The Day the Streets Stood Still (3 page)

Fox was almost moved to tears as he accepted the bag. “You already smarter than the average nigga. You knew those pigs would toss this place and find all of what she worked for and steal it didn't you,” Fox said to Sean. Sean just shook his head again; he still couldn't find the words to say anything with his mouth.

“This is yours and I will hold it for you. You already all right with me, little man,” Fox assured. “Let me get out of here before the pigs start lurking. Remember what I said . . . call me.”

Sean touched the card in his pocket and he felt a little more at ease knowing Fox would never let him down.

 

 

The day after his mother's funeral, Sean sat on his grandmother's stoop swinging on an old rickety porch swing that he had always loved to play on when he and his mother would visit. Now that he lived there, Sean didn't like the swing as much. As he sat swinging, he heard the creaking of the screen door of the connected house next door. Sean looked up just as a little girl came outside onto the porch of the house.

“Whatchu lookin' at, ugly?” the little girl growled, raising her fist at him. Sean's eyebrows flew up into arches and he stopped the swing from moving. He didn't know if he was more shocked by the little girl's striking beauty or her sassy mouth. Sean stared in awe at the pecan-colored girl with her heart-shaped lips, tiny nose, long jet-black ponytails and her almond-shaped, glistening, green cat eyes.

“You live there now? I heard around that you ain't got no mother,” the little girl said cruelly with a smirk.

Sean's eyes went into slits and he jumped up from the swing. “Shut up before I punch you in the face!” he gritted, his fists balled at his sides.

“You ain't gon' do nuthin',” the little girl spat, boldly climbing over the small brick partition that separated her porch from Sean's grandmother's. Before Sean could react, the little girl was standing in his face almost nose to nose. He hadn't expected that. He backed up a few steps, thrown by her beauty up close.

“What's your name anyway, ugly?” the little girl asked, softening her tone a bit.

“It doesn't matter,” he said, hanging his head a little bit. The little girl brushed passed him and flopped down on his grandmother's swing. Sean looked at her strangely. He had never met a little girl so bold in his life.

“I'm Sunny,” she said as she pushed back with her toes to make the swing move.

“I'm Sean.” Sunny gave him the once-over and the mean face she had worn softened a bit. She even almost smiled, which was rare for her.

“How old are you?” she asked.

“Ten.”

“Me too!” she said excitedly.

“I'm sorry for what I said about your mother,” she said. “Sit down.”

Sean walked over tentatively and sat next to her. Sweat was dripping down his back and he balled up his toes in his sneakers. Sunny pushed the swing hard enough to move it for the both of them.

“You gonna be my new best friend,” she told him.

“How you know I want to be your new best friend?” Sean asked, looking down at his feet.

“I could tell by the way you look at me. I know when a man wants me,” Sunny answered sassily. Sean didn't know it then, but her words would prove to be very powerful later.

“Sunny! Sunny!”

Sunny jumped up from the swing and moved away from Sean like he was suddenly a dangerous animal. Terror danced in her eyes and unnerving fear suddenly played out on her face.

“I gotta go,” Sunny whispered, her words coming out almost breathlessly.

“Sunny! What the fuck I tell you about leaving out of this house without permission!” a woman screamed from the doorway of the house next to Sean's grandmother's.

“Sorry, Mommy . . . I . . . I . . . was just . . .” Sunny stammered, her bold and sassy attitude gone, replaced by a voiced filled with fear and apprehension.

“You was just my ass! Get the fuck in this house. I have to go to work and Rodney is babysitting you for the night!” Sunny's mother boomed. Sean looked at the woman's wide, fat face drawn into a scrunched-up scowl and immediately thought Sunny looked nothing like her.

Sunny climbed back over the brick partition and inched slowly toward her mother, who was standing brooding at the front door. When Sunny got to the door, her mother snatched her by the collar and dragged her inside the house.

“Please! Don't!” Sunny screamed. Sean jumped up, but quickly realized there was nothing he could do to save her. He tried to listen, but all he could hear was voices yelling back and forth.

