even looking. “Can’t have you talking to my Mama with nut on your breath,” He finished, shaking His head at her. She stood in front of the mirror and fussed with her hair, which was tussled after He grabbed it.
“You are so fucking nasty. You horny fucker!” David said.
“You like it.”
“Indeed.”
They laughed together. Nicole slipped out of the bathroom first and David waited a moment before following her. When He got downstairs, He heard new voices and went into the living room. He saw His mother in a tight embrace with an older, well-dressed man. He looked for Nicole and saw her standing, oddly still, by the entrance to the kitchen.
“Baby, come here and meet my friend, Joseph!” Janice called out, waving David over to greet her new beau. “I invited him over for dinner and he brought his son with him,” she said with a wide smile pointing towards the door. David looked over and immediately understood why Nicole stood almost frozen in the corner.
“David, meet–” Janice began.
“Marcus…” Nicole finished.
F ROM W HENCE H E C AME
December 22, 2002 4:35 a.m.
“Annie Christian wanted…to be number one… but her kingdom never comes… thy will be done.”
David sat quietly at the deserted intersection, waiting for the light to change from red to green. He was exhausted, having not fallen asleep until after midnight and receiving an alarming phone call at 2 a.m. He’d spent most of the week working on a final project that was due today, getting little sleep, and eating even less. Graduate school was kicking his ass but it was a necessary step on his path to success. At least he’d mapped it out that way. He was 25, one semester away from obtaining his MBA, and here he was on his way to pick his father, Eric, up from some unknown seedy motel almost 2 hours away from where he stayed near campus.
He could barely keep his eyes open, so he cranked up vintage Prince on his stereo and sipped his coffee. I’m so sick of this shit , he thought to himself. It wasn’t the first time he’d been summoned out of bed to help his father and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last. Having just gotten in on the increasingly popular cellular phone trend, he found himself adjusting to being so readily accessible to everyone, especially his father. As he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, he wished he hadn’t given his father the number to his Nokia cell phone.
“Annie Christian was a whore…always looking for some fun…”
David made a right when the light changed and pulled into the motel’s parking lot. All of the slots were occupied, cars varying from high end to run down, and the curtains were drawn in most of the windows. He pulled his car alongside a navy blue Lexus with police plates. He shook his head when he saw Eric leaned up against a large dumpster. Next to him was a too-thin woman in a tattered silver sequined dress holding a large bottle of some sort. She was half-standing, half-leaning on his father, whose eyes appeared to be closed. David turned off the engine, shut off the lights, and took a deep breath.
“Dad. Time to go home!” he called, as he stepped out of the vehicle. He took long strides towards his father, annoyance turning more into disgust with every step.
“Dad…” he repeated. “Let’s go,” David said as he reached to help Eric stand up straighter.
“Aye, baby boy,” slurred the woman in a half-hearted attempt to be flirtatious, “You shole do get your looks from yo daddy, don’t ya?” Turning to David’s father, she continued, “Why you ain’t tell me you had a son this damned fine, daddy? Sheeeet, I might have to trade you in for a younger model!” She cackled loudly and David could smell the Wild Irish Rose on her breath from the bottle she held in her hand. He instinctively covered his nose with his hand.
“Whuuu…whut you tryna say? My bref
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