The Day the Streets Stood Still

by JaQuavis Coleman

  Sean jumped when he saw someone coming in his direction, but he quickly realized it wasn’t his mother. He giggled as he watched an older woman that he called Aunty holding the hand of a man, leading him to one of the back rooms. That wasn’t unusual at their house either. Several streetwalkers, who Sean called his aunties, paid Mook for the use of her house for turning tricks rather than risking themselves being on the street or working for a pimp who would only take their money. Sean’s aunty was wearing a hot pink corset top, thongs, a garter belt and clear plastic high heel shoes. The man was smiling from ear to ear as he followed her. Sean waited a few minutes and then he snuck out of his room, ran down the hallway and put his eye to the keyhole of the room his aunty had gone into. Sean smiled as he watched his naked aunty bounce up and down on the man.

  “Boy! Get away from that door and get yo’ ass in the bed. You know I don’t play that,” Mook scolded playfully when she caught him. Sean giggled and ran back to his room. Just as he was about to close his door and really get in the bed this time, he heard that familiar voice that he looked forward to every day. Excited, Sean cracked his door open again and just like he had suspected, Fox was walking in. Sean watched dreamily as Fox glided his six foot, four inch frame through the door. Fox wore a fresh Pelle Pelle leather jacket, crisp Timberland boots that looked clean enough to eat off of and a diamond pinky ring that could blind you from a distance. Fox was his mother’s friend, but Sean would pretend in his mind that Fox was his father. Fox was a basketball legend in their neighborhood and one of the few dudes who had actually made it to the NBA. After two years in the league Fox blew out his knee and was cut from team after team. Finally, Fox gave up trying to get rich the legal way and took the money he’d made in the league and invested in his street business. Being a boss in the streets had made him much more money than he would’ve ever made in the league. Sean wanted to be just like Fox when he got older. He even practiced how to walk and talk like Fox.

  “Mook . . . baby, what’s good?” Fox chimed, flashing his sparkling smile as he made his way over to Sean’s mother.

  “Ain’t nothing new, baby.” Mook smiled, her cheeks flushing red. She got on her tiptoes and threw her arms around Fox’s neck so she could hug him. He patted her on the ass and kissed her on the top of her head. Sean giggled; he had always secretly hoped that one day Fox would marry his mother.

  “Let’s talk,” Fox said to Mook.

  “Yeah, baby . . . anything for you,” Mook said dreamily. “Nobody touch my bud,” Mook warned her party guests before she walked out with Fox. She started down the hallway toward Sean’s room with Fox hot on her heels. Mook knew he was watching her ample backside so she smiled to herself and gave him a show.

  Sean scrambled to get back into his bed. He knew his mother and Fox would be coming into his room to talk business like they always did. Sean also knew his mother had taken the bottom out of his toy chest and hid her money there.

  “Yo, Mook, I’m not gonna lie. You made me a believer, baby girl. You always come through with your ends,” Fox complimented. Mook turned her face away; she didn’t want Fox to see her blushing. Her palms were getting sweaty and she felt things below her navel thumping. She rushed over to Sean to make sure he was asleep. Sean squeezed his eyes shut tight until he was sure his mother wasn’t watching anymore.

  “This is half of the re-up money and I’ll have the rest in a few days,” Mook said as she came up out of Sean’s toy chest with the rubber banded stacks of cash.

  “Good looking out, Mook. I’m putting my chips up now for a rainy day. I’m thinking about going straight one of these days. My lady is carrying my seed and I need to be setting things up for the future,” Fox said, flashing his sparkly, diamond-encrusted smile. Mook’s heart dropped and her stomach began doing flips, but she put on a fake smile anyway.

  “Congrats, Fox, I’m real happy for you. I hope it’s a boy that you can love as much as I love that li’l nigga right there,” Mook said trying her best to keep a smile on her face. She was really dying inside though. She had loved Fox from the day she had met him. Mook had to make a choice when it came to Fox—business or pleasure—she had opted for business and now she was secretly regretting it.

