“Oh, Gawd! Don’t do that to me. You know, you could try understanding what it’s like. I haven’t had a life in seven years. It’s always what the kids need.”
“Oh, please, you’ve never let those kids slow you down. You bought a bottle of gin on the way home from the hospital with Ayjia.”
The gold convertible paced them as Mercedes power-walked and Porsha scurried alongside her down the Ring Road.
“Hey, I stayed dry through both pregnancies, you know I did. And if you passed a freakin’ basketball through your nether regions, you’d feel entitled to a fucking drink on the way home from the hospital, too. Shit, I don’t need this. Just tell me where they are and I’ll get them.”
Mercedes checked her watch. Forty minutes before she had to pick them up. “I thought you were going to wait until school finished for the summer. Because dragging them back to Holbrook for a couple of weeks of school at this point—”
“Oh, forget that. School’s out as far as I’m concerned. Close enough.”
Mercedes halted. “You’re not taking them back to Holbrook?”
Porsha and the stalking convertible halted. “Ray has business up north. He said we can stay with him in Phoenix.”
Mercedes shook with outrage. She spun and kept walking, saying over her shoulder, “Leave them here with me until you decide to go back to Holbrook.”
“Oh, for— Mercedes, stop. Listen.” With a tsking noise, she said, “I didn’t want to tell you this, but I can’t go back. I lost the apartment. That asshole David bounced Dayton’s support check while I was away. My rent didn’t come out. I’ve been evicted.”
Oh, hell. She shouldn’t feel bad for screwing over her sister, but she did. It was the kind of thing that always happened to Porsha and to be accidentally responsible for it... This meant the kids’ toys and the rest of their clothes would be gone. Stuffies and photographs had gone where? Storage? A thrift store? The refuse station?
Hell.
Mercedes stalked to her patio, clattered her keys and pushed open her back door. She let Ray find his own freaking parking spot and got out of the sun.
“Dayton’s check is coming to me,” she explained over her shoulder. “Because I have Dayton.”
“What?” Porsha stepped over Dayton’s latest Lego creation and took off her sunglasses. “Hey, this is nice.”
“Thank you. I like it.” Even though it was lonely as hell since the neighbors had left. “Look.” She couldn’t believe she was saying this. “You and the kids can stay here with me until they finish school and you find a place.”
“No, seriously—”
“No, Porsha. Seriously. The kids need to stay in school. Dayton has this end of year field trip he’s looking forward to and Ayjia has a kindergarten graduation thing.”
“No, I was going to take them to the dinosaur place. They’ll like it better than some field trip or grad cap. I mean it’s not like Ayjia’s old enough to get drunk and lose her virginity, right?” Porsha smirked.
“That’s not even funny, Porsha. Should we have both been drunk when we lost ours? Is there not some part of you that recognizes how wrong that is?”
“Oh my fucking Gawd,” she groaned. “Do we have to do this? I’m sorry, all right? I should have talked to them. I should have come sooner. I’m a lousy mother. What do you want? It’s not easy, all right? I needed a fucking break.”
“I know it’s not easy. I’ve been doing it. If you wanted me to see what it’s like, okay, I get it. You’re right, it’s hard. Every single day. But a break is an afternoon. A weekend. You can’t abandon your kids for two and a half months and not expect it to affect them.”
“Oh, please. Mom did it to us. We turned out okay.”
“I have a police record and you’re an alcoholic.”
“I’m not an alcoholic. I’m not drunk now.” She turned her head to look down the hall and muttered, “Even though it’d make this bullshit a lot easier to put up with.”
“You haven’t had a drink today?” Mercedes challenged, pouring ice water into a couple of glasses.
“No,” Porsha said in what Mercedes figured was a bald-faced lie. “Are the kids’ things in one of the bedrooms down there?”
“Not one little sip?” Mercedes asked. “Since you knew I’d be a bitch about this?”
“All right, yes! I had one drink and you are being a bitch and Ray is waiting. Can we wrap this up?”
