(30) Peaches

Can't believe we made it to chapter 30! Thank you all for sticking with me :)

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"Who are you here for again?"

Makennah leaned in closer to the speaker that pronounced her voice to the other side of the glass where a corrections office looked at her like she grew another head. "Thomas. Candy Claire Thomas."

"Honey, she ain't here."

"She is. She's my mom. She's been here since May. She'll be here for another year at least," Makennah explained, trying to keep her cool. Normally, there was never an issue finding her mom.

The corrections officer sighed and walked away from the speaker, talking into a walky-talky strapped to her shoulder. Her hair was tied up in a tight bun at the base of her neck. Her neat eyebrows, caramel skin, and pretty eyes told the story of her ancestry - she was Hispanic. Beautiful. But nasty. Not a smile to be seen in a ten mile radius of this place.

She walked back to the speaker and pressed the button. "I'm looking for her, but I'm telling ya. She ain't here."

Makennah smiled kindly. "I'll wait."

Shoving her hands through her hair, Makennah walked back to the waiting cell and leaned against the wall. She was going to text Theo and tell him there was a little confusion that might take a few minutes to resolve, but she was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Peaches?"

Makennah raised her head and looked around, spying the woman who called to her from across the room. "Tammy!" Launching herself across the room, Makennah fell into the correction officer's arms who waited for her across the waiting cell. All of her gear and guns got in the way and jabbed Makennah in the stomach but she didn't care. She didn't know it would feel so amazing to see a familiar face.

"Well I'll be...look at you!" Tammy held Makennah at arm's length. "You are beautiful as ever, peaches!"

Makennah smiled as her heart filled with warmth. "It's so good to see you. Thank you."

Tammy was a police officer before she turned to corrections after she lost her job. She was edging on the side of fifty but still kicking it. Her six kids kept her young as well as her handsome very tall husband whom Makennah had the pleasure of meeting once. Although it hadn't been that long, this profession aged Tammy's coarse hair to a finer grey. The laugh lines around her chocolate eyes added a few years to tell the story of a hard life. But none of those things mattered because Tammy offered the best hugs in the whole world.

Three years ago, Makennah earned the name peaches after she got burnt on a summer trip to the lake with a best friend who wasn't such a best friend anymore. Tammy teased her relentlessly, saying she looked like a peach especially compared to Tammy's dark chocolate-y skin.

"What are you doing here, sweetie?" Tammy looked confused.

"I'm here to see my mom."

The light disappeared from her eyes, but she tried to maintain her smile. "You ain't heard from her?"

"No, I figured I should check in." Makennah's gut told her something was wrong. She tucked her hands into her jean pockets and awkwardly shuffled her feet in the nice fall boots she owned.

Tammy winked and brushed her hand over Makennah's hair. "Let me go check on that for ya, Peaches. I'll be back."

Nibbling on her lip, her legs paced back and forth in the limited space they offered her. Half of her heart desperately wanted to get this over with, and the other half told her to run the opposite direction. Her mother never cared about her so why should Makennah care about her mom?

"Peaches?" Tammy's voice was much quieter now...careful almost. Makennah's heart kicked into overdrive. The anxiousness she was trying to fight spiraled out of control.

"Yeah?"

Tammy reached out to Makennah and thought better of it. She rested her arms on her security belt. "Baby, your momma ain't here."

She sighed. "What does that mean?"

"She was released," Tammy said slowly. "She appealed her case and asked to be sent to rehab instead."

"Well that doesn't...she can't...what about..." Makennah sputtered over her words, not making any sense.

"She never called you? No one told you?"

Makennah scoffed. "No! Nothing! I thought she was here!" She threw up her hands and paced away.

"We've also been fighting overcrowding. It was a fairly easy appeal. You know once your mom gets clean..."

"She doesn't cause any problems." That's why no one listened to her when she asked them to lock her up longer. She went through the detox, got clean, stayed sober, and turned into a normal person. Wouldn't be the first time she was given an early release. "What rehab facility is she at?"

Tammy pursed her lips together. "Baby, you know your momma never made it to a rehab facility. And if she did, she ain't there no more."

Makennah felt like crying. And punching something. "She just said it to get out."

Tammy nodded while Makennah processed everything.

"How long has she been out?" Makennah asked, stopping and crossing her arms over her chest. Even though she wore a jean jacket, her skin and body felt chilled to the bone.

Tammy sighed, shaking her head. "Peaches, you don't..."

"How long!" Makennah screamed.

"Three weeks. Maybe four."

Makennah balled her hands into fists. "Four weeks. Four...weeks. My mom has been out for four weeks back on the street and she never called me. Nothing! Didn't try to get me back?!"

"Peaches," Tammy warned in a low tone. If she started to spaz out, security would kick her out.

Furious anger started to boil up in her stomach. The cold that chilled her bones morphed into a low heat that burned hotter every second. "I hate my mother." Angry tears burned in her eyes. "I don't know why she ever even had me!" Makennah screamed, pivoting on her heel to march away, out the front doors, away from Tammy, through the front gates to the car where Theo leaned against the passenger side door, texting on his phone.

The smile slid straight off his lips and his happiness at seeing her plummeted when he instantly picked up on her pissy mood. "Kennah..."