  “Yeah, this a good li’l man you got here,” Fox said as he folded a twenty dollar bill into a paper airplane and placed it on Sean’s pillow like he always did. That night, Sean finally drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face.

  “Mommy, do you love me?” Sean asked his mother the next day as she walked him to school. That was the one thing about Mook, it didn’t matter if she had partied all night into the morning, she always cooked Sean a full-course breakfast and walked him to school herself every day.

  “Aww, baby, you don’t have to ever question my love for you. I love you more than I love my own life and anything on this planet,” Mook said, stopping to bend down in front of her son so she could look him in his little eyes. Sean threw his arms around his mother’s long, slender neck and hugged it as tight as his little arms could.

  “I love you more than anything on the planet too,” he said. His mother laughed.

  “You still not going back home with me. You going to school today,” she joked as she led him up the steps to his school. Sean giggled too.

  Later that afternoon Sean walked home with his usual group of friends after school. He couldn’t wait to tell his mother about his day. Sean rushed up the front steps to his house and just as he made his way through the door he ran smack dead into someone.

  “Sorry,” Sean huffed, out of breath, realizing he had hit someone. When he looked up into the face of the person, his heart jerked in his chest. Sean stumbled backward a little bit as the man he had run into smirked at him evilly.

  “Watch where the fuck you going, orphan,” the man hissed, his eyes glinting with evil. Then he stepped around Sean and ran into a waiting car. Sean turned around and watched the car screech away from the curb and it wasn’t until about two minutes later that he remembered the man’s face. That was the man my mother shot, Sean’s little mind registered. He whirled around on the balls of his feet and scrambled inside the door. Sean raced up the stairs to his apartment. He was going to tell his mother that the man had come back and that she needed to make sure she had her gun close by.

  “Mommy! Mommy!” Sean screamed as he pushed in their apartment door. As soon as he crossed the doorsill Sean slipped on something wet and fell so hard he hit his chin on the floor.

  “Ahh,” he screamed. “Mommy! Mommy!”

  The house was silent, which was strange to Sean. From birth, he never remembered his house being quiet. Even if it was he and his mother alone, she always had some sort of music playing. Sean went to pick himself up from the floor, but slipped down again on the same slick, wet stuff. He crinkled his brow and looked down at the wet substance that was making it so hard for him to get his bearings.

  Sean’s eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open when he looked down and saw both of his hands were covered in deep, dark red blood. He began turning around and around, trying to locate the source of the blood. His little legs were shaking now and his heart was hammering so hard he could barely breathe.

  “Mom . . . mmy?” Sean whispered, his teeth chattering as he took a few steps forward. Urine spilled from his bladder involuntarily at the sight. He couldn’t scream, cry, run or react. His feet had become cement blocks connected to the floor as he looked down at his mother lying in a pool of her own blood with her throat slashed so far down her head looked like it was almost separated from her body. Sean’s entire body shook, his mouth hung open, but he would not leave his mother alone.

  “Agggghhhhh!” It was the screams of Mook’s best friend and Sean’s aunty that finally alerted everyone that Mook was dead. Sean had stood in that one spot for hours, unable to move, unable to scream and unable to get help. Aunty had called 911, but the ambulance wasn’t going to move the body; that would be up to the city coroner now.

  Fox was
the first person to arrive that had set Sean at ease. Fox picked Sean up and carried him away from the crime scene and the throng of detectives and police officers that had swarmed Sean’s home. Fox set Sean down on his bed, pulled him close and cried with him.

  “I’m not going to let nothing happen to you. I’m always gon’ be here for you, little man . . . you hear me?” Fox whispered as Sean was wracked with sobs.

  “Look at me,” Fox said, pulling Sean away from his chest so he could look into his little eyes. “I don’t make promises to nobody . . . but I’ma make you promise today. I will always be here for you,” Fox said sincerely. Sean shook his head up and down, signaling his understanding.

  “Now tell me what happened when you got home today. Was there somebody here with your mother? Did you see anybody outside? I need to know everything that happened once you got here,” Fox probed, his tone serious. Sean shook his head up and down vigorously.

