nothin’ gets past me, even when I was only four.”

“Yeah, you’ve always had a good memory, Legend, but I think ’cause things were so crazy and chaotic that day, you might have thought you saw things you didn’t.”

“Nah, I’m not delusional or silly. I see the evil. I remember the details just fine. Keep tellin’ yourself that though, if you must.”

“I didn’t call to argue with you. I will say this: the fact that you remembered what happened at such a young age lets me know that it affected you.”

“Oh? You don’t say?” He rolled his eyes and kept driving until he approached a red light.

“Parents ain’t perfect, but this wasn’t no neglect. I was never charged.”

“I wasn’t charged for a lotta shit I did, either. Didn’t mean I didn’t do it. If I got busted for every time I broke the law, I’d have fifty life sentences and be up under the jail.”

“Legend… just listen. Here’s what happened. I turned away and—”

“Funny how you wanna talk about Tarik now, but you never wanted to discuss it with me before? I begged you. You told me you ain’t wanna talk about it, ’specially because I blamed you for it. I still do, so why the change?”

“Because I think it’ll help. I was saying to you that I turned away to do somethin’, and he was messin’ around by the window wit’ his toys. He did that all the time. He liked lookin’ outside at the cars going by ’nd such. I went into the bedroom with my phone—it was a cordless one—and I heard bangin’. He’d never beat on that window before. I ’magine he must’ve saw something or someone that interested him, and he was trying to get their attention.”

“It was an insect. There was a bug on the window. I remember him tellin’ me to come look.”

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