Two days after seeing Jay, I was still in the doghouse with my wife and with no resolution in sight. The only thing that was going to make her forgive me was to turn Jay in, which I was not about to do. I had to trust that he was doing the right thing, and that eventually, he would find a way to clear his name. I just prayed that my faith in Jay wasn’t going to be the end of my marriage.
Hopefully my business in Bridgeport would be a lot less hectic than my marital problems. It had been a while since I’d been up this way, and despite all the other things going on down in New York, I always left Connecticut with a smile on my face.
“Your destination is ahead on the right,” my GPS announced as the quaint white house came into view. I pulled over to the curb and parked, staring at the house. It had been almost four months since my last visit, and now that I was here, I began to doubt myself and my motives. What the hell was I doing?
“You should have called,” I told myself. I sat in the car for a moment, gathering my thoughts. “You should have called,” I kept repeating to myself as I climbed out of the car and made my way to the front door.
I rang the bell, but although I heard movement on the other side of the door, no one opened it.
Yep, I should have called.
In the driveway, I saw the Hyundai Sonata I’d helped purchase a little less than a year ago. If her car was in the driveway, it most likely meant that she was home. I closed my fist and knocked hard the way the police do when they’re about to bust down the door. Ghetto, yes, but it was effective.
I heard the sound of the locks clicking and the door opening. A few seconds later, I was greeted by the angry expression of a simply dressed but beautiful cocoa-colored woman. Her long locks hung down to her thick, round hips.
“Kyle, what are you doing here?” The anger on her face dissipated and she self-consciously lifted a hand to check her hair.
I gave her a smile. “Hey, sorry to show up at your door unannounced. I just thought we should talk.”
She shrugged nervously. “It’s all right. Show up any time you like. I mean, after all, you do own the house.”
“Yeah, maybe, but I still should have called,” I said apprehensively. We’d known each other for years, but there’d always been an uneasy awkwardness between us. “You look good.”
“Thanks. You look nice too. I like the car. Is it new?” Before I could answer, she was being pushed out of the way by a tall, handsome teenage boy. He had an overprotective scowl on his face at first, but then, like his mother, his eyes widened happily when he recognized me.
“Uncle Kyle!” The boy gave me some dap and then I pulled him in for a hug.
“What’s up, giant?” I shook my head in awe. He’d grown a good three or four inches since I’d seen him last. I pulled out of the hug, resting my hands on his shoulders and looking into his eyes. “Damn, you’ve gotten big on me, and you look just like your pops.”
“I know. My mom says that all the time. How you doin’, Uncle Kyle?” The kid was all smiles.
“I’m doing good. Working hard. You taking care of your mom and keeping your grades up like you supposed to?” He nodded, and I looked past him to his mother. “Is that true, Miss Tracy? Is Jordan doing what he’s supposed to do?”
“Yeah, he’s been good. He got four A’s and four B’s on his report card.”
“Not bad, but next time I want six A’s, you got that?” I reached in my pocket and handed him a hundred-dollar bill. The way he hugged me, you would have thought I’d given him a million bucks. “How about you, Miss Tracy? You doing all right?”
“Yeah, I guess,” she said, now more relaxed. “I thought you were the damn marshals again. You know they’ve been here looking for him.”
“Yeah, I figured as much. They been down to my place too,” I replied with a nod. “That’s part of the reason I’m here. You got a minute?”
She stepped to the side. “Sure. Come on in.”
Jordan stepped to the side as well to make room for me to enter the house. I walked in and sat on the love seat, while the two of them sat on the sofa.
“So he really did it, huh? He really…” Her words trailed off.
“Escaped.” Jordan finished her sentence, trying to hide a smile. Tracy cut her eyes at him.
“Yeah, he did it,” I confirmed, sitting back in my chair. “He escaped.”
She twisted her hands nervously in her lap. “What is that man thinking about? They are going to kill him, Kyle. How could you let him do this?”
Why was everyone I knew blaming me for Jay’s escape? Sure, I looked out for him while he was locked up, and I kept everyone informed, but we weren’t joined at the damn hip.
“First of all,” I started, “I didn’t let him do anything. Jay’s a grown-ass man and he decided to escape on his own. I was just as shocked as everyone else.”
Tracy looked skeptical, but I didn’t blame her.
“Look, in his defense, everything had been taken from him.” I looked at Jordan and then back to Tracy. “So I’m sure he felt like it was the end of his life.”
“What about our lives?” Tracy asked. “All he had to do was man up and take responsibility, whether he did it or not. Isn’t that what everybody has to do in order to get paroled? Man the fuck up!” Tracy was being a little dramatic, but in this case, she’d called it pretty accurately.
“Look, he’s not trying to hurt either of you. He loves you guys.”
“So, have you seen him?” she asked.
