Epilogue
Some Time Later . . .
Life had been a whirlwind for Mr. and Mrs. Kyro Min-Jae Goings. It started long before the night of the engagement and showed no signs of slowing down. Neither felt like there was anything wrong with that as long as love and God stayed in the center.
The night that Tomorrow’s masterpiece Beyond the Script was revealed, it opened an entire new world.
Multiple people asked her for a business card, and she felt ill prepared because she didn’t have any.
There was nothing to worry about, because her man always had her back.
He had business cards printed for her the week before.
The next day she started to receive emails from collectors as well as other art gallery owners who wanted to engage her for a commissioned piece.
The excitement of the new artistic masterpiece at Break The Fourth Wall caught the attention of the local news and was covered in an exclusive. That brought her even more requests.
Kyro and Tomorrow were married five months after the proposal.
They were married in the courtyard where they met.
Neither of them had a large immediate family, but their community family was large.
It was for that reason that the community was invited to the courtyard wedding.
It was a beautiful ceremony. A quiet, intimate reception happened a few days later with just close family and friends.
Kyro heeded Tomorrow’s words when she said that she would not have a baby if she wasn’t married.
When their daughter, Selah Arielle Goings was born, they had been married for four months.
Tomorrow and Kyro were very intentional when they named their daughter Selah, which meant pause and reflect.
While Kyro called his baby girl Selly, her mother called her Little Muse.
She was the meeting place between the chaos and the masterpiece that was their love.
“Ari! Come to Pop Pop!” Shawn squatted and opened his arms to receive his granddaughter who’d just started to crawl recently. At seven months old, she was a speed racer when it came to her crawl speed. He was the only one that called her Ari.
Ari saw her grandfather and forgot about everything and everyone in the room.
Attorney Mastermind kept his word when he said that he would not give up on Shawn.
A few weeks after he got the notice that there could be a break that would help his case, they were given a court date.
The date was six months away. That was more than enough time for Attorney Mastermind to solidify the legal loophole that ultimately got the case thrown out.
After years in jail for a crime that he actually didn’t commit, he was set free. He wasn’t out in time for Kyro and Tomorrow’s wedding or Selah’s birth, but he was here now. That was one of the biggest blessings.
The Goings and Kim family rallied behind Shawn, to help him, because he was the father of three people who they loved. Martin gave him a job in his commercial construction business. Shawn had some experience in construction and was grateful that Martin gave him a chance.
He promised not to waste the opportunity. The job provided travel opportunities, and once he was there for a year, Martin agreed to pay for him to go to school to get his contractor’s license. On top of all of that, Martin leased an apartment to Shawn in one of his buildings.
Tomorrow smiled from her place on the couch at the interaction between Little Muse and her grandfather.
It wasn’t that she never thought this day would come.
She just thought it would come over ten years later based on his original release date.
“That little girl loves you so much,” she absentmindedly said.
Shawn glanced at his daughter. He was in awe of the woman that she’d become.
She didn’t become who she was in spite of.
She became who she was because she always knew that she could.
“You were just like this at this age up until you were about seven. Don’t tell me that you forgot about our weekly tea parties that you said we had to have. ”
Tomorrow leaned over with laughter. “Oh, I remember. Do you remember dressing up for my tea parties? You looked so handsome.”
He smiled then chuckled. “It was anything for my baby girl.” He looked down at Little Muse who lay on his chest. It was past her nap time, but her job as a baby was a professional sleep fighter. “I’ll do the same for this one.”
She knew that he would. Since he had been home, if he wasn’t at work, he was with his family.
Tuesday was elated to have her father back in her life.
She was so happy that she asked him to be her prom date.
Tomorrow felt that she used the opportunity to make up for the daddy-daughter dances that he missed.
“Where are my ladies at?” Kyro asked as he walked into his house. They had been in their new home for less than two months now.
When Selly heard her father’s voice, sleep was a thing of the past. There was one man that she absolutely loved more than her grandfather. That was her father. She wiggled out of her grandfather’s arms. “No loyalty, I tell you,” he said as Selly speed crawled to her father.
If God made the decision to not flow any more blessings Kyro’s way, he felt that he would be alright with it. The blessings that God had already provided overflowed his cup in a way that kept him full. As far as he was concerned, his life was imperfectly perfect.
Selly pulled up on her daddy’s leg as soon as she got to him. He bent down, picked her up, then tossed her in the air. “Hey, daddy’s baby. He kissed all over her beautiful face after she was secured in his arms. “You are so beautiful, lookin’ like your mama.”
He walked over to his wife with his daughter in his arms. Every day, she became more and more beautiful in his eyes. She was just like a custom painting that appreciated with time. He leaned down and kissed her lips. “Hi, my love. How was your day?”
She loved his kisses. “It was great. I got a lot of work done on the piece that I’m doing. Little Muse had a time on her paint wall in the studio as well, so we had to take a midday bath.”
