Amazing Grace

Chapter 32 [Ace of Spades]

Psalm 27:10

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.

Maleek

"Maleek, i cant do it anymore."  I came downstairs about 20 minutes ago and from my facetime call to see, my mother has reached the point of complete exhaustion. She is lying down on the couch across from me and has a warm towel on her head, her eyes are closed and she is trying to hold in all of her tears.

"Im getting old , too old to have to take care of a child again. I just don't have the strength for this."

"I know mom, i know... Im gonna try put more effort into taking care of him." I rub my temples trying to come up with an idea to take care of him.

I try not to be enraged at my father right now, this is all his fault.

"His mother called." My stomach turned when her words reached my ears.

"Lets change the topic please." I urge her. This is the last thing i need to hear right now.

"Maleek, we cant just keep ignoring this topic!" She called out while jumping up from the couch, the towel flying off her face.

"You know what we cant keep ignoring? The fact you continuously post pone going to church."

"Dont you start that with me maleek, i would go if i didnt have to deal with ace all the time."

"If you use that excuse one more time im going to lose it mom, Ace loves God. He loves church, its a great way for him to meet new Godly friends too" I say looking up to her, my voice becoming a little louder. Im trying to be as respectful as possible but i cant stand this anymore.

"Not everything is about G-"

"Yes! Everything is about God Mom. Have you even thought for a slight second  your problems would be solved if you just gave them to God?" She rolled her eyes and flopped back down to couch.

"You can roll your eyes all you want but God is the reason why i was able to pay this months rent, or did you forget that?"

"Maleek..." She groans, putting her hands on her head.

"Look, i dont want to stress you out mom but this is so vital, salvation is so much more important than the drama in this world." There is a moment of silence, and she let out a sigh before replying.. " I dont know how you do it... how you constantly manage to keep so grounded, i just.." She exhaled and closed her eyes

"God." I say calmly and She snickered and shook her head.

"What do we do about her?.." I throw my head back, the mere thought Her makes me cringe, Her and my father... I cant do this.

"Bear can you read some more verses to me?" Ace comes running into the living room at the perfect time. He jumps into my arms from downstairs and sits on my lap with the kiddies bible i got him for Christmas. I admire how much Ace loves learning about God, even at his little age.

"Ace do you want spend the day with big brother?" My eyes burst open as i gape into my moms eyes. I have work! I cant handle Ace. He's at an age where he needs constant attention and is extremely giddy, something about that and a professional work place don't mix.

"YES!" Ace shouts as he bounces on the couch my mom is on, full of energy, just great.

"Mom, i don't think i can do that." I say with a fake smile on my face

"YES YOU CAN!" Ace bounces off the couch and storms over to me with a cross look.

"Oh come on, it will be fun, for the both of us." Mom pleads, Ace is practically bouncing off of the walls waiting for my reaction.

"I dont know..." I say while looking to my side to avoid any having to see the sad eyes in front of me until his body follows my eyes.

"Luke 6:35.." He yelled out with begging eyes. Unfortunately for me, having amazing recollection of bible verses is something that he must have inherited from me.

"Fine! Go get dressed and meet me in 5 minutes or im leaving without you." I see my mom's shoulders release as she slams her body on the couch and closes her eyes.

"You can bring him back in a few hours."

"Jesus loves me this i know for the bible tells me so..." Ace sings beside me in the car while bouncing in the car seat. I look over to the happy little kid to my side, with hope gleaming in his eyes, joy written all over him, I dont know if i should jump for joy that he hasnt turned out like his parents left him to be, or if i should cry in pity of who he is gong to become when he finds out.

So i dont do either, I look to the road ahead of me and continue driving,

"A woman came over to the house the other day." Two times. That's two times today my heart dropped down to my stomach. Its way too soon for him to find out, his happy bubble cant be busted, not yet. I try to seem normal and ignore my shaky hand on the wheel and try to drive straight.

"What did she look like?" I ask him, my voice coming out awkwardly shaky earning me a weird stare from Ace.

"She was short." Short?

"She had Very... Very... bright red cornrows." Red cornrows?

"Are you sure?"

"Yup. I remember because it had a love heart in the side, right here see?..." He points to the right side of his head

"...And i remember that because love hearts are red and so were her head."  This isnt adding up.. but then again t has been years.

"Keep going.." He rubs his chin trying to remember more before he shot up and finally said

"SHE WAS FAT!" I removed one hand from the wheel and hit him gently on the back of his head. This boy is so bad at keeping his mouth shut but i didnt teach him to be rude.

"Ow!" He yelled out

"Next time watch that big mouth." One thing about 5 year old's they have 0 filter.

"Sorry.. but in a good way, she was big and pretty... "

"What was she doing there, what did she want."

"Well..... she was asking for..." I slow the car down a bit and listen intently for what he was going to say, one wrong detail and his whole childhood could be destroyed. His joy stolen, his glee crushed. He was humming, easily getting distracted when the song on the radio changed.

"You are you are you are my fire we lift you higher-" He sings,

"ACE!"

"Yeah?" He said nonchalantly giving me an innocent smile.

"The girl. What did she want!"

"Oh yeah... she was asking for Joel." He said while bouncing both of his eyebrows up and down, then putting the volume higher on the radio. I let out a deep breath and then finally got back to dreading the day of work with my little brother around.

The Lord is my strength ..

*

Hey everyone! What do you think is gonna happen with Maleek and Ace? I wanted to tell you that the book is almost finished by the way... i would really appreciate if you guys would tell me what you think about the book so far? The final version will be changed and edited so you guys get the first publish!

Anyways, please vote and comment

God Bless :)