The next day… #3
“Stop talkin’ back,” I told her, keepin’ my voice calm even though I could feel the shit gettin’ ready to go left.
Zurie looked over at me with tears already buildin’ in her eyes, but instead of lettin’ it go, she turned right back toward Pluto.
“She always yellin’ at me,” she said. “I ain’t even do nothin’.”
That was when Pluto moved. She stepped forward so fast I ain’t have time to stop her before her hand came across Zurie’s face.
The slap cracked through the room and had Zurie stumblin’ back with one hand flyin’ to her cheek.
For half a second, everybody froze. Even Isley stopped cryin’ before lettin’ out a scream that cut through all of us.
“What the fuck, Pluto?” I snapped, movin’ between them before she could reach for Zurie again.
Zurie started swingin’ her arms, tryna get around me while Pluto was still reachin’ past my shoulder. I had Isley in one arm and used the other to pull Pluto back by her waist, but she was fightin’ against me like she had lost every bit of sense she had.
“Move, Pressure!” she screamed. “I’m sick of this shit!”
“Pluto, chill the fuck out,” I said, holdin’ her back while Isley cried against my chest. “You got my baby right here screamin’, and you still tryna fight.”
Zurie jerked away from my arm and ran out the family room before either one of us could stop her. I heard her feet hittin’ the floor hard while she headed toward the elevator, and then the doors opened and closed behind her.
Pluto pulled away from me and cut her eyes in my direction like I was the one she was mad at now.
“Look what you just did,” I said, kissin’ Isley’s head while I rubbed her back and tried to calm her down.
“What I did?” Pluto asked, her voice goin’ up all over again. “You always do this shit. Every time Zurie do something, you come running to save her like she ain’t never wrong.”
“I ain’t savin’ her from nothin’. She is a fuckin’ kid.”
“I don’t give a fuck what she is!” Pluto screamed. “I’m tired of her waiting until the last minute to tell me shit. I’m tired of everybody in this house expecting me to fix everything, and I’m tired of you acting like she can’t be corrected because she cry to you.”
I stared at Pluto ‘cause I ain’t know who the fuck I was lookin’ at right now. My wife had always been a lil’ soft with the kids, even when she was mad. She might fuss, pop somebody, take a phone, or make somebody sit they ass down somewhere, but she had never hit Zurie like that.
The way she was standin’ here now with her face tight and her chest movin’ hard made it clear that this argument was about a whole lot more than some cheerleading shit.
“She was wrong, and I’m gon’ handle it,” I said. “But you slapped her in the face and then tried to jump on her while I got Isley in my arms. You don’t see nothin’ wrong with that?”
“There you go,” she said, lettin’ out a dry laugh. “Taking her side again.”
“I ain’t takin’ nobody side. I’m tellin’ you what the fuck just happened.”
“You always make excuses for her, Pressure. Every time I try to discipline her, you come behind me and make me look like I’m wrong.”
“You was wrong this time.”
Her eyes got wide, and I knew she ain’t like hearin’ that shit from me.
“So she can talk to me any kind of way?”
“I ain’t say that.”
“She can roll her eyes, raise her voice, wait until the last minute, and leave me to clean up every mess she make?”
“I ain’t say that either,” I told her. “But you ain’t about to stand here and act like puttin’ your hands on her was the only way to deal with it.”
Pluto shook her head and looked away from me, but she still had more shit to say.
“You don’t know what it’s like being here all day dealing with everybody,” she said. “You get to leave. You get to do you, and I’m in this house with four kids pulling at me from every direction.”
“I know you tired, baby.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I do know,” I said, feelin’ my patience gettin’ thinner. “I see you, Pluto. I see everything you do, but that ain’t got nothin’ to do with you hittin’ Zurie like that.”
She looked at me for a long second before wipin’ her hand across her face. The anger was still there, but I could see somethin’ else under it now. She looked exhausted. She looked hurt, and she looked like she ain’t know how to hold all the shit she had been keepin’ inside her.
“I’m tired of everybody telling me what I’m doing wrong,” she muttered.
“Ain’t nobody said you doin’ everything wrong.”
“You just did.”
“I said what you did just now was wrong. That ain’t the same thing.”
Pluto shook her head like she ain’t wanna hear nothin’ else I had to say. Then she turned and started walkin’ toward the other side of the house.
“Pluto,” I called behind her.
She kept walkin’…
I stood here watchin’ her leave while Isley cried against me, and I had to fight the urge to go behind Pluto and make her finish this conversation.
I wanted to know what the fuck was goin’ on with my wife, but Zurie was upstairs cryin’ after gettin’ slapped by the woman who had loved her, and my newborn was worked up from all the yellin’.
