Chapter 11

After a few moments, Devon’s phone buzzed. The front of the message read: MOMMA.

He clicked open the phone. There was a message from Momma.

The message was clear. He clicked shut the phone.

“You gave brought shame and ‘disrespct’…” he mouthed the word, pronouncing it like ‘diss-ree-speck.’

He leaned back in his chair, squeezing his eyes shut.

“My god, Neveah…someone ought to teach you how to spell.”

Clearly it was Neveah’s work. Momma, the educated woman that she, never used slang or mistyped. Ever. All it took was a simple comparison of Momma’s older messages to see the difference. She may have given up on her own children’s slang, but Momma stood firm against that linguistic tide.

Did Neveah not notice how her own mother wrote? Did she not care?

Key in this was the “u”—that was a young person’s affectation. Devon even used it sometimes. Neveah used it constantly. But Momma? Never.

Putting the two texts together only made it more obvious.

MOMMA: Love you always Devon-Devilcake