Fairplay, Denver Cereal Volume 6 (27 page)

Jeraine was sitting at the end of his table
with his laptop open, his Bluetooth ear piece was in his ear, and a
spreadsheet lay in front of him. She put her hand on his chair and
looked over his shoulder. Smiling, he looked up at her.

“
What is all of this?”
Tanesha asked.

“
This is me,” Jeraine
said. “This is everything I have.”

“
Everything?” Tanesha
raised her eyebrows and went into his kitchen.

“
Not everything,” Jeraine
said. “Why you have to be like that?”

“
Why do you have to talk
like a gangster?” Shaking her head, she went to make some of the
tea she’d bought when she’d dragged him to the grocery store. She
came out with a cup of tea in her hands.

“
Have a seat,” he pulled
out a chair.

“
What fool thing are you
up to now?” she asked.

“
Why do you stay here then
give me shit?” Jeraine asked.

“
I don’t know why I stay
here,” Tanesha said. “Would you like me to leave?”

“
No,” Jeraine said. “No, I
want you here. I bought this place for us.”

“
For us?”

“
Look,” Jeraine said. “The
title is in your name.”

He pointed to his laptop screen. An
electronic copy of a document came up.

“
Looks like a tax dodge,”
Tanesha said.

“
Even when I try, you give
me shit,” Jeraine said.

“
Give you shit?” Tanesha
asked. “I didn’t ask for this penthouse. In fact, I didn’t ask for
anything from you. I know you want me to thank you, and maybe I
will, but Jer, what are you doing? You’ve been up for
hours.”

“
I was making the list of
my promises to God,” Jeraine said.

“
The ones you made in
prison?”

Jeraine nodded. Tanesha didn’t say
anything.

“
Don’t you have something
snappy to say?” he asked.

“
You’re actually talking
about something,” Tanesha smiled. “You’re not just talking about
your money, your women, your properties. Hell, you’re not even
talking about your penis.”

“
Unusual, I know,” Jeraine
laughed.

Tanesha smiled.

“
You have a beautiful
smile,” Jeraine said.

“
Hmm,” Tanesha said.
“Promises to God?”

“
Here they are,” Jeraine
pushed the laptop over to her. “Mostly I’m going to give everything
away. I want to have a relationship with my kids. I’m going to be a
doctor and work in a clinic with real folks like my Dad.
But…”

“
But?”

“
Wait, you know I have
kids?” Jeraine asked.

“
It’s on your Wikipedia
page,” Tanesha said. “I can read.”

“
Oh. Right.” Jeraine gave
her a bright smile.

“
What?”

“
You looked me up on
Wikipedia?”

Tanesha laughed. He smiled.

“
Now what were you going
to say?” Tanesha said. “It had the feel of something real,
sincere.”

“
Yeah, that’s unusual
too,” Jeraine said.

“
Lay it on me,” Tanesha
said.

“
I can’t do it by myself,”
Jeraine said. “I want to be a man and all, but I can’t do it by
myself. Will you help me?”

“
Sure,” Tanesha said. “But
you’ll have to deal with my opinion. You’ll have to
listen to me
. I’m not
going to sit by like some stupid woman nodding at her brilliant
husband.”

“
Fair enough,” Jeraine
said. “What do you think so far?”

“
I don’t think you should
give it all away,” Tanesha said.

“
Why?”

“
Because I want to have a
free clinic to help poor folks,” Tanesha said. “I’m going to be an
OB/GYN. We could create a great clinic with all this money. If you
and your friends had a yearly concert? Then sell the recordings? We
could really help people right where they need it. You could even
be a pediatrician.”

“
I was thinking of being
an OB too,” Jeraine raised and lowered his eyebrows suggestively.
“I have plenty of hands on experience.”

“
Now you’re being gross,”
Tanesha said. “What kind of doctor do you want to be?”

“
I hadn’t thought on it,”
Jeraine said. “But I like kids. We could ask my Dad. I bet he could
do general service until he retires.”

