The Realest Ever - By Keith Thomas Walker Page 0,92
house phone. She answered right away.
“Hello?”
“Uh, hi. This is Donovan. How are you?”
She grunted. “Fine.”
“I don’t mean to bother you,” Donovan said. “But Kyra’s not answering her cellphone. Is she in?”
There was a pause before Ruth said, “Which one are you?”
Donovan’s brow furrowed. What kind of question was that? Luckily he reached a stop sign. The residential street was completely empty, so he remained at the stop for a minute.
“You the tall one?” Ruth asked. “It’s so many of y’all, I can’t keep up.”
Donovan’s fury was immediate, but just as quickly he doused the embers that were starting to burn his soul. Kyra told him about her aunt already. And Donovan saw it with his own eyes when he bought groceries for them a couple of months ago. Ruth was a hater. She was no doubt lying about the supposed men in Kyra’s life.
Nice try, Donovan thought and smiled again. “Yes, I’m the tall one,” he said. “So, is Kyra in?”
“Naw,” Ruth said. “She left with her baby-daddy.”
Donovan thought he was ready for this woman’s acid, but that comment threw him for a complete loop. He couldn’t even pretend to be okay.
“Wh, what?”
“You said you’re Donovan?” the older woman asked.
A car horn sounded. Donovan checked his rearview mirror and saw that he wasn’t alone on the street anymore. He made a right at the intersection and pulled over in front of a random house. He put his car in PARK and tried to slow his heartbeats.
“Yeah, I’m Donovan. When did Kyra leave?”
“About ten minutes ago. I don’t wanna get all in your business, but you look like a good man,” Ruth said. “Kyra told me you coach for Western Hills.”
Donovan’s breaths were hot and heavy. “Kyra left with Kat’s father?”
“Yeah,” Ruth said. “Leonard been calling her. They talk all the time. He just came down from Arkansas to see her.”
Donovan’s head was spinning. He didn’t know what to believe anymore. He knew this woman was lying, but how much of it was a lie? Surely she wouldn’t say Kyra wasn’t there if she really was.
“She using you,” Ruth confided, “if you wanna know what I think about it.”
“I don’t,” Donovan said. “I just want to know where Kyra is.”
“I told you she ain’t here. You don’t believe me? Kyra!” The woman barely took the phone away from her face before she screamed. “Kyra! You in here?” She was very loud. After a moment, she said, “See. She ain’t here. She with Leonard, like I told you.”
Donovan’s eyes burned. What the hell was going on here? Kyra told him Leonard was trying to contact her, so Donovan believed that Kat’s father might come to Overbrook Meadows. But why would Kyra leave with him? Why now? Donovan told Kyra he was going to pick her up after church, so she and Beverly could talk. Kyra wouldn’t leave with some loser.
“Where the kids?” Donovan was speaking without thinking now. He was on the side of the road with nowhere to go. His mind was racing. His heart was, too.
“She left the kids here,” Ruth said. “I like you, Donovan, and I feel bad about what Kyra’s doing to you. I want to tell you the truth about how she’s using you and why she came back here. Did Kyra tell you why she came back to Overbrook Meadows?”
Donovan swallowed roughly. He knew Aunt Ruth was full of shit, but some of it had to be true. Kyra was always vague about what happened in Little Rock. Donovan wanted to know everything, and he knew she was holding back. But he couldn’t trust the woman he was talking to. He should hang up.
“You’re lying.”
“You don’t have to believe me,” Ruth said. “There’s a million people in Little Rock who know what I know. Aunts, uncles, cousins, everybody. I can give you any phone number you want. I’m trying to help you, Donovan. You need to know what was really went down over there. You don’t know Kyra like you think you do.”
Donovan’s soul was tormented. He felt like Ruth was carving chunks off his heart, slice by slice. “What are you talking about?” he breathed. He didn’t want to know, but his mind would concoct all sorts of terrible scenarios until she told him. Even if Ruth gave him a bastardized version of the truth, Donovan needed to hear it. He could decide for himself what parts he wanted to believe.