Kenney: Still Waters Part 2

Chapter 69

Over the next few months...I guess it was a few months, but time was really all over the place while I was in the hospital....I went through three more surgeries. The first two didn't help. I, personally, think the first one messed my back up even more. After the third surgery, the feeling started to come back some, but my back hurt like a bitch. I stayed drugged up. My legs felt like they were waking up, instead of falling asleep...which is freaky as shit by the way...and my muscles would jump all the time on their own. But I guess the fact that I could feel anything at all was something...

Charity's summer vacation ended, so she wasn't around as much anymore, and after the sorry ass laws finally caught Rico, Jazz wasn't around as much after that, either. I guess she figured with Rico locked up, she was good. Nobody ever went on the block to question anyone about shit, before or after they found Rico...which I thought was weird. No laws, no Feds. Nobody. Apparently all that time Remmey had been running way more shit than I thought. He was just so lo-key about it, I didn't even know. Jazz eventually left the hospital and went to stay with mamA. She stayed there until they caught up with Rico. But as soon as they locked him up, Jazz started fuckin' up again.

One day, I woke up and Charity was standing over my bed like she wanted to tell me something.

"What?"

"Jazz is getting high again."

"Shit." I laid back and closed my eyes, but I couldn't go back to sleep. I was exhausted. Still being alive was exhausting me. And they were just starting to ween me off the morphine, too, so I was also hurting like a bitch.

After the last surgery, I had started regaining some mobility, but damn. This shit was unreal. I could see why Jazz wanted to stay high all the time. Without the morphine, it was all coming into focus.

All of it.

I shook my head and looked back at Charity. Rico hadn't even been locked up a month and Jazz was already back out on the street.

"Wally B wants to send her to rehaB)"

I shook my head no. "Rehab won't do shit for Jazz. Tell mama to take her to church." Charity rolled her eyes. "Tell Wallace to bring her back here to detox again, and then tell mama to keep her in church. All the time. You know y'all go like 'er day, Charity. Tell her to take Jazz witchyall. She needs to stay busy."

Charity shook her head. "Jazz only stayed in here last time because she was afraid to go outside."

I closed my eyes. She had a point. When I opened them again, Charity was leaned back in her chair, staring at her nails. I knew she was in deep thought.

"What?"

Her eyes lifted up toward me and she put her fingers down. "They said they're gonna start rehabbing you soon. So you can walk again..."

I nodded. She was looking like that was a bad thing.

"So...are you goin' back to it, too? Once you get out?"

I knew what she meant. "I hope not."

"I think you and Jazz should get out of here. Away from all this."

"Yeah..."

I left it at that. I had told Jazz that a million times, but now that I had so much time to think about it, what else did we really even know how to do?