“
He told me he wants to
work another fifteen or twenty years,” Tanesha said. “We could
really do something good with all of this money.”

“
I like that,” Jeraine
smiled at her.

“
I’m glad you like it,”
Tanesha said. “But Jer…”

She put her hand over his.

“
We have to put the money
in a trust or something,” Tanesha said. “Otherwise…”

He read the concern in her eyes.

“
I don’t need that,
Tanesha,” Jeraine said. “I am really and truly done with that
life.”

“
I know you say that now,”
Tanesha said. “But what about a year from now when you’re back
recording and…”

“
Seth has all his money,”
Jeraine said. “He’s been sober for a long time.”

Tanesha smiled.

“
What?”

“
Sandy controls all of
Seth’s money,” Tanesha said. “He gets a monthly stipend and his
police salary. He has to account for every penny he spends. If he
wants to spend big money, she has to sign off on it. It’s part of
his sobriety plan.”

“
Oh, well, okay. I’ll do
what Seth does,” Jeraine said. “I’ll make some calls on Monday.
Anything else?”

“
I’m not living here,”
Tanesha said. “You want to buy me a place, let’s look together for
a small, easy to clean house, preferably by my Gran so I can keep
an eye on her.”

“
Okay,” Jeraine said.
“Anything else?”

“
You’re going to have to
talk to a lawyer about your kids,” Tanesha said.

“
I’ll call on Monday,”
Jeraine said. “Anything else?”

“
Sell all the houses,”
Tanesha said. “Set aside money for school and living expenses. And
if you give all the money away, what are you going to do about
child support?”

Jeraine smiled at her.

“
What?” Tanesha
asked.

“
I love you,” Jeraine
said.

“
What?”

“
That’s all,” Jeraine
said. “I’ve been sitting here for hours trying to figure this out.
You take one look and know exactly the right thing to do. I love
you. I need you in my life. Will you help me?”

Tanesha nodded. He smiled.

“
I’m going to have to talk
to Sandy about it though,” Tanesha said. “She set up Seth’s stuff.
She’ll know how to do it. Seth uses a guy called Schmidty as his
agent. I think Schmidty helped too.”

“
I know Schmidty,” Jeraine
said. “Senior or Junior?”

“
Junior,” Tanesha said.
“He’s dating Seth’s daughter.”

“
Huh,” Jeraine
said.

“
Huh?”

“
Who knew Seth had a
daughter?”

Tanesha laughed.

“
I’d like to see them,
your friends,” Jeraine said. “Except for Jill, it’s been a while
and…”

“
And?”

“
I love you,” Jeraine
smiled at her.

Shaking her head at him, Tanesha
laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday morning—6:41 A.M. MDT

“
MOMMY!” Katy
screamed.

Jill catapulted out of bed and ran across
the bedroom. Before she was awake, she had a sobbing Katy in her
arms. She held Katy’s warm body against her. The more she rocked
Katy, the more the little girl wept. Jacob came into the
doorway.

“
What is it?” he
asked.

“
I don’t know,” Jill said.
“She’s burning up. Maybe she’s sick.”

“
Not sick. Not sick. Not
sick. Not sick. Not sick. Not sick. Not sick.” Katy chanted and
cried.

Jill held her.

“
Are you hurting?” Jacob
asked.

Jacob kneeled down to them. He put his hand
on her back to see if he could feel what was going on. Katy shook
her head and he was showered with tears and sweat.

“
Let’s get her in the
bath,” Jill said. “I think she’s having a growing spurt. It hurts
like hell.”

Jacob plucked the weeping Katy from Jill’s
arms and they rushed into their bathroom. While Jacob held Katy,
Jill filled the tub with lukewarm water and added Katy’s favorite
bubblegum bubble bath. Jill took off Katy’s damp nightgown and
panties and plopped her in tub. Katy shivered for a moment before
sliding down in the water. Jill undressed and got in the tub with
her daughter. Using Jill’s expanding belly as a pillow, Katy lay
against her.

