Remember the Time

Chapter 84

April 19th, 1999

As a large, burly, guard led her into the meeting room, Mariah felt a mix of emotions. Since she had no choice but to go through with the pregnancy, Mariah wanted to see Morgan and let him know personally, before her bump became too big to hide.

"He should be out soon." The guard said.

She nodded and took a seat at the round table, absently tapping her nails--the clanking of which echoed around the empty stone room while she waited.

Finally, the door opened and Morgan walked out, accompanied by another guard.

Morgan's face lit up when he saw his sister. "Mariah!"

Mariah shot up from her seat and hugged her brother. "Morgan! How have you been?"

Morgan pulled back from her, his eyes scanning her up and down. "You went and got knocked up again?"

Mariah giggled nervously. "Surprise."

"Girl, raise the ones you got. They ain't even got all they teeth yet." Morgan said, shaking his head.

She rolled her eyes. "Look, the baby has already been made. Can't do nothing about it now."

Trust me, I tried.

Morgan sat at the table and Mariah took the seat across from him. "Anyway, what you been doing up in here?"

He sighed. "It's not like how you see on TV. This place is Hell, all I can think about is if mom-"

"What about mom?" Mariah interrupted.

Morgan's eyes flashed with annoyance. "Let me finish!"

She put her hands up. "My bad."

"So mom told me I could stay at the house-"

Mariah nodded.

"So I'm staying in the house for-," he held up his fingers for air quotes, "'free' but it turns out I wasn't. She-"

"What do you mean?"

He blew a breath through his nose. "I'm getting to that. So I found out that she was taking money out of my accounts. I got a $1.60 to my name."

Mariah's eyes widened. "She did not!"

Morgan nodded slowly. "Yes she did. Couldn't even leave her own son two dollars."

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked.

"You had just had the twins so I didn't wanna bring all that stuff to you. Plus, you two were always close and I didn't want to fuck that up."

Pat and me were close? Wow, I never knew that...

Mariah looked out into space. "Were we? I don't remember this."

"Well closer than me and Alison were." Morgan responded.

Really? Mariah didn't know much about her siblings' relationships with their mother since they were so much older than her, so it never really occurred to her that she may have had the best of Pat growing up.

"But anyway, I need a little cash. I wanna buy some commissary." Morgan explained.

Mariah was about to respond when she heard her beeper go off in her purse. She pulled it out and saw a message from Michael telling her to come home.

The guard on standby looked over at Mariah and Morgan's table. "Ma'am you can't have that in here."

Mariah stuffed her beeper down at her bag. "No one told me that. I didn't know."