A Staten Island Love Letter- The Forgotten Borough

by Jahquel J.

  Kiss sucked her teeth and then rolled her eyes. “Why can’t I go to a regular high school like my friends? I hate private school.”

  “You go to Staten Island academy. I pay forty grand a piece for each of you to get the best education you can get. Your mother wouldn’t have wanted you going to a public school.”

  “Oh, and she would have wanted you in the streets too, huh?” Kiss mumbled as she walked out of the house pulling on her coat as she jogged down the stairs.

  It seemed like since Kiss turned seventeen her attitude was always on a hundred. She complained about everything and seemed to find a problem with any and everything I said. I was tired of fighting her ass about shit that she should have been doing. If her mother was alive, she wouldn’t even have the smart-ass mouth that she did. Sandy would have knocked her teeth down her throat. I didn’t put my hands on the girls because I didn’t believe in hitting girls.

  “Let’s roll out, girls,” I called to Love and Kiki.

  “Kiss always has to ruin somebody’s mood,” Love rolled her eyes as she headed out the door. “All she be worried about is her little boyfriend at school.”

  “Yeah, well you all need to be worried about that school work. I need to make it to my session at the gym and we’re already late,” I yawned as I grabbed my gym bag.

  I set the alarm and hopped into the car so I could get them to school. We lived in Prince’s Bay, Staten Island. I worked hard as fuck to get us out the hood. Some days I wasn’t home to tuck the girls in, but Ghost’s mama helped me with that. Mama Rae was like a mother to me. She knew how much I had going on and jumped in to help me without even being asked. The girls considered her their grandmother. She taught me that you didn’t have to be blood to be family.

  Me and the girls lived in a six-bedroom single family home with a big backyard and a pool. I wanted them to have everything that I didn’t have when I was growing up. Everything that I was doing was because I wanted Sandy to look down and be proud. Yeah, I knew she wouldn’t be happy with me dropping out of school, but I had to do what needed to be done. College was important to her and one day I might go back, yet, right now there was too much money to be made for me to be sitting in a classroom. Just as badly as she wanted me to finish college, I didn’t want her to die. I knew she couldn’t help it, but I felt the pain from losing her every day. I did the best that I could do with the situation that was handed to me.

  “Um, can I go to my friend’s house afterschool?” Kiss asked.

  “Oh, now you want me to help you out? Didn’t you want me to pipe it down?” Love and Kiki laughed in the back.

  “Y’all mad annoying,” she rolled her eyes. “Can I go, Ro?”

  “You going straight to her crib, right?”

  “Yes. I said that already.”

  “Yo, chill with that fucking attitude, Kiss. I been real quiet on that shit, but you need to dead that shit now!” I barked as I continued to drive to their school.

  All my girls were growing up so fast. Kiss was graduating this year and we’ve been on egg shells waiting to see if she got into Princeton University. It was her dream school and all she’d spoken about since she was a freshman in high school. Her grades were excellent so I knew she could get in on her own. If by some chance she didn’t get in, I had no problem tossing some money at the admission’s office to take a double look at her application.

  “Sorry,” she muttered and crossed her arms.

  “Girls,” I looked in my rearview mirror at the girls. “Marisol is going to pick you both up from school,” I warned them.

  “Okay. Can we get some food on the way home?”

  “Ask her.” They both nodded and put their headphones on and zoned out into their phones.

  “Marisol was at the house the other night. Wonder why?” Kiss hinted.

  “Why weren’t you sleep?”

  “I’m seventeen. I don’t go to bed when you tell the other two to go. I was getting water and saw her come down for a bottle of wine.”

  I shook my head because I told Marisol to stay her ass in the room when she came over. We had been fucking around for a year. I met her when I went to Ghost’s crib. He had just hired her because his other housekeeper went back to Trinidad. When I laid eyes on her spicy, Latino ass, I knew that I wanted to sample what she had between her legs. Lucky for me, she wanted to sample me too.

