Chapter 9
Jennifer looked at her hair as she stood in front of the bathroom mirror at her job. Her braids were finished but she couldn’t afford to get them done over yet. She pulled one away from her head and said, “Ya’ll got to hold on for me for a few more days at least.”
She looked down at her phone that was ringing and said, “Why are you calling me while you are in school chile?”
“Mama we going on a field trip but it cost 40 dollars. I can’t go right?”
“Hell nah you can’t go.”
“I know. I just wanted to ask.”
Her daughter’s response broke her in half. Jennifer said, “Well, when do you have to have the money?”
“I think by Friday.”
“I am not saying yes, I’m saying we will see. Maybe something will happen. Right now, we cannot afford that baby.”
“I know mama, love you.”
“I love you too baby.”
Jennifer leaned on the sink and shook her head. She hated that she had to have “We can’t afford” conversations with her daughter.”
She took a deep breath, held her head up and tied her fuzzy braids back into the bun that sat on top of her head.
She washed her hands, dried them and walked out of the bathroom.
Jennifer looked over the dining room and didn’t see one of her parties. All of her troubles jumped rope on her brain. She definitely couldn’t afford to cover the bill on the two ladies she was missing. Her manager told her a million times to keep an eye on her tables.
“Damn.” She pulled the leather folder out of apron. She never gave it to them. “How long was I in the bathroom? Jennifer’s mind was spinning. “They didn’t even walk out on the bill because I never gave them one.”
She walked slowly over to the table and didn’t hear one of the ladies at her other table say, “Excuse me can I have another drink please?”
Jennifer cleared her table and did her best to shake off her frustration. The ladies were so nice to her. She couldn’t believe this had happened.
She looked and heard her other guest this time and said, “Of course ma’am, I’ll be right back with it.”
One of the young bus boys’ eyes lit up when he saw her as he said, “There you are!”
Two ladies asked me to give this to you. I tried to find you and I didn’t even bus the table down.” He began walking to the table. Jennifer said, “Here you go, don’t you see I’ve already done it?”
The young man was so excited he said, “Oh! My bad, thank you. I’ll take that from you.”
Jennifer walked to the kitchen and open the leather folder they had gotten from another waitress. Jennifer opened it and frowned her face up as she saw 10 crisp hundred dollar bills. Beneath them was a note. ‘Sorry, we couldn’t wait for you to return. This should cover our bill. Hopefully you can do something nice for your daughter, she sounds like a sweet girl.”
Be Blessed
Fallon.
p.s. I’m giving the young man $100 to get this to you so this is all yours.. .
~~
“Dani guess what?”
Danisha turned to the girl in her class and said, “What’s up Gina?”
“I can go on the field trip with ya’ll after all. My momma just texted me and said that we aren’t going out of town anymore.”
Dani smiled and said, “Cool, I’m going to take you shopping for it this weekend. We gonna be fly.”
Gina turned away smiling and realized that her friend knew that she was lying about going out of town the whole time.
Danisha raised her hand and was acknowledged by the teacher and said, “May I be excused for a second?”
The teacher smiled and said, “Of course.” Jay Mack, the class troublemaker raised his hand quickly and said, “May I be excused as well?” The teacher quickly said, “Hell nah. I mean no.”
The class erupted in laughter. Danisha laughed as she walked out of the room and closed the door behind herself.
She looked at her facetime call and said, “What’s up mama? You okay?”
Fallon smiled and said, “Why you ask me that?”
“Ahhhh because you Facetiming me while I’m in class.”
“Oh, my bad.” Fallon giggled a little bit.
Danisha looked around to see if anyone was coming and said, “Oooooh you drunk. Mama, it’s 1 o’clock in the evening, I know you not driving!”
“Of course I am not! I called a driver. I gots too much to lose to be out here drinking drinking , drinking and driving.”
Danisha laughed at her mother repeating her words.
Fallon said, “I just called to let you know that I am super proud of you. I know that you will be more than I ever could possibly be. You are the best parts of me and your father. I love you more than words can express.”
Danisha had tears rolling down her face. Her mother had been drinking but when talking about her she spoke clearly and precisely.
Fallon continued, “I want you to know that no matter what happens between us, that I will always love you more than I love myself. You can come to me about anything. You are my greatest accomplishment. You will always-“
The facetime disconnected. Danisha wiped her face and waited a few seconds to see if her mom would call back, other calls seemed to disconnect her facetime calls. Danisha walked back into class feeling like she needed to be better than she ever had been.
She told herself that she would be better! Better than she had ever been.