The Day the Streets Stood Still (2 page)

 

“You tryin'a play me, nigga? What I look like my name is? Where the fuck is the rest of my money!”

Sean's eyes popped open when he heard his mother screaming. He crept out of his bed and opened his bedroom door a crack. Even over the loud music blasting through their house, he could still hear her yelling.

“Oh, you think because I'm a bitch you can short me? A'ight, I got something for that ass,” his mother spat. Suddenly she was storming in Sean's direction. With his heart racing, Sean jumped back into his bed and pretended to be asleep. He knew if his mother caught him watching she would tear him up. When Sean heard her footsteps pass his bedroom again, he got back out the bed and cracked the door open again.

“A'ight . . . I'm a ask you one more time. Where is the rest of my fucking money?” his mother gritted. Sean's eyes grew wide when he saw his mother pointing a black handgun at the man cowering in front of her. His mother looked like one of Charlie's Angels standing there dressed in a pair of sexy cutoff jean shorts, a gold tank top with no bra underneath and a pair of gold stilettos, holding her gun out in front of her with her shoulders locked like a professional.

“C'mon, Mook, don't do me like that. I'm always square with you. I told you, I got robbed,” the man pleaded with his hands up in front of him in surrender. Sean could see the muscles in his mother's beautiful, shapely chocolate legs flexing as she cocked her head to the side, something she did when she was angry.

“Nah, I ain't tryin'a hear that. If you got robbed I woulda been the first to hear about it from the streets. That's a bullshit lie and you know it, nigga. If I let it slide with you, I gotta let it slide with everybody,” his mother said through her teeth. Bang! Bang! Two shots rang out. Sean jumped so hard he fell backward and a little bit of urine escaped his bladder involuntarily. Sean could hear the man screaming.

“She shot me! This bitch shot me! Y'all seen that . . . this crazy bitch shot me!” the man was hollering. Sean got back to his feet and went back to the door.

“Get him the fuck out of here. Throw him in the street with the trash where he deserves to be,” his mother demanded. Sean watched as a group of dudes picked up the wounded man and tossed him right out of their apartment door.

“You ain't seen the last of me, Mook! On my life you ain't seen the last of me!” the man screamed. Sean's mother was unfazed by the man's threats. She strutted her beautiful body back into her living room, turned up her music and returned to all of her party guests.

“Now, anybody else got a problem?” she asked, her gun still hot in her hand. A few mumbles passed over the crowd of partygoers but no one spoke up. Everybody went back to playing spades, bid whist and blackjack like nothing ever happened. Within minutes there was the usual loud laughter, music and drinking again.

“Oww! That's my song!” Sean heard his mother scream out as she danced around. “Pass me my shit,” she called to someone. Mook was the life of the party and the boss of a very lucrative heroin operation. Everyone gravitated toward her because she threw a hot party every night; she always had good food, good drinks and good drugs. Mook was beautiful with deep, dark ebony skin that was as smooth as silk. Her hair was a thick, jet-black mane down her back, her eyes were chestnut brown and slanted. Mook had a tiny waist, but big round hips that gave her an hourglass shape. She was an exotic beauty and people often call her the Indian, because she looked like one of those women straight from India. Sean thought his mother was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Sean jumped when he saw someone coming in his direction, but he quickly realized it wasn't his mother. He giggled as he watched an older woman that he called Aunty holding the hand of a man, leading him to one of the back rooms. That wasn't unusual at their house either. Several streetwalkers, who Sean called his aunties, paid Mook for the use of her house for turning tricks rather than risking themselves being on the street or working for a pimp who would only take their money. Sean's aunty was wearing a hot pink corset top, thongs, a garter belt and clear plastic high heel shoes. The man was smiling from ear to ear as he followed her. Sean waited a few minutes and then he snuck out of his room, ran down the hallway and put his eye to the keyhole of the room his aunty had gone into. Sean smiled as he watched his naked aunty bounce up and down on the man.

