Let Go of Me
"Listen, Huey. We're going to be stationed at your city in order to protect Baltimore from terrorists. We'll be there within the week, and we will be inspecting those in your city."
"Do you guys have a warrant ?"
"Don't you realize we are the FBI? We don't need warrants, and even if we did you have to remember that we are under Martial Law. Do you know what that means, Huey?"
Huey glared into the fleeting landscape as his limo raced down the highways of Woodcrest. He had his cell phone pressed against his ear as a government agent forced him to give consent to this military occupation. He had just departed from his old high school a few minutes earlier, and already the FBI was hounding him down for his city.
"It means that we have the right to extract information from anyone without a warrant. Don't even try to wave the Habeas Corpus in our faces, because it doesn't exist anymore. We're giving a week to comply with our demands, or we will arrest you. Have a good day, Mayor Freeman."
It was starting. The Beginning of the End. Huey could feel it in his gut as it contorted into a strange sensation within him.
"Why the hell are they taking Baltimore?" Huey asked a rhetorical question as his soft voice bounced off the walls of the empty limo.
"Don't worry. They're going to do this to every city in the country. They're going to be stationed all across the United States, taking city by city, one at a time."
Huey's eyes whipped up as the barrier between his cabin and the chauffer's slid down, allowing Huey to see who was driving the limo. His eyebrows stitched into a harsh scowl as he caught the eerily familiar sunglasses in the rearview mirror.
The White Shadow chuckled as he made a left turn towards Huey's old neighborhood.
"You never seem to like my presence, do you?"
"What do you know about this?" Huey asked with animosity infiltrating his demeanor.
"Don't worry. The FBI is just deploying the National Guard into your city. Nothing to worry about, it's just the National Guard. They won't be doing much of anything except patrolling Baltimore."
The White Shadow gave out another chortle as Huey contorted his face into an ice-cold glare as Huey realized Sandra Palein had just confiscated his own city. The one city he was elected to lead, and yet everything was suddenly whipped out from under him.
"The good news: you're still under the radar. Palein doesn't know anything about you…yet."
Huey felt a foreboding sense of apprehension…an icy cold feeling fell over his limbs as his heart jumped into his throat. The military occupation of Baltimore would make it even harder for him to remain under the radar since the National Guard would be stationed practically under every rock in the city. He had to be extra careful from this day forward…
Huey felt a slight vibration on the side of his leg. The feelings of apprehension immediately subsided as he pressed the phone up to his ear yet again.
"Hi Huey." One of Huey's advisors greeted him from the other side of the line. "Just wanted to say that things are looking up for your election to the Senate. You have a slight lead in the polls against Charlie LeMieux."
Amidst everything that has happened today, all the memories that flooded his head since his arrival to Woodcrest, all the "terrorist" attacks that occurred just hours ago, he had already forgotten why he was in Woodcrest in the first place.
Being the pessimist that he is, Huey immediately gave a cold retort to his advisor on the other side of the phone call.
"We still have seven months before election day. Don't get your hopes up." Huey gave a sharp retort before snapping his phone shut.
Huey took notice of a newspaper neatly folded beside him after he pocketed his cell phone.
"Oh. You might want to take a look at that." The White Shadow eyed Huey from the rearview mirror.
"Riots in California erupt as deployment begins." Huey read the headline. He took a glimpse of the image below the headline, which gave him a bone chilling sensation deep inside him.
The image depicted a group of human rights demonstrators engaging in a melee against the National Guard troops deployed in their area just a day before. Huey could see clouds of tear gas throughout the image, mixed with bullets and explosions with dead bodies interspersed about the streets. Other Resistance members were either arrested or clubbed to death on the spot.
The one thing that he thought was strange was how these troops were deployed in California before the "terrorist" attacks on the Air Force bases even occurred. It was as if they already knew that these attacks would happen on this very day…
And then he remembered Jazmine's phone call earlier that morning. The one that his advisor carelessly hung up on without asking Huey if he wanted to take the phone call.
