Chapter Twelve

Huey Freeman was pissed. They had a thirteen hour road trip going to D.C. going on, and the passengers in his car were already acting like they had lost their minds after three hours. Riley kept whining about stopping at a rest room. Thomas Dubois continued to cry as though he wasn't the oldest member of the group. Michael Caesar, his best friend, even managed to annoy him by shouting out, "Brooklyn!" at the most irrelevant times. Even Jazmine was annoying him right now, humming along with almost every single song on the radio. Plus, Cindy just irked his nerves period. The least they could do was go to sleep, which was exactly what he asked them to do.

"Hell no! Do I look five to you?" Cindy asked after she lifted from Riley's chest.

"Mane what?" Riley cried out in his annoyed tone.

"I'm just saying that you need your rest," Huey sighed.

"Need our rest? We could die!" started hyperventilating for about the third time.

"Daddy," Jazmine snapped, "Nobody is going to die." She felt bad for not telling him that there actually was a possibility that would happen, but she knew her father couldn't handle knowing that. He couldn't even handle knowing that he was in imminent danger by association.

"We are!" Tom argued back.

"Stop it!" Huey spat angrily, "I'm trying to drive. Now listen. Nobody is going to die due to any government officials. If anybody dies, it will be because I finally killed you!"

"Nigga you gay! Shit, I'm going to sleep! All these gay ass niggas and shit!" Riley announced.

"Me, as well,"Tom announced as everybody sighed in relief, "What did you guys do that for?"

"I guess I will too," Jazmine began but paused when she saw Huey's eyes protest.

"And I'm gon sleep too! So me and my man can dream together!" Cindy snuggled closer to a grimacing Riley.

"I'll just," Caesar looked around him, "Mane! I'm going to sleep!"

After about an hour of silence, everybody but Huey and Jazmine had fallen asleep. Aside from the fact that quite a considerable amount of their passengers were snoring, the two found tranquility in the sound of their sleeping friends.

"Well, I-" Jazmine started to speak but Huey stopped her.

"I just wanted to ask you something before we do this," Huey said while keeping his eye on the road.

"You know I'm all ears, unless this is about me not fighting" Jazmine answered him with a sharp tone in a whisper.

"Why do you like me?" Huey blurted out before he could take it back.

"What?" Jazmine hadn't really expected this.

"Why do you like me?" Huey asked again as he sped up a little.

"Why wouldn't I?" Jazmine answered after a moment of thinking.

"Jazmine, I've always been an ass to you. Even when we were younger, I spent the majority of our friendship avoiding you like you were some sort of bubonic plague or something. I made you cry, and you told me how much you hated me. How in the hell could you like somebody like me?" Huey asked.

"Huey you weren't always an ass. I mean, yes, you had your moments, but I knew that you were only trying to help me. Besides, after every tear I shed, I came out fine," Jazmine shrugged, "And as for the avoiding me part, I just always thought that you thought I had cooties or something. I always thought you would grow out of it."

"Yeah, cooties," Huey snorted, "More like STDs."

"Anyways," Jazmine rolled her eyes at Huey's statement, "I guess you were different. Even though we were both kids, you treated me like an adult. You expected more from me than most adults did. Plus, you were actually pretty cute even if you did frown all the time as a kid."

"Wow, so you only liked me for my adolescent body," Huey said, though there was a hint of a small smile playing on his lips.

"Well, actually, I didn't notice it that much until we were about fifteen," Jazmine replied seriously.

"What?" Huey's eyes widened. He could have sworn that Jazmine had been checking him out at thirteen years old.

"Yeah, you were still mowing the lawn and stuff. One day I watched you from the window, and I was just like 'Wow, Huey is hot!'" Jazmine nodded enthusiastically.

"So you stalked me?" Huey was amused by the look on Jazmine's face. Some things never changed.

"No, that's not what I said," Jazmine finally replied as red completely shaded her cheek.

"Really?" Huey shot her a look.

"Huey!" Jazmine hissed back.

"Jazmine!" Huey rose an eyebrow holding back in his laughter as he studied her angry face. How in the hell did she get sexier?

"Look, the point is I really, really like you, " Jazmine told him before turning around.

"Just really, really huh?" Huey muttered.

"Huh?" Jazmine asked him before traveling off to sleep.

"Nothing," Huey said shaking his head.


Riley Freeman sat in the back of his brother's car. Huey had warned him that Granddad could be in danger – or dead. He hung his head down in shame. He and Granddad always fought, but he loved him. He and Granddad always had some sort of mutual respect. Even when Granddad beat his butt, he knew he could come to him for anything. Shit, he was realer than most of the other cats in the cut that he knew of. He had left Granddad to fucking die. That was cold man. Even if he didn't know it, even if he didn't get along with him all the time, even if he hated looking at that man's bare butt cheeks glistening in his face because he thought it was sexy, that didn't mean that he wanted him to get buried six feet under.

