Jackson Jacob Henry Brown, III

By E.M. Keeton

When I woke up this morning, Mama showed me a picture of Grandma to memorize. I knew my mother would have kept me if she could; she had recently lost her job and the apartment we lived in. But Mama assured me it would be alright.

She told me, “Tell her your name is Jackson Jacob Henry Brown, III.” Then she handed me a Walmart bag full of my good clothes with my grandma’s picture in it, and a sack lunch Mama packed before we left. “You wait right here until your grandmother comes home and don’t let her go inside without.”

Those were the last words Mama told me before she walked around the hedges and out of my life. I wanted to chase her down, grab her legs and beg her to keep me; but once my mother made up her mind about something, nothing would change it.

I waited hungry and lonely; desperately hoping a woman I never met would have pity on me and keep me when no one else did.

• Language: English
• Publisher: E.M. Keeton
• Release date: Mar 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301075607

E.M. Keeton

Although I've been writing since I was sixteen, I hadn't thought seriously about being a published writer until recently-my skin wasn't thick enough. It's difficult for me to tie myself down to a particular genre. I enjoy all types of writing and generally everything that pops into my head will end up in a book at one time or another.

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1Jackson Jacob Henry Brown, III

By E. M. Keeton

Jackson Jacob Henry Brown, III

Ethel Keeton

Copyright 2013 by Ethel Keeton

Smashwords Edition

Prologue

Belinda eased down the bus steps. The bundle in her arms snuggled against the softness of her engorged breasts. She bit her full bottom lip, worried her mother wouldn’t allow her come back home, but she had to try. She had nowhere else to go.

She peeked inside the extra blue blanket the hospital candy striper had given her in the take home bag. This wasn’t the life she wanted for her baby, but it was what she had now. She trudged up to the house she hadn’t been to in over a year and a half. It had been that long since her mother insisted she find somewhere else to live.

Belinda raised her free hand to wipe the hair out of her eyes. Blinking back tears, she sucked in enough courage to do this final thing for her son.

What are you doing here? Her mother’s front door snatched open before Belinda had a chance to put two feet on the porch. She must’ve been sitting in the window watching the front walkway.

Mama, The tears she’d been holding in since she left the hospital burst forth. She cried for her son, she cried for herself and she cried for the second man who’d left her with a baby to raise.

Come on in here girl. Ain’t no point in giving the neighbors a show. Belinda’s mother hustled her into the house. Closing the door firmly behind her, she stared at Belinda until she could get herself together.

Well, sit down. Ain’t no use in just standing around. She reached behind her and grabbed the box of tissue she kept on the table beside the old blue sofa and held it out for her daughter.

Belinda’s mother sat in front of her wash basket and folding the pile of clothes she’d pulled from the dryer moments before she saw Belinda on the sidewalk. She waited, folding patiently until her only child could get herself together.

When she could, Belinda dried her tears and looked at her mother. And her mother looked back. She knew when she’d made the decision to keep this baby; she was going to need her mother, at least for a little while. But she also knew her mother wasn’t going to make it easy for her.

Mama... She started, took a deep breath and then started again. Mama, I need a little help.

What kind of help you need from me? Her mother curled her lips and folded her arms across her chest. Belinda turned away from the look in her mother’s eyes. She knew it would be difficult to get her mama to let her move back in, but she never expected open hostility. She decided to try another approach.

See my baby Mama? Belinda got up and knelt beside the folded towels. It’s a boy. She uncovered his head and held him up so her mother could see him. His name is Jackson, the Third. You have a grandson, Mama.

Her mother looked at the baby. Her hands were itching to take her grandson in her arms, but she wouldn’t, she couldn’t. The last time she did, the last time she held her grandson, her daughter just up and gave him away. She never saw James, her Jimmy, again.

She turned her head and hardened her heart. What do you want, Belinda?

I need somewhere to stay for a while until I can get myself together. Belinda decided she may as well come right out with it. With her mother, it was better to not make her wait for any explanations.

Why can’t you stay with his daddy? That’s where you been, ain’t it? She snatched another towel from the basket, roughly folded it before throwing it on top of the pile of neatly folded towels.

Belinda pulled her baby back against her breasts and stood up. I don’t know where he is. She moved and sat down on the sofa blinking back tears threatening to come again.

Really?

He left the day before we were to get out of the hospital. She fumbled with the blanket, covering and uncovering her son.

And it was a surprise I bet? She took a swallow of the half full jar of iced tea sitting on the flowered coaster on the old cheap coffee table she bought used when Belinda was a baby.

Mama, he isn’t like James. Jackson is a good man, he…

A good man? Belinda’s mother interrupted, raised her left eyebrow and frowned. Leaving you in the hospital with a new baby is a good man to you?

Well, no Mama. Something must’ve happened to him, he was always there for me. We were even planning on getting married. Belinda said the last part quietly; partly ashamed and partly fearful that Jackson, the second, was like James and she just hadn’t seen it. James had made no promises and Belinda hadn’t expected any. He hadn’t even come to the hospital. He’d never even seen the son he had fathered.

Just like the last one huh?

Yes…, no Mama. It wasn’t like that with Jackson. He took me places and bought me things. He was even going to help me get back in school after he finished college and the baby was older.

Umm hump.

