At Last (22 page)

“Shut up boy, come on.”

I followed him to his house to drop off his car. While we were riding I called Mellissa to check on Taylor.

“Hello?” She answered.

“Hey, Missy.”

“Hey. What Up?”

“How’s my baby?”

             
“She’s good.
We getting
ready to go to Chuck E. Cheese. What you doing?  Sound like you driving.”

“On my way to my mother’s house.”

“Your Mom’s house!?”
Cliff yelled.

“Is that Cliff?” She asked laughing.

“Yeah.
  I’ll call you when I’m on the way to pick up Taylor. I was just seein’ what y’all
was
up to.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later.”  She said before hanging up.

“So this ain’t a pleasure trip huh?”

I pulled into the driveway and Yvette’s car was parked out front as well. 
Great.

“I guess not.” I said before taking a deep breath.

“Why are we here?”  He asked me.

I didn’t know. In my mind I had exactly what I was going to do. It seemed so easy. Now that I was here, everything had changed.

“You don’t have to come inside if you don’t want to.”  I said as I took the key out of the ignition.

“Keisha, what are we here for? I’m confused as hell.”

I responded by giving him a slight peck on the lips before exiting the car, He followed behind me as I went to the side door and opened it with my key.

“I wonder where she took Taylor.” I heard my mother say in the distance.

“Probably over to Missy’s.”
Yvette responded.

“Well, whatever.  I don’t care.  Little heifer hanging up on me.”  My mother spewed.

“Hey, ladies.”
I said walking into the living room. My greeting was initially met with silence. My mother made her way back to her room without muttering a word.

“Hey.”  Yvette finally said dryly. Clifford walked in behind me, “Oh hey, Cliff.
How you doing?”

“I’m straight.
You good?”
He replied.

“I’m getting by.” Yvette said.

“Where’s Taylor?”  She asked turning her attention back to me.

“Over at Missy’s.”

“Oh.” She said. We both avoided eye contact.

“Look Vette, I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to get all crazy.  I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.  I love you.”

             
“I know.  I’m sorry too.”  She said given me the tightest hug she’d ever given me.  When we let go we were both laughing and crying at the same time. Cliff just smiled at the both of us.

“What you smiling at?” Yvette asked him.

“Y’all two.
Trying to act like you was gone stay mad at each other. Y’all just like my sisters.”

“Shut up!”  We both said in unison.

“You get a hug too!”  Yvette said walking towards him with her arms extended. They embraced for a moment. I
heard Cliff say something to Yvette, but couldn’t make it out. As she let go she nodded her head at Cliff.

“You just take care of my baby, okay? She’s my baby sister; my heart. Always treat her like a queen.” She replied.

“I will.”

“What’d you say?” I asked Cliff. He only smiled in response.

“What did he tell you?” I asked Yvette.

“For me to know and you to find out,” She said before laughing and sitting on the love seat, “So what’s up?
Y’all on break or something?”

Cliff and I sat down on the couch. He shook his head,
             
“The shop’s closed for the rest of the day.”

“Why?”

Cliff and I both looked at each other before looking at her.

“What?” She asked.

“What do you think?” I replied.

Yvette covered her mouth with her hand.

Without knowing, she knew, “Oh my God. Not Durran, girl.”

“Yes.” I answered.

She shook her head, “I’m so sorry.”

“I bet he is too.” Clifford said.

There was a brief silence.  Yvette knew something had popped off. As our eyes connected I tried to hint that I’d tell her later.

“So Momma went and hid in the back?” I asked trying to switch subjects as quickly as possible.

“Yeah.
You should go and talk to her.”

“I am.”  I said standing up. I looked at Cliff.

“If you need me, you know where I’ll be at.”

“Okay,” I said before walking to my mother’s room. The door was closed so I knocked, “Momma it’s me.  Can I come in?”

“If you want.”

She was seated at her vanity table.  It brought me back to when I was a little girl and I would watch her get ready to go out with my dad. I always remembered them going somewhere.  My parents were never party animals or always in the streets, but they enjoyed on
e
another.

My mother would comb her curly auburn hair, which was never out of place.  Then she’d apply her blush and lipstick perfectly.  I never got tired of watching her in front of her vanity.  She was the most beautiful woman in the world to me, still is. I wanted to be just like her.

I sat on the bed and looked at her through the mirror.  She was still just as stunning. Her café au lay colored skin was flawless.  She didn’t have a wrinkle in sight. 

She raised two daughters on her own and helped raise a grandchild, but you couldn’t tell.  I prayed that when I was her age I’d look half as good as she did.

“I’m sorry for hanging up on you Momma. I was wrong.”

“Mmmm.”

But I’m not sorry for my feelings for Clifford. I haven’t felt this way about anyone.  I love him. ”

“Mmmm.”

I was getting frustrated, “Is that all you’re going to say?”

“Keisha, what would you like for me to say?  Be with him? Don’t be with him? I can’t tell you that.

“You are a grown woman.  You decide whose company you wish to keep and if you think this man
is
worth your time… I have to respect that.  It doesn’t matter what I think.”

“Well if that’s how you feel, why have you always wanted me to be with Durran?”

She took a long time to respond. She finally turned from the vanity table and looked me dead in the eyes.

