Kenney: Still Waters Part 2

Chapter 81

I completed the GED program from my hospital bed. When that was done, Wallace started bringing me college applications like er'day. I kept throwing them away. I didn't want to leave.

And he wasn't about to make me.

He brought six applications from Armistead University alone. Every time I threw one away, he would come back a few days later with a new one. I had no idea where he kept getting them from.

When he finally got it through his head that I just wasn't going anywhere, he sent Jazz in to muscle me again. It was the day after Charity came to me with that bullshit, that Aunt Jazz finally got me to fill one out.

"And this one."

She pointed to the hundredth place that I needed to sign my name. They even had me filling out financial aid applications. They knew damn well I didn't need financial aid, but Wallace thought it would be better than paying for the whole thing up front in cash. He said that I should just pay off the loan a little bit at a time, the same way he set up my hospital bills.

I sighed loudly and stood up. Slowly, painfully, I made my way across the room to the bathroom. After my last surgery, I was able to regain full mobility in both legs. It hurt like a bitch to walk without the walker, but I was more than thankful to be doing it. They tried to get me to use a cane after that, but I didn't want that old man shit.

When I came back out, I caught Jazz watching me with the proudest look on her face as I made my way slowly back over to her. I was proud of her, too. It had been almost a year since we left Rico, and she hadn't gone back to that life at all after her first slip up.

"You're doin' good, son. Real good. You should be gettin' out of here soon. Any day now..."

She smiled at me and our eyes locked. She was giving me the same proud look that she had given me the first time I whipped up an eight ball all by myself. I think Jazz read the memory on my face, because she quickly looked away.

"I love you, Aunt Jasmine. So much." Out of the blue, I just felt the need to say that. I felt like she needed to hear it right then.

Jazz kind of jumped, but her face didn't change. She just kept right on beaming at me like she was the proudest aunt in the whole world. "I love you, too, nephew. With everything I have."

"I'll go with you."

Jazz gasped and stared at me. She looked like she would have cried if she remembered how.

"I'll go with you." I sat down slowly beside her and took her hand. "We're gonna make it, Aunt Jazz. Me and you."

I felt her whole body relax, and could almost physically feel a weight being lifted off of both of us.

"We'll be ok, Aunt Jazz. We will. We'll be ok."

I smiled at her and put my thumb to her lips. She kissed it.

Our secret pact.

We would be ok.

I was gonna make sure of that.