Son for Hire: Chapter 26 (Patreon)

Once home I pay the cabbie, get the change, and hurry for the front door of my building.  On my way I bump into the always nosy Mr. Khan and leave him a happy man as I square up our rent for the month.  I am still deciding how to break the news when I unlock and open the door to hear Kiki on the phone.

“Lamar, dude, just let me talk to her.”  She says in a tense voice.

Damn.  She already knew.  I step in and quietly close the door behind me.

“I don’t even understand.  What the fuck happened?”  She says.  “Donny doesn’t even…”  She falls quiet as Lamar explains.  I creep into the dining area and into view.  Kiki, sitting in the living room, fixes me with a hard glare.  Bowing my head I sit down and wait.  “That’s some bullshit Lamar and you know it.  Let me speak to Diane.”  He talks a bit as the desperation grows on my sister’s face.  “Come on dude.  She knows I’m good.  I’m the best she’s got.”  She pauses to listen.  “Yeah, I know I lost that client but…hold on a second…Lamar, we’ve known each other for…just let me talk to…”  Lamar speaks some more and whatever he says infuriate my sister.  “I am NOT my fucking mother!  I TOLD Diane I had shit under control.  I lost one fucking client and I miss one fucking night and she…hello?  Hello!?  FUCK YOU!”  She screams as she whips her phone across the room, it skitters in under sofa probably broken.  “AND FUCK HER!  Mother fuckers!”  She seethes a moment before her eyes snap back to me.  “What in the hell did you do Donny?”

“I, uh….”  I stammer.  

“Tell me!  What did you do?”

“I quit.”

“You quit?  You just fucking up and quit?  Just like that?”  She throws her arms in the air.  “Just fuck it all, I quit?”

“Um, yeah.”  I swallow hard.

“You always do this Donny.  Don’t you understand?  I can’t…fuck!”

I wilt in my chair at the well deserved anger.  She was right.   She was absolutely right.  Every single job I’d ever gotten I’d lost in one way or another and left her to bear the brunt of our family’s financial needs.  But this time I’d even fucked her job.

“I’m sorry.”

“WHY!?”  She cries out in a voice so much like our mother’s that it makes me flinch, instinctively readying myself to be hit.

“I-I-I’m not…I’m not as strong as you Kiki.”  I wring my hands anxiously.  “I can’t do this.  I can’t do this job.  I just can’t.”

She takes in breath, ready to spit fire, but somehow holds her tongue.  Slowly she lets out a long breath and a little bit of her rage is released with it.  She covers he face with a hand and shakes her head.  “Fuck.”

“I’m sorry.”

Rubbing her eyes she gets up from her chair and comes over to me.  “It’s okay.  I get it.”  Hugging my head into her body she holds me tight.  “I shouldn’t have gotten you involved.  This is my fault.”  She kneels down in front of me.  “I just wish you would have talked to me first.  You started without talking to me and you quit without talking to me.  I told you, didn’t I?”

“I’m sorry Kiki.  I’m so sorry.”

“It’s done.”  The worry is etched hard into her usually soft features.  “Tell me you at least got paid.”

“Uh, yeah.  I got some money.”  I say.  “I paid Mr. Khan up for the month.”

“Good.  Good.”  Her eyes dart about as she starts to think and plan.  “Fuck.”  She mutters at last, her shoulders sagging under the weight of her responsibilities.  “Oh fuck.  This couldn’t have happened at a worse time kid.”

“I’m sorry.”  I say again feeling both helpless and responsible.  “I should have talked to you.  I’m…I’m sorry.”

Summoning her steel will Kiki straightens up again and looks up into my eyes.  “Did she hurt you Donny?”

“Diane didn’t…”

She shakes her head and kisses my hand.  “Not Diane.  The woman you went to see today.  I know you were soft on her.”  She says with a big sister’s empathy.  “Is that why you quit today?  Was she rough with you?”

Obviously Kiki had only gotten a piece of the story.  Lamar hadn’t actually been there at the door to watch it all go down.

“No.”  I shake my head.  “No, she’s a wonderful lady.  She was the one who helped me quit.”

“Helped you?”  Kiki lets out a mirthless laugh.  “Great.  Just great.  A real big help she was.”

“It wasn’t…she didn’t…”  I stumble over my words.  “It was my fault.”

“It doesn’t matter.”  She squeezes my hand and drops back to sit on the linoleum.  “Fuck.”  She holds her free hand against the side of her head as the other keeps holding my hand tight, holding to me like a life preserver.  “I-I’ll figure this out Donny.  We’ll get through this.  Okay?  We’re gonna be okay.”  She was saying those things as much to herself as to me though for the first time I am not sure she was really believing it.  “Maybe I could go back…ahh fuck.”  

My big sister, my savior and my hero, looked so very small and beaten down now sitting slumping in front of me on the floor.  Having so recently seen Evelyn’s plump healthy face I now notice the pallor of her skin and the dark circles beneath Kiki’s rich brown eyes.  Having so recently held Mom’s soft hand in mine I now feel how skinny and cold Kiki’s was.  Having so recently seen a woman rejuvenated by love and lust I now recognize the battered spirit before me.  Willfully or not I had been blind to it, but my sister was not well.  Even her great strength had its limits.

Sliding out of the chair I join her and take her petite slender body into my arms.  She rests her curly locks against my shoulder and hugs me back.  In silence we hold to each other, each borrowing strength from our family unity.  We’d been through hell together and we would find our way through this as well.  One way or another.

“I’m sorry I missed our shopping trip yesterday.”  Her body shudders.  “I didn’t mean to kid, I swear I didn’t mean to.”

“I know.”  I stroke her head in the same way Evelyn stroked mine, passing on the heartfelt care I received earlier to my sister.

“I let you down kid…I fucked it all up, again.”

“No…no Kiki.”  I kiss her head.  “You didn’t.”

“I love you so much Donny.  I’ll think of something kid.  I swear to you I will.”

“It’s okay Kiki.  As long as we’re…together…”  My words fade from my lips as what I was about to say hits me like a bullet.

“That’s right kid.  As long as we got each other.”  Kiki hugs me tighter.  “We’ll figure this out Donny.  We always do.”

As my tough as nails sister weeps softly in my arms the life I had been fantasizing about all day comes tumbling down around me like a house of cards.  I would be a submissive son and lover for the woman of my dreams but living with her wasn’t going to be an option.  My place was here with my real family.  I could not abandon Kiki now.  I would not leave my sister.  Not even for Evelyn.

Chapter 27