Chapter 1 #4
I took the phone from my ear and looked up at the high ceiling, my eyes centered on the beautiful silver chandelier.
With my phone away from my ear, I could still hear her screaming and crying.
She didn’t even know his condition… didn’t even ask questions…
just went right to being negative. But shit, didn’t I?
When they knocked on my door, I just knew my brother was dead.
I couldn’t fault her, I guess. Still, the shit irritated me.
So bad, that I didn’t even return to the phone. I just hung up.
After about an hour, Desiree and her sister walked into the hospital.
I watched as she walked over to the reception desk.
She had on a bonnet, little ass pajama shorts, a bralette, and knock off UGGs.
A hot ass mess. Meech was Desiree’s third baby daddy.
I hated that my brother fucked with so many hood rats.
But then again, he didn’t really have much to choose from.
Brickhaven was flooded with rats. Especially The Woods.
The receptionist pointed over to us and Desiree looked over her shoulder.
A second later, she hurried over to where I was sitting, greeting me with a hug I didn’t want.
I didn’t like to be touched. So, when she wrapped her arms around me, I cringed.
Still, she held me tighter, ignoring how uncomfortable I was.
When her sister tried to hug me, I crossed my arms over my chest and deepened the frown in my brow.
She got the picture, because right after, she sat next to Exodus, speaking to them with a big smile on her face.
Typical hood rat. The bitches in The Woods loved the Christ brothers.
Especially Exodus’s mean, standoffish ass.
Zeke was a regular in the hood, so people rarely paid him any mind.
Leviticus held just as much weight as Exodus.
They were rarely seen so anytime a bitch saw them they were overly going.
“What y’all doing here?” Desiree asked, shifting her eyes between the brothers. Nobody said anything. She sucked her teeth and sat on the other side of me. “What did she tell you, Sereia?”
“That they would update me when there was a change. He’s in surgery,” I said, staring across the room at the TV on the wall, playing a game show I’d never seen before.
She sighed. “How long you been up here?”
“’Bout two hours,” I flatly replied.
“They should know something by now! What the fuck?” She started to get up and I stopped her.
“Relax. You think I want to sit here waiting? Just wait. The longer they take, the better.”
That’s how I saw it.
If Meech was in surgery for a long time, then he had a fighting chance.
Things were progressing in a good way. I might’ve been wrong, but that was how I saw it.
I wanted my brother to be taken care of real good.
And if that meant waiting hours for that to happen then so be it.
I was on pins and needles, but I didn’t want to rush them.
Des’ needed to chill the fuck out. She didn’t have any pull here.
Shit, she didn’t have pull anywhere. She was just Meech’s baby momma.
Nothing more, nothing less. They weren’t even together the two times he got her pregnant.
She sucked her teeth, sat up, and looked over at the reception desk. “Fuck out of here. Ain’t no muthafuckin way she ain’t got an update yet. They probably takin they slow ass time ‘cause we black. I don’t put shit past these bitches.”
She was loud. The other people in the waiting area looked over at us with their noses turned up. We were in fucking Wildermere—that ghetto, loud, hood rat shit did not fly out here. She needed to calm down because the security guard would for sure throw her raggedy ass out if she didn’t.
“Chill,” said Exodus, in a low tone, his eyes centered on Des.
She sucked her teeth again, turned the corners of her mouth up and ‘chilled’. Of course she did. I had told her to relax but what did she do? The opposite of that. One word from Exodus and she was sitting back against her seat with her arms crossed over her chest.
Another two hours passed.
Zeke had his head tossed back against the chair, eyes closed, snoring.
Leviticus was off his phone, arms crossed over his chest, struggling to stay awake.
Desiree and her sister were asleep. Exodus was up with his face in his phone and had been for the past hour.
I hadn’t dosed off once. The game show had switched to the morning news, which was on cue with the sun rising.
Yep.
Sun was up. Shift had changed, too. The receptionist had been swapped out for another white chick. A younger blonde who kept looking over at the black people in the middle of the room.
There still hadn’t been an update and I was growing impatient. With a deep breath, I pulled my hands out of my pockets and stood up to walk over to the receptions desk.
Before I could get there, someone yelled, “The family of Demetrius uh… Wilson?”
Quickly, I looked over my shoulder with pinched brows. Pivoting, I turned around and headed over to the older white man in scrubs, holding a tablet. At the sound of Demetrius’s name, Desiree and them woke up, Exodus put his phone into his pocket, and Leviticus’s attention steadied.
“Yes?” I asked, with a racing heart.
He paused, looked down at his tablet, and then back up at me again. When his eyes softened and he pursed his lips, I knew what would come next. Knowing didn’t soften the blow that came next though.
“I’m sorry—we did all we could. There was an immense amount of internal bleeding we couldn’t stop. We worked on him for hours and—“
“Thank you,” I interrupted, turning on my toes, feeling like the world was crashing down on me.
My feet were heavy. My shoulders too. My entire body, really.
Nothing felt real. And when the room began to spin, I lost my footing, damn near falling onto the floor.
But before I could, I was caught by Exodus.
Instead of pulling away like I wanted to, I buried my face into his chest and finally broke down.
I don’t know how long I stood there crying into his chest before I was led out of the hospital, through the parking lot, to his car. Time felt funny. Life felt funny. It was as if something shifted the moment the words ‘I’m sorry’ left that doctors lips.
Meech was dead.
My brother.
The only person I truly had left, was gone.
It was just me now. No mother. No father.
No brother. Just me. I always said I didn’t want to lose Meech.
Always said since one of us had to eventually live without the other, that I wanted it to be me that left first. The pain that came with losing was too much for me to bare.
I couldn’t do another funeral. Momma’s for me, was one and done.
But look at what happened. Look at me now.
I’d have to do another one. And this time, I wouldn’t have anyone to swap reminiscent stories with.
This time, I wouldn’t have my brother there to hold me up. I’d have to suffer through it alone.
How could a family of four be reduced to just a family of one like that?
The ride back to The Woods was quiet. A blur, really.
Spent with my head resting against the window, with my eyes closed.
Thought of Meech and the last words I spoke to him.
I swallowed and tears seeped through my closed lids as I thought about our handshake and those final I love you’s.
We were supposed to have breakfast in a couple of hours. We were supposed to have more time…
When the car came to a halt in front of my building, I didn’t bulge.
I was in no rush to go back to that apartment.
I just… I needed a minute. They gave me that too.
Sat there, quiet, idling in front of the building in silence for I don’t know how long before Zeke got out to open my door.
He stood back, held his hand out for me to grab and I ignored it.
With heavy shoulders and a pounding headache, I stepped out of the car without his help.
I walked towards the building, climbing the dirty, rickety staircase, the sound of birds chirping and my feet pattering against the metal stairs filling my ears.
My bottom lip quivered the closer I got to the top of them.
Heart raced too. My life was about to change.
Majorly. Meech was all I had left. Yes, I had family in The Woods but that didn’t matter.
The family I came from? It’d been reduced to just me.
And I wasn’t sure if I would survive out here alone.