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I knew Miami could be a grimy city, and damn near every nigga out here, you had to watch them, but I didn’t need a warning when it came to Dutch.

That nigga was like a father to me. He raised me.

When my grandma suddenly passed away, he could have been a green ass nigga, and allowed me to get put into the system, but he stepped up.

Out of the love that he had for my pops, and for me, he stepped up, and he raised me.

I am the man that I am because of him. I don’t let anyone get away with disrespecting me because of him.

At a young age, he taught me how to stand up for myself every single time.

He taught me structure. Gave me the platform for me to go out and be great.

I was put in private school because of him, where I was given the best education, so when it was time for me to go off to college, and then law school, I was already prepared because of the years of good education that was afforded to me.

Dutch will forever have the upmost respect from him, and I couldn’t thank that nigga enough.

“Yeah, aight” was my response to her each time that she would tell me to watch him.

A nurse had come in to check on her, and when she saw that I was standing, she came back with a chair for me, and she sat it right next to my mama.

For a few minutes, we sat in silence. The boys were on their phones, allowing that to take up their attention, and I really was just watching my mama’s every move.

I think that picture with Dutch had aggravated the fuck out of her because she never got past folding the leggings.

I could tell by the way she was picking up her speed, getting aggressive with the folding that she was upset. She turned her head and looked at me. Her brown eyes looked sad, and a little helpless.

“Watch him,” she said it again.

“You always tell me to watch him, but you never give me a reason why. Give me one reason ma,” I replied, not even knowing why I was entertaining this shit with her, but I was.

“When I dream of Knox, and that night, I dream of Dutch too,” she replied.

I didn’t want her to feel like I was fuckin with her, not believing her, even though I didn’t, so I chose to keep quiet about it.

My mama could say some wild, off the wall shit.

A few times that I’ve been here, she would come up with these drastic stories.

One time, I remember coming to see her, and she was lying in bed.

The nurse had come in, just to pull the blanket up on her that she had wrapped around her body, and my mama started screaming, saying that the nurse was trying to suffocate her.

I’ve heard her saying that the walls were moving.

Sometimes, she didn’t want to walk on the floor because she would think the floor would collapse up under her.

Don’t even get me started on the times that I’ve come, and she would think that I was my pops.

I just knew the lengths that her mind could go, so the shit that she was saying about Dutch, I wasn’t going to entertain it.

We stuck around for almost two hours. In those two hours, she never finished folding the load of clothes that was on the bed.

Her nurse came in with lunch, and she picked over it, just like I knew she would.

Before leaving, I hugged her this time. I’ve been coming down here to see her for years, and I don’t think she’s ever hugged me back whenever I would hug her.

As a kid, I used to think that she hated me because of the resemblance that I had of my father.

She wouldn’t really talk to me. When I got older, and Dutch bought me a car at 16, I would make it my business to drive out here and see her.

A lot of people don’t know this, but I would come so much, in hopes that she would get used to me, and she wouldn’t hate me.

I figured that if I was in her face, and she saw me a lot, she would soften up.

As a little boy, and even as a grown man, all I ever wanted was for my mama to wrap her arms back around me when I would hug her.

I needed that. Here I am, a thirty-eight-year-old man, and I finally got it.

Both her arms wrapped around me, and she damn near squeezed me.

About fifteen seconds had gone by, and she finally let me go.

“Watch him,” she said that shit again, sounding like a broken record. I didn’t respond to it this time. I just kissed her on her cheek, and I stepped back, moving out of the way, so that the boys could come over, and they could hug her, and we would be on our way.

They finished, and we left the room. I walked in the middle, while each of them walked on either side of me.

“Why she kept saying to watch Dutch?” Legend wanted to know.

“She always says that. Ion know. She be tripping,” I let him know.

“You think it’s some truth in that?” Legend asked a follow up question.

His question made me pause. I took the time to reflect.

Every moment that I had with this nigga from the moment he took me in at eight years old, up until now.

The fishing trips, the way that nigga used to spoil me, never missing any kind of school function, the life lessons, all that shit.

My mind flooded with all those things, and my eyes dragged over to Legend, so that I could answer his question.

“Nah. I don’t,” I responded, and he nodded his head, dropping it.

From there, we walked back to the car in silence.

It was a Friday, but the boys didn’t have school today, so they were hanging with me.

They wouldn’t go back with Yaya until Monday, after school.

I had some shit to handle at the office today, but I would only be there for a few hours.

The boys had their phones and shit, and whenever I would bring them into the office with me, they would either lounge around in my office space, chill in one of the meeting rooms, if a meeting wasn’t going on, or find one of the study rooms. The study rooms would usually be a place that they would go when the two of them had homework.

As I was driving, my work phone started ringing. It was my assistant, Tionna, hitting me. Seeing her name flashing on the screen, caused me to turn the radio down in the car, so that I could answer. I slid the bar across, answering the phone for her, and I placed it to my ear.

“T, what’s good?” I answered.

“Hey, Mr. Crawford. I know your probably on your way back to the office, after visiting your mom. I was trying to wait until you got here, but they kept calling, and their persistent. You know that rapper Reggie, right? He got caught up in a Rico sweep late last night. His manager, his mom, and almost everyone that’s affiliated with him keeps calling.

They only want you to represent him. I told them that you were out of the office right now, and that you could get back to them once you got in, but they aren’t trying to hear that.

I have his mom on the other line. Mr. Crawford, can I please merge you, so that you can talk to her?

” Tionna asked, damn near begged. I could hear the aggravation all in her voice. They had her stressed the fuck out.

I knew who Reggie was. I didn’t know him personally, but I knew of the nigga.

My boys listened to his music. He was a hot rapper from the Broward County area.

He was Yaya’s client. Because the boys loved him the way that they did, a few months ago, when Yaya knew that he had to come down to her firm, she made sure that she brought the boys with her, and they still talked about that shit till this day.

They were amped that they got to meet one of their favorite rappers.

That lil nigga could spit. I would have his shit blasting in my ears whenever I would be at the gym.

What I liked about him was that he wasn’t rapping about the average shit that niggas would rap about.

Every song didn’t require him getting in the booth, talking about all the hoes he’s fucked, all the money he had, and the nice cars and shit that he pushed.

He was a lyrical rapper, that spoke on shit about the problems in society, and the fucked-up people that were in higher power, calling the shots.

Young nigga, but he was smart. He was from the hood, so he was a product of his environment, still hanging with the same kind of friends that didn’t mean him any good, but you could tell he was trying to change his ways, and get away from them.

I had so much shit on my plate right now though.

Big court cases that I had coming up. The biggest one was the case that I had with Justin, my juvenile client.

Justin’s case had been pushed back twice.

I was upset with the push back because every time it was pushed back, it forced him to have to sit a little longer.

I needed his mom to take the stand because I was going to force her ass to be a key witness.

I wanted her to speak on the abuse, hospital records, and even dental records when that nigga knocked her teeth out.

It’s just we couldn’t get the fuckin subpoena served to her.

She was ducking everybody at this point.

The number that we had for her it’s been changed, and she wasn’t at her address either.

She obviously didn’t know who the fuck I was, and how I didn’t stop until I got my way.

I was able to hire a private investigator, so she was caught slipping, coming out of the nail salon, where she was properly served.

Now that she was served, her ass was legally obligated to come to court.

With that taken care of, Justin’s court date was coming up in a few weeks, and this time, nothing should come in the way of me having to push it back again.