Page 52 of Quasim III: King Inferno

I knew when to stand down and allow Des to lead. He was better at this shit than me. The man had a heart as cold as ice, but somehow, he had mastered turning it warm for those he loved and cared about.

Ezra turned around with this lost look in his eyes. He looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks, and he was skinner. His hair wasn’t neatly braided like usual; his new growth had formed an afro on top of his braids.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m straight… just making sure Ellis is warm… nigga always is cold. You know we lowkey anemic?” He broke out into laughter. “Bro, Evan would fuck me up if he knew I said that… told me to stop telling people we anemic because they gonna call us sick.”

Des looked at me. “How you got here, Ezra?”

The sound of grass and leaves crushing under shoes made me turn. “Hey Papa and Des… he was drinking, and I didn’t want him to drive, so I drove him.” Kaia responded and stood next to me.

“Your aunt knows you out here, Kaia?”

She shook her head no, and I should have known that Kiki didn’t know she was out here. Kaia was Kiki’s older brother’s daughter, and because he was serving time up top, she was responsible for her.

“I had a few shots… nothing major. This knuckle head was telling me he was cold, so I brought his favorite hoodie and the blanket our moms gave us… damn, it’s getting dirty.”

“He’s manic,” Des stated as we watched him try to clean the dirt off the blanket that he had laid out on the dirt.

“How long he been like this, Kaia?”

She sighed. “When I picked him up from Fern. We were texting and he said he was going to ride his bike to visit Ellis. Said he needed to bring his hoodie and stuff, so I was worried and came to bring him.”

Des walked over toward him and put his hand onto his shoulder. “He’s gone, Ezra… I know that shit is hard to believe, but he’s gone.”

Ezra snatched away from him, stumbling some as he looked up at Des, betrayed that he told him the truth. “He’s not wrong, Ezra… I know this shit hurts, but he’s not here no more.”

It was one thing for Des to say it, and another for me to confirm what he had said. “The fuck kind of shit is this? I come to fucking bring my brother a coat and I’m the bad guy… the fuck? Kaia, we out… give me the keys.”

“I can’t give you the keys, E.” Kaia whispered, her heart breaking because he looked the most betrayed by her.

“You serious? All those times I been there for you going through your father being gone… you do me like that, Kaia?”

She started crying because she felt like she was betraying him. I roped my arm around her shoulder and walked her back to my car. As far as I knew, her ass had a learner’s permit, so she shouldn’t have been out here in her aunt’s whip in the first place.

“I know he’s hurting, and I wish I could help him. Papa, I don’t know what to do for him,” she racked her brain on how she could help him.

“Kaia, there is nothing that you can do for him. He has to feel that shit and go through it… nothing that you can do.”

I held the door open for her, and she got in. “My aunt is going to kill me.”

“Taking her new Lexus truck… hell yeah, she gonna kill you.”

She folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “I’m not a child anymore and she doesn’t understand that. I’m eighteen and she pretends like I’m that little girl…. Both her and my father do.”

I didn’t sign up to be giving life lessons to the youth. Especially since I had just taken my own brother’s life, so my advice was jaded as fuck. Leaning down while she sat in the passenger seat of my whip with her arms folded, I stared at her.

“I’ve known Keno for a long time… and he just wants to protect you. There was a time when he didn’t think he would have children and look at you now. You are his pride and joy and like every parent, he wants to protect you.”

Kaia’s mother was alive and had moved on with her life. She never wanted to be a mother, and Keno took over the responsibility of raising their daughter. I wasn’t sure what her relationship was with her mother these days, but I do know that Keno loved his sister and daughter.

“He missed everything.”

I didn’t smoke this morning, so I didn’t have much to give in this moment. We had this nigga putting all his brother’s clothes on his grave, and acting like everything was cool, and now she wanted to have a damn therapy session about her father being locked up.

“Call your aunt and tell her I’m gonna bring you home… and stop giving her a hard time… you see your mom step up? Yeah… stop giving her ass a hard time.” I pointed at her, and she pouted even more as I slammed the door and trekked back across the grass to where Ezra was in full blown tears.

Des held onto him as he would have his own sons. He allowed him to cry and get all he had been feeling out of him. I couldtell he had been trying to be strong for his brother, but the fact remained they both lost someone.

Someone they shared a womb with. Losing anyone was hard and a painful experience but having to lose someone you came into the world with was ten times harder. “I’m gonna take you to get checked out and you need to rest. I know this is hard, but Ellis wouldn’t want you crashing out like this… you gotta stop holding things in and feel it when it comes to you.”

---