Just Another Secret.

Chapter 57

Kahlil

Keisha left her phone at my house so I realized all my texts were going nowhere pretty quickly.

I got a call from the hospital and she filled me in on what's going on. I know she's putting on a front.

She spends a few days in the hospital with her mom where they argued a bit more. Mostly over the fact that Keisha cannot say goodbye to her dad the way she wants to. There will be a military service and he will be buried in the armed forces cemetery... beside his mother.

I'm currently talking to Dad. It's been a while and I know he thinks I'm avoiding him. So as we do some work we are video chatting.

"Dad, my grades are fine. Yes, I know how dangerous it was to swim, but I had to okay? It's the only thing that's normal right now. There's a lot going on."

"Okay, I'll let it go. Now. Do you think your mom is being weird lately—"

"She wants another child." I just say it. "I know she'd never tell you. Now you know."

He sounds so confused. "What do you mean she wants another child?"

"I mean she asked me more than once on my opinion about having another sibling. I told her I don't mind, but I wouldn't want Tatum to feel left out."

"Why would Tatum feel left out?"

I roll my eyes. "Dad, he is the lightest member of the family. Sooner or later he will have questions. He might start asking you to stop cutting his hair. He may realize his curls aren't as tight his eyes aren't as brown. His skin isn't as black—"

"Kahlil!"

"I'm telling you the truth—"

"There are ways to tell the truth without judgement reeking from your words."

"Well I'm sorry. I'm not over the fact that you planned on going against your wife with a white woman. You don't see how that puts Mom in a tough spot. Do you not see the world today? It's like you told her she's not good enough. That she has to work that much harder to keep you. White woman can do what black women do and be praised. She has to work ten times harder to get the same praise."

"I made a mistake Kahlil. I know what I did, but please I ask—"

"I know you made a mistake but it still doesn't help that she refuses to take straight male clients alone. It doesn't help that she has no male friends. It doesn't help that she wouldn't even talk to my male teachers without me present.

"She did that for you. So you had no doubt. Probably because when I was eight you called and told me to spy on Mom because she has the name Mitchel in her contacts. It was a client. It was a last name. It was a woman. Two women Dad! Sisters! You just didn't know the phone was on speaker because sometimes when you talk to her, no a lot of the time when you talk to her she has the phone on speaker.

"You don't see all the stuff she does for you! Everyone leaves her! You left her! Even though you are gone she does everything in her power to make you stay because she doesn't want to let go of the one person who was there for her when the people she wanted refused!"

The line is silent.

I finish up a page before looking up.

He's looking at the camera. I see my reflection. Mom is behind me.

You've got to be kidding me.

I turn back. "Mom—"

She walks.

I end the call and chase after her.

Instead of slapping me. She shoves me. Probably because of my head.