I hated to walk. You'd think that by me walking fourteen blocks there and another fourteen blocks back everyday that I would be skinny. Hell no. Doesn't work like that for my plus size ass. Everyday I woke up at six and walked those forty minutes to get to Main street. Sadly the buses didn't run on this side of town. The people here in Chambers, VA didn't give a damn who or what they robbed. The poverty had gotten so bad most of the towns shops had closed up and boarded up their windows. They stopped the buses coming through here about three years ago. That didn't stop the crack heads though.
I was born here and practically knew all of the local crackheads. My older brother Mario was a dealer and even though my mother knew she couldn't object. Our house was in the back of the hood on a dead end street. And even though I consider this whole area a hood it was a lot better than what I could have been around. We lived in a two story torn up house that was use to be blue but now had leaves and moss growing up the sides. The doors creaked so loud and the porch had a hole so big in it I could see the critters playing spades underneath. I always tried not to look. My mom worked an hour and a half away and even though she was a good mother she still struggled to make ends meet. So Mario helped with his drug money but forced me to go to school. He'd always say, " You have to get out of here little sis. This place aint a place for you. Sometimes I use to think you were born to the wrong family."
Mario was never home and when he was, I always tried to leave him be. Most of the time it was just so that he could sleep and then he'd hop in the shower and get back out in these streets. No matter how many times I tried to get him to get on the right track it never worked. One thing he always did since we didn't have a father is make sure that home was taken care of.
My momma didn't struggle quite so much anymore but she still worked everyday. As long as he was in the streets though I don't think she could quite rest and that's why she worked so hard. He wasn't a king pin or ahead of a mass operation or anything. He just hustled to keep us a float. He name held weight though and anytime I ran across any problems while going home or going to school I'd just say his name if they didn't know me and everyone would leave me alone. I'd heard of my brothers reputation and he was old school where fists still talk and blood still ran. These few young kids out here in the streets knew even if they came after him with guns or after us there would be retaliation. As my brother would say, " They wanna see my gun smoke sis."
I tried to rush this morning making sure to pack all my books and notebooks. I wouldn't, no that's a weak word, I couldn't let them down. They made sure I had money in my pocket to get back and forth to school in Thant, VA everyday. They made sure I had all my clothes and all the food money I needed. Luckily, I had received scholarships so my entire education was being taken care of as long as I remained above a C average. I had even started taking four classes at a time. Since I didn't have any friends I couldn't tell anyone about my struggles, couldn't tell anyone about the pressure that my family put on me unwillingly, and I couldn't take a vacation. I was going to succeed but it just seemed like it was taking forever.
It was cold this morning as I jumped off the porch and landed on the concrete. I zipped up my floral jacket jacket and pulled my backpack on my back. Let me get this day started I thought, as I quickly started to walk towards the train station. Normally I would cut across a few vacant properties and walk down a few streets listening to music on my phone. But today was a little different. As soon as Big Sean' Get my shit together, was going off, I heard noises and loud thumps. Hesitantly I removed my earphones and ran up to the side of a old worn down brick house. It wasn't dark outside this early in the morning actually quite the opposite. It was pretty normal to walk past people getting beat up. Normally I would continue to walk and mind my own business like I didn't see anything. But for some reason today just wasn't my day.
I peered around the corner and watched the fully tattooed back of a white dude flexing. He was extending his arm back to throw another punch. There were two black dudes standing off to the side smoking. They just watched and kept on smoking.
"Where my fucking money at Ty?" The white dude asked.
"I said I was gonna give it to you Pac, I-I don't have it right now. Mike and Bobby nem stole my money. I told Pack and Rob nem and they said they was gone tell you," the man named Ty stumbled out. He face was all beat up, his left eye swollen and cut up and his lip started to swell.