“Boy! Get away from that door and get yo' ass in the bed. You know I don't play that,” Mook scolded playfully when she caught him. Sean giggled and ran back to his room. Just as he was about to close his door and really get in the bed this time, he heard that familiar voice that he looked forward to every day. Excited, Sean cracked his door open again and just like he had suspected, Fox was walking in. Sean watched dreamily as Fox glided his six foot, four inch frame through the door. Fox wore a fresh Pelle Pelle leather jacket, crisp Timberland boots that looked clean enough to eat off of and a diamond pinky ring that could blind you from a distance. Fox was his mother's friend, but Sean would pretend in his mind that Fox was his father. Fox was a basketball legend in their neighborhood and one of the few dudes who had actually made it to the NBA. After two years in the league Fox blew out his knee and was cut from team after team. Finally, Fox gave up trying to get rich the legal way and took the money he'd made in the league and invested in his street business. Being a boss in the streets had made him much more money than he would've ever made in the league. Sean wanted to be just like Fox when he got older. He even practiced how to walk and talk like Fox.

“Mook . . . baby, what's good?” Fox chimed, flashing his sparkling smile as he made his way over to Sean's mother.

“Ain't nothing new, baby.” Mook smiled, her cheeks flushing red. She got on her tiptoes and threw her arms around Fox's neck so she could hug him. He patted her on the ass and kissed her on the top of her head. Sean giggled; he had always secretly hoped that one day Fox would marry his mother.

“Let's talk,” Fox said to Mook.

“Yeah, baby . . . anything for you,” Mook said dreamily. “Nobody touch my bud,” Mook warned her party guests before she walked out with Fox. She started down the hallway toward Sean's room with Fox hot on her heels. Mook knew he was watching her ample backside so she smiled to herself and gave him a show.

Sean scrambled to get back into his bed. He knew his mother and Fox would be coming into his room to talk business like they always did. Sean also knew his mother had taken the bottom out of his toy chest and hid her money there.

“Yo, Mook, I'm not gonna lie. You made me a believer, baby girl. You always come through with your ends,” Fox complimented. Mook turned her face away; she didn't want Fox to see her blushing. Her palms were getting sweaty and she felt things below her navel thumping. She rushed over to Sean to make sure he was asleep. Sean squeezed his eyes shut tight until he was sure his mother wasn't watching anymore.

“This is half of the re-up money and I'll have the rest in a few days,” Mook said as she came up out of Sean's toy chest with the rubber banded stacks of cash.

“Good looking out, Mook. I'm putting my chips up now for a rainy day. I'm thinking about going straight one of these days. My lady is carrying my seed and I need to be setting things up for the future,” Fox said, flashing his sparkly, diamond-encrusted smile. Mook's heart dropped and her stomach began doing flips, but she put on a fake smile anyway.

“Congrats, Fox, I'm real happy for you. I hope it's a boy that you can love as much as I love that li'l nigga right there,” Mook said trying her best to keep a smile on her face. She was really dying inside though. She had loved Fox from the day she had met him. Mook had to make a choice when it came to Fox—business or pleasure—she had opted for business and now she was secretly regretting it.

“Yeah, this a good li'l man you got here,” Fox said as he folded a twenty dollar bill into a paper airplane and placed it on Sean's pillow like he always did. That night, Sean finally drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face.

 

 

“Mommy, do you love me?” Sean asked his mother the next day as she walked him to school. That was the one thing about Mook, it didn't matter if she had partied all night into the morning, she always cooked Sean a full-course breakfast and walked him to school herself every day.

“Aww, baby, you don't have to ever question my love for you. I love you more than I love my own life and anything on this planet,” Mook said, stopping to bend down in front of her son so she could look him in his little eyes. Sean threw his arms around his mother's long, slender neck and hugged it as tight as his little arms could.

“I love you more than anything on the planet too,” he said. His mother laughed.

“You still not going back home with me. You going to school today,” she joked as she led him up the steps to his school. Sean giggled too.

 

 

Later that afternoon Sean walked home with his usual group of friends after school. He couldn't wait to tell his mother about his day. Sean rushed up the front steps to his house and just as he made his way through the door he ran smack dead into someone.

