Love In These Brooklyn Streets

By Talehia Mccants

How can something a person loves so much be the cause of the deepest hate and bring about their worst fears? Romance, whose name reflects nothing that goes on in his life, meets the perfect quiet storm Harmony. She shows him that in this life, everything is never what it seems. When the skeletons from their past escape out of the closet, will their love be enough to piece it back together? Or will this whole thing just turn out to be a bad nightmare? Let Harmony and Romance take you on their journey through love, sex, deceit and lies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Talehia Mccants
• Release date: Sep 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781386572220

Book preview

Talehia Mccants

Introduction

The saying goes, Money has never made a man happy, nor will it; there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has, the more one wants. See, the thing about money is that it is an endless chase. The leading cause of death in America is greed.  People will sell their souls for money, take from their mothers, and kidnap their nephews and send body parts to the family for the almighty dollar.

But at what cost?

The Bible even says, What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his soul? In the process of life, you have to pick a side. You can chase money and have all the riches that come along with it but pay the consequences at the end, or you can keep your soul and be poor. Very few get to keep both... 

Chapter 1

You know, I wonder if they'll laugh when I am dead. Why am I fighting to live, if I'm just living to fight? Why am I trying to see, when there ain't nothing in sight? Why am I trying to give, when no one gives me a try? Why am I dying to live, if I'm just living to die?

I said stop! Stop running, you damn kids, was all Roh and his sister heard as the owner of Pathmark screamed after them as they ran down the street.

Roh, I can’t run no more. My legs hurt. Can we stop, please? My sneakers are breaking. Can we please stop? Brit said as she tried to slow down, but her brother pulled on her arm so that she could keep up.

Romance was on a mission to run all the way home and his sister wasn’t going to slow down his mission. If they stopped running right now, then tonight they would starve; so as much as he wanted to stop, it wasn’t an option for him right now. The only thing he had on his mind was survival. 

Once they got to Fort Green Projects, the place they called home, he let her arm go.

This is why I told you to stay in the projects, but you just had to follow me, huh? If he had caught me, who was going to feed us tonight?

He waited for an answer from his sister, but Romance already knew that she didn’t have one. Her main reason was just to follow him around. Normally, he wouldn’t get mad, but this time, her following him could have cost both of them their freedom.

They were walking to their building when they passed by a teenager that was sleeping in a box. Roh looked at her and could tell that she hadn’t been out on the streets that long because her clothes weren’t that raggedy yet.  Romance looked at her and assumed that she might have run away or got kicked out of her house. For some reason, he felt really bad for her. He had seen bums in the street and never felt bad for any of them because most were drug addicts and alcoholics.  He knew he had it bad, but damn, at least he had a home to go to. No matter how fucked up his life was, he still had a roof over his head and a little bit of food every now and then. The girl was very dirty, and she was shaking, so he knew she was cold. He would have given her some money, but he knew he had none to spare. For some reason, he just couldn’t leave shorty out there like that. 

Excuse me, Miss. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, but it’s about to start raining out here so if you want to come stay in my building, I’ll let you in, Romance said, looking down at the small girl.

Even though she wasn’t smiling, he could tell that she had dimples.

I don’t know if you are hungry or not, and I don’t have much food, but I’ll share what I have, he added, hoping that if he mentioned food, the girl would look up at him.

He waited for her to talk but nothing came out, the box just rattled a little. He waited for a few minutes until he saw a small hand come out.

I’m okay, the small voice said.

Brit was getting impatient and started pulling on Romance’s shirt because her stomach was cramping from lack of food.

You heard her, Roh; she is fine. Now let’s go. I’m starting to feel sick. 

Roh looked at his sister and knew what was wrong with her. They both hadn’t eaten in a couple of days, so he knew it was time to go in the house. He just hoped that the girl would be fine. For some reason, Romance felt very protective of her but he couldn’t understand why.

