So Gone (3 page)

“That boy is a real
rascal,” she said affectionately when we were alone the next day.

I was so happy that
Auntie approved of him because my choice of men before him had not won her
approval. Every time I spoke with her, she would ask about Blunt. He was still
trying to impress me back then so my reports were favorable.

Everything seemed
so wonderful. Then one night, almost two years ago, I received a phone call
from Leesha saying that Aunt Sara had been found unconscious in her home. She
had been rushed to Baptist Memorial Hospital.

The doctors thought
she had suffered a stroke at first and things weren’t looking good. I began
packing my bags to rush to her side.

The next day, I
received another call from my cousin informing me that Auntie had regained
consciousness and was able to talk. She told me not to get my hopes up because
unfortunately it wasn’t a stroke, but a burst bowel. There was nothing that
could be done except give her strong pain medicine to keep her at ease until
she took her last breath. I was inconsolable.

Blunt held me in
his arms and rocked me until my tears soaked his shirt. "I'm driving you
there, baby," he offered.

On our way to
Memphis two hours later, I was devastated to learn that Auntie had passed.
Leesha was sobbing on the other end of the phone. I hung up my cell and dropped
it in my lap. Tears dripped down my face while Blunt drove. “What’s wrong,
baby?” he glimpsed over and asked me.

“Auntie passed
away,” I said between the loud cries that I released.

Blunt got off the
highway at the next exit. He pulled into the parking lot of a gas station and
parked. Then he took me into his arms. I buried my face in his shoulder and
cried.

“I’m sorry,” Blunt
consoled me.  He rubbed his hand up and down my lower back and murmured in my
ear, “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m here for you.” He used his finger to wipe away
my tears, and he kissed my forehead.

I cried for at
least ten minutes. I knew Aunt Sara was out of pain and no longer suffering,
but I didn’t want it to be true. "It's so unfair," I wept.

"I know,
honey." Blunt tried to understand.

The circumstances
of Auntie's death were very upsetting. I often wondered how long she had been
laying there before she was found in her home and if she suffered a long time
and kept it to herself. It was awful thinking all of those things and knowing
there would be no more cheerful calls from her. She was gone, and that was it.

Blunt was
everything that I needed him to be during that time. He comforted me whenever I
felt weak. I can recall him rocking me to sleep one night. At her funeral, he
was one of her pallbearers. That’s why I loved him so much because he had been
my rock at a time in my life when I thought the walls were tumbling down on me.
Since then he had change dramatically.

My thoughts were
interrupted when I heard the school’s bell ring for the students to change
classes. My eyes landed on Devin. He had taken the shoestrings out of his shoes
and was twirling them in the air. As much as I disliked doing it, I would be
nice to him and juice him for information.

I mustered up a
phony smile, hoping that I could make him feel at ease. “So, Devin, does your
dad have any more girlfriends other than Luscious?” I pried.

“Yep. His other
girlfriend’s name is Mika. That’s my baby brother’s mama. He just learned how
to walk. Mika gives me chocolate chip cookies every time I go to her house.” He
leaned back, let out a loud yawn, and then burped.

He nearly fell out
of his chair laughing about it. He was so tickled that tear drops were spilling
from his eyes.

“Aarrrgh.” He let
out another huge burp and  laughed harder.

"Devin! Where
are your manners?"

My admonishment was
ignored. He raised his shirt sleeve up to his shoulder and cupped his right
hand under the opposite armpit. 

"Stop it,
Devin," I said, knowing what he was up to.

"Stop
what?" He giggled. Then he quickly lowered his elbow, and made his armpit
make a farting noise.

He laughed so hard
no sound came out, and he sat there clapping like a seal. I shook my head
hoping he would quit clowning and talk to me.

I uncrossed my legs
and leaned forward.
“
Why don’t you show me
where Luscious and Mika live?”

He
looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “I’m not showing you nothing,” he
objected. He licked his small lips and put his forefinger into his nose, stirred
it with pleasure, brought out the dried nasal mucus, rubbed it between his
forefinger and his thumb, and ejected it with his fingernails. An icky booger
landed on my desk.

“Eww! Now you’re
just being a nasty nuisance.” I cut my eyes at him.

The
sight of that made me want to vomit. I had just eaten lunch, and it felt like
it wanted to come up.

I used some
sanitizer from a small bottle in my purse along with a wad of tissue from the
bottom drawer to wipe the area clean. I grabbed the box of Kleenex from my desk
and handed him two.

He snatched them
from my hand and used one of them to dig in his nose. I felt like grabbing my
stapler and smacking him across the head with it until he passed out, but I
needed his cooperation.

“
Devin, stop
clowning for a second, will you?
”
I was
becoming exasperated.

“Okey
doke.”

“
If I give you ten
dollars and take you to the store to buy candy will you show me where Luscious
lives?
”
I bribed, but the little heathen was
game tight.

“
Nope, you gotta
gimme twenty.
”

“Fine.”

He cheesed and
tossed his shoelaces on the floor.

I opened my desk
drawer and handed him twenty dollars out of my Louis Vuitton handbag. When I
knelt down to put his shoelaces back in the eyelets, his mannish behind slapped
me on my butt.

“Drop
it to the flo', Shawty”

I gasped.

“That’s not cute,
and it’s very disrespectful. I’m going to have to teach you some manners,
”
I lectured.

He dropped his
head. “I’m sorry.”

Finally, he was
being respectful. I knew that he couldn't be all bad.