"Keys?" She held up her hand for him to toss them to her.

"Kennah." He stepped in her direction.

"No!" She yelled and backed away. "Keys. I'll be safe."

Despite his better judgement, Theo handed over his keys to the crazy lady with the wild eyes and shaking hands. Jumping in the driver's seat, she started the car and adjusted the seat just barely before she peeled off.

"Alright slow down, lead foot. What's up?"

At a stop sign, Makennah slammed on the break and sat there, clutching the steering wheel in a death grip, breathing heavily like a rabid animal. She willed herself to keep her cool but the rage boiled up uncontrollably. Letting out a scream, Makennah shook her head and slammed her fists on the steering wheel. Breathing quickly, Makennah collapsed over the dashboard and pressed her forehead into the steering wheel so hard that it hurt.

Her actions deserved an explanation but she couldn't think straight, couldn't see clearly, and couldn't form any words to describe the rejection she felt at the core of her being. This was a whole new low for her mother.

The realization hit her that she was still sitting at the stop sign. Lifting her head, she sighed and looked both ways before proceeding.

"Where are we going?" Theo asked, clutching the handle of the door, probably planning to stop, drop, and roll out of the moving vehicle if she got too crazy.

"To find my freaking mother."

"I'm confused. She's not in prison?"

"Nope!" Makennah laughed but nothing was funny. "She got out! Four weeks ago!"

"You didn't know?" Theo inquired, trying to piece things together for himself to make sense of things and her erratic behavior.

"No! I didn't know, Theo! Do you think I would have asked you to drive me out here if I knew my mother got out of prison and didn't tell me and didn't call me and didn't do anything to get me back home out of the system?" She sighed. "I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that."

Silently, Theo sat for a second to cool her off. "It's okay."

"She's such a worthless piece of trash! I cannot believe her! Every time I think I've seen it all, that woman surprises me! How?!" Makennah scoffed and drove a little faster down familiar streets. "As if I'm not her daughter. Everything she does uproots my whole life, ruins everything! She gets out of prison and just forgets about me? Moves on like I don't even exist?"

"You don't know that," Theo reasoned.

Her head snapped to him. "Yes. I do. Because any other time this has happened, she calls child protective services and tells them she's out and they send me home within twenty four hours so I'm no longer a liability for the state as a kid in the system. Twenty four hours, Theo! It's been four weeks!" She smacked her open palms on the steering wheel again to punctuate her words. "I am furious! No I'm livid! I have never been so angry!"

"Kennah..."

"No!" Makennah slapped his hand away which attempted to touch her arm and calm her down. "A despicable selfish narcissistic drug addict whore! That's what she is!" She screamed. "You don't even know! You don't know the half of it, Theo. The things I've done for her. The things she did to me. The way she treated me. The awful life I lived because of her! I didn't get a childhood! I was forced to be an adult...to be a parent because she never was one...at the age of seven! I raised myself from the time I was in second grade. I paid bills by the time I was ten years old!"

Theo learned his lesson and stayed quiet.

"Well you're gettin more than you bargained for today, buddy." Makennah laughed mercilessly again. "Oh yeah...we're heading to the hood...where I grew up. And we're gonna find the egg that created me!" She refused to call Candy Claire Thomas her mother at the moment.

She faced a little bit of embarrassment knowing Theo was about to see the conditions of her life, where she grew up. He probably never even crossed Braxton's city limits to see a place like this before. He had no idea was he was in for.

Makennah rolled down her window and cruised through a street that she lived on at one point in her life.

"How are you going to find her?" Theo asked.

"I can be very resourceful," she bit out. "Wouldn't be the first time I've done this." Or the second. Or the third. "Yo!" Makennah leaned her head out the window and yelled at some kids playing basketball in  a neighbor's driveway.

A chubby fourteen year old kid with buzz cut dark hair and faded old Lebron's on his feet, crossed the street to where Makennah idled the vehicle. "Makennah? What are you going here?" He bent at the waist to peer at her through the window.

"Your dad stilll...?" She started. She wouldn't spill the beans about his dad's profession with an outsider sitting right beside her.

"Yeah, what's up? Thought you moved away." He caught his breath from playing the game and tucked the basketball against his hip.

"You seen my mom?" She asked.

"No, but I heard someone mention her at the house the other day."

"The house...?" She asked for clarification. He nodded and Makennah understood. He meant the trap house, where his dad usually was. "Your dad there now?"

"No, he said he wouldn't be home tonight. That usually means he's going out of town."

Makennah remembered his name was Henry or something like that. Probably started with an H. His dad's name was Fisher Goodwin. "You got my number?" H-something nodded. "Text me if you hear anything."

"Alright." He cast a glance at Theo who was thankfully minding his business. "One more thing, they've been hanging out a lot at Anissa's place on third street."

Makennah shook her head. There was always a new party place. Had to keep it moving so the cops didn't catch on. "Thanks."

"Nice car," he mumbled before jogging back to his basketball game with his buddies.

"We going to Anissa's place?" Theo asked.

"Indeed, we are."

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What do y'all think is gonna happen? Any ideas?

Xoxo

W. Carolina