He didn't know how this was supposed to work either, them going to D.C. And behind all the cuss words and the antics, he prayed to God that everybody knew how he felt about them before they all died. He didn't want any of them getting hurt, not even Mr. Dubois' punk self. He knew that Huey would call him weak for even mentioning prayer in a sentence or even being worried, but Riley didn't care. He wasn't going out of this world without them knowing that he actually cared about them. And Cindy, he sighed deeply as he looked at her sleeping form, he had gotten on Huey's case about not telling Jazmine his true feelings, but he hadn't really told Cindy's his. In the past year, they had done it all together, and he couldn't even tell her how he truly felt about her. He loved her too much. He had wanted to wait, but now he wasn't even sure if he had time anymore.

When had things gone so wrong? Riley looked out the window before him, shaking his head. Why did things have to be this way? They were on the run for their lives, and he felt like crying or withering away against some wall, but he couldn't. He had to stay strong because he was a man. He couldn't show any signs of weakness. He was the one people were supposed to look up to. He wondered how in the hell Huey kept up with that revolutionary stuff because he knew that he couldn't do it. He felt unlucky as hell. He didn't even think that anybody could read his own brain because he locked it up. He had even lied about his ACT scores being a nineteen composite because his real scores weren't gangster enough for him to prosper on the streets. He had really gotten a thirty four his very first time. He didn't know what the big deal was. It was really just reading and shit. Nobody had even doubted his fake story either. He didn't know how to feel about that. He knew that he behaved as though he had no sense, but that didn't mean that he wasn't bright or anything. He just hated showing everybody else. They thought they could use a smart nigga. Colleges didn't care about him or his smarts half the time. They cared about the percentage increase to their own diversity rate. And his brother thought he didn't listen to him.

He listened a lot. He just sat back and watched. Riley had figured out the difference between his brother and himself a long time ago. He just never said anything when bad things happened. Some people needed to learn stuff on their own. Like Jazmine, for instance, the girl had been naïve as hell. Sometimes, she still could be. Huey always felt the need to tell her the truth unnecessarily. Everybody gave Huey credit for turning Jazmine into the hard ass chick she was now, but in reality, she had done it on her own after Sarah died. She had finally forced herself to be strong. Then again, did she really have a choice? He felt bad for the girl too. He knew what it was like to lose his mother. It hurt him real bad. For a minute, he wouldn't eat or sleep alone. He would run to her room to say good morning as a little kid and realize that she wasn't there. It had been one of the worst downfalls of his life. And Huey, at age seven, had taken it worst of all.

Contrary to popular belief, Huey had smiled and laughed once. The nigga had always been smart as hell too. His head was always stuck in a book when he wasn't playing with Cairo. Then, their momma had died that day in the car accident with their father. Losing one parent had been a painful, but when their mother had died the next day in the ICU despite all the prayers, Huey had declared his faith in god diminished. He never smiled again. Riley wasn't old enough to just really understand everything, but he did understand that his mom was never coming back and it hurt. On days like Mothers Day and Father's Day, he couldn't give his parents anything but flowers on their graves. He always felt jealous of the other kids who whined about their parents grounding them or some other little ass shit. At least their parents were alive! He knew Huey felt the same way.

"I know you're up, Riley." Huey told him as Riley snapped out of his trance.

"Oh." Riley couldn't think of much else to say.

"Look, about Granddad, we'll find him. I promise you that," Huey said as his fist clenched the wheel tightly.

Riley didn't know what to say.

"If we don't then it's my fault," Huey continued as he looked towards the street,"I just wanted you to know that-"

"Me too," Riley agreed without saying the three words aloud that they both wanted to say, "But we in this together. Not that Granddad ass gon die. Probably slipped his ass out of they hands anyway. All that damn body butter he put on," Riley joked.

"So..you lied huh?" Huey spoke up after a good twenty minutes of awkward silence.

"About what?" Riley asked him, confused.

"Your scores," Huey turned around to look at his brother.

"What about em?" Riley returned the gaze with a stubborn defiance that Huey knew all too well. He was just like his father sometimes.

"What about em?" Huey chuckled, "You got higher than I did! You got a 34!"

"Shhhhh! Don't say that aloud. People might think differently of me. My reputation might get ruined." Riley said shaking his hands with his words.

"That may not be a bad thing." Huey shrugged before he turned towards the opposite direction, leaving Riley to ponder his words.