“Sike!” he yelled
out.

“Ugh!” I snorted, and
then continued lacing his shoes.

“That’s too tight,”
he whined.

I suppressed a
snicker, and then I knelt down and loosened his laces. "Is that
better?" I asked.

He nodded his head
vigorously.

"Let's go,
Devin."

My foot was out of
the door, and he was behind me. “I got to doo doo,” he uttered.

I spun around.
"Ugh! Not now," I complained.

 His hand was on
his butt, and he was jumping from foot to foot.

I rubbed the back
of my neck to relieve some of the stress that he was causing me.

“
You have to go
to the bathroom,
Devin. That is the proper way to say it,” I corrected him.

 
“
No, I got to doo doo.
”

“
Fine.
”
I pointed him to the private bathroom in my
office.

He ran into the
bathroom holding his booty with both hands.
“
Don't
boo boo on yourself,
”
I teased.

I stood at the door
tapping my foot impatiently, with my arms folded across my chest.

“Get away from the
door!”

He didn't have to
say it twice. The odor started to seep from the toilet and found its way into
my office. I could hear tooting, splattering, and ungodly noises coming from
the other side of the door. I raced over to the window and snatched it up. I
stuck my head out and gulped the fresh air.
Thank God for small miracles
,
I thought.

When I heard Devin
flush the toilet and come out of the bathroom, I covered my nose with both hands,
walked over to the far side of my office, and turned on the ceiling fan. He
stood there scratching his butt.

“Go back and wash
your hands," I said politely.

This time he did as
I asked with no backtalk. I followed behind him and sprayed a little air
freshener in the bathroom because that little boy smelled like a grown man.

Walking out of the
office with Devin in tow, I stopped at my secretary's desk and gave her
instructions.
“
If my boyfriend shows up tell
him that I’ll be back shortly. While I'm out send all of my calls to voicemail,
please.”

“I surely will,”
she kindly replied.

I was finally
headed to find out whether or not what Devin had divulged was true. I told
myself that it was wrong of me to put Blunt's son in the middle of this, but to
catch the kind of snake Blunt was I had to slither around in the grass just
like he did.

Once Devin and I
were in the car and safely strapped in our seats, I slowly pulled out of the
school’s parking lot. I placed my Gucci shades over my eyes and turned on the
radio. The sound of Future's lyrics
‘Turn On The Lights’ poured from my
speakers.

Devin bobbed his
head to the beat and sang along. I drove to his neighborhood and from there he
directed me to a four-complex apartment building. As I was driving down the
street, I noticed how filthy the area was. The front lawn was nothing but dirt
and trash was strewn everywhere.

Tons of discarded
furniture and personal belongings were in front of a huge dumpster on the side
of the complex. It appeared that the building was being poorly managed.
Crackheads were roaming the streets in search of their next high. A short high
yellow fiend in a bikini top and a pair of long jeans came clucking down the
street with her hand on her bony hip. I could see her ribcage. She sashayed and
twisted down the block like she was a model on a runway, but only in her head.
Drugs and despair had robbed her of any Broadway dreams that she may have once
had.

“Do you remember
which apartment Luscious lives in?” I questioned Devin as I slowed the car to a
crawl.         

“
It’s the apartment
with the number
one
on it.”

I focused in on the
numbers on the apartments doors.

“
Ooh, there go her
cars right there." He pointed to a brown ‘88 Nova and a 2011 rose-red
Charger parked in front of her door.

I stopped in the
middle of the street. The dope fiends that moved about gawked at me. They
probably were wondering why an unfamiliar vehicle like mine was rolling
through. I double-checked to make sure my doors were locked. Then, I sat there
wondering whether I should confront this Luscious chick.

If what Devin had
told me was true, I was going to snap. My animosity wasn’t with the woman
though, it was with my man. He was up to no good every time I turned my back. I
was so exhausted from the bullshit. If he had fathered a child outside of our
relationship, I was done.
Girl, you have to draw the line somewhere or he'll
walk all over you,
I chastised myself.

Deciding against
confronting Luscious, I slowly drove away feeling played and depressed. Trying
to keep up with Blunt’s infidelities had me so out of character.

“
You don't wanna go
see my baby sister?
”
asked Devin as I
drove off.

“
No, Devin, but I'll
take you to buy that candy that I promised you.
”
We stopped at a convenience store for him to buy a bunch of candy with the
money that I had given him as a bribe.

When we arrived
back at the school, Blunt was already there. He sat in the outer office
strolling through his cell phone. “Hey, Baby,” he greeted me as soon as I
walked in.

My secretary sat at
her desk with the phone held between her shoulder and her ear, writing
something in her notepad. She waved, but otherwise continued about her work.

"Hi, Blunt,” I
finally spoke back, flashing a fake smile.

"Hey, Daddy!"
Devin beamed.

"Sup, Lil Man?
You being good?"

"Yes," he
lied, taking his daddy's hand.

I crooked a finger
at Blunt. He and his mini-me followed me into my office. “Have a seat,” I said
after closing the door behind us.

Blunt sat in one of
the two chairs that faced my desk and Devin climbed up in the other one. He
bounced the bag of sweets up and down in his lap.

“What you got in
that bag, dude?” asked Blunt.

“A whole bunch of
candy.” Devin grinned from ear to ear.

I sat behind my
desk, trying to think of a way to get the truth out of Blunt without leading on
that Devin had told his secret.
Maybe I'll just ask him why is it that
lately he doesn't come home until well after midnight.