Mercedes checked her watch. Twenty minutes. She’d have to leave soon or she’d be late picking up the kids, but no way were the kids going anywhere with Ray.
Draining her ice water, Mercedes left the glasses on the counter and went outside.
“Where are you going?” Porsha tiptoed behind her, all the way to Ray’s car. “Hi, honey. It turns out the kids aren’t here and little sister had a bigger lecture than I expected.”
“Yeah?” Ray said, rolling the ash off his cigar against the side mirror.
“Hi, Ray.” Mercedes waited for his mirrored sunglasses to swivel, drop, climb and more or less meet her eyes before offering him a tight smile. “I’m not trying to make your life difficult, but I think I should lay it on the line for you. See, while Porsha was gone, I had to take custody of her kids. That means I’m responsible for anything that happens to them. So if you and Porsha were to take them on your trip, and Porsha decided to leave the kids in a hotel room while you two nipped next door for a drink, and something happened, I’d be on the hook for that.”
“She’s freaking out over something that wouldn’t even happen,” Porsha interjected.
“I’m not comfortable with that level of risk,” Mercedes continued, ignoring Porsha and speaking to Ray, since she had his complete attention. “I can’t let them go with you. And just so we’re absolutely clear, if Porsha were to persuade you to pick up the kids against my wishes, I would have to give a description of this vehicle to the police. I’m sure it would all come out in the wash and you wouldn’t be charged with kidnapping or anything, but there would be court appearances. There would be meetings with child welfare advocates. There would very likely be news coverage at six o’clock because I am that pissed with my sister.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Porsha said.
“Now that you have all the information, Ray, go ahead and make the decision that works best for you. I’ve offered to let Porsha stay here with the kids while you take care of your business up north. Or she can go with you, if she wants. You two work it out. I have to run out to pick up the kids.”
Mercedes went back into the house long enough to collect her keys, make a brief call to Shonda, and lock up. By the time she opened the garage door, Porsha was standing in the driveway alone, arms folded, a suitcase on the pavement beside her.
“You are such a fucking bitch.” Porsha tossed the suitcase onto the lawn, out of the way of the car. She climbed into the passenger side. “I cannot believe you did that. He’s coming back, you know. In a couple of days. As soon as he finishes his business.”
“Great. He can get a room at a hotel and you two can spend your days together while the kids finish school.”
“Are you enjoying this power trip of yours?”
No, she was shaking like a leaf, aware of what she had to say and not sure how to handle it. The kids needed to see their mom. They needed it like air and water. And Porsha was her sister. Mercedes loved her and knew all the pain that had led to the train wreck her sister had become, but a train wreck she was. No way in hell could she be trusted with her kids right now.
“This isn’t about teaching you a lesson, Porsh. I swear it’s not. I just want what’s best for the kids. This has been confusing for them, what with the new school and everything.”
“Then why didn’t you leave them in the old school?” She dug through her purse and found a pack of cigarettes, offering one to Mercedes.
“Because I live here.” Mercedes hesitated then accepted the cigarette. She leaned over to let Porsha help her light it, then opened her window. Bad, bad, bad. “I couldn’t take any more time off work.”
“You didn’t even need to take them. They were fine with Mom.”
“They are never fine with Mom.”
Porsha blew a stream of smoke out her open window. “They should be.”
In a perfect world, yeah, but they weren’t. Mercedes massaged the steering wheel. This was so hard. “So, um, can we agree you’ll stay until the end of school? Maybe you could find a place here in Flagstaff.”
“Ray lives in Phoenix. I know what you’re thinking about him, but you didn’t give him a chance. He’s really a good guy.”
Ray wasn’t the one Mercedes was worried about. Butting out the cigarette she had inhaled in record time—it had been both disgusting and insanely good—Mercedes considered how to handle this. The kids needed to see their mom. What they didn’t need was to see their mom losing her ever-loving mind. She couldn’t keep hammering Porsha with her reservations about Porsha’s behavior. Not right at this moment.