Brother and the Dancer by Keenan Norris

Author:Keenan Norris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heyday

Erycha knew pure luck alone had kept her alive that day. lil one was from Watts so he knew that a car screeching to a halt like that was the reliable sign of a drive-by come to fruition. But she should have been just as alert. Erycha knew the way the smell of gunpowder hung in the air right after a shootout. She knew how the heavy odor of kindled brush mimicked that scent every summer during the annual fires, and she knew how to tell the difference one from the other. San Bernardino and its Western corridor into Highland was now the most violent area in Southern California and one of the most violent places in America. Drive-bys were common. Killings were common. Not to dive on the floor when within range of gunfire was suicide. Stray bullets left people just as dead as shots that found their intended targets. But out of shock or fearlessness or cluelessness, she had done nothing to protect herself and had survived unharmed.

Later, she could think of no real explanation for why she hadn’t hit the floor except that she was just so divinely pissed-off at Ricky, at the fear she suddenly saw in his eyes right before he dove for safety, that she forgot to protect herself. That fear she saw told her he thought the gunfire might be for him. Now she knew even more than before that this kid with fear for eyes was not the man she dreamt of. She didn’t want to be with someone who was scared that he and those around him might be shot and killed at any moment. She didn’t want to live with a drug dealer. And she definitely didn’t want to live with a drug dealer who would hit the floor to save himself without protecting his girl first.

Show, don’t tell. Best not to explain through words but actions that she simply wouldn’t tolerate living under siege. She wasn’t trying to subtly hint that Ricky find a safer career or a safer place to live or anything like that. All that type of change took more time and effort and retraining than she had minutes for. Ricky might not have time for all that either, which was fair enough. She didn’t want him to change a thing about himself. She didn’t hate him the way he was. She cared for him. She just wanted out. He had left her unprotected and that was unacceptable. He was smart enough to do that math. So the next morning without discussion she packed up all her things except the new dress and went back to her mother’s apartment. Simple as that. Her parents didn’t question why she was moving back in, just helped her with her things. Simple as that. She didn’t bring up the original sin argument that drove her away in the first place, just let it all be. Simple as that.

But after a week gone from Ricky, things got complicated: she wasn’t only moving out but also cutting off everything that connected her to him, from sex to conversation.

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