Do or Die

09.

//Zonnique

A few days after Ms. Joyce's funeral, Chris and some of his other family members went to her house to start cleaning it out. Chris had plans on selling it, since that's what his mother had been planning on doing anyway.

I sat on the leather black sofa of her living room, going through old photo albums. Carter looked along with me, smiling when she recognized pictures of Chris. I flipped through a few more pages of the book and found pictures from my baby shower.

I remembered the day like it was yesterday. Ms. Joyce had thrown me a big baby shower when I was almost 9 months pregnant with Carter. Chris and I both looked so young. I ran my fingers over a picture of Ms. Joyce holding my big belly with the biggest smile on her face.

I smiled to myself and fought back the tears that were piercing my eyes. Carter looked up at me curiously, wondering why I was crying. I quickly wiped my face and pinched her cheeks, earning loud giggles from her.

Ms. Joyce's neighbor, Ms. Anne, looked over and smiled at Carter. She stood from the kitchen table and came into the living room where we were. She sat next to me and held out her arms to hold Carter. Surprisingly, Carter went right to her.

"Joyce talked about this sweet baby all the time." She stood Carter up in her lap. "I just hate she won't remember how much her grandma loved her."

"We'll never let her forget." I smiled, fixing the navy blue bow in her hair.

"Joyce was telling me about some things before she passed.. I'm sure she would want you to know about them." She said lowly.

"What is it Ms. Anne?" I raised an eyebrow.

"C'mon Z." Chris suddenly appeared in the living room, interrupting her. "I got some business to handle at the club."

"But I was talking to Ms. Anne." I turned to face him. "It'll only take a few minutes Chris."

"Nah, we gotta go now." He said with a slight attitude.

I sighed and stood to my feet, telling Ms. Anne I would try and come talk to her later. I gathered all of Carter's things together and went outside to the car. I placed her things on the backseat and got into the passengers seat while Chris buckled her in.

After Carter was secure, he got in and started down the road towards the club. I honestly didn't want to tag along with him and deal with whatever business he had to deal with. I wanted to know what it was that Ms. Joyce had told Ms. Anne that I needed to know.

The car was silent beside the faint noise of Carter cooing and babbling in the backseat. I glanced over at Chris and his eyes were focused on the road. His slight grip on the steering wheel let me know that he was tense.

"What was all that about?" I finally broke the silence.

"What are you talking about?" He said with his eyes still focused on the road.

"You interrupted my conversation with your moms neighbor and I know you saw it was important." I crossed my arms. "Why'd you do that?"