Well, if you need something, let me know. I live on the fourth floor in building 9, he said as he pointed up at his window. I’m still going to bring you some food and blankets later. It looks like it’s going to rain, so I hope you reconsider, he said before turning to leave. He was almost in the building when he thought he heard her thank him, but he couldn’t be too sure.

Once they made it up the three flights of stairs, they were finally at their apartment. Brit looked around the house and saw that their mother was still not there. She hadn’t been there in about two weeks; that was normal, so they weren’t worried about it too much. She would pop up soon, looking for something she could pawn or, better yet, when somebody was looking for her because she owed them some money. She would hide out at home because none of the people she dealt with knew where she lived.  She always kept what she did away from her kids, even if that meant not seeing them for days, or weeks.

Roh was in the kitchen looking over the stuff he stole for him and his sister to eat. There was one pack of meat, some noodles, tomato sauce, a couple packs of Kool-Aid, and he had also gotten a Twix to treat his little sister to since she had gotten an A on her paper from school.

After he put the food on the stove, he went into his sister’s room. He saw her writing in her little pink notebook. He smiled to himself because he could remember when his mother used to write for them. She would stay up all night and write just about any and everything, and she would read to them what she had written the next day. Most times, it was stories about her travels around the world or about their father that died in the war.

Tina wasn’t a typical drug addict. She was smart. She had graduated from Syracuse University with her master’s degree in social work. She spent a lot of her life traveling the world. That’s how she met their father. Tina was the most gorgeous woman you would ever want to meet. Tina had red clay hair, a dark complexion, and a small mole right above her mouth. This was all before Larry and the drugs. All that was a long gone memory now and Romance couldn’t dwell on that for too long because he had a life to live.

Britten, did you do your homework? he asked. She didn’t say anything, so he walked up to her. Britten heard him walking in, so she turned her back to him, but he could still tell that something was wrong, just by her body movement. Walking up to her, he could hear her crying hard. Brit Brit, what’s wrong with you?

She didn’t answer so he reached down and took away the book she was just writing in. She didn’t even protest; she just kept crying. He thought maybe she was writing a poem about their mother or father and had gotten emotional. When he looked down at the paper, nothing could have prepared him for what he was going to see next. "I’m going to kill myself! I hate my life! I don’t want to live! Everybody hates me..." He tried to keep reading but had to stop because the words on the paper hurt him so much. He knew things were fucked up, but damn, not fucked up enough to have her wanting to die. Romance just couldn’t understand.

Brit, what’s wrong? You was just fine a minute ago. What’s wrong? he asked her as he sat down on the old mattress that they shared to sleep on.

Brit just stayed silent. She knew she couldn’t tell her brother what the teacher said to her today because he would flip out. She had seen him go off only a few times, but if she told him her secret, he was sure to go off. 

Brit, just tell me. I promise whatever’s wrong, I will fix it. I promise you that I will, and you know how I feel about promises, Roh said. He wrapped his arms around her. He was 16 years old, but he had the mindset of someone in their 20s. In his short years, he had seen more than a lifetime full of shit and to add to it, since his mother was almost never there, he took on the role of head of household. He’d had let go of the idea of having a childhood a long time ago.

Today at gym, my shoes broke while we were playing basketball and all the kids laughed at me. Kysean said my sneakers broke because my mother was a crack head that didn’t love me. I started crying and ran and told the teacher like you always told me to do when someone was bothering me. Then, at lunch, I heard the teacher say that if they called our house one more time and mommy didn’t show up, they were going to call something named ‘ACS’ and have us taken away, she said as she cried even harder than before.

Romance knew that this would happen sooner or later. He knew he had to fix things and fast. He had already pulled himself out of school to hustle, but the little bit of weed money wasn’t doing it. He was only selling enough to pay the rent and keep what little food they had on the table. He thought about selling other stuff, but he made a vow never to sell the stuff that got him in this situation, to begin with.