"Please! I need to speak to Huey Freeman!"
Now that he thought about it in retrospect, he began to worry about Jazmine. Despite overhearing the phone call hours ago, he could clearly remember the urgency that invaded her usually soft and delicate voice.
"Oh my god! This can't be happening! Not to Jazmine!"
It has been twenty years since he saw her in person. Yet his memory of her remains sharp and vivid. His feelings for her still had the ability to raise a brush fire in his heart, equally as or even more intense than it had burned twenty years ago.
"WE HAVE TO GO TO CALIFORNIA!" Huey instantaneously and involuntarily shouted into the White Shadow's ear. Huey found himself inches from the White Shadow's head, gripping his shoulders with a grasp comparable to a boa constrictor.
"Huey, please keep your hands to yourself." The White Shadow calmly said. "I realize your little friend is caught in the middle of trouble, but I'm afraid we won't be able to make it to California."
"Why?" Huey relaxed as he asked his question, which was still was tainted with the same intensity of animosity.
"Keep reading the paper." The White Shadow frowned as he continued to train his focus on the road.
"Governor Schwarzenburg assassinated. Crisis in California ensues." Another headline caught Huey's eye.
Immediately, Huey remembered who Schwarzenburg was. He only met the governor of California once, but he would always remember how eccentrically opposed to Sandra Palein he was. Governor Schwarzenburg was probably one of the few people who were extremely vocal about their opposition to Sandra Palein. And as a result of that, Governor Schwarzenburg was terminated by Sandra Palein in the most brutal of assassinations.
"Huey, we cannot go to California because the governor over there was assassinated. Sandra Palein just recently seized the Governor's office today while you were giving a speech to Woodcrest High when the National Guard took over every city in California. She just installed William O'Malley as the governor of California…and just hours after the terrorist attacks, he said he would allow these National Guard troops every right to curb 'terrorism.' It is not safe to go to California, Huey."
"I don't care. We need to go to California! Jazmine needs me!" Huey shouted.
"Really?" The White Shadow sharply interjected, "Jazmine didn't seem to need you for the past twenty years. What makes you think she'll need you now?"
Huey nearly crushed every bone in his hand by curling it into an intensely tight fist…he wanted to knock the White Shadow's head off his shoulders. But then he realized he was driving his limo; and a limo without a chauffeur would end up…disastrous to say the least.
The White Shadow spoke up, sensing the rage radiating off Huey's body.
"Do you know what Governor O'Malley just granted these troops? He just turned them into living, breathing Terminators! They could shoot you on the spot. They don't observe human rights, Huey! There are riots that you could get killed in, and on top of that, you cannot leave Baltimore because the National Guard troops will be here next. I don't care how much you love your little friend, I cannot allow you to risk your life by going to California of all places."
Huey could feel his anger well up in him as the White Shadow scowled at Huey through the rearview mirror. He could not even imagine what Jazmine could possibly be going through. Was she okay? Was she arrested by the National Guard? Or worse, was she killed by the National Guard?
Huey's anger continued to course through his veins as he realized how callous the White Shadow was being to the situation that Jazmine was in.
"How could you say that?" Huey's words slipped from his mouth before he could even think about what he was going to say.
The White Shadow sighed as Huey's soft words struck his eardrum.
"Huey, you've become soft. What happened to the Huey who said it was merely human emotion to need somebody?"
Huey blinked as the White Shadow insinuated about the words he spoke so many decades ago.
"Jazmine happened to me." Huey calmly spoke.
Huey nearly lived twenty years without Jazmine Dubois by his side. He couldn't think he could even live another twenty knowing she was gone forever. He didn't want to face the reality of not seeing her face light up again, her eyes glint in the sunshine, his hands course through her hair…
"Don't worry. She's fine." The White Shadow broke through Huey's thoughts as he ruminated about the last time he ever saw her.
"How do you –?" Huey's question was cut off when the White Shadow broke through Huey's inquisition at midsentence.
