Page 2 of Grand Master

I watched him since I was born, I also watched grown men sweat bullets just from hearing his name. Pops wasn’t big in size, but he was the kind of big that silenced a room just by standing in it and breathing.

In Pops eyes I lived two lives, one was learning the streets from him, and the other was in my self-made ran down lab.

It was my escape, something that made me feel like the kid that I always wanted to be.

I had fun creating different things and I also had high hopes of creating something for the community that could save people. Especially from drugs.

I saw it firsthand from Pops, I wanted to save him but was too young for him to take direction from.

If I spoke about all my aspirations and the things that I dreamed of to him, he’d think it was too far-fetched.

Then my sweet and beautiful mother, Josephine, was far gone but I never lost my faith in saving her.

I felt in my young heart that I would one day be somebody, I just didn’t know who.

“Go get bitch ass, Rosco. I want y’all to drag me to my room and let me get high.” He coughed up blood and closed his eyes for a couple of seconds.

“You can’t do that!” I yelled at him in disbelief.

“The board is yours now Kenny! Remember, the closest to you will be the ones to take you out. I’m too much of a real man to let a pussy peasant try me. Take me to my room, go get that bitch—I-” Pops coughed and shook his head from side to side like he was in denial that his time was near.

The back door opened, and it all made sense suddenly, at first, I didn’t know what I walked up on with Pops and didn’t understand how fast he was attacked.

Rosco stood at the back door with a blank look on his face.

He tucked his gun in the small of his back and moved at his own pace like he’d already heard what Pops had said.

He planned this shit! He set pops up! The boards to the back door were removed and that in itself wasn’t an easy task.

He had to have removed them little by little for the perfect time to make a move on Pops.

That crack head bitch was a part of the plan, and it all worked out in Rosco’s favor.

“Don’t just look stupid dummy, help me get this fool inside.” Rosco smirked at me.

He always looked at me like I wasn’t worth the acknowledgement.

He had a look of victory behind his icy eyes.

I didn’t know why I felt a sudden shift that made me feel like I was going to lose my bowels soon.

I looked down and spotted a rose crimson glass pipe that was next to Pops, which would usually be in his hand with no shame.

The crack was never a problem for him. I done seen him geeked up and still outsmart a room full of dope boys.

He’d count money fast as hell higher than giraffe pussy and if one of his men came up a cent short it was over for them.

“The board! Kenric!” Pops wide eyes misted over momentarily before turning back cold.

I didn’t know what the fuck that meant. I just knew he was dying and there was nobody here besides Rosco to assist me.

Rosco had his next moves planned out, I needed to think quickly to save my father and myself.

Swallowing down my fear was a hard task.

I watched Rosco go to work, as he grabbed Pops by his shoulders gripping each side of his cotton tee.

He dragged him like he was weightless without my help.

I stood up and felt like I was in a fucking movie.

Each footstep was heavier than the next as I walked through the back door following the blood that led towards Pops room.

Rosco laid Pops on the floor on his side, then handed him a glass pipe already stuffed with crack. Pops weakly took the lighter from Rosco with blood still spilling from his gut and lit it.

“I’m gone get a first aid kit, talk with your Pops before I get back. I told you to tell him to lay low.” He chuckled dryly and walked away. His steel toe boots stomped out of the room leaving the door wide open.

Pops coughed violently, as the sound of his lighter going on and off as he inhaled as much of the poison as he could, pained me.

The stench of crack almost suffocated me; I could never bring myself to watch so I turned towards the window and gazed out of it trying to figure out something since Rosco was still playing a fraud ass role. What was next?

I looked out the window and that’s when my eyes landed on an owl perched on a busted streetlight.

Its feathers ruffled in the breeze; its head tilted like it was listening to my father’s last breaths.

White face, black eyes, staring through the cracked glass at me like it already fuckin’ knew me.

Like it was waiting to see if I was gonna fold.

Owlette… I looked at it for a minute too long.

I thought back to the potent lab flower that I created and studied.