I can’t go back there, Roh. I just can’t. I’ll stay home like you do, his sister said.

No. They will look for you and we would get in more trouble. I’m going to fix things. It will be okay. I will get you some clothes and shoes. I’ll ask Miss Lena does her daughters have any good hand-me-downs that you can wear until I get you some clothes of your own. Trust me, Brit; you will be okay. I can bet my life on that. I know what will make you feel better. How about you write something for mommy that she can read when she gets home? You know she likes reading your stuff when she doesn’t feel good, Roh said.

Just then, he heard something in the hallway that sounded like a loud crash. Romance waited a minute before he heard the noise again. He jumped up to go see where the sound was coming from. Before he went to the door, he grabbed his knife just in case it was one of those old crack heads trying to steal something. Things got silent again before he heard another sound which sounded like someone was coughing. He cracked the door a little to see what was going on and to his surprise, it was the girl from earlier, but this time she looked cold and wet. Roh opened the door and the girl jumped back a little like he had caught her by surprise.

Hey. So you decided to come in after all? I was a little worried about you.

The girl just sat there and said nothing to him because truthfully, she didn’t know him, and she couldn’t trust just anybody, but he seemed nice... well, nice enough. Out the side of her eye, she saw a roach and jumped. Romance saw this and laughed to himself because how could she be homeless and afraid of a roach?

If you want, you can come sit in here and eat. I don’t have much left, but what I got you can have, he said, smiling at her.

Besides her being dirty and her clothes being all messed up, she was really pretty, but Roh pushed that thought to the back of his mind because he didn’t have time for girls. He was too busy trying to survive. He always remembered what his grandmother said, Always help others because one of them could be holding your next blessing.  So helping this girl was harmless. Romance saw that she wasn’t moving, so he walked away, leaving the door wide open for her. He and Britten had started to eat when they heard a noise come from by the door. They looked to see who it was and to their surprise, it was the girl.

You can come down and sit with us if you want to. My teacher always says people feel welcomed when they know each other names, so I will go first. My name is Brit, Britten said, waving the stranger over. The girl smiled and walked in. She took a seat at the old table next to them on the floor.

There’s a rule that nobody comes into this house without saying their name, so what’s your name? he asked.

She looked at him and stayed quiet before answering. Harmony, you know, like a song, she said.

Roh started to laugh before he caught a right hook to the arm from Britten and an evil look from both of the girls at the table.

What I do wrong? he asked while putting some food in her bowl.

Why did you laugh at her name? Did you forget what your real name was? Britten said, scolding her brother for being rude to her new guest and friend. Well, Harmony, I think that is a pretty name for a really pretty girl.

Brit turned to her brother and mouthed his name, teasing him. When Romance realized what she was saying, the smile on his face soon faded. Harmony kept her head down, not one time looking up at Roh or Brit. From where Roh was sitting, he could see she was a very pretty girl; in fact, she was perfect. She had wavy, long hair and a mocha complexion. She had to be mixed with Indian or something. Her eyes were what stood out the most to him because he had never seen a black girl with blue eyes before. 

What’s your name? she asked, looking up at him.

He hesitated to answer, but from the look, his 8-year-old sister was giving him, he knew he had to tell her. It’s Roh, he said. No sooner than the words left his mouth, his little sister kicked the shit out of him. My real name is Romance, he said before stuffing his face with food, so he didn’t have to say any more to her. Looking into her eyes made him nervous like she was peeking into his soul.

Everyone was quiet until they heard Harmony let out the cutest little giggle. Roh never heard something so cute. Romance thought she laughed like the woodpecker from the cartoon and that made him and Brit laugh even more. They talked all during dinner. After a while, Harmony really started warming up to them. They talked for two hours about simple everyday stuff. From the conversation they were having, you wouldn’t think they had the issues in life that they did.

