A Lost Child Page 2

  Grandma Jenny started trying to lie about she have cataract. She realized Robert wasn’t buying her lie and started being nice to him. He really couldn’t say anything because he was slanging marijuana for Steven making his money. That was the day she found out he was a drug dealer. They decided to put away all of their difference and be nice to one another. It actually felt good to Robert getting along with Grandma Jenny for the first time. They managed to get along with one another for the next three years without killing one another.

  Robert still didn’t let his guard down when it came to Grandma Jenny. Although he was a bad child he couldn’t bring himself to sale drugs to his grandma. He would just roll two blunts up for him and Grandma Jenny to blazes up. They would sit back in her room chilling, sipping on some cognac while his parents were out. He started hanging out late slanging his drugs. Grandma Jenny stayed covering for him because she knew he was going to break her off a little cheddar. His parents were blind to what was going on. They were just happy to see them getting along so well.

  Robert thought everything was cool between him and Grandma Jenny because they’ve been hanging out a lot. They had spent so much time together. They started carrying on like homeboys. Until report card day came around. Today was report card day and his parent wasn’t going to be please with him. He had gone from A’s and B’s to C’s and D’s this second semesters. He couldn’t come up with an explanation on why his grades had dropped. On the way home, he stop by Steven hoping that Grandma Jenny would be there. He was planning on getting her to sign off on his report card again. Robert arrived there just in time to find out that Steven was moving away to California.

  Robert asked, “Can I come?”

  “No,” Steven responded without an explanation.

  Robert became very upset at Steven for telling him no without an explanation and not to mention moving away without telling him. He was walking home thinking could this day get any worst. He arrived home and it was time to face the music. As soon as he entered the house, Grandma Jenny was there in the cut waiting for him. She wasted no time asking him to see his report card.

  Robert showed her his report card and this was the first time he got caught with his guard down. Grandma Jenny started smiling with no teeth in her mouth. Just like that day she kept tormenting him.

  She said, “We can’t smoke no more you puissant because Steven is moving away to California.”

  At that moment when she called him a puissant, he knew their peace treaty flew right out the window. He wasn’t in the mood for Grandma Jenny mess today. She saw the perfect opportunity to get back at him. Robert didn’t know that old fart was still holding animosity toward him. Grandma Jenny went for it with sure pleasure like she was having sex. That was the worst kind of image to have in his head. He’d rather been stone to death or put in the gas chamber. He was about to throw up because that image of Grandma Jenny having sex wouldn’t leave his head.

  Robert didn’t want to think somebody will be that desperate to go there with her. Grandma Jenny would have gum them to death trying to eat them like a gummy bears. She started yelling for his parents to come out and see his report card. They rush into the living room wondering what going on.

  “Just look at this mess!” She yelled, “Robert report card is jack up!”

  His parent immediately asks to see his report card and Robert was very hesitant on showing them. Grandma Jenny grabbed the report card out of his hand and passes it to his mother grinning. His mother took one look and fainted. His father picked Regina off the floor and laid her on the sofa. Grandma Jenny started fanning her. Just so his father can see his jack up report card. He took one look and started questioning him like he was on trial. He was yelling from the top of his lung.

  “Son I don’t understand how your grades certainly drop,” he replied. “Please explain to me how this happen?”

  Before Robert could respond to his father question or come up with a lie to tell his father. Grandma Jenny made sure that he couldn’t manipulate his way out of this mess.

  Grandma Jenny blurted, “I can explain why his report card is so jack up.”

  She became a regular old chatter box and sold him out to his father. Robert felt like a moron letting his guard down trusting old pot head Grandma Jenny.

  “Son I didn’t raise you to be a drug dealer!” His father shouted. “You’re not going to be living under my roof slanging drugs.”

  This was the first time Robert couldn’t manipulate his parents. He learned a valuable lesson from Grandma Jenny that day. You keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. He was put on restriction for a month. He was restricted from doing anything and he couldn’t deal with it. He began feeling like a prisoner put on death row. Grandma Jenny had this Chinese smile on her face like she did something. She kept licking her tongue out at him. She reminded him of Ester from the Sanford and Son sit-com. Robert was very upset with Steven for moving away, his father for yelling at him, and Grandma Jenny for selling him out.

  He became very furious at his family and he felt like everything was against him. He started plotting on running away and getting even with Grandma Jenny before he leaves. He over heard his parents talking about going out for dinner Friday for their anniversary. He decided that he was going to leave from Chicago that Friday. He called the Greyhound bus station and made reservation for San Diego, California. When Friday came, he didn’t waste anytime. He grabbed his drug dealing money and ran. He ran like the Mexican running across the border. He arrived at the Greyhound bus station in time to purchase his ticket to San Diego, California and hop on the bus.

  Robert didn’t have any idea what he was getting himself into. He just figured if Steven can do it, so can he. He had too much hell in him to think about how this would affect his parents. With $6,000.00 on him, he didn’t care. Once he got on that bus, it was no turning back. He was site seeing along the way and enjoying his ride to California. The joy went away when he look around the bus and saw a lot old people that reminded him of Grandma Jenny. They all smell like they had been rubbing Icy Hot and Ben Gay all over their body.

