BANDIT II

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If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way. - Seamus Heaney, Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney 

A Couple Nights Later...

Yoko...

I toss and turn, holding on to my stomach from the nausea. I whimper, curling up as the baby moves around kicking hard. I flutter my eyes open, hearing the thunder rumble from behind me. Again it's one of those sleepless nights. Nausea, cold sweats and the nightmare of my parents being shot right in front of me. I lay on my back, seeing Zeus is not laying next to me. He was a few minutes ago, but I guess my tossing and turning kept him up again. I stare at the ceiling, feeling the bed dip in and out. I draw my attention to Zeus, sitting a glass of ice cold water on the nightstand looking over at me in worry. I sit up on my arm, taking the glass off the nightstand and guzzle down a good bit of the refreshment. When done, I sit it back down, sitting up fully.

"You ok?" I shake my head no, rubbing my round stomach in circles.

"I keep having nightmares about it Zeus." I sniff. He gently pulls me toward him, and I sit in his lap sideways as he holds me around my waist. I lay head on his chest and hug him around his neck as the tears brew.

"What happened Yoko?" He questions. I wipe the tears, shaking my head as I thought of that night. The night that changed my life forever.

We had just came back from our trip to Asia, our normal end of the summer trip. Our flight landed around midnight, which was good because I had school the next day. After baggage claim, we went out to the parking lot to our little minivan that my father payed for parking for a week. We packed the car up, and began our journey on home.

I remember Bryson Tiller playing, Exchange I believe the song was. My father loved that song. Every time it came on he would always say, you don't know nothing about this KoKo, this that shit. He would sing it to my mom, rub her chin and everything as she looked at him with love in her eyes. Seeing them together gave me hope that I'd find love like that one day. 

It was then around forty-five minutes later, that my father took the wrong turn. He decided to take the backstreets where everything happens around one in the morning. We came to a red light and my father stopped the car. I looked around at our surroundings seeing the empty highway streets. My mom looked around confused as I did.

"Calvin, where are you going this is not the way home." My mother laughed.

"Sage I'm taking the shortcut home, I know where I'm going." My father sighed to my mother.

"This is not the shortcut, my way is the short cut." My mother sighed back. My father mushed her head causing her to laugh. I couldn't help but laugh myself.

"This is the way papa always travels home mama. We get home fast too." I told her. She didn't wanna hear it though. My mother was stubborn when it came to certain things, and the ride home was one of those. She strictly believed in one way home and that's that.

"Mmm. We'll see." She sassed rolling her eyes.

As we waited for the light to turn green, I dropped my phone down on the floor. When I bent down to get it I heard my father sigh in irritation.

"The light usually never takes this long." He said. I felt around for my phone some more, taking it off the floor and playing the music in my ears like I had before. Just as I was about to sit up, I heard my mother scream.