ch24: day of freedom
song01: spirited away, 6lack

[damon george, 26]

June 19
Nearly noon

"𝕬𝖓𝖉, of your self, what do you hope your children gain? Is it confidence? Maybe finesse. Would you like your child to be goofy or charming?" Eighteen year old Maverik raised his hand in his favorite class, philosophy. "Mister George." The professor acknowledged him.

He looked around the room, "I don't know if it's okay, really—" he started, "But i'm not sure if I want my kid to be anything like me. Wouldn't that be boring? Just a repeat of my self? I can just record myself and watch it back if i'm feeling nostalgic." He laughed. "Right? And what if I was to wish for all these things and my kid had none of them, now I'm disappointed. That's not fair."

"It isn't." Another student replied. "Imagine being a disappointment because you didn't live up to standards you weren't even aware of. Or, imagine knowing and not being able to meet them."

"Imagine not even having to imagine that." A few students laughed because they could relate.

Maverik sighed.

Maverik sighed, sitting in his truck outside of Dame's house, waiting for his second oldest to come out of the house. It was a little after eleven in the morning and they'd planned to meet for lunch.

"Hey." Dame mumbled as he opened the door.

"What's goin' on?" Maverik greeted him. "Happy freedom day." He said sarcastically. Dame snorted, "I'm still trying to figure out if the holiday is for us or them." He laughed.

Dame shrugged. "Do you celebrate Juneteenth?"

Maverik shook his head, "I acknowledge it I guess."

"If you celebrate Fourth of July, you gotta celebrate Juneteenth."

"We should be celebrating January Seventeenth instead, but we not gone talk about that."

"What's January Seventeenth?"

Maverik pursed his lips, disappointed by the question.

"What is it?"

"You know what Juneteenth is for right?"

"Yeah, the day the last slaves were set free."

"Enslaved people." He corrected him. "And that's only because they were never told they already had their freedom. June nineteenth is the day that the last plantation was reached with the news that slavery was abolished. Allegedly." He added, still believing that to this day, there are more. "Slavery was abolished six months before June nineteenth. So, we only celebrate Juneteenth when that's not even a real freedom day."

"It is for those who were freed that day."

"That's stupid as hell." Maverik laughed. "So if you was born in January but I ain't tell nobody you was born until June, you wasn't born in January?"

Dame was quiet.

"See how things get twisted around and nobody bats an eye?" Maverik asked, "That's how you get what I have. It's how you get more of what you got." He advised Dame, "It's a kind of magic— creating things that aren't there. It's art. And you're an artist."

The son nodded with surface understanding.

The sun was coming to it's peak, hitting the melanin of these men, causing a glow that Damon couldn't resist capturing on his camera. He snuck a few with his father in the back ground and posted the best of them in his close friends story, captioning it— 'i owe it all to this nigga. iykyk.'

He watched his story over and over while Maverik continued to talk. Cole (@coleisastar) was the first to respond to the close friends post with a side eye emoji.

@coleisastar yo why u with him?

@themusedg gonna have freedom lunch 🇺🇸

@coleisastar 🥴

@coleisastar where y'all eating at?

@themusedg idk

@themusedg i'm thinking of asking him for some advice. but, ion want him to feel a way.

@themusedg he seem like he in a good mood rn

@coleisastar i can give you some advice nigga

@coleisastar come meet me for lunch instead. we need to talk

@themusedg what we need to talk about

@coleisastar how about.... why Sade asking me about Ranesha. You ain't tell her still

@themusedg i'm going to

@coleisastar you taking long as shit tho.

Dame left him on read and exited the message thread. "You a teacher or something?" Dame asked Maverik.

"No, I just know the history of my people."

"Right on. So, what do you actually do?"

"You don't know what I do for a living?"

"At what moment would I have found out?"

Maverik shrugged, "I'm retired."

"Why Holle working then?"

"Because she loves her work. I tried to get her to stop— she don't want to."

"Is she the only reason you gave us up?" He asked casually, though his heart was racing. "I wonder if even after my mom passed away, would things have gone differently if Holle was different? Or if she wasn't there at all? Would we have grown up in Alabama?"

"That's a lot of questions."

