Percy
I finally made it to Cedar Oaks. The streets were quiet, and the few people who normally stood in front of the liquor stores and abandoned parking lots weren’t around. I took peeks at Royce, who sat back like the town I entered didn’t look like the fucking apocalypse.
“You good?” I asked her.
She nodded. “I’m fine.”
When I pulled up to my Nan’s house, my pops was sitting on the porch with Tink on his lap. “You don’t have to get out. I’ll be back.”
I got out and walked over to the porch. “Where is Nan?” I asked my dad as I reached out and picked up Tink.
He popped a cigarette in his mouth, lit it, and took a full drag before blowing out smoke. He scratched his forehead.
“She’s sick, man. I came in here, and she said she couldn’t breathe. Next thing I know, she passed out. Right there in front of me,” he said as he used his hands to show me. “I can’t watch her. I ain’t took care of no kid since you, and hell, I barely did that.”
I heard Royce behind me. “Is that your baby sister?”
I turned to tell her to go back to the car when my father hopped up with the cigarette cuffed in the corner of his mouth. “Sister? Nigga, you at the school lying to them girls? Sweetheart, that isn’t his sister. That’s his daughter,” he said dramatically.
“Hmph, daughter, huh?”
I kissed Tink on her cheek as I bounced her up and down. “Yeah, my goal is to do whatever to make sure my daughter has a better life than this.”
She nodded. “What’s her name?”
“Breann. Breann Shanae Milton.”
I turned to my pops. “I’m going to take her with me. Where did they take Nan? To General?”
“Yeah,” he replied.
I walked in the house, grabbed what I could, and came out to my pops all in Royce's face. She looked uncomfortable, so I hurried down the porch steps.
“Pops, chill.”
Royce turned to head to the car, and the sound of my pops’ exaggerated response made me snap.
“Nigga, I said chill!”
He threw both hands up. “Shit, you can’t help but see all that wagon she’s dragging.”
Royce got into the car as I set up my daughter’s car seat in the back and put her in. I went around and got in. There was so much I wanted to say, but I knew once we got back to school, whatever Royce and I had was going to end before it got started.