When It All Falls Down: A Chicago Hood Drama (A Hustler's Lady Book 1)

by Tamicka Higgins

  “Just got up myself and remembered that I needed to text you back from when you texted me the other day,” Sharli said. “Shit, if you want to, you can come through for a minute if you not doin’ nothin’ today. You know you welcome over here.”

  Ayana thought about it for a moment. While Sharli was her favorite cousin in the entire world – practically her best friend, really – she didn’t really care for where she lived. She lived in one of the roughest parts of Chicago. Not to mention, her part of the family was extra hood and always had some stuff going on.

  Ayana saw that the train was pulling up. Making a split-second decision, she told Sharli that she would be over to her house within thirty minutes. Sharli said that would be just fine, and the two of them hung up. Ayana got onto the train, checking her phone every so often to see if Tramar had returned any of her calls or texts.

  The train ride seemed twice as long as the anticipation and worry built inside of Ayana. Whether or not she wanted it to do so, Ayana’s mind took her thoughts every which way. She began to wonder if Tramar had even truly gone to Bob Evans to get any breakfast. Was Bob Evans supposed to be a cover up for him messing around with another chick? Did he fall asleep wherever he went?

  Ayana could come to no real conclusion. She hadn’t even received so much as a text message in response to any of her efforts to call Tramar. At each train station, she would look into her phone, waiting on the NEW MESSAGE icon to pop up on her screen—waiting to see if she had a MISSED CALL alert. There were even moments, when the train was rolling over bumpier than usual tracks, Ayana had mistakenly thought that her phone was vibrating. Upon finding that not so much as a new email had popped up, she was yet again disappointed. She continued to worry and wonder with little information to work with.

  As the train was pulling up at Ashland Station, Ayana opened her text messages. Since Sharli’s neighborhood was rather rough (at least to her), Ayana decided it’d be best to let her cousin know that she was getting off of the train at the nearest station to her house. From the station, the walk to Sharli’s block was about five or so blocks. Ayana felt all right about walking through the neighborhood at midday on a Saturday. Considering how many of the people in this hood lived their lives, it simply wasn’t likely that they’d be up and moving about at this “early” hour on the south side of Chicago.

  Just as Ayana was opening a new text message, her eyes caught a glimpse of Sharli. She was standing out on the platform as the train was coming to a halt. The two smiled at one another and waved. Once the train had fully stopped and the door opened up, the two cousins met at about halfway between the two edges of the long blue-painted train station. In the distance behind them, the Downtown Chicago skyline rose toward the clouds. A thin layer of smog sat over the city, the sun managing to break through and brightening things up a bit.

  “Girl, I can tell you worried,” Sharli said after she hugged Ayana. She looked her first cousin up and down and just knew something was up. At twenty-two, Sharli was only a few months older than Ayana. Sharli was what many would call ghetto and fabulous while still being classy. If there was a new wig on the market, she would be wearing it to see how it looked on her, as well as how people out in the streets received it.

  Sharli was also known for being the queen of doing hair in her hood. To put it simply, no other chick within a half-mile radius could do hair to Sharli’s standards. People had always told the five-foot-eight-inches-tall chick, with a shape that was average but a personality that was out of this world, that she should stop messing around with thugs and get her life together. There was no reason, in other peoples’ eyes, that Sharli couldn’t go to beauty school and get licensed so she could really make some money doing hair.

  As Sharli led Ayana away from the train station and down into the streets, the two of them chatted back and forth over just about everything.

  “Girl, is it that obvious?” Ayana asked, wondering why Sharli had approached her so quickly about saying she looked as if something was wrong.

  “Girl, you said that Tramar ain’t come back to the hotel room,” Sharli said. “I would be pissed as shit if that was my nigga. Every nigga I got know better than to pull some shit like that on me. If you say you gon’ jump up and leave first thing in the morning to go get breakfast, your ass betta come back. Girl, I don’t even know why you fool with that nigga like that.”

  “Sharli, come on,” Ayana said. “I don’t even know why you gotta be that way.” They walked up to a busy intersection, stopping at the corner to wait on the cross walk to change to green. On all four corners were medium-height brick storefront buildings with small to medium-sized retail stores and restaurants on the ground levels. “I think something is wrong.”

