Chapter Four: Open Minds
"What the hell?" I said as my phone chirped. As I was sitting at my desk at work.
It was a notification from my alarm app someone was at my house. I looked at the camera view and saw a black man walking up to my front door. I hadn't ordered anything,
"Can I help you?" I asked through the talk button of the app as he got closer to the door.
"Jesse sent me to do your deck," the man said. "Name's Andrew."
Jesse never gave me a name. He just said someone would be coming around. "Hold on," I said.
"Be right here," Andrew replied.
I sent a text to Jacob to ask Jesse about the guy at my door, I didn't have Jesse's number, and I didn't want it.
'All good, Jesse said he's the person,' Jacob texted me back quickly.
He must have been near Jesse, or Jesse was at their house.
"Fine," I said.
"Okay, I will get started," Andrew said.
I turned the view to the back camera and saw Andrew with his tools starting to tear down the deck.
"What's going on?" Charles asked as he looked at my phone.
"The guy is taking down the deck," I said.
"Ah, Andrew!" Charles said.
"You know him?" I asked.
"Yeah, he did some great work in our backyard, gave us a barbecue pit and a stone fire stove, it was great work," Charles said. "Took him a while, but it was well worth it."
I nodded and set my phone on the desk. So, that I could see what he was doing.
"You've got that look," Charles said as he stared down at me.
"What look?" I asked.
"You know very well what look, what's on your mind," Charles said as he sat down.
"It's nothing, just thinking about my parents," I said.
Charles knew my parents very well. He had gone to school with them, he was practically my godfather, so I confided in him a lot.
"Ah," Charles said. "They would have a fit," he smiled.
To say my parents were racist was like saying water was wet. I heard more names for other ethnic groups come out of their mouths than I heard my name.
"Glad you're not like that," Charles said.
I was for a long time. I always made racial jokes or snide comments. That was until Darold was born. All of that changed the moment I held that baby in my arms. His tiny hand gripped my finger, and everything I thought vanished at that moment.
Sure, I slipped now and then, but I was a changed person for the most part.
"No, the fuck you're not!" Katie said as she laughed at me.
"I am!" I said as we talked on the phone at my lunch break.
"Excuse me," Katie said. "How about the time the guy cut you off when we went to the restaurant, two weeks ago?"
"I didn't mean it," I said, shaking my head. I had called him the N-word, but I was angry, and he had cut me off.
"The Chinese guy at the restaurant?" Katie asked.
"It's only polite to talk in English, when someone asks you a question," I shrugged.
"We were in a Chinese restaurant!" Katie said. "And he was talking to one of the other staff members."
"In America!" I replied. "And I was the one that asked the question!"
Katie went on to say a few more times that I had gone off the rails as she would say.
"I just have different views, they aren't that bad," I said.
"You have an opinion," Katie corrected me. "Anyone you don't know completely is bad and will stay on your alert list until they prove otherwise," Katie nodded.
"Doesn't everyone do that?" I asked.
"Yes, and no," Katie said. "Most of us do it for everyone, you do it with mostly ethnic groups," Katie sighed.
"I do not," I said.
"Who is Clayton interested in, right now?" Katie asked.
"Easy the blonde girl in his school with the curly hair," I nodded.
"Wrong," Katie said. "Try again."
"No," I said as I remembered he pointed her out a few times. "She's the short girl with the curly blonde hair, she wears a lot of yellow."
"Nope," Katie said.
I got angry and video called her. She answered, and I saw that she was in her office at the residential home.
"What are you talking about?" I asked. "He pointed to her, and said she was cute," I said.
"Yes, that's Shelly, Nick and Danelle's girl, but no he isn't interested in her, he told me he pointed her out to you because you asked why he was smiling all the time," Katie said.
"Okay, so who is it?" I asked.
"Hispanic girl, named Helena," Katie said.
"What?" I asked. "Who the fuck is Helena?"
"See," Katie said.
"No, nothing to do with her being Hispanic or whatever, I don't know who she is," I said.
"Long black hair, wears jeans and always near your son," Katie said.
"Doesn't ring a bell," I said. "Wait," I said as I remembered a girl at the water park. "Her hair is really dark black, like oily black. Taller than Clayton?"
"That's her," Katie nodded.
"Why didn't he tell me?" I asked.
"Alyssa was the one that told me, then he told me afterwards," Katie said.
"Alyssa knows?" I shouted.
"You should be asking Clayton, why he is scared to tell you," Katie said.
I felt a pit in my stomach for the rest of the day. My son was scared to tell me something. That didn't sit right with me at all.
'Can I pick up Clayton from school?' I texted Jacob.
'Have to ask Alyssa, she is taking him to football practice,' Jacob replied.
'Fuck me,' I thought as I scrolled to Alyssa's name.
'Can I pick up Clayton, I need to talk to him, I can bring him to the field,' I sent.
'Sure, I will pick up his gear and meet you there,' Alyssa replied.
No doubt Jacob had talked to her first, or she would have said something else.
I got out of work early and waited in the long line of cars to pick up the kids. I saw Clayton and Darold. Sure enough, there she was, a tall Hispanic girl with them. She was there with a black girl. All four of them were talking and smiling.
When I pulled up, the two girls looked like they had seen a ghost and took off.
"Where's Alyssa?" Clayton said as he climbed into the back seat. Darold waved as I knew Katie's mother was picking him up as usual.