When they bought their house, Kyro surprised his wife with a shed that would serve as her paint studio.
He wanted her to have her own space for her creativity.
The gift was ironic because Tomorrow had done the same for her husband so he could have his tattoo studio.
In the back of their massive yard were two sheds that were immaculate next door to each other.
In Tomorrow’s studio, there was a wall just for their daughter, where her mommy and aunties took the time to expose her to colors, paint, and art. Selah loved it, but it was a very messy process. Everyone loved it, nonetheless.
Kyro looked down at his daughter. “You got to paint today? Daddy’s gonna go see your work later.” He turned his attention to his father-in-law. “What’s up, Pop Shawn?”
“Ain’t nothing too much. Living life the best I can. Aye, we still on for that tat session?”
Kyro smirked. “You know it. I can’t wait.”
“Daddy, what tattoo are you about to get?” Tomorrow asked. Her curiosity was high.
She always found it interesting that although her father was in the streets when he was younger, he never got any tattoos. Shawn always stood on the principle that when you lived the street life, you did nothing that could uniquely identify you. Tattoos were something that did just that.
Shawn tilted his head at his daughter. “Aren’t you nosy. You’re just going to have to wait and see.”
The alarm for the door sounded. In walked Tuesday, August, and Lorin, August’s girlfriend. The couple had been together for a little over a year.
August recently graduated from college and still resided in Atlanta. The love bug bit him hard. All the things that he said he would never do when it came to females, he did all those things with Lorin. She was a fit for him, and the family loved her.
“Hey, y’all. How did everything go?” Tomorrow asked. Today was a sensitive day for the entire family. One because of what it was, and two because of the mixed feelings about the day.
A few years ago, when Michelle broke into her daughter’s apartment, when it was all said and done with, she was convicted.
Her official charges were burglary in the first degree, felony theft by taking, and criminal damage to property in the first degree.
The judge found the crime to be extremely vindictive, so he sentenced her to eight years and $14,000 in restitution.
She was in the second year of her sentence when tragedy struck.
One thing that never changed about Michelle, even while she was incarcerated, was her drug problem.
Unfortunately, it caught up with her. Tomorrow received notice three weeks prior that she died from a fentanyl overdose. I guess she gave it a go.
When she got the notice, she had a problem reconciling her feelings. On one hand, she hated her mother, and on the other hand, it was still her mother. There was an ounce of love for her, but there was so much damage in their relationship that couldn’t be overlooked.
The conversation with August and Tuesday was hard.
August had mixed emotions as well, but he didn’t hate his mother.
It saddened him, but he would lie if he said he was torn up about it.
Tuesday, on the other hand, was torn up.
With all the infractions that her mother committed, she still loved her immensely.
Although she didn’t want to, Tomorrow still had a small memorial for Michelle. Many years earlier, when Michelle’s addiction wasn’t as dire, her daughter convinced her mother to get a life insurance policy. Over the years, Tomorrow kept up the payments on the policy. Thank God that she did.
The family chose to have Michelle cremated. Today, August, accompanied by Lorin and Tuesday, spread her ashes. Tomorrow felt that she had already done enough when she used some of the insurance money for a memorial.
Tuesday shrugged her shoulder. “It went as well as it could have gone. We spread her ashes, so I hope she’s at peace now. I’m going to go to my room and work on the sketch for my sculpture.”
Everyone watched her walk away. Kyro sat down next to his wife, wrapped an arm around her shoulder, then pulled her into him. His lips kissed her temple. “It will get better, baby. Just give her time.”
Tomorrow huffed with her eyes on her father. He gave her a sympathetic smile. He understood what she felt because he hated Michelle, but there was also a plank length of love for her. She was his wife up until the day that she died and the mother of his children. They never divorced.
The relationship between the sisters was strained because of Tomorrow’s attitude toward their mother’s death. She knew that, eventually, it would be alright, but she also knew that right now was not the time that the relationship strain should be addressed.
“I know. I just hate it,” Tomorrow admitted.
August was sympathetic, but he knew better than to get in the middle. Everyone in the house settled in to where they were going to be for the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow planned to cook for the family, and they would have a quiet night in.
The Goings family was the chaos that it took to make a masterpiece. It was the imperfect, perfect world that Tomorrow and Kyro cultivated for their family. Everyone in the family, from Kyro’s family to Tomorrow’s, were intricate parts of that cultivation.
Love was never meant to be neat with perfect lines, shades, or colors.
It sometimes made absolutely no sense to the world.
Love was found in the scribbled dreams on crumpled paper, the continuous revisions of promises, and the people who refused to quit, even when life got messy.
The beauty about love was when people chose each other even when they were sick of each other.
It was when everyone saw a depreciated piece of art, but you saw beauty and knew that it was worth holding on to.
What everyone else may have called a mess or a waste, Tomorrow and Kyro knew that it was just the beauty of scribbled excellence.
All Scootched In