ONE DAY(UNFINISHED)

Khalia Newson was born in Augusta, Georgia. July 7, 1988, on a hot summer day, was the first time her mother saw her beautiful face. Even though she was premature—born three weeks earlier than expected—she was the most beautiful thing her mother, Regina, had ever seen in her life. Khalia’s gather was of course not in the picture; few fathers in the neighborhood were. It was the usual case of a high-school fling. As a child, Regina often dreamt of having a wonderful family—obedient kids and a loving husband. It was too late for that now. She felt as if her whole life was gone in an instant. After Khalia’s birth, Regina moved to Atlanta so she could start over.

Over the next few years of Khalia’s life, Regina tried her best to play the role of both a mother and a father. Even though they fell on hard times, she always seemed to make it through. Khalia was eight years old and began to ask questions. She was in the third grade at Rockmore Elementary and had plenty of friends. Her best friends were Alysson, Khia, and Janelle-the loudmouth. They were sitting outside enjoying lunch on a bright March day.
“You gone eat yo’ cookies?” Janelle yelled.
“No and why you so loud?” said Alysson back
The group of girls never understood why she was always so loud, and ignorant at that. Alysson was a smooth, caramel-skinned girl with long, wavy hair. She took much pride in her appearance and sometimes bragged about it. She added, “Cuz my daddy says that sweets will break out my beautiful skin.” The girls then began discussing their fathers. My daddy is handsome. My daddy is strong. My daddy is funny. It went on almost the entire lunch break, until Khalia finally blurted out, “Can we please stop talking ‘bout this?”
“Why?” they asked in unison.
“Cuz she ain’t got no daddy!” Janelle yelled rudely, without thinking. Surprisingly, Khalia did not cry. She just got up from the table, discarded her tray, and went to her locker. She was hurt, but didn’t let it show. She was a strong girl and often held her feelings inside, which her mother believed would end up hurting her in the long run. After what happened, the rest of the day went by slowly. Finally, she thought as the hand landed on the 12. It was finally 3 o’clock. Not wanting to talk to her friends about what happened, she hurried out to the school bus. She rode the bust because Regina didn’t get off work until four. Her house wasn’t that far from the school; she just didn’t see the purpose of walking when she could ride the bus. Khalia went all the way to the back of the bus and glanced out the window. She noticed two kids being picked up from school by their father, which only made her feel worse. She saw how happy they were and wished that for at least one second she could switch places with them. Her friends spotted her in the back and quietly approached. “Can I sit here?” her dark-skinned friend Khia asked. “Sure,” she responded as she turned away. “Look, I’m sorry!” Janelle said loudly, attracting attention form the entire bus. “I didn’t mean to say that, I wasn’t thinking.” “Yeah, as usual,” Khia added in. A smile spread across Khalia’s face. She was always entertained by Khia’s quick-witted comments. “Yeah, OK,” Khalia said, as if she had to. The girls then started up a conversation and forgetting about what happened, Khalia joined right in.
Later that night, while her mother was cooking, Khalia decided to ask her about her father. She hopped up on the countertop. “Mommy?” Khalia said curiously. “Yes sweetheart?” Regina answered. Khalia loved it when she called her sweetheart, it made her feel special.
“Do I have a daddy?”
“Of course, sweetheart.”
“Where is he?” The phone rang and Regina went to go answer it. Khalia’s question went unanswered. Regina was relieved that the phone rang at the time it did. After about five minutes, Regina returned to the kitchen and continued cooking, hoping that Khalia had forgotten about the conversation.
“Sooo…” Khalia said.
“So, what?”
“Where is he?”
“We’ll talk about this another time, it’s very complicated.” Khalia hopped down from the counter and stormed off, mad that she had gotten no answers. he rest of the week seemed to go by slowly. Khalia seemed to forget about her problems. All she could seem to think about was Friday. She always looked forward to Friday because that was the day of the week when her and her mother spent the most time together. Regina didn’t work on Fridays, giving her time to spend with her daughter. She would always surprise Khalia by not telling her where they were going. Khalia loved it; each Friday was more exciting than the last. Khalia hurried home after school that Friday. Since it was a warm, pretty day, she decided to walk home, which was a little faster than riding the bus anyway. When she arrived home she searched all over the house for her mother. “Mom!” she yelled. She stood in the living room and listened as her voice echoed throughout the house. She then frowned, realizing that no one was home. She began to worry. “Mom is always home, I wonder what happened,” she thought to herself. She sat on the couch and waited. Hours passed. Khalia fell asleep, waiting on her mother. When she woke up it was already 8:30. She continued to wait, like a worried mother waiting for her child. At 8:45 she heard the door to her mother’s black Mustang shut. “She’s finally home!” she thought. She heard laughter as her mother approached the front door. Surprisingly she heard the laughter of two people. “I wonder who it could be,” she thought to herself, puzzled. The door slowly opened and her mother stepped inside. The mysterious person remained behind the door. “Sweetheart, I’d like for you to meet someone,” she said as if she was having trouble getting the words out. A tall, very well-built, brown-skinned man, who appeared to be in his early 20’s, slowly stepped from behind the door. “Hey, you must be Aaliyah?” he said nicely. "It's Khalia," she said as if she was smugly, as she turned and ran up the stairs.
“She’s shy,” her mother lied, hoping that he would forgive her daughter’s rudeness, “I’ll be right back.” She disappeared up the steps. She opened Khalia’s bedroom door and stepped inside. “Mommy, why did you not come home, we was s’posed to go out together,” Khalia said, crying. “Sorry baby, I should have called. I thought you were going over Khia’s house,” she said as Khalia sniffled and wiped her face. “Are you mad at me?” Regina asked in a little kid’s voice.
“No mommy,” she said laughing, “Well who is he?” she asked as if something was wrong with him.
“He’s one of mommy’s coworkers, his name is Alex. He just wanted to take me out to dinner, I should have told you...but isn’t he cute?’
“Ewww, no!” she said, obviously still not that interested in boys.
“How about you and me go wherever you want tomorrow?”
“Ok.”
Khalia walked up and hugged her mother.
“Now go clean your face and come downstairs…and be NICE!”

