Marsha
My first thought was that Jamal had come to finish me off. I didn’t really have much time to think about what was happening, all I felt was the coldness of steel striking my flesh. As I fell to the ground I heard Junior cry out. I couldn’t make out his words; my only focus was on the warm liquid that eased through my fingers as I was enveloped in darkness.
Nevaeh
I knew something was wrong the moment that I heard Junior scream out, “Never again Jamal!” He had to have done something to Jamal because I heard my mom scream but Jamal didn’t make a sound. I rushed towards the commotion. It was hard to see anything, only the bathroom light was on. I felt it before I saw it. The blood dampened my naked foot as I ran to my mother who was lying motionless on the ground wrapped in a towel with blood seeping out of her side.
“What did you?” I screamed at Junior. He just stood there with a stupid look on his face frozen. “Don’t just stand there go call nine-one-one!” Still he stood motionless in his thoughts, paralyzed by his guilt. I made the call myself. I don’t even know why I bothered, most EMT’s are afraid to even come around this neighborhood.
We waited for the ambulance for ten minutes. Honestly, we waited for Sasha to get cleaned up while I got my mom dressed and had Junior help me carry her to the car. I wanted to catch a bus to the hospital; her car was so old and dirty that I didn’t want her to get an infection from touching the seats. Ultimately, I didn’t have enough money for all four of us to get on the bus so the car was the only option. Sasha sat in the back seat crying while putting pressure on the wound as my mom’s blood and tears soaked through her clothes. Junior got in the front seat with me and we took off.
As we drove to Temple Hospital we discussed the story that we were going to tell the police. I say we, but in reality it was just me talking out loud. My mom was silent attempting to minimize her breaths to lessen the pain, Junior was dazed starring straight forward appearing to ignore my every word, and Sasha was still howling. It didn’t matter, I was going to be the one doing all of the talking anyway. I just needed to make a decision. Our options were a home invasion, a mugging outside of the house, or Jamal. Though I loved the idea of that man behind bars, I couldn’t pin an attempted murder charge on him. We agreed on a mugging. It wasn’t uncommon and since there were no witnesses the cops wouldn’t look too far into the story. There was enough blood outside from us taking her to the car to say that she was attacked and made it into the house afterwards where she collapsed. The mugger ran away when our lights came on and he got away with all of her tips from the night. I can’t believe this, who would’ve thought that after all of the beatings that my mom got from Jamal, the first man that would send her to the hospital would be her son? Ain’t that a bitch?
Junior
I closed my eyes as the bathroom door opened. The bright light, after I had been in darkness for so long, bothered them. A little light wasn’t going to stop me from getting Jamal back though. I plunged the knife into his side when I heard the floor give from his weight. I was confused when my mom screamed. I didn’t think that she would care about me hurting Jamal. I mean of course she cared about him or she wouldn’t put up with all of his crap, but not enough to scream like that. When I went to grab his side so that I could push the knife in deeper I realized why she yelled out. My eyes were still adjusting but I felt her slender frame in my hands. I let go of her and stepped back as my mom fell to the ground. The knife was still in my hand and I couldn’t speak. I didn’t call for help, I didn’t tell her that I was sorry, I didn’t even try to help her up. My mind was telling me to go to her but my body wasn’t moving. I heard footsteps coming quickly towards us and then I saw Nevaeh standing over her. I could see Nevaeh’s lips moving as she looked at me with disdain, but I couldn’t hear a sound.
What had I done? Why had the thought of jail never crossed my mind until now? I couldn’t go to jail; I didn’t want to end up like my dad. I didn’t want to leave my family alone to be abused by this world. How could I have been so stupid to think that killing Jamal would put an end to our problems? I was going to be my dad; I was named after him, now I was going to follow in his footsteps all the way to his real home, prison.
The next thing that I remember I was sitting in the car. Nevaeh was babbling on about a story. I didn’t need to listen to her, I was right there, I know exactly what happened. I did this to her. Her own son. Her own son.
Sasha
Nevaeh came running into my room and told me to hurry up and get into the car. I told her that I had an accident and had to get washed up. She didn’t tell me what was wrong but as always she was angry at me for being this old and still not knowing how to control my body. I jumped up and grabbed some clothes, but as I went to the bathroom I saw what she was in such a hurry for. My mom was lying on the floor in a puddle of blood while Junior stood over her with something in his hand. I couldn’t really see what it was, I had forgotten my glasses in the room. Nevaeh rushed passed me and went back to my mom instructing Junior to help carry her to the car. I let go of the idea of washing up and just got changed as fast as I could.
When I slid into the backseat Nevaeh told me to push down on my mom’s stomach where the blood was coming from and told Junior to get up front and that he had already done enough. I couldn’t stop shaking as my mom’s blood tinted my shirt copper red. I tried to push down on her side as hard as I could but I didn’t want to hurt her any further. What if she didn’t make it? Would Jamal take care of us from now on? People died on this block every week, was it our turn to feel the pain of loss? I cried uncontrollably from the idea that this could be the last time that I would see my mom alive. I hadn’t even looked into her eyes since last Sunday since we were always gone for school before she woke up during the week.
I heard Nevaeh say that a mugger had done this and then ran away. She told me to tell the cops that I didn’t know what happened, but I didn’t know what happened. I wouldn’t be lying. All that I knew was that my mom was dying in my lap while her blood decorated the seat. It’s not fair. God is always taking away from us. When will it be our turn to receive a gift?