Page 61 of Quasim II: King Inferno

I could hear the slight panic in his voice. “Eli, it’s alright… he told me earlier he was going to take a nap.”

“Sim sleeps with his sound on, he always hears. When I stayed at his house that burned up, he always picked up, even if he was sleep.” He started speaking fast and breathing faster.

I was pretty sure this baby was having a panic attack. As Yasin and Hassan entered the lobby, I sat my beach bag down and kneeled down to hold his face. “He’s very tired, baby. You know the same thing applies. What did he tell you?”

“That he’ll always come for me.”

“Exactly. Does he ever break a promise?”

Elijah shook his head and hugged me tightly around the neck as I rubbed his back. “No. I don’t want him to leave me.”

Elijah had formed a bond with Quasim, and he was his safe space. He was the one person who he could trust that hadn’t hurt him. “He’s never going to leave you, cause guess what?”

He pulled his head up. “What?”

I rubbed his face and smiled. “You are the best kid in the world, and you are so loved by all of us, Elijah.”

“Really?”

“Hel… yeah,” Yasin corrected himself and rubbed his head, sending a bunch of sand into my face. “My bad.” He held his hands up when I gave him the stank eye.

“We’re going to take baths and then rest a bit before going to dinner. By then, Simmy should be awake, so we can prop the phone up and have him eat dinner with us… sound good?”

“Sounds good,” he smiled.

“Are you okay now? It’s alright if you’re not okay, Elijah.” I continued to rub his back as he took a deep breath.

He put his head down. “I’m a God, and I don’t look down… what we do?”

“Look upon,” Elijah answered Yasin.

He held his two fingers out and Elijah hit the IG shake and smiled with so much pride. “My guy.”

I softly pulled his face in my direction. “You didn’t answer me, baby.”

“I am okay… I promise.”

“Well, now I am missing Simmy, too… think you can give me a hug?”

He smiled widely and hugged me tightly before going to run behind Hassan as I stood up. “You handled that better than I would have. Both you and Sim are good to him.”

“I see a lot of myself inside of him, especially when my mother passed away. There was a time when I used to become so attached to foster parents, only for them to give me up to the next home. I never want him to lose that innocence of wanting someone; children need and want the people they love, and I never want him to lose that. I lost mine way before I should have, and don’t wish that on nobody.” I replied, and headed back toour unit, feeling a bit emotional, thinking about all I had been through.

There was never ever room to sit in my feelings when I was growing up. I was always on to the next thing, because I had to be. There wasn’t an adult telling me how great I was or allowing me a minute to process my feelings. Never telling me that it was okay not to be okay. It was the reason the first person to show me the wrong kind of love felt right.

I knew Quasim had no plans on ever allowing Thea to get Elijah again. He was ours, and I wanted to right all the wrong he had experienced in his short life.

“Make sure you shake off in that tub, Elijah… you’re gonna get sand everywhere.”

“Okay!” he hollered back as I collapsed on the couch and closed my eyes for a second. The sun and the beach drained the hell out of you.

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“I toldyou the pink looks amazing on your tanned skin,” Kiki said as she fixed my hair, which she insisted on doing.

I washed my hair, so I was going to slick it back and wear large earrings. We were only going to dinner, and then some ice cream shop that Elijah insisted we visit.

“Ms. Blair, I lost my chain on the beach.” Elijah came into the bedroom as Kiki finished my hair.

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