As the night went on Khalia began to like Alex. He was very fun and very interesting.



Four years passed and they all became closer. Alex seems as if he would make a perfect father. Alex and Regina often talked about marriage, but were never serious. It was the summer after seventh grade Khalia was happy. Even though her and Khalia had just started getting closer, Regina began to spend less and less time at home. Regina spent all her time working or with Alex. She had even gotten Khalia a babysitter. The babysitter was very old and very boring. Khalia would often go up to her room and write in her diary. She loved to write.

‘July 2, 2001,

Dear Diary,

Guess what? My birthday is in 5 days. I’m gonna be 13. So far everything has been ok. Momma doesn’t stay at home a whole lot no more. I try to look at the bright side, at least now I have a father. Like I’ve said before, he’s really nice. Oh yea, momma and Alex are finally getting married. He finally got her a ring. Its very pretty, and BIG!!! I hope when I get married I have a big ring like that. But anyway, there’s this boy who moved in across the street named Micah. He’s very cute and he’s cool too. We goin’ swimming tomorrow. I just got me a cute, new bathing suit. I finally got a two piece. Its really cute. Well, I gotta go. Momma is home. Peace!
Khalia’

Khalia counted the days as they passed, waiting for her birthday. It had finally come. She was thirteen. She felt as if she was finally a teenager. She had a nice party at Golden Glide. It was so fun. She was excited because over 25 of her friends came. Afterwards, Khalia had a sleep over just for the girls. They stayed up half of the night, talking about boys. She had received a lot of great gifts. Gift cards to Best Buy, Old Navy, and Target, a Game Boy, the Special Edition Bow Wow CD, a couple of outfits, some shoes, and a new bike. She was so happy. The whole day had been perfect, and news that Alex was moving in, only made it better. The wedding wouldn’t be until late August, but he was planning to move into the house in a week.

The day had finally come and Alex was moving some of his things in. Not wanting to be in the way, Khalia called her girls to see if they wanted to go to the park. They decided to go get some ice-cream instead. As they walked into Dairy Queen, Khalia noticed Micah sitting in a corner booth with some friends. She acted as if she didn’t see him. Khalia and her friends didn’t see him. Khalia and her friends bought