Really Mama, Belinda stood up and placed her baby on the sofa towards the back. She paced the room and started biting her thumbnail. I don’t know what happened. We had a plan for our future together. She started crying again.

These tears softened her mother’s heart. It wasn’t like she didn’t know what it was like to really trust a man and he not come through for her. Belinda’s father had been a Jackson in the beginning, but had turned into a James after four month old Belinda kept crying through the night. Belinda must have really loved this one to have fallen for the same game twice.

Alright, Belinda, Her mother consented. You can stay here for six months. But you find a way to take care of that baby, if you plan to keep it past tomorrow.

Thank you Mama, Belinda ran to her mother to hug her, but her mother pulled out of her arms, gathered her folded clothes, walked into her bedroom and closed the door. She vowed silently to have nothing to do with this baby. It would hurt too much to lose him when Belinda decided to give him away too.

Chapter 1

Before Mama walked away she said, Your grandma will be home before dark. You wait right here until she comes and don’t let her go inside without you. Then she hugged and kissed me before disappearing around the corner back to the bus stop.

I wanted to chase her down, hug her legs, and beg her to keep me; but it wouldn’t have done any good. Once Mama made up her mind something was for the best, there was no changing it. So I sat on Grandma’s porch watching as Mama walked around the hedges and out of my life.

Mama said Grandma would be home before dark, but it had been getting dark a long time now; and Grandma still wasn’t here. Some of the kids my size, that had been running up and down the sidewalk and playing with toys, had gone in long ago. I didn’t go play when they were out, even when one of the boys kept calling me over from across the street. I had to wait right here for my Grandma, Mama said.

The street was just about deserted.

A car would pass every now and then, but mostly only the older middle school and high school kids were still moving around. At least they looked the size of the middle school and high school kids in my old neighborhood.

I stood up, slowly stretching my back and legs. I’d been sitting in that one spot so long it seemed like my spine was starting to lose its natural curve. My behind had gone numb an hour ago, but I’d been too afraid to move in case I missed my grandma.

I walked stiffly out to the end of the sidewalk to get my blood flowing. I looked up the street one way and down the other. Still no sign of the woman Mama assured me would allow me to live with her.

My father’s mother.

I’d only seen her in the picture Mama gave me this morning just before she dropped me off.

On the trip over on the city bus, Mama made me study the picture until she was certain I’d be able to recognize my grandma when she got here.

Maybe she came while I was sleeping, I thought.

I whipped around and raced back up the steps on the porch to check the door again. Anyone watching would have thought I’d just been called inside as well.

Naw, still locked like it was this morning.

I turned back towards the steps dejected. My head drooped so low my chin touched my blue t-shirt. I sank back down to sit on the top concrete step of the little white house.

The house looked old. The paint was chipping from all around it, from the top to the bottom. It didn’t look very big on the outside, but it had to be bigger than anything me and Mama ever lived in. Mama said, Your grandma lived in this same house for over thirty years.

That’s why she was certain she was still here.

This was the house my daddy grew up in and now I was here to grow up in it too.

Maybe.

I bent my knees up to my chest before lowering my feet to the next step. I folded my arms across my stomach for a moment before laying them on top of my knees. I took one hopeful look out towards the street before lowering my forehead onto my folded arms.

It felt like all the loneliness I felt being without Mama was trying to ease its way out of my insides, but I was trying to hold it in. I couldn’t stop that little drop sliding out from my left eye, but I stopped the rest. I couldn’t stop even one drop of my thinking though.

When Mama woke me up this morning, she sat beside me on my sofa bed next to a clean pile if my good clothes and started folding and putting them in a plastic Walmart bag. Then she said, I can’t take care of you anymore so you have to go to your daddy’s mama. We’re going to give them a chance to take care of you for a while.

I sat up straight, hopeful, but scared. We haven’t seen my daddy for ten years. How’s he gonna know me?

A man’ll know his own son even if he doesn’t want to help support him. She never looked me in my eyes all while she talked. She just kept folding and packing.

All I could do was nod, since I didn’t know anything about those things. We left the apartment for the last time after that.

She said a long time before then, she had stopped waiting on any help from them anyway. So I didn’t know what I was doing here now. I lifted my head putting my chin on my arms. I didn’t have any other family, just my daddy and his mama. My daddy never did anything for me, Mama said, but get me started. This was their chance to do their part now that Mama couldn’t, I guess.

I could hear the older kids still playing and turned my head to watch. There were a lot of kids on this street. I raised my head completely, straining to see. There were some really big kids shooting basketball in front of one of the larger houses further down the street.

With my stomach sinking deep into my back and growling, it was hard to concentrate.

I bent over clutching my aching bubbling stomach again. My head was starting to hurt from being so hungry. I’d finished the sack of food Mama packed for me hours ago. It hadn’t been enough to last this long anyway, two peanut butter sandwiches, a small bag of crunchy Cheetos and a Snickers with Almonds.

She didn’t pack me a drink. She said if I got thirsty I could turn on Grandma’s outside faucet and drink from the hose if she had one. That was my mama though. She gave me what she could and expected me to get the rest or do without.

It’d been like that since I could remember--which much wasn’t since I was just ten. I would be eleven in a few more months. I knew my mama loved me; she would’ve kept me if she could.

Things just got