Promise Kept (Perry Skky Jr.)

by Stephanie Perry Moore

  “I thought you didn’t need no protection?” I joked, knocking on the frame of the open door.

  “I don’t need them to know exactly where I’m staying, you know what I’m saying. I got to be a little smart about this thang. Come in dog, dang. I’m surprised to see you.”

  “I know, I know. I’ve been MIA, I wasn’t just trying to just leave you out there though, man. I just. I don’t know.”

  “You wanted to make sure I didn’t pull you down, get you into any more trouble. I realize I let you down and that I had hung you out there to dry. I think we even now, cool?”

  We slapped hands and had a cool embrace. We were taking boxes out of the apartment to his car, when all of a sudden, he yelled, “Get down man, get down! They rolling up on the house.”

  “What, what are you talking about man?” As soon as I turned around he hit me in the back and pushed me to the ground and shots rang out. It was madness.

  “Dang man, they know. Stay down man, stay down.” He inched his way over to the trunk and pulled out a nine millimeter.

  “Man, where’d you get that gun?”

  “Man, I ain’t stupid. I didn’t need the feds to protect me, but I was going to have protection. Don’t get up Perry, don’t get up.”

  I couldn’t believe this. As soon as I was trying to do the right thing trouble found me. I thought they had left, then five jokers got out of the car—but when Mario started shooting they didn’t come close to us.

  “T-Money, get back man. You don’t want to lose your life, man.”

  “You don’t want to lose yours either. You told ’em about me and they trying to find me. They got my girl pent up and she’s eight months pregnant. They said if I don’t turn myself in they are going to lock her up on some bogus charge all because of stuff you told them.”

  “Whatever, man. It ain’t even like that.”

  “Oh, so you didn’t keep your mouth shut?”

  Some more shots rang out. Mario ducked.

  “Man, we got to run.”

  “Ha, where man? Bullets are faster than human legs. Even your million dollar ones alright? Now you just stay down.”

  Over the last few months there had been many times when it felt like my life was flashing before me: when I had drank way too much alcohol and it felt like my heart was about to bust, when J. Bo and his boys beat me up, and when I got another beating at Hilton Head. But it was weird—just as I thought, Lord you need to protect me, I felt like a big igloo covered my entire body, and though I could hear more gunfire, I felt safe. I couldn’t explain why and I didn’t know how I was going to get out of it, but even if safe meant leaving this world and being with God it would be a place where I found peace. It was something about doing the right thing, not fleeing from trying to help somebody out of their darkness. It was like God was going to show me light.

  “You going to Hell tonight,” the dude named T-Money said to Mario.

  “Yeah, whatever. It ain’t real.”

  “I guess you’ll never know. I’m sorry, God,” Mario said as he shot right in between T-Money’s eyeballs. He fell to the floor. His boys got in their car and jetted away.

  “It’s over man, it’s over.”

  “We’ve got to go see if he’s alright.”

  “He ain’t moving, man. I had to kill him or he was going to kill me.”

  T-Money had said he didn’t believe in God. With all of the blood on his hands from his past sins I knew I wasn’t going to see him in Heaven. Though I didn’t physically cry, inside I felt worse than the slaves I read about in Roots. Another black soul wasted—gone. As soon as I walked over to T-Money’s body Mario called out, “They’re coming back, they’re coming back!”

  This was unreal, like it was out of a daggone movie. I had no gun, I had no knife, I didn’t even have a stick to try and defend myself with, and a part of me didn’t want to fight.

  “Run, boy,” he said.

  As shots exploded in the air I knew I had to do something to stop getting into danger.

  Calming My Heart

  “Wait, no. Stop man. Don’t shoot at us,” one of the rugged, scared voices shouted out from the car. I knew bullets had gone past me, but now that I had thought about it, it had all come from one particular direction; Mario had been the only one shooting. Yeah, the guys had come back. It was only natural for Mario to think that they were coming back to attack—after all, the leader of their crew was down. They took their bandanas off their heads and were waving them out of the window.

