Stranger In A Strange Land Pt. 2

In Compton, CA, Brody walked on the sidewalk with his head low to the ground, wondering in his mind if this was his day to die. He could feel the stares of the natives bearing down on his back. It had seemed like forever since he had seen his distant relatives and walking down the street made him realize exactly how long he had been gone. He felt as though he was a mystery.
As he walked down the sidewalk, he felt as though death had been walking right alongside of him. Then he walked in front of a white house where his distant cousin had been standing smoking a blunt of California's finest. He saw first hand how medicinal marijuana had truly been. The dark blue veins of the struggle appeared all over her face but were most dominant around her eyes. The veins in her face spreaded close to her eyes, reminding Brody of a spider web. Her eyes held a hint of sadness burrowed deep into her dark brown eyes. He related to the pain in her eyes. He felt that same pain in his heart. "Wassup, Wo?"
Lil' Wo blew smoke into the air and shook her head. "Wassup Bro Bro." The sun rays made her eyes a focal point on her face as she looked up into her older cousin's eyes. "What you doing cousin?"
He smiled and pointed at the marijuana she had in her hand. "Trying to hit that scrill you got in yo' hand, right there." She laughed and passed him the blunt. He quickly received the blunt from her and took a hit of the potent marijuana. He coughed twice, giving evidence of the quality of weed he had in his hand. Having been the avid weed smoker since he was sixteen, Brody had the tendency to only cough when the weed was really strong. He looked at the blunt as though he were surprised by the potency of the marijuana. Lil' Wo simply laughed. As he was regaining his breath, Brody choked out a few words. "Walk wit' me real quick," to be exact.
Without hesitation, they walked on that long street ahead of them, away from a few members of the Isyss tribe and on to the street that housed a few school children that were the same age as his younger cousin. He looked at the kids playing in the street with envy. "If only I knew that kind of innocence again."
Then he saw his other cousin, Lil' Wo's older cousin Juice Mane, pass by an old model maroon Ford. She threw up three fingers as she waved to them. Lil' Wo threw up three fingers in the air as a form of response while Brody simply raised the blunt in the air as a form of greeting toward his cousin. She shook her head and continued on toward her destination.
Brody shook his head and asked Lil' Wo, "Man, don't you wish you could look at life like Juice Mane?"
She looked af Brody with a confused expression. "What you mean?"
"I mean look at her though. She don't smoke weed, she don't drink, she just work hard, and be about her paper."
"So? I be about this too, Bro Bro...."
"Yeah I know you be about yo' business, ya' heard me, but I'm saying you smoke weed though..."
".....What's your point!?" Lil' Wo asked with a hint of anger in her voice.
"I'm saying..." Brody answered quickly trying to backpedal through his statement. The scenery around him became a lot more real when he realized how quickly Californians lost their temper. He didn't like the way a few of the female Isyss stared at him. Their blue eyes gave Brody knowledge to how far in rank they were. "....obviously, I smoke too, but check me out though."
They continued to walk past the run down projects where large groups of Hispanics lived. Brody saw the wolf in their Aztec spirits ready to emerge from their faces. Their deep brown eyes gave way to a pain of the struggle they endured everyday in Compton, CA. Brody knew then that he had stepped into a warzone where nobody was winning and everybody was losing. He threw his head up out of respect to a tall, dark skinned Hispanic male with a buzz cut and a psychotic scowl. The Hispanic male threw his head slightly, but his piercing dark eyes followed Brody as he and Lil' Wo continued on their path to the store.
Oblivious to his surroundings, Brody continued to make his point to his younger cousin. "I couldn't imagine not smoking weed everyday." He licked his lips and continued as they cut through the park that was affectionately known as The Battlefield. A large group of Isyss watched Lil' Wo and Brody walk into the sun hungrily. It was known that Compton didn't like tourists. If you wasn't from there and you didn't have family there, it wasn't safe there. Period. "But it's not because I'm addicted to it. That would be impossible. I have to smoke weed because my reality is so....you know? Everywhere I go, people die. First my ma...." He took another hit from the blunt and threw it down on the grass. "Then my pa, my sister, then my uncle, but I was coping because of the fact that I felt as though I had a mission to accomplish." The dry grass crunched under Brody's light steps. No matter how much he tried to walk silently, he was still heard. No matter how inconspicuous he tried to be, he was still seen, but more importantly, he was still noticed. "But when all them people died, something inside of me changed. I feel responsible. I feel guilty because they were all there to see me, and they lost their lives with me being the last thing they saw or heard and it's not right man. My brother was telling me about it and I couldn't help but be like damn I did all that, but the scariest thing that could have ever happened to me happened yesterday."
They walked into the gas station where a muscular man was working. Brody asked for two single Black & Milds and two Swisher Sweets and quickly paid the gas attendee. He didn't want to be in there no longer than he had to. When he walked out of the gas station, he quickly lit the cigar, inhaled the smoke and looked toward the sun lit sky. The sun kissed his face so beautifully, but the only person who noticed was his cousin. A question burned inside of her head that couldn't be held in any longer. "So what happened?"
He took another pull of the cigar smoke and answered without even looking in her direction. "What you talking about homie?"
"What happened yesterday? Matter of fact, how did you even get here? Nana said she was shocked to see you, so I know she didn't know you was coming. Why the big surprise, Bro Bro?"
He blew the smoke outward as he sighed deeply. "I almost killed my brother yesterday."
"How?" She asked forgetting all about her own surroundings as she continued to keep pace with her cousin, listening to every word.
He told her the story of how he was performing at the Rock-A-Poolaza, how he blacked out, how he came to in Wiz Kid's laboratory, and how he almost destroyed the whole complex without so much as a thought. She just listened as they walked back to her grandmother's house. The surroundings didn't even matter as she listened. She caught herself thinking, "I wish he didn't have to go through that alone."
Lil' Wo, growing up in an abusive household often found shelter in her Bro Bro. His stories and his wisdom often inspired her. She didn't really understand until she received her Eyes of Wisdom. After seeing so much, the bleak environment she was brought up in had finally taken its toll on her physically, manifesting in the form of large veins potruding from her face around her beautiful light blue eyes. It was then she fully understood what her older cousin had been telling her. It was that day where she smoked her first blunt of marijuana to herself looking up at the California sun with a new outlook on life.
"Bro Bro can I tell you something?"
"Don't ask for permission..." He said while letting the marijuana smoke escape slowly from his mouth. "It makes me feel like I don't want to know what you are about to tell me. Never ask for permission, only ask for forgiveness."
She smiled. "That makes sense, Brody." She paused for a second while the question she wanted to ask the most formulated. "Well forgive me, Brody, but you do know that you never have to go through anything by yourself, right?"
They stopped in front of her grandmother's house and Brody turned around with a giant smile on his face. "Why do you think I came here?"
She smiled brightly as she looked up at her barely taller cousin. He passed the blunt back to his cousin while the bond between them was alluminated by the California sun.