7
For almost an hour, Tandi had been driving in circles. She didn’t know where to go. If Daina had been home or better still, if she had made it to Daina’s house before she left town, she would have gotten Daina’s new set of house keys and she would have had a place to stay. Evonne simply didn’t have the space in her one-bedroom apartment and neither did Glynn. Michael Jared was slumped down in the passenger seat with his hood pulled low over his face. He was warm because the car’s heater was working fine, but still, Tandi had to take him somewhere so that he could get a good night’s sleep, and the only place she could think of was a place she had said “never again” about. Her father’s house—Sporty’s house as she liked to call it. Never say never came to mind more than once when she found herself sitting out in front of the last place in the world she wanted to be. It had been eighteen years since she left home, and she had vowed to never come back there to live, but now that she was older, she knew life had a way of making one eat one’s words.
Sporty was the only one who had the extra space. He had refused to sell his four-bedroom house after she and Glynn moved out. The house was really underused. Sporty used his bedroom; his den, which was once the dining room; and the kitchen. He said his house was one of the few things he had to show for thirty years of hard work as a telephone lineman. She could only take him at his word that he worked hard. He came home most days smelling of alcohol, though he was always cognizant enough to get on her about not keeping the house clean. While Glynn never lifted a finger to help her, it was he who messed up the house. Glynn was a brat. He was three years older and instead of taking care of her, she had to take care of him, the house, and Sporty. Like she told Jared, the men in her life used her all of her life and here she was out in the cold, dark night with a little boy to take care of.
Why did she have to walk out tonight? Why hadn’t she waited until morning? Living with Glynn “Sporty” Belson wasn’t easy when she was a child. Sporty had been a tyrant. She had been so afraid of him, she trembled whenever he called her name. The handful of times she dared talk back to Sporty, his vicious backhand soon taught her to keep her mouth shut and do whatever he told her to do, and that was a lot.
Sporty treated her like his own personal handmaiden and Glynn, he treated like his heir apparent. Glynn could do no wrong, while all she did was wrong. If there was a compliment for Glynn, there was a criticism for her. And she took it, absorbed it, and hated Sporty for every single word. She dreamed constantly about one day leaving Sporty and Glynn behind. That hadn’t happened. She was still in the same borough—Queens—only minutes away from Sporty who still treated her about the same, but she didn’t keep her mouth shut anymore. She bitched right back at him and dared him to touch her. However, nothing Tandi ever said stopped Sporty’s vicious tongue, but tonight he was going to have to be civil. She was not going to put up with his ugliness in front of her son. She might have to stay in Sporty’s house more than a week until she found an apartment, which was a day longer than Michael Jared had ever been around his grandfather continuously. She wasn’t about to let Sporty scare him as he had done her.
“Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom.”
Tandi wasn’t ready to go inside yet. “Baby, can you hold it a minute?”
Michael Jared answered sleepily, “No, I gotta go, and I wanna go home.”
“I know you do, baby, but we can’t.” She opened the car door.
“Why not?”
“We have to stay here tonight.”
Michael Jared looked out the car window. Even in the dark, he recognized Sporty’s house. His eyes widened. “I don’t wanna stay here.”
“Neither do I, but we have to.”
“No we don’t. We could go home.”
Getting out of the car, Tandi felt like a traitor. “Michael Jared, please, can we talk about this tomorrow?”
“But, Mommy—”
“Michael Jared, it’s late. Get your backpack.” Tandi took both her and Michael Jared’s suitcases and started up the dark walkway. She didn’t look back at Michael Jared; she knew he would follow. At the door, she set the suitcases on the porch. Her hands froze at her sides as she prayed that Sporty wouldn’t be so obnoxiously critical of her for leaving Jared. He would know immediately she had left Jared because she was not going to be able to lie and say she was just visiting when Sporty knew she had not been there that late ever—other than for an emergency for him.
“Mommy, I don’t wanna stay here.”
Tandi willed her hand to rise. “We’ll talk about this tomorrow.” She rang the doorbell. She had her own key, but thought it best she not use it. No telling what Sporty would do if she walked in on him at this hour. She looked down at Michael Jared. With the hood on his head, in the darkness, she couldn’t clearly see his expression, but she could imagine that he looked like he’d sucked on a lemon.