  Fucking occasionally had turned into this weird ass place we found ourselves in. I was cool with fucking and I could tell she wanted more from me. It went from flirty conversations about the next time we would link, to her venting about her kids and family issues. Instead of her coming over to get dick, we found ourselves sitting on the balcony off my bedroom talking about her issues. Marisol came to clean the crib and care for the girls when I wasn’t able. They loved everything about her, and I did too.

  I was able to zone out and handle business without worrying about my girls. I knew that Marisol had them and wouldn’t let anything happen to them. The reason I didn’t want the girls knowing about me and Marisol was because I liked to keep my personal life separate from them. They didn’t need to know every woman I fucked or hung out with. Eventually when I got serious with a woman, I would introduce her to them. Right now, I was fucking to get my frustrations out. I couldn’t even say I was having fun, because I wasn’t. I was fucking around because I was a man and I had needs that only a woman could satisfy.

  “Me and her chilling.” That was all Kiss needed to know. I was already pissed that she knew Marisol was at the house after they went to bed.

  “Like smashing or dating?”

  “Yo, you wild as fuck,” I laughed.

  “What? I’m going to be eighteen in a few months, I’m not stupid, Ro,” she laughed. “Now, is she smashing type or the wifey type?”

  “I don’t know. We’re chilling and that’s all you need to know. And you need to be in the bed when I say go to bed. I nudged her and she smiled. “Ah, I got a smile out your mean ass.”

  “I’m not mean.”

  “Yeah, I’ll let you keep believing that,” I laughed.

  Kiki was now thirteen, Love was fifteen and Kiss was seventeen. I was surprised that I didn’t have gray strands of hair all over my head. Living with three teenage girls was a fucking challenge. When they argued it seemed like the whole house was a war zone. Then when they were talking it was like they waved the white flag and the war never happened. I didn’t know how the fuck I had managed to raise these girls alone all these years, but I was grateful. I prayed Sandy was looking down and proud of everything that they had going on. All my nieces were honor roll students and made me proud with the grades they brought home. They were respectful and helped around the crib when I needed it. They didn’t ask for much, which is why I gave them so much. They all understood that I had work and couldn’t always be there when they needed me to be. In the end, all that I was doing was for them and I hoped they understood that with each year they grew older.

  I pulled into the gates of the school and pulled into the carpool line. Teachers and facility were standing outside greeting the students. Kiss grabbed her Louis Vuitton knapsack and stack of books.

  “Phones away and have a great day at school. I love y’all,” I told them. Kiki and Love leaned up to kiss me on the cheek while Kiss waved and quickly hopped out of the truck to go into the school.

  “I hate this stupid school,” she mumbled before slamming the door. Lately all she did was complain about school and how she hated damn near everyone there, except for the one friend she had. I knew she missed her friends, but I was doing all of this for her. This school really prepped the kids for college, they better for the amount they charged.

  “I promise when I’m seventeen that I’ll always give you kisses on the cheek,” Kiki said as she snuck another kiss on my cheek.

  “Kiki!” I yelled.

  “Do you love me?” she sang back and giggled.

  “Of course. Always and forever.”

  “Foreve
r and ever and ever,” she winked as she got out of the car.

  Love followed and closed the door behind them. I pulled out of the carpool line and headed to the gym. Every morning after I dropped them off to school, I came to the gym to work out. It was where I was able to clear my mind and get ready for the day. I got most of my thinking in at the gym. As I pulled off the school’s property, my phone buzzed alerting me of a call. Pressing the button on my steering wheel, I spoke.

  “Yo.”

  “Good morning to you too,” Marisol’s voice came through the phone. “You heading to the gym?”

  “You already know. What you doing?”

  “I just dropped the girls off to school too. I saw you, which is why I called.” Ghost’s daughters went to this school too. Marisol took them to school frequently and if it wasn’t her, it was usually Shakira’s parents who dropped them off. Shakira never brought them to school. It was too early for her and she didn’t awake until around noon.

