Family Tithes

The Send-Off

"I'm sorry for y'all lost," Caesar coos behind me.

My body goes rigid hearing his voice so close to my ear. I didn't know if any of my brother's men would show up. That means somebody got my messages from Ace's phone. So where the fuck was he?

"Fuck you," Simon says, pushing past Caesar.

We watch him walk down the aisle and out of the church. I stand to follow him out but Caesar steps in front of me to stop me.

"Let him deal with this shit on his own Candyce," Caesar says.

I look up at him. How dare he tell me how the fuck to deal with my twin brother? And speaking of brothers where the fuck was Ace?

"Where the fuck is Ace?" I whisper at him.

Caesar's jaw locks. I wait for an answer but he doesn't seem like he's in a hurry to give me one.

"Where. Is. He?"

His fingertips move to graze my arms. I get goosebumps feeling him touch me, again. I look around the church to see if anybody was watching. Most people were crying or looking at the slideshow of Jonah that was playing above his casket. In the very back of the church, were Reese, Cam, a few of my brothers other men I met that day in the Loft but no Ace.

"He can't be seen around y'all right now."

"Fuck you mean he can't be seen around us? His little brother is dead because of him!" I say.

Some people look over at us. Caesar notices too. He leans closer to my ear.

"We not boutta do this right now. Let's just be here for Jonah, aight? He was like a lil brother--"

"Don't. Don't you dare compare our pain right now. He wasn't ya lil brother aight, Caesar? He wasn't. And I'm not ya sister and my mother ain't yours either! But you know whose little brother Jonah was? Ace. If you not gon tell me where the fuck he's at then get the fuck out my way so I can go find the brother who actually wants to be here."

Caesar stares down at me for a long while. I stare right back at him, unwavering. Finally, he drops his hands from my arms and moves out of my way. I push past him and head down the aisle. I hate to leave Mama and Paryis alone but I need to go find Simon before his rage land him in a damn jail cell somewhere.

I try to stalk past Reese and Cam but Reese catches me before I step outside of the church.

"Candyce," He calls.

I allow him to grab my arm and push me against the wall near the girl's restroom. More people are flooding inside of the church. Some people I recognize as people my father knew and others are unfamiliar. I wasn't surprised at the turnout Jonah's funeral was getting. New Orleans is really a small city. When one of us died, especially someone innocent, it's like the whole city felt it.

"What, Ty?" I say.

"How you feeling, ma? I just saw your brother run out here. I thought about stopping him but he looked like he was gonna snuff the shit out of me if I stopped him," He says.

"Reese, I don't have time for this," I try to push past him again but he pushes my shoulders back with barely any force.

"I'm sorry okay? I haven't talked to you since...you know and I wanted to check on you. You haven't been coming around though and I ain't know how to ask your brother for your number."

"Yeah I'm sure that would have went over well. Do you know where he is?"

Reese looks away from me. He tries to pull away from me but I grab him back by his black button-down shirt.