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Chapter 33

Kennedy Carter

New York City, July 2015

Asher and Kennedy let Tashia knock on Ernest Morris’s door. Since Tashia had come to Watcha Cove to tell her what had transpired between her and Ernest, Kennedy had experienced a strange kind of dissociation. On one hand, the cells in her body felt juiced up, powered by an unseen current of energy, and she felt galvanized in her new mission to protect her family. On the other, she considered that she now knew for sure what her family was responsible for in Ghana, and this was a totally foreign experience for her, making her feel disconnected from whom she thought she was. In a matter of hours, she’d been transformed into someone who was shattered by guilt but then forced to behave like someone with ice in her veins. Was this the truth of what it meant to be a Carter, to preserve their legacy?

That morning before they left, the dew still on the hydrangeas outside, Kennedy crept down to her father’s office and used the desk key that she had found to unlock the safe where Kofi’s journal sat. She fingered the leather and snuck the book back up to her room. She said a silent prayer of penance while she lit her fireplace for the second time in less than twelve hours and watched the journal burn. She had made her choice yesterday and again this morning, but for some reason, standing outside of Ernest’s home with the city heat drumming on her skin, she was having second thoughts.

When Ernest opened the door to his humble basement-floor brownstone studio, she could see the shock on his face. She’d never met him before, but he had an expression that universally translated to “Oh shit.” When he had noticed Asher, he visibly puffed up, bringing himself to his full height, squaring his bony shoulders and eventually flattening his thin body against the door to let all three Carters inside. They marched in quietly in a single file line and made a makeshift formation in what Kennedy might have called “a living room” to be polite. They’d achieved the element of surprise, that was for sure, and a certain smugness lingered over Asher as he took in their surroundings.

“So is this a setup?” Ernest asked, immediately on the defensive once everyone had gathered.

Asher barked out a harsh laugh, and Kennedy was startled but quickly regained her composure. “Just so you know, we have security outside and several people know where we are in case you are going to try anything stupid.”

Ernest gave his own humorless laugh. “It’s three against one, so perhaps I am the one in danger,” he said.

Asher smiled at him. “I think by now you probably know that the truth is the story that people will believe, so let’s just keep it civil.”

Kennedy tried to catch her brother’s eye, but he ignored her. He was coming in a bit hot, his attitude not to her liking. But really, should she have been surprised? Since she got no response from Asher, she used the next tense moments where no one spoke to take in the sheets in the windows that doubled as curtains, the mismatched furniture held together with electrical tape and good wishes. And that’s when she knew that she and her brother would probably leave here with what they wanted.

It was Tashia who spoke first. “It’s not a setup, but how this concludes is entirely up to you. I assume you know who these people are,” she said, gesturing to Kennedy and Asher and raising her left eyebrow. “First of all, I know how you used me. I saw your little website. By now you probably saw that I disabled it from being live because we checked on the way here and saw that you reinstated it. Second of all, William Carter Jr. is dead now, so your little stunt is definitely disrespectful. And last, I just want to understand why you did this in the first place.” Kennedy watched her friend wrestle to keep her emotions in check. She inched her body closer to Tashia and pressed her arm against hers in a show of support.

Kennedy saw that tiny beads of sweat had begun to form in a curious constellation across Ernest’s hairline. She wanted this to be over. She was absorbing some of his nervousness. She wanted to tell him how much pain he had caused her. His actions had misdirected her brother’s anger and her father’s anxiety, and everyone thought that she was the one who’d done all this. Everything that had transpired in the last few months had been because of him, but even she had thought that she’d done it. And yet, she could admit that he did it for reasons that made sense. He must have thought of himself as a vigilante hero, like Batman perhaps, but Batman’s whole thing was that he was wealthy, right?

Ernest smiled a twisted smile and pointed at Asher. “I think he knows why,” he said. Tashia and Kennedy turned their attention to Asher, who was pulling out a plastic chair next to a tiny table so that he could sit down.

“Actually, I really don’t,” he said. “Why don’t you tell everyone why so that we can all be on the same page.” Asher rested his hands calmly on the table and then used them to brush off some imaginary dirt. Kennedy, not willing to be that petty, simply shifted her weight to stick out one hip and crossed her arms over her chest. She wanted to show solidarity but was weak in the area of intimidation.

“Your dad is,” Ernest began, “or was , I guess, a criminal. He’s not a hero to be celebrated. He’s someone who is responsible for a lot of pain and suffering of our people, of people who look like us. Maybe that doesn’t matter to you, but I thought that it mattered to you,” he said, rounding on Tashia.

