Free Imagined Love by Diamond Drake

huge mistake but Miles was ready to get married. He was heartbroken when she broke up with him and transferred to Roosevelt high school. At least that’s where he thought Willa was but she’d actually been sent to a home for unwed, pregnant teens! After weeks of beating on the doors and windows demanding to speak to Willa, Dorothea finally told Miles the truth. He was devastated over the thought of Willa going through a pregnancy alone and that he had no way of getting to her or stopping the adoption.
    “Mama was so mad at Miles. I never could understand why she hadn’t been that indignant about Charlie Mays. Instead of putting him in jail, or at the very least throwing him out of the house, she served him his dinner and tea on a damn platter every day like he was some kind of king! I hated her guts for that.
    “The only time I didn’t think about it was for those few moments on April 13, 1968 when I got to hold my baby. He was eight pounds, twelve ounces, and twenty-two inches long. The nurse let me hold him just long enough to name him Justin and see that he had my eyes. He smiled at me right before she pulled him out of my arms and I’ve never forgotten how sweet his little face looked,” Willa smiled, as tears poured down her face. “And then when I got back from having Justin ripped away from me all Mama could do was tell me to get over it and move on with my life. Apparently I didn’t have the right to cry or miss my son because he wasn’t dead like Mae. She actually told me to talk to her when I knew what it felt like to put one of my babies in the ground because until then I didn’t have anything to be sad about.”
    To lighten the mood a bit, Willa began telling Cicely about the good times she and Miles had. After she had come home from having Justin, Miles was the only person she could lean on. One afternoon he called to ask her to meet him on what everyone called The Good Corner. People would come from all around the
    city for one of the best polish sausages, tacos, or barbecue. They’d shop, go to the movies or just stand around and swap stories about the good ole days.
    “Ooh, girl, I used to love going down to the good corner. Me and my brother would scrape our little nickels together and go to the record store or get some of those good doughnuts. Oh, do you remember playing policy? That was the big thing back then.”
    “Yeah, I remember playing policy very well. I had never heard of it until Miles told me he was doing it. I was so scared for him because it was gambling and he was too young to be doing that. I thought his parents would be furious if they found out but they were the ones sending him in there to play their numbers! Then Miles started playing his own numbers with the money he made cutting grass and shoveling snow. They kept hitting and from that point on, every time we met up he had money to eat and go to the movies and do whatever we wanted to do. It was amazing and Miles made up his mind right then and there that he was going to work hard to start his own construction company and make sure we never had to want for anything. And he did it.
    “It was when I talked about my dreams of having a business that we would argue. Miles has always been old school where he thinks a man goes out to work and the woman stays home with the kids. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it if that’s what you want to do. But I always wanted to have my own money and do something with my life too. Plus Miles taught me a very valuable lesson that I will never forget. After the business took off and we started moving up in the world, Miles’s family constantly had their hands out for something, especially Myrna. And when I overheard her referring to Miles as her piggy bank, I tried to warn him about it. But he told me I had no right telling him what to do with his money. ‘I’ll continue to give Mama whatever she asks for because she’s my mother . . . you just my wife’! From that day