The Realest Ever - By Keith Thomas Walker Page 0,95

lied to me. All I ever did was try to help you. I never did anything to hurt you.”

Donovan’s eyes were nearly bloodshot. His mother was crying, too. She placed a hand on his shoulder and rubbed comfortingly. But there was nothing Beverly could do to make the pain go away.

“Donovan, I need you! Please don’t leave me!” Kyra cried.

“I gotta go,” he said.

“Donovan, please.”

“Kyra, I’ll call you later. I gotta go. I need to think.”

“Baby, please!”

“Kyra please let me call you back!” Donovan didn’t mean to shout, but his heart, mind and soul were all swirling in a whirlwind of uncertainty. But as upset as he was, he still loved Kyra too much to simply hang up in her face.

“I’m sorry!” she wailed. Kyra released a litany of sounds that weren’t intelligible before ending the call herself.

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Donovan stayed with his mother for another thirty minutes. Beverly didn’t offer much advice. She thought Kyra was wrong for doing drugs and even more wrong for keeping it from her son, but there was no need to speak on it.

Instead she pulled Donovan into her arms when he got off the phone. He surprised her by allowing it. They were quite a sight. Donovan was nearly twice his mother’s size. She could barely wrap her arms around him, but a mother’s love cannot be hindered by simple physics.

Beverly rubbed Donovan’s shoulder while he sobbed on hers. He only cried for a few moments before he sat up and wiped his face. Beverly went to the kitchen to get him a drink of water and a face towel.

After a while Donovan rose from the couch and went to the bathroom to straighten up. When he emerged, he looked almost normal. Except for his eyes. They were filled with so much pain, it broke Beverly’s heart. She had to look away.

Donovan went to his truck and got his toolbox. He took it to his mother’s bathroom and hunkered down under the sink. Beverly tried to stop him. She told him he didn’t have to do that today. But Donovan insisted, saying it would only take a minute.

He took the pipes apart and rescued a diamond earring his mother lost two days ago. He put the pipes back together and washed his hands and gave her a kiss on the way out.

Beverly stood on her porch watching the road after he drove away. She finally went inside because, after a great crackle of thunder, it started to rain.

CHAPTER TWENTY

RAINY DAYS

Kyra hung up the phone. She looked around her room and saw that Kat and Quinell were both crying, nearly as hard as her. Kyra wiped her face and ran to the bathroom. She closed the door and sat on the toilet and hugged herself as she cried her eyes out, as hard and as quietly as she could.

She would’ve stayed in the bathroom indefinitely if it wasn’t for Quinell and Katavia. They had no idea what was going on except Mama was upset and they were no longer going to live with Donovan. Kyra washed her face and exited the bathroom, red-eyed and red-nosed, but strong enough to face her children and deal with the mistakes she made. She sat on the side of the bed and reached for both of them. They were eager for her affection. They held her without words.

Kyra knew she had to confront her aunt, but at that moment she needed to be there for her children. She had to let them know that she would always be with them, no matter how badly the world treated them. If it was just the three of them, so be it. They could take on the world together, and they would be just fine. Together.

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When Donovan left church at twelve-thirty and spoke to his mother about having lunch with the love of his life, Kyra was standing in her aunt’s living room staring at a ghost. Leonard put on twenty pounds while he was in jail, and his hair was shaved close to his scalp now. He was still attractive. He looked stylish in his baggy jeans, Polo boots and collar shirt, but Kyra reacted as if he’d risen from the dead and still had graveyard dirt clumped in his mouth.

She didn’t say anything at all while Leonard looked her up and down, deciding how he would approach this delicate situation, wondering how much control he still had over Kyra. Aunt Ruth stood off to the side, watching them both. Kyra may