  Mario kept shooting. It was like he couldn’t hear what they were saying or he couldn’t believe it, or was just so confused and changed by the fact that he had taken a man’s life that he wasn’t even responsive. Finally the gun was out of bullets and I stood up and said, “No more, Mario. No more, man.”

  “Perry, move out of my way.”

  The guys in the car stood up as well.

  “They don’t want to hurt you, man. Give me the gun, Mario.”

  When he just stood still, frozen like an ice block, I yanked the empty steel weapon from his shaking hands.

  “Y’all want to talk, what?”

  I turned around and said to them, “It’s cool, it’s clear.”

  “Don’t get out of that car,” Mario yelled, coming out of his trance.

  “Mario, let’s just talk to them, man.”

  “Perry, you don’t understand. These guys do one thing and…”

  “We just want to tell you we wanted to stay with you and talk to the cops; we were forced into this life too. He had a lot over us.”

  All four of them climbed out of T-Money’s bullet-ridden car with their hands up.

  The thick guy out first said, “Look, I’m Roscoe. We want to let the cops know that he ran up on you. Squash all of this; it’s time for everyone to move on, alright?”

  When I was little my mom always used to make me watch The Wiz. I not only had to see it on TV tons of times because my sister liked the movie, but every time it came to a theater in Atlanta we drove down to watch the play. I even played the scarecrow in middle school and I remember the ending: when the wicked witch was dead, all of the helpers were overjoyed. Such seemed like the case here. Maybe with T-Money gone it would be one neighborhood that could now survive. I guess other people had heard all of the confusion cause it didn’t take long for the police to come, and it felt like déjà vu when I had to have my hands up in the air once again. But when we saw a familiar face because the feds had been called based on the address that came up in the computer system, it was good to know that the law was real receptive to finding out the truth. Those guys kept their word, and after we went downtown and gave full statements, we were free to go.

  “Skky, I know it didn’t seem like it was worth it, but because you stuck by my man a lot of people are going to be able to sleep a lot better tonight,” the agent said. “The other guy’s dead. I’m not here to judge anybody, but when you’re cut from the devil’s cloth, on earth is not a place where you need to be.” He threw out a folder and flipped through T-Money’s rap sheet, listing page after page of juvenile and adult crimes. His sheet was longer than a football field. “You think he needed to stay around? It was just he was so good at being a bully that nobody wanted to stand up to him, nobody wanted to admit what he was doing to the community. For you to get Mario to stand up, because Mario felt like he wasn’t standing alone with your support, is heroic. We don’t have an award or a medal and all that to give you, but I just want to say to you, son, I always heard you were a guy with character and your father certainly gave you his praises. Now I’m seeing it for myself, because we’ve been tailing the both of you guys.”

  I didn’t want any accolades from him, though I wasn’t disrespectful. This was still a lot to deal with—I had watched a guy die. The good thing though is that all of those under his command were now free, and I made it my own personal mission to make sure that I witnessed to each and every one of them. I didn’t want them to have any idle time to
think, Oh, I can be the next king of the projects and pick up right where T-Money left off. It really did my soul good to know that in the midst of the madness I was seeing that God had a purpose for me. I wasn’t overly optimistic, thinking I would be able to have every one of those guys falling on their knees in repentance, but knew that I was going to give it my all to tell them about the One that loved them so much.

  “Y’all, I just don’t want to go anywhere for spring break. It’s been a long semester and I still have to make it through exams. I really need to study. I have big man problems, you know what I’m saying?”

  “Then the only way to rid yourself of all that stress is to come with me down to Florida,” Saxon said. “Don’t worry, my sister ain’t goin’ to get mad if you go with me. She’ll think we’re babysitting each other.”