“
What is it?” Jacob asked
when Katy was calmer.

“’
member when I was
barfy?” Katy said without moving.

“
I do,” Jill
said.

“
I do,” Jacob
said.

“
Mommy and me had cuddle
time before she went to school,” Katy said. “She cuddled me and
Paddie for a long time because we were barfy. We weren’t barfy
after that.”

Jacob looked at Jill. They had agreed that
Katy would get over her own illnesses. He raised an eyebrow at
Jill. She scrunched her face to acknowledge that she helped her
daughter’s healing along. Shaking his head, he looked away. When he
looked back, he was smiling. Jill shrugged to say she was sorry. He
nodded.

“
Why are you telling us
about being barfy?” Jill asked.

“
Because that’s what those
men want!” Katy screamed and became hysterical. Jill rocked her
daughter until her tears subsided.

“
What do the men want?”
Jacob asked.

“
They want my cuddle,”
Katy said. “Mommy gives me cuddle every morning. And I was barfy
and I had some cuddle and I took that test and now those men want
Mommy’s cuddle!”

“
What men?” Jill
asked.

“
Katy, honey, we can’t
help if we don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jacob
said.

“
The men we saw
yesterday,” Katy made a frustrated gesture and the bubbles went
flying around the bathroom. “I fell asleep! And… They want to hack
up Mommy.”

“
Honey…” Jill started.
Jacob raised a hand and Jill stopped talking.

“
Why do the men want to
hack up Mommy?” Jacob asked.

“
I told you!”

“
I’m sorry sweetie,” Jacob
said. “I missed it. What did you tell me?”

“
Mommy gave me cuddles,”
Katy said.

“
Right,” Jacob
said.

“
And I took the test,”
Katy said.

“
Okay,” Jill
said.

“
And the men want my
cuddles,” Katy said.

Jacob and Jill looked at her for a
minute.

“
The cuddles I got from
Mommy.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and SEVENTY-THREE

Past

Sunday morning—6:41 A.M. MDT

“
Who’s that?” Sissy
asked.

Standing on the sidewalk of Pete’s Kitchen,
Charlie flipped around to look at her. Behind his back, a young
woman slunk away.

“
What did she give you?”
Sissy asked.

“
What’s it to you?”
Charlie sneered at her and tried to press by. Nash stood in front
of him.

“
Knock it off,” Nash said.
“She asked you a simple question,
brother
.”

Charlie scowled at Nash and tried to get
around him. The boys stood face to face. Even though Nash was
younger, smaller, and slighter, Charlie couldn’t get by.

“
Can’t you just leave me
alone? For once?” Charlie’s exasperated voice rose.

“
No,” Sissy said. “You’re
our brother. We care if you’re using.”

“
Empty your pockets,” Nash
said.

“
What?” Charlie asked.
“Who do you think you are?”

“
I’m the person who’s
going to turn around and tell Dad that I saw you using.” Nash
flicked his head toward the restaurant where Aden was paying the
bill. With Rachel in a sling on her shoulder, Sandy stood next to
Noelle and Teddy. She looked up to smile at Charlie. “You know
what’s going to happen if Aden thinks you’re using? Run that
tape.”

Charlie rolled his eyes at Nash’s use of AA
language, but his mind ran the tape. Aden would grab him by the
scruff of his neck. They’d spend the morning at Denver Health. Even
if he was clean, he’d have to go back to rehab. They’d have the
‘you can’t stay with us anymore’ talk. Sandy would cry her eyes out
and… Charlie closed his eyes and emptied his pockets into Nash’s
hands.

“
She gave you a piece of
paper?” Sissy asked.

“
She gave me her phone
number. Her parents kicked her out,” Charlie said. “She’s been on
the streets a week. She got beat up last night. And yeah, she’s
high. You would be too if you’d had to...”

Sissy ran to catch up with the girl. While
Charlie and Nash stared, Sissy hugged the girl then gave her all
the money she had in her wallet. The two girls talked for a minute
before Sissy ran back.