I turned a right at the corner from where Christy’s house was at. Even though I have never been to her house before I was very familiar with the town. I knew it very well and had been there many times before, my friend “Robert” used to live in that town and I used to visit him many times. But that was about 3-4 years ago when I was in elementary school. Robert was living with his mother and his grandfather. His grandfather, who was a very rich and wealthy man, had passed away. After he passed away Robert’s mother could not afford to pay for the mortgage anymore for the house, so they had to leave the house and move to a different state. I don’t know what state that is though; I haven’t seen or spoke to Robert in a different state. He did not even tell me that he was moving. I just stopped seeing him in class and coming to school. After a couple days of him not showing up I asked our teacher Mrs. Lovachen about him, and if she knew anything about Robert and where he had gone to. She just told me that Robert simply just withdrew from the class and that was all she knew. She then directed me towards a close friend of Robert in the class, Stuart, she said that I can talk to him and he would probably have more information about Robert.
I didn’t know Stuart, I didn’t even know that he was in the classroom with me, nor did I know that him and Robert were friends.
“Yeah, he moved up to Washington with his mom a few days ago.” Stuart said to me when I asked him
I crunched up my face in confusion. “Why he move all the way over there?” I asked Stuart.
He looked at me as he was putting on his back, it was at the end of the day and Stuart was preparing to leave school, along with everybody else in the classroom.
“Idk…” Stuart said to me.
“After his grandpop died, his mom had troubles paying for the crib, so they had to dip.” Stuart said to me as he began walking out of the classroom.
Stuart was telling me that the reason why Robert moved was because his mother could not afford to pay for the house mortgage after the grandfather passed away.
I didn’t say anything. I began thinking as to why Robert had told Stuart and not me. I always thought that me and Robert were really close friends and he would feel more comfortable telling me things like that, I guess not.
“Boat’s Barbershop”... A few blocks to the east of where Christy’s house was located at. Two barber chairs which two older fellows were seated in.
There was also a third empty chair to the front of where the first of the two chairs were at. I decided to head for that one quickly before anyone could occupy it.
I sat down on the all black APOLLO PROFESSIONAL BARBER CHAIR. I threw it to the floor next to me on the left hand side. I reclined back on the chair, a few seconds later one of the barbers walked slowly to the chair and picked up a red blanket that was laying to the side of the chair, he picked it up and wrapped it around my body.
“What you getting today youngin”? The man asked me, I lifted my head to see who he was.
I did. It was Jimmy, or Mr. Jim. He had been working in that barbershop for a while, Even though it’s very seldom that I go to that barbershop, every time that I there I always see him.
“Lemme just get a regular and light Jimmy.” I said to him as he walked behind the chair and place his hands on the lower head. I was telling him the type of haircut that I wanted to get. I was telling him that I just wanted the regular, which was a complete 360 degree haircut with the back faded out. I also told him to make it light, which meant that he should bring down the hair really low. That was normally when I got when I went to get a haircut. I had to make sure that he cuts my hair really low, because for some reason… The hair on my head always seems to grow fast. Not just my head, any hair on my grew at a really fast pace. I’ve always been like that, everything that was in my body was either too much, or too big. My feet were too big my hands were too big, I had a really huge height.
“Okay man got you.” Mr. Jim said to me as he turned the power on the clippers and he adjusted the chair with his right hand, it was a rotating spinning chair. He turned it so that I was facing him, then he reached over and began cutting hair. The entire process was split up in two, the cutting half which would take about 15 min.utes, that was when the barber would just work on the cutting of the hair down and nothing else. 15 minutes is maybe an estimate, it could take more or less in time depending on the quantity of the person’s hair. The other half of the entire process was the shaping up part, which normally took about 10 minutes. That was when the barber would work on the shaping up of the hair, he has to take his and be very meticulous while he does this.
About half an hour later I got up from the chair and Mr. Jim removed the blanket that was wrapped around me.
He then handed me a large mirror so that I can look at the haircut and see if I like it.
