Mid-Fall 2009
Momma Dean was unharmed when she got stranded on South Green Street. The bad news was, due to a broken radiator, her car had to be serviced. It would cost about $850 to buy a replacement. Momma Dean insisted that she wasn't going to give up her driving license because of this. Derek apologized to his grandmother for failing to reach her in time. She understood that it was an accident. Momma Dean resolved herself in using public transportation for the next few weeks.
Chenille had a far different perspective about the situation. She unloaded on Derek after they were the only people in the living room. "Momma Dean is pushing 80. She'll be needing someone to take care of her, and Christopher and I may not live here when she does. How did you get stuck in traffic anyway?"
"Someone else needed a ride home." Despite being determined to keep intrusive thoughts of Sara at bay, Derek hoped she'd get her ankle checked if she's raising Samara by herself. He also realized, for the first time, that he hadn't seen her father and the little girl's grandfather in months. Before his thoughts could delve into bottomless questions about the Johnson family, the college student returned his focus towards his sister. "How come your boss wouldn't let you leave early?"
"Sharice said I'm supposed to 'navigate the grapevine in Hair Divine'." She groaned, "Between the salon being understaffed and what I just found out, I can't handle today."
"What you talking about?"
"Mikaela had this client she called Tessie who came in for French locs. This girl was raving nonstop about her 24-year-old cousin. Brenda—that's the cousin—was gonna go to grad school for Journalism, but she got knocked up by her boyfriend of two months."
"Two months? Could they've wait?"
"Brenda's sprung," Chenille remarked with a wince. "I know that feeling too well. Her cousin thinks they're serious."
"So, who's the Mack Daddy?"
She bitterly muttered, "It's Kenny."
"Kenny," her incredulous brother queried. He soon put two and two together. "Wait, you're telling me he got with a girl three years younger than him?"
"And fathering another kid when he couldn't do that for his firstborn." Chenille was glad that her son was already asleep. She couldn't bring herself to explain why his daddy was starting a family with someone else. "Kenny and I didn't consider what kind of future we would have when I got pregnant with Christopher. Even so, he refused to—he said he wouldn't wife nobody up. I hoped he'd change his mind when we got back together senior year. It shouldn't take me years to realize it's never gonna happen."
"How do you think his folks feel about this?"
"They don't care as long as Kenny's dogging me."
"Since when you and they don't get along?"
"Since the 9th grade. They always think I'm siddity; they've especially hated my decision to keep my son." She then aired something he didn't expect her to say. "And then there's Nikki and her mess."
Derek wasn't going to hash over one ex-girlfriend. He certainly didn't want to converse about the other. Then again, his sister's hint was tickling his ear. "What about her?"
"I ran into Shawna the other day. She asked me if I knew a guy named Antoine Pratt. I said no; she then told me she saw Nikki at her job, crediting him as the triplets' father and changing Derek Jr.'s name. Not long before she bounced in '06, she returned to the city office with him to seek a marriage license." Derek recounted how she kept the triplets away from him, Momma Dean, Chenille, and Christopher after he spurned her. The words from her letter rung in his ears: Don't come find us. Chenille's story reaffirmed that Nikki made sure Derek had nothing to do with them. It cheesed him off to the point of losing sleep.
Two weeks later, the college freshman started on-the-job training at the Chicago Park District. He was stirred when he was offered an interview. The last several jobs rejected Derek for two reasons: he was underqualified and lacking a degree higher than a high school diploma. Derek and 29 other trainees sat through orientation. When the presentation video ended, a security guard entered the conference room. "Most of y'all will work citywide," the recruiter explained. "When I call your name, you'll join my colleague as he shows you the premises. I'll designate everybody else to a specific park." She began reading the names on her list. "Okay, Jake Langston. Dane Stevens. Alexandra Duncan. Tia Barker. Francine Jefferson. Benjamin King…" Derek observed the number of recruits decreasing as each name was uttered. None of them was his. "Okay, now you all will be assigned to each park. The first group will be dispatched to Ogden Park: Winston Lewis, Julie Metcalf, and Keisha Sutton. Next up is Hamilton Park: Iris Rowell, Robert Fisher, and Derek Reynolds."
The college freshman drove to his job promptly after class the next day. He got acquainted with the inner workings at Hamilton Park and his new co-workers. Robert was a confident 34-year-old with medium brown skin. He lived in Woodlawn with his wife Elyssa. The one thing Derek didn't like was that the newlywed kept calling him "kid". Iris, a brown-skinned beauty from Fuller Park, wasn't inclined to kick it with them. She viewed her job as a means to cover her expenses and everyone in the building as faces. However, the 27-year-old Chicago State graduate did regard their boss with respect. Mr. Curtis Boyd was unlike Derek's boss at Reese's Joints. The Community Outreach Director wore business attire and a no-nonsense attitude to match. He didn't want his employees wearing any jeans, chains, tattoos, body piercings, graphic t-shirts, or sneakers. Instead, his dress code consisted of a polo shirt, khaki skirt or pants, and comfortable shoes. Derek started questioning if he might've gotten in over his head. And yet, he didn't know this was only the beginning.