Who Do You Love? (sequal to Sprung Off Of You)

Questions Answered

"I missed you Travis!" Mama said as she engulfed me in a tight embrace.

I finally coughed up enough courage to go visit my mama and ask questions that needed to be answered.

I smiled down at her beautiful brown face, despite the dark bags that formed under her youthful eyes, trying to find the words to say, but they wouldn't come to mind.

"Come in, come in." She said as she stepped to the side to let me in.

I stepped inside of the small apartment. It wasn't what I expected it to look like, being that she is living in the projects.

"How have you been Travis?" She asked as she took a seat in the white recliner sitting across from the flat screen TV.

"Im great, couldn't be any better." I replied as I looked down at my hands.

"I can't believe it, you're a man now." She said as she stared at me in awe.

I nodded my head and looked back at her face. All of the confusing feelings I had back when I was a teenager is coming back now that I am looking in my mama's face.

"Why?" I asked as her wide grin began to fade away.

She stared at me and sighed.

"Travis... I'm sorry how things went when you were younger. I was just fed up with how you were acting out. I just didn't know what else to do baby." She replied as she shook her head and looked down at the wooden floor.

"You kicked me out mama. Did you think that was better for me? I was already confused and lost after what happened with my father!"

"Travis! Everything back then was a mistake okay! I'm sorry! I couldn't make your father stay with me! I didn't want him anymore! You need to understand that!" She exclaimed as tears cascaded down her face.

"What do you mean you didn't want to be with him anymore, y'all seemed happy?" I asked as I glared at her.

There was a long silence before she spoke.

"Your father and I was happy, until I caught him sleeping with my friend in the bedroom that we shared." She replied as she bit her lip and cried harder.

Tears started forming in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall as I looked away from my mother who was crying in her hands.

"He contracted Aids from her. He decided to tell me after I forgave him and slept with him, Travis I'm sorry baby."

The tears that I refused to let fall was now rolling down my cheeks. I got up and walked over to her. I lifted her up out of the chair as I engulfed her in a tight hug.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know mama." I whispered as I rubbed her back and looked up at the ceiling.

She sighed in my chest as her crying stopped.

"I know you didn't Travis.... I know." She replied as she loosened her grip on me.

"So do you have aids?" I asked as I looked down at her.

She sat down and wiped the excess tears off of her face with the back of her hand and nodded.

My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach as I attempted to let the information process through my mind.

"Travis, you have nothing to worry about. God has me." She replied as she coughed into a napkin.

I began to grow angry as I clenched my jaw together.

"Do you know where he is at?" I asked.

"Last I heard, he ran off to California with Vivica, my ex best friend." She replied.