Read Online A Sticky Situation by Kiki Swinson - Free Book Online

ahead until you actually drove up on it, because you were constantly turning your steering wheel to the left. I figured if I wanted to avoid running into Seth, I needed to park my car and walk the rest of the way. Something told me not to walk down the block with my Dooney and Burke bag, so I tucked it underneath the driver’s seat of my car. After I got out, I activated the alarm so I wouldn’t have any problems. As I strolled down Dale Drive, I had to pass an array of people standing on the corner. I walked by a young woman who looked like she wasn’t more than twenty-one years old, sporting a blonde and blue, hard-wrapped wig. She was cursing out her two sons because they kept running in and out of the house. I also walked by this guy beating the hell out of his girlfriend. What was so crazy was that the block was filled with people, and no one broke it up. From the sound of things, he was whipping her ass because he caught some guy in her house. All I could do was shake my head and keep it moving.
    There were a lot more people I came in contact with who were in really bad shape. One person who really stood out among them all was this light-skinned woman, who looked like she used to be attractive at one point in her life. She looked like she had one foot in the grave, and it wasn’t going to be very long before the other one joined it. As I walked in her direction, I put my head down to avoid eye contact with her. I felt like if I looked at her, it would appear that I was staring at the condition of her body, and I didn’t want to do that. You could never tell how these people would react if you looked at them funny, so, I wasn’t going to take any chances. I found out that she wasn’t going to let me by without stepping to me first.
    “Excuse me ma’am,” she said between coughs as she stood up from a green metal utility box. “Do you think you can spare some change?”
    “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any,” I told her and began to pick up my pace.
    That didn’t matter to her, because she wanted to get my full attention. She got it when she reached out and grabbed my arm. The shit startled the hell out of me, and I honestly wanted to jump out of my fucking skin. I mean, to have this lady get up enough balls to grab me with her abscess-infected hands made me damn near pass out. Without even thinking twice, I stopped in my tracks and snatched my arm away from her.
    “Please don’t do that,” I warned her.
    “I’m sorry,” she said, releasing my arm. “But all I want to do is tell you not to do it.”
    “Do what?” I asked, wondering what the hell she could be talking about.
    The lady got closer and said, “I used to walk around here looking just like you, wearing nice clothes, thinking I was high and mighty because I was beautiful and had a long, healthy head of hair. I had a nice body and all the men wanted to be with me. But at the blink of an eye, my world got turned upside down when I started hanging out in places like this.”
    “But I don’t get high,” I interjected.
    “Yeah, that’s what we’ve all said. Now look at us.” She pointed at different drug addicts in our immediate vicinity. “We all got a story to tell. But mine is by far the worst, if you ask me, because I was an assistant principal at a performing arts school, making good damn money. But because of my heroin addiction and hanging in that motherfucking candy shop over there in Norfolk, I lost my husband, my daughter, and my home in Virginia Beach. The repo man took my 2007 Jaguar after I let the dope boys tear it up. I used to rent it out to them for days at a time, for a couple measly pills of dope,” she continued as water began to build up in her eyes.
    “I’m sorry to hear about your loss, ma’am, and I would love to stand here and listen to you, but I’m sort of in a rush.”
    “Don’t call me ‘ma’am’. My name is Faith.”
    “I’m sorry, Faith, but I’ve got to go,” I told her and abruptly walked