"Jaime? Jaime Clarke. Is that you?" A voice that sounded familiar called my name. I looked up from the book I was looking at to see who was calling me. A woman came up to me and Mom as we were doing some grocery and Christmas shopping at Target. Marvel was sitting in the shopping cart. The woman had a little kid with her. I recognized him immediately. Charlie. The little kid from the foster home where I spent the first night after my mom died.
"It is you," she smiled at me. "I thought so."
"Hi," I said.
"Jaime?" Mom asked.
"Oh, Mom, this is Mrs. Kingston. She's the foster mom I spent the first night with after my mom died," I explained. Mom nodded.
"How are you doing?" Mrs. Kingston asked. Charlie was kind of hiding behind her.
"I'm okay," I said.
"I've read about you in the papers a few times. Who would have thought who your dad turned out to be, huh?" She smiled at me.
"Yeah. Oh, this is my mom, Meagan, and my little sister, Marvel. Marvel, that guy is Charlie. He tried to be nice to me when my mama died and I wasn't very nice to him," I said. I looked at Charlie, who was sort of hiding behind Mrs. Kingston. "Sorry, kid."
Charlie peered at me.
"Well, you'd suffered quite a shock," Mrs. Kingston said. "I'm sure Charlie understands, right Charlie?"
Charlie nodded from behind Mrs. Kingston.
"I hear you've had quite an interesting year so far," Mrs. Kingston said.
"You could say that," I said.
"But you're doing well? I heard you were sick," Mrs. Kingston said.
"I'm doing much better, thanks," I said. Mrs. Kingston smiled at me.
"It looks like you landed with a good family, hmm?" She said, looking at Marvel, smiling and then smiling at Mom. Mom smiled back.
"Yeah. My dad turned out to be pretty cool," I smiled. She smiled at me.
"I would say so," she laughed. "Well, we won't bother you any more. I saw you, I thought it was you and I just wanted to say hi."
"Thanks," I smiled. "And Charlie, I'm really sorry I was mean to you."
Charlie shrugged.
"You were sad. I think you're happier now," he said quietly. I smiled at him.
"I am. You're right," I said. "But I was mean to you and it wasn't your fault. So, I guess I just wanted to apologize."
I offered my fist for a fist bump.
Charlie smiled shyly and moved out from behind Mrs. Kingston. He lightly bumped fists. I smiled at him.
"We cool?" I asked. Charlie shrugged and nodded.
They said goodbye again and went to do their shopping. Mom watched them walk away.
"You never talked about that first night. Before you met with your dad and came home," Mom said.
"Not much to talk about, really," I said, as we started towards the groceries. "I was mad, scared, sad. I didn't want to believe my mom was gone. I didn't want to meet my dad because as far as I knew, he'd had to have known about me, and he just bailed for 15 years."
"Jaime, you know that isn't true," Mom said.
"I know that now. I didn't know that then. All I knew was I couldn't keep my mom alive, and now she expected me to go live with some deadbeat who was suddenly going to become a great dad?"
"You were so angry when you came home to us," Mom said. I hung my head, shrugged and nodded. She put her arm around me.
"It's okay, Jaime. You didn't know what had happened," she finished.
"When he turned into Beverley Hills, I got so pi-peeved," I said. Mom's head turned as she checked that I hadn't stuttered. I hadn't. I just didn't think Marvel needed to learn 'pissed off' yet.
"Why?" She asked.
"Because it's Beverley Hills. He's rich. Mom, Tanya I mean. Well, we weren't poor. But we weren't rich. Mom struggled some financially. It's sort of how I wound up hanging with Frank and Justin. Emmanuel knew what our finances were like. His mom and mine made about the same amount, I guess. So I started running with Frank and Justin, and Frank would help us out. He'd make sure we got fed, and sometimes helped us with a little cash now and then."
"Jaime, were you in a gang?" Mom asked. I looked at her.
"No. I mean, not a gang... gang like the Bloods and Crips. We didn't go around beating people up or having rivalries with other groups. We were just," I sighed. "Frank did something with hubcaps. That's pretty much the worst we ever did. At least that I was involved in."
