The Littlest Boss
He shook his head. “Damn.”
“I know, right?” Malik said. “You’d think they’d have fixed this by now.”
“Reminds me of my elementary school,” Lena said.
“Me too,” DeShawn echoed.
Lena stopped in the doorway to the library. She looked in and he saw her shoulders slump. “When I got to high school,” she said slowly, “we were in a better school district. It was such a shock. They had computers and books in the library. I mean, you know that schools aren’t going to be exactly equal, but...until you see it, until you really see it, you don’t understand. You don’t get how wide that gap really is.”
When she stepped back, he leaned in through the door. The library was no bigger than a classroom. Many of the shelves were empty. It was dim, sad, smelling faintly of mildew and old paper.
“Yeah,” DeShawn said. “I was in the top in my high school class but still barely scored well enough on my SATs to get into college. Had to do the first two years at a community college to get caught up.”
The look on her face made him take a step back. He knew her well enough to know she was a powerfully determined woman. What Lena wanted, Lena got. She looked at them. “This is bullshit,” she said in a voice much quieter than the anger in her eyes. “Let’s try to fix something here.”
“Damn straight,” he said.
“Hey!” a voice called out. “I’m down here.”
A man stood in the hall outside a classroom. “Henry Gardner,” he introduced himself as he shook Lena’s hand.
“I remember you, Henry,” Lena said with a smile.
“And I you. Your visits to the Cleaning Crew office were a source of awe and fear.”
Her mouth fell open and the three men laughed. “What? Why?”
“Ahem. Well, you do have a certain sense of...determination about you,” Malik said diplomatically.
“Come on,” Henry said with a motion toward the door. “Let’s sit down.”
As they pulled chairs into a small circle, Henry looked at Lena. “I’m surprised to see you here, Lena. Are you funding this?”
She shot him a look. Quizzical with a touch of do-you-want-to-die. “I grew up in a trailer park. I am one of your students.”
“Perfect,” Henry said smoothly. “We have a good percentage of Hispanic students so your input would be more than welcome.” He looked at DeShawn. “What’s the plan?”
“The plan is to try to provide what you need,” DeShawn replied. “What do the kids need? Besides role models?”
Henry’s laugh echoed around the small empty classroom. “Need? Books. Computers. Internet access.”
“Wait,” Lena said. “The school doesn’t have internet?”
Henry shook his head. “The public library does, usually. It’s slow, but it’s there. Most of my kids don’t have it at home at all.”
DeShawn looked at Malik and shook his head. Same old story. Different generation. “I’d guess that the best way to start would be getting the kids’ trust,” he said. “I’m trying to recruit more people. We could start with a series of class visits for people to tell their stories.”
“Definitely,” Henry said. “I can tell them they can do it all day long, but in the end, I’m just a white guy from suburbia. They like me, but they don’t identify with me. They need to hear it from people who’ve lived it.”
“We can help you with that,” Malik said with a grin.
They spent the next hour learning about the kids. As they spoke, DeShawn began to get a better idea of just how large the need was out here in the rural, almost forgotten places. The kids needed more than role models. They needed mentors. They needed to see the world outside this crossroads town.
CHAPTER FIVE
SOMETIME DURING THE NIGHT, Lily had crept into bed with her. Tiana rolled over and pulled Lily close to her, snuggling down into the warm blankets. This was heaven, right here. A lazy, easy Sunday morning. Nowhere to be, no work, no school, no lunches to be packed. Maybe she would make bacon and French toast later. She was drifting into a light doze when there was a single sharp rap on the door. Groaning, Tiana opened her eyes. She knew that knock. It was her mother’s patented get-your-ass-out-of-bed knock.
“Is Lily with you?”
“Yes, Mom,” Tiana replied. She pulled an arm out from beneath the covers to grab her phone. Eight in the morning? Woman’s gone crazy.
“Well, get up. I’ll get breakfast going. Don’t want to be late.”
Lily stirred beside her. Tiana sat up, shivering in the cool air, her skin missing the heat of the blankets. “Late for what?”
“Church.”
Church? What church? Tiana hadn’t even started looking for a home church yet. Flopping back on the pillows, she sighed. No use to argue. She’d not won an argument with her mother ever in her entire life.
“What’s wrong, Momma?” Lily asked.
