Page 29

Papa Inferno

Recommendation: Listen to I Miss You by Aaron Hall

There was something about when someone came for your family, and you sent a bullet into their head. When I made it back home, I sat on the couch and slept like a baby after taking my brother’s life.

He allowed jealousy and the lack of communication to consume him.

So much so that he decided to try and take out his nephews.

I probably would have respected him more if he decided to do it himself instead of sending his flunkies to do it.

Polo thought he was sitting back and calling all the shots.

It was him who sent Devils to Blaze and Capri’s house, and then it was him who sent some fucking randoms to Kobe’s house.

They wanted Blair, and it was time for her to go into hiding.

She and Quasim needed to get out the city and lay low so she could have a healthy pregnancy.

Hassan had been keeping me up to date on my grandbaby.

I knew she didn’t want another person forcing her to eat, so I just kept a watchful eye on her while Gams made sure she was eating enough.

I could hear Quasim’s voice complaining about us not being on top of her health.

We had no choice but to lay low after what happened on Kobe’s block and the expressway.

The only proof they had on video was of those that were in the cars.

Even then, the footage wasn’t good because they were all trying to get the hell out of the way.

The one concrete video that had been floating was the corvettes, and Sonny wasn’t worried about it. All the news kept saying is that there was a street race that went wrong, but with no other proof, what the fuck could they do?

Sonny already said that bitch Lucia had come to him and questioned him about the street race. He told that bitch to suck his dick and get the fuck from his property. Lucia was only doing her job because she had Capri on her ass.

My bike was fucked up and in the shop because of a bent wheel, so I was driving my car. My boys were just like me, never wanting to drive and always on their bikes. Putting the car in park, I leaned my head back and looked out the windshield.

“Any reason we couldn’t take my truck? Asked to pick me up like you were gonna be driving something other than this old shit,” Des broke the silence.

I looked over at him. “You had the option to decline the fucking ride… right?”

Des chuckled. “Hard ears.”

His ass was forever saying some Bajan saying that I never understood. Between him and Jean, me and Mina used to be confused. They always had a saying or a term that made complete sense to them and none to us.

I pointed to Ezra standing where his brother had been buried not too long ago. Evan called me and told me his brother put him on a plane to Miami, without giving him a say. While Evan didn’t understand his brother’s reasonings, I understood.

Ezra blamed himself for his brother’s death, and he didn’t want to lose another brother. As much as he was in pain and wished he could bring his brother back, he also knew he couldn’t handle it if he lost Evan, too.

From the scattered stories I heard, Evan and Ellis were going away to college. It was Ezra who refused to go because he had plans on making money. He wanted to make sure their grandmother was taken care of because their father passed, and I wasn’t sure the story on their mama.

His brothers decided to stay back from college and run the streets with their older brother. I could see why he blamed himself for it, and why he was pushing his brother away. Niggas got connected to this world because the allure of the success and money they witnessed.

They never see the sacrifice and loss that you experience for that money and success. For that nice ass whip, you had to sell your soul, one way or another.

Living this life was what had me kill my younger brother. It wasn’t a glamorous life, and you often found yourself in the prison visiting room or the cemetery more often than you wanted.

“Evan called me and told me that he’s worried about Ezra.”

Des ran his hand over his face. “Shit, I’m worried about both of them… their grandmother damn near jumped in the grave and then blamed him.”

“Before she said that shit, I could tell he felt the same way.”

“Don’t matter if he felt it… she confirmed it for him, which made it worse.”

Me and Des remained in the car for a minute, watching him. “The fuck is he doing?”

Ezra had gone into a duffle bag and was putting blankets and shit on the dirt. His burial wasn’t that long ago, so there was still dirt everywhere and the grass hadn’t started to grow yet. His headstone hadn’t even been made.

Des hopped out the front seat and walked slowly over toward where Ezra was, fixing the blanket like he was tucking his brother in. I followed behind him with my hands tucked into my hoodie.

“Ezra, you alright?” Des spoke first.

I knew when to stand down and allow Des to lead. He was better at this shit than me. The man had a heart as cold as ice, but somehow, he had mastered turning it warm for those he loved and cared about.

