Southern Comfort Read online

  3

  “Sydni, have you seen your sister?” Sydni’s mother asked loudly through the phone. It was Friday evening and Sydni was more than ready to go home. She had taken her last final this morning and was glad that the semester was finally over. She didn’t know how she had made it these last two months with her brother being gone, but she had. Sydni had to admit that she’d thought about quitting school on more than one occasion after Aaron died, but she had to get her degree. She owed that much to his memory. He had promised her that if she made it through Brooklyn Community College he would make sure she would be able to finish her studies at Spelman. Now, he was gone and she wasn’t even excited about her upcoming graduation on Sunday.

  Then there was Magic. Her sister seemed to have lost her mind these days. She had begun staying out late at night, barely making it in before the sun came up. At first, no one seemed to notice because they were all mourning in their own way. But it was now apparent that Magic was taking it to a whole new level. Granted, she was eighteen now, but their mother still demanded respect in her household, and that meant coming in a whole lot earlier than Magic had been.

  “No, Mama. Did you try her cell phone?” Sydni asked, not wanting her mother to worry.

  “Her voice mail keeps coming up.” She could hear the annoyance in her mother’s voice.

  “Her battery is probably dead, Ma. That’s all.”

  “It always seems to be dead when I call it. I don’t even know if she came home last night, do you? I swear, I just don’t know what I’m gonna do with her. They called and said she ain’t show up for work again. She don’t wanna go to school. She won’t keep a job. If your brother was here—”

  “I’ll talk to her, Ma. I promise,” Sydni said. The bell rang, alerting her that someone had entered the dry cleaning shop. She turned to see Mr. Davis, the owner, walking in and several customers at the counter. “Ma, I gotta go.”

  “Is Joe there? Tell him to call me when he gets a chance.”

  “I will, Ma. See you when I get home.” Sydni quickly hung the phone back on the wall. She could feel Mr. Joe’s eyes taking in every move she made and avoided facing him.

  “Evenin’, Sydni,” his raspy voice greeted her.

  “Hi, Mister Joe,” she said. She took her time helping the customers so she wouldn’t have to be alone with him.

  “Was that your mother you were speaking with?”

  “Yes,” she answered without looking up. “She wants you to call her when you get a chance.”

  “I sure will. I’m taking her out to Dempsey’s tonight for dinner,” he said.

  “Really? That’s nice. She needs to get out.” Sydni finished with her last customer and took a seat on the stool she kept behind the register.

  “I know. I made reservations for eight o’clock. You have the deposit ready for me?” She could feel him as he walked up behind her, and she tensed up. This was one of the reasons she disliked him. He was always up on her.

  “The bank bag is in the safe already. The deposit slip is already made out,” she replied. He was so close that she could smell the scent of his cologne. She could not believe his ass still wore Grey Flannel.

  “Let me get some bills out of here.” He reached across her, opening the register. She quickly jumped off the stool to get out of his way, nearly falling down in the process. Mr. Joe smiled as he reached to catch her by the arm, his hand brushing against her breast in the process.

  “Be careful, Sydni,” he said cynically. The look he gave let her know that the feel had not been an accident on his part, and she shivered at the thought. She looked at his fat face, with his salt-and-pepper beard and moustache and his bushy eyebrows. She could not see what her mother saw in him.

  The bell rang again and Sydni was damn near overjoyed to see Byron walking through the door.

  “Quitting time, guys.” He smiled. Sydni looked at the clock and saw that it was indeed six o’clock.

  “Hey, Byron. I’m ready right now.” She smiled and scurried past Mr. Joe.

  “How are you, Mister Joe?” Byron asked in his usual friendly manner.

  “Fine, Byron. Sydni, I need to see you in the back for a moment.” Mr. Joe motioned toward the back of the store. Sydni looked at Byron.

