Tay's Story

Chapter 2: Going Home

I sat there on those blue benches, with my two siblings on either side of me, waiting. Watching every other kid run to their parents' car and hop in. Time was passing slowly as I kept looking for my mother's old, beat up Pontiac to pull through the line. Before I knew it, we were the last kids sitting on those benches and there was not another car in sight. Mrs. Radley, the reading coach, walks in front of us and says "Come on T's, we'll call mom and wait inside the office." None of us say a word, we just get our stuff and drag our feet behind her. Tazyeon starts to skip around, not understanding that the first day our mom was supposed to get us from school, she doesn't show.
We go into the Front office and Mrs. Radley dials her number on the front desk phone. I hear the ringer so I know that she put it on speaker. It rings twice and I hear my mom's voice "Hello? What y'all want?" "Umm hey Ms. McCrae, this is Mrs. Radley at the school. I was just calling to see if you were on the way to pick up the kids." Mrs. Radley replied back to my moms rude, but normal way of answering her phone. "I ain't getting them today." And she hangs up the phone. Mrs. Radley's eyes were the size of basketballs when she looked up at us. I just sit there as my brother and sister fight over a jacket next to me, still not realizing what had just happened. Mrs. Radley gets up and tells me to stay put and walks into Ms. Osterly's, the Assistant Principal's, office. When Mrs. Radley walks in the door I can see Mrs. Monroe sitting in there talking to Ms. Osterly. Then the door shuts behind her. In less than 3 minutes, Mrs. Monroe walks out of the door with Mrs. Radley. "Y'all wait right here with Mrs. Radley and I'll be right back."
"She must be fixing to make us feed her animals or something" I think to myself. I throw myself back in the chair and huff and puff until a big white, Chevrolet silverado pulls up to the front door. It's a little jacked up and has a slight lean to it. This truck looked so nice and I could tell it had to be a white boy's truck. I see boots hit the ground from underneath the truck and walk around the front of it. "That's Mrs. Monroe's truck!?" I think to myself. She swings open the school door and says "Come on y'all, I'll take you home." Are you kidding me? Like I haven't already had enough of this woman today. "Ughhhhh" I say out loud as I grab my backpack and push my siblings out the door.
I walk to the truck and swing open the front door. I hear two babies laughing and playing in the backseat. One in a bigger kid car seat that seemed about 2 and the other one was a little baby, maybe 6 months old. In the back the middle seat had a booster seat
in the middle and Mrs. Monroe told Tazyeon to get in it. He looked at her funny, because he had never been in any type of car seat before, but he climbed in anyways. Mrs. Monroe walked around to the driver side and climbed in. She lifted up her middle console and told Tazariah to sit there. I climbed in and sat in the passenger seat. She goes to put the truck in drive and looks over and back at all the kids. "Buckle up, butter cups" She says. My mom never makes us buckle up, probably because she could care less if anything happened anyways. I reach across my shoulder and pull the strap across my chest.
We start to leave the school and Mrs. Monroe turns up to some music that I have never really heard before. The radio screen said "Country Hymns' '. I didn't know what a hymn was, but it was not the same rap music my mom listens to. It was a song about Jesus holding someone's hand. I don't know, but the country fiddle and piano kinda had a good beat to it. If you like country music. I don't. I only listen to rap. That's what gangsters listen to.
We make our way across town and that country music is still playing. Tazeyon starts to get into it in the back seat and starts clapping his hands to a song called "I Fly Away". I roll my eyes and set my head against the window and just quietly wait to get home. When we get to the entrance of Sweet Hill Mrs. Monroe hits the lock button. "She's scared to go into the hood. Basic white people." I think to myself as I let out a little giggle and a smirk goes across my face.
Mrs. Monroe asked me which house was ours and I point her in the direction of Apartment #39. All the way in the back, which I could tell made her very uncomfortable, having to drive through this neighborhood. Every person we saw outside of their house stared at that big white truck with eyes of hate, wondering why some white people were on this side of town, in our hood. To be honest, when I saw that she drove that nice truck I was excited to get to ride home in it. The nicest vehicle I had ever been in was my Grandma's old Dodge Charger, it smelled like weed and hair grease, but I'm sure it used to be nice. When I saw the people in my neighborhood's faces, as that nice truck rolled through I became embarrassed. Me, the strongest black kid in the Sweet Hill hood, having to ride home in this white people mobile. "Geez Tay." I think to myself. "None of the Ones better see me in this." We pull up to our house and Mrs. Monroe jumps out to help Tazeyon unbuckle, because he didn't know how. She picks him up out of the truck and sets him on the ground. Me and Tazariah jump out and wait for them to walk around the truck. Tazeyon stands there with saddened eyes, not wanting to go home and still wanting to take a ride in the nicest vehicle we had ever been in. Mrs. Monroe smiles and we all start to walk away from her, until she calls my name "Tay!" She says. I turn towards her. "I know you're probably still not happy with me, but if y'all ever need anything at all, just let me know." That was pretty nice of her, considering she had to drive all of us home and I broke her shovel today. In my heart I wanted to thank her for offering to help us and for the drive home, but instead I replied "We don't need anybody." and I walk away from her. I didn't see her face, but I could feel her worried eyes watching me as I followed behind my siblings to the door.
Before I could hear Mrs. Monroe's truck door shut behind her, my mother came racing out the door at her, pushing me out of her way. "Lady! Hey Lady!" my mother yells at Mrs. Monroe. Mrs. Monroe stops at the front of her truck and asks "Yes Ma'am?" My mother was high out of her mind. I could tell. She was jittery and her eyes were as wide as they could get with her pupils as tiny as peas. I think Mrs. Monroe could tell too. My mother didn't have any hair in, bright yellow, fluffy slippers on her feet, purple polka dotted pajama pants on with I think one of my little sisters spaghetti strapped tank tops on that was about to let her boobs fall out. "Since Tay was the only one that got in trouble on the bus, if he doesn't ride it can the other two still ride it?" she asks Mrs. Monroe with her hand on her hip. "I don't see why not, but you'll probably have to take that up with the bus compound" the worried teacher replies. "Okay well I'll just send the little two to the bus stop in the morning. You can take Tay somewhere. I don't want him." My gut turned upside down, but I knew how to handle this. I would just get in her face and tell her how it is. But then I remembered that she was high. There was no telling what she would do to me this time.
So I just stood there waiting for my teacher to respond. Mrs. Monroe walked back around the truck and the closer she got I knew I would be able to see the sadness in her eyes, getting to experience the way that my mother is. Instead though I saw anger in her eyes as she walked up to my mother and said "What kind of mother are you?" My mom stepped back away from her, even while she was high I think she was scared of her, and turned to walk inside. Mrs. Monroe grabbed me by my arm and said "Get in the truck Tay."