Memphis Streets 2 (Urban)

Chapter 26- Momma Peaches

"He was here. I swear he was here," Alice repeated, glancing around.

"I just ... got a little taste, you know. Just to calm my nerves," she stressed to the officer who was snapping handcuffs around her wrists.

"You don't understand. He wouldn't stop crying and I just needed something to make me relax."

"Who did you buy the drugs from, ma'am?" another cop asked with his notepad out.

"Do you remember what he looked like?"

Alice looked at the man like he'd just grown two heads.

"Sheeeiit." She shook her head.

She was faced with a hard dilemma: snitching or finding her baby. The choice was clear in my eyes, but Alice wasn't seeing it the same way.

"Tell them who was here," I pleaded.

"We need to find Mason before. . ."

Alice licked her lips and scratched at her matted hair.

"I ... I just ... don't ... remember."

"What the fuck do you mean you don't remember?"

I lost it and charged toward my sister.

"You stupid bitch! How could you?"

Four officers jumped into the mix and struggled to pull me away from her.

"You fuckin' sold that baby for a muthafuckin' hit?"

Alice started crying. "I ... I don't ... know. I can't ... I wouldn't."

She looked around for a sympathetic face but didn't find one-not even from her son.

"Terrell, I didn't. You gotta believe me. I would never ..."

Terrell, holding his baby brother's stuffed teddy bear in one hand and his pet grass snake in the other, turned his back on his mother.

"Terrell, baby. Please. Listen to your momma."

"All right. Get her out of here." The one cop closed his notepad and shook his head.

"No, wait!" Alice screamed.

"Terrell, baby!" I gathered myself and shook the cops off of me.

"Terrell, sweetheart. Come here."

Terrell waltzed over to me with his head down.

"You, bitch," Alice seethed as the police tried to drag her out of the apartment.

"You're tryna turn my children against me. You got my baby. I know you do!" She glanced at the police tugging her.

"She has my baby. Arrest her! I know she has my baby!" I shook my head, not believing that she was seriously going to try and pin this bullshit on me.

"Not going to work this time, Alice. This shit is all on you!You fucked this up-not me!"

I was so angry that I was trembling. Terrell dropped his teddy bear and grass snake and then wrapped his small arms around my waist.

"It's all right, Momma Peaches. The police is gonna find him. You'll see."

Shit. The fuckin' cops in that goddamn city couldn't find their assholes while shitting on a toilet.