Thirsty 2 by Mike Sanders, Nuance Art Page A

mother’s friends. As Justice stared at the younger man beside Carlos, she squinted.  I know that ain’t Warren lookin’ all grown an’ shit .  The last time she had seen him he was running behind Carlos and his boys, begging to get into trouble.
    Because of her charitable work in the community and how well known Mrs. Evans was, the church was packed beyond capacity. The doors were opened and Sapphire and Justice were ushered in first. They were led to the front of the church where the casket was. Once in front of the casket, the reality of her mother being gone washed over Sapphire like a riptide. She lost it! Justice tried her best to hold her up. Through the tears, Sapphire managed to look down inside the open casket and saw her mother’s still face. Sapphire’s emotions were so overwhelming; she could no longer contain the vomit that was coming up from her stomach. She threw up everywhere.
    ***
    Justice and Sapphire stepped foot into the limo to go the burial ground where her mother would be buried. The family had opted to give Sapphire her space and the driver put up the privacy screen so Sapphire wouldn’t be disturbed. She and Justice sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity before Sapphire finally spoke. She looked up at Justice and sniffled. “When I go, I wanna go in peace. I don’t wanna have any regrets and I don’t wanna hold any animosity. I wanna have a free heart . . . just like I know my mamma did. I’mma be all right because I know where she at. She up there rejoicing right now.” Sapphire let a weak smile splay across her lips as she looked toward the roof of the car. She blew her nose into a handkerchief and then looked back over at Justice. “It took me a minute to forgive Carlos, but I did and I think you should, too.”
    Oh, here she goes with this forgiveness shit, Justice harped in her mind as she thought about how nice and friendly Sapphire and Carlos had been toward one another. It was as if she had forgotten all that he had done to her. Something just didn’t seem to click with that shit. “I’ll work on it,” Justice nonchalantly replied as she looked out the limo window.
    Just then, Sapphire’s phone rang. She looked down and saw a number with a 305 area code. Now is not the time , she thought then pushed the ignore button and told Justice “Look at it this way.” Sapphire sniffled a little. “You still wanna get Tan, right?”
    Justice was astonished by how fast Sapphire wanted to talk about revenge when she was just talking about forgiveness. Nevertheless, Justice would rather talk about murdering Tan than thinking about Ms. Evans being minutes away from being stuffed in a hole forever. And if this meant getting her girl’s mind off of it for a minute then she had no problem continuing the conversation. “Yeah, you know I want that bitch.”
    “Carlos told me that he still deals with Tan, even though she ain’t his main supplier anymore.”
    Justice sat up. “Oh really?”
    “We talk. Carlos tells me a lotta things. Just like a man to tell all his business. Sometimes, I think he tells me more than he realizes. A spiteful bitch would . . .” She cut her sentence short. “Neva mind. But anyway, I think he’s still tryna convince me to forgive him, not believing that I already have.”
    Justice smiled as she realized that her ex-boyfriend might really be trying to make amends. If all else failed, he would at least be her best option to get to Tan. Therefore, she decided that it might be worth getting close to Carlos to get to her goal.
    After a short ride to the burial site, the limousine stopped. Justice looked out of the window and saw the rain still falling and the tent set up in preparation for where the services were going to be. She looked at Sapphire, glad to see that she was more composed than at the church.
    Their door opened and a hand reached in and Sapphire stepped outside. Justice followed and realized that her hand was in Carlos’s. They walked