I looked up and locked eyes with Tracy.
“Well, have you?” Jordan asked eagerly.
“I’d rather not say,” I replied.
“He’s seen him, Mom.” Once again Jordan smirked like he had all the answers.
“Kyle, you’re a good friend,” Tracy said, “but you’re going to get yourself in trouble.”
I let out a laugh. “You sound like my wife. She keeps saying the same thing.”
“Perhaps you should be listening to her,” Tracy replied, her voice filled with frustration. Tracy was hitting pretty close to the bull’s-eye. I knew I was jeopardizing my own freedom and thus my family’s lifestyle by getting involved, but it was a little too late for that now. I’d already crossed the line. “Then again, you’re just like your bullheaded friend, aren’t you?”
“Pretty much.”
She shook her head. “Kyle, why are you really here?”
My eyes shifted to Jordan. “Him,” I told her. “I need to talk to my godson… in private.”
“Oh no, you don’t!” Tracy was quick to say. “At least not without me being around. You’re not going to sneak behind my back and take him to Jay. I know what you and Jay are capable of, and I don’t want Jordan involved.”
“Come on, Ma,” Jordan pleaded.
“No!” she replied firmly.
“Look, Tracy, I’m not here for some scheme to have Jordan and Jay hook up without you, okay?” I said in an attempt to keep her from going off. She was in straight protective lioness mode. “I just need to talk to him on a man-to-man level. It’s more of a birds-and-bees thing than anything.”
She kept a frown on her face and took her sweet time answering, but finally she sucked her teeth and said, “Go get your coat, Jordan.”
He took off toward the back of the house. When he was out of sight, Tracy grabbed my arm as I headed for the front door.
“Kyle, I need to know. Is he all right?”
“I think so.”
“That’s good.” She sounded relieved, but then came the hard question. “He’s not mad at me, is he? I mean about Mack and me getting engaged. Part of me thought he might have escaped to confront me. I stopped visiting him without ever giving him an explanation.”
“No, he understands. You couldn’t wait around for him forever.”
“Okay,” Jordan said excitedly as he reentered the room. He bent over and kissed his mother. “Be back in a few, Ma.” Within seconds, he was out the door and halfway to my car.
“I’ll bring him back soon,” I said to Tracy as I trailed behind Jordan.
“Oh, man, Uncle Kyle! This car is sick!” Jordan exclaimed as he slid his left hand across the hood of my Porsche 911 Turbo.
“It’s all right,” I said with a smirk as we got in.
“All right? My butt feels like I’m sitting on a pillow, and the leather feels like butter. I don’t think I ever wanna get out of this car again,” he said as he sank into the seat and made himself comfortable.
I pulled off and headed toward downtown Bridgeport. “So, has my dad seen this car?”
I hesitated for a second before admitting, “Yeah, he has.”
“Be honest with me, Uncle Kyle. Is he okay? Is my dad all right?” Jordan asked. A kid this young should not have to be worrying about his dad like this.
“Yeah, considering he has every cop in the state looking for him, he’s doing okay,” I said. Then I got to the point. “He wanted me to ask you if anyone has approached you. A woman, perhaps.”
Jordan went from serious mode to pimp mode, popping his collar as he spoke. “Well, you know the ladies are always approaching ya boy—”
“Jesus, you are your father’s son,” I said, lightly slapping his arm so that all the popping ceased. “Will you stop playing and answer my question? Have you been approached by any women?”
Jordan became serious again as he looked at me. “A woman?”
“Yeah… older,” I said specifically.
“Like old-old, or like my mom old?” Jordan asked.
“You’re lucky your mom’s not around to hear you say that.” I chuckled. “Thirty-five, forty years old. Somewhere in that area.”
He thought for a minute and then shook his head. “I talk to a lot of girls, Uncle Kyle, but I never had no old lady come on to me.”
“Well, if anyone does approach you, Jordan, I need to know.” I put my hand on his shoulder and tightened my grip to let him know I meant business. “You call me right away. You hear me?”
“Yeah, sure.” Jordan nodded emphatically, letting me know he understood this was a serious matter. “But what’s going on?”
“The woman who set up your pops. We think she’s gonna try and set you up too.”
He paused for a minute, and I could tell that my words had rattled him. But he pulled it together quickly, straightening his shoulders and trying to convey manly confidence. “Not gonna happen,” he said. “We should set her up.”
I turned to him sternly. “No, you should stay out of this and let grown folks handle it. You got that?” He didn’t answer, so I raised my voice and repeated, “You got that, Jordan?”
“Yeah, Uncle Kyle, I got it.”
I glanced out the window. I couldn’t even look the boy in the eyes when I said, “Look, I gotta get back to New York for a funeral, but you need to know. Your pops is in more trouble than ever before. He don’t need to be worried about you too.”