Kennedy wrapped her arms around herself. It mattered to her too. She wanted to interject but felt the words stay trapped behind her teeth. No one else had anything to say to this, so Ernest took the floor again. “I spent time in Accra. I saw what the Carter Corporation was responsible for. I talked to families directly affected by the greed of your family. It’s a whole system that is designed to keep money flowing one way. People are poor, and they are suffering so that you can be rich, and I just wanted people to be aware of how deep and dark this well was. Trust me, I tried to get other people to care. I tried there. I tried here. I really tried, and your dad had every media outlet afraid, so I decided to handle it myself.” Ernest set his chin.

Kennedy felt her heart clench and hold. Her thoughts began to swim, and she felt herself getting dizzy. The scale of this was becoming much bigger than this studio apartment. She wanted to flee, to run outside, get in the car, return to the tarmac, and board the jet to wherever she would not have to deal with this, but her feet remained rooted in place as she considered what Ernest had said. She swayed slightly. Asher gave her a quizzical look and she stared blankly back. The way that she heard this new information delivered so passionately by Ernest felt different. It felt less abstract, less distant. It felt real. She had entered this with the idea that there was something untoward about the way that the Carter Corporation had conducted business abroad, but she was now thinking about how many people must be affected.

“Okay, yes, Ernest. Bravo, you uncovered capitalism,” Asher said, clapping his hands slowly. “Let’s be real here. My father didn’t create these issues. Some people would call that good business sense. It’s not criminal.”

Kennedy reached behind her brother to pinch his back. A warning. They’d agreed not to provoke Ernest. They came here to reason with him and resolve this matter quietly. She was relieved that with all Ernest was saying, so far he hadn’t mentioned Kofi or Gifty, but if Ernest chose to use that information, that would be more difficult to prove.

“So basically,” Asher continued, “you have a vendetta. And I think I know why. You’re upset with me over some small disagreement we had in college, which is really lame, bro, I gotta say.”

“It wasn’t some small disagreement!” Ernest exclaimed, suddenly very animated. He stepped forward. Kennedy and Tashia backed up. “It’s that you have no principles, no morals. You’re ruled by selfishness and greed, and that started with your father.”

“And what are you ruled by?” Tashia asked quietly. “Did your perfect morals and selfless behavior allow you to lie to me for months? To use me for this sick revenge project?”

Ernest seemed genuinely ashamed by this. He hung his head and avoided eye contact with Tashia. “It was for the greater good,” he mumbled, his eyes still averted.

Tashia’s exhale flared through her nostrils, but she just nodded. “So how much good did you do?” she asked.

Ernest let his shoulders sag.

“Okay, look, Ernest, we’re just going to cut to the chase. I don’t really love the smell in here, so I don’t want to stay. What’s it going to cost for this to go away?” Asher asked.

Kennedy cringed internally at how rough he was. She thought that someone like Ernest might require more massaging than Asher was willing to offer. Her objective was to deescalate, but she wanted to leave here with Ernest’s promise to cease publication on his website, and so she stayed quiet.

“You think you can buy me off?” Ernest spat, staring at Tashia, Kennedy, and Asher all in turn.

“Well, Ernest, we know we can. We would just like to know how much that’s going to cost us,” Asher said, and for the second time that day, Kennedy recognized her father’s voice.

Tashia stole a look at Kennedy. The trio waited patiently for Ernest Morris to name his price. He, of course, did not.

“Ernest,” Asher cooed to him, “we know you’re in obvious financial trouble. We know about your mother, and the bills, and the loans, and the fact that you work for minimum wage at a coffee shop, so you’re basically unemployed. We know. Just tell us a number, and you will never have to hear from us again.”

“That’s your problem,” Ernest said. “You think everything is about money. It’s not.”

“But it is,” Asher said. “Of course it is. Money doesn’t really matter when you have a lot of it, but it matters a great deal when you don’t have any. We can change your life in this room, so just let us, and then we’ll be done with it.”

“No. Do whatever you’re going to do: send your lawyers, send your goons or whatever. I don’t know exactly how you people work, but I have an idea. I don’t care. I care about what’s right,” Ernest said.

Asher rolled his eyes. Kennedy reached out a hand behind Asher’s shoulder and gave it a little squeeze, signaling for him to stand down. He shrugged her off.

Ernest shook his head. “I’m not like you. I know you don’t get it, but I don’t need money.”

