The Power of Love

April 15, 1976

April 15, 1976

"I'm so sick of this between you two, and you know what? So is your mother," I practically yelled, "This is the worst fight you two have ever had, and it's ridiculous! It needs to stop, and it's gonna stop now. You two are acting like little kids, and it's pathetic. You're grown adults, act like it."

Keith and Keilah hadn't said a word to each other since their argument at the funeral. The two wouldn't speak to each other, and they sure didn't want to see each other. Mrs. Mathews and I had both seen them separately since January and they were fine, but when we mentioned one sibling to the other in some way, they'd immediately change the subject with some sort of dumb question or statement. Quite frankly, it had frustrated me and annoyed me and aggravated me. I knew the same went for Mrs. Mathews cause she had actually told me when I went to pick up KJ from her house once.

Mrs. Mathews and I had devised a plan to at least get them together in the same room- and it had worked. It wasn't hard to get Keith to walk to the living room, so that was done and taken care of. To get Keilah to come to the house, I had to call her. Over the phone when I called her, I told her that I had to do something in the house and that I was home alone, but I was way too uncomfortable to be doing anything and that I had struggled to get to the phone.

It wasn't a complete lie what I told her. I definitely wasn't home alone, but Keith was in the shower, so he didn't hear. But when I had told Keilah that I was really uncomfortable, that wasn't a lie. And I had been that way for the majority of the week, and a few times I was even in pain, but it wasn't unusual. The only good thing about it was that it kinda sounded more convincing.

Plus, going through the whole plan, Mrs. Mathews said they might be more cooperative with an uncomfortable and hormonal pregnant woman. I had a feeling she was right.

"You two are goin' to act like adults, sit here and work this out," I ordered, "And I don't care how long it takes you two to do it."

"What 'bout pickin' up KJ from preschool?" Keith asked, trying to find a loophole, "Or how we're supposed to meet up with everyone for Steve's birthday today?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you? Evie rescheduled it for this weekend due to scheduling problems, so that's not a problem. And KJ has a playdate with Mariah at the Curtis', remember? So Marilyn and Darry are picking him up."

"What if neither of us agree to doin' this?" Keilah challenged, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You could try arguing with me, but at the moment, you'd probably lose this one. The other option is that I call your mom and she'll make you two apologize to each other," I answered and shrugged nonchalantly, "So you two have a choice. One: you sit here and work it out before you apologize to each other so you two have a mutual understanding, or I call your mom who's not even gonna give the chance to talk and just force you two to apologize. Your choice."

The two siblings looked at each other before looking back at me. "Fine," they both mumbled.

I smiled. "Good. Now, I'm gonna go lie down while you two talk. If I hear anything I don't want to, I'm coming in here. And right now, with how I'm feeling, you two don't want that. Understood?" The two nodded and I left the room.

I walked to the bedroom and to the bed. I left the bedroom door open, that way I could hear the two talking. I would've heard them talking anyway since I had hid a brand new baby monitor in the living room while I had the other one, but they didn't know that. I took out the one baby monitor from the drawer in my bedside table and placed it on top of it next to the lamp so I had easy access to it,, then leaned back and tried to get into a comfortable position.