CHAPTER NINE

SEPTEMBER 19th

MONDAY, 2:30AM

KELSI

 

I thought I was dreaming when I felt my moms come in my room. She’d been in and out telling me that Lakeisha kept calling but I didn’t want to talk to her, at least not yet. When I glanced at the clock on my dresser, I saw it was two thirty in the morning. Keisha knew better than to call me that late. Moms would have cussed her ass out and me too, so what was going on?

“Kelsi, Kelsi, we got a problem, baby wake up.” I felt a soft but firm touch shaking me.

“What’s up, ma?”

“We may have to kill Delonte.” Moms was in the dark with nothing but the light from the LCD clock shining on her face.

I heard her but I didn’t. The last time I saw her in my room this time of night, outside of busting in on me and Keisha, she woke me up to give me this coat I’d been stressing over. To this day I don’t know how she knew I wanted the coat because I didn’t tell her or my father. But she came in my room at three something in the morning like she was doing now. When I woke up, she took me to the living room and showed me this four hundred dollar North Face coat I wanted. She’d worked overtime to get it for me.

I loved my mother more that day for buying me that coat. Not because she spent the money for it because we really didn’t have it, but because she cared about my feelings. She was like that, always caring about my feelings. But tonight, wasn’t about a coat.

“Ma…what did you say?”

“I said we have to kill Delonte.”

“What he do to you? Did he hurt you?” I yelled as I got up and sat on the edge of the bed, while cracking my knuckles.

I was wide-awake now. If he touched her, he’d most certainly sealed his fate.

“He didn’t do nothing to me. It’s because of what he wants to do to you.”

Now I was confused. How she go from being in love with him, to wanting to take him out and what did I have to do with it? I thought I was dreaming so I tried to focus on her face to see if what she was telling me was real.

“I don’t understand, Ma. You got to give me more than that.”

She stood up and started pacing. My eyes moved with her, just in case she made any sudden moves. I mean, I wouldn’t hurt my mother but she was tripping. She picked up one of the framed pictures I had of her on my dresser, cut the lamp on and sat back in the chair.

“Do you know where I took this picture, Kelsi?” She asked as if she never asked me to kill her boyfriend.

“Um, I think you took it at a park or something.”

“No, baby. I took this picture at a picnic area, in front of a clinic. An abortion clinic. Shelly took it for me. I was three months pregnant with you and your father was trying to get me to have an abortion. I was only 15-years-old and wanted to be with him, so I agreed I would, but when I got there, I just couldn’t do it.” She stared at the picture and smiled. “I ain’t want nobody taking you from me, even then, somebody was trying to split us up.”

She handed the picture to me as if I never seen it before. I’d seen that picture many times because I looked at it every day. I could tell her every detail in it, except where it was taken. I took the picture from her and put it back on the dresser.

I folded my hands with my elbows on my knees and looked into her eyes.

“Ma, I need you to tell me why you asking me to do this. This is serious. You ain’t just ask me to whoop his ass, you asking me to kill the nigga. Now I know Delonte don’t care for me and truthfully I don’t care for him either, but I ain’t trying to kill him.”

I knew I was wrong for cussing but she was asking me to murder and as far as I was concerned, one cancelled out the other.

“Kelsi, Delonte heard our conversation the other day. You know, when Keisha was here. He heard you admit to murdering that boy.”

“What, how do you know?” I asked as I stood up. “Did he say it? Did he actually say he heard us?”

“Well, yesterday I heard him on the phone talking to somebody and I could tell the conversation was about you. I decided to see how much he knew, so we went to dinner.” She stopped talking as she was trying to follow me with her eyes, while I paced the floor. She continued, “He took me to Moe’s in Baltimore and we talked about a lot. Anyway…”

Yeah, get to the point, I thought although I didn’t say it.

“I started questioning him about a few things. You know, trying to hint around to see how much he heard. What he said toward the end confirmed he knew everything.”

“What he say, Ma?”

She was making me mad. I hated when she dragged the story out. Get to the point!

“His exact words to me were, “I heard what I heard but I ain’t saying nothing. Tell Kelsi everything will be okay. His secret is safe with me.” It sounded good, but knowing how he feels about you baby, I know he gonna say something and I can’t have that. I don’t want you doing no fucking time! It just ain’t happening.”

“So what did you say? I mean, does he think you know he knows?”

“Naw, I tried to make him think that Keisha was pregnant or some dumb shit like that but I know he’s not buying it.”

“What did he say, Ma? How do you know he wasn’t going for that?” I asked wondering why that lie wouldn’t work.

“Because he said to tell you congratulations on the baby and that he’s happy to hear that it’s that because he could’ve sworn he saw death in your eyes the night you came in. He also said he thought you wanted him to see it.”

I sat back down on the bed and stared at her. I was listening but to me, him seeing death in my eyes didn’t mean he deserved to be killed. Based on what ma said, I wasn’t sure if he knew shit. Maybe he wanted her to think he knew something, just to fuck with her and see if she’d talk. “Ma, I think killing him is going too far,” I whispered, especially since I didn’t know where he was in the house.

The concerned look she had for me turned into rage.

“Kelsi Davis,” she said real slowly through clenched teeth and her finger pointed in my face. “I’m telling you now, I want him silenced!! There’s no need to question what I’m asking you to do, just do it!”

“Ma, you asking me to kill somebody. I got to question you ‘bout that.”

“You didn’t have no problem killing that boy did you? Killing Delonte is needed to cover your tracks. Sometimes you’ll have more than one casualty in war.”

More than one casualty in war? What the fuck was moms talking about? Just because I killed one person, ain’t mean I wanted to go on a killing spree. I could tell she was upset and I hated it but I couldn’t kill nobody else. I wanted all this shit to go away. I’m not a serial killer. I understand her not wanting to lose me but if I followed her plan, to me I’d most certainly be getting locked the fuck up.

“Ma, I can’t do that. Let’s let things blow over first and talk about this later.”

She got up, put the chair back where she got it from and turned around to look at me.

“You can’t leave a job half done, Kelsi. Remember that.” She walked out of my room and closed the door behind her.