ch09:& did you think 'bout that?
song01:interlude, stormzy

<damon george>

Wednesday
June 14
4:43 am

𝖂𝖊𝖉𝖓𝖊𝖘𝖉𝖆𝖞 came with a brightness elongated by a thunderous knock on Damon George's front door. A bang, bang, bang awakened the sleeping three year old who's cries alerted her father; making him follow both loud noises to the front of the house where Georgie was standing at the front door.

"Who is it?!" Dame yelled, scooping his daughter up into his arms, consoling her. He peeked out the curtains covering the the floor to ceiling window where he got a glimpse of the range rover parked behind his own red truck. He sucked his teeth before opening the door. "It's not even 5am, Maverik." He mumbled, looking through the glass of the screen door at his father.

Maverik rolled his eyes, "You not gonna let me in?"

"You gonna tell me what you want?"

"I want you to come to the gym with me."

Dame grimaced, "I'm not doing that." He shook his head, unlocking the screen door, walking into the kitchen as Maverik entered the house.

"Come on. Just two hours then you can go back to sleep."

Dame put Georgie down who began to whine as he poured juice into a cup for her. Maverik in turn, picked her up, placing kisses on her forehead, calming her. 

"It'll help you clear your mind, loosen up— maybe even put on a little muscle." He lightly pinched Dame's thin forearm. Dame yanked his arm away dramatically.

"And all that is gonna happen in two hours?"

"Yeah, if you do it for two hours at least three times a week." Maverik said seriously earning a laugh from his son.

"Yeah, no."

"Come on. Just come today then. My gym partner is sick. I don't like going alone."

"Ask your bestie then. Isn't he still in town?"

"Cliff? His old ass."

"Ain't yall the same age?"

"Nah, that nigga is three years older than me. I'm only 48." He corrected him. "Go get changed, I'll put Georgie back to sleep."

"Impossible. She's up for the next three hours at least."

Maverik shook his head, "Go. I got it." He pushed his son out of the kitchen. "You got five minutes. If I don't get there by 5:15 that no neck hairy nigga steals my machines. I can't stand a no neck hairy ass nigga." He complained as Dame left down the hallway.

Not caring about the no neck situation, he came back to the front eleven minutes later to two sleeping humans on the couch. Dame laughed to himself as he removed his phone from his pocket and took a photo of the sight. He grabbed Georgie from his father's arms, unintentionally waking the nearly fifty year old man.

"I hope you got a good nap." Dame teased as he carried the sleeping child to the master bedroom, tucking her under Sade who was still asleep, unfazed by all the happenings around her.

"How did you do that?"

"I been putting babies to sleep since I was twenty-one years old. I know what i'm doing." He bragged.

"I'm surprised to see you." Dame admitted, closing the passenger door of the Range Rover. "We haven't spoken since I opened the gallery." He recalled.

"Three years ago? We talked since then."

"A nice hi and bye in passing."

Maverik nodded.

"Was it because of what I said?"

Maverik was quiet.

"You kind of proved me right."

"Damn, Dame." He complained, "My feelings was hurt." He shrugged, backing out of the drive way. "My son saying I don't think about him— you hit a nerve." He admitted, "And, I don't wanna talk about that this morning. Okay?"

"Aight."

"Have you seen Reece? How is he doing?"

"He okay I guess. I saw him a few nights ago."

"He seemed okay?"

Dame nodded.

Maverik nodded.

"I made you a pre-workout shake." He offered the stanley cup in the cupholder. "It's cold."

"What's in it?"

"Protein. Drink up."

"Is it gonna make me all jumpy? I heard about that preworkout shit." He shook it skeptically.

"No, it's all natural and vegan."

"You're not vegan. Are you."

"No, but I didn't know if you did dairy or anything. So I kept it simple."

"Thanks. I don't drink milk."

"You use almond milk?"

Dame nodded, "Yeah, and Flax."

"I like the flax milk. Holle started buying it when she was doing a seven day vegan challenge a couple years ago and I still buy it now."

"I keep it in the fridge but Sade still be trying to give my baby 2% like she a baby cow or something." Dame complained, earning a soft laugh from Maverik.

Maverik answered the ringing phone being greeted by his youngests, "Dad, can we go to the mall after school?"

"No, y'all still on lockdown for another week."

"I thought today was our last day." Kwame reminded him.

"It was. But then you broke the rules by asking to go somewhere fun before your sentence is up."

"That's not even a rule." Kalil spoke up.

"Yeah, I never heard that one dad." Kwame agreed.