“Nothing. We need to get up. Granny wants to go to church.”
“She doesn’t like to be called Granny.”
“I know.”
“You don’t like church?”
“I like church just fine. I don’t like to get out of bed when it’s cold.”
“Me either. Maybe we can have church under the covers.”
Lily squirmed down under the blanket. Laughing, Tiana pulled the covers over her head and scooted down. “Now what?” she asked.
Lily put her hands together in prayer and Tiana copied her. “Dear Jesus,” Lily said in her clear, sweet voice. “Thank you for saving us. We really appreciate it. But it’s cold so Mommy and I are going to stay in bed if that’s okay. Amen.”
“Amen,” Tiana echoed. She smiled at her daughter. How’d she gotten such an amazing child, she didn’t know. Funny, smart, sassy.
Lily grinned back, a gap-toothed grin. She was so innocent it made Tiana’s heart hurt a little to know it wouldn’t last. The door to the room opened. Lily put a finger against her lips.
“What are you two up to under there?” Vivian asked.
“We went to church under the covers,” Lily said.
There was a moment of silence. Then a huff of irritation. “Both of you get up. I need someone to stir those grits while I tend to the bacon.”
“Bacon!” Lily cried and scrambled out of the bed.
“Fine. Leave me all alone,” Tiana called after her.
“But, Momma! Bacon!”
“That’s all right, Lily,” Vivian said. “She’ll get up once she starts smelling it. No one can stay in bed when there’s bacon sizzling.”
They left the room but didn’t close the door. Tiana pulled the covers away from her face. She had to get her mother to go back home. Somehow. She loved her mother and was grateful for all she’d done to help with Lily over the years. But it was time for her and Lily to have a little breathing room. And for her to sleep in when she wanted to.
Grabbing her thick robe, Tiana shrugged into it while crossing the room. In the kitchen, Lily was standing on a step stool, studiously stirring a pot of grits. A large pot of grits in the morning meant shrimp and grits later on. That was Mom’s way. She knew how to plan out her meals and to use all that she cooked. As she poured coffee, Tiana laughed.
“What’s so funny over there?” Vivian asked, moving bacon around with a fork.
“Nothing,” she replied as she stirred sugar and creamer into the coffee cup. “I remembered how shocked I was the first time I saw bacon in the college cafeteria. They cooked the whole strip.”
Her mother had her own style. She’d chop the rasher of bacon into three sections, dump the entire pile into her frying pan and just keep stirring until it was done. “Huh,” Vivian said with a slight snort. “That’s fine. If you got all day.”
Tiana went to the stove to check the heat under the grits. The burner was off and the pot was barely bubbling. They looked done to her, so she guessed Lily’s stirring was just to give her something to do. “Be careful with those grits, Lily. They are very hot.”
“I’m being careful, Mommy.”
“What church are we going to today?”
Vivian had been visiting churches every Sunday to find a good fit. This was the first Sunday Tiana either had off or hadn’t worked a late shift since before they’d moved in. It was on her list of things to do, just not quite as close to the top as her mother’s list.
“Emanuel.”
“The one downtown?”
“Yes.” Viv turned to look at her. “Why?”
Tiana looked at Lily, then back at her mother, eyebrows raised. The look she got back was pure steel. “No one’s going to say things in front of the children.”
“Say what?” Lily asked.
“Nothing, sweet girl,” Vivian cooed. “Keep stirring those grits. Your momma needs to drink her coffee and get in the shower.”
* * *
AFTER CHURCH, THEY walked the few blocks along Calhoun Street to have brunch at Saffron Restaurant Bakery. A nice cup of coffee and a trip through their divine brunch buffet was worth the early wake-up time.
“Can we go to the aquarium too?” Lily asked.
As they walked to the South Carolina Aquarium, Tiana wished once again that she could live downtown. It was such a walkable town, so utterly charming in its own way, but the real estate market was unreal. Once, while dining at Jestine’s Kitchen, she’d overheard someone quip that prices in the Historic District were on par with Manhattan. She didn’t doubt it. All those magazines talking Charleston up as the best travel destination in the country, as the best wedding destination, the most polite city... Well, maybe Charleston was polite when an elderly gentleman walking the family poodle tipped his hat to you on Chalmers Street, but it was considerably less polite on 526 during rush hour bumper to bumper traffic.
