In Need of You

Chapter Eleven

"Hey, little one," Elisha said. He caught the running child in his arms and picked her up. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," Madeline said. "Where have you been for the past four days anyway?" She rolled her neck from side to side and held up four fingers.

"Oh, Lord Jesus! Here we go," Zora laughed. She looked at Sabrina and sat at the circular kitchen table. The yellow tones on the walls coincided with her yellow and white striped shirt she wore. "I knew it. I just knew it. Jennifer done infected this poor child."

"Grandma," Sabrina said, trying to contain her giggles. "It isn't that bad."

"Next thing you know, she's goin' to be trying to twerk. Just watch her," Zora said. 

Elisha placed Madeline on the floor, then kissed her on the side of the forehead. He watched her go to her mother and wrap her arms around Sabrina's neck. He smiled. Those two women meant the world to him. 

"Let's get your things together so we can go to Elisha's house, okay," Sabrina said, escorting the child by the hand to her room.

Zora watched Elisha sit at the table. A frown sat upon his brow.  "A lot is on your mind, I see."

"It is," he responded.

"Let me guess. You haven't told your father about you and Sabrina yet, haven't you."

Elisha smirked. "You're a mind reader, Ms. Zora."

"Whether he likes my baby or not, it's not up to him to make a call on your relationship," Zora said. She got up from the table and went to the refrigerator. She pulled out a pitcher of lemonade and took out two tumblers from the cabinet. "You're going to have to live with that." 

She sat the pitcher and two tumblers on the table. Zora eased back into her chair and poured the lemonade in both glasses. 

"Be honest with me, Ms. Zora," Elisha said. "Did you like me when you first met me?"

She handed him a glass before sipping some of the lemonade from her own glass. "Honestly, I did. I just thought you were going to run away, though. You seemed very jumpy."

He chuckled. "Really?!" He took a sip from his glass.

"I'm a seventy-seven-year-old woman," Zora said. She took another sip of her lemonade. "I call it how I see it."

"I respect that, Ms. Zora."

"You better had cause there's nothing changing with me. I'm too old."

Elisha grabbed Zora's hand and kissed it. "That's why I love you so much."

She smiled. "Elisha," she spoke. "Sabrina was eighteen years old when she met Tariq. At that time, her father, my son, was still living. He and I both saw something in him that we didn't like. He always avoided wanting to talk to Myles. He especially avoided talking to Edward," she said. Zora took another sip of her lemonade. Sucking up a piece of ice, she crunched on it. "You see, that boy always looked like he was up to something. Then, his ass went to jail for multiple petty thefts two after they had been dating. But, like her father, Sabrina kept giving him chance, after chance, after chance."

"Then what happened?"

"He got out a year later and knocked up her best friend. That's what he did. He told my baby that he thought it was her that he was having sex with. No, sir. Not my baby."

Elisha noticed the veins and frown lines appear across Zora's forehead as she spoke.  "So, when did Sabrina get pregnant by him?"

"A year later. Vanessa's son was a year old then. Sadly after my great grandbaby was born, that little limp dick muthafucker ran off like a dog in heat."