I woke up being held in someone's arms.
I examined my surroundings, we were at a hospital. It smelled of medicine and too much air freshener.
"Look who's up."
I smiled staring at his long grey beard. It reminded me of Santa Claus.
"Granny!" I yelled clapping and slightly touching his beard.
"This is grandad! Not that old witch over there." He blurted pointing across the room.
"Bastard!" My granny yelled back.
"Stop cursing infront of my child." My mom groaned.
She was slumped on the hospital bed with her right leg wrapped. Her eyes were bloodshot red. It looked like she'd been up crying all night.
"Ma ma!" I tried reaching for her.
Grandpa laid me gently in my mother's arms. Her vanilla scent hit my nose instantly, causing me to snuggle under her.
"We have to get Dewayne out." She groaned in pain.
"Honey sit down that's how you got one leg messed up now, doing too damn much!" My grandma scolded while taking me out of my mom's arms.
"Oh Joanne shut yo dusty ass up!" Grandpa said waving her off, "Naomi is a grown women."
Granny shot him the middle finger.
"Where Dada?" I wondered looking around the room.
Tears poured down my mom's face.
"Twelve years!" She cried.
Grandpa came to my mom's side and tried to calm her down but it wasn't helping. She began to cry even louder.
"Well honey that's what you get when you hook up with men like Dewayne, don't be so disappointed." Granny told her from across the room.
A few seconds later the doctor came into the room breaking up some of the tension.
"So Mrs. Carter, as you know, you were shot in the leg." He said clearing his throat.
My mom nodded.
"You will be in the hospital for about two months and when you finish, due to the incident with the police you will be forced to be on house arrest for two years."
Granny covered her mouth. She was so disappointed.
The doctor placed me in his arms, "In the meantime while you're here, you'll have to find someone to watch over your beautiful child." He smiled looking down at me.
Tears dropped from my mom's eyes. She was stressed. She was now not only worried about my dad's wellbeing, but also mine.
The doctor placed me in my mom's arms and left out. She wiped the tears from her eyes looking down at me.
She hummed a soft lullaby in my ear and slowly rocked me. A few minutes later a nurse brought food in for mom, but she just ended up feeding it to me.
When the doctor came back to check on my mom, he told her that he would give her some morpheme to ease some of the pain on her leg.
After taking the medicine she fell asleep quickly and I joined her right after.
....
"Alright Joanne, just grab her bag." My grandpa sighed.
I rested my head against his shoulder as I drank the warm milk from my bottle.
"I guess Aaliyah will have to get used to drinking formula." My mom said as she sat up in the hospital bed, "I won't be able to breast feed."
My granny mumbled a few things under her breath while grabbing my bag. "You just worry about getting better." She pointed at my mom.
Aaliyah's grandma, Joanne, was fed up with her daughter Naomi. Before Naomi had got pregnant with Aaliyah or even met Dewayne, Joanne would have never imagined this life for her daughter.
When Naomi was younger, her mom had pressured her into going to college and getting all of her degrees. Meanwhile Naomi didn't even want that. Naomi wanted to pursue her dream in dancing which her mother had never approved of.
Naomi ended up enrolling in college anyway and it was killing her. She was majoring in a subject that she didn't even care about.
As a result, Naomi dropped out. She kept it a secret from her mom for about six months. She was practically homeless until she had met Dewayne....
"Do you hear me?!" Granny pointed at my mom.
"Huh, yeah." She said.
We left out of the hospital and grandpa placed me inside of the carseat in the back seat of their truck. I watched him and granny argue as I chewed on my fingers.
"Her fast ass don't listen!" Granny yelled, "She messed her own life up, I tried to help her."
Grandpa shook his head, "I'm so tired of you Joanne, that girl ain't did nothing wrong."
"She should be able to watch her own damn child then!" She yelled.
They argued the whole way to their house. Joanne was so upset with Naomi, she just wish her daughter would have listened to her.
Granny phone ringed just as we pulled up in the driveway.
"Harold bring Aaliyah in the house, this Betty Mae." She said answering the phone.
"Yeah girl, Naomi got her ass in the hospital and Dewayne in jail." She talked, "Mhmm, now we got Aaliyah."
Grandpa unfastened my seatbelt and took me out the carseat.
"Lord am I tired of that lady.." he shook his head.
Granny continued to gossip as grandpa and I stepped into the house.
He placed me on the ground and I slowly stood to my feet.
"You walking now, huh?" He chuckled.
....
Dewayne clutched his teeth listening to his correctional officer talk. So many things were running through his mind, he couldn't believe this shit was catching up with him.
"Do you understand boy?"
Bill was one of those white prejudice correctional officers. He was glad to see Dewayne in this predicament. He was satisfied when he found out that he had been assigned the case.
Dewayne looked up at him, "Yeah."
He wanted so badly to smack the shit out of Bill. He was trying his best to keep his composure. Bill had went over the rules and policies about five times.
"Good, I don't want you causing any trouble in here boy." Bill pointed. "You'll be dealing with me then."
Dewayne sucked his teeth.
Bill threw the orange uniform at him, "Get changed and be ready in two minutes." He said walking out the cell.
"This nigga got some nerve..." Dewayne hissed standing up.
He took his time changing into the orange jump suit. The material was old and raggedy and smelled like bleach.
Dewayne walked out the cell and met up with all the other inmates and officers.
He ran his hands over his face. He needed a plan, and fast.
