“If you get cold,” I said to her, “you can get back in the car.”
“I’m fine,” Kylie said happily.
I smiled. She couldn’t wait to hug her daddy outside of prison walls. The whole time he’d been down she would ask when he was coming home. She had the countdown on her calendar.
A guard stepped outside of one of the side buildings. “They’ll be out in just a moment, people,” he said. “When you see them come out, do not run up to the gate. I repeat, DO NOT run up to the gate. If you do, you just might be shot down. They’ll cross the parking lot and come to you. Thank you for your cooperation.” He stepped back inside.
“Asshole,” said a young white woman on the side of me.
“Amen,” I agreed.
“Are you here to pick up your husband?” she asked me.
“Oh no. I’m not married.”
“I’ve been married to this man about to walk out for six years. I met him and married him while he’s been locked up. We’ve only known each other through visits and letters, and today will mark the day we get to spend the rest of our lives together. I have butterflies. I can’t keep still.”
“I know how you feel. Congratulations.”
It reminded me of the first time Rodrick walked out of MCC in Moberly, Missouri. It was his first time down, and he’d promised me he was going to get out and get on his feet and marry me as soon as he was financially able to. I was just as giddy and excited as the woman next to me.
But the marriage proposal never came. Only lies and betrayal.
I wasn’t looking for anything from Rodrick Brown this time. All I wanted for him to do was take care of his daughter.
My phone beeped in my pocket. I had to take one of my mittens off to tap the touchscreen. I had a text message from my unofficial boyfriend. I liked to call him my “man friend.”
Fedbound Marley: Where you at?
Tyesha816: I just got to Moberly.
Fedbound Marley: Oh
Tyesha816: What did you want?
Then my phone started ringing. I picked it up.
“Hey, honey,” I said.
“Wussup, cute buns. I just wanted to know if you wanted to go out to see a movie tonight. Me, you, and Kylie. I didn’t know you were going to see him today. You’ll probably be too tired when you get back to Kansas City, huh?”
“Yeah, not tonight. Maybe tomorrow.”
He paused. “You okay? You don’t sound good.”
I couldn’t tell him the truth. I couldn’t tell him that Rodrick was being released today and I was here to pick him up. Actually, that information probably wouldn’t even get him that upset, but when he found out that Rodrick would be living with me because he had nowhere else to homeplan to, I know that would get under Marley’s skin. And Marley wasn’t even the type of person to get outrageously mad, but I know I would see it in his actions—he’d probably stop calling me as much, he might not come over again, I’d have to go over to his place. Rodrick living with me was only going to be temporary, though. Hopefully me and Marley’s unofficial relationship—we both agreed to keep our Site status on “single”—could hold strong long enough.
“I’m fine,” I said. “It’s just cold out here.”
“Well, don’t let me hold you up. Tell him I said wussup.”
“Yeah right.”
He laughed and then we hung up.
The white woman started clapping loudly. “They’re opening the gate!”
I watched as a line of inmates dressed in street clothes filed out of the building on the other side of the fence. The white lady waved at a Black man with dreads in his hair, and I turned to her with a look of horror, until she said his name.
“Hi, Howard! I love you!”
I shook my head and let out a sigh of relief. It wasn’t Rodrick.
He was the last one to come out of the building. His dreads were a lot longer than the other guy’s. He had on the clothes that he told me to send him for his coming home dress-outs—a black pea coat, some kind of Vintage for the Vain tee that he must have seen in a magazine, black slacks and matching Louis Vuitton loafers. He looked like he owned the prison, and I’m sure that was the look he was going for.
“Daddy!” beamed Kylie.
I had to hold on to her to keep her from running across the parking lot. When he got near, I let her go and he swooped her up in his arms.
“Oh, I missed you so much, baby girl,” he said to her with tears in his eyes.
I felt tears coming to my own eyes. I batted them back.
He walked over to me with our daughter on his hip. “Hey, Momma,” he said.
“I parked right down there,” I replied without emotion.
“Okay. We’ll leave in just a moment.”
When he set Kylie down, I thought he was about to ask me for a hug. But he didn’t. His Black butt got down on one knee.
He reached in his coat pocket and pulled out a white ring. It looked like he made it out of toilet paper, soaked in water and hardened into a tiny circle. The tears started coming down my cheeks. This couldn’t be happening!
“Will you marry me?” Rodrick asked.
The other families standing around us began to gasp and clap in celebration.
“Yes!” Kylie exclaimed.
Everybody laughed, including me.
Copyright
Felony Books, a division of Olive Group, LLC,
P.O. Box 1577, Belton, MO 64012
Copyright © 2013 by Jordan Belcher
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Felony Books, P.O. Box 1577, Belton, MO 64012.
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