Hours later, Freddy was pacing the living room, the reloaded gun still in his fist.
He looked out the window again, turned to his girlfriend. “This shit,” he said, waving the gun. “It’s been almost four hours since we called the police, and they still ain’t come.”
“Would you please put that gun down?” Kia said, sitting on the sofa. Her short, straight black hair was undone, and the nightgown she still wore flowed over her thin, model-like body, protruding only slightly around her belly.
Freddy walked over, opened a cabinet on the living room chest, set the gun inside, and closed the door again.
“I’m so sick of this,” Freddy said angrily.
“Just try to calm down,” Kia said, rubbing her belly, which had grown rounder with her two-month pregnancy.
“I can’t calm down. Those fools had guns. What if they shot Moms or, God forbid, you? What if they killed our child?”
“Don’t say that.”
Freddy walked over to Kia, knelt in front of her, took her hand. “You’re not staying here anymore. You grabbing your things and you got to go.”
“Where? Where am I going to live? You know my father won’t take me back.”
“You can get your place in the dorms back. You just got a year left in law school. You can deal with it for that long.”
“I’m not going back there carrying this child.”
“I’m taking a chance on you getting hurt, living in this house. I won’t let that happen.”
“And what about you and your mother?” Kia said. “If you two can live here, then I’m staying.”
Freddy stood up, looked toward the door. There was still no sign of the police. “Then we all should leave. Find somewhere else to live.”
Just then, Freddy’s mother stepped into the living room. She wore a new, cheaply made polyester skirt suit. It fit snug around her shoulders and arms and hips. Her graying hair had been set in curlers, and she wore her better pair of “seeing glasses,” the ones that weren’t all scratched up. “I have to leave. I can’t be late for this interview.”
“You ain’t going to the interview,” Freddy said, standing, walking over to his mother. “Those fools could still be out there.”
“And that’s supposed to do what, Fred? I need to get this job, and I’m not going to let some thugs stop me from getting it.” She stepped around Freddy, walked over to Kia, placing a hand on her belly. “Good-bye, child. And wish me luck, Kia.”
“Good luck, Mrs. Ford.”
“Moms,” Freddy said.
His mother walked past him to the closet, taking out her jacket. “I’ll be home no later than six.”
“Moms, I said you shouldn’t go,” Freddy advised again.
“Freddy, just let her do what she has to do,” Kia urged him, standing beside Freddy now, softly taking his hand.
Freddy’s mother opened the front door, still ignoring her son. “I’ll cook dinner when I get home.”
“Moms!” Freddy yelled angrily. “I said you ain’t going nowhere!”
His mother froze at the door. Freddy’s voice seemed to echo through the old house, then disappeared, leaving a deafening silence.
The old woman turned from the door, leveling narrowed eyes onto her son. “What did you say to me?”
Freddy swallowed hard. “It’s dangerous out there, and I got a job. You don’t need to be—”
“You got a job, that’s right, Freddy,” his mother said, closing the door and taking two steps toward him. “And you don’t make enough money to support us. We are a partial payment away from getting every utility in this house cut off, and can barely afford to put food on the table every day. I want this job, but more importantly, I need this job.”
“But Moms—”
“No, baby,” his mother said, standing just in front of him now. “I live here, too, so I should contribute. I know you still thinking because of what happened that you should fill your father’s shoes, take on all of his responsibilities. But that comes in time. Till then we gonna make the best of this old house in this awful neighborhood, ’cause it’s all we got. Okay?”
Freddy lowered his head. His mother reached out, placed her fingers under his chin, lifted his face. “Okay, son?”
“Yeah,” Freddy said.
“Good. But let me tell you one more thing. You ever raise your voice like that to me again…”
“I know, Moms. I’m sorry.”
Freddy’s mother smiled, leaned in, kissed his cheek, then walked back to the front door.
“I hope you get the job, Moms. But you won’t have to keep it for long, ’cause I’m gonna get us out of here,” Freddy said.
His mother looked back at her son and his pregnant girlfriend and smiled. “I know, Fred. I know.”