Hood Lemonade Jamika's Vendetta Read Online Free PDF Page B

without waking her loved ones. Wait a minute, I know this is where the TV normally is, Felise thought. She felt for the television again, nothing but empty space. He must have moved it, she thought. She turned on a little lamp that sat beside the couch and couldn’t believe her eyes. Not only was the television gone, so was the Sony stereo system she’d gotten from her mother for Christmas. There were beer cans, soda cans, empty plates, and all types of garbage strewn about the apartment. All at once, Felise was worried and puzzled. Oh God! Had they been robbed? Was Sly and Jamika all right?
    Felise rushed to the bedroom and pushed open the door. There wasn’t any way that she could have been prepared for what she saw. The bedroom television was gone, too. In fact, everything of value seemed to be missing. Even the hand-made silk quilt Big Momma had made for their queen-sized bed was gone. On the right end table, lay a plate of cocaine, and a bottle of Paul Masson. At the foot of the bed lay a stem, used for smoking crack cocaine. Sly laid across the bed so dazed from all the drugs he’d consumed; he didn’t immediately realize Felise had just busted in on him. However, the white, prostitute-looking woman who had been in the middle of giving him a blowjob did. She looked at Felise with gigantic, glazed-over eyes.
    Felise at once remembered how strangely Sly had been acting lately. She recalled his late nights out, the necklace she thought she’d lost, and Jamika’s Walkman that mysteriously came up missing. His weight lost. All this was consistent with a crack addict.
    Before she realized it, she had leaped across the room in what seemed like one step. She grabbed the old iron lamp that set on the dresser where her television and jewelry box once sat. She flung the old lamp at Sly with all her might. It struck him on his back, and then hit the floor with a crash as the light bulb broke on the un-cushioned tiles.
    Jamika awoke to a loud crash. She could hear yelling and cursing. She walked to her bedroom door afraid, wiping the sleep from her eyes. She opened the door to see a white, naked woman running from her parents’ room. Then she saw her daddy standing in nothing but his boxer shorts, and her mother teary eyed, yelling at him to get out at the top of her lungs.
    Without notice, Sly punched Felise with so much force that she fell back into the wall. He leaned over her and started to punch her repeatedly. It looked like Muhammad Ali pounding on a defenseless challenger. Jamika was horrified. Her mother’s cries felt like they were pinching the air from her lungs. Then, she saw her father snatch an earring through the hole in her mother’s ear.
    Jamika could feel a ball of fire begin in her stomach and slowly rise to her chest, as she saw her mother’s blood slowly seep down her neck, onto the collar of her shirt. Then it seemed as if the fireball had taken over. She ran over and jumped on her father’s back. Her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck, and her legs were swinging. She yelled through hot tears, “Get off my momma! Stop it! Stop it! Leave her al—” Before she could finish her pleading, Sly had flung her off his back into the room. She hit the tiles hard. She saw little colored spots floating around her vision from the impact of her head hitting the floor.
    Jamika spotted the old iron lamp with the broken light bulb on the floor. By now, the fireball inside of her had become a burning furnace that seemed to stretch all over her body. Her mother was being beaten to a bloody pulp. She grabbed the old lamp and headed for the hunched over figure that was pounding her mother. She brought it down against the back of Sly’s skull so hard, that he was knocked unconscious.
    Felise opened her eyes. All of a sudden, the solid fists had stopped battering her. She saw Jamika standing there, with wide teary eyes, gripping the old iron lamp with what looked to be a death grip. Felise held her arms open;