Chapter 4
Mai
My son’s piercing cry woke me up. I ran to him and picked him up. His skin felt extremely hot as I rocked him against my chest to quiet him. I grabbed the thermometer from the dresser and tried to put it in his mouth, but he kept moving his head. I noticed he had a white coat on his tongue from the milk he had drunk. He wouldn’t be still. I tried to give him a bottle to calm him, but he didn’t want it. I paced the room with him screaming in my arms.
“Wait a minute, little man. Let Mommy check your temperature.”
This time I placed the thermometer under his arm and waited until it beeped. He had an elevated temperature of 101.3 degrees. My mom was one of the head nurses at UC Davis Medical Center, but she wasn’t home. I grabbed my cell phone and looked at the time. It was close to midnight, so I had to call the advice nurse.
“Thank you for calling UC Davis Urgent Care Center. How may I help you?”
“Yeah . . . My baby has a high temperature, he’s screaming, and he has this white gunk in his mouth that won’t come off.”
“Has the baby been seen here before?”
“Yes.”
“May I have the baby’s name?” she asked, but I could barely hear her with him making so much noise.
I did my best to shush him before I replied, “His name is Rocko Prince Cooper, Jr.”
“Birth date?”
“April eighth.”
“The baby has a fever?”
“Yes. It’s 101.3.”
“Did you try to wipe the white coat out of his mouth?”
“Yeah, and it won’t come off. Looks like milk, but it’s stuck.”
“I need you to bring him in as soon as possible.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
I hung up the phone, packed the diaper bag, and called Rocko.
He didn’t answer, so I left a voice message. “Look, I don’t know where you’re at, but Little Rocko is sick and needs to go to the urgent care center right now!”
I hung up. Shit. It was too late to hop on the bus, and I didn’t want to walk seventeen blocks. Luckily, Rocko called right back.
“Rocko, where you at?”
“Why is my son screaming like that?”
“He has a fever, and I need a ride to the hospital.”
“Where’s your mom?”
“She’s at work tonight.”
“Can she come get you?”
“Why you so worried about her? I’m asking you to pick us up.”
“I’m out of town right now. Give him some Tylenol and call it a night.”
I placed my hand on my hip and shouted, “You’re so fucking dumb. Are you listening to what I said? He has a fever. This is an emergency!”
He hung up the phone in my face.
No, he didn’t hang up in my face.
Out of frustration, I threw my phone on the floor, and the screen shattered. “Damn it.” I picked it back up to make sure it still worked. Thankfully, it did.
I had to think, because I really needed to get my son to the hospital. I wasn’t going to call my best friend, Neiosha, because she was asleep at this hour. She would curse me out for waking her up.
Then it hit me. I knew exactly whom I could call. Cipher, a light-skinned cutie from around the way. And he would be up. Hustlers rarely slept. Plus, he had a little bit of a crush on me.
“Mai?” Cipher answered with a hint of shock in his deep voice.
“Hey, Cipher. What you doing?”
“I was about to go grab some Swishers from the corner store. What’s popping?”
“Nothing . . . Well, I actually need a really huge favor from you.”
“What kind of favor?”
“My baby is sick, and I need a ride up to UC Davis.”
“Oh no, not little man. I got you. You ready now?”
“I’m ready. Are you far away?”
“Nah, actually, I’m close. Over by Fourth Ave.”
“Okay. Thank you so much. I’ll be outside.”
“I’ll be there in, like, two minutes.”
I wrapped up the baby and went outside. Within minutes, Cipher was pulling up in his classic Thunderbird with the T-top.
We headed to the hospital, and after being seen in urgent care, the baby was given antibiotics for what they called thrush. Cipher waited for me in the lobby without complaining one time.
“Is he all right?” he asked when we appeared.
“He’s going to be fine,” I replied.
“Good. You know that you can call me anytime, right?” he said. “Matter of fact, I want to be the man in your life if you let me.”
I stared at his handsome face as we walked out of the hospital. I liked the partial gold grill on his bottom teeth because it matched the golden tone of his skin. Cipher was beyond sexy to me. There had always been something about him that made me feel this magnetic attraction, but because I was trying to be loyal to Rocko, I never hollered at him.
