So You Call Yourself a Man Read Online Free Page B

over to the end table next to me and picking up a framed picture of a child I assumed was Marcus. He had the same chocolate-brown complexion as me, but other than that, I couldn’t see any resemblance.
    â€œMomma’s baby, Poppa’s maybe…is that what you trying to say ?” She was rolling her head as she spoke, but I had gone there now, so I wasn’t about to back down.
    â€œYeah, that about covers it.” I placed the picture back down on the end table. “He don’t look nothin’ like me.”
    â€œAre you crazy?” She stood up and pointed a finger. “That boy looks like you chewed him up and spit him out.”
    â€œThat boy is not my son, Michelle. At least, not until we have a blood test.”
    Now she looked like she wanted to smack the shit out of me. “So, what you tryin’ to say, that you don’t plan on helping me until you have a paternity test?”
    I nodded and she walked to the door, her face twisted in aggravation. I don’t know why she was so mad. She had to know I was going to ask her for a paternity test.
    â€œYou know, I was hoping you were going to be reasonable about this, but that’s all right. I’ll see you in court, James. You can get a paternity test there for free. Oh, and you can believe I’m going for my thirty thousand dollars now. You still live at 214 Dunlop Avenue in Hollis, don’t you? I’ll make sure to have them send the paperwork to your house as soon as possible.”
    I stood up and we locked eyes. I’m sure we were thinking the same thing, but while Michelle seemed to be finding pleasure in her threat, it filled me with fear. The thought of Cathy waiting for me one evening at the door, holding child-support papers demanding thirty thousand dollars, turned my stomach again. “Why you doin’ this, Michelle?”
    â€œBecause I don’t know what else to do, James.” Her eyes started to tear. “I’m a single mother with no man, a job working as a home health-care worker, and a baby to raise. I tried, but I can’t do this by myself. Now, you may not know he’s your son, but I do, and you’re going to help me whether you want to or not. So, I’ll see you in court .”
    She stood defiantly, staring at me with her arms folded and tears running down her face. For the first time since I’d arrived, I felt sorry not just for myself but for both of us.
    â€œAre you sure he’s my son?” I asked tentatively.
    She stared directly into my eyes and without blinking said, “Yes, James, he’s your son.”
    â€œLook, maybe we can work something out. I can try to stretch my route out longer and get a couple hours overtime each day.” She gave me this so-now-you-wanna-work-things-out look. “It’s gonna be tight, but I can probably scratch up the eight hundred if you let me give you two hundred a week. But I don’t know about the child care. You can’t get blood out of a turnip.”
    She gave me a skeptical look but finally nodded her head. “I can work with that for now, but when I need a babysitter, I’m calling you, then I’m calling your wife.”

5
Sonny
    I was in the middle of an interview with the director of human resources for UPS’s Queens, New York, hub. The interview was supposed to be just a formality for me to get the job as a driver, but I wasn’t so sure about that anymore. I’d had a bad feeling about the balding, overweight white man sitting in front of me from the second I walked in the room. He just had that look—you know, the look that said, I’m interviewing your black ass because I have to, but I really can’t stand niggers, so don’t even think you’re getting a job out of me. Oh, he was too politically correct or just plain afraid of the lawsuit I’d slap on UPS to say something like that to my face, but he was thinking it, that I was sure of.