"That's cuz I just made it up. Why y'all calling me so early? You know my me time is from midnight to seven A.M. unless its an emergency."

Kwame huffed. "It is an emergency though. We cant take our phones to school and mom isn't here so we had to ask before we left."

Maverik smacked his teeth. "That's not an emergency. Get back on the bus after school. Make sure your airtags are still in them bags. Check right now while we're on the phone."

Rummaging was heard through backpacks and then a unison, "Yes."

"Aight. Have a good day boys."

"Wait!" He heard Kalil, "Dad can I turn on the airfryer? I want some bacon real quick."

"Fuck no, eat at school." He answered barely allowing the boy to finish his sentence. "Bye."

"Damn, what kind of punishment they on?"

"Hold on." He told Dame, his wife answering his call immediately. "Holle why the kids home alone?"

"I had business Maverik. They're old enough to stay home alone."

"They're on punishment. They need to be supervised."

"Maverik, i'm busy."

"Doing what Ma?"

"I'll tell you later. Sorry the kids bothered you before seven."

"It's not a problem. I was just checking on you."

"Mhm."

"Mhm." He mimicked her, "Still doing lunch today at Darling?"

"Of course baby. You found someone to replace Carm?"

"Yeah, I asked Damon. He's in the car with me right now."

"Oh cute. Hey Damon."

"Hey Holle."

"Alright? Y'all have fun or whatever. I gotta go bookie."

"K Ma. See you at noon." He ended the call and resumed their conversation. "So, them twins got a problem with not being where they supposed to be. They got into some serious trouble and they had the little one with them. Nobody even knew until they called my brother explaining how someone was following them on the street."

"Why'd they call Mac?"

"I don't know. They keep lying about the whole thing when we ask them about it. So since they wanna lie and be wild they can stay they Black asses in the house."

"Did anyone ask Three what happened?"

"That little quiet boy? I swear he's probably said three words to me in the past three years."

"Really?"

Mav nodded, pulling into the parking lot of the gym. "So they get nothing until they talk. I don't care what it is."

Three hours later Maverik was parking in the driveway of Dame's house as Sade was packing the stroller into the trunk of her ruby red Buick Encore. Dame laughed at Maverik who was telling him to be ready tomorrow morning at five. Closing the door, he walked towards his baby's mother who was waving at Maverik.

"Where y'all going?" He asked her. She closed the trunk and they walked back into the house together.

"We going to a gym class then the mall like we do every Wednesday."

"Oh." He answered, "Y'all go to the mall every Wednesday? What the hell you buying once a week?"

"Nigga, i'm paying for it so, what?"

"I wasn't asking because of that."

"I'm just making sure you don't think i'm trying live off'a you. I mean? I appreciate you and everything but no."

"You can have whatever you want Sade. You gave me everything I could've ever asked for." He told her, referring to the child they share. "It's my pleasure." He told her as he walked into the kitchen to wash his hands.

"Where did you go with Maverik?"

"The gym. I guess his partner is sick." He shrugged.

"And you just was like 'oh yeah, i work out'?" She laughed.

He shrugged, not finding the humor, "It was nice spending time with him."

"That's cool." She told him, walking to the back of the house. He followed her.

"I didn't know Georgie was in a gym class."

"Yeah, gymnastics. It's a mommy and me."

"So I can't go?"

"Why you so free today?"

"Because I wanna be. I don't know i'm just in a social mood today."

"Oh."

He walked towards the sleeping three year old but was stopped by Sade— "Don't wake her up."

"I'm not. I was just gonna— nevermind." He walked out of the master bedroom into the nursery where he's been sleeping since they broke up two years ago. He grabbed his slides and went to the hallway closet to find a clean towel. "Bro, why we don't got no towels." He complained.

"Nigga you too good to reuse the one from yesterday?"

He ignored her comment and closed the closet door before slamming the bathroom door right across from it.

"Stop trying to fucking wake her up!" She yelled.

"You the one yelling!" He yelled back. "And don't leave me. I'm coming with y'all."

He could hear Sade huff in the other room which he smacked his teeth to.

The shower was turned on causing a beating in the wall.

"When is that shit getting fixed?" She yelled at Damon through the walls.

"Whenever it gets fixed." He mumbled to himself, pulling down his shorts and boxers, throwing them down the chute where his t-shirt and socks were already settled on the basement floor.