"We're here."
Huey's head whipped towards the window. His eyes landed on the eerily familiar hill in the distance…the same hill where he last saw Jazmine…
He could feel his heart fall into a cold, bottomless abyss as his eyes took in every detail of the hill. The afternoon sun shone through the multitude of leaves through the tree as shards of the sun's rays shone into Huey's eyes. Two blue birds nestled into the branches of the tree, and yellow butterflies fluttered near the apex of the hill. Not one single detail had changed…
"Why did you bring me here?" Huey asked the White Shadow as both of them stepped out of the limo.
"You lost something here. Something dear to you…" The White Shadow kept his voice low so only the wind would carry it to Huey's ears.
Indeed, Huey did lose something at the hill. Something he swore he would never be able to retrieve. Something happened here that spun his life around…not for better, but for worse.
June 15th, 2007
"Listen Jazmine. I want you to understand clearly what we're doing."
"What? What are you doing?"
The adolescent Jazmine Dubois sat across her mother and her father at the dinner table. Typically, Jazmine would have been elated to have both her parents home, especially since her closest circle of friends have been whittled down to one. But there was something in the eyes of Tom and Sarah Dubois...something she was dreading. The atmosphere around her seemed to weigh down on her. The rain began to pelt angry on the rooftops above her.
She didn't know what was coming next. Nor did she ever want to...
"Jazmine..." Sarah placed her hand on Jazmine's. Her eyes began to brim with tears, her pupils swimming in a sea of agony. She broke down before she could get the dreadful news out.
"We're getting divorced." Tom interjected flatly.
Those three words...so simple and yet so damned.
Jazmine could not even comprehend the three words that seemed to flow into one ear and out the other, leaving a tattered brain in their wake. Three words...so simple to say yet so complex in what damages it had evoked inside the world thrown in turmoil inside the awestruck Jazmine Dubois.
"W-what?" Jazmine's lower lip quivered. Her eyes began to take on a glassy appearance amidst re floodwaters ready to flush out from behind her amber eyes.
"Oh, Jazmine. Please don't cry." Sarah slid herself over to Jazmine's side and brought a reassuring arm around her shoulders in a vain attempt to stem her tears.
"NO!" Jazmine exploded into a wide array of negative emotions, "LET GO OF ME!"
"Jazmine, I know it's hard to understand –"
"No, Sarah." Jazmine's voice shook, "I understand very clearly. You've been cheating on daddy. You get what you deserve."
Sarah Dubois looked at her own flesh and blood with eyes filled with shock. She has never heard her own daughter address her by her first name nor has she ever seen so much vitriol get spilled from deep within Jazmine's soul.
"She called me Sarah."
Jazmine stared with absolute abhorrence at Sarah. She couldn't recognize Sarah as her mother…not now, not ever.
Tom cleared his throat. Jazmine and Sarah whipped their heads around to see Tom trying to get both of their attention.
"Um. Jazmine – honey? Sarah's not the only one guilty of infidelity."
"What?" Jazmine's eyes grew large. Tears were already spilling over the brim.
"Um, well you see…Sarah and I actually decided we go our separate ways years ago. We only wanted to stay together for your sake. But we've been falling out of our relationship for so many years that I don't think we'll be able to keep this thing going. So we're going to divorce by July."
"I…can't believe this." Jazmine said.
She finally knew why she was alone in the house for weeks at a time. Her world continued to shatter before her eyes. Her heart took on a heavy burden. Her spirit seemed to weigh heavier than the body that contained it. Jazmine was ready to collapse on the spot and just cry until blood leaked from her eyes. But she managed to contain it…
"So," Tom continued, not noticing the tumultuous tempest raging concealed within Jazmine's soft exterior. "Jazmine, you probably know Clint Rodham…the Senator from New York? Sarah will live with him after the divorce. As for I, I've been courting with a realtor from Philadelphia. Her name is Hillary Lewinsky. I'll be living with her in Philadelphia after the divorce."
