"I'M GOING TO THE CORNER STORE MA! LOVE YOU!" I close the front door behind me and the night breeze hits me like a slap in the face. I zip up my jacket. I rarely went out at night because of the bad things that were bound to happen but this time I had to so that I could have something to eat in the morning before school. Also, my mom wanted a kit-kat and whatever she wants, she gets. I'd do anything to get her the little breakable candy.
She's my everything. Since birth, I've been attached. Every day we'd take strolls to the park as the sun shined down on us and when I was younger, my mom would smile up at it.
"Mommy, why are you smiling at the sun?" I once asked her at four years old.
"Because it rises for us every day, when we're happy and when we're sad. It never turns its back on us, even when we turn our back on it." I look up at her with my big brown eyes and she taps my nose. "And it gives me the vitamin D I need to maintain this pretty coco skin." She holds her arms out with a smile and I look at them before holding my arms out too.
"Do I have pretty coco skin too?'
She looks at me lovingly. "You do."
I started smiling at the sun too after that. I'd greet the sun and give it a farewell as it set.
We stopped taking those strolls the day after my ninth birthday. After the incident.
We didn't live in the best area when it came to Chicago and after the accident, I begin to see that. Before, all I saw were the good things in life when it came to the outside world. Now, all I see is the cracked and ragged sidewalks, beat-up and spray-painted buildings, and the no-good people who roamed the streets.
I approached the corner store and the bell dinged.
"Wassup, Mr.Colby," I greet the store owner. He was an elder. "How are you?"
He smiles. "Oh, I'm just dandy."
I nod at his response and make my way to the back where the freezers were.
"How's school going for you?" He asks.
"Pretty good. I'm trying to do the best for my mom." I scan the jugs of milk before grabbing the best-looking one.
I hear him hum. "You're a good kid."
I grab a random stick of donuts before going back to the front. "That's all I want to be. I want to make her proud." I set the things on the counter and grab two kit-kat bars from the candy section below me. He begins to scan my things and I look around while I wait. I peep the 'help wanted' sign on the clear glass separating us and instantly smirk. "Soo..." I begin, "you need help? Where can I apply?"
He shakes his head in disapproval.
"But, whyyy," I groan. "I want to start making some money."
"If it were the day shift that we needed help then I'd give it to you. But, you know I don't want you working the night shift."
"I'll be fine. I can literally sit here and make money."
"No, crazy's come in here and it's too dangerous. You know that."
"I'll take the extra precautions, I just want some money."
"Can't do. Sorry."
I roll my eyes and grab a pack of gum before opening it and taking a piece.
"Put this on my tab too."
He shakes his head at me in disappointment. "It's on me, child."
I smile and slip the pack into my pocket. "Don't worry about putting the milk in the bag, I'll carry it."
"Alright then. Hurry back home. I'll see you soon."
"Bye!" I walk out smacking on that gum like it's nobody's business and begin my journey home. It's only a five-minute walk so it's not long.
The good thing about the hoodlums here is that they don't holler at every girl that walks by. You'll hear them talking about getting paper before they hyped up the fact that a girl with a nice behind just walked by.
"Aye, shawty."
I spoke too soon.
I keep walking. "Aye, shawty," they say again, "word on the street somebody from 63rd on our block and they gone shoot it up."
I slow up at this and turn around to look at the dude. He was in an alley and looked tense as he continuously peeped around the corner.
"Come here." He ushers me with his hand. He looked serious and kinda panicked. But, I don't move. I'm not stupid. Who willingly goes with someone, let alone a dude in an alleyway?
One of my closest friends from school popped into my mind.
"Girl, if somebody from our block ever warns you about an enemy being on the way, they serious." Her head bobbed up and down as she talked and her eyes were wide. "That's why that girl got killed, 'cause she thought that dude was tryna rape her and guess what? Somebody from 63rd shot him up and get this. They snatched her up and killed her too!"
This made me reconsider his gesture. But, then my mom's words popped into my head.
"Go to the store and come right back. If anybody tries to talk to you don't talk back. Keep walking like you don't hear them, okay? I don't want anything to happen to you."
She was talking to nine-year-old me.
"Aye, girl. We don't got long."
What do I do? I think about it.
Well...I'm obviously gonna put my mom's words over my friends.
So, that's what I did.
"Nah. I'm good. I'm heading home anyway." As soon as I turned around a gun went off.
"Oh, shoot!"
Gunshots begin to ring out and my first instinct was to run. But, I couldn't run. I was frozen in place. Why?
There was a liquid oozing from my chest and I look down. It was blood.
I got shot.
My grip on the jug of milk weakens and it drops before bursting open. The dude who tried to warn me runs pass and his shoulder bumps mine. The impact sends me flying to the ground and that's when I feel the pain. I groan as my face presses into the cold pavement. Shots were still going off but my hearing was fading out.
My vision blurred and the last thing I saw was the open milk spilling next to me.
I said I'd do anything to get my mom a Kit-Kat but I didn't think getting shot would be one of them.
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