Eastside by Caleb Alexander Page A

to hold some money for him. I been holding it, but…Momma, I know that he would want you to have it. It’s enough to buy you a car. You could work the day shift, and do home visits, and make enough money to get out of there. Momma, I could move back home and help out, and you wouldn’t have to take the bus no more. We could probably be out of the Courts in a couple of months.”
    â€œTre, honey, all this time you and your brother been sticking money in my purse, and pretending like I didn’t know, what did you think that I was thinking? Did you think that I believed in the Good Fairy? Tre, I know that you mean well, but I don’t want your brother’s money. Buy you a car, buy you some school clothes, or take your Aunt Vera out to eat. Have fun with it, it’s yours now.”
    â€œBut, Momma! You could buy you a car, and you wouldn’t have to ride the bus at night, and then have to wait all morning until they start running again!”
    â€œIt’s dope money, Tre!” Elmira shouted. “It’s poison! I don’t want your brother’s blood money. I have never complained about riding the bus, not once, have I, Tre?”
    â€œBut, Momma.”
    â€œTre!” Elmira cut him off. “Do you know what I did with your brother’s money?”
    Travon remained silent.
    â€œI saved it! I saved all of it, and I used it to bury him. I paid for his funeral with it. The same money that he got from putting people in the ground, I used to put him in the ground!” Elmira shouted. She began sobbing heavily. “I took his death money, and I paid it to the funeral home, and I buried my child! I buried my child,” she repeated softly.
    â€œI’m sorry, Momma,” Travon whispered. “I’m sorry.”
    Elmira sniffled. “Don’t be sorry, baby, just do something for yourself. That part of our lives is over now, Tre. Now go on with your life and do something for yourself. If you really want to help Momma, then go to school and graduate. Become a doctor, or a lawyer, or something. Make me proud.”
    â€œBut I want to help you now.”
    â€œBaby, I know, and I love you for it. If you want to help that much, then go to school in the daytime, and get a job working after school. We’ll open us an account together, and we’ll both put money into it. We’ll use it to buy a car, so I can work in the daytime and get my ass outta these Courts. Then you can come and live with me again. How does that sound?”
    â€œIt sounds good,” Travon told her.
    â€œAll right, baby, I got to go and get ready for work. But I’ll talk to you later.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œâ€™Bye,” Elmira whispered softly. “I love you, baby.”
    â€œLove you, too.”
    Travon placed the telephone receiver down into its base. With his thoughts still on the conversation with his mother, he rose from the living room couch and slowly walked to the front door. He stood silently, peering out of the dark screen door, not ready to be seen or partake in the conversation between his Aunt Chicken and the others, who were now seated around the front porch.
    â€œAnybody ever tell you that you are finer than a motherfucka, Mrs. C?” Lil Fade asked.
    â€œBoy, go on!” Chicken replied. “I’m old enough to be your mother.”
    â€œSay, they don’t make women like you no more, Mrs. C,” Lil Bling told her. He lifted his bottle of beer to his lips and took a long swig from it. “You can cook, you clean, you work, you stay in shape, and you down.”
    â€œWhat, you think that just because I got kids, I’m supposed to be an old fogey? I know what’s up.” Chicken smiled, and walked to where Big Pimpin was standing. He had both hands hidden behind his back. Chicken wrapped both arms around him, as if she were about to give him a seductive embrace, and then stepped back, holding the joint that he