God ignores me. The officer pulls a baggie from Aunt Pooh’s back pocket. Suddenly, the sky is no longer our limit. That bag of cocaine is.
I back away from the window. “No, no, no . . .”
Curtis looks out, too. “Oh, shit.”
For days, I thought I’d lost her, and I just got her back. Now . . .
There’s suddenly an invisible hand gripping every single muscle inside my chest. I gasp for air.
“Bri, Bri, Bri,” Curtis says, taking my arms. He guides me toward the sofa and helps me sit down. “Bri, breathe.”
It’s impossible, like my body doesn’t even know what breathing is, but it knows what crying is. Tears fall from my eyes. Sobs make me gasp harder, louder.
“Hey, hey,” Curtis says. His eyes catch mine. “Breathe.”
“Everybody . . .” I gulp for air. “Everybody leaves me.”
I sound as small as I feel. This is my mom telling me Daddy left us to go to heaven. This is her backing out of the driveway, even as I scream for her not to leave me. Nobody ever realized they took part of me with them.
Curtis sits beside me. He hesitates at first, but he gently guides my head so it’s resting on his shoulder. I let him.
“Yeah, people leave us,” he says softly. “But it doesn’t mean we alone.”
All I can do is close my eyes. There’s yelling and sirens outside. The cops are probably taking down every single Garden Disciple in Maple Grove.
Slowly, breathing becomes a habit again. “Thank you—” My nose is so stopped up, I sound funny. I sniff. “Thank you for getting me.”
“It’s all good,” Curtis says. “I was watering my grandma’s plants when I saw you and Pooh talking in the courtyard. Then the SWAT van rolled up. Knowing what I know ’bout Pooh, I knew you had to get up outta there.”
I open my eyes. “You water your grandma’s plants?”
“Yeah. Somebody gotta keep these things alive while she at work.”
I sit up some more. There are potted plants and flowers all over the living room and kitchen. “Damn,” I say. “You’ve got a lot of work.”
He chuckles. “Yeah. Plus, she’s got a couple on the stoop. I like helping her with them though. They easier to deal with than a dog or a little brother or sister.” Curtis stands up. “You want some water or something?”
My throat is kinda dry. “Water would be good.”
“No prob—” He frowns at my foot. “Yo, what’s wrong with your shoe?”
“What?” I look down at them. One fake Timb is much shorter than the other. That’s because the entire heel is missing.
My shoe literally came apart.
“Fuck!” I bury my face in my hands. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
At this point, this shit is laughable. Of all the days and times for my shoe to fall apart, it had to happen while my life is falling apart.
“Look, I got you, okay?” Curtis says. He unties his Nikes. He slides them off and holds them toward me. “Here.”
He can’t be for real. “Curtis, put your shoes back on.”
Instead he goes down on one knee in front of me, puts his right sneaker on my right foot, and ties it super tight. He carefully removes my other Not-Timb, slips his left Nike on, and ties it too. When he’s done, he straightens up.
“There,” he says. “You got shoes.”
“I can’t keep your shoes, Curtis.”
“You can at least wear them to go home,” he says. “A’ight?”
Not like I have any other options. “All right.”
“Good.” He goes to the kitchen area. “You want ice in your water or nah?”
“No, thank you,” I say. The yelling and shrieking has quieted down. I can’t make myself look outside though.
Curtis brings me a tall glass of water. He sits beside me, wiggling his toes in his Spider-Man socks. There’s a hell of a lot I don’t know about him, and what I’m seeing doesn’t match up with what I thought.
“Nice socks,” I say.
He rolls his eyes. “Go ahead and clown me. I don’t care. Peter Parker is that dude.”
“He is.” I sip my water. “That’s why I wouldn’t clown you. In fact, I think I have the same pair.”
Curtis laughs. “For real?”
“Yep.”
“That’s cool,” he says.
A loud clang comes from outside, like a large door closing on a vehicle. They must have loaded up all the drug dealers to take downtown.
“I’m sorry about your aunt,” Curtis says.
He makes it sound like she’s dead. Around here though, folks in jail get T-shirts in their honor just like folks in the