  “Yeah, girl,” Sharli said, shaking her head. “I’m with you on that. That nigga just got up and left you and didn’t even call you or say nothin’.”

  “I’m serious,” Ayana said. “Tramar wouldn’t do that. Shit, just last night we was walkin’ downtown in Grant Park, and he was talking about us moving in together and stuff. Why would he be talking about that then get up and leave in the morning and purposely not coming back?”

  “Well, I hate to burst you bubble,” Sharli said, “but the truth of the matter is that the nigga might have got his ass caught up in somethin’, girl. I don’t even know why you dating that kinda nigga anyway.”

  “You got your nerve!” Ayana exclaimed, slapping her cousin on her shoulder. “Some of these niggas you be datin’ be on the five o’clock news every fuckin’ day of the week. Girl, don’t play.”

  Sharli snickered, seeing how her cousin had picked up on her sarcasm. “That may be true,” she said, in a very matter of fact way. “But at least they come back to me the next morning. Well, sometimes this one nigga don’t, but I’mma have to work on him some more. I don’t think I broke him in right. He bout to get cut off this pussy. And you know that drives niggas crazy.”

  “Fuck,” Ayana said, sounding as if she were already exhausted. “Here you go again with that mess. Bitch, I know the niggas love your pussy. I know that’s why you be datin’ two and three of them at a time, and they don’t even seem to care and stuff. Girl, we know you a fuckin’ pimp over them hoe ass niggas.”

  “I don’t know what you know,” Sharli said. “I was just gon’ let you know in case you forgot.”

  “I ain’t forgot,” Ayana said. “Now, back to me and what I got goin’ on.”

  The two of them walked along the densely populated, south side Chicago streets. The further they got away from the subway station and into the jungle that was Sharli’s compact neighborhood, the more Ayana was worried. She checked her phone for text messages and missed calls constantly. Still, there had been no response.

  When Sharli and Ayana walked up to the somewhat raggedy duplex that Sharli lived in, Ayana had begun to have second thoughts. She knew that she loved her first cousin on her mother’s side with all of her heart. However, she was unfortunate enough to have wound up living with her father’s side of the family. To put it simply, Sharli’s father’s side of the family was so ghetto and sneaky that even they might have had the wherewithal to run the Italian mob out of Chicago. There was just no telling what Ayana would see inside of the house. She simply hoped that the two of them could go upstairs to Sharli’s room and be in their own peaceful world of quiet and privacy.

  The two of them walked across the dirt-covered front yard and up onto the brick front porch. As Sharli spoke, she casually pulled on the screen door and found it was locked. Within the blink of an eye, she’d began to bang on the door and yell, “Come open this door, somebody!”

  Ayana wanted to cringe, as she hated the way Sharli would yell at the top of her lungs even when it wasn’t necessary. She looked up and down the street, noticing how quiet the block was for the later hours of the morning. Within seconds, one of Sharli’s nephews had come to the door and told her that she needed to go around back because Mama had lost the key to the front door
and wasn't able to let her in through the front.

  “C’mon, Ayana,” Sharli said, huffing and rolling her eyes. “You know how these niggas be.”

  The two of them walked along the side of the white duplex and in through the back door. Upon entering the kitchen, Ayana’s eyes were immediately drawn to the round kitchen table. On one side sat Uncle Thomas and one of his many women whom Ayana had not met before. On the other end was Sharli’s mother, Charity, who was Ayana’s aunt on her father’s side of the family. Quickly, Charity turned around. Her front gold tooth practically glistened in the light shining through the kitchen window. Her fingernails looked as if they were due to be redone by Sharli. She reached over the chair and hugged her niece as if there weren’t several lines of cocaine on the table.

  “Hey sweetie!” Charity said, sounding very excited to see Ayana. “I was just askin’ Sharli about you. Girl, how you been? Long time no see!”