She smiled, shook her head. This place. What a beautiful mess of contradiction.
The day was perfect. Cool but sunny. The wind coming off of Charleston Harbor was redolent with the unique scent the locals called pluff mud. Thickly pungent, strong enough to tickle the insides of your nose. To a Charlestonian, it was a sweet perfume. But then, Charlestonians also thought that the tip of the peninsula was where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers merged to form the Atlantic Ocean, so there’s that. To Tiana it smelled like... Hmm. Funky oysters?
They made their way to the South Carolina Aquarium, which was one of Lily’s favorite things about her new hometown. From the giant shark tank to the smaller exhibits, Lily loved it all, everything in an around there. After her first visit to the aquarium, she’d decided she wanted to be a fish doctor when she grew up. As Lily skipped ahead of them, Tiana linked her arm with her mother’s.
“Any thoughts on going back home?”
Vivian swiveled her head and raised her eyebrows. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
Yes. “No. I’m just starting to feel selfish, keeping you here so long.”
“You aren’t ready for me to leave yet.”
“We’ll be fine, Mom.”
“Who’s going to watch Lily when you work late? How are you going to get her to school when you have to be at work before her school even opens?”
Tiana watched as Lily leaned in to get almost nose to nose with one of the smaller sharks in the big tank. That was a problem. Her work schedule wasn’t compatible with school hours. “I’m working on that. A few of the other nurses have kids in the same school. They take turns getting the kids to school and watching them after.”
“So you’re going to let total strangers watch after your baby?”
“They aren’t total strangers, Mom. I work with them. And speaking of total strangers, what about all the kids you normally watch? Who’s taking care of them now?”
“They’re all in school now. I haven’t had little ones since Lily.”
Tiana’s heart sunk. There went her main leverage to get her mother moving. Her only hope was if one of her sisters got pregnant. That would be perfect. She considered just flat out lying and saying one of them was trying. But the retribution she’d get for that would make trying to get her mother to go home look like a day at the beach.
Vivian pulled her arm away and stopped walking. She turned to look Tiana in the eye. “Do you want me to leave?”
“I don’t want you to feel like you have to stay.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Glancing at the shark tank, Tiana noted Lily was in deep conversation with a little boy about her age. They were pointing at various fish and nodding with great seriousness. She must have found another future fish doctor. “Let’s sit down,” she said, gesturing at the row of benches.
“I don’t want you to leave,” she said, feeling her way slowly along the words. “It’s just that Lily is so used to being with you, which isn’t your fault, it was my choice...”
“And she sees me more as a mother figure than you,” Viv finished.
Blinking against the sudden sting of tears, Tiana nodded. “I feel selfish about it, but yeah. She calls me Mom, but she still goes to you for everything. She bumps her knee, she goes to you. She wants a snack, she goes to you.”
“When she wanted a cuddle this morning, she went to you.”
Tiana dropped her head and stared at the floor. “Yeah. I guess. But that was for fun times. If she’s scared or hurt, she goes to you.”
“Don’t feel selfish. It’s normal. We both know it’s going to take some time. She knows you are her mother. She’s just used to coming to me.”
“Because I wasn’t there.”
She couldn’t look at her mother as she spoke the words. Instead she watched Lily, who was slowly pacing along the edge of the tank.
“I’m not fighting this same old battle with you, Tiana. If you want to beat yourself up about it, go ahead. You had a hard choice to make. It was a huge risk. You took it. Yes, you lost some of Lily’s childhood while you were gone. But you gave her a future.”
Vivian walked to Lily as Tiana leaned forward, staring at the floor and feeling pretty much like a six-year-old herself. Pouty and petulant. She hated it. Hated feeling at odds with her mother. But there it was. She was jealous. Of her own mother. She looked up as Lily scampered back with Vivian trailing behind.
“Did you have fun looking at the pretty fish?” Tiana asked.
“Yes. There’s a pink one today,” Lily answered.
“Pretty. I wonder if we could find you a pink fish for your pet.”
Lily’s eyebrows came together in an all too familiar frown. “I want a kitten.”
Tiana sighed. Mission not accomplished.
“Ready to go, darling?”
“Yes.” Lily looked up at her grandmother. “Can we get ice cream on the way home?”
