Synergy (30 page)

“
Let’s call him
Rio
” she said, and at that, her eye’s
began to fill up with tears, something Jason hadn’t seen very
often. Every time he had seen her emotional, she’d managed to avert
the tears, remove them almost as if they never existed. This time,
one fell effortlessly from her face before she wiped them away. Her
face still showed a bittersweet look; her mouth was curled and
smiling but her eyes showed the pain.

“
Hey, what’s
wrong
?” Jason asked, smiling at her
encouragingly, hoping she would confide in him about whatever had
made her emotional. He knew pregnant women could get
over-emotional, and while he was prepared for her to laugh it off,
something in him thought it was more than that.

“
I had a brother
called Mario
” she started, sniffling.
“
We used to call him
Rio
.”

Jason listened intently and his heart pulled in his chest at
her words. 
Used to
, he thought, 
past
tense
. She’d never mentioned another
brother before, and he wondered why she’d never said anything. Was
he young? Was he ill? Or was it an accident?

“
What
happened
?” Jason asked, rubbing her arm
affectionately under the covers. He didn’t want to pry or make her
upset, but he needed to know.

“
He was killed in
a shoot out when he was thirteen
.”

“
How old were
you
?”

“
Nine
.”

Jason
watched her sympathetically, his heart wrenched as he saw the pain
before her eyes. He couldn’t imagine how horrible that must have
been.

“
I’m sorry, I
can’t imagine how hard that was
.”

“
It’s ok, it was a
long time ago. But the name is perfect
.”

Jason smiled. “
Guess we got
ourselves a Rio
”

“
My family’s gonna
freak
.”

“
Freak in a good
way, right
?”

“
Yeah
” Dee smiled.

There
was a minute of silence. Jason took all of the information in and
let it register. He thought about a nine-year-old Dee losing her
big brother. He couldn’t imagine it, especially losing him in such
a tragic way, taken too soon and without warning. He thought about
her siblings too, thinking Kiki must have only been a toddler. Then
he wondered about Jarell. He was sure Jarell was a few years older
than Dee, though he wasn’t exactly sure by how much.

“
He must have been
around Jarell’s age, right
?” Jason asked,
seeing Dee was now tearless.

 “
They were
twins
”

“
Wow
”

“
Not identical,
but pretty similar
.”

“
I didn’t
realise
”

“
Yeah. It was hard
on him
”

“
Poor
guy
”

“
He was with him
when it happened so I guess he thought he coulda’ done
something
.”

“
You can’t think
like that though
”

“
I
know
”

“
Was it completely
random
?”

“
Gang related. I
guess there was some shit going down and they just got in the
way
.”

“
Did anybody get
caught
?”

Dee
scoffed. It was a sarcastic notion.

“
You’re kidding
right? Gangs don’t get caught. Police don’t give a shit if a ghetto
kid gets shot
.”

“
But they
investigated
?”

“
Not for very
long. No leads, no witnesses willing to say ‘nuttin, so case was
dropped, just like that
.”

“
Did people see
it
?”

“
It was like, five
in the afternoon so some mo’fucker seen something, but nobody wants
to say shit. You speak out on shit like that, you next. Just the
way it is
.”

“
I can’t believe
it
” Jason sighed. He was utterly
speechless that things like that could happen. He knew it happened
somewhere but it was hard to stomach that it happened to somebody
he knew, to somebody he cared about. He had a feeling that this
wasn’t the last of the things she was keeping quiet from him. He
could only hope she felt comfortable enough to talk to him about
them, because Lord knows bottling things up is never a good
thing. 

Chapter 27 – Touchdown

The plane ride home was less eventful than the first for Dee.
She knew what to expect this time round, and she was excited to get
home and see her family. More than anything, she was looking
forward to seeing Tushaun, especially after his father hadn’t shown
up that weekend to spent time with him, she wanted to show him that
one of his parents still cared. Just before she’d set off for the
airport, she’d received a text message from Kiki reading
‘
Got some news when u
home
 x’, so she was also curious to
find out what the news could be. She wondered whether it would be
about Kiki, or maybe about Tushaun. It worried her thinking about
the possibilities, because by default, she was a pessimist and
always thought as one, though Jason eased her worries, reminding
her that the news could be something good. After all, it would
explain why she wanted to say something before she was even home.
Dee admired that quality in Jason; that he could see the bright
side of situations, seeing positive when there was
uncertainty.

