April Showers

11|the talk

"Anna and Aaron jus lef." Marlon pointed towards the door he just entered through. "Dem a comeback?" He liked Anna and her little boy was pleasant. She was ready to give him a chance even after hearing about what he did.

"No." Noah didn't have the energy to argue with the man. He would call a truce and tomorrow he would try to get Anna back. "Shi get a job and a cheap place and shi nuh need mi." he had no idea why he was telling the man this.

"Wah yuh duh now?" Marlon asked. He knew Anna would not just leave like that. He saw the way she treated him. She had his best interest at heart even when she invited Marlon to stay. She never had parents and she wanted him to reconnect with his father because he had a chance to.

"Nuh bada come talk like yuh betta dan mi." Noah was angry again. Marlon had no right to speak to him like this. As if he was smarter than him and made no mistakes, after all that he did. All that he put Maggie through.

"Mi worse dan yuh." Marlon stated. "But mi accept mi wrong. Yuh out ya a behave like yuh nuh have a thing fi do wid dis." Marlon didn't blame Noah for his reaction, he was once exactly like that. It cost him a relationship with his son and he knew how much Noah could lose.

Noah hadn't expected him to accept his wrong. He expected Marlon to blame everything on his mother, she was dead after all. "Why yuh leave?" Noah needed to know. He spent most of his life thinking up scenarios about what happened. Nothing could counter the truth though.

Marlon took a seat on the closest chair. He exhaled, he had been thinking on this moment. The moment when he would tell his son why he left him. He hoped he was as forgiving and understanding as Anna and Maggie were.

"Mi did love yuh mada." He laughed sadly as he reminisced. "Mi memba di first time mi si har." He shook his head. "Shi coulda sing. When mi see har she dah sing pon the choir. Mi gi har a likkle one talk and she dah medz mi. Mi remember di first time mi kiss har. Three months pass and shi seh she pregnant." Marlon cleared his throat and held his face in his hands.

"Mi tell har seh she haffi drink Pepsi wid rusty nail cause" he choked up "Cause mi nuh want yuh. Shi vex and shi come a mi yard fi confront mi. Inna all dis mi did deh wid anahda b from di same church. Shanna-kay." He raised his head to face his son. He was glad his mother hadn't listened to him. Noah was something to be proud of.

"Shanna-kay did pregnant to. Mi coudin afford two pickney. Suh mi tell Shanna seh a lie Maggie a tell pon mi, tell har seh Maggie did a look mi from longa while." Marlon confessed.

"And yuh know full well seh a you trick har." Noah supplied. He was upset and hurt for his mother.

That was why she hated herself so much. Why she cried. Because some bastard of a man charmed her into getting her pregnant, on top of that made a fool out of her.

His mother didn't deserve that. Who was Marlon to choose which child lived and which died? Why was it so easy to say that Noah should have died?

"And Shanna decide fi disgrace Maggie and mi coudin stop har." Marlon choked on his tears remembering how Shanna had slapped Maggie and told the whole community how much she was a whore and wanted to steal her man.

Men came onto Maggie after that, calling her a whore and trying to force her to be with them. He hadn't meant for any of it.

He hadn't meant for her to hurt the way she had. It was all his fault but somewhere inside Maggie had blamed herself. She had to move away. She was burdened with not only raising a child herself but try to fend for herself. All alone.

"Shi come back when yuh did a one and har mada dead. Suh come shi get the house." Marlon looked around gesturing towards his surroundings. "Mi did come look fi yuh two time when yuh did a grow up. When shi come back and when yuh turn four. Maggie never want mi help and shi never wah mi meet yuh. After a while mi did feel like a fi di best."

Marlon shook his head trying to shake off the memories. "Shi call mi when she did a dead. Mi did happy fi seh she a contact mi but when shi tell mi bout the cancer. Mi, mi never know wah fi do, never feel suh helpless inna mi life." Marlon was crying now. Not to help his case but because he regretted what he did all those years ago.

Noah swallowed his own tears and looked towards the ceiling. "Anna is a good girl. Remind mi so much a yuh mada." Marlon shook his head again and exited the house. He would give Noah a chance to dissect what just happened.

Noah was not angry anymore. He was furious and sad. There was nothing Marlon could do to make things right. The time had passed for him to be a man and there was no going back. It was not too late for him and Anna though. He would ensure that it wasn't.

"Hello." A female voice came alerted Noah to a new presence. It was Anna but not the one he wanted to see. What was she doing here? He hadn't invited her over and he wanted nothing to do with her.

"Can I help you?" He asked politely and uninterestedly. He didn't want to lead her on in any way. He need to be alone right now. He was jobless and he missed his woman and son already.

"I saw Anna and her bastard leaving when I was coming inside so I thought I would come over." The woman said and Noah seethed, he could not catch a break today. "Are you completely stupid?" he shook his head.

She was nothing like his Anna. Ms. Reeves was definitely a silver tongued witch.

Ms. Reeves was taken aback by his question. How dare he speak to her like that? No matter, when he married her like the old hag Maggie wanted him to she would rob his every penny. Do it for the money, she chanted inside her head.

She walked over to his and slid her hands over her shoulder. He flinched away and watched her carefully. She couldn't mean him any good and she must be losing a screw if she thought he was into her.

"Come out a mi house fimi deh please." He stated lightly pushing her towards the door but she would not have it. She latched onto him like a turtle to a stick. She must be crazy. If only he wasn't against hitting women.

"You know you want me." She purred and he gagged at how desperate she was. "Woman tek yuh affa him if yuh know wah good fi yuh. Damn nasty rass." The voice of Ms. Pam could be heard from the door on the verandah.

She was making heavy steps towards them. "Yuh issa nasty gyal. Yuh already know seh the bwoii a yuh bredda. Yuh damn get a bush bitch."

There was pin drop silence. Noah couldn't quite understand the events of his day.

He passed out.