Page 95 of The Prodigy

27

Jakari

IthoughtIwasdead when I woke up. All them faces smiling down at me and shit. I looked at each one…Nay, Eris, Jaz, Mama, Joe, Uncle Prez, Tay, and Cyrus…and wondered why the fuck they were standing over me and why they were in my bedroom in the first damn place.

Then I realized.

“What happened?” I coughed. My throat felt like sandpaper.

“Here, baby.” Mama handed me a cup of ice water. I drank half of it.

“What the fuck happened?” I asked again.

“You got shot,” Nay said. “Outside the shop.”

I thought about it for a minute. Made sense. Then the pain set in. Funny how that works.

“My shoulder,” I said, and everybody nodded. “Did anybody see anything?”

“Nah.” That was Tay. “We heard a car screeching off, but nobody saw who it was.”

That was convenient.

I coughed again and moved to sit up, but Mama pushed me back down.

“Don’t try to move,” she ordered. “You’re okay but you have a wound and stitches. Do you need some painkillers?”

I debated that. Painkillers would make me cloudy, and I needed a clear head to make sense of this shit.

“I’m good.” It was then that I realized somebody was missing. “Aye, where’s Malika?”

They all exchanged looks. My heart raced when I saw that shit.

“Where’s my wife?” I demanded. “Is she okay?”

“Calm down, man,” Eris said. “She’s still at work. She’s fine.”

Okay, that was good. She was okay. I breathed in and out, slowly, to calm myself down.

“Does she know I’m in the hospital?”

They all looked around again, stuck on stupid, mumbling about how they didn’t tell her or didn’t think to mention it.

“Let me get this straight. Y’all made sure to call each other, but didn’t nobody think to call my fuckingwife?”

“We didn’t realize…” Joe trailed off.

Mama shrugged. “We didn’t think…”

“We just thought you’d want family here,” Nay finished. “Real family.”

“Sheisreal family.” I rubbed my temples and tried with all my might not to go HAM on these niggas. “Cyrus, go get Malika and bring her here.”

He nodded once and left the room.

“What can we do?” Prez said. “Anything you need.”

“I need…” I took a deep breath. “I need a minute to think. I love y’all and appreciate y’all being here, but just let me get my mind right. And send the doctor in here.”

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