by Kiki Swinson
I started walking in the opposite direction from where my uncle and Walt had run, but then I heard a car squealing its tires, and a loud crash followed.
Without thinking about it twice, I turned around and ran toward the scene. On my way to see what had happened, I had to step over Jeff ’s body. As I did, I quickly snatched up his gun and then kept moving.
When I reached the corner of Kempsville Road and Virginia Beach Boulevard, I noticed that the traffic was congested in front of the Chevrolet dealership less than a half a block away. It became apparent that someone had gotten hit, because a crowd of people had gathered around in a circle.
I wanted to know what really happened, so I decided to go over and check it out myself. As I made my way down toward the scene, I noticed someone running toward me. I shoved Jeff ’s gun into my pocket and tried to act normal. I took a deep breath and looked straight ahead.
Then I realized that it was my uncle. I was so relieved.
He was panting very hard. “Come on and turn around,” he said. “What happened down there? And where is Walt?”
He grabbed my arm and turned me around. “We can’t go back near that other guy’s body, so let’s walk toward Sentara Leigh Hospital.”
As my uncle and I marched through the intersection of Kempsville Road and Virginia Beach Boulevard, I noticed he was deep in thought. But that didn’t deter me from asking him again what had happened, and where was Walt.
“He’s dead.”
“What? Did he get hit by a car?”
“I shot him in his leg first, and when I tried to hit him again, he tried to get away from me by running across the street. He got hit head- on by this white guy driving a Ford F-250 truck.”
“So what did you do with the gun?”
“I threw it down the sewer near the car dealership.”
“You didn’t let anybody see you doing it, did you?”
“No. I looked both ways before I dropped it.”
I wanted to fall down on my knees and thank God. My life had been spared once again. No matter what situation I got into, God always had my back and made a way for me to get out of it, and for that I was truly grateful.
As we walked down Kempsville Road, I wondered how this night was going to end. Were my uncle and I going to remain distant and move on with our lives as I had planned? Or were we going to bury the hatchet and try to forgive one another? At this point in the game, it didn’t matter to me, because either way I looked at it, I was going back out of the country, so he would never see me again.
“Ahh shit! I just thought about something,” he said and came to a complete stop.
I stopped in my tracks and asked him what was wrong.
“Do you realize our fingerprints are all over Jeff ’s van, and he’s lying underneath the underpass dead?”
Suddenly, once again, I was back at square one. “So whatcha think we should do?”
“I don’t know, but we’re gonna have to do something, because not only are our fingerprints in there, but Tony’s blood is too. So when the homicide detectives dust the van for prints and take the blood samples from the rug, we could get charged with murder, and we’ll never see daylight again.”
“How can I go to jail and I ain’t killed nobody?”
“The police don’t know that.”
“You can tell ’em I didn’t have shit to do with none of this stuff !” I screeched.
“Kira, you’re just as guilty as I am. You were there for Tony’s murder too.”
“So what? You started all of this bullshit! I didn’t ask to be kidnapped and tortured to death.”
He took a step toward me and gave me a sinister look. “So whatcha think . . . I’m just gon’ take all the heat just like that?”
Looking directly into my uncle’s eyes, I could see how serious he was. He wasn’t about to compromise, even though he was the one who had started all this shit. I now realized I had fucked up by helping this ungrateful motherfucker escape. I had tried to end the deadly cycle of my family members getting killed because of something I was involved in, but now I saw that this was something I couldn’t control.
Without even blinking, I stuck my right hand inside my pocket, eased out Jeff ’s gun, and aimed it at my uncle’s stomach. “You’re gonna have to!” I said in a menacing tone, pulling the trigger twice.
He collapsed to the ground with his eyes wide open, bleeding all over the sidewalk. I stepped across him and walked back in the direction of Virginia Beach Boulevard.
When I reached the intersection, I noticed how congested it was. Police vehicles were everywhere. I saw two vans from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and three forensic teams. And one officer stood in the intersection and directed the traffic in both directions. I lifted my head up as high as I could and walked by him like my shit didn’t stink.
My mission was to find the nearest pay phone. After walking two blocks, I found one. I immediately made an international collect call to Donovan’s cell phone. Boy, was I happy to hear his voice when he answered on the first ring.
“Yes, I’ll accept the charges,” he said. And then when the operator cleared the line for him to speak, he said, “Baby, where are you? I’ve been calling your phone all night, and it kept going straight to voice mail.”
I took a deep breath and exhaled. “Listen, baby, I know you were worried, and as soon as I see you, I’m going to tell you everything that happened to me.”
“Tell me now,” he insisted.
“Donovan, please just let me get back home first.”
“OK, baby. Come on home.”
“I am.”
After we hung up with one another, I jumped in a taxi and headed straight to the hotel to pick up my belongings, and then I had the driver drop me off at the Norfolk International Airport. I was leaving this country and never coming back.
Discussion Questions:
1. Kira seems to find herself in precarious situations. Do you think that she deserves all the drama that comes into her life?
2. If you were Kira would you have gone to your cousin’s funeral after she tried to have you murdered? Why or why not?
3. It seems as though each time Kira tries to turn her life around, someone from her past lulls her right back to where she started from. Do you feel that sometimes it’s best to let go of the past, even if that includes letting go of family and friends? If so, please explain.
4. After Kira gets away from her kidnappers she has a brief moment where she could have just walked away. If you were in her shoes, would you have turned the other cheek and took the high road, or would you have sought out revenge?
5. When you found out that the person behind Kira’s kidnapping was her uncle were you shocked?
6. Kira has a change of heart and decides to work with her uncle against Walt and his killing crew. Would you have been so forgiving?
7. Did you believe Uncle Lanier’s depiction of events surrounding Kira’s mother and Walt?
8. There was a lot of bloodshed on the night of Kira’s kidnapping. Do you think that the police will do a full forensic investigation, perhaps finding evidence that could ultimately make Kira a suspect in numerous homicides? Or do you think that trace evidence is really only used for television ratings and never in the hood?
9. Kira is racing back to Anguilla and her fiancé Donovan. Do you think that Kira might be moving too fast with this man?
10. Considering Kira’s past track record with men, do you think that she finally will live happily ever after with Donovan?
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