  “Go ahead, Sydni. I can wait right here.” He grinned. Wrong answer, Jerk, was all she thought of as she walked past the racks of neatly pressed items to Mr. Joe’s office. The smell of starch and plastic filled her nose as she tried to figure out what the hell he wanted to see her about. She entered his small office behind him, making sure the door stayed open. He reached into the briefcase that was on top of the cluttered desk and handed her an envelope.

  “I was going to give this to you on Sunday, but I decided to go ahead and let you have it now.”

  “Thanks,” she said, confused by the gesture.

  “It’s your graduation gift. You are graduating, aren’t you?” He licked his lips as he asked her. She took a step back.

  “Yeah, I am.”

  “Open it.” He smiled. She carefully opened the yellow envelope and read the card congratulating her. As she opened it, she could see several bills peeking from the inside. She glanced up and saw him taking a step toward her.

  “I, uh . . .”

  Sydni didn’t know whether to continue opening the card or get the hell out.

  “Go on, read it.”

  She opened the card and her mouth fell open as she realized that each of the bills had the face of Benjamin Franklin and there were a lot of them. She was speechless. So much so that she hadn’t realized how close he was until he spoke.

  “Did you read the signature?”

  She shifted the money so she could read what it said.

  “Love, your future stepfather?” Sydni read aloud. She could hear her heart beating in her head and tried to clear her thoughts.

  “Yes, Sydni. Your mother has been through so much these past couple of months and I have realized how important she and you girls are to me. I want to be there for you all always. I want us to be close. I want us to be one big, happy family.” He put his arms around her and pulled her to him. She could feel his face in her hair as he rubbed her back. She tensed her body and then she felt it. It was subtle, but she knew what it was, that small pressure against her thigh, poking her through his pants. This perverted bastard has a hard-on! She pushed away from him and nearly bum-rushed Byron as she ran out the store. I gotta get the hell away from this city, was all she could think about.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Sydni demanded when she got home. Magic was sitting on the edge of her bed, painting her toenails like nothing was wrong.

  “What the fuck is your problem?”

  “My problem is you! Why didn’t you carry your ass to work today, Miriam? They calling the house, getting Ma all upset. Did your ass even come home last night?”

  “Why is she upset? That job was whack as hell anyway. It wasn’t like I was making any real money.” Magic gently blew her feet.

  “That’s not the goddamn point. It was a fucking job. And answer the other questions. Where the hell were you and why didn’t you come home last night?” Sydni began pacing the floor, still fuming from her perverted encounter with Mr. Joe.

  “I was out! Damn, can’t a sistah go out and chill? Just cuz you ain’t got a nigga and you ain’t getting none, don’t mean that everybody ain’t.” Magic looked at Sydni, wishing someone would hurry up and give her some dick so she would loosen up. If it wasn’t a shame, she would even advise Byron to screw Sydni. Dick was dick, no matter what color it was. Long as you know how to throw it.

  “Shut the hell up, Magic. And I mean that shit. I ain’t in the mood.”

  “What has you so pissed? And don’t say it’s me, either.”

  “Did you know Mister Joe is gonna propose to Ma?”

  “For real? That’s nice.” Magic reached on her dresser and grabbed the polish remover along with some cotton balls, then began on her fingers. Sydni sn
atched the cotton balls from her sister and looked her in the face.

  “What the hell do you mean, nice? Have you noticed the way he looks at you?”

  “He looks the way any other man looks at me. I’m fine as hell, so I’m used to it.” She reached for another cotton ball and continued to take off her polish.

  “Bullshit. That man is nasty and trifling and I am not gonna let him marry my mother,” Sydni said matter-of-factly.

  “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that’s not your decision to make. Mama loves him. With everything that has been going on around here, he’s been right there for her.”

  “Then, to top it off, the motherfucker tried to bribe me. Gave me a graduation card with a grand cash and signed it your future stepfather. Like I was supposed to be impressed.” Sydni finally sat down next to her sister. She brushed her long hair out of her face and sighed.

  “Shit! I’m impressed. I can’t stand his overstuffed ass, but a grand?” When she heard this bit of news, Magic put down the cotton balls and remover and perked up. “Damn, maybe I should go to school.”

