Right Behind You

Chapter Three: Enough!!!

"To a stone or granite statue, I'm prone to get at you

It's hard to break your defense, I guess I have to leap fence

Or scale wall, and break fall on a tree right by your window."

-Enough!!!( A Tribe called Quest)

Kae:

I slammed my hands a million times on the steering wheel in frustration before ripping the door to my car open, letting myself out. I shut the door and focused my eyes on the hoe house in front of me.

It wasn't like how it used to be back in the day.

Eddie Silk had a booming pimp business that he ran himself since the young age of twenty. I had no idea how old he was now, but he was old enough to carry grays on his chin and scalp, his eyes were wrinkled and he struggled to walk at times, still...still he kept his business going.

Women like my mother, they worked for him selling their bodies for a profit to take care of their families or....buy more drugs for themselves.

I had been here a couple of times as a child, most of it to look for my mother but I was never let in further past the office area. The other times were to confront Eddie Silk, who my mother informed me was my father. I wanted to have a real relationship with my dad, a male presence in my life other than my brother that could somehow steer me in the right direction.

Stupid, I knew that. Who would take life advice from a pimp?

Still, it was something for me.

Eddie never wanted to see me, but he saw Tariq when he felt like it. I thought maybe it was a man-to-man bonding experience and that no girls were allowed, but in reality Eddie just never claimed me. He never considered me his daughter, he never cared to.

But today I would get the truth out of him.

He would tell me that he was my father, right before I left Chicago for good.

There was nothing left for me here, everyone I loved was dead.

I rang the buzzer to the building and waited patiently for someone to respond.

"Can I help you?" It was Eddie Silk on the other side of the intercom.

I cleared my throat it probably sounded groggy from all the crying I had been doing previously.

"Uh...this is Kae Francisque." I stated.

"Kae Francisque?" He asked with confusion.

I attempted to hide the hurt that hit my chest when he couldn't even remember my name.

"From down the block." I added as I fiddled with my hands.

It was silent for a moment before he spoke again, "Oh! Right....little Kae, Chimmy's kid." He said.

Chimmy was my mother's prostitution name, to keep her identity a "secret" although everyone knew what she did and I wish they didn't.

"Can I help you with anything?" He asked.

"Just a quick chat." I shoved my hands into my pocket as I said this.

"Sure thing." The buzzing sound of the door unlocking came on and I quickly pulled at the door and let myself in.

I walked down the hallway of the building that was close to falling apart. Back in the day, it was booming with flagrant wallpaper, exotic photos of naked women, the prices of what the women had to offer. It sickened me, but I had gotten used to it, now the walls seemed barren and plain, the furniture natural and common of a working building.