His mother is furious. She paces around the front porch, glancing at her watch every few minutes, then glaring out at the street where cars she doesn’t care about pass by at a reasonable speed considering the residential neighborhood and the scattering of children still out in the warm, humid summer night. Most of the houses in the neighborhood are the same or similar, and his mother paces under the covered front porch that is a copy and paste of the porch of her neighbors on both sides, but his mother’s house has a cushioned bench on the longest side of the porch and cushioned rocking chairs as well.
When Metion rolls up in his car and parks on the curb where the pavement walkway from his mother’s house meets the paved sidewalk, Dae’s mother walks to the top of the stairs and crosses her arms. Metion slinks out of his car and up into his tall posture under the streetlight wearing a black business suit with a white button up shirt and red tie like a tongue. He takes the walkway casually, stepping rhythmically, and he gives a half bow to Dae’s mother when he reaches the bottom step of the porch. He wears glasses and his face is a puddle of mud underneath them.
“It’s good to see you, pretty lady,” he says, shaping the baritone of his voice around the words to make them gentle and soothing.
“Where the hell you been, Metion! It’s been over a month! This baby don’t take but nine. I couldn’t get in touch with you, nobody knew where you was. What if something happened?”
Metion bows again and his muddy face kisses her belly. “You the supreme Earth, carrying a supreme God, I knew y’all was gone be alright. Allah had y’all and now I’m back to continue his work.”
Dae’s mother shakes her head slowly, never taking her eyes from Metion.
“We got important work to do,” Metion continues. “The world about to go crazy, and the only way to save it is with a beautiful Earth like you carrying Gods like our baby. We gotta raise him with sound reason…”
“Get the fuck out of here,” Dae’s mother says. “I love you, Metion, and I was worried about you while you was gone, if you would be here for the birth and all that. And you come back here talking pure nonsense! This ain’t good, Metion. It can’t be like this…”
“We have to save the world. The God in your belly is the only thing capable. There’s an army, baby, a whole lot of Idiots…”
“You a idiot if you think I’m gone put up with this. This baby is due soon, Metion, and if you can’t be here with me to make a home, then go on. Go on with your cult, with your slick talking boyfriend. You can’t be around me…”
“We have to do it together. Me and you together, baby, we gone raise the best enemy of the Idiots that want to take everything for they self. You can’t handle that God by yourself…”
“Just leave! Get off my porch! Get out my yard.”
They yell back and forth at each other for at least an hour. They have an audience, people on their porches or walking by on the street not even pretending not to watch them at the porch going through the motions to prove they love each other before they never see one another again, or maybe a few more times before they know for sure.
“Don’t you know I love you, baby?” Metion asks when the argument has settled into the chairs on the porch. Dae’s mother rocks a chair angrily and Metion has pulled the other close, facing her as she stares straight ahead and tries to avoid him.
“You done said that enough that it don’t mean nothing. That’s what you do to somebody you love? Leave them when they vulnerable and insecure to just figure it out by theyself? If it wasn’t for my brother, Metion, I would probably be homeless right now. We staying here to help out my daddy and I ain’t been able to work with my ankles swole like they is. My brother keeping this roof over our head and food in our mouths. This God you so proud of can’t eat that fancy suit you wearing…”
“I ain’t pay for this,” Metion says passionately, quietly, very deliberately to avoid working himself up into a furor that Dae’s mother is obviously done with. “This suit, my new overstanding of the world gone feed us now. I’m sorry I had to leave you, but please believe me when I say I found a purpose. Somebody finally made it all make sense for me, and he helped me find a good job. I got a nice place lined up for us to move into real soon. And you’ll see, if you just trust me, come with me, I’ll protect you from the Idiots.”
“Why you say it like that?” Dae’s mother asks. “It’s idiot, not IdIot or whatever you saying. I don’t understand what you think you found. What is this job you doing?”
Metion smiles at her. He thinks that she is softening a little, more open to listen now than hours before when she only wanted to rage in his direction. He is happy that she will give him the chance to explain the truth that had been made clear to him. He reaches eagerly into his coat and produces what looks like a wallet. He opens it with two hands and offers it to Dae’s mother like it is a precious thing. She takes it and holds it close to her face, the shine of the metal inside the wallet making her cheeks glow. He smiles at her, she is beautiful, like an agel with the glow on her face.
“The Order of Sound Reason,” she reads. “What’s this badge? You a security guard or something? What kind of security guard wear a suit and tie?”
“I’m an investigator.”
PRL Serials 