Tom looked at Jazmine, shocked at how she was composing herself. She was calm. Her face was no longer flowing with tears. Her lips were no longer contorted into a sad expression. Jazmine was still as stone.
Until…
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU TWO! I HATE YOU BOTH!"
"Jazmine, I know you don't mean any of those words."
Sarah approached her explosive daughter with care, embracing her with a soft hug to stop Jazmine from deteriorating.
It was a vain attempt.
"NO! LET…GO…OF…ME!" Jazmine exclaimed before lowering her voice to a menacing growl, "don't you dare touch me!"
"Please Jazmine. Just stop. You're not making this any easier."
"You expect me to make this easy on you two? You go out and cheat on each other for the past five years without telling me? And then you abandon me, leaving me alone in the house with no-one to come home to after a shitty day at school? And now you tell me that you both are divorcing! How the hell do you expect me to make this easy on you!"
Without even giving any though about the consequences of what she's about to do, Jazmine threw her knife at Tom's face and her plate at Sarah, which was still half covered in food.
Luckily, the knife struck Tom's face from the handle. The sharp end never touched any flesh. As for Sarah, she got the brunt of the contents of the plate, splattering her clothes with food and staining it with juices from the steak. The plate clattered to the floor, exploding into a million pieces.
Jazmine was not satisfied.
Without giving any thought again, she impulsively stood up and lifted the table on its side. The pots and containers on the table splattered to the floor, tarnishing the elaborate and elegant rug underneath the table. Tom stood up before the table collapsed onto its side. The glass tabletop shattered into pieces as it made impact with the floor with brute force.
Jazmine inhaled and exhaled deeply, her bosom rising and falling rhythmically as she looked around the dining room for any more items to potentially throw at the two awestruck monsters standing in front of her.
Neither Tom nor Sarah wanted to get within ten feet of their own volatile daughter.
"Jazmine. Please. Stop…I don't want to see you like this." Sarah softly spoke.
"You brought this unto yourself." Jazmine gave a menacing growl.
Her amber eyes were no longer bright and cheery as they always were. They were sharp and demonic. They continued to stare from Tom to Sarah and vice versa.
"Jazmine…I'm very sorry. I apologize. But what's done is done. There's no point in crying over spilled milk." Tom tried to make an appeal to his daughter "Listen. I know you've been through a lot for the past five years. But I don't want to make this harder than it already is. So please, lay your armor down. I just want you to know that we've always loved you. And we will keep loving you even after we divorce."
The tears returned to Jazmine's floodgates in her eyes, wrenching them wide open with full force, stronger than the storm surge of a hurricane bearing down on New Orleans.
Jazmine collapsed to the floor. She could see no end to this. No end to the floodwaters rushing through her eyes. No end to the sorrow that has inhabited her lifestyle for five years. No end to the eternal storm cloud that continuously hovered over her head. It was a miracle that she even kept her spirits high in the bleakest of times. She was done. Done with being happy. Done with being cheery. She was done being Jazmine Dubois.
"Oh, honey." Both Tom and Sarah made their way to Jazmine and offered their sobbing daughter some comfort by embracing her.
"I love you…but I don't know if you love me." Jazmine choked between her sobs.
"We do love you." Tom said, patting Jazmine's back. "You're our only flesh and blood. How could we not appreciate that?"
That did it. Jazmine finally opened up and accepted both her parents' reassurance. She hugged back, albeit with a cautious stance, but she gave a returning embrace nonetheless.
Jazmine sat there with her two parents, trying to come to terms with the divorce. Yet she could never accept the fact. She tried to stem the relentless tears rushing through her eyes. Yet she could never close the floodgates.
"Who am I staying with?" Jazmine asked between her deep sobs.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Sarah asked.
"I mean…am I going to stay with you or daddy?"
Both Tom and Sarah fell silent.
"What? What's wrong?" Jazmine croaked.
"Um…I really don't want to say this." Tom paused, "Jazmine. I can't take you with me. Hillary doesn't want another child in her new family."