Jason’s
parents and grandparents had sent them away with plenty of food,
probably more than the pair of them could go through in a lifetime.
While his grandma Lily had baked cakes and pies and cookies, Joy
had made a batch of her famous casserole. They’d boxed them up for
the pair in Tupperware boxes, which now lined the bottom of
multiple bags, some for Jason to take back to his hotel, and some
for Dee to take home to her family. Dee appreciated the fact that
they’d thought about her, treated her as one of them while she
stayed with them, and made extra food just so she could feed her
family too. She’d never felt so accepted by strangers in her life,
and it was a weird feeling.

Since
their conversation the night before, when Dee opened up about her
brother, Jason had seen a different side to Dee. He understood
she’d been through things that he could never fully understand;
things that she would always carry round with her. So far he
understood that she’d lost a brother, had a mother that was
difficult to cope with at times, though she had never fully talked
about specifics with Monique, and she had struggled to bring up a
son practically on her own, without the help of her ex. He thought
there was probably more difficulty in her life than she’d
 mentioned, but he wasn’t in a hurry for her to reveal them.
He'd wait until she was comfortable.

During
the short flight, the pair of them were pretty quiet as they
digested the weekend’s events, thinking about what had happened and
what was to come. Jason had realised during the weekend at home
that he didn’t have to come back to Detroit after all since all
recording was finished, and the album was out for release. However,
after speaking about it with his parents, he decided it was a good
idea to stay close to Dee, to be there for her if she needed
anything during her pregnancy and to continue to get to know her,
to spend time with her, so they could prepare to be a real family.
He could always jump on a plane to go home every now and then
during the coming months when he needed to, and his parents
understood and supported his decision. Dee had told him he didn’t
need to come back, that she would be fine on the plane home if he
wanted to stay at home a little longer, but although he knew she
was capable, he didn’t want to leave her, especially as it was only
her second time flying.

Jason
looked at the seat next to him where Dee had turned her attention
away from the window, and sat staring vacantly, looking deep in
thought.

“
You
okay
?” he asked, watching as her
concentration broke.

“
Yeah, just
thinking
.”

“
About
what
?”

“
Just, what’s
gonna happen once the baby comes, where we’re gonna live and when
you’re gonna see him, stuff like that
.”

“
You know my
original offer stands
”

“
To buy me a
house
?”

“
Yeah.
”

Dee
twisted her face up, almost as if she was thinking, but she looked
unsure.

“
I just want to
look after you
.”

“
You don’t need
to
”

“
But I want
to
” Jason explained, putting the emphasis
on ‘want.’

As Jason
thought about the situation in his own head, he realised that Dee
was probably never going to say yes to him buying her a house. She
would probably never let him do it if she was given a choice, nor
would she accompany him on viewing houses, or even accept the idea.
He realised that maybe the way to handle this was to not give her a
choice. Dee was probably used to being independent and making her
own decisions her entire life; she’d probably never been forced
into something before. All he wanted was for his baby to be safe
and well, in a house that provided that for him, where his mother
didn’t have to worry about paying bills or struggling to look after
him. He wanted them both to be happy and safe, and he didn’t see
why that was such a bad thing.

Money
wasn’t anything to him if he couldn’t look after the ones he cared
about. He would never dream about spending money on frivolous
things if his loved ones weren’t looked after, and now Dee was in
his life, she was his loved one; her, his baby, and Tushaun. He
decided once he got back he was going to start making plans,
whether she was involved in them or not. If she didn’t move into
the house, he would, and then it wasn’t a wasted effort, he could
still have somewhere to stay other than a hotel so he was close to
them, and maybe over time, they would get closer to the decision to
live together as a family if everything went well.

Even if
the house was still in Detroit, it could be a little further away
from the rougher area and he could set it up with security features
so he was sure they were safe, he could get her a car too so she
had easy access to her family and friends. Once the thought of a
car popped into his mind, he thought about the fact Dee didn’t
drive. Suddenly, he realised it may not have been the fact she
couldn’t afford a car, maybe she couldn’t drive altogether. Or
maybe she just never needed one in her small neighbourhood with
everything at walking distance.

“
Hey
Dee
” he said, distracting her once again
from staring out of the plane window.

“
I never thought
to ask before. Did you ever learn to drive
?”

“
Yeah, I have my
license
”

“
Did you ever have
a car
?”

There
was a pause, and Dee sighed next to him.

“
I know it’s not
cool but, me and my homies used to just drive each others, rather
than everybody pay for their own car. Jarell used to let me drive
his too
.”

“Oh
. I just wondered if you ever did
drive”

“
I’m actually on a
suspension”

There
was a look of embarrassment on Dee’s face, and Jason could see it.
He made sure his reaction didn’t overreact.

“
Oh, ok. How
come
?”

“I 
was young, and stupid. I got
done for a DUI, I’m not proud of it.”