I looked in the mirror, then I nodded my head in approval. I reached in my pocket for the wallet in my side pocket and pulled out a $20 bill and gave it to him.
This morning at school I spent a total of $17 which left a remainder total of 33, from the $50 that my father had given me the previous night. Also I remembered that I had to put $12 aside to give to Joe for the dime bag that he gave me earlier. So I only had about $21 to spare. I gave Mr. Jim $20 and I picked up my bag and headed out the barbershop.
I had to now go home and inform my dad about the situation and there was one more thing that I had to do before the end day was over.
As I made a few turns to walk home I began looking up at the sky. The sun was still shining bright, covering up the horizon. Sunset wasn’t going to be for another two hours, so there were still plenty of time in the day, I liked that, there were still plenty of things that I had to accomplish before the end of the day.
As soon as I walked in my house the first thing that I noticed was the darkness that covered up the entirety of the living room. Cecilia was not downstairs, though I knew that she was home. It was only 5:30pm and she definitely had come home from school by now, maybe she was upstairs in her room. I almost forgot, I had to use some of the money that my dad gave me last night to buy some Oreos for Cecilia, because I stole some from her room. But I didn’t have any more money. The $50 that my father gave me last night was all gone.
I used about $17 for breakfast at school this morning, leaving me with about $33. I had to save $12 to give to Joe, for the dime bag that he had given me. Which left me with about $21, and I just got a haircut, which was about $20. I only had a quarter and some change left in my pocket.
I walked in the kitchen looking for my mother, she was not there. Only my father was there. He was sitting down on the table eating the cassava leaf that he made last night. As soon as he saw me he smiled.
“Jason!” My father said as I entered. He began to get up to come hug me. He quickly rose from the chair that he was seated in, and he walked over to where I was and he wrapped his arm around me.
He began rubbing my head, just like he was doing last night.
“You just came in?” He asked me as he let go of me and began straightening up my body and dusting my shirt.
“Yeah, but I’m about to go back out, I have to go to the library.” I said to my father.
“Oh ok.” My father said to me as he nodded his head.
“So how did it go?” My father folded his arm across his chest and asked me.
At first I didn’t know what he was talking about. I just stared at him blankly in the face for a few seconds as his arms were folded. Then after a couple seconds it came to me, I knew exactly what he was talking about.
“Oh! It went great, I asked her and she said yeah. At first she was hesitant because we’re both still really young, but after I told her that I really like her and I want for us to spend the rest of our life together she agreed. And I didn’t even have sex with her, I’m coming from her house now, I went there after football practice.” I said to my father, lying.
A big smile went across my father’s face. Then he rubbed my head the palm of his right hand as he continued to smile.
“That’s great Jason! See, I knew you could do it.” My father said to me in his funny Liberian accent.
“That was the hard part. Now when is the next time that you are going to talk to her?” My father then asked me.
I quickly thought of a lie, I didn’t want for him to know that I was going to go to her house again today.
“Tomorrow, in school.” I said to him.
“Okay that’s great. Now listen to me okay?” My father said to me as he placed his hands on my shoulders and looked at me directly in the eye. He gripped my shoulders tight as he held them. Whatever he was about to tell me was something of great importance, I had to listen very carefully. I looked at him back in the eye so that he can know that he has my full undivided attention.
“When you see her tomorrow tell her that I need to talk to her father or mother, ask her when will it be a good time for me to come talk to her parent. Ask her that okay?” My father said to me. I nodded my head in response.
My father did not let go of my shoulders, he kept holding them as he stared deeper into my eyes.
“And Jason…” He said to me again.
“Do not go to her house, until I talk to her parents okay?” My father said to me.
I quickly nodded my head in agreement to what my father was saying. Though I knew that I was inevitably going to go to her house again. My father did not want me to be alone with Christy and possibly fornicate, he did not know how much I have already crossed that line. I was going to go over to her house again, possibly later on today in the evening. I wanted to go to her house and fornicate with her. Idk what it was, but I like being around Christy, I like being inside her, I like when she called me daddy.
