by Ghost
***
The next morning, I woke up to Mikey beating on the door. I had been so mad the night prior that I’d fallen asleep on the couch in the living room. Somewhere in the middle of the night, Kamya had come and tried to wake me up so we could talk, but I was so heated that I ordered her to go back into the room with Shantê because I needed to think. Well thinking turned into me falling asleep, and I was awakened out of my sleep the first thing in the morning by Mikey.
I pulled open the door, and he walked right past me. “Mane, yo baby mama crazy as hell lil one. Brought her ass over my crib last night drunk as a skunk. Arguing wit Alicia about ruining her life. Didn’t say how she ruined it, only that she did.” He shook his head. He was puffing on a fat ass blunt. A thick gray smoke rose from its tip and descended from his nostrils as he exhaled.
I ran my hand over my waves. “Shawty was over here on that fuck shit too. She starting to have remorse over Bryon's death. You know how that shit go. I guess that fool must have been pumping her head up wit a bunch of bullshit. Now she feeling like he was the only one that could ever love her. It’s bananas. Let me hit that sauce.”
He handed me the blunt. “I’m over here bright and early because we about to go peel somebody head back for my connect. This gon be the first move that’s gon catapult us to where we need to be. I need you to get dressed, and bring that forty-five I gave you, just in case.” He walked into the kitchen and opened my refrigerator and pulled out a carton of orange juice. “You want me to whip up some breakfast real quick?”
I yawned and stretched my arms over my head. I was sleepy as hell. The bud tasted good though. It was harsh to the chest, but it got me high right away. In a matter of minutes, I looked Asian. “You even know who we about to holler at, or is this a blind mission?”
“Oh, I know Potna. When you ever known me to jump into some shit head first without knowing what the deal was. Think about it homeboy.” He pointed to his temple and took a swallow of the orange juice.
I had to piss worse than a little kid scared to get up at night and go and use the bathroom. “Well I need to know what’s good. Also, if we about to hit this lick, what are the residuals?”
Mikey sat the juice on the table in the kitchen and went into his pocket. He started to count a knot of hundreds. “Here go five bands right here. That’s what I promised you for this first move. This is five, and the second move gone bring you ten, and so forth and so on. Keep in mind that everything I’m making that I’m busting down the middle with you because that’s how its supposed to be. Now hurry up and get dressed Mane. I know you can use that green.”
“Hell yeah, I can. Make some eggs nigga. I need to put a sandwich on my stomach or something.”
“I got you, just hurry up Potna. Time is money.” He pulled the carton of eggs out of the refrigerator and opened the cabinet.
I made my way down the hallway. Just before I got to the bathroom Kamya opened the bedroom door and rushed into the bathroom. Before she could close it, I stuck my foot in the crack of the door. “Hold on lil cuz. I gotta piss like a muthafucka.”
“Me too. You better come in, but I’m going first.” She pulled up the toilet seat and sat down on. Seconds later I heard her tinkling into the water. That only made me have to piss even worse.
I stood there shifting my weight from one foot to the other. As soon as she hopped up, I flushed the toilet, then I started to go. It felt so good that I closed my eyes and moaned a lil bit. That morning piss was everything. After I finished, I washed my hands.
Kamya stepped on the side of me and kissed my neck and licked up and down the thick vein on the side of it. “I don’t know what her problem was last night, but I hate that she messed up what we had going on. I wanted some of this.” She whispered. She snuck her hand inside my boxers and squeezed my dick then made eye contact with me in the mirror.
“Don’t even trip, we gon get a chance to do our thing. You can bank on that.” I turned to face Kamya, pulled her to me and gripped that fat ass. Giving her a wedgie. She moaned and threw her head back. I sucked all over her neck. Slipped my fingers into her shorts, and then into her gap once again from the back. She opened her legs. I was Eager to finger her at full speed. It was early in the morning and her pussy was wetter than soup. I hugged her body to mine. “Cum in these fingers lil cuz. Make that kitty swallow these digits.”
She breathed hard. Her mouth wide open, slamming back on the two fingers that were working in and out of her. “Stop. Stop Phoenix. Uh, stop.” She gripped my dick and tried to stroke it while I fingered her. “Uhhh shit.” Her scent rose into the air.
