Fast Life Read Online Free Page B

she wasn’t in any way prepared for.
    She grew anxious and put the picture away, her gaze fixing on another one. Her father was a tall man, his skin a deep chocolate color. A neatly trimmed goatee brought out his well-defined jawline, with his hair crisply cut into a fade. He stood there smiling, his pearly whites shining. He had on nice clothes and a thick gold chain.
    He was holding her in his arms. She was in a pink dress and pink shoes, with pigtails that curled all the way down to her chin. She couldn’t even remember how it felt to be held by her father anymore.
    Then there was her mother. Now, she was beautiful then. Still was. She had on a cream-colored dress, one of the skintight ones they wore in the eighties. Her dark brown, wavy hair was shining, as were her eyes. And that smile—so perfect. Kyra couldn’t remember her mother being that happy in a while. When he was alive, they’d never wanted for anything, and good times had not been hard to come by. Kyra did remember when that all changed, though. The day her… their lives had fallen apart. That day family lost its meaning in her life. It was Sunday, June 1, 1997.
    It was a beautiful day. The skies were clear, the sun was shinin’, with a nice breeze. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was only five, and me, my mom and my dad went to this big-ass barbeque at some park. It was live. So many people were there: some of Dad’s friends, some of Momma’s friends, some of our family and even some of my friends from school, Natasha bein’ one of them. Me and Tasha had been playin’ catch, and she threw the ball too high for me. I went runnin’ after it, past Momma and her girls, talkin’ loud with gossip, and Dad and his people, rowdy, playin’ a game of dominoes. I had finally caught up to the ball when I stopped. There was this van comin’ up the street. I dunno what did it, but I knew somethin’ was wrong. It sent a chill through my body. Call it intuition.
    That’s when someone lowered the window real slow and stuck out what I knew to be a gun by the reflection of the sun off the metal. I couldn’t move. I called out for Daddy, I guess out of instinct. When I was scared, I could always go to him. Next thing I knew —Pop! Pop! Pop! There were bullets flyin’ every which way, from the van to Daddy’s friends and back. My dad even pulled a gun from his waist. Everythin’, the music, the laughter, yells, birds, the whole world seemed like it got quiet, and all you could hear was the gunfire. I saw people runnin’. I tried to move, but for some reason I couldn’t. It was like I weighed five hundred pounds or somethin’. That’s when one of the guys from the van aimed straight at me. He even pulled the trigger. But the bullet never hit me. Daddy pushed me out the way and knocked me to the ground. He took the bullet himself .
    After he was hit, the van sped off. The gunfire was now replaced by cryin’ and shoutin’. My mom was hunched over Daddy’s body, screamin’ out for help and tellin’ him not to leave her and that she loved him. Some other people were around her, too, but there was another crowd around Uncle Anthony, ’cause he had been hit, too. I didn’t waste any time runnin’ over to where Dad was layin’. He was covered in blood, and so was my mom. It even got on me. I never saw so much blood in my life. I remember holdin’ on to his hand so tight. I started tellin’ him that I loved him, and I started to cry. That’s when my mom started screamin’ for someone to come and get me and that she didn’t want me to see this. But if you ask me, it was too late. Besides, no one moved me anyway. I fought off the one person who tried. They didn’t try again.
    As I kneeled over him, he focused his eyes clearly on me. He opened his mouth just enough to talk when he started to choke and cough on his own blood.