Vivian lifted a hand to point at Tiana. “Ask your mother.”
Tiana tilted her head up to catch her mother’s gaze. Dipping her head in a quick nod, she stood. “We can go get some sorbetto, that’s better than ice cream,” she said, taking Lily’s hand in hers. As they made their way out of the building, Tiana hooked an arm around her mother’s waist for a quick squeeze.
“It’ll be all right,” Vivian said.
That made her smile. That was her mother’s answer to everything. A broken nail. A bad grade. A dead car battery. A flat tire at midnight in the middle of nowhere. Tornado. Hurricane. Exploding septic tanks. It’ll be all right. And it usually was. Except the exploding septic tank. That hadn’t been all right at all.
* * *
DESHAWN HAD SPENT most of Monday morning out at the former Charleston Naval Base, which was now being repurposed into private and industrial usage. The building of a railway extension to serve a shipping container facility included moving two major highway intersections. And moving two intersections meant a lot of data gathering. Even the best coat and hat couldn’t protect against the winter cold seeping in after several hours outside.
He was more than happy to return to his desk at the headquarters and, once he thawed out his fingers, upload all the information into the computer, where he could prepare it for presentation.
“What’s the grin for?” his office mate asked as he returned from lunch.
DeShawn shook his head. He hadn’t realized he was smiling. “Just happy to be out of the cold,” he said.
That was only part of the truth. He couldn’t believe he’d done it. Sometimes, he’d stop and look around, completely stunned that this was his life now. He had his degree. He had an awesome job. He loved the orderliness of it. Data. You gathered it. You put it together, you applied it to your project. Adjust as necessary. Simple. Factual. Same with the rest of his life. Simple. Orderly. No crazy family creating drama. Tiana’s face flashed in his mind’s eye and he felt a little tug of disappointment. He really wanted her involved in his project. He’d have to figure out a way to change her mind. How, he had no clue.
“I wouldn’t complain. Wait until July and August.”
“Not complaining. Not at all.”
He returned to the task at hand. He wouldn’t complain about surveying in the heat of the summer either. Well, not too much. His cell phone buzzed from inside the top desk drawer where he’d stashed it. Pulling it out, he saw an unknown number. The happy feeling he’d been riding fell away. He swiped left on the screen to reject the call. That was the past. Momma G had made him swear to finish his degree and he had. He’d busted his ass to get out of there and now that she was gone, he had no reason to ever go back. They could call a billion times and he wasn’t going to answer. Drawing in and letting out a long, slow breath, he refocused on the job in front of him.
Later though, as he sat in traffic on the commute home, a thought exploded in his mind. What if it had been Tiana? Mickie had said she was thinking about the school project. Curiosity piqued, he reached for his phone at the next red light. Thumbed through to listen to the voice mail. It was a woman, but it wasn’t Tiana.
“Hi, DeShawn. My name is Gretchen and I am your mother’s sponsor in Narcotics Anonymous...”
He hit Delete before he could hear any more. Damn it. Now she’s giving out my name and number to other druggies? Slamming his hand against the steering wheel only fueled the frustration and anger. Why can’t they leave me alone? As traffic started moving, he merged into the right lane with a halfhearted wave in apology to the person he’d sort of cut off. Pulling into a parking spot in a strip mall, he put the car into Park and wiped at his face with both hands.
Maybe if he just talked to them. If he told them to go away, would they? He could be the bad guy. In fact, he’d willingly be the bad guy if it meant he was finally done with them. Staring without seeing out into the passing traffic, he became acutely aware of the anger that was coursing through his body. All the happiness and satisfaction with himself and his life were gone. Wiped away by a single phone call. He had to deal with this.
He needed to talk to Sadie. Now. Before this got out of hand. Looking around, he got his bearings. He’d driven all over the Charleston area in his four years as a member of the Cleaning Crew. Drop him anywhere and he could be back at the Crew office in less than fifteen minutes. Well, in this traffic, maybe thirty.
It was twenty. He glanced at his watch. As he pulled around to the parking lot on the side of the house, his stomach dropped. Sadie’s car wasn’t there. Now what? Go to the gym and run until you’re too tired to think about this anymore? A movement at the back door caught his attention. Molly. She locked the door behind her and turned to peer at his car over the tops of her glasses. He rolled down the window.
