Lovin' Harlem

Ch. 17

"Titi, where are we goin'?" Harlem asked as Nicki glanced in the back seat. After Nicki and I put Kat's limp body in the trunk, we drove around for an hour trying to come up with a plan. A little after leaving my auto shop, Harlem woke up and hasn't stopped talking since, 2 hours later.

                                "I told you already, we're goin' to a friend's house," Nicki mumbled the lie and looked away from Harlem. The truth was, Nicki put in an address in the GPS and told me to drive. I didn't know where we were going or what friend of hers we were going to see. That piece of information wasn't good enough for Harlem though. She groaned and kicked the back of my seat.

                                "Daddy I'm bored. What friend lives this far away Titi? Ugh, I wanna go home. I wanna see mommy," Harlem whined loudly but Nicki ignored her. She didn't turn back around to look at Harlem until she heard soft sobs. I glanced in the back and instantly regretted it. Harlem's eyes were swollen and red but she kept rubbing them.

                                "Um..." Nicki looked away from Harlem and then sighed. Harlem's cries filled the car and muffled the noise in the trunk. Before she could hear anything, I spoke up.

                                "It's just gon' be me, you and Titi for a while. You okay with that?" I asked as Harlem and I made eye contact in the rearview mirror. She wiped her tears and frowned.

                                "But where's mommy?" her voice cracked and tugged at Nicki's heart. The discomfort and uneasiness was too much for her to hide. I reached in her lap and gave her thigh a gentle squeeze.

                                "She um...she went to a place where mommies who do bad things to their kids go until they are good mommies again...kinda like a vacation." Nicki's eyes were sad as she explained jail in the best way she knew how to a four year old. Harlem let another tear fall and then her head turned to the side.

                                "When will she be back?" she asked with nothing but innocence and enough love for all three of us. Harlem couldn't stop the love she had for Eva. To her, she was her mom. She wasn't a lying, cheating, sneaky, deceitful, vindictive bitch to Harlem like she was to me.

                                "I dunno babe but what I do know is I wanna go swimmin'. You wanna go with me?" Nicki asked as the car came to a stop and we arrived at a nice two story home with a black Mercedes in the driveway. The brick house had a light yellow coat of paint that needed to be redone. Looking at it made me think about lending a hand. Whoever lived here didn't care about the chipped paint though because everything else was nice. As soon as Nicki knocked on the front door, it swung open and then all I smelled was cinnamon. Harlem clung to my shoulders as Nicki stepped inside first. When I walked inside, I saw a small Latina woman who looked almost exactly the same as Nicki. Right away I knew it was either her sister or mom. She was just as gorgeous as Nicki with dark black hair that fell past her stomach and the same dark and intense eyes that Nicki stared at her with.

                                "What are you doin' here?" the girl snapped at Nicki but Nicki chuckled and looked around the house with an unfriendly smile. It was too intense between the two to interrupt so I stood without saying a word.

                                "Aww, what's wrong big sister? Don't be like that, Marisol," Nicki turned to face her sister and then smiled sweetly. She held her arms out for Harlem and then kissed her cheek.

                                "This is my boyfriend, Terrell and you remember Harlem. We came to swim in your pool," Nicki and Marisol stared without breaking eye contact until Marisol cleared her throat. Something was being said between the two of them without a word spoken. A minute of silence passed until I looked down at my feet. It was too awkward looking at them stare at each other.