all I needed to say for Ching to know what and who I was referring to.
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Governor on the radio looking for his nephew that went missing July 31 st . His nephew’s name is Ron Johnson.”
“Let me call you back.”
Simone
♫ Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday! ♫
Many of Chance’s friends and some of the faculty that had grown close to him were in the cafeteria of Lexington House singing Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday” in front of a German chocolate cake lit with eighteen candles.
Though we were singing with smiling faces, Chance looked unhappy to be there. He stood next to me with his arm around my waist and head on my shoulders. For the past few weeks, he had become more and more comfortable being affectionate with me. I wondered was it lust or just coincidental because he was emotional about leaving a place and people that had raised him.
As we clapped and cheered for his eighteenth birthday and independence, it looked like Chance was fighting tears.
He barely let out, “Thanks, y’all,” with his head held low.
“This nigga trippin’! I would be happy to get out this…”
Quickly, I cut off Germaine, one of the other teens that was almost eighteen and on his way out of here. “Aye, watch your mouth!”
“I’m just sayin!”
I could only laugh at Germaine because he felt how I thought Chance should feel.
“You all packed up?”
Chance was leaving Lexington in a few days. He looked at me reluctantly as he sat at the cafeteria table. He took a plastic fork and began to jab at a piece of cake that someone put in front of him.
“I guess so,” he finally answered me.
Sitting beside him with my own cake, I asked him, “Why are you so scared of leaving?”
“I already told you. It’s crazy out there. Even crazier for a nigga with no money.”
“Chance, you’ve been out there. You live here, but you went to school out there. You hung out out there.”
“But I always had a place to come home to.”
“We aren’t just throwing you out there. We’re giving you somewhere to live.”
“For three more years, and then what? Then what am I going to do?”
“Chance, by then, you will be in school and working. You will have life figured out. You’re over reacting.”
“How do you know? What if I don’t? I barely graduated. What college gone let me in? I’m gone end up like these other niggas– on the corner trying to sell whateva I can to get by. I spent my entire life in here, having nothing and wondering where I belong, just to end up still tryin’ to figure out where I belong.”
I honestly felt sorry for him. I didn’t have an answer. The eerie part was that he looked at me so longingly and impatiently, actually waiting for me to give him one.
But all that I could assure him was that we would help him, that Lexington would always be there for him– especially me.
Tammy
Sleeping with Donte wasn’t right . There were other things that I needed to be focused on; like Jimmy. But there was little that I could do until he was caught. After that scare at the sports bar, I decided it would be best to stay in the house until the police arrested him.
Being
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Governor on the radio looking for his nephew that went missing July 31 st . His nephew’s name is Ron Johnson.”
“Let me call you back.”
Simone
♫ Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday! ♫
Many of Chance’s friends and some of the faculty that had grown close to him were in the cafeteria of Lexington House singing Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday” in front of a German chocolate cake lit with eighteen candles.
Though we were singing with smiling faces, Chance looked unhappy to be there. He stood next to me with his arm around my waist and head on my shoulders. For the past few weeks, he had become more and more comfortable being affectionate with me. I wondered was it lust or just coincidental because he was emotional about leaving a place and people that had raised him.
As we clapped and cheered for his eighteenth birthday and independence, it looked like Chance was fighting tears.
He barely let out, “Thanks, y’all,” with his head held low.
“This nigga trippin’! I would be happy to get out this…”
Quickly, I cut off Germaine, one of the other teens that was almost eighteen and on his way out of here. “Aye, watch your mouth!”
“I’m just sayin!”
I could only laugh at Germaine because he felt how I thought Chance should feel.
“You all packed up?”
Chance was leaving Lexington in a few days. He looked at me reluctantly as he sat at the cafeteria table. He took a plastic fork and began to jab at a piece of cake that someone put in front of him.
“I guess so,” he finally answered me.
Sitting beside him with my own cake, I asked him, “Why are you so scared of leaving?”
“I already told you. It’s crazy out there. Even crazier for a nigga with no money.”
“Chance, you’ve been out there. You live here, but you went to school out there. You hung out out there.”
“But I always had a place to come home to.”
“We aren’t just throwing you out there. We’re giving you somewhere to live.”
“For three more years, and then what? Then what am I going to do?”
“Chance, by then, you will be in school and working. You will have life figured out. You’re over reacting.”
“How do you know? What if I don’t? I barely graduated. What college gone let me in? I’m gone end up like these other niggas– on the corner trying to sell whateva I can to get by. I spent my entire life in here, having nothing and wondering where I belong, just to end up still tryin’ to figure out where I belong.”
I honestly felt sorry for him. I didn’t have an answer. The eerie part was that he looked at me so longingly and impatiently, actually waiting for me to give him one.
But all that I could assure him was that we would help him, that Lexington would always be there for him– especially me.
Tammy
Sleeping with Donte wasn’t right . There were other things that I needed to be focused on; like Jimmy. But there was little that I could do until he was caught. After that scare at the sports bar, I decided it would be best to stay in the house until the police arrested him.
Being
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