Neriah
We got out and walked up the driveway to the house.
I dug in my jacket and grabbed my keys to unlock the door. My mom was coming down the stairs with her duster in her hand.
"Hey ma."
"Hi. I just put Noah down before I started cleaning." Jacq said hi to my mom and then gave me a look before heading up the stairs.
"Mom can I talk to you for a second?"
"Of course." She sat the duster on the stairs and lead me to the kitchen where she had coffee brewing.
Third person
"Where's everyone else?" Mira asked.
"Uh jacq and I took a separate cars." Neriah sat at the island across from her mother.
"Why what happened?"
"Daddy was just being himself." Mira nodded in understanding.
"So what ya wan' talk 'bout?"
Riah took a small breath trying to calm her nervous. "I think I want this to be the last time I come back to Detroit."
"What ya mean? I fly to ya, if coming here is a problem." Mira grabbed two coffee cups out the cabinet.
"No mom not like that." She sat the cups down and turned to Riah.
"What'cha mean than?" Mira put a hand on her hip.
"As in I don't wanna be apart of this family anymore. I wanna separate myself."
"You bein' ridiculous. Course ya do." She put coffee in both cups and pulled creamer and a tin full of sugar out the pantry.
"I can't deal with daddy and anymore. And you..... You never stick up for yourself or me. You let daddy walk all over you."
Mira laughed. "No I don't."
"Yes you do. You didn't go the hospital because you had to clean the whole house. From the black stain on your apron I can tell you shined and polished all his shoes, did all his laundry, washed the walls, you probably making something for him right now." As if on que the oven beeped. "When he walks through this door, you won't say a word. You'll take his bags up stairs and make sure his chair has a glass of sweet tea next to it in the living room with ten ice cubes just how he likes it. He'll come in and sit and then start telling me about myself. You'll stand there and watch. You won't stop him though. He'll keep on talking and when he's done he'll start on you. He'll tell you, you missed a spot somewhere and you'll clean it, even though there was nothing there. I can't keep coming up here to only witness the same things over and over again." Riah swallowed back the knot in her throat as the urge to cry came.
Mira stood there with a blank face. She didn't know how to respond.
"I can't keep watching him destroy your life if he already hasn't."
"He's not destroying my life Riah." Mira sat the cup down in front of her.
"Bullshit." Neriah said making her mother gasp. "You fix, clean, make, bake, watch, do, see, hear, sleep, whatever or whenever he says. I'm sure you have hopes and dreams just like the rest of us. And I'm sure being your husband's maid wasn't one of them. I'm sure it hurts to see me and shyan out living our lives while your have to stay at home and play house keeper."
Mira reached across the island and smacked Riah a crossed the face. Neriah swung over and smacked her ten times harder.
"You not about to start putting your hands on me because I'm speaking the truth."