  “Okay good . . . It’s important that you tell me who it was, but you can’t tell nobody else, especially not those cops out there,” Fox whispered. Sean leaned into Fox’s ear and whispered. Fox’s eyes went into slits and he bit down into his jaw.

  “That’s real good that you were brave enough to say. I’m going to take care of it, little man, but remember what I said . . . police can’t be trusted so if they ask you . . . you ain’t see nobody here,” Fox replied, squeezing Sean’s shoulder. Sean shook his head again.

  “Now listen, they are going to come here to speak to you and probably take you downtown or something until they can sort out who will take care of you now. They’re not going to let you go with me or else you know I would take you home in a heartbeat. Take this, it’s my number. As soon as you get to a place, call me. I ain’t gon’ forget about you. I loved her too,” Fox told Sean as he handed him a card with his number on it. Sean put the card in his pocket. Then he rushed over to his toy chest, opened it, dug into the bottom, moved the fake bottom out of it and pulled out his mother’s stash. He rushed back over and handed it to Fox.

  Fox was almost moved to tears as he accepted the bag. “You already smarter than the average nigga. You knew those pigs would toss this place and find all of what she worked for and steal it didn’t you,” Fox said to Sean. Sean just shook his head again; he still couldn’t find the words to say anything with his mouth.

  “This is yours and I will hold it for you. You already all right with me, little man,” Fox assured. “Let me get out of here before the pigs start lurking. Remember what I said . . . call me.”

  Sean touched the card in his pocket and he felt a little more at ease knowing Fox would never let him down.

  The day after his mother’s funeral, Sean sat on his grandmother’s stoop swinging on an old rickety porch swing that he had always loved to play on when he and his mother would visit. Now that he lived there, Sean didn’t like the swing as much. As he sat swinging, he heard the creaking of the screen door of the connected house next door. Sean looked up just as a little girl came outside onto the porch of the house.

  “Whatchu lookin’ at, ugly?” the little girl growled, raising her fist at him. Sean’s eyebrows flew up into arches and he stopped the swing from moving. He didn’t know if he was more shocked by the little girl’s striking beauty or her sassy mouth. Sean stared in awe at the pecan-colored girl with her heart-shaped lips, tiny nose, long jet-black ponytails and her almond-shaped, glistening, green cat eyes.

  “You live there now? I heard around that you ain’t got no mother,” the little girl said cruelly with a smirk.

  Sean’s eyes went into slits and he jumped up from the swing. “Shut up before I punch you in the face!” he gritted, his fists balled at his sides.

  “You ain’t gon’ do nuthin’,” the little girl spat, boldly climbing over the small brick partition that separated her porch from Sean’s grandmother’s. Before Sean could react, the little girl was standing in his face almost nose to nose. He hadn’t expected that. He backed up a few steps, thrown by her beauty up close.

  “What’s your name anyway, ugly?” the little girl asked, softening her tone a bit.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said, hanging his head a little bit. The little girl brushed passed him and flopped down on his grandmother’s swing. Sean looked at her strangely. He had never met a little girl so bold in his life.

  “I’m Sunny,” she said as she pushed back with her toes to make the swing move.

  “I’m Sean.” Sunny gave him the once-over and the mean face she had worn softened a bit. She even almost smiled, which was rare for her.

  “How old are you?” she asked.

  “Ten.”

  “Me too!” she said excitedly.

  “I’m sorry for what I said about your mother,” she said. “Sit down.”

  Sean walked over tentatively and sat next to her. Sweat was dripping down his back and he balled up his toes in his sneakers. Sunny pushed the swing hard enough to move it for the both of them.

  “You gonna be my new best friend,” she told him.

  “How you know I want to be your new best friend?” Sean asked, looking down at his feet.

  “I could tell by the way you look at me. I know when a man wants me,” Sunny answered sassily. Sean didn’t know it then, but her words would prove to be very powerful later.

  “Sunny! Sunny!”

  Sunny jumped up from the swing and moved away from Sean like he was suddenly a dangerous animal. Terror danced in her eyes and unnerving fear suddenly played out on her face.