Faster and faster my fingers went. In and out. Over and over. Then I was playing with her erect clitoris, rubbing it in circles. Then got her to going crazy. I made her bend over the tub. Once she bent over, I got to fingering that pussy hard, and swift. I watched how the lips opened and swallowed my fingers. They were wet and slimy in a matter of minutes. I rubbed all over her moon and made her cum screaming into the drying towel. Her knees buckled. When she got to reaching for the button to my pants, I knocked her hand away. Mikey began to call me from the kitchen. I sucked my fingers into my mouth, loving the taste of her juices. “We gon handle this bidness tonight lil cuz. You hear me?”
She slid her hand into her panties and nodded. “We better. I’m tired of playin games wit you. You better give me some. Oh, and I got somethin for you that I ain’t been able to give you yet. You want me to go get it right now?” She asked, standing up.
“Nall. I’ll get it when I get home later. I need you to watch Shantê. I should be back in a few hours. Mikey want me to handle some bidness wit him real quick.”
“But you know I gotta be to work by nine o’clock. Do you think you’ll be back before then?” She flipped her long hair behind her shoulders.
“I hope so. I mean I don’t know for sure, but if I ain’t I’ll just pay you for the hours you missed. How does that sound?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Its ain’t even about that. You know I work wit them old folks and thangs. My company be wanting us to give them a forty eight hour notice when we set to call off. I mean I could just bring Shantê along with me. My client is cool, she shouldn’t say nothing.”
I nodded. “Well either way, you do what you gotta do. I’ll still hit you and make sure that you’re good. Toya being stupid right now. I don’t know when she gon snap out of that dumb shit. But I appreciate you though.”
She smiled. “Well you already know how you can show me your gratitude. My lil kitty thirsty right now. I want some of this.” She cupped my dick again, then kissed my lips. Sucking on them hard, moaning.
I cuffed that ass again. She was so thick. I yanked her shorts upward, so that her cheeks were exposed. “Tonight baby. Tonight, I’ma wear this ass out. That’s my word.”
Bomp. Bomp. Bomp. “Nigga come on. What the hell you in there doing? You got diarrhea or somethin.”
Kamya broke her kiss and stepped back. “It better be tonight. I’m serious, too.” She kissed me again, broke it, and unlocked the door. She stepped into the hallway with her shorts all up in her ass.
Mikey was standing in front of the door. When he saw her, he had to step back. He watched her walk down the hallway and into my bedroom. When she disappeared, he shook his head. “Dawg she eighteen now right?”
I laughed and nodded. “Yeah why you ask that?”
“Man, she so cold now bruh. On everythang. I never thought she would get that thick. You remember how skinny she used to be?” He made a sour face. “Now lil one got mo ass den a horse. It’s fucked up I’m married. I should have waited for lil mama. I bet she got that sauce too. Damn.” He laughed and signaled me to follow him. “Come on. I hooked you up this cheese omelet. Then we gotta get on bidness.”
I didn’t know if Kamya had that sauce or not, but I had every intention on finding out this night.
Chapter 7
“Dis shit plain and simple Homeboy, my connect want this
building and the one right next to it. That mean that you and yo niggas gotta get the fuck out of here, and I’m talking like right now or else it’s gon be a problem.” Mikey said, staring the dark-skinned man in the eye as he sat across the long table from him.
We were at a catfish warehouse on the east side of Memphis. It smelled so bad in there that I felt sick on the stomach. Behind the dark-skinned man were two other big dark-skinned dudes with smirks on their faces, and their arms crossed in front of their chests. They must have thought it was sweet. I was glad they did because as long as they kept their arms crossed in front of them that meant that I would be able to get to my pistol before they could get to theirs. Me and Mikey had visions of starting our own cartel, and whoever this plug was, he made it seem like they could help us to get established. I was all in like poker chips, and ready for action.
The heavy set, dark skinned man, had long dreads, and red eyes. He smoked on a hefty blunt that smelled like it was mixed with cocaine. He blew the smoke in Mikey’s face. “You tell your connect that I said to kiss my ass. That I aint going no fuckin where and neither is my niggas. We run this shit now. Its time Memphis gets a makeover.” He took a strong pull from his blunt and inhaled.
