Page 8 of Blake University HBCU Chronicles: Azari & Chozen

I kicked back in my recliner and opened a bottle of Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

It had been a long ass week. I was supposed to talk to Azari Wednesday night.

She never called. I texted her to see if she was okay, but she didn’t respond.

Here it was, a week later, and I still hadn’t heard from her.

She didn’t show up in class today or Monday, and I was starting to worry.

I even said that in my text messages. Anything could have happened to her.

I called hospitals and looked up car accidents in the area.

Still nothing. I didn’t know what was going on, and it was driving me crazy.

I set my bottle on the side table and grabbed my phone.

I called the one person I knew could locate her if I really needed him to.

If she didn’t want to talk to me anymore, I wished she would have just said that instead of ghosting me. I wasn’t a fan of poor communication.

Still, I wanted to at least make sure she was okay.

I also understood that people sometimes didn’t know how to communicate effectively and felt that noncommunication was a form of communication.

In this case, it was not. Nothing about her body language around me said she didn’t want to be bothered, so I was at a loss for words.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Unc. You good?”

“Chozen. I’m good. How about you? How’s school going?”

“Everything’s good.”

“Doesn’t sound like it.”

“Uncle Carrington, I’m not gon’ lie. I’m worried about someone.”

“A woman, no doubt.”

“Yeah.”

“RJ told me about the lunch date last week.”

“She has health issues. Cancer being the worst. She ghosted me after last Wednesday, and she hasn’t been to class.

I need to make sure she’s good. She was in quite a bit of pain the last time I was with her, so I’m scared something could have happened.

You are the only person I know that can find anybody.

I just need to ease my spirit, because it’s in turmoil right now. ”

“I understand. I’m hoping for the best for you. What’s her name?”

“Azari Michaels.”

“Do you have a middle name?”

“Nachelle, and she’s thirty-one. She’s from Atlanta, not Cove City.”

“Okay. I’ll look into it right now. Anything else you can tell me about her? It’ll help weed out other profiles if more than one pops.”

“She’s a single mother to a three-year-old, and of course, she’s a student at Blake U.”

I could hear his fingers tapping away. He wasn’t a P.I.

, but he sure in the hell could have been one.

He carried an anger inside of him when it came to his biological father.

The man had an affair with his mother and was a Baptist preacher in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

He pretty much kicked them out on the street, not giving a damn what happened to them.

He learned how to locate people and found his brother, Ryan Charles Senior, who was RJ and Noah’s father, to pretty much give him the business.

I had to assume that he couldn’t locate his father.

Anyway, he perfected his skills and found them, gaining employment with JC Architectural Firm.

After a while, RJ figured out he was trying to fuck up his business.

They had a brief come-to-Jesus meeting, and RJ fired him, but eventually, they resolved their differences and became the best of friends, although they were uncle and nephew.

They were only a year apart, RJ being older.

Knowing what I knew about RJ’s thuggish ass, I was surprised he let him come back from that bullshit.

However, from what I heard, Uncle Carrington helped RJ get out of all sorts of trouble because he knew how to hack into shit, manipulate shit, and locate people.

“I found her.”

I sat up in my chair. “So she’s alive?”

“That’s what I’m looking for now. I don’t see any records of death. Just an accident years ago, a childbirth, and a lease agreement. She’s an amputee?”

“Yes. They had to cut her leg off last year due to an infection in her knee, stemming from a faulty knee replacement.”

“I see a class-action suit for that. Why didn’t she join?”

“I don’t know if she even knew about it. She never mentioned it. We’ve only really been around each other for two days, Monday and Wednesday last week.”

“Well, I don’t see any recent activity to indicate anything happening to her. You want her address?”

“Yeah. Can you screenshot it and send it to me?”

“Mm-hmm. So what are you going to do? I mean, when you come face-to-face with her, what are you going to say?”

“That I’m glad she’s alive and walk away.”

“Okay. Don’t get in any trouble, Chozen. You know we’ll have your back if you do, but at the same time, we would prefer you didn’t.”

I chuckled. “I’ll be cool, Unc. Thanks for the information.”

“Anytime. Your aunt is sitting here waiting to talk to you.”

“Okay.”

“Hey, baby.”

“Hey, Aunt Candace. You good?”

“Yes, but you don’t sound good.”

“I will be. I just have a little situation with a woman I was interested in. I need to make sure she’s okay. If she is, then I’ll take her ghosting as personal and move on.”

That shit didn’t even sound right leaving my lips.

“You think maybe she was overwhelmed meeting Noah?”

“She seemed excited and happy. Nothing about her demeanor said she was uncomfortable. She looked more starstruck than anything else. When we got in the car, she was so excited. It was like the pain she was in earlier that day was a second thought. She just looked so happy, and knowing I had something to do with that made me feel good. I don’t want to let that feeling go. ”

“Wow, baby. Are you sure you’re not having a hero complex? Like wanting to be there because you feel she needs rescuing?”

“No. I admire her strength, if anything. I’ve watched her since the first day of school. I can tell she isn’t always feeling well, but she shows up anyway. That takes strength, discipline, and determination. I don’t care about her illnesses. I can tell that it bothers her that I don’t care though.”

“What do you mean?”

“When she told me that she had cancer, I feel like she expected me to back away. So because I didn’t, it feels like she’s trying to make me back away by being distant. I know she’s attracted to me too. I can feel it through her gaze.”

