Chapter 11
Amir
Nurses kept coming in and out of the room all night so every time I felt myself drifting into some real sleep, the door would open again or some machine would start making noise.
That still didn’t stop Jasmine from sleeping.
She was still stretched out across my lap as we sat beside RJ's bed.
I had one arm wrapped around her waist to keep her from sliding off my lap, and my neck was stiff as hell from sleeping upright, but she looked too comfortable for me to move her.
After everything she'd been through lately, she deserved at least one night of real sleep.
Delilah had called my phone several times yesterday, but I didn't answer because I knew she wouldn't understand where I was.
Telling her about Jasmine and the baby was going to be a conversation I had to handle carefully.
The only hope I had was that she understood I planned to be there for both my children equally.
The problem was, I didn't know how the hell I was supposed to split myself between two households.
In a perfect world, the kids could live with me and their mothers.
Not on no polygamous shit or anything. Just both of my kids under the same roof.
When I shifted my leg, trying to put feeling back in it, Jasmine slowly lifted her head looking at me almost as if she forgot I was here.
“Damn,” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
“I feel like I been sleep forever. What time is it?” She got up from my lap.
“Noon. But you needed that sleep.” I stretched my shoulders back hearing something pop.
She wrapped a blanket around herself while looking over toward RJ in the bed. For a few seconds neither one of us said nothing and I could tell that she was praying over her son. She motivated me to say my own prayer, which I did before standing up from the chair.
“Now that your sleepy ass is finally up. I’m about to go into the restroom and try and freshen up,”
“Okay.” She looked up briefly to smile before glancing back to Rj.
I stepped inside the small bathroom attached to the room and found a pack of toothbrushes and toothpaste peeking out of Jasmine’s overnight bag.
I helped myself to both, brushing my teeth staring at myself in the mirror feeling drained.
My eyes looked low and heavy like I’d been up for days, so I splashed cold water on my face a few times, trying to wake myself up mentally more than anything else.
When I stepped back out of the restroom, Jasmine slid past me to go next. She knew that the size of it would keep us both from being able to freshen up comfortably so I’m sure that’s why she waited outside the door.
A few minutes later Jasmine was coming back out of the restroom, and she climbed back into the chair, pulling one leg under herself while fiddling with her fingers. She kept glancing at me like something was on her mind until she built up enough courage to say it.
“So, what are you about to do?” she asked.
“I have a few places I need to run to today. Shouldn’t take up a lot of my time though.”
“Oh, okay.”
She tried to play it off, but I caught the slight disappointment in her voice. Her eyes dropped down to her hands, and she started picking at her nails. I know I have to go and see Delilah today, but this morning I can give to Jasmine. I had a little catching up to do with her.
“I mean, you can come with me if you want to. Get some air outside of the hospital again today.”
“Mm, I don’t know if I should.”
“But I think you should. I can have you back before noon. You wouldn’t be gone too long. It might be good for you. And we can feed you and my baby while we are out.”
My smile spread onto her face and she looked almost shy about it afterward.
“Okay, that’s fine, Amir.” She replied, before standing up from her seat.
I grabbed my keys off the tray near RJ's bed, and a few minutes later we were riding the elevator down toward the parking lot.
I found my car parked in a handicap spot that I planned to move last night when I left, but because I didn’t, there was a pink parking ticket pressed against the windshield under the wipers.
“Oh, they got you I see. Crew got a parking ticket a couple of weeks ago too.”
“Yeah. I’ll pay it. Maybe I won’t.” I shrugged my shoulder.
“You should pay it, Amir. You never know when you will have to come back up here and park again.”
“Let’s just hope I won’t have too in the near future.” I replied. Jasmine didn’t say anything with words but instead looked down at her stomach before shrugging.
“Oh yeah. You right.” I reached down and touched her stomach.
I knew the baby was still tiny, barely even formed yet, but one day I'd be resting my hand here and feeling my child kick back.
I was already hoping for a little girl. Jasmine was so damn pretty that I figured my daughter would be the same way.
