Chapter 26 Go Now #2
“So wah gwaan?” Mama asks, eyes twinkling.
I settle beside them. “Mi have a long day, but mi miss yuh… so mi come check yuh.” Mrs. Andrea smiles.
“Aww, yuh ever love yuh granny.” I nod because truth is, I do.
“A mi gyal dat,” Mama says, proud. About half an hour in, Mama starts recounting yesterday’s gender reveal like it’s a whole movie. Her storytelling sweet, man. I was there and mi still entertained.
Mrs. Andrea gasps, “Is a girl?”
Mama nods. I smile as Andrea turns to me.
“Congrats, love.”
“Thank you,” I say softly.
“You’re like… eight months?” she guesses. I laugh, shaking my head.
“Five.”
Her eyes widen. “Really? Five months?”
Mama laughs too. “She halfway.”
Andrea raises a brow. “Bump big fi five months, enuh.”
I smile. “You not the first to say that.”
“A true,” Mama agrees.
“Look like yuh due next week,” Mrs. Andrea adds, chuckling. I open my mouth to respond, but my phone starts ringing. Nickoi.
“Weh yuh deh?” he asks.
“At Mama,” I answer. “You?”
“Mi a come fi yuh.”
“Okay,” I say with a smile, hanging up.
***
“Yes, dem seh it big. Mi probably affi ask Doctor Jacobs wah she think,” I mumble to Mummy.
I’m stretched out on the couch, a towel over my legs, my hand resting on my belly.
It’s been about two hours since Nickoi dropped me off.
He couldn’t stay, he had ‘work’ to finish but he made sure I wasn’t alone.
So, Lizzy came. She’s in the kitchen now, humming while fixing something to eat.
“Well, everybody different,” Mommy says gently. “Mi nuh want you a worry yuhself ‘bout it.” I nod, eyes on the TV, but the worry already sits down inside mi like a weight.
“Yeah,” I whisper.
“Mi a go talk to yuh later, yuh hear? Kace a carry mi out,” she adds, sounding like a schoolgirl again. I smile, warmed by her joy.
“Awww. Enjoy! Tell Mr. Kace mi seh good night.” I say and she chuckles, already calling him.
“Kace… Zara seh good night.”
“Good night, pumpkin,” Kace replies over the speaker, voice full of warmth. When the call ends, I lean back into the couch, hand automatically caressing my belly. Lizzy calls out from the kitchen.
“You want nuttin else fi eat?”
I laugh. “Mi belly full enuh!”
She giggles. “Aight. If yuh need anything, just call me.”
Fifteen minutes pass. The movie wraps up.
I’m scrolling for something else when the power cuts.
Again? But this time… something feel off.
I freeze. I don’t know what it is but my bones, my chest, even my baby feel it.
My hand fly to my phone. Without thinking, I tap Nickoi’s name, my emergency contact.
I don’t call yet. Just hold the phone, just in case. My breathing quickens.
Then… creak.
Footsteps. My heart lurch. My body stiffen. I whisper, “God… please.” I shift back slowly, eyes wide, hand tight on my belly. The house feels… heavy. Nickoi’s house is supposed to be safe.
So… how—wait, where’s Lizzy? Where’s Joe!?
I glance toward the archway and there, half-silhouetted by the moonlight seeping through the blinds… is someone. A figure. Standing still. Watching me. My throat dry. My voice barely come out. “…Who dat?” I ask, trembling.
The person steps forward. I grab the lamp behind me just in case. “Put it down, Zara,” the voice hisses. My stomach drop. Juaqína. Jesus. So she did turn off the light yesterday. My legs go weak. She’s been targeting me… my baby.
“Y-Yuh don’t have to do this,” I whisper. “I… I didn’t even know he was with you before…” I know I sound desperate but I’m trying to survive. My grip onnthe lamp tighter now.
“Mi seh, put it down,” she barks again. But mi nah let go. If mi go out tonight, mi a go out fighting. For my daughter. For me. For Nickoi.
