Little Boy Judah

He's running and running through a black abyss, and he sees his father walking in front of him, but he can't catch up with him. His father looks back and asks him if he has woken up yet. Judah's puzzled expression. His father continues walking, and Judah continues chasing him, but never catches up with him. As he sees his father getting farther into the abyss, he is blinded by a light and sees his father's silhouette. Then BANG (gunshot). Judah wakes up out of his sleep, sweating. He looks at the time on the clock and sees "יהוה ". He thought he was tripping at first. He rubbed his eyes and looked again at the time on the clock, saying 3:20am. Judah sits up on the side of the bed, thinking about the dream he just had and wondering what his father meant by "have you woken up yet?". Startled by the ringing of his phone, it's Kaithy. She's an older lady in her late 50s, looking to score. She's been ripping and running the streets for 30 years, so the streets have taken a toll on her—baggy eyes, a couple of missing teeth, and hair all over the place in a ponytail. Judah answers, "What do you want, Kaithy?". She says, "Nephew, you know what I want. I got this john trying to get some hard. He's trying to spend $100, pooh-pooh." That's a nickname she uses for everybody. Judah replies, "Alright, where are you at?" Kaithy then says, "They're in the car on 4th street and Lock." It's a street over from where Judah lives in the Acres Deer apartments. Judah puts on his clothes, bags up 3 grams of c***k cocaine, and grabs his Taurus GX4 9mm Luger. He tells himself, "It's better to get caught with it than without it." He goes outside and enjoys the summer night in the middle of July. He doesn't have to worry about wearing anything too warm. There's a path that's a shortcut to get to 4th street through the woods that he always went through as a child. When he gets out of the shortcut, he sees Kaithy in the car, fondling the john she brought with her. Irritated by the sight, Judah yells at them to do that on their time, not his. Kaithy, being the asshole that she is, says, "My bad, pooh-pooh. I can do you next if you want." Judah, with a disgusted look on his face, says, "Naw, I'm good. Just pass that bread." He then exchanges hands with the john who was with Kaithy. He was excited that he got so much for $100 and wanted Judah's number. Kaithy always tries to finesse her johns, so she interrupts him and says, "Naw, baby, just call me, and I'll call my nephew. He doesn't know you." But she couldn't care less about Judah's well-being; she just wanted to get something out of it for herself. As Judah is going back into the house, he gets another call from another customer. This time it's Buck, an old head from the Mac projects who now lives in Acres Deer. Buck used to be a head busta in his day, robbing every dope boy in his path. But he eventually ended up doing a long 20-year stretch in the pen for robbery and manslaughter. He's been home for 2 years now, and all he does is work and go home to his wife Shirley, with occasional dalliances. "What's up, nephew? You straight?" Buck asks. "Yeah, I'm straight, OG," Judah replies. "Alright, I'm ready to pull up in front of your crib before I go into the house," Buck says. Judah knows that Buck likes to score before going into the house because his wife doesn't know he gets high. Judah responds, "Alright, I'm ready to have that for you now." Knowing Buck never breaks his routine, he knows Buck wants a dub ($20) worth. Buck pulls up in his Cadillac SUV. Buck has a good-paying job, working as a manager at 1-500-PACOUTS. Judah is impressed by the new SUV that Buck has purchased. Judah gets in the passenger seat and exchanges hands with Buck, giving him the product and Buck handing over the $20 bill. "OK, I see you, UNK!" says Judah. "Yeah, nephew, I just got this 3 days ago. My wife cosigned it for me; her credit is better than mine," says Buck. "Ok, ok well, let me go ahead and let you go before Mrs. Shirley comes out here and curses both of us out." Both men chuckle. Judah goes back into the house, puts his gun on the nightstand, and lays back down. Now alone in his thoughts, looking up at the ceiling, he hears gunfire in the distance. This is typical at night, so he isn't alarmed. Judah looks over at his clock; it's 3:51. Then he sighs, knowing he isn't going back to sleep. 