  “Please, your ass barely graduated high school,” Sydni teased. The phone rang but Magic grabbed it before Sydni could.

  “Hello. Hey. Yeah, everything’s cool. Yeah, at two o’clock on Sunday. I wasn’t out there with them. Who told you that, D?” Magic giggled in the phone.

  Sydni frowned and rolled her eyes at Magic when she heard D’s name. She could not believe Magic was telling him about the graduation like that nigga cared.

  She turned and left Magic’s bedroom without saying another word. She went into the kitchen, roaming for something to eat, even though she wasn’t really hungry. After Byron picked her up from work, they’d stopped by one of their favorite pizza spots and gotten a slice. She’d vented about her mother and Mr. Joe without mentioning his apparent arousing moment or lecherous looks.

  “If he makes your mother happy, you shouldn’t worry about it, Sydni,” he said, taking a bite of pizza.

  “He doesn’t make her happy. No man can make a woman happy. That’s just a myth. People are responsible for their own happiness,” she responded.

  “You know what I mean. If he adds to her happiness, then. Is that a better way to put it?” He smiled at her. She didn’t return the smile. She just shook her head. “If you would let me, I would do the same for you. I just want to see you happy.”

  “That won’t be happening here. There’s nothing in this godforsaken city that can make me happy. The only reason I stayed after high school graduation was because Aaron asked me to stay with Ma and go to BK Community, and then he would help pay my tuition to Spelman. Now, he’s gone and I’m stuck.” She sat back in the booth, looking down at her slice.

  1“You’re not stuck, Sydni. What about financial aide? Or a loan?” he asked. She knew he was trying to be helpful, but his naïve suggestions were beginning to irritate her. He had no idea what it was like to be broke. His parents were well-off, which meant that he was well-off.

  His family lived in the prestigious Jewish section of Crown Heights and both of his parents were attorneys. Where he lived, the name Byron Steinhill, II, meant a lot, to say the least. The only reason that his parents accepted Sydni and Byron’s friendship was because Sydni had gained their respect with her intelligence. They could not deny that she was the smartest female their only son had ever brought home and by far the most beautiful, despite the fact that she was black.

  “Financial aide doesn’t cover everything. I would still need some loot to get straight once I get there.”

  “Well, about how much money would you need, Sydni?”

  Sydni looked in his eyes and laughed. He seemed so concerned. “How much? Ten grand would do me right. I could go to school full time and not really have to work. I could maybe get me a little car and still have money to get me some gear if I wanted to.”

  “Ten grand isn’t a whole lot of money.” He shrugged.

  “For you it’s not. For me it’s damn near impossible. But let’s go. I’m done and tired. I just wanna go home.” She stood and grabbed her purse.

  She couldn’t help notice the ugly looks she got from a group of hoochie bitches who were wearing names they probably couldn’t pronounce. Sydni had learned to expect the stares. Byron acted like he didn’t see them.

  Little did people realize that she and Byron were just friends. They’d shared a lot of the same classes in high school and held many of the same interests, so they gradually became close in spite of their cultural differences. Sydni loved talking to Byron. He could hold her interest, which was more than she could say about any of the other male counterparts who tried to holla at her for a moment.

  “Sellout!” Sydni heard one girl comment. It took all she had not to turn around and pull out every track the trick had in her head. She tossed her hair over her shoulder as she walked by their table.

  “Jealous,” she replied and kept walking. When she got to the door that Byron had opened for her, she made sure they were watching as she put her arms around his waist and kissed him. “Thanks, baby.”

  “You are so fake.” He laughed as the door closed behind them.

  “But you enjoyed every minute of it.”

  “Indeed, I did.”

  “Why do you do that, Sydni?” Magic asked, walking into the kitchen after she got off the phone with D.

  “Do what?”

  “Hate on D. You been doing this shit for years and it’s getting real old.”

  “I don’t like him; never have, never will. I can’t believe he’s still calling this house after everything he caused. And then you got the nerve to talk to him like everything is all good.” Sydni glared at her.

