Page 98 of Exit: Us
My grandma offered Amina her condolences for the passing of her father, but after that, she quickly changed the subject. If anyone knew about grief, and not bringing up loved ones that were no longer here, it was my grandma. She knew not to linger on the subject. She immediately switched gears, getting in our business, wanting to know how it was on the truck for us.
Amina talked about all the states that we visited, the things she learned, the places that were her favorite and least favorite. I sat my ass here proudly, listening to her speak because she sounded like a woman that enjoyed herself on the truck with me, and didn’t dread all the things that had taken place.
We stayed over here with my grandma for another hour or so. The breakfast that she cooked for us was so good that I went back for seconds. Amina barely ate her food this morning. She was whispering to me, telling me that she didn’t have an appetite, but she was forcing herself to try to eat something since my grandma cooked for us. When my grandma wasn’t looking, her scary ass put some of her food on my plate, so that I could finish it for her.
Now, here we were, standing outside in front of my truck, and Amina was snapping pictures of my grandma and I together. I even had my grandma hop up on the truck, sitting in the driver’s seat, and taking a few pictures of her there. Once the picture taking ended, I wrapped my arms around her, and Icould tell by the way that she was holding onto me that she wasn’t ready to let me go.
“I hate leaving you out here by yourself,” I told her, once we pulled away from each other.
Her sassy ass rolled her eyes at me, and I knew she was getting ready to say something slick.
“Grandson, you don’t have to worry about me. I live my life. You know I have a bunch of friends. I leave for Vegas on Friday,” she told me, and Amina wasn’t standing too far away, so she heard and laughed. I shook my head at that.
True to form, my grandma stood there in one of her Delta outfits. This time, it was a crimson-and-cream knit dress that felt below her knees. She came out here with the matching house slippers on and everything. Necklace too. I’m telling you, her ass didn’t play about Delta Sigma Theta.
“Man, what you going to Vegas for, and who you going with?” I wanted to know.
“I’m going with Gail. It’s her birthday, and that’s where she wanted to go. We’re going to be there for a whole week,” she said it proudly, like she had a bunch of plans to get into some shit while she was out there.
I shook my head at that, and stood here, talking to her like I was her daddy, giving her all the rules. I was telling her not to talk to strangers, not to leave her drink unattended, and things like that. She wasn’t trying to hear shit that I was saying because she waved my ass off, and then she went for Amina, so that she could hug her.
From where I stood, I saw where my grandma whispered something in Amina’s ear, but I didn’t know what she said. It did make Amina freeze up for a second. I watched as her eyebrows shot up, her eyes got wide as hell, and her lips slowly parted. After she went through all those different reactions, I saw theway she looked my grandma in the eyes, and she didn’t know whether she wanted to laugh, cry, or tell her to repeat herself.
Amina didn’t say anything though. She just nodded her head. They hugged one last time and then pulled away from each other.
I hugged and kissed my grandma one last time and then assisted Amina with getting on the truck. My grandma stood there the whole time, watching. She was on the sidewalk, with her arms crossed, looking at us with a smile on her face.
I hopped on the truck, started it up, and before pulling off, we both waved at her.
“What she said to you?” I asked Amina the second I pulled off. She had to know that I was going to ask her that because she laughed.
“Nothing. It was girl talk,” she said.
“Tell me. You keeping secrets and shit,” I pressed.
“I’m not telling you Gemini. It’s between the girls,” I could hear it in her voice that she wasn’t going to spill it.
“Yeah aight,” was all I said in response to her. I dropped it after that, deciding not to keep pushing.
I made it out the community gate with the truck, and eventually I was out on the main road. It wouldn’t be long before I was hopping back on the highway. We were getting closer and closer to Miami. I could smell it.
Chapter 27
Amina Black
“That’s everything. I did multiple walkthrough, making sure that we didn’t leave anything behind on the truck. You good?” Gemini asked me, as he walked over to me. I was standing right in front of his 18-wheeler truck.
We were inside of an indoor truck storage warehouse. This is where he would keep his truck when he was in Miami. It was nice in here. I’m talking those shiny epoxy floors, bright LED shop lights were overhead, and just about every other truck that was stationed in here looked as if money was invested into them, just like Gemini’s.
It was a little after midnight. I wasn’t too tired because honestly, I did so much sleeping today on the truck.
Gemini removed all of our bags out of the truck. We had a lot of things. You would think that he would have allowed me to get on the truck with him, so that I could help carry the bags out, but he didn’t. He told me to just wait for him, while he handled it.
“No. I’m emotional right now,” I was honest.
Granted, I knew this day would eventually come, but standing in this warehouse, with all our bags pushed to the side, seeing Gemini do the final walkthrough, and knowing that wewere back in Miami, it’s like that’s when it hit me. The road trip was over. All that fun I had on the road with him was done. I was going to miss that.
Never in a million years would I ever believe that I would say that I would miss living on a truck for two months. I didn’t think that I would miss the truck stops. The showers at the truck stops. The random gas station stops. The laundromat stops. I was going to miss all of that. I felt like I was goofy as hell for standing here, getting emotional about it, damn near on the verge of tears.
