He returned to his seat at the table. "I stutter, but only when I'm stressed, same with the tics." Troy's lip curled up in a slight smile. "The seizures aren't that bad, really. I just get a little confused after, and then I start saying strange things."Juicy didn't know what to say. Her pancakes had grown cold and she didn't have much of an appetite anymore."So that's why you're on the streets?" Juicy rose to dump her food into the trash."Not really." She turned to look at him curiously."Well, I get a social security check once a month and I can stay in a residential care home. It's paid for by the state. They give you your own place and a home health care aid comes by to check on you at regular intervals." Troy frowned and began drumming his fingers on the table. "But they'll make me take medication...I'd rather be on the streets." Troy shrugged.Juicy was still holding her plate as she watched him. "Social Security isn't enough to pay for an apartment-?" "It's enough."
Juicy tried to hide her pleasure. "Sure, anything, Troy.""Well, since you do hair, I could really use a haircut.""You want me to cut your hair? Sure. Did you want a perm or maybe highlights-?"He was shaking his head. "Just a hair cut."Juicy circled him slowly, studying his hair to see the style that his head was crying for. She reached out and fluffed certain areas with her fingers, other areas she swept back, then forward. It was still a bit damp from his shower and she recognized the tropical smell of her shampoo on him."Come on." She indicated for him to follow her into her 'business' room. She had a rolling barber's chair there. There was another television and some comfortable seating and piles of hair magazines. Beside the chair was a table that contained, what Troy would consider, devices of torture. The room had a smell that he found both foreign and comforting."Sit down, make yourself comfortable. I have to go to the bathroom. Be right back."Troy picked up and ex
She didn't breathe. But she didn't pull away either. Troy's lips touched hers.It was like being kissed for the very first time, or at least the way a first kiss is supposed to be. It was the sweetest kiss that she had ever experienced.Juicy could feel her heart pumping like mad in her chest. This was crazy. What was she doing?! When she was about to pull away, Troy cupped her face in his hands and his kisses became suddenly sensual. Parting his lips he explored her mouth capturing her voluptuous lips between his own.Troy tugged her bodily until she fell into his lap. Had she ever sat in any man's lap before? Dear Lord, what was she doing?Troy's hands now gripped her waist but he never broke the kiss.What had started out as so sweet was now transformed into something that caused Juicy's limbs to tingle with desire. Electrical jolts seemed to shoot through her belly only to settle between her thighs where she felt a warm heat rapidly building.Juicy felt her hand run up Troy'
"Juicy, fix your bra before you go out." He called just before she shut the door soundly behind her.Juicy blew out a long breath and hurried down to the basement.'Ohmygodohmygodohmygod...' she chanted. 'I just fucked a crazy homeless man. OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD...'Juicy dumped the bundle into the first washer and when her arms were free she covered her face with her hands. 'I AM in a vegetative state. I got hit in the head, I was in a coma and I'm no longer of sound mind and body.' Juicy began to pace. Absently she adjusted her bra. Her left breast felt full and sensitive from Troy's attention. Juicy closed her eyes and covered her breasts with the palms of her hands. But Lordie did he know how to work on some titties, not to mention making her cum like that. What man had ever wanted to kiss her for nearly an hour?Juicy rubbed the sweat away from her forehead. She reminded herself that Troy was his name; not a homeless guy, or Mr. Cracker. He was Troy. And Troy had done so much
Three grand in the bank?! "God, you are crazy," She said. She had tried to think differently, she really had.Troy didn't seem angry. "Well...people might say the same about you. You went crazy on me in that alley. Actually, the second time you were there I heard you talking to yourself—I even heard you yelling to yourself. I'm crazy?" He absently waved away her comments. "Maybe. But you are, too."Juicy made a face and stood up. Troy popped up in front of her. He took hold of her good hand, the one without the cast."Don't, Juicy. We can talk without getting mad at each other. I like you...and I just want you to understand me." When she didn't answer he slowly released her hand and took a step away from her. "I guess it doesn't matter." Troy rubbed his hair, ruffling the damp ringlets. Then he shrugged. "There are two worlds. I live in the invisible one and you live in the real one." He raised both palms up in defeat. "Those two worlds don't mix."Juicy thought before speaking. "I
Troy had no choice but to get away. But where does a seventeen-year old computer geek run away to? He would not go to his sister Lorie's house because Lorie had two small babies and a husband that looked at him as if he had a contagious disease. Bob, his brother, was always buddy buddy with him. They didn't have a tight relationship since he was twenty-two years older, but he did put forth an effort.So that's where Troy headed. Bob was single and maybe he'd let him crash there and help him to get a job. Of course his brother would probably not allow him to blow off his entire senior year. So Troy was okay with the idea of completing his senior year at his brother's place. Bob was so much younger than Dad, maybe he could understand what he had tried so hard to tell his parents. The drugs were changing him; making him into an un-person.They had started him on Ritalin when he was a kid. Then he had stopped running around the house and bounding up and down in class. His paren
