The shadow of the evening curtained the blazing July sun. Outside usually stayed quiet around this time. Young kids passed by on bikes as they made their way to the nearby playground. Unoccupied cars were parked on one side, lining the one-way street. Remaining clouds from a meeting of blunt smokers evaporated as the sidewalks cleared. Inside the room toward the back of a mint green and brick red wood siding house, Junya sat on the edge of his bed; two mattresses stacked from off the floor, writing raps in his notebook. He has spent the majority of his summer writing. Last summer, Junya did not do much rapping, after the concert shooting and all. Instead he had finally cut a demo of some of his finished rap songs that he produced by himself. He called the CD, "The Product.. He sold 1400 units of the CD, with an extreme dissatisfaction. This summer Junya was going to write a whole new album. "Perplex concepts render ya.ll conscious....damn this is hot!" Junya could not help complementing the new line he added to the verse. He had been working on the song for about 3 days and nights.
Junya yawned as he stretched his semi long arms; pen in his hand taking a
pause on a thought. He rose up from the floor with his 6.0" frame and
proceeded to walk into the kitchen. He perused the pantry, sifting through
empty cereal boxes, sauces, and stale cheese tricks only to find nothing to eat.
Junya.s younger brother was sitting at the kitchen table at the edge with the
bootleg iron board: there was a blanket laid on the end of the table near an outlet
used for the iron. He sat there talking to one of his girlfriends; which one it was
concerned Junya little. He tapped his brother.s shoulder as a gesture to get him
to move. His brothers. voice only got louder with the opposing party on the
phone. Junya figured that his brother was trying to be funny, or he did not feel
him tapping his shoulder. Junya weighed his options of hanging up the phone,
snatching him out of the way, or attempt some limbo to get into the fridge.
Before he acted on his decision, Junya heard his name being called from the
living room. "Junya" Junya heard his mother yelling from off the one seat couch placed
perpendicular to a 19 inch color television. She sat there half sleep during the
evening matinee movie that was on the USA channel. She was awakened from
an obnoxious banging on the front screen door.
"Junya," she called again, which sounded like the last time she was going
to call his name. "Wha..." "Your friend here..." she said unenthusiastically. Whenever Junya.s
mother said that someone was here in that tone, it meant either she was really
tired, or it was...
"It.s wah er name deh...Kavok...Khevas..."
"Khevasiah," Junya corrected her after his mother botched the
pronunciation twice
As soon as Junya knew it was she, he jumped out of his hunger. He slid
into the bathroom that was right next to the kitchen, and quick! He threw some
water on his face to clean the afternoon in-the-house sweat off. He went in the
room shuffling through his makeshift dresser; an arrangement of plastic bags
holding his clothes in proper sections. He found a bleach new wife-beater, and
drew on his favorite Sean John blue denim jeans. Junya felt ashy, but he did not
know what was worse; dry skin, or a dry girlfriend who had been kept waiting
for sometime.
Khevasiah hated to be kept waiting. She hated being in Junya.s living
room. She hated Junya.s neighborhood. There was a lot she did not like about
Junya.s home life, but for some reason, she liked Junya.
"What the fuck taking you so long for?" Was the first thing out of
Khevasiah.s mouth when Junya came out the room and in view of Khevasiah.
"Eh...watch unu rotid mouth in a meh house, chu!" Junya.s mother
exclaimed in her native Patois, one octave higher than Khevasiah.s comment
towards me. She grabbed the arms of sofa to push herself out the chair, feeling
her entertainment post has been violated.
"Oops, sorry miss," she said empathetically.
"Why you taking so long for?" "You know I hate being kept waiting,"
Khevasiah whispered while she gave Junya a lovers hug.
"My bad dalin", Junya said with one arm remaining around her waist.
For sure Junya was always embarrassed to show affection to Khevasiah in front
of his mother, so he did not touch Khevasiah the way he wanted to at that
moment.