"I love history too." He tried to joke. But, he didn't stop soon enough for it to be a joke. He kept on going. "What if she was alive? What if she didn't die and you didn't go to Detroit when you did and you and Holle grew apart before she told you about Maurice and you never found out until she called you after giving birth but then blocked you and wouldn't give you any information on him and won't let you see him because she doesn't want you to have to choose between her and my mom?"

"Heh!" Maverik attempted a laugh that was short lived— he began to cough instead. "Pass me my inhaler." He got out, pointing towards the glove box and Dame obliged. He accepted the inhaler from his son's hand and held it between his lips, pushing down the top as he took a deep breath. Then again. And again. Dame watched him, not concerned, but amused by this man who he watched bench almost three hundred pounds being unable to breathe without help.

Maverik continued his laughter once his breath caught up to him. "COPD got a nigga a few years ago."

"Oh." Dame mumbled, turning his head towards the side mirror.

"So..." Maverik sighed. "What you gonna do?" He asked, taking in the whole story through the scenario Dame had just 'created'.

"I thought that with your experience, you might have some suggestions?" He slowly looked back towards his father.

"Depends. You willing to take responsibility for your place in it?"

"Yeah."

"That's good. Because nothing you do will matter if you never wanted to do it in the first place."

Dame nodded, taking in the advice.

"You're a good father, Damon." He added, waiting for his son to look at him again. Once he did, "You're doing a great job. This other child, will be lucky to have you in their life."

Dame inhaled deeply, closing his eyes tightly before letting the breath go.

"But I already missed too many years." He confessed.

"Look where that mindset got me." He took a short nod, "I don't want you to have kids who think you don't give a fuck. It's never too late."

"But, i'm not sure she even wants me in his life." He sniffed, "and what if Sade has a problem with it?"

"Fuck Sade." He paused, "With all due respect."

Dame stared at Maverik.

"It's not about her."

"But it is— this the reason I can't be with her."

"You can't be with her because you're not being honest, not because she got a problem with the situation. She don't even know about it."

"You said Holle tried to kill you when she found out about us and my mom."

"Yeah, but Holle come from a different life. And she hardheaded. Of course she wanted to kill me. But she loved me. And she loved her son. Mind you, it did take years for her to talk to me again. I missed the first few years of Reece's life. However, be that as it may," he shook his head at the memories. "Sade love you more than Holle ever could love anybody. It's not the same situation. It's not the same girl. This is Sade."

"So just tell her." Dame gave himself the advice he received from his father's long rant.

Maverik nodded his head, "Or somebody else will." He warned, recalling how he was blasted by Cliff back in the day.

The two went on to enjoy their lunch in a restaurant that was distastefully decorated with red black and green for the holiday.

Coming from the restaurant, walking down to the festive corridors towards the riverfront, Dame watched the strangers walking with, towards and around them. "I wanted to ask you about something else." He asked, now more comfortable in the presence of his father. "Did you know about what's happening with Lonnie?"

"What's wrong with'em?"

Dame shrugged. "It seem like he fell through the cracks. Did nobody ever notice something was off?"

"Of course I noticed. I was also scared as all get out. Soon as I recognized some similar traits in Reece when he was younger, I got him in therapy immediately because I regretted not getting Lonnie help. But I didn't know the signs when you and him was kids."

"They got the same thing?"

"I don't know what Lonnie got. But him and Maurice two sides of the same coin. Reece never gone get as bad as Lonnie though. I made sure."

Dame's phone rang, freeing him from the shackles of the direction of this conversation. It was Cole. "What up?"

"Where you at?"

"Over here by CAYMC. Where the food trucks be at."

"Oh, bet." He hung up.

"Who was that?"

"Cole. You don't mind that I invited him?"

Maverik shook his head. "Nah, I like Cole."

"You think it's too late for Lonnie to take his mental health seriously?"

Maverik side eyed his son, skeptically. He hummed, quizzically. "How come you asking so many questions about your brother?"

Dame shrugged, "He's my brother."

"Yeah, but—"

"Ain't you the one who just told me it's never too late?"

Mav smiled, "Touché."

"I heard some shit recently that got me worried. Made me feel like he don't really got nobody in his corner." He shrugged. "Did you know that I hate that nigga?"

"I hate my brother too, sometimes. It's natural."

