Chapter Six - Jeremy

I wanted Marsha so bad; there were moments I couldn’t focus on anything else. Christmas Eve felt like the perfect opportunity. We’d exchanged gifts. I gave her the promise ring, although I hadn’t really promised anything, and I told her I loved her—which I did. Ansol was out, Sheila left, and everything seemed right. But Marsha wasn’t ready. I didn’t wanna force or scare her, so when she rushed off to the bathroom, I talked myself down. It’ll happen, I told myself.
After the Christmas cookies, I decided to head home and come back the next evening for dinner, with Steven. Sheila always seemed to be glaring at me from the corner of her eye, but I was getting in good with the Lindo family. I liked being around them. They were a real family and not a corporation, which is what my family felt like. Everything was about “business” with the Anthonys.
I fell asleep with Marsha on my mind, replaying how hot and heavy the makeout session had gotten. I imagined what it might’ve been like if she hadn’t stopped me. The moment was so right. As I fell deeper into slumber, my imagination roamed free. Marsha was giving in. She was agreeing to be mine. Our clothes were on her living room floor, and we were skin to skin. She was warm, and I was more than ready. Then her phone started to ring. “I should get that,” she said.
“No,” I told her. “It’ll stop.”
It didn’t, and that’s when I realized it was my phone that was ringing, not Marsha’s. It was the mattress I was pressing into—not Marsha. I reached up and grabbed the cordless phone from its receiver on my nightstand, not bothering to check the caller ID. “Yo,” I rasped into the phone.
“Hey,” said a soft, familiar voice on the other end.
“Sak ap pase?” I asked. Though the voice was familiar, I still wasn’t sure who it was.
“Muh good, but could be better if I had someting stiff in my Christmas stockin t’night.” It was Tina.
“Really?” I said, rolling over on my back.
“Mm hm,” she cooed.
I glanced at the clock. It was three in the morning. “You tryna come over here at this time on Christmas?”
“Sure. Why not?”
I thought about it. “You goin to the Lindos for Christmas dinner?”
“No. You?”
“Of course.”
“Hmh,” Tina grunted. “Yuh know she’ll never let you hit. Yuh wastin yuh time wit that tight-up virgin.”
“You think so?”
“Mi know so.”
I chuckled. “Well, good thing I love her, so I don’t need to hit. We’ll make love when the time comes.”
Tina snorted. “Oh, now yuh love her? Jeremy, you is a joke, yuh know that?”
“Why you say that?” I asked, feigning innocence.
“Jus the other night you was ready to stab up this pumpum—”
“I was drinkin and talkin shit.”
“Yuh talkin shit now. Yuh don’t love her. Yuh jus want her cuz she’s light-skin.”
I snorted. “It’s Christmas mornin’, Tina. Don’t get yourself worked up over dick that ain’t yours—”
“It ain’t Marsha’s either.”
“Look, we had our time. We did our thing. It’s done.”
I could hear Tina sucking her teeth on the other end.
Although I was still sleeping with other girls and planned to until Marsha gave it up, I didn’t feel right about messing around with someone in such proximity. Marsha was already questioning me about Tina, and I needed her to forget all about it. I knew Tina would only make matters worse if I started messing around with her again.
Tina sighed into the phone. “We’ll see how long you can hold out before you’re beatin’ down my door again.”
This time I laughed out loud. “Beatin’ down your door? Cool out, Tina. I never beat anything but that pussy, and I been alright without it.”
“Wow, okay, Jeremy. Like I said, we’ll see how long you can hold out.”
“Merry Christmas, Tina… or rather Happy Christmas, like you guys say. Take care.”
“Fuck you, Jeremy,” Tina said before hanging up.

