An expression of many words

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"Let's paint a picture of someone you love. Maybe, someone who's not with us anymore..."

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July 16th 2005

2:24pm Woodcrest, Maryland

"Why do niggas gotta steal my shine?"

A little cornrow headed boy practically squeaked at the tall white man with an afro perm. Someone, or many people in fact, stole his shine, they put their own labels on his work! And of course people wouldn't believe him if he said he did it. Shii, he's just a kid anyway.

He was still very determined to make people know it was him who did it. He took time into doing it. He likes art for gods sake! He turned around and gathered everyones attention "Eherm. This may come as a suprise, but...i'm the artist"

They all looked at the 8 year old blankly, then a second later, they all burst into laughter.

"oh yea, i painted it too!"

"yea me too! hahahaaa"

"you? Heh real funny kid, stop lying"

"Uhh, could you move? i'm tryna take a picture."

All he really wanted to be was noticed. All these people out here sayin this work isn't his, all of them convinced reezy didn't do this, he's just a kid. Even ruckus made fun of him from the side. His eyes started tearing up as he bawled his fists up in fury.

"BOY WHAT DID I TELL YOU BOUT LYIN?"

Riley looked up in shock. His grandad didn't even believe him? "B-but grandad, i-" Grandad had already grabbed him by the arm and began thrusting his belt at the boy.

"You-been-watching-too-much-television!" he scolded between beatings. Riley was at the brink of tears, why did nobody believe in him? Did they really think he was that useless?

"OWW!! B-but grandad, why can't i've painted the walls, why can't i be a talented artist?" Riley looked up at him with glossed over hazel eyes.

What grandad said next made him undeniably upset.

"boy you ain't even a talented vandal."

That's when Riley had it, he tightened his fists till he could feel his nails piercing into his palm and stormed off down the street towards the house. Yea he didn't seem like the kind of person to take his time in doing something useful, but art was like his calm haven, he took his time when it came to it. He just doesn't like getting told to do it, he does it whenever he had something to express on his mind and it's a good way of doing so. What did he expect though? Grandad said to him a few days ago that even stevie wonder could see he had nothing to do with it. Grandad didn't have any faith in him.

Why couldn't Riley just be Riley?

As he was laying down, sprawled out on his single twin bed, he remembered what his instructor had told him at his last art session...

"Let's paint a picture of someone you love. Maybe, someone who's not with us anymore"

Riley shot up, he had an idea. It was risky, but that way he could show everyone it really was him, he can show grandad there's more to young reezy than it seems.

He was gonna ask his 10 year old brother Huey for advice, but after of being cooped up in the fucking basement watching B.E.T 4 days straight for some odd reason, huey practically turned into another temporary version of riley. Yeaaa he wanted to ask his older brother Huey, not his older brother Riley 2.0.

5:35am

Outside the Freeman residence...

"I wish we just had...a couple more...hours" Riley spoke through breaths. They had been working on a picture all night; riley was sure that this would convince grandad. The man with the afro from earlier looked up at him and smiled. When he and riley first met, it was like a clash of completely opposite personalities, but the man always stayed very patient with riley's harsh and defensive behaviour, almost as if riley was his son. Over time, riley found his calm and patient demeanour helpful in boosting his willpower and confidence. Besides, Riley never really had any older figure who acted like that towards him.

"Riley, I think you got your point across just fine-"

"FREEZE!" a flashlight from behind illuminated the wall. The pair froze, eyes as wide as saucepans and then quickly began scurrying to the car. "Riley cmon, now!"

The man picked the small boy up and placed him in the passengers side, slid across the cars hood and hopped in the drivers seat. Without any second to spare, they pulled out and sped off.

6:49am

Inside the Freeman residence...

Robert Jebediah Freeman was snoring rather loudly in his bed till a buzzing sound from his nightstand awakened him. He groggily sat up and pulled it to his ear. Damn, can't a nigga get some shut eye? Shoo, he's too old for this shit, he needs his naps.

He placed his glasses on the bridge of his nose and began speaking "Hello? Again? HUH? who's house?" That's what awakened him fully, somebody spraypainted on his house this time? Aww hell na! He quickly slipped his feet into them fuzzy slider looking shits [yea idk what they called lmao] and began heading for the front door.

Somebody had been going around the neighbourhood and spraypainting houses for a few days now, but they never found the culprit. Now they spraypainted on his house, he wasn't very happy about it. If his grandsons were standing here right now, he probably would be going on about how he used their inheritance to buy a big beautiful house in the suburbs just for them to fuck it up, as if it was their fault anyway.

He suddenly halted and made a face. Now i'm thinking about it, where are those kids? He hadn't seen Riley for some time now and Huey was just...uhh yea i-i don't know, quote on quote "jus, uno, chillin. Uno jus doin ma little TV watching thang, uno, doing me"

He opened the door to see many people already outside admiring the apparently 'magnificent' display. Oh great, another one. Shit, if Van Gough were to draw a couple lines on a paper and give it to an art museum, they would probably call the shit fascinating, but if i do it it's more worthless than a pebble- his thoughts were interrupted when he finally turned around to see what all the commotion was about.

Woodcrest Boulevard

6:53am

"I think it's time we get rid of these guys"

"Yeaaa!" The boy cheered in his seat. The man driving pulled out a p9 from the sun blocking thingy above the windscreen and aimed it at the cops, all while doing a slight drift to get the perfect view of his target. He began shooting at them, puncturing their tires, smashing their windshields etc and they veered out of control crashing into eachother. The pair were losing them one by one. It was exhilarating for little 8-year-old Riley who was bouncing up and down in the passengers seat, he had never been in a police chase before. The man with the afro wasn't suprised, this kid was woodcrests new local 'hoodlum', he practically lived for this shit.

