The Kick Back

Bigger Than Me

I had spent most of the day by Maria and Santiago's side. Marco's advice had touched me, but it didn't stop me from loving and caring about this child that Maria had just brought into the world. It made me so sick...that I could have all of these feelings for this baby even though I didn't know if he was mine. Maria seemed nervous but I figured that most of it was because she was so tired. Any woman that just pushed another human being out her body would be tired after the fact. So let all of those feelings ride for the moment, I still admired her strength and was impressed that she had taken the labor and delivery process like a champ.

"Can you turn on the TV, Ant?" Maria asked me, trying to adjust her pillows so that she would be comfortable. I grabbed the remote and turned on the Tv. The news was on. I placed Santiago in his incubator and sat down in the chair next to the bed. It looked like people were going crazy in the streets and I wanted to know what was going on. I turned the volume up to hear the news anchor reporting live from what looked like the outskirts of my neighborhood. "Damn..." Maria said, the chaos on tv had caught her attention as well. "Reporting live from the North side of Oakland. A back to school parade gone terribly bad. It appears that two teenagers attempted to bring the neighborhood together by coming forward publicly with their relationship. This sparked an outrage in the community, leading to many people being seriously injured..." I don't know why...but the first person I thought about was Stephanie. I knew she had a plan that she had talked about it...but it couldn't have been her. From what I knew she was leaving early. Still, I needed to know that she was okay and that she had gotten on that flight. But then, I thought about it. She wouldn't have missed graduation for anything in the world...even though she wanted more than anything to leave her old life behind. She wanted that diploma, she wanted to walk across the stage. She was still in town...and she was the center of all of this chaos.

"Maria..." I started, I didn't even have to finish my sentence. She knew exactly what was going on and neither one of us had to second guess it. "Go see if she's alright. We'll be here waiting on you." she told me. I got up and kissed her on the forehead. "I'll be back. I promise." I told her. I ran out of the door and down the hallway. I had to get to Stephanie...

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I ran out in the middle of it all. Police were everywhere, the dogs were out. It reminded me of all of those scenes we were shown in history class of protests in the 1960's. People had calmed down though...it seemed as if i had missed all of the chaos. People were holding hands, hugging, and truly embracing one another. It almost brought a tear to my eye...for the first time in forever, people of all colors were together publicly, talking, not fighting, but relating and communicating. It shocked the hell out of me at that point. I was so used to disarray and confusion and there was finally peace in the community. From a distance, I spotted Mike standing with the love of his life, Priscilla. We all knew about her but he could never be out in public with her. At that point, I knew he had been involved and helped Stephanie do whatever she did to cause this. I ran over to him, wanting to know her whereabouts and if she was okay. I knew Stephanie would've died to make things happen to bring change in the community. I was praying she was just fine.

"Mike! Where's Stephanie?!" I asked him, out of breath and sweating every ounce of fluid out of my body. He touched my shoulder and said, "Calm down, man, catch your breath. She's fine. She was heading back to the house a few minutes ago." he told me. That comforted me, I was glad she was okay. But I didn't wanna waste a moment. I finally realized that no matter how much I felt like Stephanie and I couldn't be together, I was apart of something bigger than myself. It was important to me that she was okay and no matter what we would always have an unexplainable bond. "I gotta find her." I told him. I turned and ran towards the East side. I knew the route she would normally take home and I knew that I would probably find her.

As soon as I hit the corner, I saw her walkingfrom a distance. I sped up, trying to catch up with her. She didn't notice mecoming. I walked up to her and touched her shoulder. I startled her, but onceshe saw my face, she smiled. The tears started flowing down her face. Icouldn't fight my emotions either. Tears welled up in my eyes and I told her,"I'll always be here for you. I had to know you were okay." Shehugged me tight and I held her even closer to me. I kissed her softly on thelips and held her tighter. I didn't care what our title was at that point. Ineeded to be with her...I needed to protect her. Her knight in shining armorwas gonna be there for her, rain or shine...