"But Jaime, Emmanuel got killed because of Frank. What happened there?"
"I don't really know," I said. "I didn't think any of them ever carried a gun. I never saw one."
Mom frowned. I don't think she was mad, I think she was thinking.
We finished the shopping, and went to pay and head back home. Marvel had been pretty quiet.
We got back into the car and started heading home.
When we pulled into the driveway, Marvel started whining.
"What's the matter, baby?" Mom asked.
"I don't feel good," Marvel said.
Mom hopped out of the car and got Marvel out of her seat right away. She felt her forehead and I saw her frown. Then Marvel threw up.
"Oh, baby, I'm sorry. I didn't know you felt that bad!" Mom said, trying to calm a crying Marvel.
"I'll bring the groceries in," I said. "Marvel, I think you need pyjamas and Frozen."
Marvel nodded from Mom's arms.
"If you don't mind putting away the groceries, I'll get Marvel and myself cleaned up and we'll see what's what," Mom said to me.
"Okay," I agreed, grabbing a handful of grocery bags. Mom went upstairs and I started putting things away. My phone beeped with a text. Once I had all the groceries put away and the bags stashed in the laundry room, I checked my phone and froze.
"You think you're such a big shot now? Living up in BH? You're still one of us. And we're going to make sure you don't forget."
Frank. Fuck.
"Jaime? You okay?" Mom asked as I put my phone away.
"Uh, yeah. Fine," I said. She peered at me, but with Marvel in her arms and not feeling well, she was more focussed on her.
"I'm going to go sit outside for a bit, okay?" I said.
"Yeah. That's fine. You're sure you're okay?"
"Yeah. I am," I said. Mom nodded and I went outside into the back yard. I walked towards some benches that were around a fire pit and sat down. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and reread Frank's text.
How serious was he? What did he want?
I was going to have to deal with this before Dad found out.
I responded.
"Frank, I'm done. Leave me alone," I responded. Not exactly threatening but hopefully Frank would be rational.
"You're still my boy. You're always one of my boys,"
I don't want to be one of his boys. I put my phone down and my face in my hands. I sighed. I'd have to handle this. Before Dad finds out. I sighed and put my face in my hands. They don't know where we live, do they? No way.
"Jaimie," Dad's voice interrupted my thoughts. I shoved my phone in my pocket.
"Hey, Dad," I said.
"Everything okay? Mom said you seemed a bit off when you guys got home," he said, coming outside and sitting beside me on the lounge chair.
"Yeah. Everything's fine," I said, quickly. "I was just thinking. It was weird. We ran into the lady from the foster home where I spent the first night after Mom - Tanya - died."
"Oh. Yeah. Meagan said something about that. Are you okay? Did she bring up anything that upset you? You know, like about your mom or anything?"
"No," I said. "I was just thinking. Is Marvel okay? Is she feeling any better?"
I thought if I changed the subject, Dad wouldn't be able to pry too much.
"She's okay. She's got a bit of a fever, and Meagan's keeping an eye on that. She's currently curled up on the couch under a blanket watching Frozen," he smiled.
"I think I'll go keep her company," I said, getting up and heading towards the house.
"Just be careful, Jaime. You don't want to get sick, too. You're still building your immunity back," Dad said. I nodded.
"Jaime," Dad said again.
"Yeah?" I said, turning around.
"You're sure there's nothing bothering you? You can talk to me about anything, son," he said. I nodded.
"It's fine. I'm fine," I reiterated.
"If you're sure," Dad said, "But like I said. You can talk to us about anything."
I went into the house and over to where Marvel was curled up, her head on a sofa cushion and the rest of her curled up under a Minions blanket.
"How are Elsa and Anna?" I asked her. She looked over at me. She had dark circles under her eyes and was pale.
"Hi, Jaime," she said in a quiet, weak voice.
"Hey Mar. Can I watch with you?" I asked. She nodded and I sat down, picked her up and cuddled her into me while I lay down on the couch as well.
"Jaime?" Marvel said.
"Yeah?"
"I have headache," she said.
"I bet. You're really warm," I said.
"I cold," she whined and I pulled the blanket tighter and wrapped my arms around her