"Why you hate Uncle Mac?"

"I don't hate him right now. But most of the time I do. He's just arrogant as fuck like he's not just a glorified drug dealer." Maverik mocked his brother.

"Shit's not natural." He disagreed. "Cole, why the fuck your nipples out?" Dame asked as the man approached them.

He questioned the inquiry with his hands. "I got on a shirt." He looked down at his black knitted top where his nipples were sticking out of the holes on full display along with the rest of his brown skin.

"Can't take this nigga anywhere." He complained.

"How you gone police my Blackness on Freedom Day?" He asked, receiving a aggravated sigh from Dame. Maverik laughed at the question. "And you up here with the white mans clothes on, my whole fit black owned— American made and shit like that. You got on a m'fucking button down."

Maverik laughed again. He laughed the whole time that Cole was talking to Dame.

"Man, wasn't you supposed to be out of town?"

"Yeah. Then it got cancelled. Well, they still went along with it, but I cancelled my self and my people because it was a bomb threat." He shrugged. "I wasn't trying to get killed at no festival. Y'all hungry?"

"We just ate." Maverik shared.

"Yeah but like— you ain't got room for a snack? I kinda want some ice cream or some donuts or something."

"So you cancelled same day for an event?"

"Hell yeah. You ain't hear me? Bomb, nigga. In New York. They should'a cancelled the whole thing they self for real." He looked around as the three began to cross woodward. "They act like New York ain't the place where that shit always happens. They need to take it serious."

"So what y'all been talking about?"

"Nothing for real." Dame simplied the morning.

"Oh, so y'all just been chilling?"

"Mhm."

"Whatever. I been talking to Jill recently. I think I might propose to her soon."

"What the fuck?! What about Lo—" he stopped himself after forgetting that a second party was with them. "You know who. I thought that was serious."

"Well— people change, I guess. What you think though?"

"It's... sudden."

"Sudden? I been in love with Jill for like ten years. How sudden can that be?"

"Hmm, how about all the shit she been putting you through for the past few years? Covering for niggas. Lying and shit."

"Yeah, yeah she was just in a bad situation. It wasn't her fault."

"Nigga, that's only what you know about. I — nevermind."

"Nah say it."

Dame shrugged, "I don't trust her."

"You lied to me too." He reminded Dame, "Yet, here we are. Talking and hanging out and shit."

"Whatever Cole."

"Y'all grew up with this girl?" Maverik asked.

"Yeah. And she into hoodoo and shit. She probably put a spell on this nigga."

"She didn't." Cole said, point-blank. "And she was my girl before then she broke up with me right around the time when my parents died." He explained to Maverik.

"Strike one." The oldest man called out.

"See what i'm saying?" Dame cosigned Mav. "And, she broke up with him because she felt guilty about having an abortion. And she ain't tell him until like three years after the breakup."

"Spirit told her it was time to clean out her closet." Cole told them, thinking he was defending her.

"So it wasn't even her choice." Dame added on.

"Okay, but since I got out of the hospital she been around and she's different."

"Of course she is."

"The fuck do you mean by that?"

"She obviously want something from you." Dame shrugged, "And she know you well enough to know how to fucking get it. Do. Not. Marry. That bitch."

"Woah." Maverik stood between the two of them. "No need for name calling."

"Aint nobody a bitch but you, nigga. Remember I told yo ass you was dumb as fuck for messing with Rane and Sade— now look at'chu. Been bitching and crying for months because you scared to talk to Sade about it."

"Fuck you, Cole."

"You was talking a lot of shit about what I was doing. But I ain't got no kids. No baby momma drama. And nobody crossing states and seas to get away from me."

"Your nigga went to a whole other state and ghosted your ass! The other one is dead."

Cole lunged at Dame and Maverik pushed him out the way, causing Cole to fall on the ground.

"Alright now." Maverik ordered them to behave as he put his hand out for Cole to grab, helping him up. "It's Juneteenth. Have some respect."

"This nigga." Dame complained.

"You don't even respect your elders. The fuck I should listen to you for?" Cole argued.

"Luke James!" The three heard a girl yell— others heard her and they all began approaching the group. Cole sighed and put on a faux smile, greeting his fans.

W/12/16/2024
P/01/11/2025