Carjacked! A fairy tale in the hood

Once upon a time in a dirty little place known as the hood, Quentin and Emily were driving along with their mother. Quentin was nine, the younger of their mother’s two children. He was plump for his age and all the boys at school picked on him. Even at home he was picked on. His sister Emily was always finding new ways to make Quentin cry. 
Emily was eleven. She was the self-appointed smart one of the two. It was raining outside during their trip to the hood. Quentin and Emily were arguing in the back seat like they usually did whenever the family went for a ride. Mom had learned to ignore them, but she didn't ignore them today. Ordinarily she paid attention to the road or to whatever was on the radio but she didn't get a lot of the top forties pop music she liked in the hood. Too much of that rap music was played instead. But, the hood was the only place that she could buy all of those nifty gold watches and gold bracelets at affordable prices. So, she dealt with the bad music. Instead of listening to it she listened in on the argument going on behind her.  According to Quentin, his older sister had taken his Beanie Baby. Emily denied it, smirking and sticking out her tongue. 
	"I wouldn't want your stinky beanie baby. Mines better," she balked.
	Their mother kept on driving smiling to herself about the wonders of children at play. She stopped the car at a red light, not even seeing the short man coming towards her. 
	"Break yourself!" He screamed. "Get out my car woman!" The short man opened the front door and yanked her out of the car. He had a gun and waved it in front of her.
	"My kids, my car!" she screamed. "Somebody help me!" Nobody listened to pleas for help in the hood. Quentin and Emily were still arguing in the back seat when it happened. They were too busy to notice the short man climb into the front seat and gun the engine when the light turned green.
	"Who are you?!" Emily screamed as the car raced down the street.
	"Where's my mommy?!" Quentin cried.
	"I dumped the bitch out at the corner," the man replied smugly.
	"Where are you taking us?" Emily began to cry. 
	"I want my mommy!" Quentin was screaming at the top of his lungs.
	"Y'all betta shut the hell up before I come back there and give you sumpin to cry about. Ain't gonna be no cryin inside my ride."
	"What are you gonna do with us?" Emily’s voice was barely a whimper. Quentin just cried and cried. The man didn't answer them. He kept on driving through the hood. He turned up the rap music and bopped his head to the beat. 
	"We have to get out of here Quentin. The bad man is gonna kill us. I know he is..." 
	"What are we going to do? He locked the doors," Quentin muttered to his sister.
	She shrugged so Quentin shrugged too. Finally, Emily offered up a guess, "Roll down the window and try to climb out?" 
	Quentin smiled and nodded very quickly. He pressed the down button next to the window and down the window came. It stopped halfway, letting rain pour in through the open window.
	"It won't go down anymore, Emmie!" 
	"Safety windows, Quentin, so we don't fall out," she whispered sadly. 
	That wasn’t going to stop Quentin. He started to climb up the glass pane. He stuck his head and his hands out the window and tried to pull the rest of himself out after him, but he was too fat. His body got stuck half way through. 
	"Help, help, somebody help me!" He bawled in the rain. Nobody was listening. The people that saw him pointed and laughed. 
	"Quentin, Quentin, it's not working! You have to come back inside!" Emily tugged at her brother's legs.
	"I can't Emmie, I'm stuck!" 
	Emily pulled and pulled until finally she pulled him back inside. He came loose with a loud pop, and landed on top of his sister.
	"Are you ok Quentin?" 
	Quentin shook his head with a sad face and sneezed, 'A chew!'
	"Bless you." The man called from the driver's seat. "You should’ve kept your ass in the car." 
	"Let us go!" Emily cried.
	"Nope." 
	"Why not?" 
	"Cause I said so, that’s why!" 
Quentin sneezed again. This time the man dug into his pocket and tossed a crumpled tissue into the back seat. He glanced back at the pair and grinned. He had lots of gold teeth. 
"We have to get away, Quentin." Emily sounded frantic. She opened her little purse and dumped everything out on the backseat. There had to be something useful in there. She found more tissues, Quentin's beanie baby, and Tic Tacs?
"I know!" She said. Emily opened up her pack of Tic Tacs into her hand. She rolled down her window and began tossing them out one by one. 
"What are you doing, Emmie?" 
"I'm leaving a trail so mommy can find us. She'll save us I know she will."  Emily continued tossing Tic Tacs out into the wet street.