"And Clint doesn't want you around either. He doesn't want to shoulder the burden of another child."
The cruelty shattered Jazmine's already scarred heart. The words…they were sharp…and they were poison tipped. Her spirit was dying slowly from the poison injected by those harsh words.
It seemed like someone took thousands of icy daggers and stuck them into her chest.
Her soul…it was bleeding.
Jazmine couldn't take it anymore. Her tolerance could barely withstand the brimming emotions. She stood up and ran for the door. She wrenched it open and ran outside into the pouring rain. The torrent of icy cold raindrops pelted her. But it didn't matter. She didn't feel any better than the sorrowful rainclouds above her.
She ran away. She wanted to run away from her parents. She wanted to run away from that blasphemous house.
She wanted to run away from herself.
Huey Freeman stood at the apex of the small hill overlooking the town of Woodcrest below. He closed his eyes, slowly inhaling the fresh warm breeze that caressed his face as it ruffled through his afro and through the leaves of the overgrown oak tree behind him.
For whatever reasons that his life was thrown in turmoil, Huey Freeman could always turn to the hill as a place of serenity. It always seemed that this was the only place he could come to relax. He had no other place to turn to; his family consistently ostracized him. He had no other friends to vent to…they left Woodcrest a long time ago. He only had Jazmine.
Nobody's here but me.
It seemed as if Jazmine and Huey spoke that aloud simultaneously.
Suddenly, there was a disturbance in the calm, serene atmosphere. Huey opened his right eye as he listened to the sobs creeping up the hill.
"Huey!"
Huey turned around to see a shattered Jazmine climbing up the hill.
"Huey. You're right. You're definitely right." Jazmine's voice broke as she struggled to keep the floodwaters at bay.
"What?" Huey asked, dumbfounded about what he could be right.
"You're right about what you said about life. Remember what you said three years ago?"
"Um…" Huey narrowed his eyes at Jazmine, not being able to recollect something he said long ago.
"You told me that you can be kind to life all I you want, but it will only come back to bite you in the ass." Jazmine interjected, not waiting for Huey to say it himself.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Huey, my parents are divorcing. And neither of them want me to come with them when they separate."
Jazmine approached Huey and placed her chin on Huey's shoulder.
"I can't believe that, Jazmine. Where are you going?"
"The hell if I know. But I'm going to UCLA no matter what so quite frankly, I don't give a damn."
Huey kept his mouth shut. He observed Jazmine through critical eyes; he could clearly see Jazmine's exposed and scarred heart right in front of him. She looked devastated.
He could not remember Jazmine looking like this in the eight years that he had known her.
"You know Huey. You're right about life. I'm tired of being optimistic. I'm just so tired of being me. I don't know…it's just hard to maintain a cheery and upbeat attitude when all this shit is hitting the fan."
Jazmine's harsh words struck something in Huey. It lifted every hair follicle on his skin. It sent shivers down his spine.
He never saw Jazmine speak like this. He never saw Jazmine act like this. And he sure as hell never saw Jazmine so jaded. It was like the old Jazmine was stabbed a thousand times in the chest by poison-tipped daggers.
Figuratively and literally, that could not be any more valid. Old Jazmine was, in fact, stabbed to death by icy daggers.
"Jazmine, look at yourself. Do you hear yourself talking?"
"I don't give a damn, Huey!" Jazmine exclaimed. "I'm tired of this bullshit."
"Jazmine, stop. You're not like this. Look, we've all been through our share of troubles. But what's done is done. All we can do is look for brighter days." Huey tried to console Jazmine as brought an arm around her shoulders.
It's a weird feeling you get when the roles are reversed. Jazmine was never the pessimistic one. And Huey was never the optimistic one. But you know something has definitely gone awry when Jazmine of all people become this jaded and this distraught.
"There are no brighter days." Jazmine softly spoke, "I'm an orphan. I have no parents."
Jazmine sniffled, burying her head deeper into Huey's chest.
