Black to the Past

Chapter 28

Halle was on top of her thick quilts staring up at her ceiling. She wished she could simply disappear. It seemed as if she'd turned sixteen and all hell broke loose at her house. Her mother, the only mother she'd ever known, was in the ICU. She'd actually tried to kill herself and possibly her and her siblings too! Her grandmother was here blaming her father for not caring and accusing him of cheating! The baby wouldn't stop crying and even Halle had run out of ideas and she simply wanted to disappear.
    Feeling the buzz of her cell she picked it up.
    -Look outside- Wilson
    Dragging herself out of the bed she looked out one of the windows that faced the front of the house. Wilson's car was in the driveway but it wasn't just Wil who was outside. Meredith and Jalen were in tow. Halle felt like a bum, knew she was dressed like a bum, but she didn't care. An overwhelming sense of happiness had just filled her. Seeing her friends were here, at her house, let her know that someone was thinking of her. She felt like singing the song from An American Tail - Somewhere Out There! 
    Halle ran into her bathroom. She quickly rinsed her mouth with mouthwash. She shook her hair out. She'd taken her weave out a few nights before but hadn't been to school since then. Her natural curls were flying all over her head the way she'd left them after her shower this morning. She had on no makeup but didn't feel like putting any on either. Her outfit wasn't fancy but neither was it too tacky. She'd dragged on a pair of baggy joggers in pink with the matching tank and hoodie. Sniffing her underarms, she was still as fresh as baby scented deodorant can make you.
    She took the back stairs and slipped out the back door.
    "Hey, guys!" she waved with a genuinely huge grin on her face.
    "Hey," Wilson's eyes popped wide open. Looking at her with her own curls and no makeup was a new experience for Wilson and not an unpleasant one. She looked as young as she had in middle school, just taller. He remembered the first time he'd really seen her as a girl. They were in the sixth grade and she'd walked into the classroom with a mini skirt on. She had long slender legs that touched at the knees when she walked but there was a gap from the knees up. He couldn't understand it but he couldn't stop staring! Her hair was straight against her shoulders and she smiled with that crooked front tooth of hers, laughing with Meredith the way they always did when they came into any room. It was as if the two of them had a secret that they never shared with anyone.
    Meredith ran up to her and wrapped her arms around her. Although much shorter than Halle, Meredith had the ability to pull Halle in as if she were just a small child. Halle clung to her for a few moments, "you okay?"
    "Yeah," Halle acknowledged. And it was true, now, she was okay.
    Jalen stood there, not knowing what to say, he simply nodded his head.
    "What are you guys doing here?" Halle asked, tossing her hair out of her eyes. Her weaves were usually so heavy, it felt light and freeing to have her own hair, she'd simply forgotten how light it was and how it moved when the wind blew, like it was now.
    "I just thought maybe you could use some company," Wilson admitted to her.
    Halle blinked up at him, her eyes narrowing under long lashes. "Really?"
    "Really," he challenged her back, daring her to say something. He'd literally left his house in the middle of the night to check on her Tuesday. Then he'd watched over her as she slept in his own home with her baby sister and best friend. He felt like he was her personal protector which is exactly what he wanted to be for her.
    "Okay," was all that Halle could think of to say.
    The front door opened and Halle cringed. She closed her eyes shut tight waiting for her father to drag her away from her friends.
    "Halle? Why are you and your friends out here in the cold? Come in," her father invited the group inside.
    Breathing a deep sigh of relief Halle led the way. After standing in the cold the toasty warmth of the house was a relief. In the foyer, the kids removed their shoes as they saw Halle doing. Jalen hoped he'd worn socks that didn't have any holes.
    "How are you kids doing?" The judge asked them all.
    A chorus of goods' went into the air followed by an awkward silence. Halle's grandmother came into the room with Stephon on her hip and Maya and Seth bringing up the rear.
    "Wilson!" Maya shrieked as she ran across the hall and jumped into his arms.
    "Wow! She's really taken to you," Halle laughed.
    "Well, she knows I do a cool airplane," Wilson said, putting  the little girl on his shoulders.
