NaNoWriMo Day 17- The Shoes of Baltimore

“Yea, but what I’m saying is this thing won’t be done in one day. So if you wanted to take off a little early, it’s not like the work is going anywhere. You’ll still have plenty to do. So it won’t matter if you leave and meet us up.”

Why was he pushing this so hard, Jamie wondered.

“What’s with the third degree man?” Even Rodney thought this was a little much. “The dude said he has to get some work done for his mom. Chill. They do those readings all the time. We can probably even find one this weekend.”

“Just curious my man. That’s all.”

Jamie knew there was more to it than that. He was pretty sure that DeSean thought he took more money and he was holding out on them. He would never come out right and say it. So he pressed like this to try and gain more information. He also did it to find holes in people’s stories. Wanted to see how consistent they were.

“Well that’s what I’ll be doing tonight. And yea, we can always do that some other time. By the time the weekend rolls around, we’re probably going to find more fun shit to do anyways. Some nights you just gotta do what you gotta do.”

“Got ya,” DeSean said, not seeming full satisfied with the answers he was receiving. “Just wanted to toss some jokes around tonight. That’s all. We can see what pops off this weekend.”

They spent the rest of the time talking about girls and sports.

When the bell rang and Jamie went to the rest of his classes, he just day dreamed his way through until school was over.

He was still a long ways away from when he had to meet Trevor Gatz associates, but time seemed to be racing ahead. Jamie sent his mom a text telling her he found his calculator (he had forgotten to do it earlier) and that he was on his way back.

On his walk back, he had the feeling someone was following him. But each time he turned around, there didn’t seem to be anyone who was following him. There were other people walking back from school and work, but it didn’t seem like there was someone he could see directly keeping tabs on him. But he still felt like their were eyes on him.

When he started to pull his keys out of his pants to unlock the door, someone put a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey playa,” DeSean said.

Jamie quickly turned around. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Damm man, why are you so jumpy?”

We talked about how Jamie was a quick thinker. But with the Trevor Gatz meeting and the barrage of questions already thrown at Jamie earlier, he wasn’t as quick on his feet right now.

“Man, you know not to put hands on somebody when they’re about to open the door! What’s wrong with you?”

“Ah, come on man. If I was going to do something, why would I speak and give you a warning?”

This vaguely sounded like some kind of threat. DeSean was telling him that he didn’t mean him harm now. But he told him what would happen if he was ever to do something.

Jamie understood what DeSean was really saying, even if DeSean hadn’t meant it as menacingly as it sounded. It was clearly a warning.

“What are you doing here?” Jamie wanted to get straight to the point. His suspicions from earlier about DeSean pressing for information seemed to be right.

“You talked about all that work you had to do, and since we all aren’t hanging out because of it, I thought I would help out. I thought you and your mom could use a strong man around the house,” DeSean said jokingly.

Normally Jamie would just fire an insult right back at DeSean. He was about to tell him that he appreciated the offer, but he realized DeSean would pick up on something being different.

So instead, he came firing back with an insult. “Oh na that’s cool man. We’d call your mom if we needed a strong man around the house. Her mustache game is on point!”

This seemed to put DeSean at ease.

“You’re too funny man. You’re too funny. But seriously, I’m here to help.”

Just then, Jamie’s mom opened the door. “Oh hey guys,” she said. “Jamie we are about to have dinner and then I need you to work on what we talked about. Are you almost done?”

“Yea,” Jamie said. He didn’t think his mom had heard about the fake project DeSean said he was there to help with. His mom always was just good at making excuses to get people to leave.

“Okay. Finish up. See ya DeSean, have a good night,” she said cheerfully.

She closed the door.

Jamie pointing to the door, showing DeSean that he did in fact have a project to work on this evening.

“Look’s like mommy says playtime is over. Have fun cleaning and painting or whatever you’re doing.”

DeSean threw up two fingers sideways to make a sign that he was placing out.

“Later man,” Jamie said.

He opened the door and closed it. He was relieved that his mom didn’t ask DeSean to stay for dinner. He knew one of the first questions he would have asked her was about this home improvement project that they were working on.

But Jamie was now worried that his mom heard about the fake project. If she did, she wouldn’t tell him right away. He would have to wait over the course of the evening for her to eventually bring in up. He started to think of why he had made up this project.

He could just say it was to get DeSean to leave. But then his mother would ask why he wanted him to leave. Jamie thought he could get away with being corny and maybe say he just wanted it to be him and his mom tonight. Maybe that was why she also didn’t invite him to dinner tonight. After all, this was Jamie’ new favorite food. And maybe his mom liked the quiet time they had together making it. She didn’t have to worry about him, and they got to spend quality time together.

They just made small talk through most of the dinner making process.

But by the time dinner started, Jamie’s mom had still not brought up the “project” he as supposed to be working on. He let down his guard, and they actually had a nice dinner. They talked about new recipes they wanted to try, new side dishes to pair it with. If they had too many sides to go now with the food. Jamie’s mom was a great cook.

But again, she didn’t want Jamie to become dependent on a woman to make her food. And throughout her life, she never wanted to be defined by just what she was able to do on the kitchen. She didn’t want her identity to be tied with how juicy her meatloaf was or how delicious her brownies were. However, she would make him breakfast and not ask him to help with dinner on his birthday. That is actually what Jamie looked forward to the most.

She never had a lot of money to get him presents. She would always get him something, but it was never anything big.

But her breakfast food….

She would make him blueberry pancakes, french toast, and a huge breakfast sandwich. It was so much food that Jamie would normally not be able to eat lunch. He would have a hard time fitting anything in for dinner as well.

After dinner, he finished his light amount of homework. After that, he popped on the television and watched the news.

“Ugh. I don’t know how you can stand to watch this stuff. It’s so depressing!”

“Yea, but the world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows ma.”

“Okay Rocky. But do you have to watch it every night? Can’t you take a break? All that depressing stuff will be right where you left it if you skip a day. It will always be there waiting for you.”

“I gotta see what’s happening. I gotta see what people are saying and what people are thinking about it.”

Jamie’s mom sighed. “Well, I guess it’s better than watching some trashy reality show. I’m glad you have an interest in local and global events. But I’m serious. Let’s try and cut out the amount of negativity you watch each day. What if you only watch it for thirty minutes?”

Jamie was going to be docile until he had to meet with Trevor Gatz. He was hoping his mom would go to be early, and he wanted to give her a small victory to help her sleep well. But he couldn’t give in too much. He had to put up a little resistance or she would know something is up.

He rolled his eyes and made sure she could see it. “Really? I mean, I could always just look it up in the morning in the newspaper.”

“Well I can’t stop you from doing that,” Jamie’s mom said. “But at least it won’t be on in the house for hours on end.”

“You really don’t want me to watch the news anymore?”

“I’m saying just take a break. Watch it a little less. You can get the gist of what’s going on in 30 minutes. It doesn’t need to be on for two or three hours each night.”

Jamie pouted and put his arms across his chest.

“Fine. Whatever.”

Jamie’s mom was happy with this small victory. She got up and kissed the top of his head. Even though she was trying to remain somewhat emotionally detached for what she thought would inevitably happen to Jamie (arrested or dead), she still had hope that her sweet little boy was still somewhere in there.

“I’m going up for the night. Don’t stay up too late.”

“Night,” Jamie said.