Ezra turned around with this lost look in his eyes. He looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks, and he was skinner. His hair wasn’t neatly braided like usual; his new growth had formed an afro on top of his braids.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m straight… just making sure Ellis is warm… nigga always is cold. You know we lowkey anemic?” He broke out into laughter. “Bro, Evan would fuck me up if he knew I said that… told me to stop telling people we anemic because they gonna call us sick.”

Des looked at me. “How you got here, Ezra?”

The sound of grass and leaves crushing under shoes made me turn. “Hey Papa and Des… he was drinking, and I didn’t want him to drive, so I drove him.” Kaia responded and stood next to me.

“Your aunt knows you out here, Kaia?”

She shook her head no, and I should have known that Kiki didn’t know she was out here. Kaia was Kiki’s older brother’s daughter, and because he was serving time up top, she was responsible for her.

“I had a few shots… nothing major. This knuckle head was telling me he was cold, so I brought his favorite hoodie and the blanket our moms gave us… damn, it’s getting dirty.”

“He’s manic,” Des stated as we watched him try to clean the dirt off the blanket that he had laid out on the dirt.

“How long he been like this, Kaia?”

She sighed. “When I picked him up from Fern. We were texting and he said he was going to ride his bike to visit Ellis. Said he needed to bring his hoodie and stuff, so I was worried and came to bring him.”

Des walked over toward him and put his hand onto his shoulder. “He’s gone, Ezra… I know that shit is hard to believe, but he’s gone.”

Ezra snatched away from him, stumbling some as he looked up at Des, betrayed that he told him the truth. “He’s not wrong, Ezra… I know this shit hurts, but he’s not here no more.”

It was one thing for Des to say it, and another for me to confirm what he had said. “The fuck kind of shit is this? I come to fucking bring my brother a coat and I’m the bad guy… the fuck? Kaia, we out… give me the keys.”

“I can’t give you the keys, E.” Kaia whispered, her heart breaking because he looked the most betrayed by her.

“You serious? All those times I been there for you going through your father being gone… you do me like that, Kaia?”

She started crying because she felt like she was betraying him. I roped my arm around her shoulder and walked her back to my car. As far as I knew, her ass had a learner’s permit, so she shouldn’t have been out here in her aunt’s whip in the first place.

“I know he’s hurting, and I wish I could help him. Papa, I don’t know what to do for him,” she racked her brain on how she could help him.

“Kaia, there is nothing that you can do for him. He has to feel that shit and go through it… nothing that you can do.”

I held the door open for her, and she got in. “My aunt is going to kill me.”

“Taking her new Lexus truck… hell yeah, she gonna kill you.”

She folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “I’m not a child anymore and she doesn’t understand that. I’m eighteen and she pretends like I’m that little girl…. Both her and my father do.”

I didn’t sign up to be giving life lessons to the youth. Especially since I had just taken my own brother’s life, so my advice was jaded as fuck. Leaning down while she sat in the passenger seat of my whip with her arms folded, I stared at her.

“I’ve known Keno for a long time… and he just wants to protect you. There was a time when he didn’t think he would have children and look at you now. You are his pride and joy and like every parent, he wants to protect you.”

Kaia’s mother was alive and had moved on with her life. She never wanted to be a mother, and Keno took over the responsibility of raising their daughter. I wasn’t sure what her relationship was with her mother these days, but I do know that Keno loved his sister and daughter.

“He missed everything.”

I didn’t smoke this morning, so I didn’t have much to give in this moment. We had this nigga putting all his brother’s clothes on his grave, and acting like everything was cool, and now she wanted to have a damn therapy session about her father being locked up.

“Call your aunt and tell her I’m gonna bring you home… and stop giving her a hard time… you see your mom step up? Yeah… stop giving her ass a hard time.” I pointed at her, and she pouted even more as I slammed the door and trekked back across the grass to where Ezra was in full blown tears.

Des held onto him as he would have his own sons. He allowed him to cry and get all he had been feeling out of him. I could tell he had been trying to be strong for his brother, but the fact remained they both lost someone.