Show Up

Enter to learn behind the brown iron spear tipped fence protecting the perimeter of the first floor multi-family dwelling units. A black barrel barbeque grill, a partially unwound garden house are stationed in front of one apartment window dressed with vertical white blinds and a well-worn two seater couch is placed in front of the window covered with faded purple curtains. The matching cushion less sofa couch sits out on the edge of the curb. Go forth to serve. It’s a given with what you’ve been given. Underserving is a blunder. A two-step platform stoop sealed with brown epoxy paint is the setting on East 16th Street. In front of three black security doors the middle one is where Laurietta King used to live with her five children. Her cartoon uniform v-neck top qualifies her as a registered nurse for all the colorful care she’s given to her family and the Poly High neighborhood. Up close, the white rim of her black flex fit hat is like a holy lining sown into her life through the horrific crime committed against the her dreams. The letter “G” is capitalized above the estimated value of predetermined fetters broken by God’s love.

At 517 East 16th Street, enter through the middle black security door and go up the steep red carpeted steps to the second floor where Laurietta’s old 4 bedroom, 2 bath where her whole family lived before Mike was murdered. This is where all the students from Poly would come by from their break to say hi and get a piece of fried chicken. The students asked her to throw down the chicken so they could get it. They never went by without waving and giving their blessings.

Some of the staff at Roosevelt she knows organized a moment of silence for Mike. Over five hundred teenagers of every ethnicity from Poly came by in front of her building did a standing ovation for Ms. King’s grieving family. It was packed. Ms. King jovially thought, “Ya’ll can’t be over here. I’m on Section-8. Y’all are going to get me kicked out. Do me a favor. Y’all got to go somewhere else. Don’t come back over here I can’t be homeless because I can’t stay with none of y’all.” No matter what was going on in the mean streets, all the gang members came together for that moment. They didn’t act up on each other. I’m still shocked to know that he knew this many people. It’s amazing to know that your child was that positive with all that has come out of the streets of Long Beach. Things happen. Some people make it. Some people don’t. And you have to get caught up in the crossfire of other peoples’ problems. He’s not here no more so we’re dealing with this. Instead of going negative with it, cuz people can do things constantly, we went on a positive level. Look how huge we got. And all he doing now is smiling, Blacc Mike is smiling and dancing up there. What a great honor. He’s doing his thing. He’s having a ball. He’s just not here to do what whatever he wanted to do. He wanted to skate around the world. He still made it around the world, just his momma, sisters and family are putting their feet together to do the load he couldn’t carry.

Although kind acts of love supported Ms. King’s family just in time, their enemies blended among the amassing crowd of people. At one point she didn’t know who did the killing. One of the guys who did shoot at Mike happened to be standing across the building on the other side of the alleyway. And he bragged about it to someone else known by the King family like, “They killed this nigger last night. They thought it was somebody else. And the dude said that’s Mike’s mom standing right there. They jumped in the car and left.” At the courthouse Ms. King’s family pieced together who he was and went crazy at her building. He was the one over at this building looking dead in Ms. King’s face. Ms. King saw him at the courthouse. He was the main one laughing on camera inside the courtroom in the documentary film. To know that he was that close to us is unnerving.  Ms. King had helped bury the shooter’s grandfather and fed their whole family a week before her son was murdered by their family. Ms. King said, “The cold part about it was the violence was family on family so it was worser.”