"Jazmine," Huey softly spoke, making a vain attempt to find words to console the devastated Jazmine.
"Don't." Jazmine suggested, "you'll only make it worse."
Huey nodded, embracing Jazmine. He then took her by the hand and led her to the oak tree, gesturing for her to sit down.
"I can't believe this…this situation that we're put in." Jazmine spoke once she sat next to Huey, pressing her shoulder against his.
Huey's eyes moved skyward, staring into the heavens above him as his ears picked up every word Jazmine spoke.
"I mean, look how our lives have just turned for the worse in just less than month. We've lost our friends, I'm going to lose my parents, you're going to lose your family, and worst of all, we're going to lose each other."
Jazmine pressed her head against Huey's shoulder, watching the clouds float by against the brightly lit velvet blue sky. Huey tightly held Jazmine. She didn't mind…she wanted to stay with Huey for as long as possible. She wanted Huey's reassuring and secure touch to stay with her forever. And if the sun decided to set in the west, she wouldn't go back home. She couldn't go there anymore. She was no longer welcome. She wanted to sleep with Huey tonight.
After all…Huey was all she had.
"Are there any other properties that Tom and Sarah have to divide?"
Jazmine Dubois stoically sat in the gallery of the elegant courtroom in Baltimore as Tom and Sarah finalized their divorce. Cold and stone-faced, Jazmine's emotions continued to rage within her. The normally serene ocean inside her was now boiling and fuming, raging with a tempest comparable to a typhoon. Yet she did not display her emotions on her tough edifice. She was done…she was tired of displaying her emotions. Because nobody would listen to her.
"I believe that would be all the properties. They have all been equally divided."
"What about your house?"
"We're planning to sell the house and, divide the money amongst ourselves in half, and go our separate ways."
Jazmine already knew of her parents' plans. They've already sold everything they own. All the furniture. All their belongings. Gone. All the memories were converted to cold hard cash. And it was all divided between Tom and Sarah. And even if there were any belongings left in the house, it would have been put in moving boxes and stacked in various places around the Dubois residence, ready to move to the Rodham or the Lewinsky household.
What would happen to the memories? Would they be boxed up as well? No. They would be burned. They would be forgotten with the smoke it burns up into.
Nothing would be salvaged. Jazmine had to sell most of her belongings too. After all, she had no idea where she was going after this. It was necessary for her to get money for her pocket. She was torn at the seams when she had to sell everything, but it was necessary before she was left on her own. She couldn't handle it…but she was able to keep the car Huey gave to her. She was able to keep the locket that kept her kiss with Huey under the mistletoe in her memory. She was even able to keep the autobiography of Huey P. Newton with her. Huey once said that was the very book that his father gave to him the day he died…
So she couldn't just sell those. They were too close to her heart for her to give up. They represented the seemingly unbreakable bond shared between him and her.
"Who will have custody of the daughter, Jazmine Dubois?"
"Neither of us will claim custody, your honor."
A solitary tear rolled down the otherwise emotionless face of Jazmine Dubois.
It was building.
The tension…the terror…it was all beginning to weigh on her soul. Her spirits were weighed down too much for her to maintain her typical cheery demeanor.
The rage and the anger. The tempest brewed in her soul. A typhoon was bearing down on her. She was consumed in her own rage. She couldn't control it anymore. There was no point in observing judicial etiquette in the District court. She just wanted all of this to be over.
"You've betrayed me…"
The judge looked up from writing on his papers. He stared at the daughter of Tom and Sarah Dubois…the one daughter they have opted to give up. It seemed so inhuman to him for these two parents to just abandon their own daughter.
"I believe your daughter has a few words to say to the court?"
Jazmine was caught in the middle of two wrongs. Yet she was merely trying to do right. Her two parents have committed infidelity…worse, it was mutual. She tried to keep her family together for the past few weeks. Her words fell on deaf ears.
"No. Fuck your court. I have nothing to say." Jazmine's sharp eyes fell from looking at the judge. She settled on staring at her lap.
