At 17, Candyce's small worldview is maginifed when her big brother, Ace, invites her into his world as punishment. Ace may have been an overbearing big brother at home, but in the streets he was feared and respected as a young drug dealer, proving h...
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Chapter 30
Betty Wright's soft, melodic sound travels through the house just low enough that Mama's shouts to clean up can still be heard over the music. It's funny how this mission to save Paryis started as my own and now Mama's hijacked it. I guess I should be happy that she's finally stepped up to the plate but ever since she has, it's like all the swings she takes are at us.
I roll my eyes as I hear Mama shouting at Simon to straighten his room. I sit on my knees scrubbing away at the inside of the tub, occasionally stopping to inhale air that doesn't consist of Ajax or Lysol.
Betty's call for us to take the pain with the gain keeps me from shouting at Mama to calm down. She's been like this ever since I told her what happened at the interrogation. She was so agitated by Gutierrez's threat to take Paryis away that she leaped into action the next day. She started by taking Paryis to her pediatrician, who then referred her to a child psychiatrist, who led us to Tammy, Paryis' new therapist.
I guess that bitch Gutierrez really kept her promise cause one week after Paryis started seeing Tammy, Child Protective Services called to say they were coming to do a walk-through of the house and a full analysis of us. Hence why I'm on my hands and knees scrubbing away at dirt that isn't there while Mama stomps through the house, barking orders at everyone.
I sit back on my knees and pull the yellow scrubbing gloves off one by one. I throw them to the floor, pushing sweaty strands of hair back with the back of my hand. I stand on the edge of the tub while I use the showerhead to wash away the blue tint of the Ajax. I climb down to use a cup of water to catch any spots I missed when the door flies open.
An annoyed look immediately settles on my face.
"What now?" I ask, rolling my eyes.
"I don't know who you talking to but you can save the attitude for when you talking to yo friends," Mama says.
A small part of me is happy for Gutierrez's threat cause it reminded Mama that she's still a mother, but the show she's putting on for us is unnecessary. The house ain't even as bad as she making it seem and yet, we were woken up at 6am to clean up. She's acting like she's been in charge which is funny, since I've been the one keeping us together for the last few months. We might have been behind on dishes or laundry but I'm only one person and who am I to boss around Simon or Paryis? That was Mama's job but she left it up to me to do.
Now, she's treating me like I'm only a pawn in the plan to keep Paryis from being taken away when I'm the one who set that plan in motion. If it wasn't for me, Paryis would never be in therapy right now and this visit may not have happened at all. We wouldn't even have had a chance to explain why Paryis is where she belongs if I didn't push Mama to take her to therapy. Even then, she waited until the last minute.
It's sitting on the tip of my tongue to tell her about herself but today isn't the day so I swallow the attitude as best I can.
