I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

6

FOURTEEN YEARS LATER

"Christopher! Wake up, loser if you wanna go to this concert tonight! Auntie Teresa said we got chores to do before we go tonight." I rolled over to look at my alarm clock to see it was ten in the morning. "If mama comes home and sees you're still asleep she's gonna-" "I'm up, Amiyah, damn." I sat up and stood out of my bed to see my room was cleaned up. "Hey, what the-" "Mom cleaned your room. She was looking for your porn magazines." "I don't have any-" "Look, I don't care what you have, but tonight we're going to the Prince concert at the U.S. Bank Stadium and I practically have to escort you around because you're my little brother." I rolled my eyes walking past her to the kitchen. I was a lot shorter than her, but I just hadn't hit my growth spurt yet according to mama.

"I can go by myself." "You've never gone to a concert in your life and I have. Mama might be coming with us, but she doesn't know if she can get off early." I went into the kitchen to get the cereal off of the refrigerator. "And...I need your help." Amiyah said. I stood on my tip toes to get a bowl and took the cereal with me to the table. "What?" "I broke my cross necklace, and if you help me fix it I'll give you that frame for your new Prince poster." I smirked as I started pouring the cereal. "That's why you woke me up early. Last night I was trying to learn how to play the solo of I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man. You know that's the song that-" "That started his career, yes. I've heard this from you a thousand times little brother."

Suddenly the phone rang and Amiyah ran to answer it in the living room. "Hello?" Amiyah was walking around in the living room pacing. "Hey, mama...yeah he's awake....What?!" I saw her get surprised as I was slowly chewing on my Trix trying to figure out what was going on. I scratched my short hair. "Okay!....Yeah I'll tell him....okay, bye!" Amiyah slammed the phone down. "Chris, mama got us back stage tickets to meet Prince after the concert." I dropped my spoon causing milk to spill onto myself and the table. "What? How?!" "I dunno but I'm not gonna argue. Hurry up and eat breakfast because when Aunt Teresa comes back we gotta clean up around here."

I practically scarfed my cereal and got dressed hoping that my Prince t-shirt wouldn't get ruined in the process of cleaning. When I was washing the dishes, I came to the realization that mama never comes in my room or ever cleans my room. "Amiyah." I called for her. She came into the room wearing a bandana forward over her Afro like Prince did in the nineties. "What?" "Why did you clean my room?" I asked as I was drying my hands off. "I didn't. Mama did." She said as she handed me her necklace. She never took it off and she's had it since she was little according to what mama and Auntie Teresa said. We sat on the couch as I saw the necklace had snapped right at the clasp.

"What happened? Did Carson rip it off when you were making out with him?" "No!....well, please just fix it and don't tell mama." I sighed and leaned back trying to unhook the last bit of chain with my nail. That's when the door opened and Auntie Teresa walked in. "Amiyah, Christopher, did you do your chores?" She asked. "Yes, ma'am." Amiyah and I said together. I was fully concentrated on trying to fix Amiyah's necklace. "Chris, I got you something." I glanced at her. "Give me just a second, Auntie." I slipped the clasp onto the last bit of chain and tightened it with my finger as best as I could before handing the necklace to my sister. "There you go, Amiyah. I hope it doesn't break again." I said to her. Amiyah put it on and I stood to walk over to Auntie Teresa before sitting next to her.

"Since you got A's and B's on your report card, I thought I'd buy you something that you could wear to the concert." I was excited and she reached into her bag to pull out a Love Symbol necklace that was identical to his silver chain, but with Diamonds in it. They weren't real diamonds, but the necklace had some weight to it. "Whoa...that's...this is so cool! It looks just like his! Thank you!" Auntie Teresa smiled. "It's the least I could do." She said. I put it on and grinned at the medallion. "You better go do your hair. You know how long it takes you to get ready." I rolled my eyes and went to the bathroom.