Page 57 (2/2)
Fear shot through Kerry’s veins like electricity and she would’ve tried to run right out of that cafeteria had it not been for a whisper in her ear froreen beans beside her
“Girl, don’t mind Thompson She all talk She’ll set shit off, but if you buck up at her, she’ll back off,” she said, duelina Garcia-Bell, a Latina with a short black buzz cut and beautiful long eyelashes that looked out of place on her mannish face She was one of the two friends Kerry had made since she’d been locked up—the other was the inotten stabbed in the tit “I told you that you can’t let these chicks see you all scared Bitches feed on that shit in here”
“How am I supposed to seem like I’ Thouard forced her down the line “I’ll just be glad when this is all over and I can get away froo home See my family—my little boy”
“Won’t we all be glad when that day coreen beans “Won’t we all?”
Most evenings after dinner, Kerry didn’t go into the recreational common area to watch soap opera reruns on the outdated projection television with the other inmates Instead, she’d head to the library, pick up a book, and sit at one of the tables in the back of the rooht GED prep classes There, she could read and think and pretend none of this was happening to her
But Kerry didn’t do that after the incident in the cafeteria with the macaroni and cheese To avoid
a confrontation with Thoht to her cell and clihts went out and later the sun came up Maybe tootten their spat in the cafeteria Maybe Kerry would wake up and be away fro on the back deck of the Tudor off Cascade drinkingup I-85 in the old Range Rover with the n and the air-conditioning on Music blasting, open road in front of her Going to wherever she wanted Tomorrow, she’d see Tyrian Jamison Home
Kerry laid back in her bottom bunk and looked up at the picture she’d tucked into the spring beneath the top mattress Two faces smiled down at her Anoses They were standing beside a large wooden sign that read CHARLIE YATES GOLF COURSE AT EAST LAKE The boy, as a little taller than the ht arm was draped around the boy Both looked proud
A tear left Kerry’s eye and rolled back toward the pillow beneath her head She closed her eyes tightly and tried to go back to the day she’d taken that photo It was Tyrian’s first golf demonstration, about nine months earlier She and Jamison were already divorced by then, but that day was peaceful Agreeable Tyrian woke up thatso nervous, anxious, and excited that he wouldn’t stop asking his mother questions
“What if I lose? What if it rains? What if it snows? What if I faint? What if my coach faints? What if no one comes? What if too many people come?” he listed so intensely Kerry wondered how a six-year-old could come up with so many worries But he’d always been very smart Advanced Precocious Like his father
“And what if everything is perfect? Just perfect?” she’d said, placing his clothes on his bed “Have you thought about that,is wonderful and everyone has a great time?”
Cli from beneath his bedsheets, Tyrian looked off to consider this like he waspause “It could be perfect You’re right, Mama”
Kerry winked at Tyrian, kissed his cheek, and said, “I’ht”
And she was right While her ex-husband was usually late to Tyrian’s practices at the golf course and had gotten into the habit of using his recent victory in a tight race for mayor of Atlanta as an excuse to be absent tooutside the golf course, right by the sign, when Kerry and Tyrian arrived Sitting in the backseat of his ht of a six-year-old son when he saw his father standing beside the sign
“Daddy’s here! Daddy’s here already! He really ca off his booster-seat seat belt before his ine