For the next several months he hung with Blue and his friends. Sometimes they slept at the train tracks, which Blue nixed from happening too often; too easy to be robbed and raped. Troy had been surprised by that. Homeless people got raped? Blue had clarified that homeless BOYS got raped.Sometimes they crashed along with other people in vacant apartments as if they were squatters. Sometimes there were impromptu parties going on with a DJ and rappers and the atmosphere was like static! They called those RAVES. He had lots of fun, not used to parties since he'd never been invited to any while at home. Of course, it wasn't always good for him to be where there was so much movement and action as it triggered seizures or migraines. There were times when they slept in buildings that doubled as crack houses and once some crazy man had robbed everyone by syringe point, stating that the needle was infected with HIV. Of course, he had long ago run out of money. Once, while he was sle
Troy liked the streets, if for no other reason than the fact that he had people that he could consider friends. For the first time in his life, he wasn't judged because of his condition. They'd all be sitting around laughing and then the world would turn sideways. He'd fade away into a seizure and when he woke up a minute or two later they would still be joking and laughing and they'd nudge him and fill him in on what he'd missed. They never made a big deal out of it; if they even noticed it happening. But his family had always made his seizures seem like a distasteful act that they had to turn their heads from; as if they were waiting to wipe a toddler's ass after he took his first dump in the big toilet.The months moved fast and soon it was his eighteenth birthday. He had told Blue about the social security checks that he'd been getting for years. He would need to call home in order to get the money and that was something he wasn't up for. 'So you got all of this money just
Troy got behind the wheel and started the car. He had been seizure free for almost three years. And before that he'd had only one in the entire year. Of course he had to take his medication regularly, and if he noted that he was having any of the signals, like repetitive tapping of his fingers or feet then he anticipated one and could put himself in a safe position. There had been no need for that for several years.Jazzy had lost interest in her book in less than a minute and they were doing a sing-a-long. Soon Troy was singing by himself. He looked in the rear view mirror and his daughter was staring off into space. Her pretty rosebud mouth was slightly ajar and her body had gone slack. A few moments later her eyes blinked and she got quiet as she turned to the window to stare at the passing scenery. His lips were a grim line as he took all of it in.Janet had said that it was normal for kids to have absence seizures and that she might grow out of hers without the need for
Juicy put her hands on her hips and stretched her back. She felt it crack and sighed in relief. Oh that was good…"Mama I want pink bows.""Okay, Miss bossy." Jazzy was bouncing up and down on her butt in the salon chair. She was a bundle of energy. That girl could run from sunup to sundown. Troy was always there, running right beside her."She will tire out on her own as long as we let her run it out of her system," is what he would say when she would get tired just watching the tot run in circles. It was a good thing that the house they'd moved into had a huge back yard and all kinds of play equipment. Troy and Dad had even built her a little playhouse where no one complained if she wrote on the walls or left her toys on the floor.Juicy brushed her little girl's dark hair around her finger until they formed ringlets that touched her shoulders. Then she tied two big pink bows around each of the pigtails."Look at me Aunt Eboni!" Jazzy stood up in the chair.Ebonique re
"I'm mad at Felix, too." She nodded emphatically. "I'm mad because he was my only true friend and he…took himself away from me. He was the one person that I could turn to that understood me completely." She inhaled. It felt good to unload some of this. "That's so wrong to be mad at him. He didn't try to hurt me. It was me that let him down. He tried to talk to me and I didn't hear what he was saying. He told me what he needed and I just didn't hear.""You mean that you didn't save him."Juicy nodded after a long moment. "I'm mad at myself, too.""Why?"She swallowed past the lump in her throat. "Because I hurt people and I know that I'm doing it. It makes me feel better when I'm hurting. And I let people down…I let you down.""You didn't let me down, babe.""When you were in the hospital you needed me and I was too busy having my own pity party that I stopped caring about anybody else.""Juicy, the first step is to recognize destructive behavior, okay? And you're
