Things get turned upside down. For a couple of days after the funeral, Ardell’s father’s car is sitting at the curb in front of Ardell’s house every night. The Saturday after the funeral, when Ardell’s father drives up, he opens the trunk of the car and starts taking out boxes and suitcases. He’s moving back into the house.
Ardell spends most of his time out on the porch staring at Jojo’s house. But Jojo never comes out—not the front way, anyway.
Then, the same as every week, the bus stops at the corner and Shana gets down with her baby in the stroller. She’s got a big bulky bag slung over her shoulder again and another one stashed under the stroller seat. This time she walks on Jojo’s side of the street. She pushes the stroller up to Jojo’s mother’s front walk.
Ardell comes down off the porch when he sees her. He runs across the street, but he’s wearing sneakers, so he doesn’t make a sound. He comes up behind Shana and grabs her by one arm and spins her around. He says, “You weren’t at my brother’s funeral.”
Shana looks surprised to see Ardell standing there, so close to her that she has to bend her head back a little so that she can look up into his eyes.
“You’re hurting my arm,” she says. Her voice is nice and calm.
Ardell lets go of her. “You weren’t at my brother’s funeral,” he says again.
“I know,” she says, still nice and calm. “The baby was sick. I called your mother and talked to her. Didn’t she tell you?”
“Calling someone and talking to them on the phone isn’t the same as coming to a funeral,” Ardell says. “You, of all people, should have been at that church. You should have been at the cemetery to see him get lowered into the ground.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it,” Shana says. She sounds sincere. “But when I woke up that morning, Benjamin had a fever. I had to take him to the doctor. I’m sorry how things turned out for Eden. I told your mother that. I’m sorry how everything turned out. And if Benjamin hadn’t got sick that morning, I would have been there. You know I would have, Ardell.”
Ardell looks down at the child, who is squirming in his stroller, demanding to get out. He probably wants to run around, the way kids do.
“Jojo was right about one thing,” Ardell says. “You should have got rid of that baby while you had the chance.”
Shana stares at him, like she can’t believe the words that have just come out of his mouth.
“He’s my son,” she says, fierce as a mother lion now. “Don’t talk like that in front of him. And don’t talk like that to me. He’s my son. He’s got nothing to do with you.”
“He’s Jojo’s son,” Ardell says. “And he’s the reason my brother is dead. If Eden hadn’t come out of the house that morning to help you, if he’d let Jojo do what he was going to do, maybe you wouldn’t have that baby. For sure my brother would still be alive.”
Shana is almost shaking now, she’s that mad.
“I’m grateful for what Eden did,” she says. “I’m grateful every single day when I wake up and see my baby. And I’m sorry for what happened—”
Smack! Ardell slaps her across the face. He slaps her so hard that her head snaps back and she stumbles. The only thing that stops her from falling is the stroller. She grabs onto the handles to steady herself.
The sound of that smack resounds up and down the street. People who had been watching Ardell step a little closer now.People who hadn’t been watching turn and look to see what happened.
Shana is clinging to the handles of the stroller. Ardell comes toward her, his fists clenched now. The child looks up at him and smiles and gurgles. For some reason, this makes Ardell even madder. He ducks down and, just like that, unsnaps the harness that’s holding the child in the stroller. He picks Benjamin up and holds him at arm’s length. Shana yells at him to put the baby down. She reaches for him, but Ardell swings around, holding the boy higher, out of her reach.
Benjamin whoops. He sounds happy. But Shana screams at Ardell. “Give me back my baby! Give me back my baby!”
A couple of the people who have been watching move toward Ardell. Mr. Jenson, who lives two doors down from Ardell and who is a night security guard at a mall, tells Ardell to give the child back to its mother. Ardell just stares at him. He looks at the child, and all I see is hate in his eyes.
I come down my front walk. I don’t know why. Ardell is way bigger than me, andbesides, my foot is in a cast. But I come down anyway. On my way to the sidewalk, I glance at Jojo’s mother’s house. The windows are open, and the curtains flutter in the breeze.
“Give her back the baby,” people are saying.
Ardell’s father appears, as if from nowhere.
“Give her back the baby, son,” he says.
Ardell turns to look at him. “Son?” he says. “Did you just call me son? How can I be your son when I don’t have a father? I haven’t had a father since you decided you wanted my brother dead.”
“Please, Ardell,” his father says. “Give the girl her baby.”
Ardell shakes Benjamin, just a little, as if he’s been wondering what the child will do. Benjamin smiles at him. Ardell shakes him again, a little harder.
Shana screams at him, “Give me back my baby.”
Maybe it’s the shaking or maybe it’s the screaming—the baby stops smiling and starts crying. He reaches out his little hands forhis mother. Everyone is telling Ardell to give the baby back.
Then the cops show up—two of them in a patrol car. They both get out. People back away from Ardell. One of the cops goes straight to Ardell. The other one hangs back, watching. The cop who’s up close to Ardell tells Ardell to give him the baby.
Ardell turns around slowly to look at the cop.
“Give me the baby,” the cop says again.
Ardell hands over the baby.
Shana is practically hysterical as she takes Benjamin from the cop. One side of her face is swollen up.
The cop asks Ardell to step over to the police car. Ardell doesn’t want to go. The cop’s face hardens. He orders Ardell over to the police car. He puts Ardell in the backseat, where he can’t get out. Then the two cops talk to Shana and to a lot of other people about what happened. When they leave, they still have Ardell in the back of the police car.
As I watch them go, I wonder how they knew to come in the first place. I wonder who called them. I look at the window that’s open in Jojo’s mother’s house and at the curtain that’s fluttering in the breeze.