Riley had grabbed a sketch pad and started drawing. His brother knew he was smart. He didn't think he was stupid. He felt like he had worth or something. Maybe his brother was right. Maybe a different swagger was needed. It wasn't like he had anything better in store for himself lately. The Bloods and the Crips were both some punks. The world had slammed him down way to many times to count, and he had way too many criminal charges for somebody his age. As he thought of all this, he scrawled two names in the corner of the photograph, R.I.P Renae Louise Smith Freeman and Hubert Percy Freeman. He let the tear roll down his eye as he drifted off towards dreamland.


"Robert Jebediah Freeman, we've been expecting you," The president chuckled.

"Who in the hell are you?" Robert exclaimed, stunned.

"You don't know who I am?" Tailor was actually stunned for once. How old was this man?

"No, and where am I?" Robert asked, confused.

Tailor felt like slapping the information back in the old man's head. He had explained this to the man at least a million times. He was really trying to be patient, but patience only got you so far. Sometimes, you had to act wrong to get the proper results. Robert Freeman was no exception.

"The interrogation room," Tailor rolled his eyes.

"Mane for what? Shit, everybody lies on they social security forms once in a while. I'm sure I'm not the first person to do it!" Granddad protested.

Tailor's eyebrows rose. People still did that?

"And yeah, I stole that one little candy bar from the store, but I didn't mean to. Honest!" Granddad laughed.

What the hell? Tailor ignored his better judgment and sniffed the man. Whoo! This dude was unbelievably high. It was a wonder that he wasn't floating on the table. He didn't know whether to laugh or beat the crap out of this man. He was holding him up. He only had about seven hours left before those damn kids got here, and Robert was just taking up his space. On the other hand, he could just use him as another distraction. He could buy him some time. After all, it wasn't like it would take a lot of work. The old fool could float his happy bohemian looking self to the room with Cairo for all he really knew. It wouldn't take him a lot of work.

"I know who you are," Robert told him matter of factly. He looked at him over the rims of his glasses at a shocked President Tailor.

"Doesn't everybody?" President Tailor quickly recovered. This man was old as dirt. There was no way in hell that he could remember who he really was.

"You that boy's daddy!" Robert shook his head in disappointment at the man, "I ain't that old or high boy. I practically helped raise yo' ungrateful ass. This has got to stop, Shawn."

"Those drugs finally settling in aren't they?" Tailor sneered even though he knew exactly what Robert was speaking of.

"You know exactly what the hell I'm talking about, Shawn. That boy went through some sort of pure hell after you left. The little baby adored you and his momma, and what did you do? You walked out of his momma's life- and his too!" The man's eyes were red, no doubt from whatever he had been smoking, but in reality, President Tailor knew he was right.

"Who is Shawn?" The president attempted to play dumb.

"Boy, keep on playing with me, and I swear to god I will beat your high yellow uppity negroe ass up and down until you turn purple and blue. Shit! You done blown up my house with the good porn in it! And you took my goddamn stash of weed? Shawn, stop being a bitch ass nigga and admit it. You know who we're talking about. Your son?" Granddad rose an eyebrow at him for emphasis.

"Is the past. Him and his whore of a mother," Tailor growled angrily.

"So because of his Mom's mistakes you walked out on him too?" Grandad shook his head,"Do you realize what he went through without you?"

"He turned out just fine," President Tailor snorted, "And since we may all die tomorrow, I just want you to know that the boy is much stronger than me. I know that much. He's way more of a man than I'll ever be. And sadly, I just don't care. I don't know whether to kill his ass or not. Part of me knows that he's my son, and I love him. Another part of me looks into his brown eyes and sees his whore of a mother. So what the hell do you want me to do? I think I hate his ass either way. And he had a mouth on him too! How did his mother deal with it?"

"First, all of us ain't dying tomorrow, so get that out of your head now. Second, his mother dealt with it by getting off her behind and doing what she had to do, which was raisng her son. Now, that may not be what you want to hear, but that's what she did. She got up and did what you couldn't. Excuse me, uppity nigga, she did what you wouldn't. How would America feel if they knew you walked out on your son? What kind of asshole does that? Cairo never ever forgave you either. In a way, he blames himself. Shit, it's your fault somehow. I know it is. I don't know what you told him before you left, but I know in my heart that he was the last person that saw you before you ran to parts unknown." Grandad said,

"Robert, I didn't. Not that it matters, I don't have anything to explain to you anyway," President Tailor's answer was final.

"Of course not. You have to answer to yourself first boy," Granddad was making a lot of sense for a high dude. He placed his hand on Tailor's shoulder. Tailor was about to tell him what really happened that night, but before he could, Robert Jebediah had fallen asleep on the table.

He thought back to the night of his departure from his old life. The night he had left his own son in tears.

August 11, 2008

"Baby, I'm home," Shawn Anderson had nudged his wife.

"That's nice baby. We should just sleep, you know?" She asked.

"Or we could, maybe fool around? Cairo's asleep you know." He traced a pattern around her body.

"No, I'm tired, Shawn." She said, but her voice told him much more than that.