After being chased for a further 3-4minutes, the man decided to drop riley back home. They pulled into Riley's street quickly as some cops were still on his tracks not too far behind.

"Thanks man" Riley said as he hopped out of the car and shut the door.

The man smiled down at riley and stretched his hand through the window. "Thank you riley, i had a great time painting with you. Now you keep on painting, and god bless."

They shook hands and the man pulled off, leaving riley to make his way to his own home. He didn't know how grandad would react, but he did know that it would take a lot to make grandad even have a reaction.

Granddads eyes began glossing over as he stared in awe at the captivating yet emotional piece, he didn't even notice huey walking up besides him and stopping the same way he did.

The picture was of his late son and his wife, both of them being huey and riley's parents. It was on their wedding day, the woman's hand around her husbands face, pulling it closer to hers, their eyes meeting with pure love. It was one of his favourite memories of his son and daughter in-law. He never liked to talk about nor remember the horrific day they were taken away from him just 3 years prior.

Riley walked up to the pair and turned to the picture. It was sorta hard for him to paint as it was his dead parents, but he kept strong. He looked over to huey and felt a pang in his chest. His brother looked so...crestfallen [in the sad sense, not disappointed, his maroon eyes glossed over. Huey almost never broke his tough demeanour and here he was, eyebrows raised, slightly furrowed in sorrow and jaw open. Riley didn't like seeing his brother like this, it was so unusual. Alot of people knew that not under any circumstances should they mention the boys late parents to huey, it was an unspoken rule. and if you did, you done fucked up.

Huey would normally be the one comforting riley, not the one needing comfort. Riley of course knew huey hates sympathy, it's one of the ways he shut himself away from people ever since their death, so riley put his hand on his brothers shoulder, a concerned look on his face regardless.

He knew it would be hard for Huey and grandad, they remembered so much more about the couple than riley ever could ever remember. Riley wanted to know more but the only other people that knew enough, that being his family, never wanted to talk about it, so he was left in the dark about the subject with little knowledge.

After a long while of staring and grandad taking pictures, he finally spoke up in a soft tone he hardly used on his grandkids. "It's so beautiful. Thank you boy" He smiled down softly at his grandson who stared back. Grandad genuinely was very thankful, it was thoughtful for riley to do such a thing, it was also very unexpected. He was just scolding riley the other day for a piece of art he thought riley didn't do, but now he believes him. The kid really did have talent after all.

"Welp that's it, out of memory. You can start cleaning it off now" Riley looked up at his grandad like he was a madman "What?! but, but wha-" Grandad cut him off "No buts! start drawing on paper and this wouldn't happen. Nobody told you to paint all over my house cuz you wanna make a point. This ain't beat street..." Grandad muttered as he walked off. Riley was sorta pressed because this took him a long time but i guess grandad did have a point, but it just wouldn't be the same if he did it on paper. It's okay though, he was perfectly fine with the same old grandad.

He began walking to the garage to pull out some soap to clean the painting but his curiosity got the best of him. He doesn't actually know much about his parents at all. Yea he lived through the little time he had with them when they were alive but he was so young then he quickly forgot all the memories he had with them. He yearned to know more, he just had to ask them. He ran into the house and into the living room where grandad was sitting on his recliner deep in thought and huey doing the same but on the couch. It seemed eerily quiet but he took this as a chance to ask them.

"Grandad, Huey, what were momma n pops like?"

Grandads head shot up towards Riley, stunned. Huey slowly raised his, concerned. Has Riley not had any knowledge on these people ever since? "Boy, you...you do remember them, right?" Riley only shook his head. He tried and tried again to remember something but it never worked. "All i know is that they loved me?..."

Grandad gave him a highly sympathetic and caring look. He didn't know Riley had not remembered anything all along. He didn't know that when Riley was asked to explain what he loved about his parents in class, instead of explaining what they actually did, he suddenly became enraged but shadowed by sadness quickly stormed out, leaving his teacher perplexed. Grandad had got a phone call from his school that day that riley had stormed out for no reason after being asked to share something personal along with others in his class but till this day Grandad never understood why. Now he knew, Riley didn't know what to say, he wanted to say something, to be like everyone else but he couldn't. The old man looked over to his eldest grandson who gave him a 'dont' look back. Grandad thought about it and understood immediately. It was best if riley didn't know some things until later, it would be a lot of stress on an 8 year old and they just recently moved in. They needed to start afresh, besides, their lives we're pretty hectic.

"It may be hard for now, but that is for me to know and for you to find out" Grandad gave him a warm smile. "Don't worry, one day, you will know alright?" Riley looked heartbroken but huey and grandad quickly pulled him into a rare family hug. They lost many people on the way but they always had each other.

Riley dreamt a good dream that night, it was one of his favourites. It was of him and his mom at the park, he had jumped off the swing and started running towards the slide. His mom was on his tail, laughing and she caught up to him, carefully and playfully tackling him to the ground and blowing raspberries on his belly while he was throwing a fit of giggles. He always treasured that memory, that was one he never forgot. He smiled to himself, a single tear falling to his cheek and quickly dozed off.

based off the shows season 1 episode 'Riley wuz here'

"Why niggas got to, ride me like a rodeo show?" ~ Riley