The Hood Will NEVER Love You (HDLY#3)

epilogue

The kid looked up at the building in construction. It was still in the scaffold stage of construction but you could tell automatically what it was going to be. It was going to be another sleazy low down for lowlifes and decrypted men to ogle women at then go home and beat or rape their girlfriends or wives later or complete stranger.

The young teenager knew all about these places. He used to pass by them all the time on his way to school or home to see drunken men stumbling out and looking for prey. He knew what places like this represented: despair.

The young man used to hear all the stripper tales when he was younger about why females choose that profession. Some ladies like to use the words like 'I'm being independent' or 'I'm using this to pay for some sort of schooling or support my children.' His youthful ears heard all of those excuses just sitting on the stoop of his project building or in the grocery stores while they use their WIC checks to pay for their food and necessities.

The youngster had watched his father get up every day sometimes sick as a dog to make sure they had a roof over their heads. He saw his mother break her back every day making sure ends were met and he had food in his tummy because she didn't want to be the government's bitch like some many other females were so happy to be.

He looked upon his family with pride even seeing all the chaos around them. The teen was content with living in hardship because he had a strong family structure.

Then the most horrific thing happen.

An incident so traumatic it changed his family and his life forever.

He felt the top of his forehead as he recalled that terrible night in his mind. The night that separated his family and made him turn from the soft and kind hearted boy to the cold and troublesome boy he was becoming.

But he wasn't there in front of the building to reminisce about bad times and how cheap women make their money, he was there to get someone. He was there to get someone he heard was a regular at this place. Not exactly the place but the alley behind it.

He happened to glanced down at a front page of a newspaper that been separated somehow and was now beneath his feet.

'Notorious Kingpin has been caught!' the front page article read along with picture insert of man lowering his head as he was being dragged off by federal agents in SWAT gear.

The kid scuffed. "Won't be the last."

The youth heard fumbling behind the building and he knew right then his information was right. He was at the right place.

He looked to his left and sure enough a man wearing a yellow stained white shirt and some dingy slacks emerged from behind the building fixing the zipper of his pants.

The man looked at the youngster in dismay and then went on his way.

The teen balled his fist as if he wanted to hit the man but he let the guy pass. The youth could smell the hard liquor coming out of the pores of the dingy gentleman as he passed.

The teenager stayed his ground after the man left and keep looking to see who else was coming from behind the building. He didn't have to wait long. But what came from building almost brought him to tears that fast.

"Momma," was all he could muster as a tear dripped past his cheek.

He ran to the estranged woman wearing a dirty house coat, stained sundress and torn stockings with no shoes. The woman looked at him and smiled her toothless smile and the youngster broke down and cried and hugged her.