Trey's Story - Family over Everything

Trey's Story - Chapter 3(Bayou Baby)

CHAPTER 3 - BAYOU BABY

Now with her future tied up in being a mother to two kids, the projects had won and locked my mom in as just another victim of the projects, destined to repeat the cycle. Her and Mac was an off and on situation. Mom had mad love for him because he was always nice to her when he was around, and he also was her first. And they were on again enough that she got knocked up again at nineteen. This time she gave birth to the twins, Tara and Keke. So here my mom is, struggling to pay a bill, no education, no skill sets and with four kids and she was not even twenty years old yet.

I think four kids was too much for Mac to handle. He was ok with one kid; he did not want her to have JR. But when he found out she was pregnant the third time. He was livid, he insisted that mom have an abortion. But family meant too much to my mom, so she would never be able to do that. Even if it meant she had to raise her kids on her own.

People joke about dad went out to the store and never came back. At the age of twenty, the last thing Mac said to my mom was, "I need to clear my head and think. I am going to the store and get some beer". He literally went to the store and never came back. Mom was worried. The first day she called him constantly, but he never answered. She paged him, he never returned her call. By day three she decided she would go by his apartment.

As she nervously walked up to his apartment, not knowing what to expect. Would he be in there dead? Would he be in there all cuddled up with another woman? No, this was much worse. As she got to the porch, she could look through the window and see the apartment was completely empty. All the furniture was gone, everything was gone. Mac had just up and moved. Mom got to a phone as quickly as she could to try and call him. And the second blow was equally as painful as the first. Mac had changed his number, the number she had no longer worked. At that moment, it all became a reality that she was going to be a single parent.

It was almost five years before she ever saw him again, and by that time she had moved on with life. He didn't show back up trying to be a dad, she was out at the park with my brothers and sisters. Some were at the playground, Fatman and JR were throwing a frisbee. They were playing frisbee as if it was a football and throwing it deep to try and run and catch it. This time the wind got under it and the frisbee just kept sailing.

Mom watched it sailing off in the distant as JR was trying to run it down. When it finally landed, it was way over by the barbeque grills. This guy picked it up and handed it over to JR. From a distance, the moment he picked it up, mom knew exactly who it was. It was Mac. Sad thing is, he gave the frisbee to JR and he never even recognized his own son. Maybe he just didn't take a good look at him. But JR took the frisbee and took off running back to continue playing, having no idea who the stranger was that gave him the frisbee.

Mom immediately took off walking in the direction of the barbeque grill. Fatman and JR saw her walking, but continued to play thinking nothing of it. As she approached the grill, she could see Mac was there with two other guys. I think that made mom feel better, because it would have been even more painful to walk up on him with another woman and a family. As she approached him, his back was to her. She said, "Only a no good, dead beat, sorry ass man would see his own son and not even recognize who he was. What kind of excuse for a sperm donor are you?"

Mac turned around and look as if he saw a ghost. His two friends looked on in amusement, giggling amongst each other looking to see what would happen next. They grabbed each other pointing laughing, wondering what Mac would do.

Mac immediately recognized that voice and he stood there in shock. He really did not say a word. Mom looked at his two friends laughing, drinking a beer and she said "I guess you finally got to the store to get that beer huh" she said in a sarcastic and angry tone.