The Loved Ones by Sonya Chung

Author:Sonya Chung
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-9847648-6-0
Publisher: Relegation Books
Published: 2016-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

BOOK TWO:

Les Bien-Aimés

Kenyon Street, NW Washington, DC

May 1988

He caught it on the second ring, but still it woke her up. She came downstairs, stuffy-headed from a cold she’d caught at school. She stood in the hallway, frowning. Rubbed her eyes. Barefooted, too-big purple pajama pants brushing the floor. Sniffle. Where are you going?

He hung up the phone—Goddammit, D—pulled on his sneakers. Laced them too tight. Go back to bed, he said. Emergency at work, I’ll be right back. He tried to sound casual. He hated to leave her alone. She was thirteen, old enough, but still. It was 2 AM.

Alone. Her mother gone, to who knew where. Veda understood it was for real.

The emergency room on a Thursday night. Two shots to the chest. They said he drew first. They: Sherisse and her ex-con boyfriend. They said he was high. None of this unlikely. But his gun wasn’t loaded. Hers was. Police said the boyfriend pulled the trigger. Doubtful; she’d have done it.

The boy, Lawrence, upstairs sleeping. (Probably why he took out the bullets, he had that much sense at least.) Dennis had come for the boy. What the hell did he think he would do? Run off with the kid, live on the lam? The bitch had won custody two weeks before. No visiting until he was clean and sober. They’d talked about it over the fourth beer at Barkley’s. Charles knew his friend was in bad shape. But this.

He waits for Dennis to get out of surgery. His moms waiting too, stone-faced. The doctor comes out, says he’s stable but not conscious. Edna Rhodes asks, He’s all right, then? When will he wake up? Doctor says, Ma’am, there’s been significant blood loss. The old woman is confused. Spell it out, Charles interjects. Doctor glares at him, knows he’s not kin. Says, I’m afraid it’s wait and see.

The born-again phase had lasted a year. Maybe it would have been better if it stuck. He didn’t know. He never liked it and said so.

But this.

Laid up, all tubes and machines. Wait and see. God fucking dammit, D.

On the way home, he thinks, They were always heading here, weren’t they. Only one of them would make it; wasn’t that the statistic? One in two. Young men in their ’hood. Now Charles knew; he was the one. Alive. Free. Time to go. Not everyone gets the chance. Live the life you want. Erasure, all of it that came before. Survival. Opportunity. Restart.

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