Page 21 of This Is Law 3

When my mama had an appetite, and she wasn’t being mean, I knew that she liked to have a good burger, and fries.

That shit had to have been genetic because me, and my kids were a sucker for juicy burgers, and fries.

There have been times before in the past that I would come with food from five guys, and we would eat that together, so that’s where I stopped for the food.

I got her the double patty with fries, while I got the triple for myself.

The fries were nice, and greasy in the bag, just how I liked them.

It wasn’t long before I was pulling up to the facility with the food in my hand.

One of the pictures from the sonogram was resting on my dashboard, so I grabbed that, putting it in my pocket, just in case she was in a good mood, and I could show it to her, so that she could see the twins that Yaya was carrying.

I made it inside of the facility, and there sat one of the intake coordinators up front.

Her name was Jada, and she’s been working here for a little over five years.

Jada and I were cool. She knew me on a first-name basis, and those days of her greeting me as Mr. Crawford were over because I told her a couple of years ago that she could call me Sevyn, or Law like everyone else.

Although Jada worked the front desk, she made it her business to go and see about my mom every day that she could, even if it was something so simple as swinging by her room to hug her when she was getting ready to clock out.

I’ve had a few deep conversations with Jada over the years, so I knew that her grandmother raised her, and she’d lost her a few years ago to Alzheimer’s.

Even though Alzheimer’s isn’t what my mom was suffering from, Jada could relate to having a loved one that had practically lost their mind, and I know that’s why she cared about my mom the way that she did.

She told me before that her witty attitude, her slick tongue, and even her stubborn ways reminded her a lot of her grandmother.

“Hey Sevyn. Me, and the ladies in here were just talking about you. Solace got her hair done this morning. She actually sat down and allowed the stylist to pamper her. After that, she got her nails and toes polished. You couldn’t tell her nothing.

She’s not in her room right now though. They’re outside in the back doing yoga, but she’ll be done in the next ten minutes.

You can go out there, and wait for her,” Jada said to me, and that made me smile, hearing that my mama allowed them to pamper her today.

She didn’t play that shit when it came to these folks touching her hair.

Damn near every time that I saw her, her hair would be in a ponytail because she wouldn’t allow them to style it.

Crazy because when people talk about the Solace from back in the day, they talk about how she didn’t play that shit when it came to keeping her hair looking up to par.

Her nails were always long, and flashy, and when it came to her dressing skills, she could run circles around any other woman.

She was a prissy woman, that cared about her upkeep, and that was another trait that I’m sure I’d inherited from her.

I liked to look good. When you looked good, that shit made you feel.

“Aww shit. Let me head to the back, so that I can see my girl. I was just on the way over here saying that I wanted her to be in a good mood. I been having some tough weeks, so it would mean a lot to me if I could come down here, sit with my mama, and see her smile a couple of times,” I shared with Jada.

“I told you before that that woman loves you. All that cutting up that she does with you when you come, where she acts like she doesn’t want to be bothered, I know that it’s all a front. Go head to the back, and see your girl,” she finished, handing me the badge for me to put on my shirt.

I thanked her for it, pinned it to the front of my shirt, and I made my way through the building, still holding onto the food in my hands.

Some of the nurses that I saw in passing, I briefly spoke to them, and the security that I walked past, I nodded in their direction.

I made it out back, and the weather was nice, and sunny out.

It was a wide-open courtyard in the center of this massive facility.

The big yard was fenced in on each side, but because the building wrapped around the yard, this area felt ducked off, as if this was the residents private little place that only they knew about.

The grass was nice and green, damn near looking artificial.

I stood here, squinting my eyes a little bit, trying to make out where my mom was. The yoga class was happening right there in the middle of the yard, and I could see the two instructors up front, and there were about ten residents, and a few of the nurses were out here monitoring.

My eyes landed on my mom. She was in the back, right on the end.

Seeing her, you would have thought that I was somewhere watching one of my sons show off one of their many talents by the way I sat the food, and drinks down on the table, and I pulled my phone out, so that I could record her.

I was really standing here, phone glued to my hand, cheeks burning from the way that I was smiling because I never really got to witness her doing shit like this.

They would always have outside sources come in, giving them little activities to do, and my mama never wanted to participate in those things, so to see her out here, sitting in the butterfly position along with the rest of the residents, and keeping her eyes closed, as she took deep breaths in, and out, it just made me happy.

To say that I was proud of her was an understatement.

Just like Jada told me up front, the yoga class quickly wrapped up. The residents all stood up, and they rolled their mats up. That’s when I grabbed my things, and I took the steps down, going over to the area, where they were.

“You see your mama out here participating, boy? You better go over there, and tell her how proud of her you are,” that was one of the older nurses, Ms. Patrice.

I loved Ms. Patrice like a grandmother. She took damn good care of my mama, and I made sure that every holiday, every birthday, and sometimes, just because, I would come down here, bearing gifts for her because she did a damn good job with my mom, and I knew that it wasn’t always easy.

I showed love to any staff here that would play their part in looking after my mom, and making sure that she was straight.

“I see her. What’s up? You good?” I asked Ms. Patrice.

“I’m doing pretty good this morning, Sevyn,” she let me know, and with a smile on my face, I nodded, and then I headed in the direction of my mom.

She was holding her yoga mat in her hand, and she stood there with a blank look on her beautiful face. When I made it in front of her, I was much taller, so she had to look up at me, while I looked down at her.

“What’s up pretty girl?” I asked, and that made her give me a miniature smile. Shit, I’ll take that over her mugging me and looking like she wanted to kill my ass like she often does when I come see her.

I knew that my mom had long hair, but it was always up in a ponytail, so I had no idea that it was this long, and thick.

They’d straightened it for her, and I could tell from it being even on all sides that they’d even cut her ends for her.

Her hair was pushed back, out of her face, and it stopped right at the middle of her back.

I looked at her fingernails, seeing that they were painted in a pink color.

She had her little self- care day, and I loved that for her.

“Hi,” was all she said to me.

“Come on. Let’s go sit down and eat. I got us food. You hungry?” I asked her, prepared for her to say no, but she nodded her head, telling me that she was hungry.

I led the way for us, and I took us to our private little cabin.

There were a few cabins out here, and I took the one that was right in the middle of the field.

Inside the cabin, there were a couple of armchairs, with a small coffee table in the middle.

The coffee table is where I sat the food, and the drinks.

I took the yoga mat out of her hands, and before we took our seats, I pulled her into me for a hug.

I knew that there were times when she would fuss about physical touch, but she didn’t do that today.

She was so short compared to me, so her head rested on my chest as I held her.

She wrapped her arms around me as well. I kissed the top of her head multiple times, just soaking in this moment because I really didn’t know the next time that she would allow me to hold onto her for this long.

I gave it about five more seconds, and then I let her go. She sat down in one of the chairs, and I followed suit, doing the same.

I went inside the bag, pulling out the burger, and fries that belonged to her.

I grabbed a few napkins, placed them on the table, and that’s where I put her food, so that she could go ahead, and start eating.

I knew she liked a lot of ketchup on her fries, so I pulled a few packets out of the bag, and I sat that down too.

Once she sat had everything, that’s when I pulled my food out, sat it in front of me, and I dug in.

“Where are the boys?” she asked me, right after I just stuffed a bunch of fries in my mouth. Before answering her question, I chewed the food down first.

“The boys in school. I got some new pictures, and videos of them. You want to see it?” I asked her, and she nodded her head, letting me know that she did.