Christmas in the Hood Read Online Free PDF

started to feel something else. Pity. Any man low enough to steal from a single mother and her kids wasn’t man enough for her.
    “Mike, I gotta go. I’ve changed my mind about the wash. Yeah, I recovered, but no thanks to you. You really messed me up, but the good Lord restored my faith. I used to think I needed a man. I felt lonely without one. But I’ve now learned that I’m never truly alone because I’ve got the Lord. I hope you find that same peace.”
    Shante backed her car up and drove out of the car wash, leaving Mike stunned.

Me and Grandma
    Mo Shines

Chapter One
    A round six on the morning of December 1, nineteen-year-old Gina “Gigi” Lewis was awakened by the sound of feet storming through the apartment. She thought she was dreaming and turned over to go back to sleep, but the sound of a strange male voice yelling “New York Police Department” let her know that this was not a dream.
    Bolting straight up in bed, she grabbed the sheet in fright, looking like a deer caught in headlights. She heard her sixteen-year-old cousin Andrew let out a loud “Oh shit” from the front room, right next to the apartment door.
    As Gigi and her grandma scrambled out into the hallway, three police officers were quickly tackling Andrew to the floor. More cops poured into the apartment.
    “Hands up! Hands up where I can see them!” one shouted as he grabbed Gigi’s grandma by the collar of her nightgown.
    Gigi felt a cold metal object on the side of her right temple. The young narc pulled Gigi back into Grandma’s room by her white tee and cocked the hammer on his black .38 revolver, still holding it to her head. Her life seemed to flash in front of her eyes.
    Grabbing Gigi by the hair, he turned her head and whispered in her ear, “One wrong move, I’ll blow your fucking top off.” She felt his dry, cracked lips scratch her skin.
    The cop jerked Gigi’s arms violently behind her back and enclosed tight plastic flex cuffs around her wrists. Then he dragged her into the living room, where they already had Andrew and his grandma restrained with flex cuffs and on the floor. She looked at Andrew with terror in her dark brown eyes. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.
    Andrew mouthed, Don’t worry, as he watched Gigi fight back her tears.
    Gigi nodded and turned her face. Her heart was pounding as if it would jump straight out of her chest. It broke her heart to see tears streaming down her grandma’s wrinkled face as the cop dropped Gigi down on the floor next to her.
    Proceeding to ransack the old woman’s nice apartment, the cops flipped over mattresses, threw the dresser drawers on the floor, and tossed clothes everywhere.
    “What the fuck is all that P.A.L. shit in the closets?” an angry officer yelled out, searching through the hallway closet.
    Andrew replied sarcastically, “That’s my uncle’s shit. He’s a P.A.L. youth counselor.”
    “Yeah, well, tell your uncle he’s a fucking thief.”
    Andrew looked at him and said, “Whatever, man.”
    Two cops went into Grandma’s bedroom to search it. Gigi heard them yelling.
    “Oh … shit, oh … shit! What the fuck is that?”
    “What do they feed that damn thing? That shit is as big as a small dog.”
    Kitty the Siamese cat always jumped out from under the bed whenever the bedroom door opened. At first glance the cat’s glowing green eyes scared anybody who entered the dark room.
    A tall, slim black uniformed cop remained in the living room with Gigi, Grandma, and Andrew, badgering them while the rest of the cops searched different areas throughout the apartment, repeatedly asking where the crack was.
    Two detectives sporting suits and ties walked into the living room. The black one stared at the trio on the floor. The short, stocky white one turned his attention to the Christmas tree and the wrapped presents resting under it.
    “Check the gifts,” the white detective ordered the black cop already in the living room.
    The younger cop