“Damn. I hope y’all can come to some resolution.”

“Honestly, I’m not expecting us to. I just want to make sure she’s okay. I don’t want to try to force her to let me be around. I’ve expressed how I felt multiple times already.”

“What type of cancer does she have? Have you researched it?”

“Multiple myeloma. I looked it up. The intensity of it can vary from patient to patient. It affects the bone marrow. It’s like a plasma cell that are white blood cells that continue to multiply.

Some people don’t have symptoms at all, or they can be as non-specific as bone pain, fever, and/or loss of appetite. ”

“Okay. You think maybe it’s gotten worse?

Maybe that’s why she’s pushing you away.

Baby, when a woman has been through a toxic ass relationship, it’s hard to accept that all men aren’t as trifling as the man she just left.

Trust, . . . I was the same way with Carrington.

He wouldn’t leave me alone though. He consistently showed me he was thinking about me, showing me attention without overdoing it. Don’t give up so easily.”

I took a deep breath, knowing that she was right. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“If she’s that special already, then you need to fight for her.”

I slid my hand down my face, trying to get my heart and mind on the same page.

My mind was trying to be logical and avoid unnecessary bullshit.

My heart was saying that she needed me, but she didn’t know how to say so.

We hadn’t known one another long. I couldn’t expect her to let her guard down concerning me already, could I?

I just thought that after the care I showed her last week, she would be more open with me.

Voicing my concern, I asked Aunt Candace, “What if I give it my all, . . . put everything I got into fighting for her, and she doesn’t allow me in?

I don’t want to have a sour taste in my mouth about women.

It took all I had to overcome the last couple of heartbreaks. I don’t wanna crash out on nobody.”

“I can’t believe I have to tell you of all people how to overcome. Secondly, if she got you ’bout to crash out, that’s serious as hell.”

“I’m not about to crash out now. I probably would if I put all my energy into convincing her that I want to be with her, only for her to walk away.”

“I get it, baby, but you won’t know if you don’t try, right? Carrington had to put a lot of effort into getting me. I was hood, and to me, he looked like a computer geek.”

She giggled, and I could hear Uncle Carrington saying something in a low voice. I rolled my eyes. “A’ight. I get the point. Goodbye.”

She laughed. “I love you, Chozen. You’ll figure it out.”

“I love you too. Talk to you soon.”

I ended the call and checked my text messages to see Azari’s address.

While I wanted to just pop up on her, I decided to just send flowers first. Maybe that would prompt her to call.

I got online and ordered her a bouquet of roses.

They would be delivering them to her tomorrow.

Going to my calendar, I knew homecoming was quickly approaching, but I needed to see what days I actually wanted to spectate.

I would definitely be at the game, especially since I played football at Colorado.

I loved football, but I realized I loved it as a hobby, not a job.

I didn’t enter the draft, but I could have.

Thankfully, I came from a family, rather was adopted into a family, that wasn’t hurting for money.

I had unlimited access simply because I was trying to do what was right.

The way Uncle Carrington, RJ, and Noah looked out for me made me proud to be affiliated with such greatness.

Although RJ could be rough, his heart was pure gold.

Noah wasn’t just the image he portrayed.

The man was close to God, and you couldn’t help but feel it when he was near. His wife was just as spiritual.

Going to the fridge, I got another Mike’s and headed back to the TV to watch an old football game airing on ESPN.

Jessie Bates III had an exceptional game, and as a former safety on the football field, I appreciated his game.

The man was one of the best in the league.

As I sat, my phone rang. When I saw RJ’s number, I quickly answered.

“What’s up, man?”

“What’s up, Chozen? I need a huge favor. You get this done for me, I’ll be sure to hook you up nicely.”

“You got my attention,” I said, causing him to chuckle.

“I got a job we’re up for in Buckhead. I need you to run some numbers for me quick as hell. I’m going to email all the specs and pertinent details.”

“Okay. I’ll head up to the office. This must be a pretty big job.”

“It is, and my boy sent it to me at the last minute. I need to be able to submit my bid by end of day tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry. I got’chu.”

“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”

“No problem at all.”

I hopped up and went to change into some jeans and a dress shirt.

I never went to the office in a T-shirt unless it was unavoidable.

The office suite was inside another building that he leased the space from.

He was working on building our own office, but finding land at a reasonable price out here was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

They wanted an arm and a leg for an acre of land out here.

RJ said he’d gotten three acres in Texas for the same price as one acre here.

I hopped in my car and took the fifteen-minute drive to the office.

On the drive, my mind went back to Azari.

If she was sick, I surely wanted to be there for her.

I could probably help her so much if she would allow me to.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see she didn’t have much money, if any at all.

I was willing to bet she was relying on Medicaid. They paid the bare minimum.

I could remember being on Medicaid as a kid with my mama.

I’d broken my leg when I was seven. The cast they paid for was the most uncomfortable shit known to man, but we couldn’t afford one of the fancier ones that would have been more comfortable.

Like Azari, Nikki Long wasn’t about to broadcast all her business by asking for help.

I just wanted Azari to realize that I could be a blessing to her just as she would be for me.

I wanted to be in love, and she was the woman I wanted.

When I got to the office, I quickly made my way inside. When I got to my desk, I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Azari.

I’m worried about you. Please… just tell me you’re alive at least.