I said, “Mom, I understand your concerns, but this isn’t your issue anymore. Juanita’s making her own decisions for her own life. She’s approaching thirty now.”

“I don’t care how old she is. You think she’s not gonna ask me to babysit?”

I started smiling. My mother had a point. My wayward sister was about to make her life more complicated as well.

“Better you than me,” I joked.

“Well, how come you don’t have any children, Terrance?” she asked me. “You’re past thirty now.”

I had explained it all to my mother before, but it didn’t hurt to remind her. Restating my policy was good as a reminder to myself.

“Because I make sure to choose women who are as free as I am, and who like their freedom. So they’re all using contraceptives, birth control, and any other method short of signing a legal contract not to get pregnant. Not to mention me protecting myself from them.

“I’m not trying to be a rolling stone,” I explained to my mother. “I like being an unattached wheel. So when I roll, I roll smoothly.”

“What about that Andrea girl? Did she agree to this policy?”

I knew that was coming. Andrea was the one who had gotten the closest to everything dear to me. She had even gotten around my family members.

I said, “Well, that’s why we’re not together anymore. She was ready to be serious and I wasn’t.”

“Mmm,” my mother grunted. “Well, at least you’re not out here screwing up somebody’s life like so many of these other guys are.”

Screwing up somebody’s life. I had said that myself about some guys, including Jayson Walker, who had snatched Andrea away. But I had to rethink that issue for a minute. Could a man actually screw up a woman’s life without her participation in it? No; no more than a man could change a woman’s life for the better without her giving him an opportunity to. Truth was, a lot of women had themselves to blame. They chose who they chose for whatever reason, and then they were forced to deal with the consequences.

I said, “Well, I hate to cut this conversation short, but I have a lot of other phone calls to return, Mom. And I already know that calling Juanita will be nothing more than in vain.”

“Well, you call her anyway. Do it for me,” my mother demanded. “You never know when one last phone call may do the trick.”

I shook my head against the phone. Do it for my mother. She always got me to do something for her. Nevertheless, she had my loyalty. She was the one woman in my life who could always have her way with me—to a certain degree. So I agreed to it.

“Okay, Mom. I’ll call her just for you. But please don’t expect any miracles.”

“I sure will,” she joked back to me. “I’ve already been praying for it. You’re my only hope now.”