by S Yvonne
Tru and Pepper couldn’t do anything besides console her. It was touchy for everybody.
QUA kneeled in front of the grave just looking. He read her name, her date of birth, the day she died. Yet, he still had a hard time accepting it. He tried to keep it together but before he knew it the tears were coming. This made it real for him to actually see it. “You fucked me up with this one baby…” He choked on tears. “I guess this is what it really is huh T? How you been up there? How’s life on the other side? I knew you was hurting… I knew man.” He sighed. “I tried to fix it all, God knows I did.” For the next 30 minutes he talked to her and got it all out. When he stood up he felt much better. “I guess this really is goodbye T… take care of us baby. We love you.” He kissed his two fingers and then placed them on her tombstone before walking away.
“You aiight bro?” Tru asked him. “Tru knew this was going to be an adjustment for QUA but he had his back with whatever he needed and that was a promise.
He nod his head. “I feel a lil better… shit real now. It’s just gone take some time.” He admitted. The worse thing to do was see someone you love in the ground and never coming back, but what was even worse was not being able to say goodbye. Shit wasn’t the same. You could never hear that voice. You could never see that face. You can’t pick up the phone and call or none of that shit people don’t think about. QUA knew, you had to love ya people while they were here cause tomorrow wasn’t promised. He often thought about what life would be like had he hated Tasha for the shit that they went through? He was just glad that at that age back then he was mature enough to understand… it wasn’t her fault. Just like many others, she too was a victim. Like most who the world knew nothing about.
“I feel you.” Tru reasoned with him. He was glad that QUA was able to do this. This was the beginning of finally healing.
Twenty-Two
The next stop was to a place that Lyric had never been to before but when she saw it her face got twisted up. Graffiti was all over the buildings. The street lights were cracked and glass shattered on the ground. Litter filled the streets. Rats ran from each side of the street. Kids were playing on the playground. Rough looking boys were on the corners. When she stepped out the car it smelled like fired chicken, piss, and liquor.
“What the hell?” Lyric frowned. Where we at?” She was so unaware of this environment but Pepper, Tru, and QUA were all too familiar.
“This where it all started baby girl… this the slums. Betty B projects… where we grew up at.” QUA told her.
Her eyes bulged. “Foreal? Ya’ll grew up here?” Her eyes bounced around looking at everything. “I don’t think I would’ve ever made it out here. I’d just die.” She said. “It’s so… so rough looking like OMGGG.”
Pepper chuckled. “You wanted to know so bad… here you go. Your mama was living here when she got pregnant with you.” Pepper pointed. “That was her building… 3rd floor.”
“Wowww.” Lyric shook her head.
“And that was my building when I was growing up, and when Tru and me first lived together that was our building over there.” She pointed some more. “When Uncle Tru and your daddy used to hustle it was right over there on the corner.” She pointed.
“Yep.” QUA agreed. “Your mama used to be all over this place. She was one of the biggest boosters here… she kept everybody in all the flyest shit.” He told his daughter. “Tru… Pepper… I wanna walk Lyric around and talk to her… give me a minute.”
“Take ya time bro.” Tru sat on one of the benches. It was sad to see some of the niggas he came up with still in the projects doing the same ass shit but it wasn’t his problem. He was just glad he got out. Pepper sat next to him reminiscing. Despite everything else, they really did have some good times here.
QUA and Lyric walked around and all the old heads that remembered him was glad to see him… they were even more surprised to see Tasha’s daughter and they had some real funny stories about her too. He showed her everything about where he came from, where ‘they’ came from.
When they got back in front of Tasha’s old building, Lyric stopped him as she stared up to the third floor window wondering what the inside looked like. “You okay?” QUA asked her.
She smiled and nod her head. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
“Anything you wanna know?”
She smiled. “Actually it is…”
“I’m listening.” He replied curiously.
“Tell me all about my mama, the good and the bad. I wanna hear it all daddy… pleaseee.” She begged.
He smiled at his baby girl looking like her mama’s twin. “I guess I do owe you that huh?” he smiled.
She nod her head. “You do.”
QUA knew he was a sucker for her already but he didn’t mind. “Aiight, so her name was Tasha… and it went a little something like this…” He reminisced and day one and took her back to the beginning. It was their truth, her truth, on thing was for sure; there would never be another Tasha.
The End!
A Note From The Author
What’s up ya’ll. First I want to thank you all for supporting me with this release and throughout my journey. I wanted to give ya’ll a book that was real and relatable. I discover that my creativeness goes to another place when I’m writing about things that I can relate to. Growing up in the hood, I’ve seen a lot of things. I’ve met a lot of victims. I knew a lot of Pepper’s, Tru’s, Qua’s, and especially Tasha’s. A lot of times people don’t want to talk about HIV and how it affects people. They are afraid to talk about depression and how real it is but it is very real. I hope this story was able to touch someone somewhere. I hope that it was able to help someone. If you know someone suffering from depression, diseases, or anything else please help them get the proper help or counseling they may need. Everybody isn’t as strong as ‘a Tasha’. In this book she put a up a long hard fight but in the end, her fate would end up much different as we saw in this book. If you enjoyed this read… please tell a friend to tell a friend and also leave a review. Thank You- S.Yvonne.
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