Pac let go of his shirt and looked up to the dudes smoking and said," Find Roe and Charlie. And get Ty to the truck." I hadn't even noticed the all black Escalade parked right behind them. He stood up straight and his back flexed again. Turning around he showed off a nice clean six pack with a little orangish hair right on his chest, snatched his white beater off the hood of the truck and threw it on. The blood from Ty's face smeared across the front of it and I could see that his knuckles looked beat up a little bit. One of the men dragged Ty to the side of the truck where I couldn't see them any longer. Pac's phone rang. "When you find Mike and Bobby I want them sent to the warehouse. Grab them, put a bag over their heads, string them upside down, and call me. These niggas gone know not to take from me." He shoved the phone in his pocket.
I really looked at him good. He had a red beard that was shaped down. Tattoos covered his arms, back and quite possibly his whole body besides his head. He had a low red fade but it was spiked a little in the top. He wasn't large but he wasn't skinny either and seemed to be made up of pure muscle. His face was cold but his green eyes held some evils behind them. He simply looked like a guy I needed to stay away from.
I thought about it for a second. Mike and Bobby were some crazy twins that did deals with my brother. They were actually like his best friends in a way. I decided that I hadn't seen anything and that I needed to hurry up and get to my bus so that I could get to school. Just as I started to put my earphones in my ear and walk off past them (trying to act like I didn't see anything), a hand covered my mouth and pulled me against a squishy body. I panicked and started to kick, swinging my arms and tried to scream. My eyes almost popped out of my sockets and I could feel my heart speed up suddenly.
"Where you think you going sweets?" Something wet touched on my ear and I realized it was a tongue. I started to squirm, still kicking, swinging my arms and stomping on his foot. He didn't budge.
"A Pac! What you want me to do with sweets over here?" Pac turned around and looked at me, just as I looked at him, he was a little surprised. He walked over towards us.
"What did she hear?" His voice calm but those eyes never leaving mine.
"Everything I think. She was just standing here and shit", sounding way to happy to have done something, the slushy dude said.
"Who is she?" His eyes started to look me from head to toe. I closed my eyes. I was going to have a panic attack and fat asses hands were so stanky and he had them on my mouth! I thought I'd puke. Ugh!
"Mario Thompson's little sister. She normally don't bother no body bruh, but she knows Mike and Bobby. They friends with him. She could tell them we looking for them, she could tip them off." He licked at my ear again and I cringed. Still trying to elbow his stank breathe ass. I hated to be touched by anyone and this fat man thought he could lick me to! Just wait until I got my hands free.
"Stop that shit Mace, its nasty. Put her in the back with Ty. I'm gone take her with me." I popped my eyes back open and stared at him in horror. He had a smirk on his face.
I bit down on fat asses fingers and he let me go. I wanted to throw up from the taste in my mouth. I turned around. "My name is Vase you fat fuck, and if you put you hands on my face again I'll cut your ass up in to pieces." I turned and looked at the tatted man. "I didn't hear anything I'm just going to school."
Fat ass grabbed me by my hair and drew his hand back. I started hitting and kicking at him, but a pair of strong hands wrapped around my waist.
"Let her go NOW! And if you don't stop moving little momma I'ma tie yo ass up." Mace let my hair go and I tried pulling it back up in a pony tail.
"Just wait fat ass, I got cho ass. Pulling hair is a bitch move." Pac snickered and started pushing me back towards the truck as I kept looking at the fat nasty slob that just had me. His white shirt was too small and greasy, he had a five o'clock shadow and looked like he needed a bath. His hair was nappy as hell and needed to be cut. Pants wrapped at his knees with a belt, and his shorts up to his waist. "Yo stanking ass." He smiled at me and I noticed the yellow teeth first and then the black marks all over them.
"You can take the girl out the hood but you can't take the hood out the girl Mace, remember that." Pac threw me in the back seat of his truck and made sure I was strapped in. The young man Ty lay in the back seat with a blindfold and his arms and legs bound up in a grey telephone cord with duct tape on his mouth . I put my head back against the seat and closed my eyes. Lord don't let me die today I silently prayed.