  “Where you about to head to now?”

  “Food shopping and pick up some stuff for Ms. Ricci.” I laughed because Marisol never called Shakira by her name. It was always by her last name. Meanwhile, she called Ghost by his name.

  “You know you don’t have to call her that when we’re around each other, right?”

  “It’s a habit. She refuses for me to call her anything other than that. I have a few words I want to call her, but I need this job,” she sighed.

  “Feel you.”

  “You know if you hired me more than two days a week to clean your house than I could scale back my hours here.”

  “Nah, the girls are too spoiled already. They need to do the little bit of chores that they do have. Look, let me hit you up later. I got a busy day today.”

  “Oh, okay. Did you need me to pick up the girls?”

  “Yeah. Kiss is going to her friend’s crib today. Her friend will drop her off.”

  “Okay. Talk to you soon,” she replied, and I ended the call.

  I could tell she had an attitude. Fucking around with Marisol was never supposed to happen. I didn’t date and each time I visited Ghost’s crib, she was always there. One thing led to another and now we were doing this weird ass dance. I could tell she wanted more, and though I wanted to give it to her, I wasn’t willing to give her that.

  Part of me felt bad as fuck for trying to live my own life. For ten years it had been just me and the girls. I spent all my time with them and when I wasn’t with them, I was working. In between I hit a few quicks, but never serious relationships. I felt like the girls needed me and I didn’t need to be tied down to a relationship. Plus, it wasn’t fair to the woman. She would want all of me and I couldn’t give her that while raising three girls. A phone call pulled me from my thoughts. Picking up my burner phone, I placed it to my ear.

  “Yo.”

  “Yo. Head over,” I heard Ghost’s voice on the other end of the line. I knew he wanted me to meet him at the barbershop. We had all put money in when we first started and opened the barbershop. It was our first taste of laundering money. Whenever we needed to talk or just chill, we always met up at the spot. If Ghost was calling me, it was because he needed to discuss some shit.

  “Say no more.” I ended the call and hit a U turn in the middle of the street.

  It didn’t take me long before I made it to the barbershop. I parked out front and headed inside. Ghost was getting a shape up and Staten was sitting in an empty chair drinking a sports drink. When they noticed me walk in, they nodded, and I took a seat in the waiting chair.

  “Come let me line you up.” Staten got up from the chair. I looked at this nigga, laughed and turned my attention to Ghost.

  “Nigga, I wouldn’t let you line my balls up.”

  “You see this nigga? He always saying some gay shit. All I’m trying to do is help your struggling ass hairline,” Staten replied.

  “Struggling? Never that. You the one walking around here with that nappy ass chin hair,” I joked.

  “Yeah, my shit is a little nappy. I ain’t gonna front, I was gonna ask Chanel if she could relax my shit for me.”

  “Relax your beard?” Ghost turned his attention to Staten. I could tell from his expression he was confused as fuck about what he had just mentioned.

  “Yeah, you know make it silky smooth and shit. Anyway, why the fuck did you call me over here? And clearly it’s important because you called this Rico Suave looking nigga too.”

  “Yeah, what’s good? I was about to head to the gym.”

  “I just wanted to catch up with the both of you. It’s a new player in the game,” he laughed. “From Brooklyn too.”

  “Word? Doing business here or just living here?” I asked.

  “Far as I know? He just moved out here because he heard it was low-key. Chico was putting me on earlier.

  “Why that nigga Chico know everybody business but his own when I ask where his money at?” Staten questioned.

  “Yeah, he is fucking nosey.”

  “That’s not the fucking point!” Ghost raised his voice. “I did my own research on the nigga and he moves big weight in Brooklyn. We actually have a trap not too far from one of his big money-making traps,” Ghost filled us in.

  “He know?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. I do know he’s not going to live here for too long without wanting to see what kind of money he can make.”

  “Facts.”

  “What you wanna do?”

  “I wanna talk to the nigga, but not until he makes a move,” Ghost replied.