Stepping in the shower, he slipped on a toy falling in cartoon form in the porcelain tub. His dense body flailing to catch himself hitting the walls, knocking the shower caddy down along with all of the products it held. Booms, clashes and 'shit. Fuck. What the fuck.' played like loud music echoing throughout the house causing Georgie to stir.

"Be so fucking for real." Sade growled at herself, leaving her project of packing her daughter's bag for the day. She opened the door to the bathroom and stood with her hands on her hips in front of the tub.

The shower curtain was ripped and the rod half way to the floor. She huffed at the mess and the sight of the large man laying in the tub with his limbs still sprawled about.

"Why is it toys in here?" He yelled, "She don't even use this fucking bathroom." He complained, standing up in the tub. He looked up and saw Sade's eyes looking down. Sucking his teeth, he covered his crotch and rolled his eyes. "I'm using y'all bathroom." He told her, leaving the bathroom with the water still running over the mess he made.

Sade chuckled through her nose as she watched the naked man walk away. He turned his mugging her as he kept trekking.

"All these fucking toys!" He yelled when he saw what their bathtub looked like. He could hear Sade laughing in the other room. "Ain't shit funny about this." He complained to himself.  "I just want to wash my ass, man." He started chucking toys out of the tub into a nearby empty container he assumed the toys belong in. "I gotta do all this shit just to clean my fucking body? Dawg!"

Sade smiled to herself as she prepared to merge onto the high way. She turned her head as far as it could go to see if the coast was clear. "I haven't seen you like that in a while." She commented casually. Dame looked over at her.

"Like what?" He asked.

She shrugged.

"I mean, yeah." He swiped his nose and rubbed his knee. "Been a minute."

"How you feel about that?"

"I didn't like you starting at it, if that's what you're asking."

"Sorry."

"Nah, I just wasn't expecting that. Maybe if it happened different I might've felt different about it."

"You seem weird today." She told him. "You sure everything went okay with Maverik this morning?"

"Nah, it was cool." He told her. "You think we might ever end up punishing Georgie?"

"Maybe. If she does something I guess." She answered then asked, "Why?"

"The twins are on punishment right now. I've never been on punishment so it just seems harsh."

"Really? I have."

"What happened? When you were on punishment?"

She shrugged. "I had to read books and go to work with my mom. I couldn't watch tv or go outside. You never got in trouble as a kid?"

"It was different. I got in trouble for everything. But, I don't think abuse counts as punishment." He mumbled the last part. Sade was quiet. "But I just worry about what I went through seeping out in my parenthood. I don't wanna end up being hard on her or maybe trying to hard to be nice that it fucks her up because I never disciplined her."

"You really worry about that?"

He nodded.

"I think you're doing great with her. She respects you— as much as a three year old can respect somebody. And she obviously loves you. She listens to you more than she does me. But I do also worry about how she'll turn out. Like is she gonna end up like me? All ghetto and mouthy or like you being calm and kinda quiet? I think between me and you we'll find a way to balance it out."

He nodded, not really agreeing. He thought to himself, leaning his head on the window, grinding his back teeth together. Slow shallow breaths kept his chest steady on the outside covering up his rapidly beating heart. He distracted himself by watching the cars behind them through the mirror.

For an hour and a half, he watched his ex-girlfriend and his daughter through the screen of his phone as they jumped and tumbled and swang while he recorded them— sometimes smiling, most of the time his face was stoic; on default as his mind traveled as it does to absolutely nowhere. Stuck for minutes before he'd realize and adjust his phone to find where the two girls had moved on to just soon enough to catch Georgie doing something grand enough for the whole group to clap and cheer for. He laughed, not really knowing what happened but seeming impressed incase anyone looked at him.

He followed Sade and Georgie in the mall, pushing a childless stroller that instead carted bags and Sade's purse. Ducking off into the shallow parts of his mind, he blindly followed the sound of Sade's flips flopping and Georgie singing.

"Yeah, he been doing this all day." He heard Sade's voice and looked around finding her standing beside Cole and they were in line at the food court.

"Yo, what you doing here?" He asked Cole, walking towards him to give him a hug.  "You good?"

"Are you good?"

Dame closed his eyes and stood in the hug for a few seconds.

"You good, my baby." Cole consoled the troubled brother knowing he would need time before opening up to him. As he pulled away, Cole patted his back and tried to watch his face but Dame turned away quickly and walked into the nearby restroom. Him and Sade looked at one another.

"The fuck you do to him Sade?"

"Nothing. He was with Maverik this morning and came back all weird. I don't know." She shrugged.

"I'll try to talk to him."

P:06.09.2024