FACADE

04|AGE TWELVE

JACEN JR.
••••••
Summer

Weh me say 'bout things a happen back to back?

You wanna know what got added to the list? Uncle Ramone got killed.

Haha! No it's not funny, I'm just saying maybe I'm the evil root in their lives– my father and I. From weh dem tell me, they sounded all good before Mum met him...

... before they took me in.

Therapist or no therapist, I barely sleep at nights, unless it's after a million rounds of games with Pae or Kemp dem.

Do I share this with my parents?

No.

As me say, dem have supm else fi deal wid every other year— every other month at this point.

Speaking of Paecyn, I'm taking her to the movies today. After what happened, we barely texted all summer and I couldn't do all the things she wanted to do 'cause the family did under heavy guard.

*Still are*

But now I have the courage fi bother Mumz with trivial things like taking her to the movies. She's never been, 'her mother say people get feel up a movies'

Just a wait fi the day she start use her own thoughts.

She wanted me to do summer in Kingston so we would have more freedom to fun things but Mum wanted me to do it in her parish.

A text comes in from her and I look down at my phone, thrown on the different set of jeans I laid out to pick from.

I pick it up and swipe her chat open.

Paecyn 🤗: Mommy say since it's not
supermarket anymore, both parents
need to meet her.

Okay, I'll ask.

What I really want to say is her mother ah idiot 'cause whether or not it's both parents or one, a the same outcome. They think and operate as one person when it comes to me at least.

Dadz nahgo wah come enuh.

"Junior twenty minutes! and mi nuh hear your shower yet enuh bad bruk," Mum's scream travels from downstairs to my ears.

"Ry' use the intercom nuh killa," Dadz' voice is heard at my door.

I snap my head around.

"Me woman a say you wah go road wid people daughter," he kicks it off immediately.

I start laughing.

He does too.

"Paecyn mother," I sober up, "say if anuh just supermarket alone, then both parents have to meet her."

He chuckles before walking over to sit in my game chair. He sends a text or email... or supm on one of his phones before lending me his attention again.

"Her daughter a who? princess of Old Harbour?"

"Dadz, go easy."

He spins in the chair before sliding himself down– doing supm on the phone again.

"I will, just wah know why she so overprotective of her. Wah see if me miss supm ina dem file," he mumbles the last line.