Run

Thou shalt not bear false witness...

Murphy

With anger weighing in heavy throughout my entire body, I held a tight grip on the steering wheel of my Crown Victoria car. Tuning out the light cries of my distraught daughter, who was in the passenger's seat, I kept my eyes on the road ahead of me. This child was getting in the way of my job with her foolishness; having to cut into yet another investigation due to her idiocy. Making me look like I don't know how to take care of home, if it's not one of my colleagues telling me that they saw her in a resident downtown, it's her getting shot in the thigh and now this bullshit, she almost got herself murdered. Everything that has happened with this child happened downtown. I can't even stomach to look at her, she can't be a child of mine.

After a while of driving through the sleeping city, amongst subtle sobs and tires sounding against the broken up road, I pulled into the driveway of my home. I parked behind my wife's car, turned the car off and got out without saying a single word to my daughter. As I walked up the few stairs of the porch, I heard the door open and close. Without gazing behind me, I went ahead with unlocking the door. Holding the door open, I gestured for my daughter to walk in first, so my wife who was sitting on the couch could see her beaten child.

Gazing at the sight of her, a look of worry washed across my wife's face as she brought her right hand and covered her mouth. Standing from the couch, she rushed over and embraced Tahari into a tight hug. As Tahari cried into her chest, my wife rubbed her back up and down as I closed and locked the door behind me.

"Tahari what happened to you, I woke up and you weren't here. Where were you?", she queried before slightly breaking the hug and proceeded with gazing at her scratched face which had dirt and grime amongst it. She gazed at me. "What happened to her Murphy?", my worried wife queried as she examined a crying Tahari closely.

I sighed out of frustration due to the thought of my daughter's poor decisions. "I'll tell you what your child did. She almost got herself killed, that's what she did. I don't know what type of double life this little girl is living but I found her downtown. Four little niggas and a little girl was about to kill her. Me and a few others were already seeing about a homicide but then I get a call about 5 people attacking a young woman, not thinking that the young woman was my daughter. The gun went off and she was almost shot in her face.", I said becoming more upset. "You need to do something with your daughter, she is only changing for the worst. All she does is lie and trot her fast ass around the city", I said and with that Tahari gazed at me with furrowed eyebrows as the tears continued to stream down her face.

"I'm not out here being fast nor am I changing for the worst. You're putting the blame on me because I was attacked?", she continued.

"You were attacked because you've been going downtown messing around with drug dealers, being fast in the ass. Just like Briana, you thought you were slick but your school called us and informed us about the altercation that happened between you and Briana. That's how things end up when you're in these streets doing shit you have no business doing. It went from you hopping in and out of different guys cars, to your grades slipping, to you getting shot and look at you now. You are an embarrassment to me and I am ashamed to call you my daughter", I spat.

Gazing at me, looking for any sort of regret in my eyes, Tahari gazed down for a moment before walking away and making her way up the stairs to her bedroom.

Gazing at me with the harshest gaze that shot venom, my wife spoke. "How dare you speak to our daughter like that, my daughter...", she said in an indignant tone before placing her hand on her hip. "Despite where she has been and what she has done, she is still your child, Murphy and how did she embarrass you, huh? I know she has been making some poor decisions but you know what, it could be because of something she is lacking and that is love from her father, you. When she got shot, we could've lost our biggest blessing and even when we were sure that she was alright, you left afterwards and didn't come back to see her but you made sure to tend to your job and make sure your colleagues questioned her. You are so consumed into your job that you don't even realize nor do you know that she feels that you don't even love her let alone like her. Whatever it is that is pushing her towards that side of town, it's because of you. You are pushing our child away with your obsession of solving every case concerning every Tom, Dick and Harry but when it comes to her, it's pushed aside. If something happens to her and take my child, like you said, if something happens to her, if she gets taken away from me, don't come crying to me. Love her and cherish her while she's still here.", she said as a tear slid down her right cheek.