Mr. Tan

Chapter 60: The Gift Of Life

It's been a month since things seemed like they were taking a turn for the worse. Its near Thanksgiving of 2001, Ava's back home, Earl is back at working for Rhett full time, and Roman is due at any day now. As for that creepy Tesla Carmichael, she's still stalking Earl but she has gotten more discrete about it. Ava, so far has been on her best behavior and she's gotten much better at helping me out around the house since I really can't do much at all. Ava came back to Cleveland a day before the school district let out for Thanksgiving break. Just so she wouldn't be too behind when school re-opens after Thanksgiving break, Earl made sure he mailed her temporary school transcripts off on his way to work one morning. Ava is even thinking about getting a part time job after school because she wants to help out financially. Earl wouldn't hear of Ava working right now, especially at the age of 12.

"Naw, baby girl. Yo only job 'round here is bein' a kid an' stayin' in school", Earl told her. Let me an' yo stepmom worry 'bout providin'. I know you wanna help out an' I appreciate dat so much, but enjoy yo childhood. You only get's ta be a kid once in a lifetime. Maybe when you hit 16, we'll talk 'bout it.

Plus, since my baby was due at any day, I called Kelly who was still residing in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Adrian came over, too to make sure I had extra help whenever I wanted it. Since Adrian had her own apartment that she shared with her boyfriend, Kelly stayed with them. Ava is even learning how to cook, which is great. She's not as good as a cook as her father or me, but she is learning. She doesn't cook anything too complicated, but what she does cook, its pretty good. Earl wants to show her how to make his homemade Southern fried rice. We have no idea what we are gonna do for Thanksgiving. With all of the chaos that has been happening, we really haven't made any plans. At times, I could tell that Earl was still a little down about losing his Juke Joint to a natural disaster. Some days, he would just sit on the couch looking at the same reruns of TV shows while drinking beer after beer. On other days, he would sleep til 12 in the afternoon and not go to work, which is not like him at all. Luckily, Rhett was understanding and patient and he knew what he was going through. However, Earl made sure he didn't miss too many days of work. On days like much like this one, in this part of the country, days are luke warm to chilly and the nights are cold. Since school was out for Thanksgiving break, I usually let Ava go play outside with some of her friends after she did her chores. On a day like this, Earl is working at Rhett's Auto Body Shop and Ava is outside while Duke is napping. I'm sitting on the couch sorting through a basket of clean laundry fresh from the dryer while watching TV. The closing credits of a made for TV movie were going across the screen. I decided to take a glance out of the window to check up on Ava. I knew her and her friends were playing jump rope on the grass of the front lawn. I could hear their voices heavy with excitement as they laughed and talked loudly. I looked out of the window in enough time to see Ava and her friends talking to someone sitting in a silver car, OH SHIT, THE SILVER CAR! An alarm went off in my head as I realized who she and her friends were talking to. I walked as fast as I could to the front door and opened it.

"AVA! GIRLS! COME HERE NOW!", I shouted.

As soon as I shouted to get their attention, the silver car sped away in an opposite direction. All three girls looked worried and confused as they ran up the porch steps towards me. I motioned for all three of them to come inside.

"Mom, what's wrong?", Ava asked as she closed the door behind them.