  Ayana hugged Charity in return and told her about her new job hunt. Offering inspiring words, Charity simply told Ayana to keep her head up, and that God would take care of everything in due time. As the pleasantries ended with Ayana saying hello to Sharli’s Uncle Thomas and his woman, who he said went by the name Luscious, the two cousins made their way through the dining room. They said hello to Sharli’s couple of nephews then headed upstairs. Once inside of Sharli’s bedroom, they pushed the door closed.

  “Girl, I’m sorry,” Shari said. “When I left, the niggas wasn’t even over here with all that shit on the table like that. I swear to God I don’t know why my auntie be doin’ that shit when she know that her nephews is fuckin’ watchin’ in the other room. All they do is see that shit. Girl, I wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to be drug dealers when they grow up. Between what they see on television and what they see in the kitchen, that is probably all they know.”

  “Yeah, that is sad,” Ayana said as she plopped down onto the edge of Sharli’s bed.

  Sharli, who had just checked her blonde wig in the long mirror on the wall next to her cherry wood dresser, looked over at her cousin. She could hear it in her voice. “Girl, you really do love that nigga, don’t you,”” she asked. “You really is worried about him, ain’t you?”

  “How can I not be?” Ayana asked, shaking her head. “I mean, he just got up and went to Bob Evans after surprising me with one of the nicest nights that I’ve probably had in a while. Girl, I don’t think he cheating or anything. I was thinking about that on the train, and I just can’t see him doing something like that. I mean, if you keep it real, if he wanted to mess around, why he would do it on the one morning throughout the week that we’d been wakin’ up next to each other and stuff. That just don’t make any sense.”

  Sharli could feel her cousin’s pain, and it was just getting to be too much for her to bear. She knew she needed to sit down next to her cousin and keep it real with her. “Okay, okay,” she said, putting her arm around Ayana’s shoulders. “Girl, I hate to say this, but there are one of two things that I think coulda happened to him if you really wanna know what I think.”

  “What?” Ayana asked, wanting to know but scared that the answer would be one of two scenarios that had already rolled through her mind. “Go ahead and tell me, Sharli.”

  Sharli took a deep breath before she began. “Well, first let me ask you this,” she began, “is he still out in these streets and shit? I mean, I used to hear his name pretty heavy, especially from them niggas up on 31st Street and in them projects over off of Sugar Grove. Do you think that maybe?... Well…”

  Ayana knew exactly where Sharli was going, and she didn’t even dare want to think that something like that could have happened to Tramar. However, being the strong woman that she was, she knew she had to be realistic. “I mean, yeah…” she answered, hesitantly. “But, Sharli, I don’t think he out in the streets like that. I mean, he just always seem like he in a good mood and stuff. Like last night,” she smiled, “he took me shopping at the mall. Then we went out to dinner at this seafood restaurant. After that, we went on a walk at the park downtown, like I told you. Then, he asked me if I wanted to get a hotel room or go back home to my mama. You know how thirsty she be acting sometimes. I told you how she be looking over in Tramar’s direction just a little too long for my taste. So, of course, I said yeah.”

  “Let me ask you this,” Sharli said, cutting in to Ayana’s train of thought. “Girl, just keep it real with me. How much did he spend on you at the mall if you and him is doin’ all of this?”

  Ayana shrugged her shoulders. “Just five hundred dollars.”

  “Girl, boo,” Sharli said. “I don’t know what you seein’, but that nigga is doin’ somethin’ to where he can make the money to do all this. Did he even look like he was nervous about anything last night? You know how sometimes niggas be knowing when they done pissed another nigga off and might got somebody after them. They be lookin’ over their shoulders and shit. Was he actin’ funny like that?”

  Ayana shook her head. “See, that’s the thing,” she said. “He wasn’t acting funny at all to me. He was just acting like his normal self, except I will say that he was being a little more forward and just a real man about us moving in together.”

  “Girl, you don’t think he was mad about that, do you?” Sharli asked. “I mean, you know how some of these niggas is emotional nowadays. Actin’ like women and shit. I be hearin’ stories all the time about them takin’ they frustrations out on people and shit. Was he mad that you, seem to be to me anyway, not really all the excited about moving in together?”

  “Naw, girl,” Ayana said. “He wasn’t mad about that shit. Girl, we fucked something good before we both fell asleep. I’m telling you, it wasn’t that. He didn’t seem mad about anything.”

