Just Make Him Beautiful (43 page)

“Ok
ay,
M
s.
t
hang, man up,” I said to
myself
.

I stood back and took a good look at the gate
.
I
t was about 12 feet high
,
but I thought if I could just jump up high enough to grip one of the railings, I could then walk up to the top, place my leg over to the other side of the gate
,
and jump down to the other side.

After
twenty
minutes or so of falling back down to the ground and scar
r
ing up my hands, on the
fifteenth
try, I did it. I made it over the wall to the other side.

I
crep
t
by
the side of the house
so
as not to
be noticed and
then
entered through the
carport, which
led
into the kitchen. I suddenly heard voices yelling at one another as I entered the kitchen area.

“Bitch, you think you and your punk
-
ass son can just come in my house and take shit from me?” Keith yelled at Momma.

I lowered myself to the floor and crawled to the kitchen nook area
,
where I could look straight into the living room.
I saw Momma standing in the middle of the room with tears in her eyes as Keith waved his gun at her, daring her not to move.

“Look, Cameron had nothing to do with this
.
I
t was my idea. So
,
please, just leave him out of this
.
” Momma
was
crying and shaking like a leaf on a breezy day.

I looked about the room and noticed that Junior and Robin were sprawl
ed
out on the couch
,
knocked out.
I didn’t know whether they were dead or what
.

“Bitch, if you don’t tell me in five seconds where your punk
-
ass son and my money is, I’ma gonna blow off your muthafuckin
’
head, you understand me?” Keith placed his gun against the side of Momma
’s
head.

I didn’t know what to do
.
I looked around the kitchen to see what I could find to help defend Momma
,
but there wasn’t anything I could use. I then noticed Momma’s apron hanging off the side of the kitchen chair
,
and it appeared
as if
something was inside.

I crawled over to the chair and grabbed Momma’s apron.
Inside her apron pocket was a small handgun.
Chile
, I was so scared and nervous
.
When
I took the gun in my hand
,
my hand started to shake like electricity
was
going through my entire body.

As I tried to calm myself, I heard,
BOOM!
BOOM!

I knew Keith had shot my Momma, so the tears had welled up inside of me
,
and the anger made my blood boil.

I closed my eyes and ran in the living room and start
ed
shooting.
O
nce I had shot every bullet, I opened my eyes and saw Keith lying in front of me in his own pool of blood.  I turned around
,
and there was Momma, lying there in her own blood, trying to catch her breath. 

“Momma, you’ve been shot,” I cried as I kne
e
led beside her and held her head in my lap.

“Yes
,
baby, it
-
it
-
it’s o
-
o
-
okay,”
she
whispered
,
choking on her on blood.

“Momma, you’ll be al
l
right.
I’ma call
nine one one.
”
I pull
ed
out my cell phone.

“No
,
b
aby, it
-
it
-
it
will be fast
-
er if you
go get
the car and dri
-
dri
-
drive me t
-
t
-
to the hospital,” she
said,
holding on to my arm.

“But
,
Momma, I parked the car all the way up where the Waffle
H
ouse is, remember?”

“Yeah
,
baby, I
-
I
-
I rememb
er
. Just go now!” Momma
sounded
as though she was taking her last breath.

“Momma, I don’t wanna leave you here like this,” I said
,
tears stream
ing
down my cheeks.

“Baby, st
-
sto
-
stop arguing wit
-
with me and get da
-
da car!” Momma stated squeezing my arm.

“Okay
,
Momma, I won’t be long. I’ma run the whole way
.
J
ust hold on. Will you do that for me?” I st
ood
up and wip
ed
the tears from my face.

“Ye
-
ye
-
yes
,
ba
-
bab
-
baby
,
and
Cam
?
”

“Yes
,
Momma.”

“D
-
d
-
do me a fav
-
fav
-
favor?”

“Anything
,
Momma, anything.”

“Turn, turn th
-
th
-
that light swi
-
swi
-
switch on by th
-
th
-
the side of da
-
da
door.”

“Light switch? Okay
,
Momma
.
J
ust hold on and I’ll be back in five minutes, I promise.”

I opened the front door and turned the light switch on and ran out as fast as I could. Once I got to the gate, I couldn’t remember what the dayum code was
,
so
I stood there trying my best to think.

Thank God
,
on the third attempt I finally got the gate open.

Just as I got to the bottom of the road, I suddenly heard an explosion that was so loud
,
it litera
l
ly burned my eardrums. I turned around
,
and all I could see
was
Keith’s mansion going up in flames. All I could do was fall to the ground as the tears poured down my face like a waterfall.

I then began to hear one of the
neighbors’s
dog barking like crazy
,
and people began turning on their lights
,
trying to figure out where the loud explosion came from.
I stood up and began walking as fast as I could up the road leading to the Waffle House
,
m
y heart beating a mile a minute
.
T
he more I wipe
d
the tears away, the more they seem
ed
to flow.

As I continued to walk, I saw fire trucks
with sirens
bl
a
ring coming down the road and head
ing
towards Keith’s mansion. All I wanted to do was get to my car
.
I only had about a block to go
,
but I felt my legs becoming wobbly as though they were about to give out
,
and my body
was
shak
ing
as though I was freezing
.

I heard my Momma’s voice ringing in my ear.
“Come on, Cameron, man up.”

I made it to the car and locked myself in and cried
and shook
for several hours.
I realized that when Momma
had
asked me to turn on the living room switch, she knew that it would blow up Keith’s house.

I remember
ed
Uncle Bill telling
her
before he left that all she had to do was turn on the switch. Instead, I was the one to turn it on
,
as Momma
had
requested with her last breath. This time, I had lost
her
for good
.
 
S
he wasn’t coming back.

“What am I suppose
d
to do now?” I
tried
to wipe my tears away.
“Man up,”
A
gain I heard Momma’s voice ringing in my ears.

I sat there until dawn
.
Where I could go?
 
W
ho could I call to comfort me?
Who will love and protect me now?
Momma had sacrificed her life for me, just to show me how much she truly loved me
,
but
now
I sat there feeling so alone
.
 
T
he love
she
had for me was now gone because she was gone.

As I sat and thought, there was only one person I could call on.
I took out my cell phone
and made that call.

H
e answered on the first ring.
“Hello.”

“Can you come get me?”
I asked
,
choking up.

“Who is this?”

“Cameron
,
”
I said in a whisper.

“Where are you?”

“I’m at the Waffle House on
R
oute 10
.
Y
ou know where that is?”
             
    

“
Yeah,
I’m on my way.” 

Chapter 24

Several months had
passed
since that night that I
’d
murdered Momma,
my l
over,
former
b
est
f
riend
,
and Junior, the bastard that killed my brother Ray. Momma G
e
rdy thought it would be best
if
I
sought
some type of therapy after the tragic murders at the mansion. So, thanks to her, I
was
in therapy for a couple of months
.
M
y therapist sa
id
it would
be cathartic,
help my state of mind
,
if I wr
o
te
down my thoughts
.

I knew I needed help because I had been crying practically
every day
till
my eyes were bloodshot red and swollen to the point w
h
ere I could hardly see out of them. Not to mention
,
the depression I felt every time I thought about that night, which seemed to consume me day and night.

The only two good things about seeing a therapist
was,
I’
d
begun to pray again
,
and my prescription drug,
V
alium
.
Chile
boo, all I can say is
,
bless the doctor whoever invented V
alium
,
because I ha
d
been floating on cloud nine for the past few weeks.