  “I gotta go,” Sunny whispered, her words coming out almost breathlessly.

  “Sunny! What the fuck I tell you about leaving out of this house without permission!” a woman screamed from the doorway of the house next to Sean’s grandmother’s.

  “Sorry, Mommy . . . I . . . I . . . was just . . .” Sunny stammered, her bold and sassy attitude gone, replaced by a voiced filled with fear and apprehension.

  “You was just my ass! Get the fuck in this house. I have to go to work and Rodney is babysitting you for the night!” Sunny’s mother boomed. Sean looked at the woman’s wide, fat face drawn into a scrunched-up scowl and immediately thought Sunny looked nothing like her.

  Sunny climbed back over the brick partition and inched slowly toward her mother, who was standing brooding at the front door. When Sunny got to the door, her mother snatched her by the collar and dragged her inside the house.

  “Please! Don’t!” Sunny screamed. Sean jumped up, but quickly realized there was nothing he could do to save her. He tried to listen, but all he could hear was voices yelling back and forth.

  “Agggh! I’m sorry!” Sunny screamed as her mother dragged her down to the floor by her long hair. Sunny felt something in one of her knees crack as it connected with the floor. “Please, Mommy! I’m sorry!”

  “You fucking fast and hot! Right? Right?” her mother growled as she winded her hand in Sunny’s hair for a good grip. “Anywhere there is a boy or a man with a dick you wanna be there right!” her mother screamed, balling her huge, portly fist and punching Sunny in her back and chest. Sunny instinctively threw her arms up over her head in an attempt to shield her mother’s blows, but she was no match for the woman’s fury. Sunny’s mother screamed, spit, kicked and punched Sunny’s frail body until she grew tired. Sunny’s lips were busted and bleeding, her nose was throbbing like it was broken, and she had friction burns on her knees from her mother dragging her across the hardwood floors. Just like so many times before, Sunny wished she was dead so she could escape her house . . . escape the beatings and neglect.

  “Now, bitch . . . I’m going to work. Stay in your fucking room and stay away from my fucking man! If you try to leave this house, so help me God when I get home you gon’ get worse than what I just gave you,” her mother wolfed, out of breath from beating Sunny. When she was finished her mother used her foot and kicked Sunny in the ribs for emphasis. Sunny lay there in a heap, rolling around in pain.

  “I said get the fuck up fr
om here!”

  Sunny slowly dragged herself up from the floor and barely made it to her room. She eased her aching body into her bed as tears flooded down her face. She couldn’t believe that confessing to her mother what her stepfather was doing to her would turn out to be so disastrous.

  When Sunny heard the door slam she knew her mother was gone; she also knew what would happen next.

  Rodney, her stepfather, didn’t even give it fifteen minutes before he was turning the doorknob to her bedroom door. Sunny had locked it. She counted in her head . . . ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five. She didn’t even get a chance to finish before he had retrieved the spare keys and opened the door.

  “What we tell you about locking doors around here?” Rodney asked snidely. Sunny pulled her blanket up around her neck and closed her eyes.

  “C’mon, don’t play hard to get. What happened to you was your fault. I told you your mother wasn’t going to believe you if you tried to tell her. I told you it would just make it worse . . . didn’t I,” Rodney taunted. Sunny could hear his belt buckle jingling as he took it a loose. Tears streamed out of her tightly shut eyes and wet her pillow.

  “You should like this by now. You ain’t no little girl no more,” Rodney said. He sat down on the bed with his erect penis in his hand.

  “I do it because I love you and I love your mother. If you didn’t do this, I would leave her and then she would take it out on you . . . See it’s all a part of being a family,” Rodney went on. Sunny bit inside of her cheek until she tasted the metallic taste of her own blood.

  “Sit up. I’m gon’ show you something new. Something you’ll always be able to use in life,” he said as if he was a caring father teaching his daughter some necessary life skill. “If you suck a man’s dick real good, he will always be good to you. You can’t lose learning how to suck dick at a young age,” Rodney went on, stroking his erection roughly.