Raising Raja

Happy Birthday Raja(Chapter 1)

Gun shots rang out through the humid night air in south Dallas. The bullets whizzing by Deon's head as she ran full speed between some vacant houses in a familiar neighborhood. The sun was just beginning to set and all she could think was she had to make it to see it rise again. She knew the area like the back of her hand since that's where she had been living since she moved to Texas from St Louis back when she was 10. She could hear the engine of the vehicle of her assailants revving up and getting closer. She ran two more blocks and b-lined into her old street where she grew up. A cross body bag clung to her back, she secured it tighter with one hand holding on to her protruding belly with the other. When she spotted, the vacant house she grew up in she cleared the metal fence and ran around back. She kicked in the boarded up window climbed in and laid on the floor by the window and tried to calm her breathing. She heard the car speed pass and could hear the men yelling out for her until the voices became faint. She felt relief ...until, she heard the knob on the back door turn. She reached in her bag for her pistol, cluthching it tight and pointing it toward the door, her hand shaking and palms sweaty. The door cracked a little and she heard a voice speak out.

"I don't know who the fuck it is in here but you got 10 seconds to get yo crack head ass out my house or I'ma turn ya funky ass into Swiss cheese up in this muhfucka."

She lowered the gun.

"Bishop!?" the door flung open

"Kat...is that you!?

" The older portly man asked.

She laughed still out of breath

"yeah Bishop it's me."

A little light crept in and he could see her a bit better.

He hurriedly sat by her side snatching the pistol from her hand.

She moaned in agony.

"What's wrong!? Is it the baby?"

she shook her head no and grabbed the fresh flesh wound on her arm below her shoulder.

"Mutha fuckas got me Bish."

He grabbed the pistol and stood up looking to the door he cocked it back and walked toward the door looking out it angrily.

"No Bishop don't...just don't leave me. We'll worry about them later."

He lowered the gun and walked back over to her.

"Kat what the fuck you done got yo self into now gal!?" He called her Kat because he said she had the face of a sweet kitten when she was little, he had been calling her that ever since and so had everyone else.

"You know me." She laughed then shrugged and let out another moan.

"C'mon we gotta get you to a hospital."

"No they may be waiting for me there."

"Kat aint you like 8 months pregnant. Why in god's name would you still be doing crazy shit like this, you gotta quit this now baby...you're about to be a mother."

"I'm due any day now...and I did this for my baby Bishop."

"Yeah whatever, you need to get to a doctor."

She looked down at the wound. "They just grazed me Unc I'm fine."

Bishop was her father's best friend. Her father was murdered back in St Louis when she was 9 and her mother packed them up to start a new life in Texas. Bishop had made a promise to her father he would take care of them so he packed up and left as well and helped raise Deon until her mother passed of breast Cancer when she was 12. He was there he bought and moved into the house but Deon had been on her own taking care of herself for the most part... she was tough. She was a survivor and a hustler naturally, like her father...Bishop would tell her sometimes she made him feel like she didn't need him, she would reply "I don't...but I want you around" their bond was strong and close.