We got into his car.
“Trust, I’ll be calling to hook up with you soon,” I said.
“That’s cool as long as it doesn’t cause any issues between you and your baby daddy. I mean, I really don’t care, but I don’t want him tripping out.”
“Fuck him,” I replied assertively.
“I feel you, Mai. You don’t need him, anyway. What you need is right here. I’m the kind of man that’ll take loving care of you.”
“Is that right?” I licked my lips in anticipation of finding out what he meant.
He nodded his head. “You already know, Mama. All you gotta do is hit me up. It’s never a problem.”
Within ten minutes, he pulled up in front of my house.
“Thank you again,” I said.
“Don’t sweat it. Call me anytime for anything.”
I climbed out and lifted the baby from the back seat. Cipher helped me by pulling the baby’s seat out of the car and walking me to the door.
As soon as I got in the house, Rocko had the nerve to call me. He wasn’t doing anything but pissing me off. I sent him to voicemail.
* * *
I went to William Daylor Continuation School with my mom first thing the next morning. She had always stressed how important it was for me to finish high school. She had had me when she was sixteen and had finished high school with me on her hip, so she expected me to do the same thing. I respected my mother because she had raised me alone, without a father figure. She had a longtime boyfriend, but she had never moved him in, and she had never put him before me. I was proud of her because not only was she one of the head nurses at the hospital, but she also owned our home.
“Well, Mai, you start on Monday. You ready?” my mama said as she drove us home.
“Yep.” I nodded.
My mama’s skin was the color of rich mocha coffee. I didn’t look anything like her, which meant I could’ve looked like my father, but I wouldn’t know, because I had never seen him, not even in pictures.
“Have you talked to Rocko about helping you with day-care expenses?”
“Yeah. He said he would.”
“Good. Are you two still fighting?”
“When are we not fighting? He’s always acting like a damn weirdo,” I replied, shaking my head and looking out the window.
“I still can’t believe he let that woman come to my house. I wish I knew where she lived. I would beat her ass my damn self for putting her hands on you.”
I rolled down the window to get some air. “Look, Mama, I don’t want to talk about that.”
She rolled her eyes and changed the subject. “What you want to eat for dinner tonight?”
I sighed heavily. “I kind of have a taste for some steak or something.”
“We need to hit up the grocery store, then.”
My cell phone rang. It was Cipher.
“Hey, you,” I answered quickly, excited to hear from him.
“Are you done handling your biz yet?”
“Yeah, I’m on my way home now.”
“I’ll meet you at your house, cool?”
“That’s fine.” I smiled.
“See you in a bit.”
“Yeah.” I hung up.
“Where you going?” Mom asked.
“Cipher wants to stop by for a little while.”
“Is that his real name?”
I rolled my eyes. She wasn’t big on street names. “That’s what everyone calls him.”
“Where did the name Cipher come from?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care.”
“I’ve heard that name before. Isn’t that Neiosha’s man?”
I frowned. She was always up in somebody’s business. “You’re talking when you don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
She shrugged. “I know he used to sleep with Neiosha. I know that ’cause y’all talk too damn loud. You want my opinion?” She didn’t wait for my answer. “If that’s your friend’s man, you need to leave him alone.”
I sucked my teeth and sighed. Cipher used to fuck around with Neiosha, but it wasn’t serious now, making him available for the taking. Neiosha was playing around. She had too many niggas on her team to be worried about Cipher.
As we pulled into the driveway, Cipher pulled up behind us with perfect timing.
“Mom, can you watch the baby for a little while?” I asked as we climbed out of the car.
“You leaving with him?” she asked, taking the baby out of the car.
“Yeah, for a little while.”
“Just be back in time for me to go to work tonight.”
“I know. Thank you.”
I walked over to Cipher’s car, its twenty-two-inch rims gleaming in the sun, and he was looking the way I liked, fine as hell. He rolled down the passenger window.