  Robert couldn’t take the smell anymore. He got up from the front and headed towards the back. Soon as he arrived to the back and sat down, people started questioning him. He got tired of lying to them. The last person to ask him a question was some old couple.

  They asked, “Where your parents?”

  “They die in a car crash and I am heading to San Diego, California to live with my Aunt Mary,” he lied.

  Robert couldn’t believe that it took two and a half days to arrive in San Diego, California. He kept $300.00 dollars in his pocket and the rest of his money stash in his underwear because he didn’t trust anybody.

  He was very scared and excited at the same time. He didn’t know anybody in California except Steven. He arrived that morning, grabbed his luggage from the bus and went exploring. He was approached by a beautiful young lady name Sandra Cooper. She was eighteen years old a runaway living in the street. She had been living in the street for three years.

  She asked, “Do you want a date?”

  Robert replied, “Where do you want to go on a date too?”

  He didn’t realize she was talking about sex. She started laughing because of what he said. She explains herself to him.

  Robert quickly asked, “How much?”

  She answered, “$20.00.”

  “Okay,” he replied with a cheesy smile.

  Robert really couldn’t help himself. She was so pretty to him and Robert didn’t bother to think about STD or pregnancy. She took him around the corner into an empty building and they got busy.

  Robert asked, “Why are you a street walker?”

  She responded, “So I would be able to eat each day and survive the street.”

  Robert fell like a fool asking such a dumb question. The more they talk the more he open up to her. S
he stated that there were four others like her doing the same thing. He was determined not to become a street walker for money just to eat. He had other plans in mind. She leads him back to an old abandon house were they resided. When they arrived, there were three young men and one young lady waiting for her return. They immediately started looking at him like he was a trespasser. Sandra started off introducing him to them explaining that he was a runaway too.

  They became very rude towards him. They kept screaming out we can’t feed an extra mouth and there is no room for another. Sandra kept trying to plead with them to let him stay. They kept saying no. Sandra didn’t want him to leave. At the same time, she didn’t want to get kick out the group. So he quickly removes himself from their presents to make it easy on her. Robert went looking for some shelter of his own.

  CHAPTER 4

  Robert spent the first week in San Diego sleeping outside on a hard bench in Balboa Park. He really didn’t think about how hard it would be for an 18 year old out in the street with out any identification … except for Birth Certificate and Social Security Card. He had too much pride to head back home running to his parents. Even at this moment of being homeless, in his mind he was still grown. He started looking around San Diego for some abandon places. He had search around town for hours. His feet were killing him. He felt like he had walked half of San Diego, California.

  Then he realized why not go back to the abandon building that he and Sandra had relation in. Soon as he arrived there, all of the doors were lock. He spent the second week sleeping at the Greyhound Bus Station. People that work there started noticing that he wasn’t there to catch a bus. He saw this huge security guard walking toward his way. He looked like he would eat you up and swallow you whole. Robert was a bad kid. But that day he finally had met his match. He ran out the door laughing and ran two blocks up the street. That huge security guard look like he been popping steroid in his mouth like popcorn.

  Robert started walking back to Balboa Park. He notices a guy walking behind him. He didn’t bother to think that he would be following him. He made it back to that same hard bench where he slept on for a week. He decided lay down on that hard bench to rest a little.

  He heard a person say, “Hello. I’m Melvin Jones.”

  It was the same guy that was following him.

  He answered back, “Hello. I’m Robert Washington Jr.”

  “This is the wrong place for you to be sleeping,” Melvin uttered. “There are a lot of things that take place in this park. So it’s not safe for a young man such as you to be sleeping here.”

  Robert immediately yelled out, “I am no street walker!”

  Melvin started laughing, took a seat, and they started talking. They talk for hours and hours.

  “Would you like to come back to my place for dinner?” Melvin asked.

  Although Robert didn’t know him that well, he went anyway. He reminded him of his friend, Steven. They walked a couple of blocks and arrived at Melvin’s place.

  Robert asked, “Do you always invite strangers to your place?”

  “No,” Melvin responded. “You’re the first.”

  So Melvin started giving him the grand tour around his apartment.

  Melvin said, “Now that you’ve seen everything, you’re welcome to the guest room.”

  Robert replied, “I really don’t understand why you’re being so generous. But thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. I understand that you’re a runaway. I was once a runaway myself. But I had no one to help me,” he responded. “So I promised the Lord that I would at least try to help somebody else if He got me off the streets. That somebody else is you Mr. Robert Washington Jr. It was to quiet in my place anyway. I thought it would be nice to hear another person’s voice … besides my own sometimes. It gets lonely sometimes when you live alone.”

  “Well do you have a woman in your life so you won’t feel lonely?” Robert asked.

  “No I don’t,” Melvin answered. “Well let me explain before you ask why. I am a bi-sexual guy.”

  Robert asked, “What’s a bi-sexual guy and do they buy sex too?”

  Melvin could not stop laughing.