"I see." The judge said, taken aback by Jazmine's animosity and lack of respect for the court.
"You do realize that once both of you give up custody of Jazmine Dubois, your only child will become an orphan?"
"We realize this, your honor. That is why we designated her aunt in California to be her caretaker."
"Has her aunt in California agreed to this?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, she has."
"Any reason why you're shipping her off to California?"
"Well, she's going to UCLA. So we thought her aunt would give her a place to live while she studies there."
"Well then. I want you to fill out a change of custody form naming her as Jazmine Dubois' new caretaker. Otherwise she will become an orphan within thirty days of your divorce. Do you understand?"
"We do."
"Good. Report back to me to finalize the divorce by August 27th, 2007. You must have those change of custody forms done by then. Court adjourned." The judge brought the gavel down against the wooden block to signify the adjournment.
Tom offered his hand to help Jazmine to her feet. But instead of taking it, Jazmine swatted Tom's hand away and got up from her seat herself, walking through the court doors nonchalantly.
July days were brutal in Baltimore. The sun's oppressive rays bore down on Jazmine's soft skin. Worse, she was forced to share the sidewalk with her former parents.
"How could you do this to me?" Jazmine gave a sharp inquiry at Tom and Sarah.
"Jazmine, we've already gone over this millions of times."
"You can't just abruptly leave me! I thought you guys would be there for me through the worst of times and the best of times! And now you just want to throw me away to some person in California I don't even know? I don't know. This is just too much for me…"
"Jazmine, I know this is hard for you."
"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT IT'S HARD FOR ME!"
"Hey! Calm down!" Tom shouted at Jazmine, grabbing her by the shoulders.
A few shocked bystanders sidestepped the Dubois family as they abruptly halted walking on the sidewalk.
"I know it's hard for you! But it's even harder for me! Do you think I wanted to leave you on purpose? No! But I have no choice Jazmine! We have no choice! Don't give us any shit and there won't be any shit. Do you understand?"
Tom's sharp words cut through Jazmine like a swift sword. It slashed her into two. Her already injured heart was put on the edge…it was barely hanging on for life.
"I can't believe this" Jazmine croaked as another tear fell from her eyes. "I thought you loved me. I thought you would be there for me forever. You were my family."
"Oh, for God's sake, Jazmine! Cut the little girl attitude out! I'm already stressed beyond my boiling point and I don't need to deal with your emotions on top of this! Just shut up!"
She couldn't believe it. Where were the kind and loving Tom and Sarah she once knew? Where were their comforting embraces when she so desperately needed them?
And most of all, where was her family?
She now knew what it felt to be a Huey Freeman. She knew what it felt like to be ostracized and outlawed. She knew what it felt like to constantly have your words fall on ignorant and deaf ears.
These days, she always seemed to have a downcast attitude. She now understood why Huey was so pessimistic all the time. And he has already been dealing with this feeling for the past eight years. She's only had the taste in her mouth for three weeks.
For the past three weeks, Jazmine would wake up and look in the mirror. She didn't see herself. She saw a girl who was devastated. A girl who was abandoned by her only family. She had no friends, no nothing. She only had herself.
And she could never recognize the girl in the mirror.
"Listen, Jazmine." Sarah Dubois calmly spoke into her daughter's ear.
"What?" Jazmine sharply retorted.
"Our divorce will be finalized on August 26th. On that day, we'll be moving out of the house. We've bought you a plane ticket to Los Angeles for August 27th. So you'll be in the house for the night before, will you be okay?"
"Of course. Why shouldn't I? After all, I have been living by myself for most of my life already."
Sarah simply nodded her head.
"Anyway, just wanted you to know that your last day in Woodcrest is August 27th. You might want to say goodbye to Huey."
"No…I don't want to say goodbye. I can't…" Jazmine confined her thoughts to herself.
