20. Talitha
Talitha
Weaving in and out of traffic, I checked the time on my car screen. I was running late for work today and for a good cause. Willearl and Bonnie had showed up first thing this morning to pick Gema up.
Originally, we weren’t expecting them until tomorrow. After dinner last night, I ended up spending the night with Law and ended up having to rush home to see Gema off.
When Willearl discovered I wasn’t at home, I had to deal with hearing his mouth. The whole way from Law’s house, he was on the phone fussing. It took me a minute to realize that I wasn’t the one in the wrong, his ass had shown up a day early so after telling him where to go, he hung the phone up.
It didn’t take me long to get Gema’s shit together, so I don’t know why he made such a big fuss. I knew before the day ended, I was going to hear from the rest of the squad about leaving Gema at home overnight with Mrs. Jessie.
If I could help it, I was going to dodge all of their calls. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with their shit.
Lucky for me, I didn’t have anything scheduled for this morning so once I made it to the youth center and noticed Rossi wasn’t at his desk, I was able to slip in unnoticed.
I had two hours to handle my business before I had to leave to go meet Law. He and I were doing a walk-through at the school today.
The contractors had called me yesterday to let me know they had a few things they wanted to show me.
Hopefully it wasn’t anything bad seeing as though the computers were scheduled to be delivered at the beginning of next week.
Law had solicited a few people from his tech firm to set them up along with everything else they needed to do to make sure the network was encrypted, so at this point we couldn’t afford any hang ups.
Cutting on the lights in my office, I smiled when I noticed the most beautiful floral arrangement in a crystal vase sitting in the middle of my desk.
After hanging my coat up, I dropped my brief case and searched the arrangement for a card. Locating it, I ran my finger across it and read:
Flowers for a beautiful soul. I hope you like them. – You know who
Sitting on the corner of the desk, I plucked a white rose from the center of the arrangement I held it up to my nose and sniffed it. I was in la-la land and didn’t hear Rossi when he moseyed into my office.
“Someone has an admirer,” his voice broke through the room, snapping me out of my dazed state.
“Someone needs to knock before entering my office,” I joked and placed the rose back into place.
Standing, I smoothed out my skirt and took a seat at my desk while Rossi sauntered toward my desk. With the card in his hand, he sat in the chair across from me and recited the words.
“Like I thought. Someone has an admirer.” He smirked. “These came about an hour ago.”
“Thank you for bringing them in here.”
“Ummhmm. Care to tell me what man’s attention you’ve garnered?”
“I don’t.” I shrugged.
“Is it Patton? Or Poppa?” he tittered. “I saw the way the two of you looked at each other.”
“I promise it’s not Patton. He and I are… I guess you can say we’re friends.” I was still unclear on what Poppa and I were. I mean I thought we were friends, that was until he went and ran his mouth to Law.
Friends didn’t sell each other out like that, and I couldn’t wait until the next time I saw him. I was going to give him a piece of my damn mind.
“Just friends my ass,” Rossi grumbled. “Well, if it’s not him then it’s someone. You’re practically a nun, Tali. Clearly you’ve caught someone’s attention.”
While he was busy rambling about who he thought sent the flowers, I pulled my phone out of my bag and sent Law a text message.
Me: I just received the flowers. Thank you so much. They’re gorgeous.
Lawton Harvey: You’re gorgeous
Me: Are you flirting with me Mr. Harvey?
Lawton Harvey: Depends… Is it working?
Me: I guess you’ll never know.
Lawton Harvey: Not fair
Instead of responding, I locked my device and placed it in my desk drawer. Turning back to Rossi, I shook my head. “Why are you still sitting here?”
“Bitch!” he scoffed. “I’m trying to figure out who sent those damn flowers.”
“Well, I’ll never tell.” I giggled. “Anyways, did I miss anything today?”
“Yeah.” Rossi sighed. When a solemn expression crossed his face, I braced myself for the bad news. “They found Quan.”
“Where?”
“He was hiding out in Decatur. They picked him up around five this morning.”
Sitting back in my chair, my shoulders slumped. Quan was the kid that almost got my ass tossed outside on the curb. He wasn’t lying when he said he was going to retaliate against his brothers killer. When he disappeared on us, we figured he had gotten locked up.
About a month ago, a detective working the homicide stopped by looking for him.
He left his card and made us promise that we would call if we heard from him.
I told him I would but in my heart, I knew I couldn’t.
I wouldn’t dare hand him over to the authorities.
If they wanted him, they would have to do their job.
I met with my staff shortly after he left and told them no, I wouldn’t harbor Quan especially knowing what he’d done. But if he showed up, I wouldn’t turn him in either. Was it wrong of me to do? Maybe so, but I really had a soft spot for this kid.
“His mom said he went willingly so I’m happy. God knows they wouldn’t have hesitated to put a bullet in him if he resisted,” Rossi expressed.
“That breaks my heart Rossi,” I whined. “I tried so hard with him. I wanted so much more for him. Hell, he’s the reason I even had the idea of doing all of this.
” I picked up the stack of papers for the tech school.
“And clearly it was all for nothing.” Tossing them back on the desk, I dropped my head in my hands.
“I feel like I failed him Rossi.” I bit back a cry.
“Aww! Tali… You can’t think like that. We can’t save them all, and yes you tried hard to help Quan. That baby was dealt a bad hand and by the time you came along, he was too far gone. There was nothing you could do for him.”
“I could’ve tried harder,” I mewled. “Maybe had I started with Law instead of everyone else, I could’ve done more.”
