Out of the Shadows

Chapter 19

We arrived at Ms. Zee’s to find her not there. We knocked on her door for what seemed like forever and still no answer. She knew we were on our way, I talked to her this morning. Why would she leave and not call me? Something’s not right. I take my phone out to call her, it went straight to voice mail. I look at Roc and he can tell what I’m thinking.
“Kaden is ok, there has to be something else going on.” He tells me hugging me.
“Excuse me, are you Niq and Roc?” We hear an older ladies voice. Roc turns around and shields me from the lady. I walk in front of him looking at him like really.
“Yes we are, how can we help you?” I asked her.
“I’m Zee’s neighbor, she’s at the hospital. She’s been there since this morning, after she got off the phone with you. She didn’t want to tell you she wasn’t feeling well over the phone. They’re thinking about admitting her but she insists on coming home for Kaden. He’s at my house with my grandson right now, they’re taking a nap. He’s ok, you guys can go check on her and talk some sense into her. She hasn’t been feeling good for a while now.” She shakes her head.
“Ok, are you sure Kaden’s ok for a little while longer?” Roc asked.
“And what hospital is she in?” I asked her.
“I’m sure he’s ok, him and my grandson are really good friends. He spends a lot of time at my house, I try to help her out as much as possible. Usually when he’s visiting, Kaden stays with us until my grandson goes home. And she’s at Lenox Hill Hospital. I got him baby just go make sure that crazy old lady’s ok.  She’s stressing about Kaden, what will happen if she can’t take care of him. She didn’t want to tell you all that, she feels like you guys do enough for him and her. But she can’t go on like this.” She tells us.
“What’s your name ma’am?” Roc asks her.
“I’m sorry, with all this going on I’m being rude. I’m Zola, Zee’s best friend.” She answered.
“Ms. Zola, we’re here now. And believe me when I tell you we will fix this. Ms. Zee knows we love that boy, and there’s nothing we wouldn’t do for him.” He told her. She put her head down looking at everything but us. She started fidgeting.
“What’s wrong Ms. Zola? I asked her.
“I don’t want to over step my boundary but you might need to take Kaden from her, she won’t ask you. But that’s what needs to happen. She loves that little boy but he’s getting to be a bit much. Now, don’t get me wrong Kaden is a lovely little boy. He’s just busy, and she can’t keep up with him. She’s getting old, hell we’re already old. And having him every day is taking a toll on her. Just don’t take him and keep him away from her, that would surely kill her.” Ms. Zola said looking at Roc and me.
“Just think about it baby’s, and I’ve got Kaden don’t worry.” She said hugging us going back in her house. Me and Roc got in the car and drove to the hospital. After stopping at the desk and getting her room number we go up and knocked on the door, going in once she said come in.
“Roc and Niq, I’m sorry I didn’t have time to call you and tell you what was going on.” Ms. Zee said.
“You are so in trouble, what happened?” Roc asked. I just stood to the side and listened to them talk. I am upset that she didn’t tell me what’s been going on with her. As far as I’m concerned, he’s my son. I know he is the only family she has left, well besides Nikki now that we found her. I’ll have to tell her about that.
“I’m ok baby just tired, well they say exhaustion but I’m just a little tired.” She says looking at me. I just shook my head at her.
“You know you could’ve told us this was getting to be too much for you. We would’ve came up with something.” I tell her walking over and giving her a hug. I love this little lady but she can be a pain in the ass sometimes. All this could have been avoided. I’m going to let it go, its fixed now.
“What’s up Ms. Zee, why didn’t you tell us.” Roc asked. She looked at me and I saw the tears well up in her eyes.
“What is it?” I asked her sitting next to her grabbing her hands.
“I can’t physically take care of him every day Niq, but I don’t want you to take the only family I got away from me.” She told me about to cry.
“Oh Ms. Zee we would never do that to you. That little boy is always available to you. Always, you hear me. You don’t have to worry about that.” I tell her. She relaxed after that. We talked with her for about an hour and decided we would take Kaden home. And she would stay as long as the doctors wanted her to. We needed her healthy and strong but now to tell her about Nikki, this should make her even happier.
“Hey Ms. Zee I got some great news for you.” I tell her.
“What is it baby?” she asked sitting up straighter.
“Guess who I ran into at a club in New York?” I asked her.
“Who?” She asked.
“Nikki, your niece.” I tell her. Then I wait for her response. The tears fell this time. We talked about Nikki and I told her we hadn’t discussed if Nikki was coming home with us or not. But when she got better I would bring Nikki to see her. We talked about Kaden for a while longer and decided to leave all his stuff here with her so when he came back to visit he would be comfortable. We left her and went to pick Kaden up from Ms. Zola’s. We pull up and knocked on the door. Ms. Zola let us in and we told her that Kaden is going home with us. And that her friend would be ok, that she agreed to stay if they told her too.
“Thank God for you.” She said hugging me.
“That’s my girl, have to make sure she’s good. We recently reconnected with her niece so you’ll be seeing a lot of us in the coming months.” I told her.
“And we have to make play dates for the kids. What’s your grandsons name again?” Roc asked her. That made her smile get even bigger.
“I’m sorry, I did it again. That’s all that reefer I smoked in the past, my memory’s shot. His name is Kaine.” She said.  Roc and I are cracking up. This lady wild as hell, no telling what kind of trouble these two caused in their day. She called my baby down and when he seen me and Roc standing there he came running down the stairs into my arms.
“Mommy!” he yelled running towards me.
“Hey baby! Did you miss me?” I asked him.
“Always mommy.” He said backing up from me and running to Roc jumping up at him, expecting for him to catch him. And he did.
“What’s up lil man, what’s wrong?” Roc asked him. Kaden sat there looking confused.
“You told me I was a big boy, you gotta stop calling me lil man.” He told Roc dead ass. We all started laughing. Just then another lil boy came running down the stairs.
“Hi, are you Kaden’s mommy?” he asked me. I bent down so I was on his level.
“Yes I am. And you are?” I asked shaking his hand.
“I’m Kaine and you’re really pretty.” He said. I smiled at him, and Kaden exhaled loudly. He struggled to get out of Rocs arms and walked over and stood in front of me.
“Hey, no checking for my mom’s. You my friend you can’t do that.” Kaden told him mean mugging him. He is just too cute. I smile at my baby.
“Kaden, is mommy pretty?” Roc asked him. He looked at me and smiled, then he nodded his head.
“Then its ok if Kaine tells her that.” Roc told him.
“But you told me I have to protect mommy from boys.” He said looking up at Roc. I turned to Roc and he smiled picking Kaden up.
“I told you protect mommy from big boys, not Kaine.” Roc whispered to him. Me and Ms. Zola just shook our heads at them walking away. I thanked her and told her we’re leaving in the morning after we take Kaden to see Ms. Zee.