Laundromat Blues 1

Ruined Bliss

Any way i hopped in his Chevy and he pulled off.

"Babe, how is Mama King gettin to church? I don't want her to drive in this kinda weather." i said.

"Ms. Phillips' son is pickin her up in the church van." he replied.

"Oh, ok." i said. He grabbed my hand and intertwined our fingers.

"Your hand is so warm." i said, rubbin it with my cold ones.

"My lips are warm too." he said, lookin at me with a seductive smile. He pulled up to a stop light and i said, "Can i see for myself?" and bit my lip. He leaned towards me and our lips met. He was tellin the truth. His lips were more than warm, they were on fire, or at least that's how it felt. He pulled away and smiled.

"Told you." he said.

"You sure did." 

He pulled away from the stop light and continued down the street. I spotted an ambulance up ahead and all of a sudden, police cars rushed passed us. Traffic flow became heavy and it was impossible to get around it all.

"I wonder what's goin on up there." said Kurtis.

"I don't know but whatever it is, it must be pretty bad." i replied. About 20 mins later we got closer to the scene.

What happened next went in slow motion....

|NO ONE'S P.O.V.| 

Kurtis slammed on the brakes and couldn't believe his eyes. His grandmother lay on the ground in a pool of her own blood. Tears poured from his eyes like they were broken dams. He opened the door and ran/pushed through the crowd surrounding the scene. Rita watched in horror as her love, fell to the ground, pain seared all over his face, and hugged the frail, lifeless body lying on the blood soaked ground. His happy demeanor was a passing memory as he screamed and shouted for somebody to do something, to make the first woman who loved him unconditionally, take one more breath. Policemen and paramedics tried and tried to make him let go but that only resulted in punches being thrown. Rita sucked in her gut and got out of the car. She walked to her hurt, broken, love and wrapped her arms around him. He repeated to her, over and over, "She's not gone. She's not gone. She's not gone," while his tears forced their way down his clenched jaw.

"Baby....... let go. She's.......... with God now." said Rita, choking back tears. Deep in her heart, she too was hurt. Mama King had been like her mother figure after her parents died. Rita loved her as if they were family.

"No!!..... I can't. I can't." he said as he hugged the body tighter, and cried harder.

"Sir, im so sorry for your loss, but......... we have to take her now." said a policeman. 

 "Get the Fuck away from me, man!" he yelled, never wanting to let go.

"Kurtis.......... baby, let go." said Rita.

Slowly but surely, he began to loosen his hold on the body of the woman who raised him......

Kurtis was born into the world in the worse way....... unwanted. His mother, a selfish, foul heroin-addicted, hooker, once sold him to her pimp and dealer, a man named Percy, for collateral. The day of his birth, his mother was in the mist of servicing a trick. Her water broke and the trick thought that she was just especially wet down there, when in actuality, she was in labor. When her contractions started, she kept going through the pain, just so that she could receive her pay for another heroin transaction. It wasn't until Kurtis's head began to crown that she took herself, by bus, to the nearest hospital. Kurtis was two seconds from being born on a dirty, city bus. She waddled into emergency screaming, "Get this muthafucka out of me!!". When it came time to name him she said, "I don't give a Fuck!! Name it Bastard for all i care!!" A young nurse took pity on the un-loved, un-wanted, prematurely born infant and decided to name him, Kurtis, after her own father. The next day the mother left the hospital.......... without her newborn, in fear of being caught by police for arrest warrants. She was so selfish that Kurtis's well-being never crossed her mind. She was estranged from her family so no one even knew she was pregnant. Somehow, word got around that Kurtis was born and it traveled to her mother, Eve King, or better known as, Mama King. She took in the infant and raised him as her own, ever since he was 3 weeks old. Kurtis grew up a resentful child, always into trouble and mischief. By the age of 13 he had been to juvie twice and lost his virginity. By the age of 15 he had already entered the drug game and was making a name for himself. When he discovered that some women will do anything for money, he made up his mind that all women were money-hungry, self-absorbed, whores that didn't deserve so much as a dirty penny. His life became self-indulgence and arrogance. If it didn't benefit him, he didn't care. The only ray of sunshine in his life was the woman that loved him past his faults and flaws, Mama King. But now.......... she's gone.