Free Expired by Evie Rhodes Page A

the old-fashioned hourglass sitting on top of the fireplace mantel. The sand in the hourglass was at the bottom. Tracie tried to empty her mind of all thought, but she was having difficulty achieving this.
    She took Michael’s hand in hers. She pressed it to her lips, kissing the blue and gold class ring. Dre and Michael were very precious to her. This fact had been rammed home with total clarity since the loss of Randi.
    â€œHey, Rebound,” she said to Michael. “You were on the court today, right?”
    â€œYeah, Mom. You know I was.” As good as Michael was, he was somewhat shy, and sometimes it embarrassed him the way people acted over his basketball skills. He was often compared to Earl “the Goat” Manigault because of his extraordinary leaping skills on the court.
    For him it was just something he did. He loved the sport. It was second nature for him, as it had been for his brother Randi. But for Harlem he was an Earl “the Goat” reincarnation. The community loved its own stars.
    Even his Mom flipped out over his skills at times, the same as she had with Randi. He sometimes played on the same court the Goat used to play on, and the crowds came in great numbers at the sound of his name.
    It saddened him that he would never be able to play with his brother anymore. He and Randi used to put on quite a show for the neighborhood over on the 135 th Street courts. The crowd went wild because they were brothers.
    Afterward they would always go to Sylvia’s Restaurant to eat barbecue ribs, macaroni and cheese, and collard greens, to replenish their energy.
    Tracie turned to look at him. “Good. Never neglect being on the court. Because you, baby, are going to be the greatest rebounder basketball has seen for a long time. But they already know it,” Tracie said with pride lilting in her voice.
    She turned to Dre, careful to keep the fear that was creeping up and down her spine out of her voice. She said casually, “Dre, I think you should still leave for L.A. You’ve got your ticket. I don’t want this to—”
    â€œI ain’t going right now, Tracie. I ain’t leaving you. That’s all there is to it.”
    Michael jumped into the conversation. “Dre’s right. Now isn’t the time for anybody to be going anywhere.”
    Tracie hesitated before speaking, keeping her tone cool and nonchalant. “Actually, I think it’s the perfect time. Michael, you can go to that basketball training camp we were talking about. Dre can go to L.A., where he can shoot sunsets and mountains. There aren’t any mountains in Harlem. Rashod. Rashod needs to go somewhere, too . . . ” her voice trailed off.
    A soft click invaded the silence. Tracie turned toward the sound to see that the red dot was lit on Dre’s camcorder. The boy videotaped and recorded everything. He was a fanatic.
    Tracie was annoyed, but she decided now was not the time. One day he was going to videotape something that shouldn’t be taped. He needed to learn some discretion. She was proud of him, but she didn’t like the idea of him always recording things at random in the house.
    Dre looked at Tracie. He stood up, looking down at her from his great height. He was mad as hell. He knew what she was trying to do. It wasn’t going to work. Things were not normal. He wasn’t going for her playing hide-and-seek, pretending, that they were.
    Randi was dead. His death was not an accident. It was murder. As much as he couldn’t stand that toy detective Monica, he had to admit she had some real points. Somebody was throwing shade. Something was wrong. Who would want to murder his baby brother? So, in his opinion no one needed to go anywhere until they knew what the hell was going on.
    Determinedly he said, “Ain’t nobody leaving you right now, Tracie, so forget it.”
    Tracie knew he was angry, because that was the only time he called her by her first