Love Lock Down

Chapter 34 (Leroi)

Navette was a soldier at the burial. I didn't see her shed another tear as they began to lower the coffin into the grave. She took a rose from the funeral spray and stuck it in her purse. Mama had driven to the gravesite although we had tried to get her to go in the family car. She said that she wanted Navette to have that private moment with Shayla's mother. I was glad her daddy didn't show up cause I wanted to bust his ass. When we got back to the church several people came up to Navette and hugged her as well as handed her envelopes that were full of money. She handed the money to mama for safe-keeping and I tried my best to get her to eat.

"Leroi I am not hungry. I just want to go home and lay down for the rest of the day. I'm looking at these people and I think half of em came to be nosey cause I don't even know them."

"Mama these people came because they wanted to support you, and the few that came to be nosey.......fuck em."

She laughed at me. "Leroi you can't cuss in church."

"I just did. If you don't want me to keep on cussin you will go ahead and eat some of that ham and a lil bit of potato salad." I said raising a fork to her lips.

She took a bite and before you know it I was feeding her. Mama came and sat with us and we all laughed and talked like a family. The preacher and his wife came over to join us and Navette told them how much she appreciated everything. the preachers wife was especially attentive to her. when the people began to dwindle away we started to help clean up. I told Navette to sit, but sh einsisted on sweeping anyway. Shayla's mother stayed and helped too, and exchanged numbers with Navette before she left. Mama was tired and hurting so she laid across the backseat and I drove home holding Navettes hand. After we got home and got mama to bed me and Navette went downstairs to watch t.v. she let her hair down and snuggled close to me.

"leroi?"

"yeah?'

"You think Shayla is really happy now?"

"Well.... I'll put it to you like this. We don't know much about death cause we have never seen it, but I know there has got to be something better than this."

"Yeah, I guess that's true." She said yawning.

I let her fall asleep on my shoulder and I moved her hair out of the way to kiss her forehead. I flipped through the channels and somehow landed on a Tinker Bell movie. I stayed up and watched the whole thing..........for Shayla.

The next day mama was kinda down and I knew she was missing Curtis. He may have not been my favorite person, but she loved him. We had a meeting with Navette's caseworker and was told that she would have to go to a hearing to get emancipated from her father which was good news to us since we thought she would be sent back. As things began to get better for Navette they slowly got worse for me. I started to get to know my daddy and his side of the family and they were all criminal-minded. I knew I should stay away, but I craved a father for so long that I didn't know how to act when he started to take me out and do things with me. Navette finished the school year at our house, but once she was legally on her own she got her own apartment in the projects. She lived in the most quiet part that was close to the police station so I wasn't too worried about her. Mama was not really on letting me spend the night with her, but I was over there every chance I got.