We took off from the hospital, and my first stop was the sporting goods store on Manhattan Ave.
I didn’t forget the promise that I made to them little dudes outside the Pink House Projects that day about getting them equipment and my only hope was that they weren’t too disappointed in me and gave up hope that I was coming back.
Jas decided she was going to stay in the car while I ran inside and as I walked through the doors, I realized I probably should’ve brought one of them kids with me because I ain’t know shit about baseball besides swinging the bat.
The walls in here were lined from top to bottom with equipment like metal bats, wooden bats, and gloves in every size imaginable.
It was so much shit in here that I stood in the aisle for a good minute lost as hell at where to start.
That was until an employee walked up to me.
“You need help with something?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m trying to buy some baseball stuff for some little dudes who play baseball on the block.”
“What accessories do you think they need, my man?”
“All of them. They don’t have anything and deserve to have it all.”
He nodded, excited about the sale I'm sure he was already calculating in his head. The man walked me around the section showing me different bats and gloves while explaining sizes and brands that honestly sounded like another language to me but, I was trying to learn and listen. I want my future son if I have one to be a baseball star too, so I’ll be back in a store like this in about five years.
By the time I made it to the register, I had bats, gloves, baseballs, and three of those rolling equipment bags to throw everything inside.
It was probably more than they needed to play baseball on the block, but I figured if I was going to do it, I might as well do the shit right.
Children didn’t deserve to be shortchanged unless you don’t have it like that.
When I came back to the car, Jasmine was putting her phone down from her ear and smacking her lips.
“You were trying to call the hospital?”
“No, my bestfriend, but she’s not answering. Still.”
“Well, maybe she is sleep, it is pretty early.”
“Yeah, it is, but she doesn’t sleep in, I’m sure it's something else and that is really bothering me.” She exhaled.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Nah, I’m okay. What all did you get? It looks like you purchased the whole store.”
“Just got everything they need to have a dream.”
“Family?”
“Nah, just some boys I met a minute ago and made a promise that I need to keep.”
“That’s great Amir, a man that keeps his promises is a man I would love to have around me.”
She reached to my face and squeezed my cheeks.
I pulled off from the sporting goods store while trying to search where I should go for my next task.
I found this collectible toy shop about a half of a mile up the same street, we were already on, so I headed straight there. The shop was a little further down Manhattan Ave and once I pulled up, there was an argument happening between two niggas on the sidewalk.
I got out of the car and the argument got more heated as I walked around. I tapped on the passenger side window for Jasmine to let the window down.
“Come inside with me. I don’t know what’s about to pop off out here.” She nodded her head, okay, paying attention to the same two niggas going at it who I was looking at.
We walked into the store, and Jasmine immediately had questions when the doorbell chimed.
“What is this place?”
“A collectible toy store.”
“Wow, this stuff looks dope.”
Her eyes stretched wide while she looked around, and honestly, mine did too. I didn’t even know places like this existed before a quick Google search in the car. Wall by wall was covered in small toys locked behind glass cases like they were expensive jewelry or some shit.
The car that Rami told me about wasn’t even close to being the most expensive thing in there.
My eyes landed on a 1972 Mustang model, the same car I drove, sitting in a glass case with a $5,500 price tag under it.
Just seeing that shit made me want it for him.
I wasn’t getting him a real one because that price tag was beyond the fifty five hundred, but I’m sure he would appreciate that small model just as much.
Behind the counter towards the back of the store stood an older dude with gray hair hanging from under a red bandana.
He looked like one of them old hippies who probably spent his seventies high as hell and somehow turned toy collecting into a career.
From the lack of traffic, I wasn’t sure how much merchandise he was selling every week, but I was sure he was about to get a few months rent paid by me stepping foot in here.
“How can I help you sir?”
“I’m looking for this Filipinas Hot Wheels car my little homie told me about.” I flashed him the photo of the car on my phone.
His eyebrows lifted.
“Give me one second.”
The old man walked from behind the counter and towards the nearby wall, grabbing a step stool so that he could reach one of the top shelves.