Something Noble Read Free Page B

says. “Damn, girl, your face takes me back. You miss me or somethin’?”
    â€œNot hardly,” I say.
    â€œWhat are you doing here? I ain’t seen you in years.”
    â€œIt’s about Dre,” I say. “Our son.”
    Terrell looks confused for a moment. Like he doesn’t even remember Dre exists. Then he nods.
    â€œYou got any cigarettes?” he asks.
    I was ready for this. I remembered a friend of mine telling me that in prison cigarettes are like cash. She had a brother in the slammer, and he was always bugging her for smokes. So I brought Terrell a couple of packs. I didn’t think it was a great idea to put that poison in his body if he was going to give my son a kidney, but then I figured he’d been smoking right along anyway. A couple more packs wasn’t going to change anything.
    I give Terrell the cigarettes. He nods in appreciation and lights one up.
    â€œDre in trouble?”
    â€œYou could say that.”
    â€œJust like his old man.”
    â€œNo, he ain’t.” I say that a little too fast. I don’t want to make him mad. But old hurts die hard.
    â€œWhat’s up?”
    I don’t beat around the bush. I tell him straight out. Terrell listens without changing his expression. Then he’s quiet for a minute while he thinks.
    â€œI got this rare blood type?” he asks.
    â€œYeah, you do,” I say. “I remember these things.”
    â€œOkay,” he says.
    â€œOkay what?”
    â€œOkay, I’ll do it.”
    I’m so amazed I nearly fall off my seat.
    â€œJust like that?” I say. “No bargaining? No excuses? No trying to get out of it?”
    â€œHell, no. I ain’t like that no more,” says Terrell. “This my boy we’re talking about. Right?”
    â€œWell, it’s about time you thought of him as your son,” I say.
    â€œBesides,” Terrell goes on, “I heard about something like this. This one dude, he gave his brother a kidney. It got him out of the joint early. You score a lotta points with the parole board for somethin’ like that.”
    â€œYou mean—?”
    â€œI got another ten years in here,” says Terrell. “I’m buggin’. I can’t deal with it. My whole life is passin’ me by. Next month we all have to quit smoking. I’d give someone my head if it would get me out early. You tell my boy he can have my kidney. He can have both kidneys and my liver too. Just as long as it gets my ass outta here.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    A fter my visit to Terrell, I feel two different ways. I’m happy Dre is going to get a kidney. But I can’t believe Terrell’s main concern is for himself. He really feels nothing for his own son. How can that be?
    I guess it must be different for men. Dre didn’t come out of his body. And he didn’t watch him grow up. If he did, he would see him as a person. Not just a way of getting out of prison early.
    I decide to call the parole board and ask if it’s really true he can get out early for donating a kidney. They tell me there are no guarantees, but it would help Terrell’s case a lot. It would show he’s ready to start giving back to the world, instead of stealing from it. The way Terrell’s mind works has me spinning. He had this whole angle figured in two seconds. Dre is just a means to an end.
    It doesn’t matter. It’s not like we will owe him anything. We’ll both be getting something out of the deal.
    So I decide not to think about it anymore. And I also decide I’m not going to say anything to Dre about Terrell’s real reason for wanting to help. He doesn’t need to know. Let him think he has a father who cares. Let him feel for once like the world isn’t a completely cold and hard place.
    Dr. Wendell warned me that donating a kidney was complicated. Once we found a potential donor, he would have to do more tests to make sure it really