“Sorry,” Sean huffed, out of breath, realizing he had hit someone. When he looked up into the face of the person, his heart jerked in his chest. Sean stumbled backward a little bit as the man he had run into smirked at him evilly.

“Watch where the fuck you going,
orphan,
” the man hissed, his eyes glinting with evil. Then he stepped around Sean and ran into a waiting car. Sean turned around and watched the car screech away from the curb and it wasn't until about two minutes later that he remembered the man's face.
That was the man my mother shot,
Sean's little mind registered. He whirled around on the balls of his feet and scrambled inside the door. Sean raced up the stairs to his apartment. He was going to tell his mother that the man had come back and that she needed to make sure she had her gun close by.

“Mommy! Mommy!” Sean screamed as he pushed in their apartment door. As soon as he crossed the doorsill Sean slipped on something wet and fell so hard he hit his chin on the floor.

“Ahh,” he screamed. “Mommy! Mommy!”

The house was silent, which was strange to Sean. From birth, he never remembered his house being quiet. Even if it was he and his mother alone, she always had some sort of music playing. Sean went to pick himself up from the floor, but slipped down again on the same slick, wet stuff. He crinkled his brow and looked down at the wet substance that was making it so hard for him to get his bearings.

Sean's eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open when he looked down and saw both of his hands were covered in deep, dark red blood. He began turning around and around, trying to locate the source of the blood. His little legs were shaking now and his heart was hammering so hard he could barely breathe.

“Mom . . . mmy?” Sean whispered, his teeth chattering as he took a few steps forward. Urine spilled from his bladder involuntarily at the sight. He couldn't scream, cry, run or react. His feet had become cement blocks connected to the floor as he looked down at his mother lying in a pool of her own blood with her throat slashed so far down her head looked like it was almost separated from her body. Sean's entire body shook, his mouth hung open, but he would not leave his mother alone.

 

 

“Agggghhhhh!” It was the screams of Mook's best friend and Sean's aunty that finally alerted everyone that Mook was dead. Sean had stood in that one spot for hours, unable to move, unable to scream and unable to get help. Aunty had called 911, but the ambulance wasn't going to move the body; that would be up to the city coroner now.

Fox was the first person to arrive that had set Sean at ease. Fox picked Sean up and carried him away from the crime scene and the throng of detectives and police officers that had swarmed Sean's home. Fox set Sean down on his bed, pulled him close and cried with him.

“I'm not going to let nothing happen to you. I'm always gon' be here for you, little man . . . you hear me?” Fox whispered as Sean was wracked with sobs.

“Look at me,” Fox said, pulling Sean away from his chest so he could look into his little eyes. “I don't make promises to nobody . . . but I'ma make you promise today. I will always be here for you,” Fox said sincerely. Sean shook his head up and down, signaling his understanding.

“Now tell me what happened when you got home today. Was there somebody here with your mother? Did you see anybody outside? I need to know everything that happened once you got here,” Fox probed, his tone serious. Sean shook his head up and down vigorously.

“Okay good . . . It's important that you tell me who it was, but you can't tell nobody else, especially not those cops out there,” Fox whispered. Sean leaned into Fox's ear and whispered. Fox's eyes went into slits and he bit down into his jaw.

“That's real good that you were brave enough to say. I'm going to take care of it, little man, but remember what I said . . . police can't be trusted so if they ask you . . . you ain't see nobody here,” Fox replied, squeezing Sean's shoulder. Sean shook his head again.

“Now listen, they are going to come here to speak to you and probably take you downtown or something until they can sort out who will take care of you now. They're not going to let you go with me or else you know I would take you home in a heartbeat. Take this, it's my number. As soon as you get to a place, call me. I ain't gon' forget about you. I loved her too,” Fox told Sean as he handed him a card with his number on it. Sean put the card in his pocket. Then he rushed over to his toy chest, opened it, dug into the bottom, moved the fake bottom out of it and pulled out his mother's stash. He rushed back over and handed it to Fox.