harder, which made me start crying. Trae took the phone from me and passed it back to Rick. He hugged me as I stood there. I was in shock. Even though Rick told us he had Kyra, I still was skeptical. After all, he was a lying ass cop. Standing there I was in a daze I heard her voice again, this time in my heart. I began to cry uncontrollably. I love my friends, we have been through so much. They are my sisters. And things haven’t been the same since we thought that Kyra was dead.
“Rick, you go and get Kyra. Tasha and I will get everything here ready for her and talk to Aisha.”
“No doubt. I’ll call when I’m on my way back.”
Trae whispered in my ear, “Are you gonna be all right? Or am I gonna have to sedate you?”
“Oh, so you’ve got jokes.” I wiped my tears. “Baby, you gotta understand, just the sound of her voice after all of this time got me. Hell, the whole situation got me feeling some kind of way. I never dealt with something like this before.”
“I know, baby, but you need to pull yourself together. You gotta go talk to Aisha.”
“Why do I have to talk to her? Why can’t we both talk to her?”
“Because one of us has to get her room ready,” Trae had the nerve to say.
“Don’t even try it. Let Aunt Marva get the room ready. Let’s both talk to Aisha. I want you with me on this, Trae. I don’t want to say the wrong thing.”
“Baby, you are making this harder than it has to be. She’s just a child. All you gotta do is tell her that her mother is coming home. Let Kyra tell her everything else.”
“Fine, then. You do all of the talking, because I don’t think it’s going to be that easy. Let me go and get her. You want to do it in the living room, dining room, or porch?”
“Tasha!”
“Okay, okay, fine. I’ll be right back, so wait right here.” Mr. Smart Ass, always has all of the answers, which I was mostly thankful for. I found Aisha out back playing basketball with the boys. She obviously had fallen, because dust was all over her hair, and her clothes were dirty on the left side.
“Auntie Tasha, watch this!” she yelled out as she threw the ball up and it missed the rim. “Wait. Wait, watch this.”
“Aisha, come here. Your Uncle Trae wants to talk to you. Marva, can you get the guest room ready? We have a surprise guest on the way. Please?” After I said “please,” the sideways look that she gave me disappeared. I took Aisha up front to see Trae, who was waiting patiently, sitting on the banister on the front porch.
“Uncle Trae, I can play basketball now.” She beamed. “I got game.”
“You got game?”
“Yup. I don’t just got game. I got mad game.”
“Umph, I gotta check you out for myself,” he teased her. “But listen to this. We just heard from your mother.” He waited for her reaction. Me? I was holding my breath.
Aisha simply stuffed her hands into her short pockets, her eyes rolled back into her head as if she was in deep thought. Then she said, “So my mommy is not dead?”
“No, baby, she’s not,” Trae answered.
“Awesome!” she shrieked, and started jumping up and down. “So where is she? Is she home? What about my dad? Is my dad with her?”
“She’s on her way over here, and no, your dad is not with her. So go get cleaned up so you can be ready to see your mother. She can’t wait to see you.”
“I can’t wait to see her, either. Thank you, Uncle Trae and Auntie Tasha.” She gave me a hug and ran up onto the porch to give Trae one. Then she turned to me. “Auntie Tasha, can you fix my bang? Oh, wait! First, I gotta tell the twins that my mommy isn’t dead.” And she took off running down the steps and around the back.
I looked at Trae, and he shook his finger at me as if to say, I told you so.
KYRA
I was so glad to be released from the hospital. The room was beginning to creep me out. I was seeing images of a black Jesus everywhere.
“Kyra, are you all right?” Rick snapped me out of my daze.
“I think I’m okay, just a little nervous. At first, I didn’t have contact with anyone. I didn’t