“Mi nuh understand wah ‘bout you so,” she starts pacing now, her voice twisted, venomous, sounding like a villain straight from a LMN movie.
“Mi lie to him ‘bout aborting a child and yuh know what? Him still never come back. Him still deh wid you. Him banish mi from the gang because a you!” She stops. Stares at me like I’m her curse.
“You think you a go just tek ova, with baby and rich life and mansion… with my man?” Who raised this hoe? Nosah.
She takes a step forward. “Mi done. Mi done watch you win. So mi a go end it.” Another step. “Mi a go kill you…” she whispers, “…and mi a guh kill him.”
My knees buckle. I glance toward the stairs. Can I make it? She chuckles. “Yuh cyaa run. Mi know this house like mi know mi heartbeat. And your friend dem? Yeah, mi tek care of that. So it’s just me… and you.” She tilts her head, grinning. “And the baby.”
A scream builds in my throat but I can’t let it out.
My heart pounding so hard mi feel like it might burst. Please God.
Please. “You can bawl all yuh want,” she sneers, stepping closer.
Then she lunges. I duck, swing the lamp, it grazes her shoulder.
She stumbles but recovers quick, rushing me again.
I throw punches. Wild, frantic. She trips me with her foot.
I crash to the ground. Get up, Zara! I scramble backwards, belly clutched, but she’s stalking forward.
Like a demon. She grabs my hair, yanking me to the side.
My head slams the wall. My fingers scream out in pain as she stomps them with her boot.
“Please… stop!” I cry, but the tears just make her smile.
She drags my face upward. Then wham! A hard blow across my cheek. Metal. Blood.
I taste it. She grins like a monster. Then her hand slithers down to my belly. She rubs it. I jerk away. She slaps me again, then presses a gun to my temple.
NICKOI
After wrapping up the conversation with the gang about Monday’s marijuana shipment and the incoming drugs, I fall back into my seat and begin rolling a spliff.
Time fi link Zara…
I reach for my phone, but Scar steps up, flashing a grin that already tells me he has something. Something serious. “Badman, yuh know seh a nigga just tell me seh him spot the bwoy Lennox today,” Scar says, a wicked glint in his eyes.
I smile.
So the coward deh pon the radar again.
Lennox in town?
Wait ‘til mi buck him.
“Eeeh? Which part?” I ask, eyes lighting up. Scar nods, arms crossed like the info sweet him.
“Portmore side.”
I pause, eyebrows twitching. Portmore? A that side him deh now? Maybe him have a woman ova deh… maybe him move. But him cyaa’ hide forever. Not from me. Before I can ask more, my phone buzzes in my hand.
Zara.
I press it to my ear, but I don’t even get the chance to say anything. I hear her sobbing. My heart drops instantly. Then another voice. That voice. Juaqína.
Shit. Shit. SHIT!
I freeze, blood rushing to my ears, trying to listen closely.
I mute the call, heart pounding. Gutta walks up, brows furrowed the moment he sees my face.
“Suh’m wrong, Mi G?” he asks, I don’t even answer.
I already know I look off. I can’t let Juaqína hear me.
If she knows I’m on the line, she’ll move faster, she’ll do something reckless.
I call her phone immediately. No ring. Straight to voicemail.
Bl’claat. I toss my phone to Gutta without thinking, and he catches it, eyes wide.
“Wha gwaan, bredda?” he asks. The rest of the room goes still. They feel it now, this nuh regular.
“Dawg, tell Genius fi hold on to deh call info, trace the location and MOVE FAST!”
I’m already sprinting out the door. I hear Gutta shout as he rushes toward Genius, giving orders. I unlock the car before I’m even close, yank the door, and fire up the engine. Gutta runs out after me, throwing up his hand in that wild motion we use when shit is urgent.
“My place. NOW!” I shout as I hit the gas, tires screeching out of the yard.