Page 10 of Halo: Tales Of A Hitman

The way I decorated my place was how I wanted to feel on the inside. It was clear, bright colors and felt free. The floors were light brown hard wood all through the hallway, living, and dining room.

I had a big grey area rug in front of my long white sectional couch. My cocktail table was black with a glass top. It matched my two black accent chairs on the other side of my room. The best thing in my living room was my entertainment center.

It held my sixty-inch TV and all my DVD movies. The walls matched my tan-throw pillows on the couch. Lastly, there were white and tan curtains on the long windows. I opened them every morning no matter what the weather was.

I went to my room, grabbed my suitcase, and started packing. We were only staying for two days so there wasn’t much. The weapons and other things we needed to do the job would be on the jet.

Everything was worked out with TSA and customs. We had our operation air-tight and it was worth every penny. Packing was done just as my brothers arrived. They had their pajamas on with their slides. I already had their covers and pillows out on the couch for them. Both ends of my sectional let out and that’s where they slept.

We warmed our food up. I got us all drinks and Golden’s favorite chips then we ate while the movie played.

“I’d smash the hell out of Jennifer Lopez. Knock the candy outta that pinata.”

Greek and I were cracking up at Golden’s outburst.

“You always gotta talk from ya’ dick!” Greek joked.

“Fuck what’chu sayin,’ you know damn well you’d pop her!”

“I would but I don’t need to say it.” Greek claimed.

“Well, I do and Jane Fonda old ass can get it too!”

I fell out laughing, “Nigga you’s a straight fool now!”

“Bro, you are missin’ out, she pro-black as fuck. That along makes my dick hard. I’d be like, bring yo’ woke ass here and tell me how you marched with Dr. King.” Golden started demonstrating what he’d do, and it was comical to us.

They told me to pick out another movie after Monster In-Law went off so I selected The Wedding Planner since we were on a JLO kick. During that movie, Greek was asleep first then Golden. So, I put the TV on ESPN, they loved that channel, and I went to my room. It was a little after one in the morning.

I plugged my phone up, took my house-shoes off and got into my bed. I left the TV off. There was a little light coming from my blinds and that was enough. It did not take me long to fall asleep, and I prayed I’d stay asleep through the night.

I jumped out of my sleep coughing and breathing hard. My conscious mind hadn’t kicked all the way in yet because I knocked on the phone and remote control on the floor. The noise pulled me back to reality and I reached for the blanket under my pillow.

As soon as I grabbed it, I inhaled the scent of it hard. It smelled like my room growing up and my mother’s cooking. I sat up in bed when I heard a knock at my door.

“Come on.”

The door opened and it was Greek, “You good?” He asked.

I nodded my head yes and hoped that he would leave but he came and sat on the side of my bed.

“I said I’m good Greek.”

He looked at my blanket in my hand then at me. “You don’t look good Halo. In fact, you look the same way you did when we were kids, and you’d jump out of your sleep. Except, we are not kids anymore and I did not know you still wake up like this.”

Greek went to the half bathroom in my room and came back with a towel for my face.

“It’s nothing, just shit on my mind since dad and mama---

“Quit fucking lying Halo, for real. Me and Golden allowed you to keep saying that for years. But let’s be one hunnid’ about it. You been having these late-night jump scares before our parents died.”

Greek looked at me and like many other moments, I saw our dad. It was comforting but also a pain in my stomach appeared because I missed our parents. I thought about me and dad’s last talk at Burger King when I was ten years old. I remember his hug and how he told me he loved me.

“You and Golden are the best parts of me and there is nothing that will make me or him look at you out of the ordinary. What changed you Halo, just tell me so I can understand.”

Here my brother was, pleading with me to tell him what was truly wrong. To tell him why I jump out of my sleep every night. How could I tell him what happened for two months in the fifth grade?

What kind of bitch ass man would that make me if I’m still traumatized by something that probably most boys shouldn’t complain about. How in my sleep, the smell of cigarettes and Burberry Britt would invade my nose.