Page 49
“Yeah. I’ll pay it. Maybe I won’t.” I shrugged my shoulder.
“You should pay it, Amir. You never know when you will have to come back up here and park again.”
“Let’s just hope I won’t have too in the near future.” I replied. Jasmine didn’t say anything with words but instead looked down at her stomach before shrugging.
“Oh yeah. You right.” I reached down and touched her stomach. I knew the baby was still tiny, barely even formed yet, but one day I'd be resting my hand here and feeling my child kick back. I was already hoping for a little girl. Jasmine was so damn pretty that I figured my daughter would be the same way.
We took off from the hospital, and my first stop was the sporting goods store on Manhattan Ave. I didn’t forget the promise that I made to them little dudes outside the Pink House Projects that day about getting them equipment and my only hope was that they weren’t too disappointed in me and gave up hope that I was coming back.
Jas decided she was going to stay in the car while I ran inside and as I walked through the doors, I realized I probably should’ve brought one of them kids with me because I ain’t know shit about baseball besides swinging the bat. The walls in here were lined from top to bottom with equipment like metal bats, wooden bats, and gloves in every size imaginable. It was so much shit in here that I stood in the aisle for a good minute lost as hell at where to start. That was until an employee walked up to me.
“You need help with something?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m trying to buy some baseball stuff for some little dudes who play baseball on the block.”
“What accessories do you think they need, my man?”
“All of them. They don’t have anything and deserve to have it all.”
He nodded, excited about the sale I'm sure he was already calculating in his head. The man walked me around the section showing me different bats and gloves while explaining sizes and brands that honestly sounded like another language to me but, I was trying to learn and listen. I want my future son if I have one to be a baseball star too, so I’ll be back in a store like this in about five years.
By the time I made it to the register, I had bats, gloves, baseballs, and three of those rolling equipment bags to throw everything inside. It was probably more than they needed to play baseball on the block, but I figured if I was going to do it, I might as well do the shit right. Children didn’t deserve to be shortchanged unless you don’t have it like that.
When I came back to the car, Jasmine was putting her phone down from her ear and smacking her lips.
“You were trying to call the hospital?”
“No, my bestfriend, but she’s not answering. Still.”
“Well, maybe she is sleep, it is pretty early.”
“Yeah, it is, but she doesn’t sleep in, I’m sure it's something else and that is really bothering me.” She exhaled.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Nah, I’m okay. What all did you get? It looks like you purchased the whole store.”
“Just got everything they need to have a dream.”
“Family?”
“Nah, just some boys I met a minute ago and made a promise that I need to keep.”
“That’s great Amir, a man that keeps his promises is a man I would love to have around me.”
She reached to my face and squeezed my cheeks.
I pulled off from the sporting goods store while trying to search where I should go for my next task.
I found this collectible toy shop about a half of a mile up the same street, we were already on, so I headed straight there. The shop was a little further down Manhattan Ave and once I pulled up, there was an argument happening between two niggas on the sidewalk.
I got out of the car and the argument got more heated as I walked around. I tapped on the passenger side window for Jasmine to let the window down.
“Come inside with me. I don’t know what’s about to pop off out here.” She nodded her head, okay, paying attention to the same two niggas going at it who I was looking at.
We walked into the store, and Jasmine immediately had questions when the doorbell chimed.
“What is this place?”