10 minutes passed, then 20 minutes. Judah starts to doze off, and then all of a sudden, the phone rings again. Judah picks up with an irritated voice, saying, "Yeah!?" It's Kaithy again, saying she has $300, and she's pulling up at the beginning of the townhomes. Judah says, "Alright, I'm coming now," and hangs up the phone. As he's walking out of the room, his grandmother comes from the bathroom. Mama Pearl is a very traditional older woman, soft-spoken but very outspoken as well. A lot of people in the neighborhood give her the utmost respect. Mama Pearl asks Judah where he's going at this time of the early morning; it's 4:12 am. Judah told Mama Pearl he couldn't sleep, and he was just going to take a walk to the beginning of the townhouses and back. Mama Pearl said, "Oh, just be careful and don't be outside too long because I heard shooting a little while ago, woke me up out of my sleep." "Yes, ma'am," Judah said, then proceeded to walk out the door. As he was walking to the beginning of the townhouses, Judah noticed Kaithy was in a different car this time. Kaithy got out of the car and met him halfway. "Hey, pooh-pooh, here's the $300. I'ma cuff 2 of..." Before she could get it out, Judah interrupted her and said, "Whatever you do, that's your business. I got my money. I'm out," then walked off. As he was walking back to his house, he saw somebody coming out of the cut. It seemed like they were holding something big on the side of their hip. He couldn't tell who it was, and he realized he had left his gun on the nightstand. "f**k!" Judah said to himself. Judah noticed whoever it is, was heading towards his house. Sigh of relief, he noticed the walk and realized it was his older brother, Jake. Jake was a year and a half older than Judah, a straight hot head. Judah was more about getting money, while Jake was more about action. He knew how to get money, but he always rather just took it. Both brothers saw each other, so they embraced. "What up bruh? What's going on?" Judah asked. Jake responded, "Mane, I just hit a dice game over on Park Ave. I got a 'bout 20 bands." Judah wondered if that was him that was doing the shooting earlier. "Yo bruh, that was you that I heard all of those shots earlier?" "Yeah," Jake said. "One of 'em almost would have got me too if the dude had crept up on me instead of starting shooting from across the street." Judah urged his brother to chill out for a while. "Mane, you wildin' too much." Jake wasn't hearing it. Before they went into the house, Judah told Jake, "Mama Pearl might still be awake." So Judah went in first to see if she was downstairs. Mama Pearl was sitting in the kitchen. Luckily, the stairs are where the front door is, so Judah blocked her sight, so she couldn't see Jake's rifle going upstairs. Mama Pearl called out, "Who is that?!" Jake yelled from the top of the stairs, "It's only me, Mama Pearl." "Chile, why are you just coming home at 4 something in the morning?" Mama Pearl frustratedly asked. I was at Monique's house and I lost track of time, "gram gram," said Jake. Mama Pearl made an "ugh" noise then said, "Boy, don't get that little floozy pregnant." Both of the brothers laughed, but Mama Pearl didn't find anything funny. Jake entered his room to put his AR-Pistol away, while Judah went into his own room. Before he could close the door, Jake barged into his room. "Damn, bruh!," Judah said. Jake handed him ten thousand dollars. Judah appreciated it and said, "Good looking out, bruh." Judah then thought about it and proceeded to ask his brother who was at the dice game. Jake hesitated, then answered, "A couple of guys from South End." South End is in the south of the city and they known for making money out there. Judah, confused, then asked who they were with? Jake side-eyed Judah and said, "dookie and knucklehead." Judah asked, "Are you talking about Maddog's nephew, Knucklehead?" There was a short pause, and then Jake answered, "Yeah." Judah knew in his mind that if those South End dudes were around this part of the tracks, they had to be with MadDog. Considering it was on MadDog's watch that they got robbed, it could start an all-out war between both sides of the city. Judah addressed that concern to his brother, but Jake shrugged it off and said, "Let's worry about that tomorrow." Judah, irritated, replied, "Motherfucka, it is tomorrow."