I bit my lower lip to hold in my excitement as I leaned inside his car. “Hey, you.”
He looked at me from head to waist, his eyes so low I could barely see them. He was digging my style as he rubbed his hands together. “Get in the car with your fine ass.”
I giggled. “Let’s go.”
I knew what I wanted to do with Cipher, and he was down with getting freaky. Right when my hand touched the handle to open the car door, Rocko pulled up behind Cipher.
Cipher looked in his rearview mirror. “You want me to come back?”
“Nah . . . I’m about to tell him to leave.”
Rocko jumped out of his Range Rover and wore a deep frown as he looked at the back of Cipher’s car. Then he stomped up to me, grabbed hold of my wrist, and yanked me toward the lawn. I tried to snatch my arm away, but his grip was too tight.
I looked at him as if he had lost his mind. “Don’t put your hands on me.”
“What the fuck is he doing here, Mai?”
“Don’t come over here trying to tell me what to do.”
He squeezed my wrist tighter, hurting me. “Tell him to leave right now.”
“No.” I tried to twist my hand to free my arm, but once again I couldn’t, because he was too strong.
“Don’t fuck with me. I’ll tell him to leave myself if you don’t.”
“What in the hell is wrong with you? Let me go!” He held me so tight, my hand was losing circulation.
At that moment Cipher got out of his car and stood there, watching.
“I thought you said my son was sick. Why aren’t you in the house, taking care of him?” Rocko barked.
“You weren’t so worried about your sick son last night, when I needed to take him to the hospital, so save the drama with your dramatic ass.”
“I was in San Francisco, picking up my daughter. I’m here now, so shut the fuck up.”
“Is she in the car?”
“Yeah.”
Instant jealousy filled me as my eyes narrowed.
My mom appeared on the front porch. “Is there a problem out here?”
“No, Mama. Go back inside,” I called.
Rocko released me. “I’m not feeling this bullshit. You better not leave with him.”
“You’re hilarious right now. He took your son to the hospital last night. Where were you at? Huh? Not here!”
“You fucking this nigga?” He raised his left eyebrow with suspicion.
I hadn’t yet, but I wanted him to think I was. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
He bit the inside of his mouth. “I don’t want you hanging around with him.”
I put my hands on my hips and rolled my neck. “Why not? What’s wrong with Cipher? You jealous?”
He stared at me for a moment, as if he wanted to say something but didn’t know how to say it. He chuckled a little and shook his head. “I wish you would act a little more mature, Mai. There are things you think you know, when you have no idea. If you keep acting like a dumbass airhead, you won’t see me around here anymore. I can promise you that.” Anger was in his eyes as they darted from Cipher to me a few times.
“Fuck you, Rocko.”
“Mai! Is everything all right out here?” my mom asked again.
“I’m fine, Mama. Go back in the house. Damn.”
She walked back into the house reluctantly, but that didn’t stop her from giving Rocko an evil glare first.
I looked over at Cipher, who seemed to be keeping a close eye on us.
“Get in my car so I can talk to you for a minute,” Rocko said to me.
I stared him down with a smirk on my face. He didn’t want me to question anything he had going on, but he wanted to be all up in my business. I wasn’t in a relationship with him, so why did he care so much?
“I don’t have anything to talk to you about. I have shit to do.”
“Don’t you dare, Mai.”
“Are you done? I have somewhere I need to be . . . with Cipher.”
He clenched his teeth together and balled up his fists. “Don’t make me beat your ass out here, in front of everybody.”
“Do it, then!” I screamed, putting my hands in the air.
He walked away toward his car, hopped in, and gave Cipher a mean mug before driving off.
Cipher laughed, amused by the show.
I hopped into Cipher’s car quickly, and Cipher climbed behind the wheel.
“You all right, Mai?”
“I’m cool,” I replied, brushing that weird feeling off me. “Let’s roll, baby.”
“What you feel like doing?”
“Let’s drink, get high, and fuck.”
“Damn. I got it like that?”
“Hell yeah. I’m always down for whatever.”
He had the cutest grin on his face as he nodded and peeled off.