“DeShawn!” she called out in delight as she crossed the small lot to greet him.
He climbed out of the car to give her a hug. Just seeing her face made him feel better. If Sadie was a big sister figure to him, then Molly was certainly his substitute grandmother. Short, round, white hair, constantly reading romance novels at her desk, but she missed nothing. She could go from sweet grandmotherly love to drill sergeant tough in a heartbeat.
“I was looking for Sadie,” he said as he stepped back.
“Oh, it’s PTA night,” Molly said with a self-satisfied grin.
“PTA?” Parent-teacher thing?
“Exactly,” Molly said with a knowing smile, “Parent-Teacher Association. She’s at the elementary school with Wyatt and his daughter.”
He stared openmouthed at her. Sadie? At an elementary school meeting? “I... I,” he stuttered. He shook his head. “I can’t even process that information.”
Molly laughed. “It’s mind-boggling. What did you need, honey?”
It came back to him, cutting short the humor. “Nothing really. To talk.”
He felt her gaze on him but couldn’t quite meet it. She had a way of knowing things. “Well,” she said. “I was going to hop on the bus, but if you aren’t hurrying off anywhere, would you give an old lady a ride home?”
“Of course,” he said. Why hadn’t he known Molly rode the bus to work? He felt a little ashamed of himself. He and the guys should have been giving her rides home every day.
“Thank you. And I put a nice pot roast in the slow cooker this morning. If you’d like, there’s plenty for two.”
He followed her directions into the cozy Byrnes Down neighborhood. “I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“Same pot roast I made for First Friday dinners.”
That made him smile. On the first Friday of the month, Sadie and Molly would cook up a huge dinner for all the Crew members. It was family time.
“I’m also a fairly good listener,” Molly added.
“Okay. I can’t pass up your pot roast.”
“Good, you’re looking a bit skinny.”
At the front door, Molly turned to him. “Mind your step. Wee furry ones everywhere.”
“What?”
As he followed her into the tidy cottage-sized house, he was surrounded by tiny mewling kittens. One, two, three, four... “Molly? Are you a crazy cat lady?”
Ten. There were ten of them. And one grown-up cat slinking along a wall.
“Heavens, no! I’m a foster home for pregnant mommy cats. They stay with me until they have their babies and then go out for adoption when the kittens are old enough. I usually only do one litter at a time, but there was an emergency placement and I ended up with two momma cats and all their kittens.”
A tugging on his pant legs made him look down. Three of the tiny beasts were climbing him like a tree. As he bent to pick them off, two more started up his other leg. “I’m under attack!”
Molly’s laugh rang out and with a tug at his heart he realized how much he’d missed her. She was basically a white version of Momma G. “Let me get some cat food. They’ll leave you alone then.”
He followed her into the kitchen and sat at the small dining table while she attended to the cats. He’d never seen so many kittens in one place before. The mewling rose in pitch as the food was being prepared then complete chaos as they fought for a spot on the platters.
Molly sat beside him once she was finished. “Want one?”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“They’ll be ready for adoption in a month or so.”
“I’m not a cat person.”
“Everyone is a cat person. You just have to meet the right cat.”
Nope. If he was going to get a pet, it’d be a big dog. “I’m concentrating on taking care of myself right now. Not sure I’m ready to be responsible for another life.”
Molly patted his hand and stood. “Let’s get that roast served up. I’m starving.”
Over dinner, she asked about his new job, his apartment, his love life, his health. Basically every exact same thing his grandmother would interrogate him about. He found himself relaxing into the comfort of it. After leaving the Crew, he felt he’d lost his family. But they were still family at heart.
“I’ll get these,” he said as Molly reached for his empty plate. As he cleared the table, Molly began to fill the sink with water. He paused. “Do you not use the dishwasher?”
“It’s broken. Makes a horrible racket when I turn it on. I just haven’t called anyone to come look at it yet.”
“Sounds like something stuck in the drain. Want me to take a look?”
“Would you?”
“Of course.”
Ten minutes later, he was disassembling the drain trap with two kittens inside the dishwasher with him, several more sitting on the open door and one perched on his shoulder. “Dude,” he said to the gray kitten sitting on his shoulder. “You really aren’t helping.”