It was about four in the morning when Tierra woke up calling out Qu’s name… again. She had the same strange feeling she had several months ago. Creeping down her hallway, following a small quiet voice, she knew she wasn’t crazy this time. When she reached the kitchen, she stood still, quiet as a mouse. Suddenly she thought she heard someone calling her name and quickly turned her head. Deja’ vu.
“Whose there?” she called out this time. “This isn’t funny.”
“Tierra?”
“Abuela? When did you get here?”
“Just after you go to bed you mama say.”
“Oh,” Tierra looked nervously around the kitchen.
“Que pasa, mi amor?”
“No se’, buela. I don’t know what’s wrong. I heard someone call my name, and I got up and came in here.”
Just as Abuela was about to respond, Nicole walked into the kitchen, wrapping the belt around her robe.
“Is there a meeting in the kitchen and no one invited me?”
“No mom, I just… a few months ago I woke up screaming Qu’s name. Then I thought I heard someone calling my name. Later that day Qu called me. I woke up a lil while ago thinking about Qu, and again I swore I heard someone call my name. But this time it was a low, quiet voice.”
Nicole and her mother in-law looked at each other.
“What, I’m not crazy?”
“No one is saying you are baby,” Nicole responded.
“Sit down, I need to tell you something.”
“What?”
“The day your father passed, I was in the kitchen. About 20 minutes before the police rang our doorbell, I heard your father call out to me. I thought maybe he came home for lunch or something. But when I walked to the living room, there was no one.”
“You never told me that.”
“I only told your nana.”
“So what, are you saying?”
Before she could respond there was a knock at the door.
“Who in the world…” Tierra asked.
“Sit down. I’ll get it.” Nicole said and walked off to the front door.
Barely discernable voices going back and forth came from the front hallway. Abuela was just about to go and see what was going on, when her daughter-in law returned to the kitchen. Her honey complexion was now more of a vanilla and she was void of emotion. Tierra looked at her mother and was instantly taken back to the day the police arrived and informed them that her father had passed away at his job.
“What’s up baby?” Abuela asked, sensing something was wrong.
Shireece slowly rounded the corner and walked into the kitchen behind Tierra’s mother, with a much more gruesome look on her face. Tierra stood up and looked back and forth between them.
“What is it!?” she demanded
“Tierra, you better sit down for this one,” Shireece began.
“No!! What’s going on?”
“Tierra… Peaches, do as they ask,” her grandma interjected.
“No Abuela, I’m not sitting down until someone tells me why the two of them look like someone just died.”
“Ok, calm down…” Shireece took a deep breath, “There’s been an accident, Tierra.”
“What? Shireece, is it Sean…?”
“No, not Sean… its Aquar…” Shireece began.
Before she could say another syllable Tierra demanded, “What do you mean Aquarian? Come on, what are you saying Shireece? Wait… wait… Shireece are you saying… no, he can’t be!” before she could answer the room began to spin, and Tierra blacked out.
When she opened her eyes she was laying on the sofa. Her head hurt like hell. When she sat up her head felt like a clap of thunder had hit her. She suddenly remembered what she was told moments ago. Maybe it was dream, hopefully a really bad nightmare.
“MOM!” she yelled.
As the band of women walked into the living room, she could tell by their expressions that it was far from a nightmare. It was real! Her best friend, the PB to her Jelly, was hurt and seriously. Suddenly she thought… I lost him…
“Why him?!” she cried. “I just saw him last night at church. He hugged me after I… he said… I need to talk to him… he can’t be gone.”
“Wait Tierra… he’s not gone baby,” her mother said, hugging her, wiping the tears from her face. “Come on. Get up. We’ll go to the hospital.”
She sat in the back seat of Shireece’s car, thoughts flooding her mind. Her hands trembled as she picked at her finger nails. She bit on the inside of her cheeks, while tears ran down her face. Just last week she was at JC’s dancing in his arms. She thought about how many laughs they shared on the phone over the years. How they grew up side by side, and how he was the closest thing to a brother she had. Could it really be all over? What would she do without him? He had just lost someone. Now he was on the brink of…