Page 92 of Rah

I guess she had seen me drifting off to that same place where I feared what my future would be.

“You can’t go to jail for this,” she went on. “It’s not fair. The world can’t be that messed up that Rah gets to be free after everything he’s done to the people that love him, but you have to be punished for taking up for your child. There is no way that you deserve that. It’s going to work out for you.”

I sighed deeply, refusing to bust her bubble of faith. Instead, I tried to believe just as much as she did. “I hope so, girl. Ireallyhope so.”

MOSES

With a lazy grin, Smoody slid into my hospital room with a paper bag folded under his arm. He sank into the chair by my bed and laid the bag on the serving tray, crowding the cold, untouched hospital food they’d tried to pass off as lunch. “Here’s your cut.”

I eased into the pillows, sore as hell, yet I still managed a smirk. “Good lookin’, bro. I appreciate you for holdin’ shit down while I been stuck in here.”

Smoody waved me off like I was talking crazy. “Nigga, what? You think I wasn’t gon’ keep it moving? You trippin’. This your blueprint. I’m just following the plans ‘til you back on your feet.”

I nodded, appreciating his loyalty. “Still… Means a lot.”

He shrugged as he settled deeper into the chair. “The internet still goin’ nuts about your shooting. The whole city talkin’. It’s all kinds of hashtags, fake R.I.P. posts, and blogs acting like they know what happened.” He shook his head,chuckling at the fandom. “Same way they did with Duck, Pop Smoke, and FBG Cash. The streets don’t let a nigga breathe even when he fighting for it.”

I sucked in a slow breath. The sound of those names hit me hard. There had been too many young kings that were gone. Too many caskets lowered too soon. I wasn’t ready to be another one on that list.

“My homies keep blowing up my phone,” Smoody went on. “They want names. They want to slide. They already talking about getting payback.”

I stared at the ceiling, feeling the anger burning through the fog of pain meds. “Nah. That’s my job. I’m the one who gotta do it.”

Smoody’s eyes narrowed. “You saying you already know who did it?”

I clenched my jaw, forcing my face blank. “Nah, but when I find out, I’m handling it myself.”

Smoody studied me for a long second, then nodded, like that was good enough.

All I could think about was killing Rah. I wasn’t about to let anyone else take that shot but me.

In the Bible, Moses was a songwriter. After Moses split the Red Sea and the children of Israel crossed the land, he removed his staff and the waters closed up, drowning the Egyptian army. To celebrate their escape, God instructed Moses to write down a song that He had composed, which became known as, “The Song of Moses”.

As I lay in that hospital bed, I felt the need to write some music. Even though the last thing I wanted to do when Igot out of this hospital was follow my rap dreams, the natural ability to write what I was feeling out on paper couldn’t be controlled. As usual, I needed to lash out on paper. But as I wrote the song, “The Song of Moses,” I knew that the song would never be heard by anyone other than me. Being a rapper was a dream that had been drilled into me by Rah. Before then, I didn’t have any dreams to be much of anything. I didn’t know what I wanted to be or how I was going to be it. All I knew was hustling, but I didn’t want to do that forever.

Rah had talked me into turning my talent into fame and riches. But I had ridden that cloud with Rah for long enough, though. It was time to hang up those delusions, cut ties with Rah, and just focus on my bag and my family.

It was funny how, when I was in the darkest moment and had given up on my rap career, I wrote the coldest chorus of my life. Then the verses that I wrote along to it were sick. I damn near wanted to give this rap thing a second shot, but I chopped it up as a classic that would be for my ears only. Because of Rah’s lies, rap stopped being my escape and became a burden I no longer wanted.

Just as I was closing out the last verse, there was a knock at the door.

“Come in.”

The door opened, and Kahlani and Trent came in.

“Hey, babe.” Kahlani greeted me as she walked towards me and gave me a slow peck on the lips. My dick jumped. I had been in that hospital bed for too long. Now that I was starting to feel less pain in my stomach where I had taken the shot, I was starting to feel more pain in my dick from the throbbing. I wanted to get of that bed so that I could get home to my baby and put this dick in her.

She looked good all the time, but lately she had beenlooking exceptionally good to me. Her body was the reason she had caught my eye in the first place. Since she had been back and forth from work, taking care of Trenton by herself, and spending the rest of her time in the hospital with me, she hadn’t had time to put on makeup and curl her hair. But her simple bun, that looked to have been slept on, and bare face was so fucking gorgeous to me. Her beige complexion was so flawless that I didn’t see why she ever felt the need to wear any makeup to cover it. But when she did, it enhanced her, making her look like a baddie.

“What are you looking at?” Kahlani asked as she caught me staring at her.

Watching her get Trenton settled made me admire shorty even more. She was beautiful. But what made her even more attractive was her dedication to me and Trenton. As I watched her remove his coat and give him his tablet to play on, I think I fell in love with her all over again. Beauty was one thing, but loyalty and dedication was a different breed.

Finally, she looked up at me, waiting for an answer. I smiled big as hell and told her, “You.”

She blushed and said, “You better stop.”

My eyebrow touched my forehead. “Or what?”