Kenney: Still Waters Part 2

Chapter 67

           
**WARNING: GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE AHEAD**

I woke up and Jazz was still asleep. I woke up again and she was still knocked out. This happened like three times before I started to wonder when the last time was that she had been to sleep. About the fifth time I woke up, Charity scared the shit out of me.

            I jumped away from her. "Damnit Charity!" These ma' fuckas were gone stop standing over me staring at me in my sleep. I knew that, fa' sho.

            "Sorry, Kenney. How do you feel?"

            "Like shit."

            "Yeah?"

            "Yeah. What do you want?" I wasn't in the mood for small talk.

            "I brought some more clothes for Jazz."

            "Thanks."

            Charity looked over at Aunt Jazz, still asleep in the chair and then back at me. "Is there a place that she...can get dressed and stuff?" She meant not in front of me.

            I pointed to the bathroom. "She can take a shower over there, and do whatever she wants. I don't use it so..."

            Charity's eyes widened and I paused, looking at her, wondering what the hell was her problem. She just stood there and stared at me, waiting for it to register that I may be stuck using a bag for the rest of my life. Finally, it did.

            "Ssshhit..." the word was quiet and deliberate. "Shit."

            "I know..." She put her hand on my arm.

            I shrugged her hand off of me. "No, you don't know Charity. Shut the fuck up."

            She just stared at me. I wasn't sorry either. She knew I wasn't in the mood for her ass when she walked through the door.

            "Kenney..."

            "Fucking Rico." I shook my head, looked at Jazz and then shook it again. "I can't wait to get out of here. First thing I'ma do is get rid of his ass."

This was all on Rico. Chance was just a soldier following orders. Rico called it. Called everything. I knew, because I had been a soldier following Rico damn near my whole life.

Charity was still shaking her head. "Kenney, no."

            "No? Do you know who the fuck he is? He has to go, Charity. I'ma set him the fuck on fire as soon as I get out of here."

            "Shit," Charity whispered quietly and stared at me. "Don't..."

            "Fuck out my face wit' that shit today, Charity. Every morning when I wake up I picture him goin' up in flames. I know I'ma walk again because I'm finna string his ass up just like Tiana's daddy, and watch him burn. Breathe that shit in just like it's fresh fucking air."

             It was lost on me that somewhere along the way I had turned into Rico, but it wasn't lost on Charity. I had been trying so hard to play it cool for the women that I didn't even know how I was really feeling until right at that moment. I did picture Rico going up in flames, every morning, and that was how I knew that I would walk again. But I wasn't consciously thinking these things, until I lit into Charity. Once the truth started crashing out, though, I couldn't stop it.