“Right, you’re so much better,” Tashia countered. “You’re a good person because you don’t care about money. Just give it a rest and give them a number. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

“Do you want to go?” Kennedy whispered only to Tashia. “It’s okay if you do.”

Tashia nodded slightly, and that was all Kennedy needed to see. She wanted to get out of there too. “Asher, I’ll be right back. She needs some air,” Kennedy said, guiding Tashia to the door by the elbow.

When they opened the door, Kennedy welcomed the sunshine on her face and questioned the health conditions that might come along with living in a basement.

“Sorry, I guess I just needed a minute,” Tashia said before taking deep, hulking breaths.

Kennedy said, “It’s okay. Me too. That was a lot. How are you feeling?”

“Confused. Mad. Betrayed. Like I will never trust anyone again,” Tashia replied before asking, “How are you feeling?”

“Guilty,” Kennedy said. They climbed the stairs to the main brownstone entrance and sat on the stoop. “Can I ask you something?” Kennedy posed to Tashia.

“Sure,” Tashia said, inclining her face to the sun and resting her elbows on the stair above her.

“Do you think that covering all of this up makes me a bad person?” Kennedy asked, her eyes searching.

A group of kids across the street ran through the water of a released fire hydrant, its mist making a rainbow and stretching out time while it showered the block. Kennedy reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. She held one in her teeth while she patted herself down for a lighter. Tashia snatched it from between her lips.

“Okay, yuck. You said you were working on quitting. And for the record, I think that every family has its stuff—secrets, lies, whatever you want to call it. I think that what you’ve got going on is probably a lot more than most people, but I don’t really think it’s a very simple answer. If you’re asking whether or not I think protecting your parents and brother is a good idea, I would say that a lot of people would make that choice and not hesitate. But I also think when you know better, you have to do better, right?” Tashia said.

Kennedy sighed, a deep one that deflated her abdomen. “My dad smoked, you know. He wasn’t great at being secretive about it. Every house we had had to have an outdoor space so he could smoke. He got really sophisticated air filtration systems installed, but he always went outside. I think it was because he was trying to keep it secret, but he did a really bad job. Like, really bad.”

Tashia nodded. “That’s great and all, and I hate to be the one to point this out to you, but he’s not here anymore, so I’m not going to let you suck on these and die. Pick up meditation or something. You, unfortunately, know better, so you have to do better.”

“What does doing better look like?” Kennedy asked.

“I mean, I don’t know. Don’t you have a director of philanthropy or whatever for that kind of thing? I don’t know what to do with a billion dollars.”

“It’s eighteen billion,” Kennedy said wistfully. An absurd number. A punch line in and of itself.

Tashia laughed. “Okay. I don’t know what to do with eighteen billion dollars either.”

“Ernest was right about a lot of things,” Kennedy said, getting serious again.

“He can be right about a lot of things and still go about it wrong. That’s why all of this is so complicated. It’s not like he’s squeaky-clean here. I hate that I didn’t see it. I’m really sorry this happened to you.”

Kennedy waved a dismissive hand. “Please. This isn’t your fault at all. There’s no way you could have known this would happen. Also, that’s kind of how I feel about my dad. I knew that something felt weird, but I didn’t know what it was, and now that I know, I’m not really sure what to do about it.”

“You don’t have to do anything right now, you know. He just died. You can give yourself some time,” Tashia said.

“Yeah,” Kennedy agreed. “But ...” She let her voice trail off.

Tashia sat up and turned to face Kennedy. Their knees knocked together on the steps. Tashia grabbed Kennedy’s hands and squeezed. “It’s okay that you don’t know how to handle this, you know. This is not a normal problem to have. Inheriting billions and then also finding out the money is tied to exploitation and pain? That’s awful, Ken. I used to be so jealous of you. I used to want to go anywhere in the world, and eat fancy food, and have nice dresses, and all of those things that I thought went along with being rich. I used to think ‘Wow, her life is just so easy,’ and I wanted to know what it felt like. And then the closer we got, the more I got to see what it was like, and the more I noticed that while you had a lot ... there was also so much that you didn’t have. Your dad, both your parents, they withhold and withhold everything. And while I don’t have any of that, I’m still perfectly okay, and I’m happy. I’m free. And what’s what I want for you. I want you to just be free of all of this if that’s what you want. I don’t know what to say to make you feel better, but I do know that what went down in Accra or here wasn’t your fault.”

Kennedy smiled sadly. “It’s not my fault, I know, but it’s kind of up to me to fix it. Isn’t it?”

Tashia looked into her eyes. “Well, you can try.”