Noticing the time, Roh sent his sister to get ready for bed. While Britten was in the tub, he was going to go upstairs to Miss Lena’s house to get some clothes for his sister. He was burning inside with anger from what Britten told him, but he knew that going down to the school and turning up was going to make things worse. Instead, he just vowed that he would hustle harder, so they could have better things in life. He got up and started walking to the door but stopped when he felt somebody walking behind him; he turned around to see Harmony following him. He knew that he couldn’t leave her in the staircase all night because if she jumped from a little roach, she would die when she saw the rats. He thought about it for a moment, and he did have extra sheets, so without thinking, he turned around, but before he could say something, she stopped him.

How tall are you? she said, looking up at him. He was a giant compared to her 5’2 height.

I’m 6’3, if you may know, and can I ask you something? Where do you think you are going? Romance said, looking into her eyes. I hope you don’t think I am letting you go back in the hallway or back outside in the rain to sleep in that wet ass box, do you? It’s final; you are going to sleep on that couch. It looks old, but it’s warm and bug-free, he said as he pushed her back in the apartment while still laughing at the memory of her jumping from a roach.

No, I can’t leave my stuff in the hallway, and plus, I don’t know you, she said, looking up at him. At that moment is when she really noticed how cute he was. He had a basketball player’s build; he was a little on the skinny side, but that could be from the lack of food. His almond-shaped brown eyes looked as if they had seen some hard times for his young age. What stuck out the most was his red clay colored hair. She had never seen a dark skin person with red hair before. Shit, she had blue eyes, so she really had no room to talk.

I’ll get it for you, and if it makes you sleep better, I’ll give you my pocket knife. I’m sure my mother has some old clean clothes you can put on. I’m not letting you sleep nowhere outside of this room for the night, so quit it now, he said as he walked to the elevator.

Harmony ran to the door, trying to catch him but was too slow. He had already left. She walked down the hallway and picked up her stuff, which wasn’t much, and went back into the house. When she got in, Brit was standing there with the biggest smile on her face.

Do you know how to braid? she asked, holding an old broken comb.

Yeah I do, but not very well; I can do a little something if you want me to, Harmony said, looking at Brit as her smile got bigger.

Can you do my hair because Roh tries, but he doesn’t do it right? she said, trying to convince her to do her hair.

Harmony did her hair in cute little braids going into a ponytail. Brit must have thanked her a million times.  They talked like they had known each other for years. Brit told Harmony all about her mommy and even started to cry a little bit, but Harmony hugged her and told her it would be okay. They talked about boys and school, and anything little Brit could think of.

Okay Britten Taylor, it’s time for bed. You have a spelling test tomorrow, remember? Roh said from the doorway, causing both girls to snap out of their conversation.

Roh gave Brit the clothes and sneakers that Lena from upstairs gave to him. Lena was always happy to give them stuff. She used to be their mother’s best friend. Lena would have taken them in if she already didn’t have four mouths to feed, but she helped out when she could. Roh went into his mother’s room and gave Harmony some clothes and helped her make a nice little bed thing on the sofa.

Roh woke up to take Brit to school and noticed Harmony wasn’t there anymore. She must have left during the night, he thought.  While walking to the school, both Britten and Roh looked for her, but they didn’t see her. They even checked the box she was living in.

Cops were all over the place. Word on the street was that last night someone killed a local drug dealer named Sin at his baby mother’s house. Good thing the kids and the baby mother weren’t there when it happened. Hearing this news worried Romance and he prayed that Harmony was somewhere safe.

After taking his sister to school, Roh ran across a customer, and that’s when he noticed he was low on work, which meant he had to go over to Chris’ house to re-up, and he hated that. Chris was cool, but he liked to talk down to people all the time and Roh  wasn’t with that. For the little bit of dollars he was getting, Romance was willing to do what he had to, even if that meant putting up with Chris’ fat ass. The trap house was right in the middle of Fort Green. They would change it from one crack head’s house to another because the cops would always break in. Roh wouldn’t have gone today, but tomorrow was the 1st so he knew that he would be busy because that’s when all the potheads got their checks. The trap house was known to run out, and if you didn’t get what you needed before then, you were a sad case.