“I got you oldhead, I won’t.” I said to my dad as I kept nodding my head.
“You know where mom is? I gotta ask her something.” I said to my dad. I was asking him if he knew where my mother was at, there was something that I had to ask from her. I didn’t want to ask my father because he had already done it for me already and I didn’t want to bother him again.
My father let go of my shoulders and began pointing upstairs.
“Yeah, she just went upstairs, you want me to call her?” My father asked me.
I nodded my head really fast to my father, asking him to proceed and call my mother downstairs.
“LISA! LISA!” My father bellowed. A few seconds later my mom called from upstairs.
“YES! COMING!!” She hollered back.
Then my mother started treading down the steps upstairs and her face appeared in the kitchen. She was wearing an all blue long sleeve shirt that had its’ arms folded. She was wearing navy blue jeans and her hair was tied up on her head. It looked as if she was doing some type of work upstairs. Maybe she was packing, my mother always did that. Even when clothes don’t need to be packed or sorted out she will still do it. Not just in her room, but in mines or Cecilia’s room also. At times she would just randomly go in our room unannounced and start gathering clothes and folding and packing them.
My mother then saw me standing with my father as she walked in the kitchen. She walked over to where I was at and bent over slightly and gave me a peck on the cheek. That made me know that my mom was in a good mood and she was definitely going to agree to do what I was going to ask her.
I gave a big smile as my mom pulled her head away from me.
“Mom, I’m about to go to the library, I have to go to the store to buy Cecilia some Oreos, because I stole some from her room last night, can you please give me some money?” I quickly asked my mom as she stood in front of me.
My mother was not short; she was about average height for a woman her age. I was just really tall, I stood above her with about a foot and a half.
She quickly reached in her pocket and pulled out a $20 bill and gave it to me.
“Use the rest for lunch tomorrow okay.” My mother said to me as she handed me the $20 bill.
“Thanks mom!” I gave her a kiss on her head and began to run to the front door as I was heading to go to the “library”.
Joe’s house was about a 20 minute walk from my house. I now knew where it was at, since me and Jerry had gone there this morning. I had a really good memory; I only had to see something once in order for me to be familiar with it.
I knew that he most likely was not going to be in the basement that we were at this morning, so I went for the front door instead. There was an all black doorbell that was on the door, and it had a few scratches on it. I pushed it once. I waited for about a half a second, no answer. I pushed it two more times really fast, no answer. Then I decided to just forsake the doorbell and just pounding and knocking on the door myself. I made a fist with my hand and began pounding the door and knocking on it.
After about two seconds Joe appeared and opened the screen door and stepped out, as soon as he saw me he smiled.
“That jawn fresh! Who cut you?” He said to me as he placed his hand on my head and started to give it a better look. He was complimenting my haircut and asking me who gave it to me.
“Jimmy.” I told him as I gave a half smile in return.
“You don’t think it’s too low?” I said to him. I was asking him if he thought that the haircut was too low.
“Naw, that jawn chilling!” He said to me as he began to sit down on one of the chairs on the porch.
I reached in my pocket and pulled out $12 and gave it to him.
“Right here bruh, that jawn was some fire.” I said to him as I handed him the money. I was telling him that the dime bag he had given me was really good, and I really enjoyed it.
Joe took the money and put it in his pocket, then he began smiling as he looked at me.
“Glad you thought so bro.” Joe said.
I then pulled out $10 from the $20 bill that my mother had just given me and I handed it to Joe.
“Lemme get another one.” I said to Joe. I was asking him to give me another dime bag.
Joe gave a huge smile, even bigger than the first two that he gave me. He then reached in his pocket and pulled out a dime bag and gave it to me.
“This one even stronger than the first one that I gave you.” He said to me as he handed me the bag. I quickly took it and put it in my pocket. Then I asked him if he had another wrap. He told me to hold on and then he went inside of his house and he pulled out a wrap and gave it to me. I quickly took the wrap and put it in my pocket and began heading to Christy’s house.