I don't want to say goodbye to you…
Jazmine sat alone in her room for the rest of the day. She confined herself to the four empty walls of her room. Nothing was left except a few moving boxes containing what little was left of her belongings and her memories.
The whole day, she sat neatly on the edge of her bed. Her hands folded neatly in her lap. Her now pale and hollow amber eyes were constantly staring outside her window. She watched the sun move across the sky. She watched the shadows creep into her room when the sun fell below the trees on the horizon. She watched a raven perch on her window, mocking her sorrow. She didn't care. She just didn't care anymore.
"H-H-Huey?" Jazmine struggled to speak into her phone.
"Yeah?" she heard his voice through the other side of the phone call.
"Can we go on a date? Please?"
"Sure, anytime. When and where?"
"August 27th. Meet me at the top of the hill."
"Alright."
"H-Huey? Promise me you'll meet me there."
"I promise. I pinky promise, Jazmine."
For the first time in weeks, a small smile crept onto her lips. A rarity nowadays…and this was Jazmine Dubois we're talking about.
"Good. Remember, you can't break a pinky promise."
"Yeah I know Jazmine. Look, are you okay? I haven't heard from you for weeks…and it sounds like you've been crying."
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll tell you everything on August 27th, okay?"
Jazmine collapsed onto her bed and dropped her phone onto the floor. The setting sun shone blood red rays into her room, illuminating her face in strange late-afternoon colors. Jazmine neglected to mention about her parents' divorce to Huey. Nor did she ever tell him that her last day in Woodcrest was on that late August day…the day before his birthday.
"Some birthday gift." Jazmine mumbled sullenly.
As darkness continued to creep into her room, Jazmine crawled out of bed and decided to take a tour of her empty house. The boxes stacked in the corners of the house, leaving it bare and cold. Neither Tom nor Sarah were home…they would rather avoid their volatile daughter. The feeling was mutual. Jazmine didn't want to deal with them either.
As she slowly placed a foot in front of the other, an empty sensation of loneliness fell upon her. It left a crushing feeling in her chest where her heart was supposed to be. She continued to pass by moving boxes, addressed to either New York or Philadelphia. She tried to keep moving her feet one in front of the other, but somewhere deep within her house, she collapsed in front of a tall stack of boxes. She lost her way through her own house. It looked foreign. She couldn't recognize it anymore. She collapsed to the floor and sobbed.
She was alone. All her friends: gone with the wind. All her family; deserted her in the middle of a barren wasteland of her life. Cindy McPhearson, her best friend who used to share this house with her for the past five years was no longer here to comfort her after these darkest days. She could no longer recognize what happened to the old Tom and Sarah Dubois. They died a long time ago. She no longer knew who she was. The old Jazmine Dubois died along with her parents.
Jazmine felt a strong, insufferable emotional pain erupt in her chest. She let out a painful, agonizing cry as she writhed against the ice-cold floor. But nobody would hear it. Nobody was there for her…she could only comfort herself; something she became terrible at doing. She was well versed at comforting other people. She always gave other people all of her. But now she had nothing left to give.
As Jazmine Dubois suffered her first emotional breakdown in her life, she finally came to the cold, unforgiving realization:
She was alone.
Let go of me.
Once again, i'm very sorry about the late update. I know I didn't keep to my promise about updating weekly...in fact, this would be my first update since three weeks ago. So don't stone me. Anyways, I have a feeling this chapter was very, very, very short. Compared to the rest of the chapters, this had considerably fewer scenes in it. Considering this has only 6000 words and change, this would probably be the shortest chapter in this story. Once again, sorry i've kept you waiting, but honestly i'll be forced to update infrequently nowadays.
I'd like to thank MissG2020, iAnneart01 and DaveTheWordsmith for your reviews! And MissG2020, i'm truly sorry for what happened to your bf. My condolences...I hope he's leading a better life in the United States now.
Disclaimer: The Boondocks are owned by Aaron McGruder, the Universal Press Syndicate, and Sony Pictures Television. I do not benefit at the expense of the copyright holders of The Boondocks.