She never wanted to do anything with him anymore. It had been almost a year since they had been intimate, and Lauren, his wife, acted like he disgusted her. She never even looked at him anymore. He had felt their marriage breaking apart for so long. He didn't know if he could even fix it at this point.

"You're always tired, Lauren." He muttered angrily.

"And what do you want me to do, huh?" Lauren had snapped as she suddenly had a very quick energy boost for such a tired person.

"I just want us to be the way we used to be Lauren. I want us to fix this distance between us," He was begging her. He was basically handing her his ego at the moment.

"But you can't. You aren't man enough to do it. You're always at work, and you expect me to be some goddamn stay at home mom or some shit!" Lauren had shrieked as she rose from the bed and paced.

"Lauren, I can't take time off. You know that. I'm lucky to have a job as it is," Shawn was pleading with her now.

"Lucky? You call this lucky? This is a joke! I never ever see you! I have dreams too you know! This is all your fault. If you hadn't have got me pregnant, I would be successful." She rolled her neck at him, and he wanted nothing more than to smack it back into place.

"Lauren, you were the one who said you wanted to watch Cairo, remember?" Shawn reasoned.

"And? I thought it would be temporary, but I guess I was wrong, huh?" His wife turned away from him.

"But you love spending time with Cairo!" Shawn objected as he wondered if his wife was pregnant again. Oh, they hadn't been intimate for over a year, so that was out of the window.

"I just don't think this is working out the way we planned," Lauren continued as she bit on her lip and turned around as she noticed what Shawn was staring at, "I can explain."

"It's a goddamn condom in our bed?" Shawn was so angry that he had to haul his arms back from hitting Lauren now.

"Baby,"

"Baby? Baby? Oh please! It's a fucking condom. No, it's three! Three fucking condoms?" He picked up the lamp and threw it into the air, not caring where it landed.

"Honey, I'm sorry, I was going to tell you," Lauren was sobbing her butt off now.

"No, you weren't," Shawn laughed bitterly, "Was it good? Did he treat you like the whore you are?"

"Yes, he did!" Lauren shot back, "He tried every position in the book, and I did too! I felt good for once in my life. He makes me feel amazing every single day that you're not here to do that for me! He's so manly. God, I love it when he just fucks me like the goddamn whore I am," She cackled.

"What the hell had gotten into you?" Shawn shouted as he took a portrait of their album and threw that too.

"A real dick," Lauren said matter of factly.

"Go to hell," Shawn spat angrily as he grabbed his suitcase.

"So you just gone walk out on me, huh?" Lauren took the bottle of alcohol he had practically inhaled out of his hand as she looked into his eyes and he could see that in a way she was truly sorry. Too bad that wasn't enough.

"Yes, I am," He moved past her and opened the bedroom door, but she threw herself at him and started kicking and screaming and begging him not to leave.

"Let me go!" He demanded.

"No! You're not leaving us," Lauren told him.

He looked into her eyes, "Watch me."

This time she didn't stop him as he walked out of the door.

He walked downstairs and caught his son Cairo downstairs.

"Son? " He asked him.

"Where are we going, Daddy?" Cairo had asked him as he gestured toward the suitcase with his little hands.

He hadn't answered.

"Are we going on a trip?" Cairo had asked him, "Am I going to get a t-shirt, a pen, and a snow globe?"

"Yeah, sure," Shawn had offered him some sort of weak smile.

"Daddy, I want to go with you," That's all that he heard. The rest of it was muffled.

"Daddy, please, please, please don't go," Cairo had begged him. His arms reached out for him, and Shawn had to turn away before he caved in.

"Daddy, I don't want to wake up and you're gone." Cairo was persistent. That made this harder.

"Go to bed, son," He told Cairo, trying to keep his voice strong for all of them.

"Daddy, don't. Please, please, please. I'll go with you! I'll be quiet, and I'll eat all my food. I'll even get a job, Daddy!" Cairo begged his father as he grabbed onto his dad's pants leg, the tears rolled down his face now.

"Take your high yellow ass to bed, Cairo! Your whore of a mother will find you a new damn daddy, but I can't deal with all of this anymore! I haven't felt like a man in ages! I haven't done shit with my life ever since you came along! It's not your fault, but you are a goddamn obstacle. Between you and your momma fucking around on me, I don't think I can deal with this shit anymore! I know you don't understand, Cairo, but one day you will. Maybe you can forgive me!" His dad had trailed away wondering why it was silent as he finally shut the door and allowed each tear to fall when nobody was looking.

He never got the chance to tell his son how sorry he was, and at the rate his life was going, he never would.


Haha! Told ya I'd be back! Like chapter twelve.

Shout Out to:

Shellie B. Thanks chica!

R&R peeps! Be on the lookout for chapter 13!