A Losing Game

"Sky's the Limit"

            Roderick was as nervous as he'd ever been while getting ready for graduation. He must have tied and loosened and retied his necktie multiple times. He looked at the recent prom photo of him and Jacory that he'd affixed to his full-length mirror and finally felt some relief. After settling on a half-Windsor knot, the kind of necktie knot that Mr. Washington always used, he grabbed his cap, gown, and magna cum laude honors stole and headed out of his bedroom.

            "Say cheese," Deven said as he snapped a few pictures of Roderick descending the stairs.

            "Come on, Dev," Roderick said with a laugh. "I don't even have the cap and gown on."

            "Boy, I am taking every picture that I can so I will have plenty of examples to show your nephew when he gets older."

            "When he gets older? He ain't even born yet."

            "He will be in a little over two months."

            "Speaking of the baby, where's Jazmine?"

            "She's gonna meet us at the school. She had some errands to run. I already ran my errands for the day." He looked at his watch and said, "We better get going."

            "Before we go, I just wanna tell you thanks for everything, Dev. You know, you didn't have to pick me up from that detention center last October. You didn't even have to reply when my lawyer and social services reached out to you while they were puttin' my deal together. You put up with my lies and the fact that I went back to work for Escobar. I wouldn't be about to graduate today without you."

            Deven nodded while saying, "And thank you for letting me help you, man. I admit, my guilt was crippling me but having you here and seeing you about to graduate high school, it was all worth it. We got through therapy together, man. We're finally connecting again and I'm about to be a dad. I feel like everything happened the way it was supposed to." He immediately became choked up as he said, "I just wish momma and dad were here to see this. Man, they would be proud."

            "Well, one of them can. You said you're gonna take pictures, right? How about we mail a few copies to dad? He should be able to receive mail at the prison. Hell, after the breakthroughs we had with therapy, I think we should start visiting him."

            "It's been a long time since I've seen him. I last saw him the day he killed Bobby. I was getting ready to walk to school and he told me to make sure I picked you up from Miss Josephine's apartment after school."

            "The last time I saw him was when he walked me to my bus stop and helped me get on the bus that day to go to kindergarten. When I came home with you, he wasn't there and he never showed up. The next day, you told me he got into it with some nigga out in the streets and he killed him."

            "Damn, neither of us have been to see him since he's been locked up." He looked down at the floor as he asked, "How often do you visit momma's gravesite?"

            Roderick shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I've never been back to it since the day she was buried there."

            "You haven't?"

            "Nah, I just...I couldn't do it. I know she's at Higher Hill Cemetery."

            Deven wiped a tear that managed to fall from his left eye and revealed, "I visit her gravesite twice a year. I go on Mother's Day and on August 16th, her birthday. She loved white roses so I take a dozen of them and place them against the gravestone each time I visit."