Standing in front of the building, Roh made a noise to the second floor to let them know he was coming up. When he got up there, he got what he needed and left. Before he made it out the building, Chris called him back up.

Ayo, young bull, somebody sent a package for you, and they told me to tell you if you ever need something to call the number in the phone. If I was you, I wouldn’t open that until I get home, Chris said as he handed him the package.

Roh felt it and it did feel heavy. Romance pushed the package in the back of his pants and walked to his building. He sat down for a minute thinking about where he should go to find his mother. He had to find her soon and bring her home. This was the longest he hadn’t seen her and it wasn’t like her to not show up after all this time. Romance was lost in thought when he felt a buzz going through his back pocket. He felt the back of his blue jeans and grabbed the package out of his pocket. He looked in it and saw a Galaxy s4 lighting up. Romance took the phone out, and that’s when he saw that the phone wasn’t the only thing in the package. He pulled out three rolls of money.

Instantly, he jumped off the bench and ran upstairs, making sure he locked the door behind him when he got into the apartment. He threw the money on the table and started counting it. When he was done, Roh had counted around five bands. Shit, he knew what Juicy J meant when he said, ‘bands will make her dance,’ because he was in the kitchen busting all kinds of new moves. The sound of the phone vibrating snapped him back to reality. It took him a while to find the text messages because he had never had a cell phone. He saw an icon that resembled a letter, so he figured that’s where the messages were. When he opened the first message, it said: "Romance, this is for you and your sister. Love Rose."

Who the hell is Rose? He thought. He didn’t know anybody that went by that name. This shit was freaky. He had a rich stalker.

******

For the past month, things had been going great with the money. Romance was able to pay to get them things they needed. He would text the person named Rose every night. Romance and Rose started to get real close. He wanted to meet her, but she would always refuse. She would still send him packages every week through Chris. Romance was grateful, but he still wanted to know who she was.  Being a natural born hustler, Romance started flipping the money he was getting. He felt bad about her giving him the money, so Romance started giving her a profit of whatever he made. Romance would just wrap it up and give it to Chris when he was done. At first, she was mad, but he kept doing it, so she had no choice but to accept it. He was bringing in so much money from flipping his little weed hustle that the girls started to take notice, but he wasn’t worried about them. Rose had his full attention. He loved talking to her. They would text until the early morning. He exposed his soul to her, and she did the same, she even convinced him to start writing again.

A few weeks back, he had seen Harmony again, and just like the first time, he fed her and gave her a place to sleep and some clean clothes. No matter how much of a come up he was on; he would always help her when he saw her in the streets. She would always stay the night but leave before they got up. It was like they were a family. He even thought about making her his girlfriend, but he was already in love with Rose, and he didn’t think that he could support all of them. A meal here and there wasn’t bad, but to try and do it 24 hours a day wasn’t something that he could do. Plus, Harmony had a lot of pride to be a homeless person. She would work for whatever Romance gave to her. She would cook, clean and whatever else needed to be done in the house.

One day while waiting for Brit to come out of school, he noticed that her class was late. Usually, her class was the first one out. He saw one of Britten’s little classmates.

Hey, have you seen Britten? he asked the little person.

Yeah, today some lady in a suit took her out the class. We haven’t seen her since lunch. The little girl looked at Romance as if she was truly upset that her friend was gone.

Do you know what the lady looked like? he asked.

The little girl described exactly what Romance didn’t want to hear. He knew the lady she was talking about, and it was that damn Child Protective Services lady that had been harassing them for the longest. He cursed as he ran to the house, but before he could get there, he saw the Child Protective Services car parked in the front of the building. He knew they would be looking for him too because he was only 16 and according to the law, he was still a minor. He snuck into the building through the back exit and walked upstairs. From the stairway, Romance could see that the door to the apartment was broken, which meant that the cops kicked it down. He overheard voices coming from inside the apartment. He knew they were cops from the slang they used.