  I looked at Deuce to help me out. I mean it wasn’t like I wanted to tell Saxon that I wouldn’t be there for him. He had recuperated nicely and had really been doing well, with a full recovery leading up to Spring ball, and the last thing I wanted to do was let him down. But Deuce wasn’t helping me out. He folded his arms like Yep, so what you goin’ to tell him cause I want to go to the beach.

  “Aw, boy, you ain’t right, I thought you wanted to chill. I went last year to Florida on spring break and it was wild, but it wasn’t that relaxing.”

  “Yeah, but you was in high school then, we college boys. We can have all the honeys and chill at our spot—my parents got a nice piece of timeshare right on the beach.”

  Lance had already said that he was going to Ft. Lauderdale with some of the other teammates and I was really looking forward to having the place all to myself, but clearly the two of them weren’t letting up until I agreed to go. Like the softy I tried not to be, I nodded. Saxon tackled me. “That’s my boy, that’s my boy. Yeah!”

  It was interesting to see how a few months could change a person’s heart. He had had much hatred for me early on, but I had prayed for God to soften his heart in regards to him understanding that I just didn’t leave him out there when the dude attacked him. And in some way God just did His thing, and now that I had that friendship again my new goal was to make sure Saxon was saved. Maybe me going with Saxon to Florida wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

  The next day I took my girl out on a much needed date. Talk about relaxing, it was good to just sit in a movie theater, sleep holding her hand, knowing that we were all good. Expectations and pressure that were usually affiliated with us spending time together weren’t there. She was happy to be there with me and I really appreciated that, which made me more into her. No expectations, just quality time spent. When we walked out of the movie theater we had ice cream and she brought up the Florida trip.

  “So, you’re going to behave yourself right?”

  “Hey baby, if you don’t want me to go just say the word.” Knowing that I really didn’t want to go anyway.

  “No, Saxon’s excited and my parents are glad you’re going too.”

  “Why don’t you come?”

  “Yeah right, a sister/girlfriend hanging out on a boys’ trip. No, it’s the boys’ time. I’m just happy the two of you guys aren’t killing each other anymore.”

  “Yeah, what’s up with that? You’ve been trying to defuse stuff between us lately?”

  “No, not really, he’s just changed. I think’s it’s the God thing,” she said. “I love you and I trust you,” she said, leaning in and giving me the sweetest kiss, tasting like berries or something.

  “I miss those lips,” I said, getting another one as I pulled her to me. There was nothing more relaxing than spending time with her. “So how wild do you think your brother is going to be on this trip?” I came out and asked her.

  “Well, put it this way—my parents and I are really looking for you to keep him in check.”

  “Oh, you talking babysitting for real, for real?”

  “Well, like I said, it’ll be twofold because I know the word my man has, and I’m sure that girls are going to be trying…”

  “Oh hush and come here.” I pulled her close to me again. Maybe it was the ice cream I tasted but from her lips it was much more delicious than the one in my waffle cone. “So what you gon’ do?”

  “It’s track season, I got to stay here with the girls and train. No spring break for me, but I won’t be too mad if you cut yours short. Coach is going to give us one day off.”

  “Yeah, maybe we can do something.”

  The ride down to Ft. Lauderdale was a piece of cake. I had been there before, I knew the route, even though I didn’t know the exact place we were staying. Saxon stopped every few miles for some beer. He must have had a fake ID to buy it. Though I wasn’t cool wit’ that method, I wasn’t trying to argue. I only wanted to relax by the beach.

  Thankfully, we got in before nightfall. The first place I headed was to see the waves rush in. Before I could get my feet wet, I heard someone call my name.

  “Perry, hey it’s me.”

  I knew the voice sounded familiar, not a white sweet voice, not a cool black one, but one in between. When I turned around I was shocked to see my cousin Pillar prancing up to me wearing the skinniest two-piece I had ever seen.

  “Girl, you need to cover up. Dang!”

