Page 36 of Quasim: King Inferno

I stood up and went into the kitchen to make myself some coffee. “Can I get something small… maybe anime or something?”

I looked at him and he gave me a goofy grin. “Just kidding.”

“Yeah… ight. Go and grab your bible so we can get the morning started.” I called behind him as he skipped down the hall, laughing and filling this house with sounds that had been missing from it for so long.

It wasn’t often that I pulled my Camaro out. If you saw me, you usually saw me on my bike. The only time you saw my Camaro was when I opened my garage, and you caught a glimpse of it. It was my prized possession, along with my bikes. I had all plans to pull it into the garage after last night and use my bike today. Since I had Eli, I knew that wasn’t an option.

After showering and getting ready for the day, me and Elijah headed out. He was so excited when I showed him the newJordans he was talking about last week. Half the time, I allowed him to ramble because he was ignored at home, and he had a lot of shit to say. Most times, I tuned him out while he rambled on about random things. That particular morning, I heard him going on about a pair of sneakers one of his friends in school had.

From the color way he described and the number, I knew what shoes he was talking about and went and picked them up for him. He kept kicking his feet, all excited because he had them on. Even before Thea found herself on the wrong side of life, he didn’t have many sneakers or clothes because she was a single mother.

“You don’t listen to NBA Young boy?” Elijah asked as we pushed it across the bridge into Brooklyn.

“Hell nah… classics only.”

“Boring.”

I snorted and looked over at him. “Real men listen to the classics… that’s what you wanna be, right?”

He straightened his posture like I had taught him. “Yeah.”

I turned up ‘The City is Mine’ by Jay-Z and bopped my head to the music. “Catch the beat… feel the words. Know that you that nig… guy,” I quickly caught myself.

With Elijah being around for the summer, I was gonna have to change the way I spoke around him. It had been a while since I had to be responsible for a child. Ryder didn’t count because whenever she came over, it was only for a few hours.

It was rare that my niece stayed the night with me. Elijah would be with me the whole summer. It wasn’t something I gave much thought to when I told Thea I would keep him. All I felt was that little boy tugging onto my pajama pants and silently pleading for me to do something his mother never did; step up.

As I drove on the BQE expressway, I kept looking back at him as he was mimicking what I was doing; slowly nodding hishead and tapping his fingers on the door handle while feeling the words. “Is the city yours, Sim?”

I smirked. “Come on now… you know the answer to that.”

“You’re perfect, Sim. I want to be perfect just like you when I get older.”

I turned the music down and looked over at him quickly before turning my attention back to swerving in and out of traffic. “I’m not perfect, Elijah.”

He looked at me like I was crazy for saying that I wasn’t perfect. “Sim, you have everything. A house, cool bikes, and this cool car.”

I chuckled. “Material things don’t make you perfect, Elijah. No man on this earth is perfect… I want you to remember that for me, alright?”

He nodded his head. “Sim?”

“What up, Eli?”

I watched as he nervously peered at me. “Are we going to eat some lunch? It’s okay if we don’t… we don’t have to.”

That shit broke my heart. The fact that he was used to skipping meals and had to ask if he was going to eat a particular meal pissed me off.

“You can have whatever you want with me, Eli. If you’re hungry, make sure you tell me, and I’ll get you whatever you want. I’ll get you some chicken from the Chinese spot near the barbershop.”

He grinned. “I love chicken.”

“Yeah. Me, too.”

I turned the music up and we continued to bop our head to the music as we got closer to Brandon’s shop. Brandon always came to my crib to cut Elijah’s hair for me. This would be the first time that I would be bringing him around the other Gods, aside from Havoc. Blaze was going to be at the barbershopbecause he was getting his hair twisted, and he usually got his shape up right after.

The minute I pulled onto the block, I spotted Blaze’s truck and pulled in front of it. Havoc was sitting on his bike talking to Capella and Kincaid. I hopped out and Elijah did the same. He was nervous so he stuck by me as I walked over and hit the IG shake with them.

“Oh, we acting like a stranger now?” Havoc laughed, and Elijah ran over to hug him. “Oh, you fresh as fuc… hel… shit.” Havoc failed horribly at trying to sensor his damn language.

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