I kissed Isley’s head again and carried her toward the elevator. Her lil’ face was red, and tears was sittin’ around her eyes while she cried against my chest.
“It’s okay, mama,” I told her, rubbin’ my hand over her back as the elevator carried us upstairs. “Daddy got you. Ain’t nobody finna keep all this shit goin’. Daddy ‘bout to get you some peace around here.”
By the time I made it to Zurie’s room, Isley had calmed down enough to whimper instead of scream. I knocked once, then pushed the door open when Zurie ain’t answer.
She was sittin’ in the middle of her bed with her knees pulled up to her chest, and her face was buried in her arms. Her shoulders shook while she cried, and that shit did somethin’ to me ‘cause Zurie could get on my last nerve, but I ain’t never liked seein’ her hurt.
I walked over and sat on the edge of the bed with Isley still against me. Zurie lifted her head and wiped her face, but the tears kept comin’. Her cheek was red where Pluto had hit her, and when she saw me lookin’ at it, she leaned into my side.
“I hate that she adopted me,” she cried.
I looked down at her and felt that shit hit me ‘cause I knew she ain’t mean it.
Zurie was hurt, embarrassed, and sayin’ whatever she thought would cut the deepest. Still, I knew where that pain came from.
Her and Pluto parents had failed both of them, and Pluto had been the one who stepped up to raise Zurie when she ain’t have no business carryin’ that kind of weight herself.
“Don’t talk like that,” I told her, rubbin’ my hand over the back of her head. “You don’t mean that shit.”
“Yes, I do,” she said, cryin’ harder. “She hate me.”
“Pluto don’t hate you.”
“She hit me.”
“I saw what happened, and I’m gon’ talk to her about that. She was wrong for puttin’ her hands on you like that, but you don’t get to sit here and act like you ain’t have no part in how this shit started.”
Zurie pulled back and looked up at me, and I could tell she ain’t expect me to correct her after what just happened.
“You waited until tonight to tell her what you needed for tomorrow,” I continued. “Then when she got mad, you stood there rollin’ ya eyes and talkin’ back like you grown. You know better than that.”
“I forgot…”
“You forget too much when somebody else gotta stop what they doin’ to fix it for you.”
Her face dropped, and she looked away from me.
“I ain’t sayin’ this to make you feel worse. I’m sayin’ it ‘cause you old enough to start keepin’ up with ya own shit. Pluto got three other kids in this house to worry about, and you can’t keep waitin’ until the last second to throw more on her.”
“I ain’t mean to.”
“I know you ain’t mean to, but that don’t change the fact that you did it.”
Zurie wiped her face and laid her head against my shoulder again. I adjusted Isley in my arms, then wrapped my free arm around Zurie and pulled her closer.
“She really don’t hate me?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “She been lovin’ you longer than anybody else in this world. Y’all both mad right now, but don’t ever let one bad moment make you forget everything she done for you.”
Zurie stayed quiet, and I let her sit there for a minute ‘cause I knew she needed time to calm down before she could hear anything else. I kissed the top of her head and rubbed my hand over her arm while Isley shifted against my chest.
“What all you need for cheer?” I asked once her cryin’ eased up.
She sniffed and sat up straighter. “New shoes, the black practice bag, some white socks, and Coach said we need the warm-up jacket tomorrow.”
“What size shoes?”
She told me, then started explainin’ where Pluto normally ordered everything from. I listened and made sure I had the information right ‘cause whether Zurie waited too late or not, she still needed the shit.
“A’ight,” I told her. “I’ll handle it, but this the last time I’m fixin’ somethin’ you waited until the last minute to tell somebody about. Next time, you gon’ have to walk in there without it and explain to ya coach why you ain’t prepared.”
Zurie nodded, and I looked at her until she gave me more than that.
“You hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
I leaned over and kissed her forehead, then stood from the bed with Isley still in my arms.
“Wash ya face and calm down. Don’t go downstairs until I come back up here and tell you to.”
She nodded again, and this time I could tell she understood I wasn’t playin’.
I left her room and headed down the hallway toward mine while my mind stayed on Pluto. Whatever had been happenin’ inside my wife had finally spilled over on everybody else, and I knew ignorin’ it was only gon’ make shit worse.
Before I reached my room, I pulled my phone out and called ‘Lo. He answered after a few rings with music playin’ somewhere behind him.
“You dressed yet?” he asked.
“Nah. I ain’t gon’ make it tonight.”
“What happened?”
“I got some shit goin’ on at the crib I need to handle.”
He went quiet for a second, then his tone changed. “Everybody good?”