Kenney: Still Waters Part 2

Chapter 10

"Mama! Mama!" Charity and Tiana were freaking out. It was about a month after daddy died and Sammy was still in the hospital. Aunt Jazz said the doctors found something in her called "cancer," but she didn't really explain what that was, and I didn't ask. All she said was that was why Sammy was hurting all the time. But Sammy looked fine to me. They just...wouldn't let her out. I wanted my sister home with us. They just wouldn't let her come home, and daddy was never coming home either.  

Everything just...wasn't working out.

None of it.

At all.

Tiana kneeled down in front of mama and patted her hand. "Mama, can you hear me? Mama...please..." Tiana was Charity's best friend. She called our mom "Mama," and her own mama "Carole." She was bugging out as much as the rest of us because mama was really the only one who took good care of her, too.

"Tiana, go get Aunt Jazz."

Tiana froze and let go of mama's hand.

"Charity..." she looked scared, real scared.

"Go Tiana!" Charity was about to get pissed, and nobody wanted that.

"I can't." Tiana looked like she was about to cry. She and Charity shared a silent look, and then Tiana said "Rico..." She whispered something in Charity's ear and then Charity pulled back and looked at Tiana like she was even more pissed than before. "He dates Carole," she looked down at her feet. "He came to the house last night." She whispered something else in Charity's ear. Charity jerked back and looked into Tiana's eyes. "I didn't want to tell you because he's Jazz's..."

"Kenney, go with Tiana," Charity cut her off. "Don't let Rico fuck wit' her."

That's all she said, and that's all she had to say. At eight years old, I knew my job. Even with daddy gone...especially with daddy gone, I knew that I was in charge of the women. Just like I used to be with daddy, only now it was just me.

I grabbed Tiana's hand and walked with her out the door. We were all worried. Beyond worried. Mama had never done this before. Only ten minutes earlier, Charity had been in the middle of one of her fits screaming for daddy and throwing stuff around, and the next thing you know mama stopped screaming back, and just...just checked out. She had been staring at the wall ever since.

Just...staring. Nothing else. I didn't know if she was dead or what.

Tiana and I ran to Jazz's. When Rico opened the door, Tiana froze up and looked like she was about to wet her pants. She looked like she for real was about to pee all over herself. She and Charity hadn't turned eleven yet, but they were about to. And all that time, I had never seen either of them be afraid of anything before.

But I was already in shock, so I just pushed her face right then to the back of my mind with everything else. Even at eight, I knew how to just file it as one more thing to think on, some other time.

Aunt Jazz came to the door and then paused for a minute when she saw the way that Tiana was looking at Rico. Jazz shot Rico a murder look and then moved him out of the way.

"Tee, baby, what's wrong?" She said it to Tiana, but her grey eyes were locked directly onto mine.

"Mama died." I just blurted it out because I was pretty sure that's what had just happened. Aunt Jazz went completely still and all of the color drained from her face.

"What..."

Tiana quickly spoke up. "She's not dead, Jazz, she just...something's wrong."

Then she turned and ran back toward our house. I ran after her. Jazz closed the door and ran behind us.

After a few hours mama was fine again, but Jazz said that mama was under too much stress, and me and Charity would have to stay at her house. Mama agreed. Charity was pissed. She wanted to stay with mama and hated all the parties that were always happening at Jazz's. I was too happy. I loved Jazz's and would have lived there all the time if I could.

Tiana just started crying.

She cried so hard that I held her to me, and then Jazz came over and held her, too. Mama took Tiana into the kitchen and talked to her for a while, and then fixed her a snack. She said that Tiana could come over and eat with her any time she wanted to. She thought Tiana was just crying because she was hungry, since her mama never fed her.

But Charity knew the truth.

Tiana just didn't want to go home.