"Emmie, its not working see!" Quentin pointed back to the street and to her trail of Tic Tacs. Every time she would drop one, a bird would swoop down and gobble it up.
"It isn't fair!" She cried. The man laughed. He stopped the car in an alleyway and told them to get out.
"No," Emily protested.
"I wasn't asking. Now get out the damn car or I'll spank both your little asses till they're blue!"
"You’re not my mommy, you can't spank me or I'll tell!" Quentin wailed.
"Yeah? Who you gonna tell? Yo mamma? She ain't nowhere around. I'm the only one that can hear you scream so you betta just get your ass out the car and into that building where it’s dry." 
Quentin cried and marched inside of the building. Emily stuck her tongue out at the short man as she followed Quentin in. He stuck his tongue out at Emily. He also stuffed his thumbs in his ears and wiggled his fingers. 
When everyone was inside the man got some rope. He tied up Quentin and Emily and then tied them both to a pole. "I'm gonna go sell your mamma's car and then I'll be back. Don't try to get loose or I'll beat you." 
As soon as the short man left they tried to wriggle free. Emily wasn't strong enough to get out of the ropes. The man had tied them so tight on Quentin that it made his wrists hurt every time he tried to move. 
"What are we gonna do, Emmie? Is the bad man gonna come back and get us?”
"I don't know."
The bad man did come back. He was flipping through a wad of bills when he walked through the door. He had a little baggie filled with green stuff that looked like crushed leaves. "What's up?" He asked. The children were staring at him.
"We're hungry!" They cried in unison.
"So? What do I look like? Ronald Mac Donald? I ain't got no food. Just my green." 
"I hate greens." Quentin muttered.
"Yeah, they're better if you smoke them." The short man started to roll a joint. He plopped down on his couch and flipped on the TV. The image on the screen was of a bushy-haired man painting something. 
"My nigga Bob!" The bad man screamed at the TV. He lit up the joint and started to smoke it. "Bob is the shit." He reminded the children as he smoked his joint. They had seen joints before. Mom smoked them all the time. It was something else that she came to get in the hood. They knew exactly what those things did to people.
 “I'm hungry as a mo'fo up in here!" Said the bad man when he was done smoking. He rubbed his belly and looked around the room. " Mmm girl! You look good! Good enough to eat!" 
"You can't eat me!" She cried.
"Why?" Asked the bad man curiously.
"Because…because I'm skinny, that’s why! Eat my brother, he's a pig!" She struggled in her ropes.
"I don't eat swine," He objected.
"I'm swine!" Quentin cheered. 
"I like chicken, and you look like a big one girl." The bad man smiled and started walking towards the girl.
"If you let me go, I'll help you cook her." Quentin was smirking.
"Quentin!" 
"Yeah, you cool. You can watch her for me while I light up the rest of this dub sack." The bad man untied Quentin. Then he walked around the pole and looked Emily over.
"I'll go get the oven ready Mr. Bad man." Said Quentin. He ran off. 
"Hook up a little Stove Top, some string beans, sweet potatoes, mm girl you goin taste good!" He untied Emily. She kicked and screamed as he dragged her into the kitchen. The boy wasn't there.
"Where your bro go?" 
"He ran away, stupid." She covered her mouth to stop from giggling. 
"Naw, he said he would help me cook you." 
"I would have said that too to get away." She giggled again. 
"You sayin I'm stupid?" 
"Yes." 
"That's alright though. I'm still gonna eat you." He grinned and flipped on the stove. Emily started to struggle in his grasp. She couldn't break free. All of a sudden Quentin jumped out of the corner with a frying pan in his hand. He whacked the bad man in the head, knocking him back on his heels.
"Yo!" He roared.
"Run Emily!" Quentin screamed. He dropped the frying pan and ran after his sister. The bad man bounded after them huffing and puffing. "Run faster!" Quentin yelled. 
"Y'all ain't getting away!" But they were getting away. They ran faster and faster, and the bad man just couldn't keep up. He had smoked too much weed and his whole world was spinning. 
They ran to the corner and called the police. It took the cops ten minutes to get there, but they got there, and they arrested the bad man. Quentin and Emily were reunited with their mom and she was so happy to see them! She didn't take them to the hood anymore after that. And when she went alone, she locked her car doors, just like the children told her to. Quentin and Emily even went back to the hood on their own when they were grown up, but that was for another reason than why their mom always went. And that is another story.