She sat in her window again, wondering what would happen to her. She knew what jail was, people were always going to jail in the projects. moms, dads, sisters, brothers, uncles, cousins, she thought about her going to jail, she didn’t know what to expect, she was kid. She wished Twee hadn’t said what she did. She didn’t even know why she did what she did. She just knew that being scared wasn’t what she was suppose to do when it was another kid. grown ups scared her, at night grown ups scared her really bad. she got out the window. She thought about bringing twee down with the brick,other kids always wanted to pick on her cause she was so small. When she showed fear to her brothers they would put the smack down her on. She was scared of what twee would do to her when she came back to the building, she was stopped in her thoughts as police sirens sounded really close, she start noticing people walking/running towards the tracks, she knew they had found twee. She knew they would come for her soon. She got out of the window and went inside. She looked around the scarcely furnished apartment and figured she may not miss anything about the place. except the food. She went to the room that she shared with her siblings. She looked in the pile of clothes on the floor, she picked out some jeans and another shirt, she hurried into the bathroom to change as there was some blood on her shirt still, she was reveling in courage to stand up to the girl that was going to beat her up and was known for beating up people all the time, she was sure in the decision and she was ready for the cops if they came and took her away. She could hear the commotion from in the bathroom, it was her sister, Rosita, she was telling her mom and boyfriend what was going down by the tracks, she crept out the bathroom to listen.
and ma, they found her beaten up bad, Rosita said breathlessly.
is she okay, my mom asked
I don’t know, when I left they were putting her in the ambulance.
poor child, who would do something like that to her, her mom must be sick.
she was crying so hard, Rosita said, just kept saying she was going to get the mutherfucker that hurt her child.
ROSITIA! don’t be cursing up in my damn house like you grown
sorry ma, I was just telling you what she said.
my mama spotted me watching them.
hey honey, sorry you had to hear about your friend like that.
she wasn’t my friend, I answered
oh, I thought I seen y’all playing rope a time or two.
nope, not me, she was mean and like to beat people up, maybe who did it was trying to get her not to beat them up.
don’t say shit like that, no child deserves what happen to that child. if something like that happened to you I would be furious, lurley snapped out
it won’t happen to me. other things happen to me ma, honey answered somberly
which made her mama stop and stare into her face seriously, what things happen to you honey? she asked slowly
this was my chance to tell her, to come clean, but the words, came back, tell anyone and I will kill your sister and it won’t be me, it will be someone else I know, cause I can make it happen.
nothing ma, nothing happens to me. I’m going outside.
no you not, go watch TV or something, stay inside
earlier you told me to go outside, now I have to stay inside, honey responded.
yes, do what I say, and stop talking back to me little girl, where are your brothers?
I don’t know.
the commotion got loud outside, she ran to the window, from the second floor she had a good view of the court yard and people milling about, talking about what happened at the tracks
she wasn’t waking up, some one said
she was bloody, like she was hit with something
who was she with, one person asked
she came to my house looking for a rope, someone said
honey jumped out the window as she heard this, she thought back to where they had went to look for a rope, she recall going to Ms.Hadley house, but she didn’t go in the hallway only twee did, maybe she didn’t see her, maybe she did see her. She went back to the window, she honed in Ms. Hadley conversation, trying to hear everything.
girl, I don’t know who did that, but she was a bad ass little girl always fighting people, maybe she picked on the wrong person, Ms. Hadley told the other woman and man she was standing with, honey recognized them, but didn’t know their names
and you right her friend answered, that girl was something else; bad as kid to be a girl, her mama had her hands full with that one.
why are you saying was and had, they didn’t say she was dead, Trisha, Ms. Hadley said
well, I don’t know what she is, I guess we will find out later.
I guess, want to start a card game tonight, Ms. Hadley was asking as they walked away from under the window.
Honey, got out the window again and thought about what happened. I beat up twee a girl who is known to be unbeatable. well I showed her, her courage tripled, let the cops come, no one talks to the cops in the project.
It was night, she stayed up as late as she could to see if anyone would talk about twee again and she wasn’t disappointed, her sister Letty had all the information. Twee had not woke up yet, her face was smashed up pretty good, they didn’t know what would happen, but the cops had been in the projects all day asking questions and trying to figure out what happened. a question was even threw her way, she felt confident that she had answered correctly because no one spoke to her again about it.
They had dinner as always, sitting where ever they could fit, in front of the tv. Honey was proud of herself and wanted to reward herself by watching IT by herself, but that wasn’t happening, her sister Tammy and brother Brosch came into the living room.
Tammy raced to say what she had to say, she talked pretty fast so you had to really pay attention or you would miss something.
well, Twee woke up and can’t remember anything.
really, honey piped in,
shut up, nobody aint’ talking to you ugly.
you shut up, I can ask
no you can’t, it aint none of your business, I was talking to lurly and pick.
so,
anyways, her ma came home to get some clothes and I talked to her brother and he said, his mom can’t talk about it, that she just keeps crying. Her brother said that she opened her eyes, but haven’t talked yet.
Honey walked out on their conversation, she was going to bed while everyone was still sleep and that way she can think about what to do tomorrow.
Middle of the night, she felt the hands on her shoulder, the whisper came, I know you not sleeping, turn around, she squeezed her eyes tighter, so you going to do it like that, the whisper said, remember what I said about your sister, if you don’t turn around I will beat her tomorrow. she squeezed her legs tighter and her eyes, she silently died inside again, she was shaking and wanted him to go away, but she knew it wouldn’t stop, she made twee not hit her, maybe she can make him go away too, but how, he was a grown up to her. she was a weakling. she was stupid, she was a cry baby. she would let him do it to protect her sister, who hated her. because she knew he gave her mom money and her sisters money and brought them things to not give a shit about what he was doing to her. she didn’t know it was wrong per se, she knew she didn’t like it and hated him to her core. she dreamed of him being in main in one of the movies she watched, he was her monster. he went away. she couldn’t sleep. She got out of bed crept to the door and watch him go into her sister room. what if she could just burn that room up with them in it. Then she would be safe, she kept thinking of all the horrible things she could do to him. She wanted to run away right then and there, but where would she go. She went back to bed. No cops came for her. She plotted ways to get rid of the person she hated the most in the world, knowing with certainty that he would be back. She did not sleep with the innocence of how a child should sleep, feeling protected and safe, but with disdain and hate filling up her core until it will be all she would know.
Short Stories