  “How am I going get my groove on if I look like grandma? I had a hard year, transferring to a new place. I made a few friends.”

  All of a sudden I felt someone rubbing on my back, I looked around and it was Rain, my sister Payton’s high school best friend. They were both at Spelman. When she started feeling in between my legs my heart was anything but calm. Trouble was, she looked so good that it felt so right. This little vacation that was supposed to be drama-free had just intensified.

  My heart skipped a few beats, like her touch got to me or something. To be honest, Rain, who was much sexier than I remembered with her tall slender frame, was the first girl I ever had a thing for. She was at a slumber party with my sister. She was a ninth-grader and I was in the seventh grade. I walked in on her in the bathroom, and boy did I get a surprise. It was funny because even though she covered up it wasn’t like she was quick to block me from seeing everything. I mean she was good, I just think if I had been a little older I would have had a chance. But now as I stood taller than her, finally with muscles that would impress her, maybe my chance was now.

  “What, you not going to give me a hug?” she said, looking me up and down. I could tell as her tongue rolled that she wished she was doing more than looking at me. I had to bite my tongue. Though I was cool and collected I was anything but calm. I had a girl and I was excited about that, I was only here to help her brother show out. Trouble was not supposed to find me and temptation certainly wasn’t supposed to know where I would be, but just like normal, both of them peeped me out. I gave her a hug and felt her breasts rub up against my chest; I couldn’t figure out if she was trying to seduce me or if that was happening because the daggone bathing suit she had on looked like two strings.

  “So you guys are going to come over and let us cook for you?” she said as she pulled away, still holding both of my hands. Saxon was so caught up in checking out my cousin that he wasn’t even catching up on the vibes that were going on between me and Rain—which was cool because I certainly didn’t need him making me feel worse than I already felt.

  I went over to my cousin and said, “Girl, for real you need to put some clothes on.”

  “My dad is back in Arizona.”

  I looked at her like, Are you kidding me? Some of the offensive linemen from Tech were down there and Deuce had hooked up with them, so Saxon and I went to the condo where my cousin and Rain and a few other chicks from Spelman were staying. I liked Savoy, because she had a touch of class, but some of the girls she hung around with or even some of the girls that used to be at my old school weren’t like these Spelman chicks. I mean they had it going on, sisters with…not arrogance, but confidence—were just attractive. The way they looked at me let me know that they wer
e intrigued but they weren’t throwing themselves on me. They knew they had it going on with or without me, but Rain, with her long legs and her hair blowing in the breeze, made me get up and chase after her when she dashed to the beach.

  She turned around and said, “You can’t catch me.”

  I loved looking at the view from behind, but if she was going to tease a brother what was I going to do but oblige? When I caught up to her we lost our footing and fell into the sand, with me on top of her looking down into her eyes.

  She said to me, “I couldn’t wait on you growing up. I didn’t want to go to jail for robbing the cradle, but now you’re a man, Perry Skky Jr. A fine man at that.”

  She leaned up and brushed my neck with her lips. It was soothing. I felt relaxed but then I rolled off of her.

  “We can’t. We can’t!” I said out loud.

  She rolled over on her side and looked at me. “You’ve probably been pressured every day to get with a girl and go all the way. I didn’t mean to be forceful, I just had some old feelings and some new ones and you are hot. And if Payton heard me saying these words your sister would kill me.”

  “You’re looking pretty good too. My sister doesn’t run me, that’s not the problem.”

  She kissed my lips. “What is? I don’t want to know. Let’s just enjoy each other. This is spring break—I know you’re supposed to have flings. I know you’re big man on campus—shoot, the boys at Morehouse even know who you are. I’ll get mad points when they know we went to school together. They wager if you’re going to make it to the pros one day, but I know the true Perry Skky, the little guy who worked overtime to reach his dream. You didn’t just arrive, and you had a dad that was on you. And you used to fall down on your knees and pray for God to make you better.”