Synergy (23 page)

“
Dee, I got some
bad news
,” Kiki said on the other end of
the phone. “
Jason’s cars been broke
into
.”

“
What
?” Dee asked, still struggling
to adjust to the brightness in the room, and still trying to wake
herself up fully.

“
They smashed that
shit up, took whatever was inside it
.”

“
Shit
.” Dee said, as the words
registered in her mind. “
I shoulda tol’
him to move it
”

“
Mom ain’t phoning the cops, I don’t
know what he wanna do.”

It
wasn’t unusual for people in their area not to phone the police
when something happened. If nothing else, people just simply didn’t
trust them. They didn’t want to get police involved when it wasn’t
necessary, people preferred to sort things out between themselves.
Officers could be corrupt in many areas, and there was certainly
still an element of institutionalised racism. The Thompson family
didn’t have the best track record with police, as Jarell could
probably tell you from his cell.

“
I’ll let him
know. Thanks Keek
.”

As Dee
ended the call, she lay back down and sighed. She thought about the
events of last night, and the argument they were having before the
incredible make up sex. She thought about what he said to her, that
he was falling in...she could barely even say it in her own head.
Everything had happened so quickly between them but maybe it wasn’t
a bad thing. Things had happened over time with Trey and it still
ended up a huge shit storm so maybe quick wasn’t always bad. As she
looked at the man lay next to her, she watched him sleep for a
second before deciding she’d better wake him up. According to her
phone it was already 9:30am and Tushaun was due home later in the
afternoon.

As she
shook him gently and called his name, she watched his eyes flutter
open and a look of blankness appeared on his face before the
recognition kicked in. He smiled.

“
Morning
” he said, rubbing his
eyes.

“
I got some bad
news
” Dee said, jumping straight to
business. There was no point pussy footing around
it.

“
What bad
news
?” Jason asked, sitting up quickly, a
serious look burrowed on his forehead.

“
Someone broke
into your car last night, it’s smashed up
.”

“
Oh
” Jason said, a sigh of relief
exhaling through him. Dee looked at him in disbelief wondering why
he didn’t seem more pissed.

“
Oh? Is that
it
?”

“
No, I mean,
that’s shit but, you scared the shit out of me saying bad news like
that
.”

“
I shoulda told
you to move it last night
.”

“
It’s okay, it’s
not your fault
” he told her, putting a
hand on the small of her back and rubbing it
gently.

“
My fault for
living in this shitty area
” Dee murmured,
moving to the edge of the bed and getting out. Jason watched her
move to the other side of the room, her naked body illuminated by
the light peeking through the drapes. She opened the doors to her
wardrobe and stood looking in it for while deciding on
clothes.

“
Dee, it’s not
your fault, don’t worry. I didn’t have anything important in there.
Worst case, I just get a new one.
”

“ ‘
Cuz it’s so
easy for you to just get a new one, just like
that
” Dee spat. She sounded mad at him,
just like she had last night. Once again, she was getting mad about
money. He wasn’t sure what he’d said to deserve it, but he decided
to just try his best not to piss her off any further. After all,
maybe it was just pregnancy hormones, she was entitled to
them.

Once Dee
had picked her outfit for the day, she announced she was going for
a shower. As she left the room, Jason thought about his car. He
probably should get the situation sorted. Luckily, he was
privileged enough to have a best friend as a PA, so he knew he
would help him out. As he sat up in the bed, propping his back
against the headboard, he gave Tom a call. When Jason told Tom
exactly where he had left it parked, Tom laughed. He wasn’t
surprised it got broken into, and in hindsight, neither was Jason.
At the time however, he’d put all his concentration into thinking
about the night ahead. ‘Typical man’ his mother would say, ‘can’t
think about two things at once.’

Once Tom
had all the information, he said he would sort it, so Jason
relaxed. Sitting comfortably in the bed, he waited until Dee
returned from the shower. She had already gotten dressed in there,
and she was wearing a floaty maxi dress and sandals. The dress
covered her bump well, and he wondered whether it was intentional.
He knew her ex would be dropping her son off soon, had she not
mentioned the pregnancy to him? As she came into the room, she
smiled at him, and he could see already that she was in a better
mood than the one she’d woken up in. He returned her smile, and she
told him he was welcome to a shower, though she didn’t have any
non-girly smelling scents, unless he used the kid body wash. He
took her up on the offer, deciding that smelling a tad feminine
would still be better than smelling bad.

By the
time he had showered and changed his clothes it was getting on to
10:15, and as he opened the bathroom door he heard voices coming
from downstairs. He certainly heard Dee’s voice, and at first he
decided the other noise was just coming from the television, though
he wondered why she would be talking to it. Then, he heard a little
boy’s voice, and he stopped in his tracks. Dee had told him Tushaun
wasn’t getting dropped off until dinner time, and she’d certainly
not mentioned Jason meeting him today. He wasn’t sure whether to go
downstairs or whether to hide up there, after all, maybe she wasn’t
ready for them to meet, and she could get mad if he just showed up
uninvited. While he thought about it, he took his old clothes into
the bedroom to pack them away and sprayed himself with some
deodorant. Just as he sat down on the bed, he heard footsteps
coming up the stairs. Seconds later, Dee had walked into the
bedroom, but she didn’t sit down next to him, instead, she stood at
the wall opposite him.

