| Mama Bear | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 20 2017, 05:49 PM (129 Views) | |
| Tatum Momo'a | Sep 20 2017, 05:49 PM Post #1 |
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A fine sheen of sweat coated Tatum Momo’a’s golden brown skin as she tuned everything out but the Cardi B song playing through her wireless headphones and the burn in her thighs from the leg press machine. She knew better than to overdo it, had been cautioned against it enough that it was stuck in her head permanently, the day of a match. But she wanted to make sure her muscles were limber and warm when she stepped into the ring later that night. Nothing would be worse than stepping into the ring for the first time and getting a charlie horse. The commotion of the rest of the gym faded away until her ringtone broke through the chorus of Lick” and she startled, carefully completing the leg press and slipping off of the machine to dig her phone out of her gym bag. She frowned a little when she saw the picture of her brother Rev and daughter Ina on the screen. Rev didn’t call her during the day unless it was an emergency. He knew how dedicated she was to putting in everything she had during training. This was an opportunity that she wouldn’t be frivolous with. “What’s wrong?,” she said, by way of greeting, still a little winded as she answered the phone. “Nobody is hurt,” Rev answered quickly, knowing where you thoughts had immediately gone when his name had popped up on her caller ID in the middle of the day. “Well, Ina’s a little… she’s got her feelings hurt, Tate. If you’ve got a minute I think hearing your voice would calm her down a little bit better than I can.” Tatum frowned, dragging her towel along the back of her neck as she took a seat on an unused bench towards a quiet corner. “What happened?” She racked her brain for what could possibly have happened, going over everything she knew about Ina’s day to try to figure out what could have hurt her baby. It slowly began to dawn on her as Rev said, “The father-daughter dance the preschool did today… I got there around noon and it all seemed to be going well but I guess… after the parents left some kids were talking shit since Tate brought me and not… a dad.” Tatum sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to remember if children had been this cruel that young when she’d been Ina’s age. Sadly, she realized, they definitely had been. Maybe if they lived in one of the cities on the Big Island, Ina wouldn’t be the only fatherless child in her preschool. But as it was, in the little village they lived in, her family was the anomaly. The only other single mother in town was a woman whose husband had been killed in Afghanistan and that held a little bit more weight. Nobody was likely to say shit to her kid since his dad had died a war hero and the whole island had celebrated his life when he’d passed. Her, though… nobody in their village was what you’d call rich but class and all it’s undercurrents was still alive and well. She’d gotten the shit end of the stick when she was a child because her mother hadn’t been from Islands at all. Her mother was a black woman from the mainland who had fallen in love with her father while she’d been on a girl’s trip to the Big Island and they’d chosen to return to the small village her father had grown up in when they’d gotten pregnant with Rev. She was the only black woman on the Island that wasn’t just passing through and Ina couldn’t begin to imagine how isolating that had felt, though she had a little bit of an idea. “Let me talk to my monster,” she said, biting her lip when she heard Ina’s sniffly voice on the line. “M-mama,” she whimpered and Tatum’s free hand clenched into a fist. Hearing her little girl cry brought her inner mama bear roaring to the surface and she’d never wanted to punch a bunch of overgrown toddlers so badly in her life. As she soothed her daughter, reminding her of how much she was loved, her mind drifted to an unpleasant place. Rev had tried to warn her that this day was coming over the years, the day that it might be time to put aside her own pride and tell Ina’s father about her for the little girl’s sake. At least give him the option of knowing her. But she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to put aside her own desire to punch him in the teeth if he rejected her baby. It wasn’t about her… she had no interest in the man besides the fling they’d had four years ago. It had been fun and it should have been just a footnote to giggle over about her wilder days. But instead, while he’d likely forgotten all about her, she had no choice but to think of him nearly every day. Every single time she looked into her daughter’s face and caught a glimpse of those dimples that were all from him, the shade of her hazel eyes that were completely different than Tatum’s own honey colored irises. And her hell raising streak, Tatum had to concede, was probably a little bit of them both. “I wish you were here, mama,” Ina sobbed and it broke Tatum’s heart. Shattered it in her chest. Because in order to be here, to take this chance at being something more than she was, it meant she couldn’t be there. To comfort her sobbing child. When Ina had finally calmed down enough to hand the phone back to Rev, Tatum was grim with resignation. “I’m going to tell him,” she said, flatly. “I’ll ask him to meet me somewhere and just… tell him. I don’t know what’s best anymore, Rev,” she said, plaintively. And she didn’t. There was a strong chance she’d be doing more harm than good by opening that door up and inviting him into her child’s life. But… she had no way of knowing until she pulled the trigger. “Y’sure?” her brother asked, concern lacing his voice. “Do it somewhere public, got me? Just in case…” She wanted to laugh at the fact that her brother was concerned that this man would hurt her for… for what? For not having an abortion? For not telling him about his daughter for four years? In the same breath that wanted to laugh it off, she realized that she’d never truly known the man and hadn’t spoken to him in four years. Rev had a good point. Better safe than sorry, “I’ll do it at a restaurant. I’ll text you the name and time if he’ll agree to meet me.” She swallowed hard, “Look, I have to get back to training but uh… wish me luck, I guess.” She’d need all the luck in the world, she thought with a sigh, hoping against hope that she was making the right decision for Ina. |
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