have any, because the few of us who were there were close family members. The twins, his sister Tamara, Mama Santos, Mari, her parents, and a gentleman who looked just like her. I was assuming that it was her brother.
The music coming from the organist was the only thing that was easing the tension and coldness in the air. Mama Santos had the pastor of her church, Reverend Mateo, deliver the eulogy. A few members from the church came out to pay their respects.
Kyron lay up there with a smirk on his face, wearing a pink silk tie and and gray pin-striped Armani suit. Mari stood over the gaudy burgundy casket with the gentlemen who could be her brother. The only people I saw shed a tear were her, Kendra, and Tamara. Hell, I only saw two flower arrangements. What a way to be sent home. No love at all.
• • •
After the funeral, I put in a day and a half at the office and then headed out to Cali. I needed some sunshine and a change of atmosphere. When I walked into the house, I was in for a big surprise. There sat all of my girls: Kyra, Tasha, and Jaz.
“Well, well, well!” I said as I set my luggage down. They all got up, and we engaged in a group hug.
“We honestly have to stop meeting like this,” I told them.
“Meeting like what?” Kyra asked.
“Y’all know that lately ain’t nothing going down in our lives but drama. Let’s keep it real, now. And we can start with my drama.” I kicked off my shoes, and everybody around me moaned and groaned. “What y’all trying to say? Y’all don’t think I got drama?” I stood in the middle of the floor, with my hands on my hips. “We just buried Kyron.”
“Girl, please. That ain’t no drama. That’s cause for celebration. Nobody cares about his crazy ass!” Jaz said as she brought the glass of wine to her mouth.
I looked over at Tasha, and she had a blank look on her face. “I agree. You need to do better than that,” she said.
“Do you know that Kyron sent his goons after Kaylin? They took us to a graveyard way out in North Jersey somewhere, tossed us in it, and tried to bury us alive!”
“What?” There were gasps from everybody. All eyes were on me. I told them bitches I had drama.
“Umm-hmmm. If it wasn’t for Lil’ E being in that garage when they ran up on us, I would not be standing here right now. Y’all would be burying Kaylin and me, that is, if you would have found our bodies.”
“You mean to say Kyron would do that to his own brother and his sister-in-law?” Tasha was obviously into her feelings. “That’s low-down. But you can best believe that I am personally glad that the nigga is dead. If it wasn’t for my respect for Mama Santos I would have went to the funeral and spit on his ass. I hate him!”
“I feel you. He did it. He tried to have us killed. Now that was a moment.”
“That’s fucked up!” Kyra said.
“Why does he hate his brother and Trae so much?” Tasha asked me.
“I don’t know. Kaylin won’t talk to me about it. But from the little bit I gathered from his sister Tamara, it was jealousy. Simple as that.”
I looked around the room at everyone’s face. We were all perplexed. Each one of us caught up in the thoughts of the many tragedies that had fallen into our lives. We had loved and lost. Everything we said we would not be we had become. The mood was becoming gloomier by the second. I walked over and plopped down next to Kyra. I needed the mood in the room to lighten up. That’s why I was here. I needed to spread some good cheer.
“Look at your stomach, Kyra! You are glowing,” I told her.
“Yes, I am very much pregnant. Thirteen weeks, to be exact.” She smiled and rubbed her stomach.
“You look happy. Are you happy?” I wanted to know.
“Actually, I am.”
I turned my attention to Jaz. “So, Ms. Thing, how are you and Faheem making out?”
“I might be moving back to Jersey,” she announced. “I’m looking at the medical school at Robert Wood Johnson. Georgia is history. We are just about done packing. I’ve been trying to tell Faheem that he is overreacting and that we don’t have to move, but he won’t listen to me.”