  “What are you talking about, Sydni?”

  “Hello, our brother is . . . if he wouldn’t have been with him . . . Aaron . . .” Sydni was too frustrated to explain her thoughts about Darrius. “I just want him to stay away from me. That’s another reason I wanna get the fuck away from here.”

  “The problem with you and Darrius is that you two are in love with each other.” Magic opened the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water.

  “You have lost your mind. In love with him?” Sydni was appalled at what her younger sister was saying. She watched as she opened the bottle, being careful not to mess up her nails. After taking a long swallow, Magic put it on the table.

  “Ah, that is good. Yes, in love with him. Don’t be mad. He’s in love with you too. I’ve been telling him that for years. There’s so much sexual tension between you two that it’s ridiculous. I think that’s the real reason you can’t get with Byron.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “No, I’m not. His being white ain’t got nothin’ to do with it. Hell, you’re damn near white yourself. Shit, Sydni, Darrius is the reason you can’t get with nobody. Have you noticed that you don’t go out, date, have fun? You have all these pent-up emotions for that brother and it takes all of your energy to suppress them, which is why you are so mean and hateful toward him and all other men. Can’t say I blame you, though. That brother is fine as hell.”

  “What? I can’t believe you’re saying all of this bullshit.”

  “It’s true. I saw it on Doctor Phil.”

  “That’s why your ass needs to get a job.” Sydni pushed past her sister and opened the freezer. The cool air felt good on her face. The sight of a container of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey brought back memories of late night snacks with Aaron. They would sneak down the steps and have ice cream and talk without Mama and Magic ever knowing they were up.

  She missed him terribly. They made lists of their goals for life and vowed that they would accomplish everything on them. Her list included graduating from BCC, Spelman and grad school, becoming a marketing executive for a Fortune 500 company, buying a house and a Benz. His list included graduating from college, owning his own business, getting married and being a better father to his kids than their father had been to them. He often teased her for
not adding wife and mother to her list. Her face became clouded with sadness as she thought of the things on his list that he never got to complete.

  “What’s wrong, Sydni, the truth hurt?”

  They heard the front door opening and soon their mother was calling out to them. “Sydni, Miriam.”

  “In here, Mama.” They quickly went into the living room. Sydni hesitated in the doorway when she saw Mr. Joe sitting on the couch beside her mother. His arms were around her and she smiled as Magic kissed her on the cheek.

  “Hi, Ma, did you have a good time?”

  “Yes, baby, I sure did. I’m so full that I could bust. The food was so good.” Her mother squeezed Magic’s hand. Sydni could see that all thoughts of Magic’s disappearing act were gone, and she wasn’t surprised. That was why Magic was so spoiled; her mother never stayed mad long enough to say anything. “Hi, Mister Joe,” Magic politely greeted him. Sydni watched as his eyes traveled up and down her sister’s body as she walked across the room and sat on the arm of the recliner. She could not believe that her mother didn’t see it.

  “Come in here, Sydni. I need to talk to you all for a minute,” her mother called to her. Sydni obliged and sat in the chair next to Magic. She was hoping that the inevitable hadn’t happened, but she knew it had. “You wanna tell them, Joe?”

  “No, sweetheart. You do the honors.” He looked at her mother like she was a priceless gem to be admired. Her mother seemed to bask in his gaze. Sydni tried not to become sick to her stomach, but it was hard. She kept her eyes on her mother as she began to speak.

  “Tonight, Joe asked me to be his wife.” She paused as she took his hand in hers. “And I said yes.”

  “Really? Oh, Mama, that’s great.” Magic laughed. She jumped up and hugged her mother and Joe. His eyes never left Magic’s bouncing breasts. “Congratulations, Mister Joe.”

  “Thank you. After all the sadness we’ve had these past few weeks, I felt we needed a happy occasion. Right, Sydni?” Joe turned and asked Sydni, who remained quiet. Magic looked at her sister, afraid of what she might say to spoil this moment.