Sister Girls 2 (18 page)

“Are you going to have an abortion? You need money?”

Pissed and hurt, she walked out on him and went to Jewell's house.

The second Jewell opened the door, Harmony started crying. “I'm pregnant.”

Jewell shook her head with disappointment. She didn't want her cousin to be weighed down with a bunch of babies, she already had one by a dirty-ass old man, who Harmony used for money when she was young and dumb.

“By Ny'em?” Jewell asked.

“Yeah, and you know what he had the nerve to tell me to do?”

Jewell didn't have to guess. “Have an abortion.”

Harmony looked stunned that she knew.

“Don't look at me like I don't have a clue. Ny'em is an ass, I told you that a long time ago, when you first got involved with him. I warned you. You know what you've got to do, right?”

“What?” Harmony asked, like she didn't know the answer.

“Leave his ass,” Jewell told her. Jewell didn't like Ny'em at all. She hated the way he mistreated Harmony and she hated the way Harmony allowed it.

Harmony turned to walk out the door.

“Where are you going?” Jewell asked.

“I didn't come here for the I-told-you-so and look-what-you-got-yourself-into talk. I came for support, for a shoulder to cry on.”

Jewell pulled Harmony into her arms. “You know what, you're right. I apologize, let's go sit down and talk this through.”

Jewell led Harmony to the couch.

“I don't think I can do this by myself, take care of another baby.” Harmony didn't want to be like everyone she knew and have baby after baby by someone who could care less.

“Girl, please, do you know how many girls are doing it by themselves? If you decide to have the baby it's going to be a challenge, but I'll be there for you.”

Harmony looked in Jewell's eyes. “You're always there for me.”

“That's what family is for.”

“I am going to think about having an abortion, though.”

“Well, whatever you decide to do, I've got your back.”

That night when Harmony left Jewell's house, she promised her she was going to think about whether she wanted to have the baby or not.

The next morning when Jewell called her for her decision, Harmony still had not made up her mind.

“Don't wait until it's too late,” Jewell warned.

 

 

Harmony waited around all day to hear from Ny'em. Day turned into night and one day turned into the next. Harmony didn't think much of it because that was the way he operated, being a hustler and all. But after two days of not hearing from him and with her situation at hand, she called up one of his boys. “Have you heard from Ny'em?”

“Your boy got picked up last night with product.”

This is not what Harmony wanted to hear. “What! Please tell me you're lying.”

“I wish I could, but I'm not.”

 

 

Well, come to find out, one of his old runners snitched on him and he ended up having to do some serious time. Harmony in the back of her mind planned on having an abortion but she kept putting it off and time slipped away. Before she knew it, Harmony was four months along in her pregnancy.

“Do you think it's too late to have an abortion?” she asked Jewell, one night when she was visiting.

Jewell wanted to knock her upside the head, but instead she said, “Don't you know that at four months the baby's heart is beating? Girl, that's a life inside you now. If you wanted to have an abortion, you should have done that in month one or two. If you were to do some stupid shit like that now, you'd be committing murder.”

When Jewell put it that way, Harmony knew she wouldn't be able to go through with an abortion.

So she had the baby and just as she predicted, it was a struggle doing it on her own.

Shareef was still standing in front of Harmony, waiting on an explanation. “Why didn't you tell me he was calling here, why did you keep it from me?”

Harmony told him the truth. “I was afraid to.”

“If you were afraid to tell me then you must have known it was wrong.”

Harmony walked over to the couch and collapsed on it. She was mentally drained. “Shareef, I don't know what else to say. I can apologize until I'm blue in the face, but that doesn't mean you will accept it. I know I was wrong but you have to understand, I got caught up in the moment. I know that's no excuse but it's the best I could offer.”

Shareef didn't even let her finish what she had to say, he was disgusted. “I'm out of here.”

Harmony wanted to stop him but with the way the conversation was going and from the look on Shareef's face and the tone of his voice, she figured
what's the point.

“What time will you be home?” Harmony followed him to the door. She was going to make this up to him some kind of way.

He didn't answer her, he just opened the door, stepped through it, and slammed it shut behind him.

Harmony knew she fucked up. She knew she should have told Shareef when Ny'em called the first time. The only person she had to blame for this situation was herself. She should have listened to King when he told her to tell Shareef right away.

After the first phone call from Ny'em and his request to speak with Shacquille, Harmony should have known that wasn't a topic that was going to be dropped.

“Why now, Ny'em?” she asked him. “Why are you reaching out after all these years?”

“Because my plan was to do this bid by myself,” he told her. “I didn't want to involve you or any of my other children's mothers.”

That was typical Ny'em style, selfish as always.

“You see,” Ny'em continued, “I've been taking these classes and going to group and it's made me see who I really was and I'm a changed man. With me changing, it got me to wondering how my son was doing.”

