“I’ll just lay in here with you. Please don’t touch me.”
“Damn, I can’t even rub your stomach? My son loves when I touch on you.”
“Stomach and that’s it.”
“That’s cool with me, shit. You come in here throwing demands with yo scary ass.”
She let me rub her stomach until she was fast asleep, snoring with her back turned to me. My phone started going off back-to-back with text messages. The shit had to be important for someone to be hitting me this time of the morning. I eased out of bed and walked out of the bedroom to sit on the steps.
“Yo.”
“I got some information for you but it’s not about you wife,” one of the streets soldiers said.
“Who the fuck it’s ‘bout then?”
“Perc.”
“Let me hear it.”
“His witness is Lexus oldest daughter. She saw the nigga leaving bruh. She told them what she saw.”
“How the fuck?” I looked back at the bedroom door before lowering my voice. “How the fuck did he let this happen. I can’t kill a fuckin’ child bruh. How we gon’ handle this shit?”
“You gotta get with Perc, bruh.”
I rubbed my hands over my face, “Aight. I’ll see if the lawyer heard anything about is phone calls and visits. I gotta meeting with Children’s Court tomorrow so hit me up if you hear anything else.”
I had to go about this shit at a different angle. While my brother was locked up, I was in the process of trying to get my niece out of foster care. Everything was coming at me at once and that’s why I was begging Blessyn not to leave me. That was only going to make me feel worse. Maybe having my niece in the house with us would bring us closer. I climbed back in bed behind her and went to sleep.
“I see no problems with your niece being in your custody temporarily. We will make home visits and the first one will be next week. I’ll call before I come to make sure you are home. Here’s my card if you have any questions,” the social worker said.
“Thank you.”
“Best of luck to you. The rest of the kids don’t have family that wants them. Your niece is very blessed.”
“Thank you, again.”
I waited behind the door as she went to go and grab my niece. For just a second I felt bad for Lexus other kids. Her mother was still living and I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t get them then I remembered that she stayed in the projects and didn’thave room for three kids. She could barely keep her rent and shit paid.
My niece came running out into my arms. Poor baby hair was a fucking mess. She had to be with a family that wasn’t used to dealing with black girls hair. Maybe Blessyn could get her right when I got home. I stopped by Target and bought her a few things before finally making it home. Blessyn had no idea that I was bringing her home and I wasn’t expecting to see Merci here.
“Wassup y’all,” I greeted them as I walked in the den.
Merci was used to being around my niece but with her losing her own baby it made her slightly uncomfortable. That didn’t stop my niece from going over to her and forcing her way on Merci’s lap.
“I gotta do something to your hair,” Merci said.
“She’s going to be with me for a while. She was in foster care and I couldn’t leave her there. Perc would be here with her if he wasn’t locked up.”
“That was sweet of you,” Merci said.
“We have a baby coming at any moment. Who’s going to watch her?” Blessyn asked.
“I’ll help. You know me and mama will help,” Merci told her.
“You should’ve discussed this with me first.”
“Can we not do this in front of my damn niece? I can take her and we go stay in one of my other houses. I’m here to make sure you’re safe. Stop being a selfish ass bitch all the time.”
