What Will Our Lives Be Now?
I landed in Charleston, South Carolina after a two-hour flight. It was a Wednesday afternoon and I was itching to see my family again. I exited the airport and saw father waiting at the arrival area. I was so happy to see my father we both couldn’t stop cheesing. He took my bags and put them in the car trunk. My younger sister Kizzy ran towards me and gave me a big hug, she was so happy to see me. My brother Andre smiled and said welcome. The men in my family aren’t as emotional as the women. But him smiling at me was more than enough.
Finally, we arrived at the house. The drive from the airport to the house was extremely long. All I was seeing was trees and bushes, I barely saw much houses or even just people.
“This state is so different from New York,” I said to my Dad.
“I know it is a lot more trees than people and the houses are far apart, but it is kind of like Long Island just more rural,” He said.
My father went into the kitchen, he asked if I was hungry because he’s about to make some Ackee and Saltfish, he knew that was my favorite dish so of course I am going to say yes. My father loves to cook, especially for his family. We all had dinner that evening. Everything felt normal again.
The next day my father had plans for us to go job and school hunting. He wanted me to stop by his job first because he had put in the word for me and he thinks I might be the perfect fit. He works at a restaurant called Magnolias it is in the city of Charleston down by the harbor. He is a Food Prep there. It is a beautiful upscale casual restaurant. I was told they’re known to have the best fried green tomatoes. When we got there my father took me to the head manager’s office, her name is Roseann. She is a white woman with dark brown curly hair. But I noticed everyone working there and the guests were all white people. That didn’t bother me, but it is something I noticed first. She gave me a job application to fill out, and I gave her my resume. She noticed that I worked in restaurants before, specifically I was a catering server. Her remarks was,
“This isn’t anything like catering serving. You wouldn’t be a server here, but I will train you to be a Hostess. It is way more upscale here and the severs must have a certain skill. She said.
I wasn’t sure what specific skills her servers had that I didn’t have but I was a little bummed out I wasn’t going to be a server. See the thing is for me, I have been serving since my freshman year in college. And now I am a sophomore and I feel like I have mastered the art in my opinion. Servers make money faster because they get tips and they make a lot more than the host and hostess do a night. She gave me a worker’s hand book and asked if I was able to start training tomorrow. I was happy I got the job so easy and fast I didn’t care about the fact that I wouldn’t be serving.
“So, see you tomorrow at 10am, dress business casual; no jeans, leggings, no cleavage, shoulder length shirts, no tank tops unless you are wearing a blazer or cardigan over it and no short dresses or skirts. Got it? She asked.
“Yes!” I said.
Okay see you then at 10am sharp!” she said.
I went back out to see my father, but he wasn’t there. I saw a lady in a white long-sleeved button-down shirt and a tie, she had black pants on with an apron. I assumed she must be one of the staff members.
“Excuse me Miss, I’m looking for a man his name is Richmond. He works here, he’s tall, medium built, dark brown skin and he has a thick Jamaican accent, do you know him? Or have you seen him? He’s my father.” I asked nervously
“Yes! I do know him, Richie that’s what we call him. You are Kimberly, right? She asked
“Yeah, how did you know that?
“Your father talks about you and your siblings all the time. He loves to talk about you especially, saying you’re the oldest and how much he is proud of you. He did mention last night that you were coming down here to live with him.
“Oh wow, he did?
“Yeah he is always talking highly of his children. My name is Genevieve by the way, nice to meet you. Are you going to start working here? I noticed the hand book.”
“Yeah I start training tomorrow.”
“That’s good, your Dad went in the kitchen, its straight back behind that white doors.”
“Thank you and nice to meet you Genevieve.”
I walked back to the kitchen and the first thing I noticed was that the kitchen staff is mostly Black, African Americans. The head Chef is white along with the line cooks but the rest of the staff like the food Preps, dishwashers etc are all black people. I was scared to enter so I asked the dishwasher if my father was back there. He answered in a thick southern accent, his was a bit faster than Genevieve’s accent. I barely understood him. He then shouted out my father’s name saying someone was here to see him. My father came out and of course he started introducing me to all his friends and the staff saying,
“Guys this is Kimberly, my beautiful and smart daughter that I always talk about.”