Several weeks later, Juicy was burping the baby after her last bottle and Troy was lying in bed half asleep. It was just after three a.m. and it had been his turn to get up and feed her, but he hadn't been able to get that last belch to erupt from her little belly and so Juicy had finally gotten up and taken over."Where's my surprise?""What?" He yawned and looked at her with sleepy confused eyes."That day." It was now referred to as 'that day', "…you said that you were going to bring me back a surprise. Where's the surprise?"He chuckled, eyes still hooded. "I wish I could give you a surprise; a special one that's in my shorts, it's big, too.""You are so nasty.""I am so horny.""Well I have to wait six weeks, sweetie.""That's a long time, Juice.""Oh come on, you told me before that you'd waited years."He sat up, propping the pillow under his arms as he turned to watch her patting his daughters back so that she could be put down to sleep."I don't know what I was
Later, Juicy held her daughter up in the neonatal ward, and so many visitors began to stream in that she was asked to take Jasmine down into her own room. The doctor had already given the baby an examination and the youngest member of the Hyden family was pronounced able to be released the next day. They weren't so sure about Juicy. But she threatened to runaway if they even thought about leaving her in this hospital without her baby. The doctor smiled and said that as long as she stayed in bed for the next few days and took her blood pressure twice a day that he would allow her to leave with the baby.Robert and Gladys sat with them, barely leaving the little baby's side. And when the girl's from the salon drifted in they looked at the odd family that Juicy was a part of. And Miss Barbara Jean did not say one bad thing about white people and Ebonique even promised to give Gladys a free cut and dye job before they flew back to Connecticut.Troy wasn't anxious once, but relaxe
There was a repetitive sound that was just downright annoying. Was Troy playing a videogame? She had never known him to care much for things like videogames. She opened her eyes and looked around slowly. What the-?" She was not in her familiar bedroom.Her head whipped around and she reached up and ripped a tube out of her mouth. It went all the way down her throat and she gagged and coughed, almost suffocating on it. Troy's body jerked where he was sleeping in a reclining chair next to her hospital bed. He jumped up and hurried to her while she coughed and choked. "What the-?" But she had no voice. She tried again and a whispery sound issued from her lips. "What-?"Troy placed his hands on her cheeks and then he kissed her. He pulled back and then moved right back in to hug her. She hugged him back, confused eyes still roaming around the room."Thank God," he was saying. "You're awake."He released her and snatched at the call controls. He was pressing it and sta
Troy was sitting in the hospital room next to Juicy's bed. He still held the small bundle of his son, even though it had been hours since his birth. He wondered if that was the appropriate word to use when a baby was born, having already died. Birth was supposed to mark the beginning of one's life, but for him it had marked the end.They had been able to stop Juicy's labor, for now, and she had been moved to a private room, still in a coma, and heavily monitored. Janet had been kind enough to phone his family who were taking a flight in to Cincinnati.Janet came into the room and pulled up a chair next to Troy's. He didn't look at her. She looked down at the baby in his arms. "Troy. You haven't eaten and you haven't taken your medicine. You need to take a few moments to do these things.""I'm not hungry." He mumbled."I'll hold the baby for you." He looked at her slowly."You won't let th-them t-take h-him?""Are you planning to hold him forever?""No. Just until I'
Troy opened his eyes and then squinted. The difference between waking up after a horrible migraine and waking up after a horrible migraine while on painkillers was a totally different experience. Usually, he was alert and invigorated. But now he was drowsy and unclear. He looked around the darkened room, pulling himself up into a sitting position. He came to his feet and reached for the window blinds. "What the-?" He was on the fifth floor. This he could easily judge by the distance from the window to the parking lot below. Yet Tri Health Alliance only had two floors…Now that the light shining through the window illuminated the room he could clearly see that he was in a hospital room. "Shit!" He hurried to the door. He wasn't wearing a shirt and he touched his chest and suddenly looked around. His shirt was folded neatly on a small table and he quickly pulled it on and patted his pocket for his cell phone, keys and wallet. He had them. He hurried out of the room, dart
Juicy loved placing her hand on her belly and feeling the baby kicking back against it. She tried to imagine her baby but couldn't picture a mixture between her and Troy. He was tall and lanky with blonde hair and grey eyes, and she had black skin and black eyes. Their baby could be caramel, dark chocolate, even vanilla. She chuckled and thought about how freaked her mother would have been by the fact that she was in love with a white man. She quickly shook her head and thought about something other than Momma.She got out of bed and walked to the spare room. She was so anxious to decorate it. It would be a wonderful baby's room. She imagined yellow paint on the walls and pretty willowy white curtains. She had once seen a room that had pretty butterflies hanging from the ceiling with nylon wings and papier-m?ché bodies. She wanted white furniture and a princess bed. Her face slowly fell. That is what she had always wanted for herself. Instead, her bedroom had been a sag