Run Away From The Hood They Say

"MA! Where is my name tag for work? I’m running late!" Star yelled out to her drunk mother on the blue La-Z-Boy couch.

"Ugh, quit all dat yelling! Did you check the kitchen counter?" Her mother yelled back at her.

There it was, STAR-Bank Teller.

"You gettin’ ready to go, baby?" Star’s mother asked.

"Yes mother, every day I have to work!" Star replied, sarcastically.

"Alright honey, be safe out there and I love you!" Star’s mother said.

"I love you too mama," said Star.

Little Star was born and raised in Englewood, Chicago, Illinois. Where there is nothing but high poverty, and crime rate. Oftentimes, many tourists would call it one of the “ghettos,” while natives take pride in where they are from. Star usually compares ‘Chiraq’ (Chicago+Iraq) as a war-zone that she and her uniped mother needs to get out of because every day there is nothing but homicide and they won’t be able to survive, like victims in Iraq. However, she questions herself,

How in the hell am I going to get out of here with little to no money, no degree for a better paying job, and sadly, no freaking car?

While walking to the first bus stop, she sees a few thugs walking in the opposite direction.

"Wassup lil ma?" One of them hollered. Star grips tightly onto her pocketbook--- reaching for her pink taser; in case anybody would try her. She kept walking while listening to her daily affirmations for encouragement.

When she got on the bus, she had to sit next to a guy that had dingy, dull, dirty clothes with an awful aroma. Star was gagging her insides out, and moved to another seat.

As the bus started to approach the last stop, on Roosevelt Street; Star felt as if a presence came over her while she was standing. So she sat back down for a moment and prayed this prayer,

"Lord, please, watch me everyday out here because it is only getting worse. I work at a hot spot where many crimes could take place, such as a robbery. I don’t want to end up like my mother or worse, a victim of a robbery. So just please keep me and my coworkers under your wings today, Amen."

At that moment, the bus slows down, and Star walks the rest of the way to the International Bank of Chicago to start her shift, at 7 A.M.

It was 8 A.M and Star was handling clients’ transactions, answering any questions for them, accomplishing money counts for deposits, leading them to any higher representatives, etc. After drinking plenty of water, she had to use the restroom. While Star walked out, she saw four men in blacked out attire (including black ski masks) leaped out of a moving Hummer and rushed into the bank flashing their weapons. Out of nowhere, someone sniped the two security guards near the entrance. That is when consumers and employees screamed frantically. Star was in shock and stood still like a mannequin in the window of a mall.

"Everybody this is a robbery in progress, do not move or I will shoot you, with no hesitation," yelled one of the men.

Everyone gasped and laid on the floor with their hands up like in the movies; where hostages would lay flat on the ground and obey the thieves. However, the man’s voice sounded so familiar to Star because of the strong, hoarse, 63rd Street accent. She glanced at the tall and broad shoulder man, while her face was planted to the floor with her hands up. Even though she could not see his face, she thought of her high school ex-lover: Sean.

No, no, no that couldn't be him. He wouldn’t have the balls to lead a heist. He was too kind and sweet in our class, Star thought.

At that moment, two of the burglars kept an eye on the people with their guns pointed towards them. While the other two men walked hastily toward the bank tellers and yelled at them,

"GET UP LADIES, WHERE IS THE VAULT?"

Star and two other bank tellers stood there quietly with their hands up, while looking toward the ground.

'I am going to ask you all three nicely, where is the safe or I am going to bust a cap in both of y’all’s heads?' asked ‘supposedly’ Sean, while pressing the pistol against one of the employees’ heads.

He walked over to Star’s face and grabbed her by the hair while saying, with a harsh tone,

“C’mon broad, since none of y’all wanna participate.”

“AHHHHH, you’re hurting me Sean, stop!” Star screamed while he dragged her to the back of the bank.

He stopped and went to the nearest room with her.

“How do you know my name, girl?” Sean whispered.

“‘Cause I never forgot about you and our broken relationship. We just graduated from high school and you had a full-ride football scholarship to Chicago State University, what happened?” Star responded.

Sean sat there quietly, in disgust of himself, and started to contemplate on what to do next because he did not want to hurt her anymore. So, he let go of her. She ran to the back of the bank to find an alarm, and he followed behind her.

“Star stop, you’ll regret this if you---” Sean said.

She interrupted him. “Sean, I am not going to allow you to do this for the risk of me losing my job; OH HECK NO!”

“Look if you still love me, you would not press that alarm button and show me the money.” While stammering through his words, “I’ll, I’ll take you with me if we escape on time!” he nervously yelled.

“Love? Take me with you?” Star walked up to him. “Love is out of the question in this situation because I loved the old you, not some dude who is doing illegal activities when you had an opportunity to get out of this curse of criminal behavior in Chicago” she said while throwing punches at him.

“By the way the police should be showing up here in no time soon, so it is best for you to go ahead and show you and your boys yourselves out!” Star commanded.

Sean aimed his gun at her head, threatened her life if she did not show him the way to the vault and money. But as soon as he tried to force her and threaten her once again, he hears,

“POLICE. DROP YOUR WEAPON SIR!,” a police officer demanded.

Star, with her head down, sighed in relief. On the other hand, Sean stepped back and shot one of the police officers through the man’s bullet vest. Star ran behind a shelf for safety, while two other shots were fired. She peeked behind the counter to see that Sean was shot.

“Ma’am, are you okay?” said the last officer standing.

“Yeah, I’m alright, I just wanna go home,” said Star, while tears falling down.

Six months later, Star and her mother had finally moved out of Englewood to live with their relatives in Georgetown, SC. One day, they were joyfully singing their old time favorites by Micheal Jackson, including “Dirty Diana.” Star stopped singing and saw on the nationwide news that ‘SEAN BRENTWOOD, MOST WANTED FUGITIVE, ESCAPED FROM RIKERS ISLAND.’ She started to panic and her mother asked,

“What’s wrong girl?”

“He’s, he’s, he’s alive?! And escaped!” Star said while pointing at the TV.

“He? Oh! Don’t worry about it baby girl. We moved away from that maniac and that crazy city” Star’s mother responded, with a worried face while watching the news.

Then two minutes later, a car drove by, BBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTT. Bullets flew in the house like fireworks would fly in the sky. “Everyone get down!” Star’s uncle screamed before he was struck with five bullets. When the car sped away, Star rose after collapsing to the ground. She looked around to only see her family turned into corpses .

While in tears,“screw you, SEAN!” Star hysterically exclaimed.