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was a good match. So I don’t tell Dre yet that we might have a kidney for him. He doesn’t even know I went to see his father. I let the doctor’s office know Terrell said yes. They say they will start the process, whatever that means. We have to sit tight and wait. It shouldn’t take too long.
    In the meantime I take Dre every other day for dialysis. It helps him feel a lot better. There’s no way he can go to school, so I get his homework for him. Last thing I want is for him to fall behind.
    We have a lot of time to sit and talk while he’s getting his treatments.
    â€œYou still thinking about college?” I ask him.
    â€œYeah,” he says. “I’m still thinking about it.”
    â€œYou keep those grades up, maybe you’ll get a scholarship,” I say.
    â€œYeah, well, we both know that’s the only way I’m getting an education,” he says.
    â€œThere’s always the community college. You could start there. Learn some kind of a trade. Then move on up the ladder. Nothing wrong with that.”
    But Dre shakes his head. His dreadlocks whip back and forth.
    â€œUniversity,” he says. “That’s where I belong.”
    Dre sees himself as a professor. I don’t know where he gets this from. I never liked school much. I certainly never thought about getting a higher education. I was happy just to finally get my GED when I was twenty-six, after almost ten years of being a single mom.
    That was also the year I met Ernest and we got married. For a while, things were looking up. Ernest had a good job managing an electronics store. We lived in my little house. Soon Marco came along. We were a real family.
    But Ernest had a little problem staying faithful. I don’t know for sure how long his affair with that salesgirl was going on. I know one thing: I couldn’t ever trust him again, not after she started calling our house. He swore up and down it would never happen again, but by then it was too late.
    I can be a very understanding person… sometimes. If you break your promise to have your pizza at my house in thirty minutes or less, I’ll give you a second chance. But if you break your marriage vows to me, you’re out the door.
    â€œI’m proud of you,” I say to Dre.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œFor going to university.”
    â€œMama,” he says, “what are you talking about? I haven’t even finished high school yet.”
    â€œYeah, I know,” I say. “I’m just proud of you for even wanting to do it. You don’t know how much that means to me. All a mother wants is for her kids to do well. And you will.”
    â€œIf I make it through this, you mean,” he says, nodding at the machine.
    â€œYou will,” I say again. “I just know it.”
    Then the bad news comes. A few days later, I get a message on my cell to call Dr. Wendell’s office.
    â€œI’m afraid I have bad news,” he says. “Terrell can’t be a donor. There’s no way.”
    My heart falls into my feet. I should have known this would happen.
    â€œWhy not?” I ask.
    â€œWe ask our potentials a list of questions,” he says. “And one of those questions is, Have you ever done intravenous drugs?”
    â€œLet me guess,” I say. “He answered yes.”
    â€œI suppose we should be grateful he told the truth,” says Dr. Wendell. “If he had any diseases, we would have caught them in the screening. But maybe something else would have popped up down the line, after it was too late. We can’t take that chance.”
    â€œDoes Terrell know?” I ask. I wonder how upset he is, now that he’s not getting out of prison early.
    â€œHe knows. The nurse stopped the interview right there.”
    I go quiet. I’m just thinking.
    â€œLinda,” says Dr. Wendell. “Are you there?”
    â€œI’m here.”
    â€œI realize this isn’t good