Free What A Person Wants by Kris Bell Page A

patiently as though the woman was someone asking her about her day. But I could see her face getting tighter by the second. It wouldn’t be long before her fury broke. I had to do something.
    I mouthed to my mother, “Hang up the phone,” but she didn’t listen to me. She was too busy listening to the other woman. So instead of staying quiet, I got loud.
    “Mother, hang up the phone! Now!”
    “Look, bitch, I don’t know what you’re used to or who you think I am, but you keep talking shit to me and I’m gonna make you regret every little thing you say!” my mother exclaimed. Yep. The dam was breaking and Mama’s Christianity was quickly washing away. She jumped up and began pacing the floor of her small living room as she continued spewing threats to the unnamed woman. I stood up as well.
    “Mom, you need to hang up the phone. Don’t feed into that. That’s what she wants.” I tried to grab the phone from my mother as she passed in front of me, but she pushed me to the side like a rag doll. Oh hell no ! My mother seldom put her hands on me as a child and never since I was an adult. I didn’t like where this was going, especially since I had overheard the woman on the other end say she was on her way to the house to whoop my mother’s ass.
    That was it for me. I grabbed my mother around her waist as she yelled random expletives into the phone and snatched itaway from her. I pressed “end” and tossed the phone onto the couch where I had been sitting.
    “What the hell are you doing?” my mother yelled in my face. I couldn’t remember the last time she was like this. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her like this! Her pretty, dark brown eyes were bloodshot from crying and her face was so red it looked swollen. “What the hell are you doing?” she repeated.
    “Why are you stooping to their level?” I yelled back to her. Now I was getting heated. I hadn’t planned on this shit. I just came over for a quick mother/daughter visit before I headed over to the movies with Rich. “Why are you acting like a goddamn child? You are forty-five years old! Petey ain’t worth this fuckin’ drama! Let those silly women have him!”
    My mother stormed past me so hard she damn near knocked me on my ass when she went by. If it weren’t for the wall behind me, I would’ve been on the floor, and I doubt she would’ve looked back. “You don’t know shit, Izzy!  If she tries to come over here, I’ll be ready for her. That ain’t a problem!” she yelled as she headed upstairs to her room.
    She slammed her bedroom door. After so many years of being a parent to my mother when it came to trifling men, I was beyond tired of it. She should have been giving me relationship advice, not the other way around. The trouble really started five years ago when she met Petey’s ignorant ass I had no respect for Petey whatsoever.  Since we never talked even if we’re in the same room, I guess it’s safe to say the feelings were mutual. It didn’t matter, though. My mother may have had her faults, but she didn’t deserve to be disrespected in her own home. We don’t know these women from Adam, and since this one in particular reeked of “hood rat” on the phone, it was likely that she wouldn’t be alone if she did come over.
    Thinking I needed some help, I took my cell phone out of my pants pocket and dialed Tara’s number. She didn’t live too far from my mom, but I had to abandon the idea of her coming over to help once her voicemail picked up.
    Not knowing who else to call, I dialed Richie’s number. I prayed he would answer even though I didn’t really know what I would tell him. “Pick up, pick up,” I whispered as the phone rang.
    “Hey, babe,” he answered.
    I exhaled in a rush of relief and said, “Hey, Richie!  Listen, um, where are you?”
    “I just left my office, headed home. What’s up? What’s wrong?”
    I wanted to tell him to come over and rescue me, take me away from this