Saving Amina

Six.

It had been a few weeks since Amina had been evicted from her apartment, and her and Nova have been living out of her car. She stayed parked in front of the apartment building, but the landlord threatened to call the cops if she didn't move, so she prayed with everything in her that her car would get them to a safe enough place to sit. And it did.

She had called her mother, letting her know that her and Nova were homeless, but she didn't really care too much. All she said was good luck and hung up the phone on her. So whenever Nova wasn't in school, and Amina had to work, Nova would have to sit at the diner with her, until it was time to leave. As much as Amina wanted to ask her coworkers for help, she feared that someone would tell child protective services and take Nova away from her.

Chadwick had been calling and texting Amina for weeks, but her phone was disconnected, since she hasn't been able to pay her phone bill. At first he didn't think much about it. He knew that Amina wasn't set financially, and figured that it would be back on soon, but after the third week had passed, he found himself being extremely worried. Amina was on his mind at all hours of day, with all types of different scenarios, of what could have possibly happened to her and Nova.

"Chad." One of Chadwick's coworkers, and a good friend of his, Lakeith said, bringing him out of his thoughts. "What's going on with you? Why are you so distracted?"

He sighed, and shook his head. "Nothing, man. I just zoned out. What were you saying?"

"You've been zoning out a lot lately these past couple of weeks. What's up?" He asked, sitting down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. He had come to Chadwick to practice his presentation to a new company he was accounting for.

"Nah, don't worry about it. I'm suppose to be helping you, right now." Chadwick said, loosening his tie, while leaning back in his chair.

"Chad, I've known you since our freshman year of college, I know when something is bothering you. We can go over the presentation later, talk to me." Lakeith said, turning off the projector, and closing his laptop. "Is someone going on at home? Something wrong with Monica?"

"No, no." He said, shaking his head. "She's fine, they're fine. Everything at home is good, for the most part."

"Okay, so what's the not good part?" He chuckled, and Chadwick sighed, not wanting to talk about it. He felt like Lakeith would get the wrong idea if he opened up about him being worried about Amina and her daughter. He was already dealing with Monica's accusations.

"Okay, but I need you to understand that what I'm about to tell you, is not what you might think it is." Chadwick said and his friend nodded his head. "Alright...do you remember when I went to Chicago a while ago?" Lakeith nodded his head. "Well, met this woman at a diner and-"

"No, Chad! You're cheating on Monica?" Lakeith exclaimed, standing up out of his seat. He was shocked, he didn't think Chad had it in him. Frankly, he didn't care too much for Monica, so he didn't feel bad for her at all. "You're feeling guilty and you want to tell her, don't you? Chad, don't be so stupid, you'll lose everything!"

Chadwick, threw his head back in frustration. "You're doing exactly what I told you not to do. I did not cheat on Monica."

"Oh." Lakeith said, feeling a little stupid. "You're thinking about cheating on Monica?"

"No! Will you sit down, please?" He said, and then took a deep breath as his friend sat down. "Like I was saying...I met this woman at a diner, she works there. We talked for a little bit, and she had left work and I left the diner soon after. While I was driving, I saw her getting attacked in an alley and I saved her." He continued to tell Lakeith about the day that he spent with Amina and Nova, and about how much that had talked after that, up until a few weeks ago.