Nine Lives: For the Love of Money by Empress Simone

relayed to me.
    “Well then Hazel boo, what happened?” I asked her; wanting her to get to the point of the matter.
    “Well, I went by my mother’s house before coming here. Guess what lil Bit?” she asked.
    I damn near rolled my eyes feeling she was being evasive in her story.
    “What?” I snapped.
    “They don’t live at the same address anymore.”
    “Get the fuck out of here Hazel. Are you sure? Maybe they went grocery shopping or something,” I suggested to her to ease any doubts she may have of feeling abandoned.
    “No, my family is gone. The worst part is they didn’t even leave a forwarding address or a phone number for me to contact them,”
    “I’m sorry boo,” I told her then stated, “You know you can stay here with me and Dorah. She’d love to spend time with her aunty Hazel.”
    “There’s more,” she said.
    “Huh, what could be more than that?” I asked bewildered.
    Her tears came hard and heavy now, “The super stated that a young guy was killed during a buy and bust. Shortly after that the family left. I feel in my heart it’s Javier. I mean who else could it be but my baby brother?” she asked.
    My heart went out to her. I know if anything ever happened to my brother Boogie, I’d lose my mind. This was just a fucked up situation. One I hoped didn’t actually pan out to be what we were both thinking.
    Not knowing what to say to Hazel, because I felt her situation was just as fucked up as mine, I weighed my words before deciding to speak.
    “Listen Hazel, they didn’t say for certain it was Javier so until you find out otherwise let’s hope for the best. Now I know you said everything was fine when you spoke to your mother but did she sound distressed in anyway? Maybe a way that you could have shaken off thinking it was nothing to worry about?”
    Bombarding her with questions she didn’t have an answer for seemed to make her flustered. Her pretty brown skin turned a little reddish. She took a deep sigh.
    “Mami didn’t sound distressed more than usual. I mean my mother and my relationship had always been strained. You know she used to hit me a lot over my step father thinking I was sleeping with him. Could you imagine a twelve-year-old girl sleeping with a grown ass man because she wanted to? Nah, that wasn’t in my DNA but she thought so. Well like I said she used to hit me until I fought her ass back. After that I was sent from one family house to the next until she forgave me. Once back home I thought everything was fine. Two years had passed; she’d say her smart remarks every now and then but I brushed that shit off my shoulders. Then I got arrested.”
    “I remember you were telling me something to that effect. Sheesh, I’m sorry. My mother and I used to go through a war of the words but she wasn’t a spanker. I think she hit me once or twice,” I admitted to Hazel totally unaware of how outcasted that would make her feel.
    “Anyway, as I was saying, once I got arrested she’d accept my phone calls, visited once with Javier and my step pops but would never visit after that. I didn’t mind that as long as I could hear everyone’s voice. I knew at the end of the day; I wouldn’t want to undergo all the correction guards put you through just to spend a few minutes with a loved one.”
    “Dang, again, sorry you have to go through this. I mean I really am. Have you reached out to your extended family; aunts, cousins, uncles or anyone close to them?” I asked her continuing to pry deeper.
    Hazel swiped at the tears in her eyes with the back of her hand. That broke my heart and touched the depths of my soul.
    “No one is answering for me and the one who did said she couldn’t speak right now.”
    “Well did you tell her it was a fucking emergency? I mean what the fuck. Give me the fucking number, I’ll get you some answers. How dare they?” I said seeing red now. This was my friend. It tore me into pieces not to be able to help her emotionally but physically I