“Cherie said the two men looked like
O’Page.” Daddy Peaceful spoke to his
daughter’s back. “Wide.”
“What’s that suppose to mean?” Jasmine
reached into one of Nana-Lily’s pots,
took out a chicken finger and bit into it.
“We just trying to think about who
would want to hurt us. Or O’Page.
Or who’d think we have ten thousand
dollars.”
She sat at the table and took his hand.
“Hope they not too scared.”
“I do too, baby. But we’ll get them
back.” He cupped her hand in his two.
“Creator didn’bring us this far to let
something bad happen to us.”
“But something bad did happen to us.”
“Creator doesn’keep you out a trouble,
baby, he gets you out a trouble.”
“That laptop I gave you still in the
closet?” She sat up straight. “I can get
on the Net and send out a sos.” She
stood up. “Where’s Mom?”
Jasmine left Daddy Peaceful alone in
the kitchen and went into the
livingroom. In a moment he just barely
heard her say, “Don’cry, Mom. We’ll
put out a message on the Net and in a
hour we’ll have thousands o people
looking for them.”
Daddy Peaceful looked at the ransom
note again. 10000 paid. In all the
movies and tv shows he had seen in his
life, he had never seen a note like that.
Don’tell us how to pay or where to
leave the money or say to wait by the
phone. And over two hours since
they took them they hasn’phoned yet.
No instructions. More like a receipt.
Bombom sounded the front door.
Daddy Peaceful got up and started
down the hall. “I’ll get it. I’ll tell him.”
He undid the two locks and opened
the door. “O’Page. My son.”
BRN-FALL-2012.indb 11
O’Page filled the doorway, his
omnipresent tool belt glinting in the
light behind him. Raising his
daughters, Daddy Peaceful always told
them that he did not mind not having
sons because if he raised them right,
they would pick good men for
husbands, choosing his sons for him.
However good husbands had not
materialized. Daddy Peaceful
discovered that while he had done his
best to raise good women, very few
people had spent their time trying to
raise good men. Young men did not
want to commit to a woman anymore.
Over the years he had watched his
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