Brooklyn James

Chapter Nineteen

“Stupid piece of shit!” I cursed angrily over the sound of the loud rain pouring just outside of the car. Alysia had assisted that I take her car while her, Desmond and little Dez went on a family vacation down south. The piece of shit had finally clunked out. And there I was stuck in the pouring rain. Despite all the begging I did for years, Alysia never gave up the car. She had spent her own hard working money on it and didn’t want to let it go. I guess that saying was true; you really do appreciate shit more if you have to pay for it. Desmond refused for her to go anywhere with little Dez in the car, afraid that she’d be driving one day and it broke down. Well now he had no worries about his son being stranded in the middle of the highway because the bitch had went out on me. No, not on a regular sunny day where I wouldn’t have mind walking, it died on the worse storms I’d seen in a couple of years. Streets were flooded, power lines and trees were down all over the city, and we were under a tornado warning. The young lady that was supposed to have come in to relieve me had come in two hours late. I could’ve beaten the storm. 

It was only two in the evening, but the dark clouds that lurked outside made it seem like it was almost six hours later. A loud clap of thunder had me jumping out of my seat and ready to piss my pants. I had a love hate relationship with bad weather. No matter how old I had gotten, a terrible storm knocked fear into me like a freighted child, but calmed me down like a mother’s touch. 

“This has got to be one of the most fucked up ways to die,” I mumbled to myself. “Shit you’d see on 1000 ways to die.” All I could picture was the flood rising high enough to sweep the car all the way out to the ocean where I’d eventually die from drowning because I could only swim for so long. Of course I could have avoided everything if hadn’t tried to take a shortcut home and ended up driving the piece of shit through two feet deep water covering the street; should’ve kept my ass on the highway. I was positive that the water had gotten all under her hood and killed everything that made a car run. 

 “Alysia please be back home,” I mumbled. It only rung twice before I heard the familiar voice coming through the phone. 

“Hello.”

“Come save me please.” There was silence before laughter flowed from the speaker, 

“What?”

“Girl, where are you,” I asked. 

“Still in Atlanta, what’s up?”

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong? Do you need me to do something for you?” Concern was evident in her voice. 

“Your raggedy ass car broke down, and I think it’s down for the count this time.” I told her.

“You broke my fuckin car Brooklyn?” She sounded irritated. 

“This shit was already broke. Your black ass kept tryna put duck-tape on it when you just needed to get rid of it.” I could imagine her rolling her eyes. “Well look, you ain’t no help right now and I need to get out this storm,”

“Well call me when you make it back to the house. I’ll see if I could get a tow truck to pick my baby up,”

“Girl, leave this piece of shit out here.” She sucked her teeth.

“Whateva, call me when you make it in.” After saying good-bye I wasted the next five minutes calling every number in my phone of the people that had cars. Not many of them did, and the ones that did weren’t answering their phone. Once again scrolling through the contacts, I got down to Xavier’s name. 

“Shit,” I muttered, "I think I’d rather walk.” Calling him for help was the hardest thing I had to do. But then again, sitting in the car and doing nothing while the world was coming to an end outside was also pretty damn hard.