Chapter 29 Emani
Morning came faster than Emani expected and it was accompanied with the soft touch of the nose and a subtle gasp.
Emani could sense the tiny being in the place Jahlil had taken up hours before.
She chose not to pop her eyes open and startle the observation of her.
Instead, she laid still, allowing Jahlil’s youngest to move the coiled tresses of hair out of her face and observe her fully before running out of the room.
In the distance, she could hear Andrew, her heart ached, but for baby girl’s big reveal, she laid still.
“I told you not to come in here with them click clackers,” Andrew grumbled. “I’ve been running since the crack of dawn’s black ass.”
“You’ve been running because your black ass is bad,” Sanaa fired back. “Fine, I’m going to go tell E.Rose how you use my markers to draw on your asses.”
“Abs,” Andrew corrected, and Emani snickered into the pillow. “You’re not going to tell her nothing. You don’t even know her.”
“I touched her face and her hair. And she’s wearing daddy’s shirt,” Sanaa shared. “That means they were kissin’.”
“You’re smoking too many markers. Did you get in the cookies again?” Andrew asked with a huff. “Get out of here, I want to shower.”
“Fine, don’t believe me. Punk ass,” Sanaa huffed and started clacking back down the hall. “And you need to wash everything. You smell like daddy’s dirty gym bag.”
“You look like it,” Andrew called back.
“And you look like a hole. Asshole,” Sanaa fired the last shot.
“Oh?!” Emani gasped, before covering her mouth to muffle the giggle. This time, Sanaa’s return was louder than the first.
“You been kissing my daddy?” Sanaa asked as Emani shook with laughter. “You staying with us?”
Emani opened her eyes fully and beamed at Sanaa. Sanaa’s face lit up the same. “Depends, do you want me to stay?”
“Yes! I love you! I know all your songs,” Sanaa shared excitedly. “And the dances. This is my favorite one.”
Emani rose her brows as she watched Sanaa spin, kick, twerk, and throw her arms in the air.
A laughter Emani didn’t know she needed coursed through her body and her legs swung out of the bed.
Grateful to have put on shorts at some point in the night, she stood near Sanaa. “I think it goes like this.”
Happily, Emani showed her the PG version of the dance Sanaa was attempting to do. When the dance was done, Emani dropped down to her knees to hug Sanaa. Sanaa flung her body around her.
“I told daddy he couldn’t come home without you. Are you his girlfriend now?”
Emani sat on the floor with her and hummed. “Mmm, I think he wants me to be, but he hasn’t asked me to be.”
“Oh, then girl, he needs to get on it. You can’t kiss him again until he does. You got to whip these niggas into shape, girl. I’m having the hardest time with Drewy,” Sanaa spoke, feigning exhausted. “Makes me want to smoke a marker right now.”
“Girl,” Emani quipped a laugh. “This mouth on you.”
Sanaa flipped the back of her pink bonnet. “I know, it’s my best quality.”
Emani chuckled. “I’m Emani, by the way. Emani Rose Wheaton.”
Sanaa scrunched her nose. “Wheaton?”
“I know, not really a cool name for a diva,” Emani responded.
“It doesn’t give bad bitch. Savage is better,” Sanaa responded, settling in Emani’s lap.
It was clear to her that Sanaa had been longing for a warmth that couldn’t come from her father, aunt, or brother.
She wanted a mother. Emani felt that tug because for as long as there had been breath in her body, she’d wanted one too.
“Emani Rose Savage, that’s your new name. ”
Sanaa hummed. “I can handle that. What’s Andrew doing?”
“Washing his stinking ass,” Sanna huffed.
“Let’s try butt,” Emani gently corrected.
“But ass is just so much better. Like when you said he a bitch ass nigga,” Sanaa recited making Emani sway her head.
“We got to get you to listen to something else. Elmo?”
“Ugh no. He’s ass,” Sanaa protested.
“Butt. He’s butt,” Emani gently corrected. “How about let’s go jump on his bed?”
Sanaa hopped up grabbed Emani by the hand and pulled her toward the door. “Oh yes!”
Emani fumbled over herself to grab her phone and to keep up with Sanaa as her tiny feet shuffled down the hall into Andrew’s room.
Andrew was still in the bathroom rapping along with a Sincere record.
Pressing her finger over her lips to silence Sanaa from blowing up their spot, she roamed through her JoyMusic finding her debut hit “Where I’m From” and sync’d it to the Bluetooth speaker he had in the background.
The two climbed on the bed and started rapping along with the beat, jumping up and down on his bed.
“I’m from where the streetlights get knocked out. Where roses grow from concrete. I’m from Husten, where Azul’s be creepin’ and D-Boys be swingin’. Where you from, what’s your set?” Sanaah loudly recited.
Emani joined in, making Andrew run out the bathroom. “Say it with your chest!”
“E!” pure joy spread over his face as he fought with his shirt to run across the room, jump on the bed, and wrap his arms around her.
Emani grabbed him back and rocked him like she used to do. “You’re so big now!”
Andrew held her tightly like she’d bounce away if he let her go. His face was cradled in the crook of her neck. “I thought Sanaa was lying. You’re really here.”
“I’m here,” she hummed, rubbing the back of his head, nape of his neck, and back. “I missed you. I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too,” he sniffled. “So much.”
