Page 113 of Rah

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RAH

I’d been sitting in that trap car so long my ass had gone numb. The engine was off, the windows were blacked out, and my breath was fogging the glass. It was cold, but the rage kept me warm. I knew their routine down to the minute. Kahlani and Moses moved the same every morning. I was waiting for him to step outside so I could finish what he started.

When they came out, I watched through the tint like a man reading the last line of a Snellen chart. Kahlani walked out first with Trent’s hand in hers. Moses followed, visibly watching his back because he knew I was coming eventually. He strapped Trent in the back of Kahlani’s car and kissed the baby’s head.

“Yeah, that’s your last time kissing your son, nigga.”

He closed the back passenger door, kissed Kahlani, then went to his car.

I let him pull off. Then I followed him, slow and carefully, off the block.

I knew the block well. I knew where cars piled up at thestop sign every morning. That point was perfect to light his car up. I kept distance and watched his brake lights. My hand sat on the piece in my lap. As we approached the stop sign and cars began to line up, I eased up beside him, matching his crawl. I slid the window down a hair and let the barrel find his temple through the seam.

Everything narrowed to that tiny tunnel of metal and skin and the soft rise of his neck when he breathed. My finger found the trigger. I could hear my pulse in the barrel.

Then sirens cut through the morning. A cruiser screamed up behind us with lights spinning, and everybody slammed on brakes and jerked to the curb to get out of its way. I had to move with the flow. The barrel went heavy in my hand, and I shoved the piece back into my lap, then into the holster, pissed that my kill had been disturbed. I followed at a distance, heart hammering, but Moses got on a side street up ahead and peeled off before I could close the gap. By the time the traffic cleared, and I tried to cut through, he was gone.

I’d been forced to wait.

AALIYAH

“Oh my God, you’re okay!”

I looked at Brenda, my mother’s nurse, like she was crazy as she rushed towards me.

“Huh?” I questioned her.

But she didn’t answer me. She just threw her arms around me as soon as I was in arm’s reach.

When she sighed with relief, I asked, “What are you talking about?”

“Shirley, the receptionist, said that something happened to you.”

“Why would she think that?”

Brenda let me go, saying. “Your boyfriend came up here.”

My heart started to pound so hard that I thought it was going to come out of my chest.

“When she asked where you were, he said that that’s what he was coming up here to talk to your mother about. When she asked him were you okay, he said that he would prefer to talk to her first. We thoughtsomething was wrong.”

Brenda watched as fear washed over me and turned my fair skin white. “You let him in the room to see her?”

“Well, yeah,” she answered, sounding concerned.

“Oh my God,” I breathed as I rushed towards my mother’s room.

I could feel Brenda behind me and hear her concern. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?!”

I couldn’t speak through the fear, worry, and my tight chest.

Finally at my mother’s room, I walked through the open door. She was standing in the middle of the floor. She looked so confused as she paced back and forth.

I sighed, realizing that today wasn’t a good day for her.

I raced towards her and grabbed her hand. “Mama?”