That shit threw Harmony for a loop, she had nine years of anger built up in her. His ass didn't even want her to have Shaquille. She was ready to let him have it.

“You wanted to see how your son was doing? The son you didn't want? The son you told me to abort? The son I had to support by myself.” Harmony, who had been standing, had to sit down on that note, because she felt like she was about to pass out from anger. “How dare you! How dare you act like you care. Ny'em, I know you.”

She told him of something she suspected all these years. “I know that before you got locked up you hid money somewhere. You were always bragging about it. Did your ass once call me and offer me anything? No! Did you send me a message? No! My life has not been easy. Your son's life has not been easy. Thank God I met Shareef, he's a good man, better than you ever were.” Harmony felt like patting herself on the back, that was some shit she'd been holding in for a long time.

“I'm not even going to get upset by that statement,” Ny'em told her, “because I know you're trying to hurt me and that's okay.”

Ny'em's tone was way calmer than Harmony expected it to be.

“I'm a changed man,” he continued, “more than you will ever know and I want to make up for that lost time with my son. I want to make up for what I've done to you and what I didn't do for you. If jail taught me anything it taught me how precious life is and I need to make amends to you, Shacquille, and my other children.”

Ny'em said this with such intensity that Harmony almost gave in, but it was not going to be that easy. During his speech, she had figured out what he was trying to tell her. “Are you telling me you're getting out soon?”

“Yes, I will be getting released soon. I am unsure of the exact date, but I know it's within thirty days.”

Shareef is going to have a fit.
“Ny'em, you've got children with other women, Shacquille is doing good right now, Shareef is a great father figure, and we have a family. Please, consider leaving Shacquille alone and making amends with your other kids. As a matter of fact, I release you from all your fatherly responsibilities and forgive you fully for not being there.”

“Listen, Harmony, I am going to see Shacquille, you need to understand that and you also need to understand that I am not the same man, I am going to break the fatherless cycle in my family. I no longer want to do what my father did to me and what his father did to him. I am not abandoning any of my children once I get out. I am adamant on this.”

It was then the operator interrupted and told them they had thirty seconds to complete their call.

Harmony had to get the last word in. “Well, Ny'em, I don't feel good about your selfish-ass decision. You should consider Shacquille's mental health and how it might negatively impact him after not hearing a word from you ever.” To really dig the fork in deeper because she was pissed off to a new degree, Harmony continued, “I actually told him that you were dead and when I found out you got the kingpin charge and your lawyer said you would never be free again, I believed him.”

Ny'em screamed through the phone, “You told him what? Well, you better tell him something because I will see my son.”

Harmony slammed down the phone. She knew this shit was going to happen just when she was getting her life in order.
Damn, can it ever be easy?

 

 

It's when he called back the third time, talking that same, I want to see my son shit, that Harmony called Jewell. She needed to talk this out.

The only thing was Jewell wasn't home and King could hear the distraction in her voice.

“What's going on?” he asked her. “Is everything okay?”

Not able to hold it in, Harmony told him, “No, everything is not okay. You know that motherfucker Ny'em's been calling me, telling me he'll be home soon and that he wants to get acquainted with Shacquille.”

“You're straight lying.”

“I wouldn't lie about this and that's just part of it. I kind of told Shacquille that his father had died.”

“Damn, Harmony, why would you tell him that shit?”

“Because I didn't know what else to tell him.”

“If I'm not mistaken, didn't Ny'em get the kingpin charge?”

“Exactly, so now I can't help but wonder why his ass is getting out now.”

“What does Shareef have to say about all this?”

Harmony didn't answer him.

He repeated himself. “What does Shareef have to say about all this?”

“I haven't told him.”

“What! Are you crazy? You know what, never mind, don't even answer that. Let's just put this shit in order. Your first concern should be the impact that Ny'em will have on Shacquille and correcting that lie you told about him being dead. Secondly, you really need to tell Shareef what's going on. Knowing my boy, he's not going to handle it well but it's better to tell him now and deal with the consequences than for him to find out some other way. Also, even though I hate saying this, you need to understand where Ny'em is coming from. When men are locked down they go through changes. They see other dudes corresponding with their families and they think this is what they want and need. I wouldn't put too much stock into anything he's saying while he's locked up. Because when men are in prison time stands still. They create pseudo-realities for themselves to survive, until they get out and reality sets in. Once Ny'em gets out and that nine years of back child support attacks his ass, rent, cable, and the rigors of a job—that is, if he can find one and doesn't go back to hustling—the last thing he's going to be thinking about is your son. You and I both know Ny'em has never worked a honest day in his life. Two seconds after he's free he's going to be chasing that money on the block. I say all this to say, you need to tell Shareef and you and him had better come up with a plan.”