“I’m not leaving you again, I promise, okay?” Emani pulled back to wipe his face and smile. “Who told you to get so big? You’re taller than me and I don’t like this.”
Andrew smiled boyishly, letting his braces gleam.
“I told your sucka ass-” Sanaa started and Emani looked over at her as she stepped off the bed. “Butt. I told your sucka butt she was here, nigga.”
Emani pursed her lips and shook her head and Andrew shrugged his shoulders. “Her first word as a baby was shit. She’s been cussin’ since.”
“Yep and my favorite words are bitch ass nigga, muhfucka, and shit,” Sanaa stated proudly as they walked out of the room toward the stairs.
“You got your work cut out,” Andrew stated, throwing his arm over her shoulder.
“My work?” Emani feigned innocent.
“Oh yeah, we’re not letting you leave. We’re all stuck together,” Andrew assured as the trio eased into the kitchen. “Since you left me for seven years, I have a request…”
“Cream cheese and strawberry French toast?” Emani asked, already knowing. “You going to help make it?”
“Hell yeah!” Andrew cheered.
“I’m going to wash everyone’s mouth out,” Emani huffed.
“But you cuss,” Sanaa protested. “And daddy and Aunt Violet.”
“We are grown,” Emani replied back, sticking her tongue out and placing Sanaa on the counter. “We have to have nice mouths okay?”
Sanaa agreed with a subtle nod of the head before sweeping Emani’s hair out her face again. “Where that come from? That ugly man who gave you a ring?”
Emani tried to think quick on her feet. “I-”
Sanaa hopped off the counter. “I’m going to tell my daddy so he can beat him up.”
Before Emani could stop her, Sanaa was running out the kitchen, leaving her plastic heels behind.
“She knows you were arrested. She actually fake passed out on the floor from the stress,” Andrew spoke with a soft chuckle.
“Before or after you were in cuffs?” Emani asked, now that they were alone.
“After,” Andrew, muttered moving to the fridge to get the items needed for his requested meal.
“Don’t mutter. Say it with your chest,” Emani encouraged.
“Whatever it is in life, mistake or not, you got to own that shit. For instance, all the food you ate while we were in college was stolen. I stole from the spot where I worked, grocery stores, wherever. Your brother’s greatest fear in life isn’t being a trash ass basketball player, it’s losing you.
So we did what we had to do to make sure he kept you and to make sure you had a life we only dreamt about.
So I want you to always remember the price associated with this. For you. I’ll do it all over again.”
Andrew faintly smiled. “I missed you, E.”
“I thought about you every day. I’m sorry I just disappeared. I owed you more than that. And that’s on me. I’m sorry,” Emani apologized.
“You’re here now and you’re staying, so it’s all good. And Sanaa really likes you so you’re not going anywhere. She’s not going to let you. She likes you more than her own mother,” Andrew muttered the end of the statement, making Emani wince.
“I like her too, she’s something else,” Emani laughed. “So this little girl you’re breaking your punishment for, tell me about her.”
Andrew blushed. “She’s nice and she’s pretty.”
“First crush?”
Andrew beamed.
“Mmm. No wonder you’re losing your mind. How long are you grounded?” Emani quizzed.
“For the rest of his black ass life,” Jahlil stated with Sanaa on his back.
“Yeah that. I got to be up every morning and train. School and home,” Andrew added.
“No basketball?” Emani posed.
“Walk on try outs are next week,” Andrew muttered to Emani.
Emani shot Jahlil a look and he groaned, immediately breaking under her glare. “School, basketball, and home. Got me going back on my shit already.”
Emani and Andrew stood stoic before Jahlil hiked up the stairs with Sanaa. Once he was out of sight, they high fived. “You’re out of fuck ups so the next time you mess shit up needs to be well worth it because your brother daddy is soft. I’m not.”
Emani gave him a wink.
“I hear you.”
“Good. Don’t let a little girl have you out here with nothing because you can’t focus on the task at hand. Girls come a dime a dozen, your dreams are here one minute and if you don’t seize them, they’re gone.”
They fell into a comfortable silence, listened to music and made a full breakfast for the house. When Jahlil and Sanaa returned, both were showered and dressed for the day. While Andrew and Sanaa ate at the table, Jahlil stood behind Emani and gently smacked her hips and kissed her cheek.
“I see you’re a part of the gang,” he grumbled in her ear.
“Mmhmm. Sanaa changed my name too. She said Wheaton was trash and I’m now Emani Rose Savage. But that’s only after you ask me to be your girlfriend.”
Jahlil rumbled in laughter. “I could’ve sworn I was deep in it, making a mess of you and I said you’re mine and you said yes, daddy.”
Emani gasped and muttered. “You got kids, sir.”
“We got kids and that’s exactly what you said. You want a refresher?”
Emani giggled and shook him off of her. “No. What I need is to get my stuff. I need to put on something other than your clothes because apparently, this is the sign that I’ve been kissin’ on Sanaa’s daddy.”
Jahlil burst out laughing. “I’m really trying my best raising her.”
“Yeah, y’all need some help. Don’t worry, big mama is here. I’ll have her all in the studio with me,” Emani joked.
“So she can cuss some more?”
“That’s on you and she knows where the Azul’s stay creeping? Yeah, I’m calling the people on you.”