Page 56 of Quasim III: King Inferno

“I need to call Meer.”

Elijah held onto me as we looked at Simmy. He was our king, the head of our household and our savior. Quasim never spoke about the help he extended to those he cared about. He would give everything for those that he fucked with. When he came into my life, I had no clue that he would be the one saving me.

He savedus.

We saved each other.

Junkie: What up, Blair?

Hassan

Guilt wassomething that riddled my body since seeing Elijah again. He was someone that I never forgot about. In medical school, you often talk about your firstfuck up. Elijah was my first fuck up. I could have saved that boy from a world of harm that his mother had tossed him into, and it broke my spirit. It had been in the back of my mind since Quasim told me what happened to him. I couldn’t help but feel like I failed him.

The shit that hurt the most was that I could have saved him. If I had spoken the fuck up, I could have prevented things happening to him, and that was some shit I couldn’t forgive myself for. Had King not seen me and used his intuition to know that I needed someone, I wouldn’t be here today.

Instead, I allowed Mercer to gaslight the shit out of me into believing that I was thinking too deep into my head and I wasn’t seeing what I thought I was. Elijah had every sign of an abused child, and I didn’t save him. He could barely look me in the eye, was very small for his age, and then his mother.

Her ass didn’t seem right from the moment I saw her. She was very skittish, and she avoided eye contact while stuttering to tell me what was wrong with her child. Any good mother wouldhave known everything that happened, even if they weren’t around the child when the injury occurred.

Not her.

I was met with a lot ofummand Ithink so’sthat night, which further made me feel like that boy was in danger. It was like she didn’t even try to rehearse shit before walking into the emergency room.

I whipped my car into the parking lot of the expensive ass supermarket, turned the car off and hopped out. Dressed down in workout clothes, I tried to blend in with all these rich folks that were buying overpriced strawberries.

The minute that King took me under his wing, he showed me how to invest money and make it work for me. He made sure that I would never need to depend on him, and that was what made him a king.

A good man.

A true leader was one that wanted his people to eat without him. King knew that every God could hold their own without him, and make sure we got our own money. Every nigga that ran with the Infernos and Delgatos could hold their own. They weren’t secretive and showed us how to fish. It was on you to soak up the knowledge and learn to fish or sit back and continue to allow them to fish for you.

You would think after finishing three twelve-hour shifts that I would be taking my ass home to sleep. Instead, I was at this fancy ass grocery store, pushing this little cart around and debating if I wanted to spend sixteen dollars for some organic pineapple juice.

The fuck they do to the pineapple, milk the bitch with their bare hands?

After holding the jar in my hands, I put it in the cart and continued around the market. Mercer and his wife ran Sunday errands every single week, never missing a day. I knew this pieceof information because I had been watching them for the past three weeks. Mercer thought he was untouchable, so it wasn’t like he was careful with switching his routine up. As far as he knew, he didn’t think anyone knew the other life that he lived.

Since Corleon had given me his schedule, I had made it my business to watch the fucking pedophile. Every Sunday, he and his wife held hands and walked their neighborhood, no matter how cold it was. They would laugh, smile and stop into their favorite Polish bakery and grab their favorite pastries and bread.

The nerve of him to hold conversation as he paid for the overpriced pastries while his wife picked out whatever they wanted for the week. He was able to laugh and smile, meanwhile, he ruined a little boy’s childhood and forced him to become familiar with trauma.

It made me sick when I thought about the pain he caused, when he took an oath to do the exact opposite. He was supposed to protect and heal, but instead, he was taking a child’s innocence, and that shit was making me physically sick as I held the glass container of milk.

“Why the fuck does anyone need raw milk for?” I muttered, grabbing the regular milk that I knew was overpriced. It was at least a few dollars cheaper at the corner store I stopped in after work.

Ramos called and told me that Quasim was awake and expected me to run to see him. I still hadn’t made it to go and see him yet. I was scared that I would break down and start crying like a pussy. Operating on him was one of the scariest moments in my life. I’ve been in the operating room plenty of times, observing and only stepping in with assistance. The people on those tables were strangers.

Patients.

This was different because Quasim wasn’t just a patient to me. He was family, so as much as my chest ached, and my heartslammed against my ribs, I had to trust that I knew what I was doing, and that Ramos would cut in when he felt that I didn’t have it.

Quasim had always been this strong presence in my life, nothing ever got him down. Seeing him laying on that operating table and coding right in front of my eyes fucked me up. I had to separate the personal and do what I had learned, with the assistance of Ramos.

No matter how scared I was, I knew that this nigga wasn’t leaving us. There was no Inferno Gods without Quasim Inferno. Papa Inferno may have created and founded it, and he always had my respect, but the only Inferno Gods I had only ever known were led by Quasim.

All of the Gods meant something to him, and we were all one big family. Bikes and violence may have brought us together, but at the end of the day, it was all love. We rode for one another, always, and that was because we were family.

Shit, I needed to regulate my emotions before stepping foot in his room and hearing his voice. Not that long ago, his blood was on my hands as I tried to save his life. His family was soaking up all the love and I was giving them the space they deserved.

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