Free GRIND (The Silver Nitrate Series Book 1) by Tiana Laveen Page A

know it!” The woman started snapping her fingers and a few seconds later, she turned it down. “How are you doing this morning?”
    “I’m good… drinking and smokin’ at 8:00 a.m.. Aren’t you so proud of me?” Silver teased, drawing a laugh from her mother.
    “I am proud of you, with your crazy self. What do you have planned today and when are you comin’ to see me?”
    “Today I need to work on my bike, Mama. And before you ask, noooo, I’m still not finished.” She shook her head and grinned. “As far as when I’m coming, I’ll try to head down there next week, if that’s cool.”
    “You and that bike… Girl, you always are putting stuff together. I don’t know why you just won’t take it to a shop! You’ve been that way since you were a little kid. You scared me that one time though…”
    “Mama! Not this story again.”
    But the woman chuckled, ignored her, and kept on anyway. “You were seven. You wanted to take the toaster apart and put it back together. You grabbed a screwdriver but you ain’t unplug it first. Girl! An angel was looking out for you because you was just jamming that thing in there over and over again. You made me scream so loud when I saw you. I think I had my first piece of gray pop up that day.”
    “Don’t try to blame that gray hair of yours on me, just like you keep telling me I gave you the worst labor out of all of your children. You’re laying the guilt on thick, huh?”
    “You did!” The woman cackled. “Ruby and Topaz are lucky to be alive, because I considered getting my tubes tied after what you’d done to me. Didn’t make no sense. I should’ve known you’d be a rebel… You’re my twin.”
    “I know, and I’m proud of that, too.” Silver shook her head and took another sip of her wine. The smooth plum flavor tasted so good going down.
    Hmmm… this is yummy.
    She turned the glass slowly back and forth, watching how it slid slightly up the curve of the glass and then pooled back down to the bottom. She was already preparing in her mind for the next serving. She tapped a few ashes of her cigar into a nearby Darth Vader ashtray that sat on the end table.
    “You seem a little quiet? Everything okay?”
    Silver set her wine glass down and slipped her hand inside her oversized, cotton-colored robe.
    “Mama, I was just in a reminiscent mood I guess, especially now that you brought up what I used to do as a kid. Hey, do you ever think about my father anymore?” She looked at her wine glass on the table, noticing the glints of light that hit it from the sun gleaming through the window.
    “No, I don’t.” She could hear a lighter flick, and knew Mama was lighting a cigarette. Silver was quiet for a few moments, not even certain what to say next as she slid her feet, clad in only socks, over one another. Mama’s answer had thrown her off, unexpected.
    I’ve thought about him a time or two. Why hadn’t Mama?
    “I haven’t seen him since a few weeks after Ruby was born.” She blew out air. Silver could almost envision the smoke rings rolling from between her purple painted lips. “I tried to find him a couple of times, for all your sakes, not mine, but, like I told you years ago, I just gave up and then… I didn’t even care.”
    “Mama,” she sighed as she picked up her glass of wine, took a sip, and set it back down. “I thought about my father, how I didn’t really know him, you know? It used to upset me, but now,” she said with a shrug, “it’s just a curiosity, I suppose. I know his name, his birthdate, that you and he met at a party when you were only sixteen… but he left when I was so young, I just can’t see his face anymore unless I look at a picture.”
    “Baby, like I told you, Bryce Sr. had a drug problem. He got caught up. He told me a week before he left that he was going to go to South Carolina and try to find work. He did as he said he’d do, and I never saw him since. I know for a fact he left, the bus station