<![CDATA[MARTINA COMMON

It was chilly that late night in October of 97. I grabbed one hold of Jada's car seat to take some weight off my mom as we walked to our building. Ta'Rika's hands were inside of her jacket arms. My mom called granny as soon as we made it through the door. We went straight to bed after that.
School the next day went quite fast, and I was anxious to see granny before heading on her trip. I wanted her to stay, but she deserved a getaway for a little while, so I kept my mouth closed. While I walked past granny Rosie building the afternoon of October 16th, 1997, a few weeks away from turning 8, a couple of years being in school, the purple satin pajamas and roller set hair were not on the ramp.
Is she sleeping? Is she putting my newborn sister down for a nap? Wait a minute, where was my mother? Why aren't we headed to the granny house? It was quite weird to have my uncle Jim picking my sister and me up from school. I remained silent, walking past Stanton Park and through the car lot towards my building. The elevator ride was quiet as my sister, and I stared at each other.
My uncle kept his face towards the buttons on the elevator. As we opened the door of our home, the house phone immediately rang. I jumped down on the couch to answer it, my sister walked towards the bedroom, and Uncle Jim froze. "Hey, Pumpkin," my mom sounded like she had a sore throat. "Hey, Ma, are you okay?" a weird pause. "Where's your uncle?" "Right here, ma."
I signaled for him to pick up the phone then stared towards the television screen. T.V. sitcom Sister to Sister was on, and it happened to be one of my favorite reruns. In the episode, the family was sitting at the dinner table, eating, laughing, and listening to music. I quickly glanced back at my uncle, observing his face, and noticed it was as stiff as a person having a stormy night of interrupted sleep.
He looked at me, then away, as he hung the phone up. He looked again, this time longer. I just stared at him. Uncle Jim bowed his head, took a deep breath, and whispered "Granny Is" and stopped mid-conversation. My big sister walked into the living room to join me on the couch but instead leaned against the wall.
Her caramel face shined from the lamp sitting on the table. Our attention went back to Uncle Jim, who was beginning to part his lips. "Granny passed away," released his mouth. I remember throwing candles and family pictures off the table, each fixture crashing to the floor, breaking into pieces with a burning sensation piercing my heart. I let out a scream as I felt soft cocoa butter scented hands rubbing my back. My sister tears rolling off her cheek, hitting my cheek. I looked over to see Uncle Jim drowning into his hands. I couldn't console him. My sister cried and constantly tried to pull me up off the floor. Uncle Jim walked over to help while wiping his tears. When they finally pulled me up, we took baby steps out the door. Getting downstairs, out of the building, to the car felt like a race we couldn't win. And for the hospital to be a straight shot up the street, the car ride was even worse. My uncle stared into the rearview mirror, watching my sniffles as I caressed my sister's hand but wouldn't look her way. I could see that we were slowly approaching the hospital. Stepping out of the car, I instantly noticed my mother sitting against the emergency entrance wall with her face in her knees. Family members were surrounding her with sad and stale looks. I got closer, noticing she was shivering, lifting her head slowly, as if she knew her child was standing in front of her. I kneeled but couldn't open my mouth to speak. I just stared, watching as she slowly put her head back down on her knees. I stormed into the hospital while Ta'Rika stayed glued to our mom. I walked through the entrance of the hospital and noticed more family standing inside. As soon as they saw me, they quickly walked over, but I walked past them. I said, "where-is," and they pointed in the double doors ``first room on the left" through a whisper. I kept walking and pressed the button on the side of the doors to enter. I stalled, taking deep breaths as I walked up to the hospital bed. My granny just lay there, rollers in her head, dark skin glowing, and a tube in her mouth and nose.