I rolled my eyes and smiled because he always does that, I find it to be so embarrassing. He looked at me and laugh. They all greeted me, and I mentioned I will be back tomorrow to start my training. My father was happy to hear I got the job because he always felt bad about asking me to move in the middle of the school semester.
I had to start working until this fall semester ends. So now that I have a job my father wanted to stop by some colleges, so I can see my options. My advisor back in New York at Suffolk County Community College told me about a school down here name Trident. I told my father to stop there first. Since it is October I can start applying for the upcoming spring semester in January. He wanted to do it right away just in case they needed additional information we might not have.
At Trident the campus seemed okay to me, everyone kept smiling and greeting us. Random strangers. I was kind of creeped out. My father laughed and said, “here in the south people are nice and friendly, it’s not like New York where people are always so mean looking.” The lady at the front desk gave us the admission forms, then she said to go to financial aid to see if I am eligible. We got to financial aid and found out that my father owed Suffolk College. I am pretty sure I withdrew from my classes, I couldn’t understand why that would be. The gentleman at the financial aid office explained’
“Mr. Wilson because your daughter withdrew from her classes in October and not during the week of add and drop period you have to pay off the remaining balance of the tuition at Suffolk. But the good news is this is a different state so she can start school here for the spring if she plans to take the placement test. If not your balance at the other school will affect you because she would need her transcript for the year she spent there.”
My Dad looked at me to see what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to take a placement test because I am scared I might fail and must take remedial classes, but I don’t want my Dad having to pay off the rest of the tuition money which is probably like $5000. He can’t afford to pay all that money he is just a Food Prep.
“How much is it that we owe the other college?”
“I’m sorry sir that I can’t disclose with you, I can’t see that information, but you can call the college if you wish to go that route and pay.”
“No! I will take the placement test when can I take it?”
“There is one in two weeks, Monday, November 12th. We have two scheduled for that day, there is one at 9am and one at 2pm. But I can’t sign you up for that you would have to go to room 302. They do that there. In the mean time you can start filling out your admissions papers while I enter your information for financial aid.”
“Thank you, Sir” My father said
“I didn’t get your name…” I said.
“Oh, my name is Joshua Smith, you can take my card if you have any more questions, you can call.”
We filled out the Financial Aid forms and Admissions, they had open enrollment for the Spring, so I was accepted. It’s a good thing we travelled with everything today. I thought to myself.
A few months went by and it was now a new year. Year 2015 to be exact. I loved working at Magnolias and I am super excited to start college again. I was happy when I got the good news that I passed the placement test. I was so relieved my father didn’t have to pay all that money. I start school in less than two weeks, so my father promised to go shopping with me after work.
The good thing about us working at the same place is we sometimes have the same schedule and we get to travel home together. My father had asked Roseann to have me work mostly the morning shifts, since he was a morning staff he could take me to and from work. The thing is here in Charleston there was no way of taking the bus or public transportation. I have never even seen a bus for the few months I’ve been here. On days when I work the night shift which starts at 4pm I would take a taxi to work because my father would just be getting off. Then after my shift is over at nights he would come and get me.
Today is my Dad’s day off work. I am working the morning shift, so it works out we can all go shopping together. Kizzy and Andre get out of school around 2pm. My Dad would pick them up from the school bus then come get me afterwards like we always would do on days when he’s off. But today my Dad was running extremely late. I kept calling his phone, but he wasn’t picking up. I got off work at 3pm and it is now 3:40pm and he still isn’t here. This is unlike him. I was outside waiting, and I got tired, so I went upstairs in the staff room. I just assumed he was stuck in traffic and his phone probably died so I decided to take a nap.
Around 4pm my phone started to ring. It was Andre calling I answered, and he said they’re outside. I went outside and got in the car, I was a little annoyed because I was waiting so long. Andre was sitting in the front seat with my Dad, so I sat in the back with Kizzy. My Dad phone kept on ringing, So I was even more annoyed to see it’s not dead.
“Omg really Dad? Your phone isn’t even dead you didn’t see me calling you?
“Kimmy today was a very busy day I had to service my car, so I grabbed the kids and went straight there. I saw your calls, but I was caught up doing a lot. I told Andre to call you, didn’t he? Said my Father
“I didn’t call her, but I sent a text.” Said Andre
I checked my phone for the text and I noticed he wasn’t lying but the text was sent when I was taking a nap. I calmed down. My Dad explained that he will stop by the house to meet his friend there.
