“Hello?” my sister answered on a short ring.

“What are you, sitting right next to the phone?” I teased her.

“Oh, Terrance, thanks for calling me back.”

She sounded excited to hear from me for a change. That made me curious as to what she wanted.

I said, “You wouldn’t believe who I bumped into out here in Chicago tonight.”

Juanita paused. “You didn’t bring up anything about the pregnancy, did you? Please don’t tell me you did that.”

I said, “Well, that’s the only thing that really mattered to me out here.”

“So you did ask her?”

“Not directly, no.”

“What do you mean, not directly?”

“Other people were around when I spoke to her. So I had to bring it up, you know, under code.”

I said, “Now you know I was gonna talk to her about that eventually. It was only a matter of time until I caught up with her.”

Juanita changed the subject. “Anyway, you know I don’t usually ask you for anything, but this month I went a little over on my checkbook, and I have a couple of outstanding bills I need to take care of. So I was wondering if I could borrow two thousand dollars from you for a month.”

I had given Juanita money a few times before, but she had never asked for much. However, I was skeptical of this whole “borrow” term she was using. That made me feel like she had something up her sleeve.

I said, “Don’t you have other bills to pay after this? How are you gonna give me back two thousand dollars next month? You plan on hitting the lottery?”

Juanita worked as a manager at a department store, which only meant she was a little more responsible and had been working there longer than the other employees. But being the manager did not mean that she made that much more in income. At least not as a floor manager. So paying me back an extra two thousand dollars in a month was out of the question, unless she had money coming in from other sources.

“Okay, well, I need your help with things this month then,” she stated.

I shook my head in my hotel room. Juanita must have really been in a bind, because she had to know what I was thinking. If she couldn’t handle her checkbook now, what in the world did she expect to do as a single woman with a child?

I said, “You can see where this is going, can’t you? I mean, you’re intelligent enough to see where you’re headed.”

“Look, either you’re gonna help me or you’re not. Nothing else has anything to do with this,” she snapped at me.

I said, “Well, do I have the right to say no, that’s all I want to know?”

I wanted to establish the relationship to my sister and her unborn child in advance.

“If that’s what you want to do, then just say the word,” she told me.