Mikey clenched his jaw. His hand slipped under the table. “Look bruh, I don’t know where the fuck you came from, but I assure you that it is in your best interest to move around. The cards ain’t in your favor Potna. We gon need that territory, and this warehouse for bigger and better thangs. This your last warning. You gon take heed, or you gon be hard headed? Pick your path Potna. What’s it gon be?”
The fat man broke into a fit of laughter. He scooted his chair back from the table, cracking up. “You hear this brown son of a bitch. He in my shit talking like he the toughest muthafucka on this side of the Dixie. I ain’t never seen nothin like this. You gotta be high off that Rebirth heroin that everybody getting wind of.”
I continued to size up his men. The fact that they’d allowed for us to come into their presence without being patted down told me that they were rookies to the game. I don’t know if they underestimated Memphis niggas or what. Maybe they thought we were soft or not about that life, but whatever it was I was about to take pride in whatever was about to go down.
“Check this out tough guy. You tell your connect, whoever they are, that there is a new sheriff in town, and he ain’t going no where. Tell them that I am a war that they don’t want to start. You got all of that?”
Mikey nodded his head. “Aw yeah muthafucka. I got all of that. Now you take all of this.” He rose from his seat with two forty fives. The red beams appeared on the heavy-set man’s face, and then he was pulling the triggers. The guns spit rapidly. Bullet after bullet ate away at his face, slowly melting it away. Shells hopped out of the gun and wound up clinking on the table.
His security went to reach for their weapons but before they could uncross their arms, I lit ‘em up like Christmas trees. All chest and neck shots. If my nigga was bussing, then I was too. The two goons fell on top of one another. A big pool of blood formed under their bodies.
Mikey pulled a Ziploc bag out of his waist band. Placed both guns on his hip and pulled out a knife. He grabbed the fat man by his dreads and slid him across the floor. My dude reached into his mouth and pulled his tongue out and sawed it off, then dropped it into the Ziploc bag. His eats were next. I didn’t know what that was about, and I didn’t ask. Memphis was a muthafucka. In order to stay alive, I had to go with the flow until everything flowed directly through me.
Mikey hopped up and looked down at the man. “Punk ass nigga. His history caught up wit ‘em homeboy. I’ll explain his fuck ways later. Help me wrap these niggas up and get rid of their bodies. We got a lot of chopping up to do so let’s get a move on. I gotta get the tools out of my truck.” He jogged off.
That morning we wound up cutting up all three of them niggas before dumping they ass in a creek. The only parts of their bodies that were salvaged were the ear lobes and tongue of the chump that was supposed to be calling the shots.
***
“We gotta get this money Phoenix. Its getting hot outside and we gotta get our bands all the way up.” Mikey said later that same afternoon. We were in his kitchen at one of his spots in Orange Mound. He took the mayonnaise jar full of liquid coke and swished it around with oven mitts on.
I took the half of brick that had already rocked up and sat at the kitchen table. I had a surgical mask over my face. I didn’t like the smell of dope when it was cooking. That shit hurt my head. Plus, I couldn’t risk that shit getting into my system. I didn’t have no habits other then codeine and pussy, and I wasn’t trying to get none. I took my razor blade and got right to work. I was finna bag the entire eighteen zips into dimes, in the end my profit would be a little over fifty gees. In Orange Mound you were able to make twenty-eight hundred off an ounce, so when I multiply that by eighteen, and factored in the shorts I’d take, I was looking at fifty plus bands. That was cool wit me. “Mikey, I’m ready to eat nigga. When we gon meet this plug, you keep talking so much about?” I chopped off about a zip. Pulled the digital scale closer to me and got to doing my thing.
He turned off the fire on the stove and set his Mayonnaise jar in some cool water. He had a light blue doctor’s mask over the lower portion of his face as well. “We gon meet the connect at the end of the week. We’ve got one more move to pull. I ain’t even expect this bird we just got. This some extra shit, but I’m thankful for it. We gon have lil Smoke nem push these dimes for us while we handle some other shit. I already know you ain’t no trap nigga. Bruh, you still know how to cut hair?”
