Page 102 of Falling Into Gravity

Aku’s eyes were wide and full of panic. Her lips trembled before she could speak. “It’s Malik… he’s in the hospital. He got jumped. Mama, I—I gotta go. I gotta?—”

“What?!” French bellowed, his voice shaking the air. “This that shit!” he fussed ready to school Aku on all the reasons she ain’t need no nigga in the streets.

“Daddy, no—” Aku sobbed, grabbing his wrist. “Not now - please.”

French froze. His heart hurt seeing his baby was clearly in love with a man he ain’t approve of.

She wasn’t his little girl with jokes in her mouth anymore. She was trembling. Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Her heart was bleeding through her eyes, and he saw it.

Solar pulled her close, arms strong and soft at once. “We’ll get you on the jet now. You hear me? Just breathe, baby.”

“You don’t need to be out there…this probably some gang shit and I’ll end this whole world behind my baby,” French fussed, already seeing red.

“Daddy, please,” Aku whispered again, voice cracking. “Just let me go - Please. I don’t want it to be worse. I just need to be there.”

Tiny grabbed her purse. “I’ll call the pilot.”

Qamar was already on the phone, snapping out directions. Luna rubbed her back, whispering something about protection and prayer. Javen pulled French aside, speaking low and tight, calming the fire that was already roaring in his chest.

Solar took charge. “We gon’ get you there - fast. You don’t gotta explain nothin’. Just know we got you.”

Aku nodded, sobbing now.

And French, who never let anything slide, never backed down from a threat…looked at his daughter—his heartbeat—and stepped back.

His voice came out rough. “Call me theminuteyou get there.”

“I will Daddy,” she cried, hugging him tight, crying into his chest.

As the family pulled together like the village they’d always been, Aku ran inside to grab her things. Her heart was screaming, stomach twisted, praying to whoever was listening that Malik would still be there when she touched down.

Because she wasn’t ready to lose him, when she’d just got him. “Uncle Lunar, I need you to tell God to save him forme,” she whispered in the air knowing even in death, her Uncle wouldn’t let her down.

The beeping of the machines wasn’t alarming. Just a steady reminder that he was still here, still breathing, and still in pain.

Malik sat up slow in the hospital bed, with his shirt off, chest wrapped in white gauze, and his ribs bruised purple. One arm rested on the railing, the IV in his hand tugging every time he shifted. He had a swollen lip and a scrape along his jaw, but nothing looked as bad as it felt. He’d already told the nurse to stop asking about his pain level. It didn’t matter.

He’d felt worse, both physically and emotionally.

His Mama sat beside him. Her lips were tight as her leg bounced nonstop. Anthony leaned against the wall, arms crossed, face set in stone. Gran Betty was in the corner chair, fanning herself with a folded church program like she’d been summoned from the South just to lay hands on him. Even though she hadn’t been inside a church house since God knows when. If Malik wasn’t in so much pain, he would’ve asked where the hell she got the church program from.

“I swear, boy,” Gran Betty huffed, “I ain’t gon’ keep flyin’ up out my bed just to come down to no hospital room. You too big for this foolishness.” As long as he was okay, she was going to talk her shit.

Malik nodded. “I know, Granny.”

“You do?” she snapped. “’Cause you was bleedin’ last time. Now this time they done cracked your ribs like a rack of ribs. You either cursed or dumb.”

Myesa couldn’t help but to snicker. Her Mama was something else.

“I said I know.”

His dad didn’t say anything at first, just watched him. “Was it them red flags again?”

Malik sighed. “I ain’t tryna talk about it.”

“Youneedto talk about it,” his mama said. “You lucky it was just fists. Coulda been worse.”

“They tried to strip his chain,” Zaire said from the doorway. He and two other homeboys had pulled up with snacks and a liquor store bouquet of fake-ass flowers. “He ain’t let ‘em.”

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