“What friend? I know all your friends down here” I said
“One of the dishwashers that got fired a few weeks ago, he reached out asking for my help. We aren’t friends, but I know him he is just a kid like you he’s looking to make money, so I told him he could do some work around the house and I’ll pay him.”
We got to the house and the guy was waiting in the driveway. I know him, I remember his face, he was the dishwasher I asked for my Dad the first day I went to the restaurant. I didn’t know his name, but I heard my father called him Nick. Me and my siblings went inside the house leaving our Dad in the driveway with Nick.
Kizzy went inside her room to watch her Youtube videos on her tablet. I gave her my earphones because it was too loud. Andre started watching some soccer game on ESPN. I told them that our father won’t be long, and we are going shopping for my school stuffs. Ten minutes later Andre jumped up from the couch and peeped through the living room curtains, I was confused why he was doing that.
“What happened?” I asked
“You didn’t hear that? It sounded like gunshots. He said
There was a loud banging on our front door, so I peeped through the peep hole to see who it was. It was Nick, his face was so red which is strange because Nick has Ebony brown skin tone. We opened the door and he started crying;
“Richie! Richie! Richie!
My brother and I started to get worried, so we ran pass him and saw our father faced down in the grass a few feet from our driveway. There were a few people over him, my brother kept asking Nick what happened, but he was stuttering and crying while talking it was hard to understand him. I went over my father’s body and I couldn’t stop staring at the hole on the left side of his chest. It was red, but no blood was coming out. A white lady was talking to me asking if I knew him. All I remembered saying was “that is my father” She grabbed me away. I wasn’t crying, I wasn’t thinking, I stopped breathing, everything became a blur and I saw a white light.
I woke up in that same lady’s arm but there was an ambulance, police car and a fire truck. My brother was talking to the detectives.
“KIZZY???!!! KIZZYYYYYY??!!!! Where is my sister?? I screamed.
Andre and the detectives were trying to calm me down, the EMT working was trying to check up on me but I wasn’t having it. They explained that Kizzy is fine she is still in her room and she is unaware of what is going on. The detective started asking me questions after she was done with Andre.
“My name is Detective Moran, what is your name Ma’am, where is your mother? She asked
“My name is Kimberly Wilson; our mother lives in Jamaica we came to America in 2012 with our father all three of us.”
“Do you have any family member we can call? Your brother mentioned that your father moved here last year, and you guys lived in NY.”
“We lived with my father’s sister in Brentwood, New York. I just came down here in Charleston few months now. My father is a good man. WHYYY IS THIS HAPPENING TO US??
“Do you know who might have done this?
“Is my father alive? Is he? Why isn’t the ambulance moving? Why are they still here?
“I’m so sorry Kimberly your father…”
“Nooooooo!!!!!! Don’t say it pleaseeeeee??? He did this! He did!
“Who?” she asked
“Nick! he called my Dad he was with him he knows something”
The detective went over to Nick and started questioning him, his stories weren’t adding up he lied and said he went to the store and came back and saw my father like that. The neighbors confirmed that wasn’t true. They said Nick was in the driveway then a few minutes later a car pulled up and Nicki went over to the driver. A guy came out the car and was trying to rob my father. My father started to fight him off then the guy shot him. Nicki got scared and ran towards our house, the guy went in the car and drove off.
Thank goodness there are houses near us, so someone saw something. The detective arrested Nick and they placed me and my siblings in a hotel under protective care. I wasn’t sure what to tell Kizzy she is only six she wouldn’t understand even if I were to say something. I told her our father went to visit our family in NY and we are staying in this hotel because her school is on a winter recess. I lied because I couldn’t bring myself to say what really happened.
The detectives reached out to our aunt and family in New York. Because I am nineteen I was able to sign off on the legal investigation they were having. They were concerned about my siblings because Andre is sixteen and Kizzy is only six they wanted to know that they had someone to stay with.
The next morning a Social Worker came to check on us. She said our aunt will be down here in two days, she plans to come and get us.
What will our lives be like now with no father or mother? A question I keep asking myself.