“Agggh! I'm sorry!” Sunny screamed as her mother dragged her down to the floor by her long hair. Sunny felt something in one of her knees crack as it connected with the floor. “Please, Mommy! I'm sorry!”

“You fucking fast and hot! Right? Right?” her mother growled as she winded her hand in Sunny's hair for a good grip. “Anywhere there is a boy or a man with a dick you wanna be there right!” her mother screamed, balling her huge, portly fist and punching Sunny in her back and chest. Sunny instinctively threw her arms up over her head in an attempt to shield her mother's blows, but she was no match for the woman's fury. Sunny's mother screamed, spit, kicked and punched Sunny's frail body until she grew tired. Sunny's lips were busted and bleeding, her nose was throbbing like it was broken, and she had friction burns on her knees from her mother dragging her across the hardwood floors. Just like so many times before, Sunny wished she was dead so she could escape her house . . . escape the beatings and neglect.

“Now, bitch . . . I'm going to work. Stay in your fucking room and stay away from my fucking man! If you try to leave this house, so help me God when I get home you gon' get worse than what I just gave you,” her mother wolfed, out of breath from beating Sunny. When she was finished her mother used her foot and kicked Sunny in the ribs for emphasis. Sunny lay there in a heap, rolling around in pain.

“I said get the fuck up from here!”

Sunny slowly dragged herself up from the floor and barely made it to her room. She eased her aching body into her bed as tears flooded down her face. She couldn't believe that confessing to her mother what her stepfather was doing to her would turn out to be so disastrous.

When Sunny heard the door slam she knew her mother was gone; she also knew what would happen next.

Rodney, her stepfather, didn't even give it fifteen minutes before he was turning the doorknob to her bedroom door. Sunny had locked it. She counted in her head . . .
ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five.
She didn't even get a chance to finish before he had retrieved the spare keys and opened the door.

“What we tell you about locking doors around here?” Rodney asked snidely. Sunny pulled her blanket up around her neck and closed her eyes.

“C'mon, don't play hard to get. What happened to you was your fault. I told you your mother wasn't going to believe you if you tried to tell her. I told you it would just make it worse . . . didn't I,” Rodney taunted. Sunny could hear his belt buckle jingling as he took it a loose. Tears streamed out of her tightly shut eyes and wet her pillow.

“You should like this by now. You ain't no little girl no more,” Rodney said. He sat down on the bed with his erect penis in his hand.

“I do it because I love you and I love your mother. If you didn't do this, I would leave her and then she would take it out on you . . . See it's all a part of being a family,” Rodney went on. Sunny bit inside of her cheek until she tasted the metallic taste of her own blood.

“Sit up. I'm gon' show you something new. Something you'll always be able to use in life,” he said as if he was a caring father teaching his daughter some necessary life skill. “If you suck a man's dick real good, he will always be good to you. You can't lose learning how to suck dick at a young age,” Rodney went on, stroking his erection roughly.

“Now sit up and let me show you,” he panted. Sunny didn't budge. She couldn't make herself get up.

“Don't be difficult because I like to be fair. I like for you to want to do it,” Rodney wheezed, growing more excited by the minute. Sunny lay stock still, her brain screaming do what he said, but her body saying no more.

“Damn, look what you made me do,” Rodney said, as he ejaculated his own body fluid all over his hand.

“Get the fuck up!” he barked, suddenly turning into a different person. He jumped up off the bed, snatched the blanket off of Sunny and grabbed her up roughly.

“Please,” she begged through tears. “My mouth is busted.”

“Well I guess that will make you work harder and faster,” he said, forcing her head into his musty crotch. Sunny gagged as she took his limp manhood between her lips. The salty taste of his leftover cum burned the open cuts on her lips and was bitter on her tongue.

“That's it. Gag on it until it grows in your mouth. I'm going to teach you all of the tricks,” Rodney whispered, throwing his head back in ecstasy.

