The Realest Ever - By Keith Thomas Walker Page 0,93
word “They” registered. “Who? Kyra?”
“Yes, she was,” Ruth said.
She sounded solemn, but Donovan could almost see her grinning, like the devil himself. His eyes filled with tears even as he barked at her. “You’re lying!”
“I’m not lying!” Ruth snapped back. “I’m trying to help you, so stop telling me I’m lying! Kyra was on drugs, and Leonard was on drugs, and that’s why them people came and took her kids. I know she told you they took her kids…”
Donovan’s silence was answer enough. Ruth hummed into the phone. “Uhn uhn uhn…” She sounded different than before. Her smugness was unmistakable now. Donovan realized she wasn’t lying, not about this, and he lost the slippery hold on his composure.
Dark shadows filled the streets as the gray clouds above blocked out the rest of the fleeting sunshine. Donovan heard a crackle of thunder. He saw a bolt of lightening streak down to the earth, miles ahead of him. His vision blurred, but it wasn’t the rain.
“The CPS took Kat and Quinell from her,” Ruth continued. “Kyra was getting high on heroin with that boy. She was a dopefiend, just like her mama.”
Thinking about Kyra’s mother broke Donovan out of the trance this evil woman had him under. Donovan tried to love his neighbors and forgive his enemies, but Kyra’s mom was one person he still despised. She let drugs replace the love she once had for her children, and she ruined all of their lives, especially Kyra’s. Donovan could not believe that the woman he loved was in any way similar to her despicable mother. He refused to accept that.
“I’m getting off this phone,” he growled. He wiped his eyes and nose angrily. Why did he entertain Kyra’s spiteful aunt in the first place? He knew Ruth wasn’t right. Kyra told him so nearly every day.
“Why don’t you ask Kyra?” Ruth said. She was tired of this conversation, too. Donovan’s nose was so wide open, he wouldn’t listen to any negative comments about his pearly white princess. “You ain’t gotta believe me,” Ruth said. “Ask Kyra. Ask her if she was on dope. Ask her if them people took her kids. Ask her your damned self!”
She hung up in his face. Literally. Aunt Ruth had an old school telephone.
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
Donovan returned to his mother’s house a few minutes later. Beverly took one look at him and knew that this was the kind of pain only a woman could cause. She sat with him in the living room while Donovan told her about the conversation with Aunt Ruth. Beverly tried to make him feel better with the same reasoning Donovan used when he was on the phone with Kyra’s aunt.
“She’s lying, Donovan. Why do you believe her? You told me how she was.”
As he talked to the woman who knew him best, Donovan managed to get his emotions under control. His eyes were dry as he shook his head, his body slumped over, his forearms resting on his knees. He looked up at his mother.
“I don’t think she was lying, Mama.”
“Why do you believe that, Donovan? Sit up, baby.”
He sat back on the sofa, but his body still slumped. Beverly had never seen his spirits so low.
“Because of the way she sounded,” Donovan said. “She said everybody knew about it. She said I could ask Kyra herself.”
“And that’s what you should do,” Beverly urged. She was nearly as exasperated as he was. “That lady’s trying to come against you and Kyra’s happiness, Donovan. I can feel it in my bones. You don’t need to think nothing else bad about Kyra, until you talk to her yourself. When was the last time you called her?”
“When I was on my way over there,” Donovan said. “She still not answering.”
“Call her now,” Beverly suggested. “She’s the only person you can get the truth from.”
Donovan knew that was the best advice anyone could give him. He dug his phone from his pocket. Even that movement took a lot out of him. He felt completely drained. But Donovan’s face lit up when he checked the display on his cellular. He had a missed call from Kyra. And a message.
“She called,” he told his mom.
“When?”
“I had it on silent, from church,” Donovan said as he accessed his call log. Kyra called him two minutes after he talked to her aunt. What a fool he was! The whole time he was giving his mother this sob story, he could’ve been talking to Kyra.