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I jumped in the driver seat, put my seat belt on, and shot out of the driveway. Shae directed me the whole ride to Trip’s mama’s house. Of course, when we pulled up, there weren’t any cars in the parking lot. How grown ass people would think that it’s okay to just leave a fuckin’ little girl in a garage as if she was a stray dog was beyond me. I swear, some women aren’t worthy enough to let cum be dropped off inside of them. Instead, they were better off swallowing it because then they bring the children into this world and make fucked up choices where the child has to be the one to pay for it.
“Wait right here. I’m going to knock,” I said, although there weren’t any cars in the driveway.
The home had a one car garage, and there was a chance that her car could have been in the garage. We weren’t in a good area. I knew that for a fact, so I made sure that Jashae locked the doors when I got out. For five minutes straight, I banged and kicked on this fuckin’ door, and no one ever came to answer it. I wasn’t even all that mad because I had a feeling that this would happen. I headed back to the car, and for about a minute, neither Shae nor I said anything.
“We can try Liberty Square. Krystal was living there the same time that I was living there back in the day. Maybe she still lives over there, or someone there may know her,” Jashae suggested.
Instead of saying anything, I just headed in that direction. Liberty Square was our childhood. That’s where I moved to when I met Trip and Jashae. Trip’s mother’s house wasn’t that far from it because within five minutes, I pulled the car into the old, rundown apartment homes. Looking in the rearview mirror, I could see that the little girl in the backseat had woken up. I watched her body language, and it screamed so many things, but the biggest scream of them all was fear.
Jashae must have peeped that I was looking at her because she eventually turned around in her seat, and she looked in the back.
“Is this where you live?” Jashae asked her. It took her a little minute to answer Shae, but when she did, she just shrugged.
“Come on. We’re going to find out,” Jashae said and opened the passenger side door.
I shut the car off and got out as well then watched as Shae helped the little girl out of the backseat, holding onto her tiny hand. It was the first time that I actually saw her attire, and all I could say was that her mama needed her ass beat for even having her child out here looking like this. I mean this with absolutely no disrespect, but it looked like Shae had literally picked this little girl up from the streets. I had to eventually stop looking because that shit was just pissing me the fuck off.
“Does any of this look familiar to you, Maya? Do you live here?” Shae asked.
“Myyy… myyy… Naa… Nana.” She pointed with her small finger to an apartment that wasn’t too far from where we were standing.
I immediately picked up on her stuttering when she opened up her mouth to talk. I can’t even lie, that shit kind of pulled at my heart because I could see her struggle to force out the words to properly answer Shae’s question. I remember being in middle school, and this boy who took a few classes with me used to stutter really badly. The kids picked on him every chance they got, and seeing how scared and timid she just was to talk, I wondered if she was being bullied because of her speech, even though she was so young.
My eyes eventually left them and wandered around to what was happening in front of me. This shit looked exactly the same as it did years ago when I lived there. Niggas were posted on the walls selling dope. Dice games were going on, little kids were running outside barefoot, and the majority of the people were outside sitting on their balcony.
This was why I always made sure to give back to the hood any chance that I got; just for these people to have some kind of hope. Every year before the first day of school, I pulled up in a U-Haul truck with nothing but bookbags, shoes, supplies, and everything else that these kids would need to have a successful school year.
I shook my head at some of the shit that I saw, and I was glad that Shae and Maya weren’t looking at what was happening on the sides of the buildings that we just passed because there was a fuckin’ crackhead sucking in the corner. More than likely, that was her way of paying for her drug of choice.
“That’s your nana?” Shae asked Maya once we arrived at an apartment where I swear it had to have been more than thirty people standing outside by the back door.
The nana that Shae was asking Maya about didn’t look like your average grandma. You know, the ones who actually looked like they could be your nana instead of your young ass mama? If this was Maya’s grandma for real, she looked young as hell. She was sitting down in a chair, with a grown ass man between her legs, as she braided his hair. A blunt dangled from her mouth, and she had a bottle of Hennessy between her legs, which I watched her take a swig out of as we approached.
“Miami! Can we get a picture with you?”
Damn near five grown ass men walked up to me, phones out, ready to get a picture, but I wasn’t on that right now. I thought because I had my hat so low on my head that people wouldn’t have been able to spot me, but I was wrong.
“Not right now. I’m busy” I said, but it wasn’t in a rude way.
Not sure if they respected what I said, or they just simply didn’t give a fuck that they couldn’t take a picture with me, but they just eventually walked away.
“No! No! No! I don’t know who you are, but don’t drop that little girl off with me! It’s a church down the street where you can leave her ass right there on that fuckin’ step, but she can’t come here! Her funky ass mama brought her ass over here a few days ago and talked to me like I didn’t push her ass out of my coochie, so no, I’m not doing no favors for that bitch! If your plan was to drop her her off, circle back because I don’t want her,” the woman who Maya referred to as her nana yelled.
I wanted to take my gun out and pistol whip her dumb ass for saying that stupid shit in front of this little ass girl.
“Do you know where Krystal is then? Listen, I don’t want to be in this mess, as much as you don’t want to be in it, but she was dropped off at my job a few hours ago, and I’m just trying to return her to some type of family. Where is your daughter?” Jashae asked. I could hear it in her voice that she was annoyed by this entire thing.
“I don’t know where the fuck Krystal is! A few days ago, when she brought her ass over here, she was asking me if I could permanently keep Maya because she was planning to move to Atlanta to dance, so Atlanta is my best bet. Look, Krystal don’t give a fuck about this little girl. I guess she thought having a baby by that jail bird was going to change something. I love Maya, but I can’t keep her. I’m living in a two-bedroom apartment, with four of my grown ass kids and three of my grandchildren in here with me. Drop her ass off at the church, but I don’t want her,” she carried on.
Maya stood there next to Jashae, as if none of this shit fazed her. As if she was so fuckin’ used to people disclaiming her.
“Yo, let’s go!” I said to Jashae because if that stupid bitch kept on talking, I couldn’t promise what I was going to do with my hands or what was going to come out of my mouth for that matter.
I could tell by the look in Jashae’s eyes that it was so much more that she wanted to say, but she dropped it. When we got back in the car, I swear we were right back to square one. The doors were closed, and it was just the three of us. Out of nowhere, Jashae just burst out crying. I pulled down on my long chin hair and released a sigh.
“Why you crying, Jashae?” I asked.
She quickly wiped her face and then shook her head no, as if it was nothing.
