A Love Song for Latasha

It was the summer of my sixth-grade year.

I was in the pool. I couldn't swim, but it was hot.

You know, I was trying to figure it out.

And these kids, they looked over at me, and they like, "Oh, we from nine-o."

I wasn't into none of that, wasn't thinking about anything,

and I'm still trying to paddle up against the wall.

And I guess they figure, "Okay, we can take advantage of her."

Kid kept coming back, kept splashing water on me.

One of them come up from behind, and he holds my head underneath the water.

I'm scratching and pulling him,

but he had me underneath the water.

And the next thing I know, I hear this one little boy screaming.

Even though I have water in my ears, I can hear him screaming.

I felt the pressure lift off of my neck, and she pulled me up out of the water.

She got clothes on still. She had a skirt on.

She literally dropped her bags when she saw what they were doing.

So she hopped the fence.

She got into the pool right where I was at.

"You better leave her alone!" One of them, he had a busted lip.

So she got me out of the water, and she said,

"Man, you lucky I was walking by, and I just happened to see that."

And her brother was with her, and she gets him to get her a towel.

Put her towel over me. She needed the towel, but she's, "No, I'll dry off."

And we go to the swings and sit down, so I can just catch my breath.

She's like, "You know what? You little. You need somebody to watch you.

We about the same age. I done seen you around here a few times.

What you doing tomorrow?"

"Coming back outside, but I'm not coming back to the pool."

She's like, "You don't gotta worry about it. I'll be with you."

Latasha's mother passed at 1985.

She was shot in the torso at a club.

My grandmother couldn't let them go in the system.

So my grandmother's main focus was just to raise her kids,

and that's exactly what she did.

She had to step in and step up to raise and do what she had to do,

especially for Christina, Vester, and Latasha.

I was the only child.

My mom was in Orange County, and they were out here.

I wanted to be with them 'cause they were having more fun.

Christina, Vester, and Latasha was my life,

my brother and sisters, so I ain't have nobody but them…

and her, and that's it.

Latasha was more responsible.

She used to do Christina's hair, walk Trell to the park or to the store,

so she stepped up and helped my grandmother out so much

with her brother and sister.

We got to get up so early.

We got to leave at a certain time to catch the Manchester bus

all the way out to Westchester,

where, after school,

buses be full, everybody in the back of the bus

- talking smack. -

And it made our ride a little bit quicker.

We used to get off on Figueroa,

and we stopped at Tam's Burger right there.

My grandmother would give us two to three dollars a day.

So we'd hold onto that two to three dollars a day

until after school.

Back in the day, they had the little… little jukeboxes

that sit on each table that you could play.

Our favorite song was "Stand by Me."

We used to save our quarter for that song every day.

That was our song every day, and we'd get our fries.

And we'd walk down Figueroa all the way home, every day.

She wanted to be a lawyer, so that's what she was aiming for,

to get good grades,

to help her grandmother out as much as she can when she did make it.

She had all A's.

Popping out them A's.

You'd think, like, her mother passed six years prior,

where's her mind at?

'Course she talked about her mom,

but I think she blocked it out in so many ways

by keeping busy, by concentrating on school.

She just tried a little bit harder.

She just didn't want to end up a statistic.

She would talk about her mom. She missed her mom.

She missed her mom a lot,

and she just told me, "You know, I remember my mom would pick me up

and give me the… give me, like, the biggest hug.

That's what I remember most about her.

How she would hug me and the way she smelled."

Latasha would always talk about,

"When we got older, okay, here goes the plan.

We could still be lawyers. That could be our day job,

and we could own businesses,

because every time we go into a store, they either following us,

giving us dirty looks, disrespecting us.

Don't… don't you want to have something of your own?

We need, like, programs. We need something where the kids that's outside,

they can have something to do or somewhere to go, and we could start up tournaments

and basketball," 'cause she loved basketball.

I used to just go to the park sometimes, and I would watch her play.

And she would be the only girl on the court

playing basketball with these Hoovers, these big OGs.

And we'd play games with the kids that were younger than us sometimes,

and we would just have fun.

A lot of younger kids, they looked at her almost like the neighborhood big sister.

["Don't Forget About Me" by Noname playing]

I wanna say it was a Saturday.

My grandmother asked Trell to get the orange juice.

He didn't want to go, because we just woke up.

I was up, ready to go to the movies with Tasha,

but she was already gone.

My grandmother asked me to go get some orange juice.

Told her, "I don't wanna get no orange juice.

Tell Trell or Nookie to get the orange juice."

But I wish I had would have went.

I think Latasha passed in the morning hours,

'cause it was breakfast time,

but the detectives didn't get to our grandmother's house

until the afternoon.

I remember they came. I was dressed. Christina was at the house.

Trell was at the park,

so my grandmother told me to go run and get Trell.

He was in the gym playing basketball, and I remember walking up to him.

I was like, "Man, they killed her."

I remember pulling him, talking about, "Let's go! Something happened! Let's go!"

We both ran back home.

All hell broke loose then.

Word got around that a young Black girl

got shot over $1.79 of orange juice.

Everybody just broke down.

Everybody.

Went to the store. It was hot that day.

I got something to drink. I had left my bag on the side.

I said, "Okay, y'all ain't got to shoot me.

I'm just coming in to get this and get out,"

and the lady looked at me, she said, "Oh, you heard about what happened

to the little girl?" And I'm like, "Yeah."

Didn't know it was my friend yet. However, my parents knew.

I didn't know that it was her,

'cause I had saw her

probably the day before,

'cause she was excited they were going to the movies.

Go to the park.

I see Trell, and he's crying.

He's got tears down his face, and he's got Latasha's jacket on,

holding a candle. And I thought,

"She don't let him wear her gangster jacket. What's up with that?"

And he looked at me, looked up, but he was so hurt,

he kept doing what he was doing. So I didn't pay him no mind.

"I'm not gonna bother him. I'm just gonna go home."

Got home, in my own little world, and my dad comes in.

He said, "I know you heard about

the young lady that got shot over… over an orange juice."

He said, "Well, at this point, it's all over the news.

I can't hide that from you any longer, because this is something

where it's going to get out of hand, and it's gonna get out of hand

before anybody can get a real good hold on it."

So, as he's talking to me, it comes on TV.