One even went as far to say that the house was nice for a crack addict to live in. Romance had to clutch his fists to keep from going in there and turning the fuck up. He prayed that they didn’t find the stash of weed he had in the house, but that prayer went unheard when he heard the cops yelling about narcotics in the back room. Fuck, he thought.  How was he going to get out of this? He heard on one of the cops’ radios that somebody had seen Romance come into the building. Putting his hoodie up, he ran out of the building and all the way to the B54 bus on Myrtle Avenue. He got on the bus and texted the only person he could talk to, and that was Rose.

Me: Bae, I’m in trouble  

Bae: What happened? Are you okay? Is Brit okay?

Me: No. ACS took her, and now they looking for me. They found my stash; I don’t know what to do

Bae: Where are you?

Me: On my way downtown Brooklyn

Bae: Meet you there in 15 minutes. I’ll be wearing all pink; I’ll be in front of Jimmy Jazz

All Romance could do is stare at his phone and smile, because through all this chaos and confusion, he was finally going to meet the love of his life. Once he got off the bus, he went straight to Jimmy Jazz. Romance had been waiting in front of the store for 10 minutes when a silver and pink 2013 Mercedes pulled up in front of him. The license plate said ‘4Rose’ so he knew it had to be her. Romance started walking in the direction of the car. He couldn’t wait to see and feel her. Everyone stared at the driver to see who it was because downtown Brooklyn was always known to have celebrities drop in and out often. Everyone waited to see who was driving that nice ass car. The onlookers were shocked when they saw it was a just a regular girl, but none were more shocked than Roh as he watched Harmony slide out of the driver’s seat.

Chapter 2

Is this some type of sick joke, Harmony? What the fuck is you doing here? he asked because he was truly confused. This couldn’t be the same person he was always texting. Harmony was homeless. How could this be possible?

Let me explain to you what’s going on, Harmony said, but he was already trying to get past her.

He couldn’t believe this shit. How could the same person who was sending him money be the same exact person that was sleeping in a box on the corner by his building? This had to be a cruel joke.  Romance was beyond hurt, so he kept walking down the block. All he could hear from behind him was Harmony going off in the background. Romance was too upset to turn back. He was too upset up until he heard three loud pops which sounded like gunshots.

Romance, if you take another fucking step, I swear to my mother, I will blow your head clean the fuck off. Try me if you want to, she said with her hand still on the trigger.  

He turned to look back and saw Harmony with a gun in her hand that was pointed toward the sky. This trick is cray, he thought. Fuck is wrong with you? he said, charging towards her but quickly changing his mind when he saw that she had the gun pointed toward him.

You got two choices. You can listen to me or you can die right here in the streets. Pick one because I would really hate to have to tell Britten what happened to her brother because of his pride, Harmony said without even blinking.

Romance was scared shitless. He had never seen that look in her eyes before. In that case, he had never seen that look in anyone’s eyes before. He could tell for some reason that if she had to, she would blow his head off like it was nothing. She had a gaze in her eyes as if she was looking right through him and if she killed him, it wouldn’t mean shit to her.

He knew she meant everything she said, so he just walked to her car’s passenger side door and waited for her to open it. He had to smile at her because she looked kind of cute standing there in a pair of jeans and a white tee that showed her stomach just a little, revealing the tattoo on her side. Her small feet looked perfect in her strappy tan heels. She put her long brown hair in a messy bun with one hand still holding the gun. She noticed him looking at her as she walked to the car.

What are you smiling about? You got me out here acting crazy because you want to walk away. Take this as your first lesson. If I ever have something to say, you better listen and don’t ever fucking show me your back again while I’m talking.  He just stood there looking at her in amazement. He wanted to