“
So, apparently
having his son for a whole afternoon is too much, so he’s brought
Tushaun home unannounced
” Dee told him,
her head bobbing and her hands moving
enthusiastically.

“
That’s
bad
” Jason agreed, not wanting to say too
much.

“
Mmhmm, so it
looks like you meeting him has come early
”

“
Really?
”
“
If you want to
”

“
No, yeah, of
course. Only if that’s ok with you though
.”

“
Guess it’s gotta
happen sometime. You’re mommy’s ‘friend’ though
.”

“
Sure thing.”

As the
two of them made their way down the stairs, Jason saw Tushaun sat
on the floor in front of the TV, eating cereal from a bowl. He was
oblivious to the noise of the footsteps on the stairs; instead, he
was wrapped up in whatever kid’s show was playing on the TV. While
Jason sat down on the sofa opposite him, Dee sat on the armchair to
the side of her son, and took his arm gently to get his
attention.

“
Tushaun, look at
me a minute baby
.”

The little boy turned to face his mother, still eating his
cereal from his spoon. He was dressed in jeans and a hooded top,
the hood left up. Underneath, he sported a snapback on his head.
Looking at him, his mother sighed and put his hood down.
“
Why your daddy gotta dress you like a
thug
?”

It was a
rhetorical question, but the little boy shrugged.

“
Anyway, mommy’s
got a friend over, you gonna say hi
?”

“
Where
?” Tushaun asked, in between
crunches of his cereal.

“
Behind you, turn
around
.”

Tushaun swivelled around on his bum to face the sofa, and saw
Jason looking back at him. Jason smiled, and while some kids might
face away shy, Tushaun showed no sign of that, and instead, he
simply said “
Hi
.”

“
Hey Buddy, what
you got there
?” Jason asked, gesturing to
his cereal.

“
Froot
Loops
”

“
Nice. Is that
your favourite
?”

“
No
” he said, shaking his
head.

“
What’s your
favourite
?”

“
Mmmm.
...” Tushaun hummed as he
thought about the question. He scooped up the last mouthful onto
his spoon and crunched away on it until he swallowed, then answered
“
Mallows
.”

Jason
looked to Dee for confirmation, and she explained.

“
Lucky Charms. He
likes the marshmallows in them, don’t you
?”

Tushaun
nodded at this question and started to tip his bowl up to drink the
remainder of the milk.

“
That’s why we
have mallows in our cocoa every night too, right
?”

Tushaun
nodded once more, and Jason smiled.

To his
surprise, the little boy then gathered a collection of colouring
books and crayons from the floor beside him and brought them to the
sofa. He put one onto Jason’s lap, and put the rest onto the sofa
while he hauled himself onto the seat. After making himself
comfortable, he took one from the pile and emptied the box of
crayons in the middle of them.

“
Are we
colouring
?” Jason asked.

“
Yeah
” Tushaun drawled, picking up a
crayon and starting to colour a tiger in orange. As Dee and Jason
looked at each other with a smile on their faces, Tushaun spoke
between colouring.

“
What your
fav-wit
?” he asked in his baby-speak, and
that’s when Jason remembered this little boy was only two years
old. He thought he was very grown up for his age, and he was
surprised how comfortable he was around a
stranger.

“
My favourite
cereal? I like apple jacks. You ever had apple
jacks
?”

Tushaun thought for a moment again, and then shrugged.
Looking up from his colouring book, the little boy turned to his
mother and asked “
we had
them
?” in the most inquisitive tone a
young boy could ask. It caused Dee and Jason to laugh slightly. Dee
told him they had had them, but mommy gets what’s on offer when she
goes shopping. This answer seemed to satisfy Tushaun, and he nodded
in understanding and carried on colouring his tiger.

Dee
always knew her son was something special, after all, she was bias,
but she loved how accepting he was of everybody. He wasn’t a shy
kid that would hide behind her legs at the sight of anybody new, he
would ask them who they are, and wait confidently for an answer.
She hoped he never lost that sense of confidence when he got older,
because to her, it was so endearing. She felt proud watching her
son with Jason, and she loved watching the interaction between the
two of them. She knew some men could be a little awkward around
kids, especially men that didn’t have kids of their own, but
watching Jason with him showed her that he was fine around kids. As
the two boys chatted away, she took the opportunity to go to the
kitchen and make her and Jason a coffee, after all, they hadn’t
eaten or drank anything since they’d woke up this
morning.

As she
waited for the kettle to boil, she stood thinking. She thought
about how Trey had sent their son home early, probably so he could
run off to his own plans. She thought about how his own father
hadn’t even given Tushaun any breakfast before he’d sent him home,
but how he’d managed to emulate his clothing to look exactly like
his. She thought about how precious her son was, so clever, so
polite, so funny, and she thought about who his father was. She
hoped her son never ended up like Trey. In fact, she hoped her son
never ended up like her either. She wanted him to remain clever, to
go to school and make something of himself, not to drop out with no
qualifications or start gangbanging like half of the people in
these parts. She hoped he waited till he was married to have kids,
not to come home at fifteen and tell her he got somebody pregnant.
She wanted better for him, and she hoped that she would be in a
position to give better to him.