“Maybe Granddad ain’t home.”
Tandi rang the bell again. “He’s home,” she said, knocking at the door. Already Sporty was messing with her. She’d bet her last dollar he was standing in the dark living room behind the blinds peeking out at her and taking in the fact that she had Michael Jared with her. Even during the day he peeked out at people on the street through half-open blinds. He knew something about everything that was going on on the block even without Miss Iona’s gossipy confirmation.
“I wanna go home,” Michael Jared whined.
The porch light suddenly came on.
Tandi could hear the clicking of the cylinder as Sporty unlocked the door. Lord, give me strength.
The door opened. Michael Jared stepped back. Tandi stood her ground although Sporty’s six-foot frame dwarfed her. Dressed in a faded red-and-white plaid bathrobe over his pajamas, Sporty stood ramrod straight in the doorway, the scour on his face said what his mouth didn’t.
Tandi challenged Sporty’s scour with a hard stare. His unyielding black eyes never endeared her to him, and they always made her want to look away. This time she refused. She felt Michael Jared lean against her side.
“What’re you doing here this time of night?” Sporty asked gruffly.
“I need to stay here for a few days.”
“Why?”
“I gotta go to the bathroom,” Michael Jared said urgently behind Tandi. He started to step from one foot to the other.
Sporty squinted at Michael Jared. “I know that’s not why you’re here.”
Michael Jared pushed in front of Tandi. “Granddad, I gotta go to the bathroom.”
If he heard Michael Jared, Sporty didn’t act like it. He didn’t move or invite his grandson in.
“Daddy, are you going to let us in or not?”
“I got company.”
“So. We have no intention of going into your bedroom.”
Stepping quickly from foot to foot, Michael Jared began pulling his arms out of his backpack loaded with all of his schoolbooks. “I gotta go!”
“Daddy!”
“I ain’t stopping him.” Sporty stepped aside and let Michael Jared race past him. He dropped his backpack in the middle of the living room floor.
“Boy, don’t go near my bedroom!”
“Daddy, please.” Tandi carried the suitcases into the house. “Michael Jared is no more interested in what’s going on in your bedroom than I am.”
“That’s what you say now because you wanna get your foot in the door”—Sporty closed and locked the door—“but you know you always got something to say about my business.”
Tandi dropped the suitcases to the floor. “I’m tired. I can’t—no, I won’t—get into a debate with you about your business or whom you’re sleeping with. My son—your grandson—and I will sleep upstairs, way out of your way.”
“Just don’t say nothing about me having company. This is my house, I do what I want.”
“Believe me, we won’t be staying long in your house.” She picked up the suitcases again and started toward the stairs in the back of the house.
“What are you doing here anyhow? Where’s your husband?” Tandi glimpsed Michael Jared coming back from the bathroom. “I have to put my son to bed. Michael Jared, pick up your backpack. We’re sleeping upstairs.”
“Mommy, I—”
“Honey, it’s late. Please, just pick up your bag.”
“I wanna know how long you’re planning to stay,” Sporty said.
Michael Jared waited for Tandi to answer. He held on to the strap of his bag, but the bag itself still sat on the floor.
Tandi fixed her eyes on Sporty but said to Michael Jared, “Honey, why don’t you go on upstairs. I’ll be right up.”
Michael Jared started dragging his bag behind him. Stopping, he turned around. “Are the lights on up there?”
“You scared of the dark, boy?”
“No, I just wanna know if the lights are on.”
“I’m coming with you,” Tandi said, changing her mind. “Daddy, I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
“See that you do. I don’t like people just showing up on my doorstep.”
“I’m not people, Daddy. I’m your daughter.”
Tandi stomped off toward the back of the house with Michael Jared close on her heels. They passed Sporty’s bedroom door, which was slightly ajar. Someone was in his bed, but Tandi couldn’t tell who it was, though she figured it couldn’t be anyone but Miss Iona. Who else would sleep with such a crotchety old bastard?
“And don’t make any noise over my head!”
Tandi smirked. She should probably be telling him to not make any noise period. How she hated Jared at this moment. It was his fault she was here at all. If he had lived up to his promise of being the best husband in the world, she would not have to close her eyes in this God-awful house. She would not have to subject her son to an old man with a lifelong thorn stuck in his foot.