*****


“Jeremy!” Augustine’s voice bellowed through the house.
Jeremy jogged from the backyard to the front door. He nearly skidded on his feet when he saw the suave, silky-haired, coffee-toned man standing in the doorway. He’d never met him, but he knew exactly who the man was.
“Everything okay, Papi?” Jeremy asked.
“Son,” Augustine said, staring into his son’s eyes, communicating more with the look than his words. “Tell this man you have not seen his daughter, and you have nothing to do with her.”
Jeremy swallowed hard. He’d just left the girl not too long ago. They’d spent the whole day in the park holding hands, necking, and talking. It was the last summer she would spend in Miami since her parents wanted to keep her as far away from Jeremy as possible.
“They’re separated, and my mother hates him, but this is the one thing she agrees with him on. This is stupid as hell,” the girl said with tears in her eyes.
Jeremy tried to comfort her. He hated seeing her cry. “They say when you love something, you have to be willing to let it go. If it comes back to you, it was meant to be yours.”
The girl looked up at him, and a slight smile pulled at the corners of her lips. “Are you saying you love me?” she asked.
Jeremy bit his lip. Did he love her? Did he mean to say that? He just wanted her to feel better. Instead of answering right away, he kissed her deeply. The kiss gave him a chance to think and feel at the same time. It told him everything he needed to know. She loved him. He longed for her when she wasn’t around, and he was damn near willing to risk his life just to be around her. He was four years older than her, and she was still in high school. Her brother and cousins constantly threatened him and chased him whenever they saw him on the street. That had to be love.
“Yeah,” he said. “I love you.” That was the first time he’d ever said those words to a girl. They smiled at each other and kissed again.
“I feel like running away,” she said.
Jeremy shook his head. “Don’t bother with that. Like I said, we’ll find our way back to each other again. Give me the number to the house in Antigua.”
She giggled. “You’re gonna be in so much trouble for calling there.”
Jeremy shrugged. “Ya brother gonna beat me up for calling? Won’t he be down there with you?”
“Yeah, but my dad—and your parents won’t be happy about the phone bill.”
“Let me worry about that,” Jeremy said as he watched her scribble down the phone number.
“Jeremy,” Augustine said sternly, breaking Jeremy out of his trance. “Tell him.”
“I haven’t seen your daughter, sir,” Jeremy said flatly.
“I know you were with her in the park today,” the man said calmly. “Did she say where she was going after that?”
Jeremy shook his head. “I didn’t see her, sir. I don’t talk to her.”
The man stepped forward. “Don’t make it worse by lying.”
Augustine put his hand up. “He said he hasn’t seen her.”
“Let’s be real here,” the man said. “We’ve been young boys once… young boys lie to get what they want.” The man made eye contact with Jeremy.
“‘He said,’” Augustine repeated, “‘he hasn’t seen her.’”
The man stepped back. “Fine. If I find out that you know where she is, this whole family will be on the first thing with a motor, back to Haiti.”
“Leave,” Augustine said firmly.
The man glared at the two of them before leaving the front porch.
When his black towncar pulled off, Augustine slammed the front door. “Mété’w déyo!”
Jeremy froze in disbelief. “And go where?”
“I don’t give a shit where you go! You don’t listen! I told you to leave that girl alone. Ya mother told you to leave her alone—now this man is coming to my door threatening to deport me!”
Jeremy chuckled. “He can’t get you deported, Papi.”
“You think everything is a joke! He works for the embassy!”
“It’s the embassy of DR, Papi,” Jeremy pleaded.
“Sak geyan la?” Madeline said, coming out of her bedroom.
“He’s trying to throw me out,” Jeremy said, gesturing toward his father.
“Poukisa?” Madeline asked. “Oh, I don’t care. Augustine, let it go.”
“Let it go? When we have to pack up this nice house and close down three businesses, will you be able to let it go? Cuz that’s what’s gonna happen,” Augustine explained.
“What? What are you talkin about?” Madeline said, looking back and forth at her man and her boy.
Augustine jabbed a finger in Jeremy’s direction. “That girl’s father came here threatening to have us deported because your stupid son won’t leave her alone.”
“Oh oh!” Madeline said with a gasp.
Before Jeremy knew it, her hand landed on his cheek with a loud, stinging whack. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Madeline cried.
“He has to get out of my house,” said Augustine.
“No no no—”
“Madeline, I said what I said.”
“You can’t send my boy out to the streets, Augustine.”
“I am not risking everything for his stupidity,” Augustine went on. He turned back to Jeremy and pointed toward his bedroom. “Pack up your things and go!”