  “Ight. In the meantime, I’ll make sure to keep an eye out on the nigga,” I assured him.

  “Word. Me too. Besides that, how’s the girls?” Staten turned his attention to me.

  “I’m just trying to figure out this shit when it comes to teens. Kiss ass been giving me hella attitude about every fucking thing.”

  “That’s girls for you. I’m not looking forward to Rain and Summer getting older. I want them to be my babies for as long as possible,” Ghost sighed.

  “I don’t have no seeds that I know about, but I don’t want no damn daughters. Give me a son so I could show him the way of the streets.” Staten patted his chest.

  “You want your son to live the same life that we live? Looking over our backs and doing the foul shit that we have all done to get where we are? Nah, I would want him to go to college, start a business so I could invest in that shit or something. This street life isn’t for everybody.”

  “I feel you.” Ghost finished his bottle of water. “This shit I have going on is an empire. As much is college is cool and shit, I need my son to carry my name sake and street legacy.”

  “Word. I want me a little junior when I’m ready,” Staten confirmed.

  “Kiss is a teenager without a mother. She’s gonna go through shit that you can’t help her with. Give her space.”

  “Space is for niggas that want their daughters on the pole. Kiss ass need to get her ass bust if she catching an attitude and showing disrespect. You been on some shit with these girls. They respectful yeah, but when they’re in their moods they say whatever comes out their mouths. Nah, let me take that back, it’s Kiss that got the mouth. She gets good grades, but what does that matter if she has a nasty ass mouth?” Kiss had gotten out of control in the past year. Her grades were good, but her attitude overshadowed all of that shit. I tried to give her space, tried to pull her near and none of that shit seemed to work.

  “This shit is hard. Why Sandy couldn’t have like one girl and two boys?” I laughed to keep myself from going crazy.

  “Word. She had three girls all close in age. Besides Kiss, how are Kiki and Love?”

  “Good. They do their own thing and shit, but I make sure to step in when they need me,” I explained.

  “Kiki getting so damn big. I remember when she was around Rain’s age,” Ghost said.

  “Word. These kids don’t stay kids no more on the real. Every time I turn around somebody growing the fu
ck up.” Staten laughed.

  “Word. I’m just trying to do right by them. I want Kiss in college and I’m steering the other two to the same place, feel me?”

  “And you will. You’re a good uncle and put those girls before anything. They’re going through some shit right now that you can’t help them through. Just continue being the uncle that they need,” Ghost told me.

  “Appreciate it, G.”

  “No problem. Look, on the real… I’m heading to Belize to check on some shit. I’ll make sure to check on y’all properties out there and shit. Shipments haven’t been on time and I wanna know what the fuck is the hold up,” he informed us.

  “I’m glad you’re not forcing us to go,” Staten sighed. “I got too much shit that needs to be done.”

  “Business. That’s all ‘yo ass need to know.”

  “Yeah, this nigga probably got a date with a bad bitch or something,” I laughed. “On the real, the revenue I get from renting that beach bungalow out is bananas.”

  “Told you fools. Get that drug money and flip it to something legal. We need to have more streams of income than just this drug shit, feel me?”

  “I feel you,” Staten agreed.

  When I decided that I was going to step into the game full time. Ghost made sure that I set my shit up. He made me invest the first bit of change I made and also made me buy an ocean front bungalow in Belize. Three years ago, we all put money together to buy a big ass piece of land out there. Me and Staten didn’t know what the fuck Ghost was doing, but it all made sense when the nigga told us he was about to sell opium poppy plants. We flooded the streets with heroine, coke, weed and anything else you could name. Dust, better known as angel dust was our biggest thing moving. Staten Island was known for dust. I saw a grown man strip butt ass naked, jump off a second-floor balcony and then get up and continue to run around. That shit was one hell of a drug and we supplied it heavily. Heroine was making a comeback in Staten Island and we decided to get ahead of the shit by having our own farm.