It was beautiful and as white as the cocaine bricks my Pops distributed from city to city.

My Pops started shaking, coughing up blood all over his lips.

I ran to his side and eyed the glass pipe next to him.

Kneeling down, I listened to him mumble prayers to a God he never believed in until the reaper came knocking.

What the fuck is really going on? I asked myself over and over because something wasn’t right.

Pops was hurt and out of his mind. The shift that I felt turning my stomach inside out was inevitable.

It felt like my world was spinning out of control until a calm came over me.

I locked eyes with him and released the one tear that dropped painfully from my right eye. Something inside of me told me to accept that this was my last moment with him. It hurt like hell but there was no escaping this.

I ain’t never been proud of Pops but never been ashamed of him either. I loved him, then sometimes hated him, especially for how he did my momma. Most of all I studied him and planned on studying him a little harder until I got of age to navigate my own life.

“Take it, K-Kenny…” He choked out eyes rolling with a smile on his face.

“Take the fuckin’ board, don’t let bitch ass Rosco manipulate your mind.

He wants me to die a painful death, I’m happy.

You got it all Kenric, the board, money, power…

make sure your momma is good and tell her I love her pretty chocolate ass.

” His hand twitched as it slowly opened.

His hand was empty, but it felt like he intended to pass me something.

Maybe it was the board he kept blabbering about.

The room door hit the wall, sweat glistened on Rosco’s bald head, his gun was tucked in his waistband.

He didn’t plan on using his gun because he was confident in the damage the fiend already did to Pops.

Rosco already looked at my Pops like he was nothing more than a distant memory.

The look of triumph mirrored his face, and it made me sick to my stomach.

He was going to be the man responsible for knocking Pops off his high horse.

He approached us and spit on the floor right next to Pops head.

“Hope you got your last words with this lil pussy ass boy of yours.” He nodded towards me.

He’ll be the first to take Pops out, but I’ll be the one who makes sure he can’t live to tell the story. I thought. Rosco thought I was weak and didn’t have the nuts to protect myself.

Pops tried to grab at Rosco, but he kicked him back then laughed.

Rosco pulled his gun next and pressed it to my Pop’s forehead.

I should have remained scared, should have begged and cried but I didn’t.

I looked back out the window at the owl, and it blinked, tilting its head again and I swore that bitch nodded at me.

Rosco didn’t pay me any attention, that’s when a chess piece moved in my head and the board that my Pops kept talking about came alive, 3D alive in my head. He thinks shit is sweet and easy! I ain’t letting him murder us both! Fuck no!

I moved. Rosco didn’t see it fast enough.

I grabbed the rusted revolver from under the mattress, the same one Pops told me never to touch unless I was ready to die with it in my hand.

It was heavy, cold, like the air in the room.

I lifted that bitch with shaking arms, aimed it at Rosco’s head while he was laughing all in my Pops face.

He pulled the trigger on Pops at the same time I pulled the trigger on him.

Boom!

His blood shot out and hit the wall close to the door.

Next his body dropped with twitching legs.

Rosco’s eyes were wide open in shock. My ears rang, but I could still hear my Pops gurgling on his own blood.

How is he still alive, I looked at the hole in his chest. Rosco shot Pops right in the heart, if I didn’t shoot him in enough time Pops head would have been next.

“Yeah…yeah…” Pops breath rattled as he whispered the words out. I wanted him to say more to me. Tell me all about the board that he mentally controlled for so many years.

He died seconds later; his blood mixed with Rosco’s blood that was next to him.

I stood there, breathing hard, the gun still warm in my hand.

I looked out the window, the owl was gone, but I felt it.

Like it was inside of me now, his eyes were as sharp as mine, his feathers rustled inside of me.

It felt like the owl’s wings stretched out in the dark part of my chest that I used to be scared to release.

I felt the board in my hands, felt the power in the smoke that still clung to the barrel of the revolver.

I vowed to stop being the prey and become the predator. I had no choice but to step up and master my very own chess board then became the Grand Master. Unstoppable.