Through Thick & Thin

Prologue I

Prologue

 

October, 2011 

The soles of my dingy Air Max’s made an imprint in the muddy after-rain slime as my ankles and legs moved to a pace I hadn’t even known was in me. The fear, the tears, the pain; it all pushed me further no matter how much of my heavy body weight wanted me to slow down.

At 5’3, weighing in at over 170 pounds, I was chubby, but that didn’t mean I was lazy. Sure, I ate my ass off, and I licked my finger tips clean when Big Mama threw down for Sunday dinner, but you better believe I was on the floor doing twenty five sit-ups before bed—but only on Sundays.

The rest of the week I was too busy with school work to think about exercising. As a senior in high school, I had more projects than I cared to count, but I got shit done. Seeing as Tina could give a fuck, I cooked and cleaned everyday but Sunday too.

Tina ‘JuJu’ Hill—that’s my mama. See, she wasn’t on no type of drugs or an alcoholic, she was just a bitter woman who didn’t have nobody because of it. However, my big brother, Kenu, that was her world. He was her first born and the one person that could put a smile on her face besides daddy.

I wasn’t mad, because I love my mama and she always gon’ be my mama, but I couldn’t stand her. She’d yell at me because she felt like it. It wasn’t my fault my daddy was dead. Dead since I was thirteen, which makes it four years now. He would’ve been so proud of me. I was on my way to being Valedictorian of my graduating class at Jefferson High School.

Or maybe not. Look at me. Here I am running my fat ass down Lakegrove street in nothing but my P.E. sweats and a camisole. I felt the straps falling down my caramel arms, but I didn’t stop to secure it on my shoulder.

It was close to seven in the evening, and I knew this sunset I was watching could very well be the last one I see, but I kept running. I couldn’t tell if I was crying anymore—the rain was coming down harder and with no protection, I was soaked. My embarrassing nude bra straps were twisted from the bootleg washer machine. It had a funny smell to it too, seeing as I put it on fresh out the washer this morning—mama took the plug from the dryer again.

I saw the unmistakable bold orange letters of Jay’s Auto Garage as I turned the corner, leading to the next road, almost tripping on a black grocery bag containing a glass bottle. I prayed Kenu was working today. I didn’t want to get my hopes up though, because Thing One and Thing Two were still behind me, and I could hear their heavy footsteps coming closer.

These two masked men, both dressed in all black, covering every inch of skin, would terrify anybody. My heart rate could tell you how scared shitless I was. But, at the same time, I wanted to roll my eyes at their cliché get-up.

Where the hell was anybody?

Their obscenities were audible despite the rainfall and I ignored the occasional fat bitch, and continued the race for my life.

Thirty minutes ago I left my house to pick up a jug of milk and a box of corn mill for the cornbread to go along with the baked chicken and turnip greens I had prepared to cook tonight.

If I would’ve known these men would be waiting for me to come out—alone of course—I would’ve said forget the cornbread and settled for toast. But no, here I was, running on numb feet. I didn’t even know these men, or what they could’ve wanted. I was a nobody and I only had one friend, which was my big brother Kenu.

As I run in the direction of Kenu’s job, I still can’t fathom the two men coming after me. The groceries, which were long gone now, weren’t worth it, and I damn sure couldn’t be their object of desire. What the hell did they want?

During this race that had been going on for a exactly eight minutes now, I managed to lose my sweater, groceries, and wallet.

I slowed down as fate disappointed me. The gates were over the double doors leading into the auto shop and the neon lights were switched off. I sighed, beginning to turn, when movement came into my peripheral vision.

Kenu.

I smiled looking at my handsome brother exit the side door of the shop, but it quickly faded as I heard a gun cock behind me.

With a quick head turn, I yelled to my brother who hadn’t noticed any of us yet.

“Nu, Run!”

I tried to warn him, but my track star brother was no match for the masked men’s identical bullets. You can’t cheat death, they say. They say the good die young, but why my brother, huh? What did he do other than care for his family? That bullet belonged to me.

“Fat bitch fell right into the trap,” The two chuckled, walking towards my brother’s lifeless twenty year old body before dark eyes met mine. They were dark enough to pass as black.

“These streets don’t love nobody, especially not no snitch.”

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