“When I first met your father I was fourteen and he was seventeen.  After he graduated high school, he went off to the Service.  I was so hurt and angry with him for leaving me.”

“Momma, he couldn’t help that he had to go to the Army.”

“I know baby, but I was young and silly.  He wrote me all the time and I never wrote him back.”

“Not once, Momma? “She shook her head, “Not one time. In fact, I started dating this neighborhood guy.  I cared about him but not nearly as much as I loved your daddy.  I ended up getting pregnant with Yvette.

“By the time I had your sister, her father was long gone and out of the picture.  I got a job at the Post Office. My dream was to become a photographer.  That’s why I always took so many pictures of you all growing up. But life happened. So when your father came home, I was doing well.  I had my own little place and a car…”

My mother stopped. She sighed and I could see she was becoming emotional. She had a faraway look in her eyes as if she had traveled back in time.

“One morning while I was at work, my supervisor told me that a man wanted to see me.  When I came out there, your father was standing there in his uniform looking so handsome. I swear my heart skipped a beat.”

“He wasn’t mad?” I asked.

“Of course he was mad-mad as hell, but that was the type of man your daddy was.  He was forgiving.  He understood me.  He loved me. He asked me to marry him right on the spot.”

“Did he know about Yvette?”

“He knew.  And he loved her from the moment he saw her.  Right after we got married, he adopted her. I guess I’m telling you this because I want you to have somebody who loves you as much as your daddy loved me.”

“But Momma, what makes you think Clifford doesn’t love me the same way?”

She sat quietly for a minute, “The truth is baby,
I
don’t.  I guess I thought Durran would be for you what your father was to me. Maybe it was because he could afford to give you things you deserved.”

At that moment I understood my mother.  In her own way she believed that she was looking out for my best interests.  She hoped that Durran was my soul mate just as my father was for her.  I had hoped and prayed the same, but I knew for certain that wasn’t the case.

“Mommy, I know you had your heart set on Durran, I did too.  But he’s not the one. Clifford makes me happy.  He loves me and Taylor…and I love him. Just give him a chance.  That’s all I’m asking.”

“Okay Sugar, I’ll give him a chance.”

She grabbed me and held me close.

“Momma loves you.”  She began to rock me and hold me close.  There was a knock at the door.

“Come in.”  My mother said before the door was opened. Sure enough, Cliff was on the other side.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Mrs. Morgan. I’ll come back.”

“No you won’t.  You come in here and sit down.”

             
He sat on the chest in front of the bed and faced us.  I wiped my eyes.

“You aiight?”
  He asked as he began to stroke my hair back.

“I’m fine.”

My mother stood up.

“How do you feel about my baby?”

Clifford continued to look me in the eyes, “I love her.  I loved her from the moment I met her.”

“What about my grandbaby?”

“I love her like she’s mine.”

She extended her hand, “My name is Karolyn Morgan.”

He extended his large hand. As he shook my mother’s hand, her hand disappeared within his.
             
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Morgan.
My name’s Clifford Andrews.”

Chapter Seventeen

“Cliff beat him down in front of everybody?”  My sister asked with a big grin.

I was standing in my bedroom in front of my dresser mirror French braiding my hair to the back.  She was seated on the bed.

             
I was wearing a pair of fitted tan leggings a brown V-neck sweater and a pair of  brown Marc Jacobs flat knee boots I wore white gold diamond hoops in my ears and my diamond heart pendant around my neck.

“Don’t sound so concerned.” I said laughing.

She laughed, “What did he do?”

“He lost.” I replied simply with a smirk on my face.

“I wish I was there.”

“You just love you some drama.”

“Whatever.”

“Well, out with the old, in with the new. You just make sure you take care of my baby.”

“Don’t I always?”

“Yeah you do.”  I replied finally finishing my hair.  It had taken me nearly two hours to neatly cornrow my long hair.

“Are you packed?”

“Yeah, Cliff just has to load up the truck.”

There was a faint knock at my bedroom door.

“Yes?”

“Mommy, can I come in?” Taylor asked.

“Sure, baby.”  I said as she entered with three bags from Toys ‘R’ Us.

“Hi, Auntie Vette.”
  She said running up and giving Yvette a kiss.

“Hey, Suga!
  What you got?”

“Mr. Cliffy got me a Cabbage Patch doll, a Barbie doll, and a car.”  She rattled off.

“I thought y’all just went to the cleaners?” I asked.

“We did.”  Taylor said with a smile.

I looked over at Yvette and she had a stupid looking smile on her face.

“Shut up Yvette.” I said.

“I didn’t say
nothing
.”  She said obviously suppressing her laughter.

“Whatever. 
Clifford!?”
  I called walking to the front of the apartment.

“What’s good?”

He was putting his clothes from the cleaners in his garment bag.

“I thought you were going to the cleaners?”  I smiled at him.

He put the garment bag in front of my face, “I did.”

“Oh.  Toys ‘R’
Us
does pressing now?”

He began to laugh, “I couldn’t help it.”

“I told you to stop spoiling her.”

“Why? I spoil you.”  He said with a grin.

“Shut up.”  I said standing on my tip-toes and kissing him on the lips.

“Get a room.”  Yvette said as she waltzed in the living room.

“You were just in it.” I replied sharply before kissing Cliff again.