Gia Lashay McNeil
January 13, 1980 – March 19, 2004
Loving sister, wife, and friend.
The man takes a seat at the grave, and relaxes, a tear falling down his face. He takes the hood from over his head, and we see that it is Ronnie McNeil. He places the rose on top of the headstone, and speaks.
No matter what I do in this life, losing you will be the most painful thing I have ever experienced.
Ronnie kisses his hand, and then gently runs it across the length of the headstone.
You were the first to believe in me, and you will always have a special place in my heart. I love you, my dearest Gia.
Ronnie pulls the hood over his head, and places his back to the headstone, fighting off a few tears. He rubs the headstone once more, and speaks again.
Butch…..
I’m gonna paraphrase here, but you asked me if I loved someone like you love Diana. Meet Gia….my first wife. Gia and I were high school sweethearts. We were there for each other through our darkest moments. We were an inseparable pair….until…that night…that night, when a ####ing drunk ass truck driver took her away. He took her and the child….our child….she was carrying away from me. He sideswiped us as he was swerving across the road. The car flipped twice, and landed, before it burst into flames. I tried to save her….I tried so hard to save her. I got her out of the car before it exploded….but the trauma of being pregnant and the accident was too much…she had an internal bleed…and she died in my arms before we could get to the hospital. I lost my first true love and my child that night….and a part of myself is buried here as well.
You see, I was in your position Butch…and I couldn’t save her. As much as I would have traded places in a heartbeat, I couldn’t. As scared as she was, laying there on that gurney in the ambulance, her hands slowly getting weaker, she looked at me with those piercing eyes of here….and made her peace. I wasn’t given a choice to save her…the good Lord saw fit to make his own choice, and I had no choice but to accept it. It took time….but I learned to love myself after that night….and in turn, I found someone who understood what I had went though, someone that I could love and that loved me. But if you’re asking me would I make the sacrifice….then yes, I would. I wouldn’t think twice about it.
You ask me about Wichita…..and would I have walked away instead of getting into the van. If I had walked away, I would have died. Toya wouldn’t have a husband, James wouldn’t have a brother, Christina wouldn’t have an uncle, and the students who come to my gym, the ones I’ve put through school, the ones whom I was lucky enough to have come across to show them that there is a life beyond the streets….they wouldn’t have had a man like them to see that there was another way to not only survive, but succeed. If I would have been selfish and proud in that moment, I would have broken the hearts of every person that loves and depends on me. So yes Butch, I would have picked up those keys and taken that ride through Wichita again. I did what I could to keep the body count to just the targets that were outlined, but you can’t control the seemingly uncontrollable. Even after all of that, they still could have killed me, but better to take the chance that they wouldn’t and go with them than to face certain death by not doing so. It’s something I never thought I’d have to do again…not since the fiasco with Kincaid.
We come from different worlds, in search of the same thing, Butch. We’ve both played to the whims of the crowd, and we’ve both spent our time with the walls of and under the employ of a man who could give two f*cks about either one of us. Am I glad I hit you with the daggers of my last message….yes I am. It opened your eyes to what is real and what isn’t about me. The company we have kept and currently keep doesn’t define either of us. What defines us is what happens within that squared circle, from the first bell to the last. You can’t destroy me, and I can’t destroy you, no matter how close to the brink we would push our bodies, both in training and in battle. You’re no whimpering cub, and I have no intention of treating you as such. We will do battle at Road to Ruin, and I will come at you with everything I have. I expect you to do the same, but if you don’t...don’t expect any mercy from me. We've thrown enough verbal daggers between us to last a while....there should be nothing left to say between us except this:
See you in the ring, and may the best man win.
Ronnie plants one final kiss on the headstone, pulls the hood back over his head, stands up, and jogs off into the sunset, as the scene fades.
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