The sun held high over Francis Lewis Park in Queens. Children played with each other under watch of their parents. Unknown to them, a young man in the tallest tree rested on branches, also watching. A couple sat on a bench beneath the tree.
"Are you scared of him growing up?" The man asked. "I am: there's a whole world out there he has to survive."
"Honey, you've got one hell of a job, good savings, a family to support him, and me. There's nothing to worry about."
"What about him? How is he going to get all of that on his own? I barely know how I did."
She held his shoulder. "We'll help him, no matter how many times he fails. Even if one of us has to get him a job, buy him ETFs, and marry him off."
"But is it really his life if we decide everything for him?"
"If he can't take control, we should. He is our son."
"Still, I'm not sure."
"Was getting to this point easy? Do you really think anyone can do what you did? There's probably dozens of other guys who failed. They maybe got in an accident, didn't meet the right girl, or were born into some shitty poor family."
"Honey!"
She laughed. "What? It's true. Some people are just born into failure. Nothing they do matters, people don't care about them, their parents either died without money or left without caring, they can't decide what they want in life, they work jobs they hate, they commit crimes to get by, and they die, alone and unhappy. Not us, and sure as hell not our boy. Things are going to go well for him, no matter how he turns out. It's just how things work."
"…I guess you're right. He shouldn't go through what I went through, but can I make him the man he should be without all that?"
"He'll be his own man."
"I hope."
"He will."
Kojo frowned. "Is that so?" He whispered. He fell out of the tree and landed on his feet. "Is that so?" He dug his fingers into his palms before hopping to another tree.
Twelve minutes passed by and the couple's child was behind a pine tree.
A red and black shadow dropped down.
The child froze.
"Hey." Kojo looked him in the eyes as he swung his hand through the boy's abdomen, taking care to avoid the spine. "Try to die a man."
He looked down at his insides easing out of him. His eyes widened and filled with tears. Then his lips parted.
Kojo's hand clamped over his mouth before pushing him against the tree trunk.
Tears streamed down the child's cheeks.
"…You can't be serious." Kojo scowled. "Are you fucking crying? You little shit, I just cut you open. If I wanted to, you'd be bleeding all over the grass. Stop it."
The salt scented liquid only flowed stronger.
"I was bleeding while you were rubbing bruises. I was getting shot while you were getting pricked by needles. I was killing gangbangers while you were playing with your food…. And you're crying over something you could easily survive." Kojo grit his teeth. "I'm the failure? You're the one dying here."
The child's eyes pleaded his case where he could not.
"Do you have any idea how many people have asked me to spare them? I don't." Kojo's hand clenched.
The child's head toppled off its lower jaw.
Kojo hopped away before anyone noticed to a building the opposite street of the park.
It took a few minutes for the children his victim was playing hide & seek with to find the corpse. Their screams attracted everyone else. Parents covered their children's eyes, children were either repulsed or interested by the sight, and the parents of their child shrieked their hearts out.
"Looks like someone died alone and unhappy," Kojo said with a smirk. "Oh well. He was just born a failure." He lifted his bloodied hand and froze as his tongue touched it.
He did it again.
"No… I'm not… I didn't mean to…" His hands dug into his palms. "It happens. What's one more dead kid?" It doesn't matter." Kojo began to shake. "But if it doesn't matter…. If it doesn't matter…" He fell to his knees and held up his bloodied hands. "Damn it. Damn it! If they just didn't… Fuck!" He thumped back-first on the flat roof.
The sky held high above.
Kojo stared and lost himself in it.
How things never changed, no matter how much he wanted them to.