His Last Wife

“Not like I have a choice,” Thirjane complained, to no one’s surprise. “I don’t know why you brought this thing out here in the first place. Act like you can’t be away from this computer for five minutes. Not even to play.”

Tyrian stood there and listened to his grandmother’s tongue. He didn’t know if he should stay or go and play. And he normally got more of a lashing if he chose incorrectly.

Finally, when the man was just five feet away, she said, “What are you standing there for? Go and play! And remember what I said. You don’t come back over here until I call you.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tyrian said. “And could you please hold my iPad on your lap? Don’t sit it on the bench. It might fall and break.”

“Boy, I’ll throw this thing in the gutter if I choose! Now, go on and play!”

All that heavy talk and Thirjane did just as her grandson requested: Kept the iPad right on her lap like she was cradling a baby. She gave Tyrian a hard time, but really she loved him more than herself and his mother. The hard-time stuff—that was just her way.

Tyrian made good on his promise too. He stayed far away from the bench as his grandmother talked with her special guest, strategically biding his time on equipment that conveniently faced the pair. He tried to read their lips and guess what they were saying, and in his young mind the exchange sounded something like all those Lifetime movies his mother had watched on the couch at home. “Oh, my sweet love. I love you,” his grandmother would say and the white man would respond, “And I love you too, darling.”

But when Grandma Janie’s boyfriend was gone and she called Tyrian back over so they could go home to cook and eat supper, he learned that their talk went nothing like that. In fact, hovering over the iPad in his dark bedroom closet after Grandma Janie had sipped her special medication and fallen asleep on the couch, he wondered if he’d need to launch a new investigation to get better clues about Grandma Janie’s boyfriend. They weren’t even talking about being girlfriend and boyfriend. And although Tyrian didn’t exactly know what that meant, he listened and knew this wasn’t it. He couldn’t make sense of most of it, but before the charge went dead and the iPad had stopped recording, the conversation went like this:

Thirjane: You go on and play, boy. Go on and play and don’t come back over here talking about you’re bored. Don’t come back until I tell you to. You hear me?

Tyrian: Yes, ma’am. Can you hold my iPad for me?

Thirjane: Not like I have a choice. I don’t know why you brought this thing out here in the first place. Act like you can’t be away from this computer for five minutes. Not even to play. [long pause]

What are you standing there for? Go and play! And remember what I said. You don’t come back over here until I call you.

Tyrian: Yes, ma’am. And could you please hold my iPad on your lap? Don’t sit it on the bench. It might fall and break.

Thirjane: Boy, I’ll throw this thing in the gutter if I choose! Now, go on and play!

[long pause]

Man: Hello. How are you today?

Thirjane: Could be better. Any news for me?

Man: Nothing much. Been making calls and—

Thirjane: Well, you can stop with the calls. They’re not working. You want answers, you’re going to have to go out there and shake some trees. That’s what I pay you for.

Man: Actually, that’s not what you pay me for. You paid me for—

Thirjane: Never mind what I paid you for. You fucked it up and look where we’re at now.

[long pause]

I have to do something. We have to do something to make this right.

Man: I’ve been thinking. I know someone who put in work for the DA. You know when that guy from the church was trying to have him fired?

Thirjane: The pastor who drowned in Lake Lanier?

Man: Yeah, that one. Like I was saying, I know the guy who put in work for the DA back then.

Thirjane: You think he’ll talk?

Man: Not a chance in hell, but he’ll get us in the DA’s ear. And then I’ll get some phone calls returned. You know?

Thirjane: Sounds good. Make your move.

Man: Thing is, it’s going to be a little more.