Rounding my desk, Rossi rubbed my shoulders and consoled me.
“Tali, you did more for that boy than anyone else in his life. Believe me, he appreciated your efforts to the fullest. Someone took something from him, and he did what he felt like he had to do. There was nothing that you could’ve said or done to change that. ”
“God…” I mumbled. “All this proves is that I’ve gotta get on the ball with this shit. I can’t stand to lose another kid. Not to the streets and for sure, not to the crooked justice system.”
“I know that’s right. If you need any help just let us know. We’ve got your back girl. We see how hard you go for these kids, and we admire you for that. Let us help.”
“Believe me, I will need all the help I can get in the next few months. I’ve got a meeting with the contractor today. As soon as I figure out how soon I can start getting everything set up, I’ll let you guys know.”
“Good. You gon’ be okay girl?”
“I don’t have a choice but to be. I’ve got plenty of other kids to worry about.” I chuckled lightly.
“That you do,” Rossi agreed.
“Give it a few days and reach out to his mother. I want to go see him. I need to put my eyes on him to make sure he’s okay. Tell her if he needs anything to reach out to me, directly.”
“Now that I can do.” Rossi pecked my cheek before standing and leaving my office.
I tried to keep my feelings out of things like this because I knew I couldn’t save every child that I encountered. Remaining neutral was a hard task especially when dealing with kids. I didn’t have one of my own so when I poured into someone, I made sure it was the kids at my job.
Anytime I got a break in my schedule, I spent it around the center with them. I went from being the director to being a confidant for most of them. I don’t know how the previous director handled business but when it came to me and my babies, I gave them my all.
The only good thing about Quan being locked up was now I didn’t have to worry about someone finding him and killing him. That shit would really tear me down.
It took me a few minutes to get my emotions in check, but once I did, I checked the location on Gema’s phone and started my work for the day. I needed to get everything done because I had no plans on coming back after I left for my walk-through.
* * *
The more we inspected the school, the more my head pounded.
This late in the game, I couldn’t deal with any mishaps.
Apparently while they were replacing the toilets and sinks in the second floor restrooms, they came across mold.
Now we would have to address that problem before we could finish setting up the restrooms.
“How long you think it’s going to take to rectify this problem?” Law asked.
“I don’t know the extent so at least a few weeks. I’m going to strip the walls and see how far the problem spreads.”
“I don’t have weeks, Jose.”
“I know, Ms. Talitha. We’re trying to meet the deadline but unfortunately the school sat for so long. The state didn’t do their due diligence or anything.”
“Take as much time as you need Jose. We don’t have a choice but to wait it out. I’m ready for it to be done but I can’t risk the board coming in and finding anything. One wrong move will have us being denied.”
While the two of them talked, I walked around the restrooms, noting how it seemed to have been gutted out overnight. There was shit everywhere, tiles were even missing from the ceiling exposing some of the wiring.
“I understand Mr. Harvey. I’m going to call in a restoration company to have them assess it further and once I get an answer I’ll know how to move.”
“That sounds good to me. Talitha, you have any more questions?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“You sure?” Law asked for clarification. “Looks like you got a lot on your mind.”
My eyes fluttered out of sheer aggravation. “I do. But I’ll wait to hear what our next move is.”
“Are you sure Ms. Talitha?”
“Yes, I’m sure Jose. Call me as soon as you get an answer.”
“I will,” he agreed.
Jose and Law sparked up another conversation and because I couldn’t stand to hear any more bad news, I walked out of the room and took the elevator back down to the main level.
Because I didn’t know how far the damage went, I couldn’t risk the computer equipment being dropped off here. As soon as I was in the car, I was going to put in a call and have the drop off location changed.
By the time Law came ambling out of the building, I was standing against the back of my car scrolling through social media.
Stepping in my path, he peered down at me. “You good?”
“Not really but I will be.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Don’t ask me that. Today is one of those days for me.”
“What days?”
“One of the day’s that I’m holding myself up with tape.” Swiping my thumb across my nose, I chuckled. “I’m bound to break at any second.”
“What can I do to make it better?”
“Nothing,” I mumbled. My nose started to run and immediately I knew tears were getting ready to sprout from my eyes. Licking the corner of my mouth, I stared out at the road. “I’m overwhelmed,” I sighed.
“Tell me what to do, Talitha.” Law begged. Gripping my chin, he turned my head back to him. “Let me help you.”
“You can’t. I need to get home.”
“Didn’t you say Gema was gone.”
I nodded.
“Then come home with me.”
“Law…” I breathed.
“I’m not taking no for an answer. I can follow you to your house. Pack a bag and come with me to the lake house.”
I wanted to say no but going home to an empty house wouldn’t do shit but have me stewing in my feelings. I was on the verge of breaking down and even if I didn’t want to do it in front of him, I also didn’t want to be alone.
“What you say to that?”
“Okay,” I finally agreed.
Holding his hand out, he said, “Hand me your keys.” When my brows dipped in confusion he added, “I’m going to drive you. Baker will trail us.”
“Okay.” Grabbing them out of my purse, I handed them to him. When he walked over to talk to Baker, I stood at the passenger door and waited for him to hit the locks.
A few minutes later, the lock on my car was hit and I was able to slide into the passenger seat. Securing my seatbelt around me, I kicked off my shoes, reclined my seat, and closed my eyes.
Law fumbled with the radio a few minutes before deciding on some neo soul. Once we pulled away from the school, I felt his hand on my thigh. That was all the comfort I needed in that moment to get a few minutes of sleep.