  “Okay, well let’s say that he wasn’t mad about anything and wasn’t involved in something to where he had somebody after him,” Sharli said. “Do you think that maybe he got arrested for something then?”

  “I don’t know what it would be,” Ayana said. “Ever since I’ve known Tramar, he’s been one of the most careful niggas I know. Everything he does, he has some strategy to it. Plus, if he had a warrant out for his arrest, he would have told me or something. We don’t keep secrets like that from each other. For real, girl. I mean that. That’s what makes this so much more confusing.”

  With squinting eyes, Sharli leaned back. Her head nodded as she looked at her cousin. Just as she was about to suggest that her cousin call downtown to be sure, her little nephew, Ray Jr., came dashing up the steps. Before either of them knew it, he was standing wide-eyed in the doorway. “Sharli, Sharli, come downstairs!” he said. “They ‘bout to fight down there.”

  Sharli looked at the five-year old, skinny, brown-skinned boy. “Who bout to fight?” she asked.

  “Auntie Charity and Uncle Thomas’s chick, Luscious,” he answered. “They bout to fight down in the kitchen.”

  Sharli immediately jumped up, following her little nephew down the steps and into the dining room. Ayana caught up with her cousin as she followed her and the nephew into the kitchen. Curse words spilled out of the kitchen as they entered. Inside, they found Thomas, who was tall and somewhat scrawny, standing between his sister and his girlfriend. The two woman appeared to be trying to get at the other, as their arms flailed about.

  “Bitch, fuck you!” Luscious yelled and jumped up and down on one side of Thomas. As she jumped, so did different parts of her twenty-five-year-old body. She was plump, to say the least. However, she definitely had a shape that made her weight proportional to her height. For that reason, Thomas loved her because he’d always had a weak spot for a shapely, big, beautiful woman. “I told you, I ain’t do that shit, you ugly ass old hoe. Thomas, tell this bitch to stop fuckin’ with me. Every time I come around, she gotta start some shit with me. Bitch gon’ keep tryin’ me, and I’mma have to beat that ass in front of everybody like she deserve.”

  Charity was outraged that such words would even come out of her
brother’s girlfriend’s mouth. She looked up at her brother. “So, Thomas,” she said, clearly very angry. “You just gon’ let this two-dollar hoe talk to your sister like that.”

  “Bitch, two-dollar hoe?” Luscious said. “Who the fuck you callin’ a two-dollar hoe?”

  Charity smiled at Luscious. “Girl, I don’t even know why you mad at me like that,” she said. “I was being nice, if you wanna know the truth. You that chick they be havin’ to put on the clearance rack at the damn dollar store to get somebody to buy you. And even then, they be handin’ out coupons for your ass up at the register.”

  Just as Ayana was shaking her head, hating that she’d come over to Sharli’s house yet again to have to be a witness to some messy drama, Thomas could no longer keep the two women apart from one another. Apparently, based on what Ayana and Sharli could see, a fight had broken out at the kitchen table about some spilled cocaine, as there was cocaine spread about the floor. Ayana was unsure what anyone at the table had paid for the cocaine. However, with how upset her aunt Charity seemed, it was very clear that she was the one who dropped the money for it.

  The two women went at one another with Thomas now standing off to the side. He pretended to be trying to break the women apart, but his efforts were weak. Quite frankly, he looked as if he wanted to see the fight himself, even if he only allowed it to carry on for a few minutes.

  With the nephews standing behind Ayana and Sharli, trapped in the dining room, Ayana and Sharli watched as Charity got the upper hand on Thomas’ chick, Luscious. She had grabbed a powerful handful of her hair. She pulled her around the kitchen with one arm while using the other to punch her in the face. Luscious’ arms flailed about as she tried to fight back, her efforts useless. Without a doubt, Charity was stronger and faster, even though she was nearly two decades older in age.

  “Now what, bitch?” Charity yelled, her lips tight as she went to town on Luscious’ face. “Now what, hoe? Look at that bitch ass. You over there cryin’ and shit ‘cause you know you gettin’ that ass whooped like a bitch! Look at you!”