CHAPTER 19 #3
When I got home, Mama was waiting. She didn’t ask questions, just pulled me into her arms, held me tight, and whispered,
“Thank you, Lord.”
I let myself cry in her arms.
The morning after the shooting whole ‘hood was quiet. A hush that settles in after gunshots when everybody’s pretending they didn’t see nothing.
The heat had already started climbing, sun burning against the rowhouses, like somebody turned on a spotlight.
Mama was already outside on the stoop with a cup of coffee in her hands.
She looked tired. But clear. Sober. Her eyes lifted when she saw me.
“Hey baby, did you sleep any?” she asked.
“Not really.” I sighed.
Across the street, yellow police tape hung from the corner where Tone had fallen. The stain on the pavement hadn’t washed away yet. Someone tried, but blood has a way of sticking to concrete.
The twins came outside a few minutes later. Sinceer stood beside me, adjusting his glasses while he looked toward the corner.
“Did somebody get shot last night?” His voice was careful. Curious.
Saiyd burst out the door behind him.
“Yeah, I heard it!” He dribbled his basketball twice before looking down the block.
“Dat’s where it happened?”
“Yeah,” Mama said sharply.
“Now both of you stay away from dat corner.”
Saiyd frowned.
“But—”
“No buts.”
The twins looked at each other. Sinceer nodded. Saiyd bounced the ball again, slower this time. His eyes stayed fixed on the corner.
By lunchtime the block was buzzing again. Miss Jackie leaned over her porch railing talking to three different people at once.
“I told y’all somethin’ was gon’ happen,” she said.
“Dat Nico crew been movin’ reckless all summer.”
“Police gonna start circlin’ now,” another woman added.
“Jus’ watch.”
Kids rode bikes through the street like nothing had changed, even though everyone knew something had. Violence leaves fingerprints on a neighborhood. Even when people pretend they don’t see them.
Mia showed up that afternoon. Climbed onto the stoop beside me with her usual swag.
“Hey girl…You good? Las’ night was crazy.” she said.
“Yeah, I’m aight. Jus’ tired.” I lied.
She studied me for a second.
“You almos’ got pulled in deep.”
“I know.”
“My dad always say tha first job is how dey test you.”
“Whatchu mean?”
“If you had kept dat money…”
She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t have to. The thought stayed in the air. Lingering. Dangerous.
Everyone on the stoops froze the second that familiar red Mustang made the turn onto the block. Nico’s presence always shifted the energy. A sharp wave of nausea hit me. He took his time lowering the window, leaning forward,
“Yo, Summa.”
I forced myself onto my feet, trying to hide the panic.
“What?”
A smug, deliberate grin spread across his face, knowing he held all the power.
“You did da right thang bringin’ dat bag back.”
Over by the fire hydrant, the regulars locked their eyes on us, pausing their own hustle to watch. For them, our standoff was a stark reminder of who really owned these bricks.
“I was jus’ doin’ what I was supposed to do,” I said.
Nico chuckled.
“See dat’s tha thang.”
He tapped his fingers against the car door.
“Mos’ people don’t do what dey supposed ta do.” His eyes moved past me briefly. Toward the twins. Then back again.
“You got a good head on ya shouldas.”
My skin prickled. The compliment didn’t feel good. It was a mark. Like he had just circled my name in a notebook somewhere.
“I want chu ta stay dat way, ya know. Be… dif’rent.”
And the Mustang rolled away.
The screen door creaked open, and Mama stepped back onto the porch just as the taillights began to fade down the street. She tracked the vehicle until it vanished off the block. Suddenly, her fingers locked around my forearm with enough force to bruise.
“You stay away from dat crazy man.”
“I know Mama.”
“I’m serious, Summer.” Her voice shook slightly.
“Dat’s the same road Shay took.”
I bobbed my head to satisfy her, but that suffocating weight stayed anchored in my chest.
That summer seared itself into me as the hottest summer ever.
The summer I saw death at my doorstep, temptation in my hands, and a future stretching two ways.
I could follow Shay and Nico straight into the fire.
Or I could fight for better, even if I didn’t know what that was yet.
Either way, I knew one thing for certain, that summer would never let me go.
You could walk away from a fight, from a bad deal, from a night that almost swallowed you whole, but the block kept records in ways nobody talked about out loud. In whispers. In looks. In the quiet way people studied you when you passed.
Walking away was a temporary fix. The ‘hood now carried proof of how close I came to being sucked into his world. I stood too long at the edge thinking about stepping over. And the block never forgets. Never misses you. Even when you thought you slipped past. Nope. Never.
The block don’t just track what you do, it tracks what you almost did.
Letting you know, if you ever loosen your grip, if you ever get tired of holding yourself together, it’s still right there.
Waiting. Ready to pick up where you left off.