 

 

A year after he had been living at his grandmother's house Sean awoke one night to the sound of something hitting his bedroom window. Startled, Sean jumped up and grabbed the baseball bat he always kept next to his bed. In the dark, Sean inched around, his heart hammering wildly against his chest bone.

Tick. Tick. Tick. The sound came again, this time Sean realized it was something like rocks hitting his bedroom window. Breathing shallowly, Sean rushed over to the window to see where the noise was coming from. He immediately put his bat down when he realized the source of the noise. Sean rushed to unlock his window and pushed it up quickly.

“Sunny, what are you doing out here?” Sean whispered harshly, his face folded into a confused frown.

“Just please let me in,” Sunny replied, bouncing on her legs like she had to pee. Sean had never heard her sound so scared and vulnerable. They had been friends for an entire year now and Sunny was always like an angry tough girl. She had even fought a few boys in the neighborhood when they tried to bully Sean because he was the new kid.

“I'm coming down. You gonna have to climb into the basement window. You can't get up here,” Sean whispered.

“Okay,” Sunny said, hurrying to the back of Sean's grandmother's house. Sean crept out of his room and down the steps. His grandmother had super ears and he knew any creaking noises would wake her. It seemed to take forever to make it to the basement but Sean finally did. He pushed up the slats on the small basement windows. He could see Sunny already lying on the ground waiting to slide in.

“I hope you can fit,” Sean said, worried that Sunny's growing hips and butt would get stuck. Sean had definitely noticed how his best friend was rounding out with newly formed woman curves. He had often fantasized about them during his adolescent wet dreams.

“C'mon hurry up. If my grandmother wakes up she's gonna flip,” Sean urged. Finally her body dropped through the window onto a pile of boxes his grandmother had there. Seeing how easily Sunny was able to drop onto the boxes and climb down into his house, it suddenly occurred to Sean that if Sunny could get through the window and use the boxes to climb down, any burglar could. He quickly took the stacks of boxes from the window and locked it.

“Can I stay here with you tonight?” Sunny pleaded, sweat wetting her hair and the sides of her face. “I really can't go back home right now. If I can't stay here I will have to sleep on the street,” Sunny rambled. Sean looked at her confused. He hadn't seen her look so frazzled before.

“Like . . . um . . . a sleepover?” he asked, his eyebrows scrunched low. Sunny and Sean had been friends for over a year, but they had never had a sleepover before. “I . . . I . . . don't know if Big Mama is gonna allow that,” Sean said tentatively.

“Please, Sean . . . just sneak me in your room and I'll sleep under your bed. Please. I can't go back home tonight. My mother ain't there and . . . and . . . I'm begging you,” Sunny pleaded, her voice suddenly quivering on the brink of tears. Sunny couldn't stop the flood of tears coming from her eyes. She sunk down on top of a box.

“What's the matter, Sunny?” Sean asked her, sitting down next to her. He was suddenly scared inside but he was trying his best to look strong.

“He . . . he . . . is messing with me. But now, he's going . . . you know . . . all the way in,” Sunny stumbled to find the words. She pointed the area below her navel for emphasis. Sean's eyes hooded over and his fists curled up at his sides.

“What you mean all the way in? You mean like he's trying to hump you?” Sean said through clenched teeth as he sprang to his feet. Sunny hung her head and began sobbing. She rushed into Sean and put her head on his chest and cried. Sean stood there helplessly, not knowing if he should hug her or go kill her stepfather.

“C'mon. You can stay in my room tonight. Any night you want,” Sean comforted, wrapping his arms around her. Sunny kissed him on the cheek.

“Thank you, best friend.” She smiled through her tears.

That night Sean couldn't sleep. His mind raced in a million directions with the information Sunny had given him about her stepfather. Sean allowed her to snuggle her body close to his and he wrapped his arms around her so that she would feel protected. Sean watched as Sunny fell into a fitful sleep. He could only imagine what she was dreaming about.