FINDING HARLEM

FH>2

𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐑𝐀 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍

___

𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐀, 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐀

Tia lit her cigarette while she swept the floors of her kitchen. For the last seventeen years her life had took a turn for the worst. She didn't live up to her mother's expectations, so she had been cut off.

The rest of her family didn't like her either considering the fact that they all believed that she lied on her uncle when she finally told them that he was raping her. They called her a 'selfish, self hating, grown ass, low life girl'.

Tiandra now works as a hotel maid for a decent hotel downtown. It gets her enough money to feed herself and pay some of the bills, but not enough for everything.

Her boyfriend; Jeremy sells drugs, so sometimes he buys her nice stuff, but when they argue she kicks him out until he wants to fuck and then everything goes back to normal.

Tia doesn't love Jeremy and he doesn't love her, but she valued his time, company and money of course.

He was good to her aside from the toxic arguments they had. He kept her looking nice, happy, and made her feel like she was living her teenage years again. He made her feel like she had a do over of her troublesome childhood.

Right now they were in the middle of a argument and he said he wasn't coming back this time, so the cigarettes kept her sane.

"Let me hurry up... I got work in a minute." She thought out loud

A sleepy Tiandra made her way down the dark hall and into her cluttered room to put on her work uniform.

I hope some rich people come today. I need to steal something

She hopped in her old Honda Civic and let the radio play the music. "Top notch bitch, I'm A-listed. This city girl shit can't flex like this. Ole country ass bitch can't dress like this. Bi, do it on the dick and a bitch!" Tiandra rapped.

"I'm a mothafucking city girl. Periodt." She swiped her hand under her chin as she drove.

∞

She walked down the halls of the hotel with her cleaning cart and waited by a room since there was a scheduled time for all of the maids to clean rooms. All of the room service workers had half a floor since the halls were kind of long.

When the time came she entered the first room and luckily, the family wasn't there.

As Tiandra cleaned the room she looked in drawers, closets and suitcases for valuables and sure enough she picked up a watch, a Louis Vuitton wallet and some nice earrings .

"Ha ha! This is niceeee." She did a small dance before slipping the items in her pocket and getting back to work.

Finna pawn these babyyy

When cleaning up she tends to get lost in thought. 'Harlem where could you be?' She thought to herself.

I'm tryna get some nice money and my records are clean. The judge would let me get my baby right? It's not like she was taken from me, I gave her up.

After fixing the big beds Tiandra pulled her phone out and searched up 'How to get your child back after adoption?'

After a bit of reading she realized that she couldn't. There was no way possible. Harlem had already been born, she already signed the adoption papers and her revocation period had passed a long time ago.

I just want my baby back.... I never wanted to let her go in the first place

She felt her face get hot and her brown eyes began to water. "I hate my life!"

The little girl in her was still there. Tia never got to be a kid. She developed quicker than most girls which caused her mom to cover her up, keep her inside and make her believe she was a hoe by the  age of nine.

By the time she was a preteen, her parents had her in a bunch of chess clubs and reading groups with the nerds and never allowed her to go outside and do kid thing such as carnivals, parks, and birthday parties.

Then, she was raped by her uncle at fifteen and pregnant at sixteen which took away all of her childhood. After she gave up Harlem, she didn't even want to live. The young girl felt that was no reason to smile or want to have fun. Plus, people at school had made fun of her for being pregnant at such a young age.

'How she pregnant at sixteen if her daddy a pastor?' Kids would say

Im gonna find my baby... even if it's the last thing I do

𝐈 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 33 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐯, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐢 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬

𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 6-7 2021