  “No they don’t buy sex,” he responded with laughter. “A bi-sexual guy likes men and women. But a woman doesn’t want to deal with that kind of man because they fool around with men. A gay man doesn’t want to deal with a bi-sexual man because they fool around with women. So this is why I am alone.”

  Robert said, “Your lifestyle sound very complex.”

  Melvin uttered, “Trust me it is.”

  Robert asked, “Well can you just buy a puppy?” He uttered, “They’re man’s best friend. I take that back. I’m not sure if that’s true because I once had a dog named Grandma Jenny and she turned on me.”

  Melvin asked, “What kind of name is that for a dog?”

  “A little old dog that smokes a lot of marijuana and would sell you out,” Robert responded. “Well it’s really my Grandma Jenny. She’s a person … but she has a temper like a Rottweiler. She can’t be trusted.”

  Melvin started giggling. That day he started looking at Melvin like a big brother. Everything was working out fine for him. Robert felt like he was on top of the world. They talked the whole time Melvin was cooking. Melvin began opening up to him about why he ran away from home. His parents found out about his sexuality and flip the script on him. His father started yelling at him that he didn’t raise his son to be a Tinkle Bell. He won’t have a fairy living under his roof and his mother was going to be the only lady in the house. So he left Texas and rode out to San Diego with his cousin and decided he would remain in San Diego. It didn’t bother Robert that Melvin was a bi-sexual guy. He was a cool guy for being a big brother.

  Robert uttered, “I hope it doesn’t mess up the delicacy of your nature me being a black heterosexual guy.”

  Melvin laugh and said, “It won’t as long as it not contagious.”

  Robert hit the floor laughing at Melvin. He decided to open up to Melvin that he was a drug dealer from Chicago. That he ran away because Grandma Jenny sold him out to his parents. And she left off the part that they were smoking buddies.

  “Man I can’t believe she actually sold you out that way,” Melvin replied.

  “She was just getting back at me for the things I did to her in the past,” Robert responded. “I was plotting to dye her upper and bottom dentures blue before I left. I just hopped on the bus and came out here. So here I am.”

  Robert started thinking to himself. Sleeping at Melvin’s place was a lot better than the Greyhound Bus Station and that hard bench at Balboa Park. Two weeks went by since his move in with Melvin. Melvin decided to show him around San Diego since it was his day off. They started out at the San Diego Zoo observing the monkeys. Robert couldn’t do nothing but laugh. Melvin wanted to know what was funny.

  “Those monkeys in the cage look just like Grandma Jenny,” he uttered.

  Melvin laughed and laughed.

  “Poor Grandma Jenny stuck in a cage,” Melvin chuckled.

  He started laughing at Melvin. They retired from the Zoo after exploring everything there. They walked through town and stop at Joe’s Deli for a bite to eat. While sitting outside Joe’s Deli, Robert saw Sandra and her crew doing what they do best to eat. Sandra and her crew started smiling at him. He called her over to Joe’s Deli and gave her $20.00.

  “Thanks Robert,” she said with a smile.

  He replied, “You’re welcome Sandra.”

  Robert continue eating and enjoying the moment. They departed Joe’s Deli heading home. Melvin asked about Sandra. Robert started explaining everything to him.

  “That was nice for you to give her twenty dollars,” Melvin complemented.

  They arrived in front of their apartment and stopped by a 1981 Silver and Black Honda Civil. It was such a pretty car for it to be sitt
ing there doing nothing … but collecting dust. Robert became very concerned about Melvin’s car.

  So he asked, “What was wrong with your car?”

  Melvin quickly answered, “The head gasket cracked and the radiator has a hole.”

  Robert decided to help Melvin out since he was helping him. Robert was thinking this was a good opportunity for him to see more of San Diego and get his drivers license.

  Robert became excited and blurted, “Let’s get your car fix tomorrow?”

  Melvin laughed and asked, “Where are we going to get $500.00 dollars from?”

  “From the stock market,” Robert responded.

  They both fell to the ground laughing. Later went inside the apartment. Robert went to his room to get $500.00 to give Melvin. He came back from his room and flash $500.00 in front of him. Melvin made a crazy face and became speechless. He was having a hard time composing himself.

  He finally asked, “How can I get in the stock market business?”

  Robert answered, “My stock market crashed when Grandma Jenny sold me out to my parents.”

  “I must confess. I saw you each day you came in the Greyhound Bus Station,” Melvin responded. “The head security, Timothy, chased you out the bus station. I was just getting off duty. I decided to follow you. I wanted to help you because you seemed so lost at the time. This was the opportunity for me to make a friend because I didn’t have any. You reminded me of myself when I first arrive in San Diego, California. The only difference is you had money for food.”

  “Well that day you took me in, I started looking up to you like a big brother,” Robert said. “So let’s celebrate to us being brothers?”

  Melvin replied, “Okay. I only have a twelve pack of Rolling Stone Beer. Is that okay with you?”

  “Yeah bro that’s fine,” Robert answered. “But Paul Mason or Grey Goose would be nice right now.”

  They stay up until 1:00am drinking and laughing at the things he did to Grandma Jenny.