    "Hi!" Seth said as he looked up at Jalen. "Who are you?" he wanted to know.
    "Uh, I'm Jalen," Jalen answered him looking around as everyone waited for his reaction to the small boy.
    "Uh-huh," Seth said as he raised his arms and waited for the tall boy to pick him up.
    Jalen picked him up, only slightly awkward for him. He remembered holding his brother when he'd been this little. He'd taken care of his every need.
    "Hi there," Halle's grandmother Anna said to the group. "Are you all hungry? School is hard work," she said clicking her tongue.
    She handed Stephon off to his father and told the kids to follow her into the kitchen. There were warm cookies and she pulled out glasses for milk.
    "I'm lactose intolerant," Jalen told her.
    "We have almond milk," Halle offered. She got up and grabbed that milk for him and poured a glass of it for herself.
    "I've never tried almond milk. It's not bad," Jalen admitted. He didn't think his father had ever thought to buy almond milk. Either that or the price was way too high!
    "What brings you kids by today," Anna asked the kids.
    "Nana, we have a big project to work on. This is my group," Halle informed her grandmother before Wilson could blurt out that he wanted to see her.
    "Where do you want to do your research," her father asked, coming in the kitchen with Stephon.
    "Downstairs," Halle was quick to answer. "The kids can come down with us."
    "Sounds good. I need to step out. Anna, you'll be here right?"
    "I will," Anna said, giving him the side eye. She wasn't very trusting of him lately. Not since he'd hurt her child.
    "Not too late," the judge told the teens.
    "You'll be back tonight, right, dad?"
    "Yes sweetie, but if I'm not, don't wait up for me," he told her after kissing her forehead.
    Halle stared after him as he disappeared into the living room.
    Meredith was the first to break the silence. She told how their project idea was approved and how Mrs. Hansen couldn't wait to get more information on the project.    
    "What is the project about," Anna asked.
    "It's about MLK nana."
    "What about him," Anna wanted to know.
    "Well, we have to basically answer a question," Wilson started.
    "Yeah, if we could go back in time and warn him that he is going to be assassinated, how would we tell him and would he listen to us," Jalen continued.
    "That's pretty heavy," Anna told them. "How are you supposed to answer that question?"
    "I don't know. We have to get enough research on him until we feel as if we'd know how he'd respond to us. There must be something everyone else knows that we don't," Meredith suggested.
    "So what is this big project idea that the teacher loves so much," Anna wanted to know.
    "A time machine," Wilson answered honestly.
    "You're going to build a time machine," Anna asked the kids looking at them as if it were possible.
    "Nana, no! Of course not! Time machines aren't real," Halle laughed.
    "I don't know," Anna said slowly then turned to hide her face.
    She remembered a man who swore they were.
    "Nana?"
    "Yes dear," Anna said as she started cleaning.
    "Nana! You know something you're not saying," Halle insisted.
    "Not really," Anna told her.
    "Yes, really," Halle countered back.
    "Well there was this man once," Anna started. The kids stopped what they were doing midair. Meredith placed her cookie back down on it's napkin. Wilson wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, while Jalen held his glass of almond milk in the air.
    "What man, nana?"
    "Just this old man. He was always at the library. Told everyone who came within a foot of him about a time machine he'd found. Said it really worked. Everyone thought he was crazy. He was there everyday for six months, then we didn't see him for a very long time. I guess he just disappeared, or, maybe he died. He was pretty old. I was young at the time. I didn't believe his foolishness. I thought he was trying to get me back to his house to kill me or something."
    The kids all stared at each other. They didn't dare utter a word. It was so silent that Anna turned to stare at the kids. She didn't know what was causing them to have such odd looks on their faces but she wondered if her story had scared them!
    "Yeah, old coot! Who knows what's happened to him. He's got to be dead by now, though," she surmised.
    "I'm going to lie down for about an hour and a half. You watch the babies, good, you hear," Anna told Halle and her friends then she was off.
    "You don't think," Halle started before the other kids could.
    "There's no way," Meredith said looking at Wilson and Jalen.
    "And if she thought the old man was crazy, and others did too..." Halle let those thoughts hang in the air.