I was focused. I’d already bagged two zips with lightning speed. That was fifty-six hunnit ready to go. “You can’t forget no shit like that, why what’s good?” I continued to do my thing. My phone buzzed on my lap. I looked at the picture and saw Toya’s picture pop up. The text across the bottom read: Come get me. I’m at my aunty house. I’m sorry.” I ignored the message.
“Cause when I open this barber shop, I want you to have a chair. We can’t be in these streets forever nigga. We living on borrowed time.”
“Nigga never. I’ll never work for no nigga. I gotta be my own boss. Until then, I’ma be right here in the slums getting money the hard way. Broke ain’t cute. And the workforce ain’t for me. I hate authority figures.” I bagged another zip with ease and went right into the next one.
“Yeah I hear that. But you be with me. I’m greedy. I gotta have that legal money and that street shit. I also got an end game because I know this thug life shit don’t last forever. I’ma pump a few babies into Alicia. By me knowing that I have, to ensure that she and our children won’t ever be in need for nothin if somethin should ever happen to me. That mean I gotta be spaced out. Gotta go hard, but that endgame is important. All hustlers must have an end game.”
I knew he was speaking that truth. I thought about that every single day, and it was happening more and more the crazier Toya acted. I had to make sure that Shantê was going to be well taken care of. She was my life at this point. I needed to find something I could exit the game into just like Mikey had. It was time that I grew up mentally and got my priorities in line.
My phone buzzed again, another text from Toya. This time she was begging me to come and get her. She even sent the crying emoji. I dusted my hands off and told her to give me two hours, that I was on something. I didn’t know what I was going to do for sure, but I didn’t feel like being bothered with her. I had plans on taking Kamaya’s ass down tonight. I couldn’t have her cock blocking. “Say Mikey, I don’t know what my end game is yet, but I’ma find one. I know that’s important.”
As soon as I finished those words, Smoke knocked on the door. Mikey let him in, he had two of his lil guys with him. Smoke was dark skinned. Skinny, with short dreads and gold teeth that his brother had copped for him before he went to the Feds. He was born and bred in Orange Mound.
He saw me and walked right over. “Aw he
ll nall. What up Playboy? Yo name ringing like a muthafucka.”
I was on my seventh zip. Focused. “What you talking about Smoke?” I didn’t even look up at him. I wanted to get my shit bagged up so I could count my profits. I needed this fifty gees. I had to take Shantê shopping soon. She was growing out of everything.
“Mane, they say you suckered that Bryon nigga out of Black Haven. The whole Mound talking about that shit. They say you beat that nigga senseless in front of his pregnant baby mother. Then told her that she bet not say shit. That bitch was so spooked that she ran all the way back to Jackson, Mississippi. Yousa savage.” He laughed and rested his hand on my shoulder.
I looked at his hands and then up to him. He removed it quick. “Lil Homie you can’t believe everything you hear. I ain’t have no beef wit that man. This the first time I’m hearing about somebody bodying his ass. That’s fucked up.” I fronted and kept right on bagging my work. I was thinking fuck Bryon. I did wonder how word had managed to travel so quickly to and through the Mound though. But that was classic Memphis. Word spread faster than a person scratching a rash in this city.
Smoke smacked his lips. “Man, aiight. Well it ain’t for you to confirm or deny it. I’m just saying the streets talk, Durty. And they saying that you’re a beast. I honor that big homie.”
Mikey stepped into the living room. “Mane what the fuck I tell yo lil ass about all dat gossip shit?” He snapped.
“Bruh I was just letting playboy know what it is. Dat way he a know why everybody looking at him all crazy and shit. What, I shouldn’t have said anything?”
Mikey scoffed. “You just sit yo lil ass down and bag his dope. You and yo homeboys. Y’all worried about the wrong thangs. Sides, Phoenix couldn’t have stanked that Black Haven nigga cuz bruh was wit me at the funeral home helping David all day and night the same time they saying that shit happened.” He sat about nine zips on the table and three razor blades.
