Hidden Valley (D. SWING)

XII. The Other Mother

"Javon!"

He sat in his bed with his legs crossed at the ankles. He's been rapping to this honey for two days straight about how beautiful she is. He'd been pushing to get the ultimate teenage boy prize, without the knowledge that she is not a virgin, of course. It's okay, he'll figure it out eventually. Used cars are still drivable.

Ananda, his mother, asked him to take the trash out when he'd returned to his place of residence following up intense football practice. Javon had other things in mind. He decided to shower. He decided to shower, get in bed, and call up the one girl he'd met at an away game against the Potter S. Feldman Titans. In the back of his mind, he knows he should take the trash out... yet, he will not. Why do chores when you can work up the anticipation of getting a regular ol' tenderloin all alone? Teenage priorities are in place.

Approaching his door, Ananda calls out once more. "Javon!" She reaches for the locked door and pulls on the handle. Javon hears her and he is ignoring her. Nobody is about to ruin his chances of diving deep into the seas of Maya McGee. "Open this door, boy!" Taking her sincerity into consideration, he requests that Maya hold on for a second. Javon rises, walking across the room to open the door, allowing his mother granted access into his personal space that happens to be very sacred to him. Ananda enters and the first thing she says is, "I thought I told you to take that trash out, Javon?"

"I forgot," he nonchalantly admits. "I'll do it when I finish this phone call, Mom. No problem."

"No, you'll do it now because I asked you to."

It is now that his face contorts into a puzzled expression. He takes one step back from his mother's bodily radius, left hand rubbing up and down his right forearm. "Mom," he begins to do something that he is guilty of passing on to Cynthia. "You can't just come in Big Mama house giving orders. I get it if we were back at your house but, I'm at home. Big Mama hasn't said anything so, why are you?" He has spoken far too much out of a child's place against his mother.

Ananda utters not a single response.

Instead, she walks over to the phone that has been carried to Javon's room. Placing the receiver to her ear, she calmly states, "This is Javon's mother. He has to go. He will call you back later, sweetheart." She places the phone on the line and her palms directly up on her hips. "I have had enough of you and this damn disrespect. I won't tolerate it! I am your mother! I did not go into labor for twenty-two hours to push out a big headed lil' boy who don't respect his mama!"

"Mom, I do respect you," Javon interjects.

Ananda's perfectly manicured index finger points in his direction at an instant. "You don't!" She snaps. "You are the most disrespectful child in this house. Your sister's got some respect and decency in her heart. She understands that I am her mother and she treats me well. You, on the other hand, mister, you lack respect for your mother. The woman who brought you into this world. I knew the day you left that airport."

It was July 1, 1986. Cynthia had just touched down in North Carolina and was not even blessed to come within hindsight of her bed. She was high off of the California sun and coming to accept the fact that she had to first go on to South Carolina to visit her family for an entire two and a half weeks before returning back to her home of Hidden Valley. One upside had been that she would see her brother once again.

The idea of Cynthia traveling this often back to back without any kind of break between drew red flags for Javon. When expressing his concerns, his tone of voice was far from appreciated by Ananda and an argument arose within the center of the airport. Cynthia nearly fell to her knees when she'd heard Javon holler; Fine, I'll go back home with Big Mama then. Her knees grew even weaker when she'd noticed her mother did not even fix herself to chase after her son, as did Javon's as he looked over his shoulder once he'd reached the door and saw that Cynthia was the only of the two looking back at him with the hopes of him changing his mind to return.