Seeing Red [✓]

xxii. pride and joy

Picket signs, police cars, chanting so loud it might have broken the glass on this car if it went just a pinch louder. The angry faces of black, yellow, brown, red men and women.

It has always bothered me that the only time we ever seemed together as a unified front of black people was when one of ours was gun down by one of them. We didn't do it when someone died at the hands of another black man or woman. We don't do it when one of ours have been raped, or some old man has taken advantage of the naiveté of our young daughters.

I have spent my time at the place I just set on fire writing about how we need to come together as black folk, not just when there is a murder, but to solve the problems of our community, but it almost always fell on deaf ears.

I waded my way through the forest of people, stuck together like vines, until I got to the front by the yellow tape that had encircled the area. On the opposite were the news crews, flying up above were news copters.

In the middle. Jesus. In the idle, there was Kenzie, seated on the floor, with Reece kneeling beside him. With. A. Gun. In. His. Face.

But something else was there. I couldn't see the full view, but I saw feet behind them both. Kenzie was blocking the upper body and Reece the mid-section.

I inhaled. I closed my eyes. And I repeated very, very carefully in my head: 'Our father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name...thy kingdom, they will be done'

I reopened my eyes. I was hoping Reece would have spotted me, but his eyes were stuck to the barrel staring him down.

"Kenneth!" I shouted, leaning over the yellow tape.

The both of them peered over. Reece's eyes melted and his smile quivered with what looked like a smile. Kenzie's eyes shook and his lips shook with what resembled a frown.

Reece turned his head toward the cops and shouted something. A name? A number? I couldn't hear from here.

But the cop was listening. He looked over at me and nodded. Then, he jogged as far around Kenzie as he could to get to where I was standing.

The chanting intensified when he came over. He looked physically shaken by the hatred that was swelling around him. He swallowed, his hands slightly shook as he raised the yellow tape for me to walk under and he had to clear his throat before speaking.

"We need you to move your brother, before we have to take matters in our own hands," he said. His voice still rattled. "We don't need any more casualties tonight. It would be best if this situation was defused without the rioting."

I was taller than him. He looked clearly frightened by that, but puffed out his chest as much as he could, kept his hat on, straightened his badge so I'd know who the authority was out here.

"You shot and killed one of ours – you shot and killed mine – and you're worried about a riot?" My voice tightened. "You should be on your knees begging God for taking a life that wasn't meant to be taken."

"I had nothing to do with it, sir," he replied. "The officer involved in the shooting has been transported away for his protection."

"If you think that will save him, you're more than wrong," I responded. "He can keep the shell he's going to rot inside, we don't want it."

"Will you assist us, mister?" he asked, clearly annoyed. He closed his eyes, and I was pretty sure he was rolling them.

I clenched my jaw. This was for Kenzie. And Reece.

I stalked over to where my brother, my "fiancé", and my...

My. My what?

Dennis's face slowly crawled into view, as I approached. Pale and lifeless, mouth half open, eyes not all the way closed. Blood had stopped streaming out of him, and had already dried on the ground where he was lying down. Bright and blazing red, the only thing that wasn't in black and white. I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood.