“Hello, Breon,” Sandra said. “And yes it is, how are you?”
“I’m good, how are you?” Breon responded.
“I’m fine,” she said. Sandra then coughed softly. “So, how have things been with you? And to what reason do I owe this phone call? I don’t think you’ve ever called me before, Breon, now that I think about it. Did you tell your mother I said hello from the last time we talked?”
“Yes, I did,” Breon said. “And I know,” he added, snickering, “I was actually calling you for something.”
“Well,” Sandra said, clearly smiling. “I’m listening.”
“Well, Miss Sandra,” Breon started, deciding that he would just keep it real and let the words come out of his mouth. “You know me and your daughter have been together for a minute and stuff and stuff is gettin’ serious.”
“Oh, is that so?” Sandra asked, sarcastically. “Is stuff getting serious, is it? Okay, Breon.”
“Yeah,” Breon said, putting a little more bass into his voice. “And I wanna propose to her when we go to Gatlinburg for our anniversary. Can you please promise to not say nothin’ to her, or Monique or Tamar? I’m really try’na keep this is a surprise.”
“Well, yes I can,” Sandra said. “And don’t worry about it being a total surprise, ‘cause you never really know what Trina might be thinking, especially since stuff has been getting so serious.”
Breon chuckled, picking up on the ring of sarcasm in Sandra’s words. “So, I guess you called me, Breon, to ask me if I’m okay with you marrying my daughter?” she asked.
“Well, yeah, that too,” Breon said, not really sure if a man was supposed to ask the mother as well as the father. As there had been a lack of marriages in his family (but no shortage of babies), he really didn’t have too many people to talk to about this sort of thing. And this particular aspect had totally slipped his mind when he’d gone out to Gary over the weekend to see his father.
“Well,” Sandra said. “I supposed you’d be alright.”
Breon chuckled, hoping that Miss Sandra was being facetious. “Of course you can, Breon. You don’t have to sound so nervous. You know I’m a sweet, loving, and gentle lady. My daughters are the evil ones, so you don’t have to tread lightly with me. And I promise I won’t say anything. My other two daughters have quite a bit going in their love lives at the moment, now that you mention it, that I wouldn’t even dream of bothering them with such stuff. Monique is…well, Monique is dressing rather interesting to go meet men at the Waffle House and those kinds of places, in Gary, Indiana at that, so I’m sure her prospects will be opening up soon. Then Tamar is… well, we just gon’ have to make sure we pray for Tamar, okay? Them girls are gonna be so mad when they hear that their sister might be getting married.
“Breon, young man, I don’t think you know just what you may have caused. It’s going to be going down at my house, especially when and if the wedding dress gets here. You know them two sisters of Trina are gonna want to plan what she wears…one is going to go too far with the gown and train part while the other one will want her sister to walk down the aisle in a wedding skirt. Oh, it’s gonna be fireworks over here. Maybe we can get our own reality TV show or somethin’ since people are always trying to turn on the television and see black people act up.”
“Yeah, I feel you on that,” Breon said, thankful that he got Miss Sandra’s blessing. He then took a deep breath, looking out at the snowy parking lot on the side of the Johnson & Pearl building, with the canal just on the other side of the street and the concrete jungle that is the southwestern part of Chicago rising up around him. “But I was also calling you to see if you would happen to know how I can go about getting in touch with Trina’s father,” Breon said. “If you don’t mind, that is.”
Breon heard Sandra’s loud groan come through the phone. It was very clear that she’d made no efforts to hide it. “If I don’t mind, huh?” Sandra asked.
Breon felt as if he’d made a mistake. He suddenly wished that he’d found some other way—any other way—to get in touch with Trina’s father. If bringing the man up hit that much of a sore spot with Sandra, he just would rather have gone about it a different way.
“Well, I’m not sure if I have his number to give you or not, Breon,” Sandra said, clearly sounding as if she was trying to come up with words to fill the empty space. “I don’t really talk to Trina’s father much since the divorce, you know.”
“Yeah, I figured,” Breon said. “I was just thinking that you might have his number so that I wouldn’t have to ask Trina. I know that she has it, but if I ask her for it, especially right before we go down to Gatlinburg for our anniversary, then she is gon’ know that something is up and I don’t want to tip her off. Plus, I know you closer to Trina and stuff now, but I want to make sure that I do this right. I think I should really speak with Mister Robert about marrying his daughter before I propose.”
Breon could hear Sandra sigh. “Yeah, I suppose,” she said. “That would be the right thing to do, and who am I to stand in the way of that. At least you’re trying to do the right thing to start, unlike so many of these young people I see in and out of my office every damn day of the week. Hold on a moment, Breon. I’ll look in my little address book and see if I come across that man’s number real quick or not. If I don’t, then I’ll have to call you back when I get a little time to actually look for it. I think it’s in this book, though, ‘cause I can’t think of too many places I would have put information like that.
Breon waited on the line until he could hear that Sandra had come back on her side. “You there?” she asked.
“Yes I am, Miss Sandra,” Breon said.
“Okay, and let me just say this before I give you this number about Trina’s father, okay?” Sandra said, taking command of the conversation. “I know you’re trying to do the right thing by calling and asking her father for permission to marry her and stuff, which is nice, even though I think the two of you might be a little too young to be doing this marriage thing. However, I know me saying that isn’t really going to stop anything. After all, I was young at one point too. Anyway, I say all this to say that if that man, for whatever reason, don’t give his approval or whatever you wanna call it, I don’t want you two to give two shits, as you kids say, I hear them at school, about it. Just take it for what it is and move on. I don’t know what Trina told you about what happened between me and my husband during the final years of our marriage, but I’m not in too much of a mood to go over it with you. Just promise me one thing?”
“What is that Miss Sandra?” Breon asked.
“Breon,” Sandra said, the frustration of her words coming through in her voice. “I’m not saying that you have to be a perfect husband or anything like that, and that you not gon’ make your mistakes. But all I ask is that you don’t do anything so damn malicious to your wife. Just don’t do malicious shit. There’s a difference between making a mistake and doing shit out of just being selfish and evil. I’m not going to tell you anything else about my ex-husband Robert ‘cause I want you to make up your own mind about him, okay?”
“Okay,” Breon said. “And I promise that I won’t hurt Trina. I really do love her and stuff and feel like this is what we should do.”
“Hmm, hmm,” Sandra said. “And you still working down at Johnson & Pearl, right?”
“Yeah, I am,” Breon answered. “I’m actually at work right now on my lunch break.”
“Well, good,” Sandra said. “Just make sure that you stay on track with that, okay, and none of that thug life bullshit that these young people are walking around talking about nowadays. It goes nowhere…really nowhere.”
As Breon brought the conversation to a close after getting Robert’s phone number, he couldn’t help but think about the situation that had crept up on him with Dante. With that thought in mind, he checked his surroundings in the parking lot. If Dante had slipped in on his cousin and whipped him until he gave up any piece of information, then Breon needed to be extra careful. He
needed to keep his eyes open in case Dante did something really bold like come by his job.
When Breon got off of the phone with Sandra, he stored Mr. Robert’s phone number into his phone. He took a moment to breathe and reflect on the response he’d gotten from Ms. Sandra. He then headed back into work where the next four hours were long and rather nerve wracking. Anytime the dock door was opened and the wind was rushing inside, Breon would look out and notice a car that he hadn’t seen in the parking lot the previous time the door had been opened. If he felt his phone vibrate, it was difficult for him to not stop what he was doing to see if there was anything new he needed to worry about. He also feared, at this point, that he’d check his phone and find out that Dante had put the video of Wayne out for the world to see. If he were to do something stupid like that, Breon was more than sure that he’d get with any and everybody he could find that didn’t like Dante and they’d go riding around, searching for him, like the KKK.
Eight p.m. came and it was time for Breon to clock out. With the night sky now dark, as it always darkened earlier in the winter, the buildings of the Chicago cityscape around Chinatown lit up. With the parking lot being darker, he felt a little more paranoid. He tried his best to look around and see if there was anything out of place. However, Johnson & Pearl’s location didn’t help, as the area was so densely populated, right outside of downtown, that it’d be easy for someone to sit back and watch someone from a distance and never be noticed.
Breon got out onto the street and began to head home when he decided that he’d be better off pulling off into some obscure location to call Trina’s father. At first, he’d thought about simply doing it when he pulled up at home. However, he knew that if Trina saw his SUV parked out front and he hadn’t come in yet, she would surely think that something was up.
Breon pulled into a Walgreens’ parking lot and parked at the back, close to where people pulled in off of the street to access the pharmacy drive-thru lane. Taking a few minutes to breathe, he went into his phone and called Mr. Robert. As the phone rang, he sort of wished that the man didn’t answer. He hadn’t been so nervous with Sandra because he had exposure to her and had been in her company. His exposure to Mr. Robert, however, was very much so hi and bye.
“Yeah, hello?” Robert answered. There was music playing in the background, almost as if the man had been caught off guard. There were also the sound of a woman in the background, but Breon couldn’t make out what she was saying.
“Hello, Mister Robert?” Breon said. “This is Breon, Trina’s boyfriend.”
“Oh shit,” Robert said, sounding as if he dropped the phone.
Breon was confused for a moment as it sounded like Robert was picking up the phone. He then could hear a chick, who sounded much younger, in the background. Robert then said something about “sucking” as he came back onto the line. “There you go, there you go,” he said, softly, clearly not realizing that he wasn’t talking as softly as he had thought. “You there, man?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m here,” Breon said. “Did I catch you at a bad time, Mister Robert? I can call you back if you need me to.”
“Naw, naw,” Robert said. He then chuckled. “You didn’t catch me at a bad time really. I was just layin’ back and relaxin’ here with my lady and stuff.”
“Oh, okay,” Breon said, unsure of where to go from there. “Well, Mister Robert, I know that we don’t know each other much and stuff, but I was callin’ to talk to you about something.”
“Yeah, well,” Robert said. “I know my daughter Trina probably makes me out to be a monster. And don’t even talk to my ex-wife about me. Alright, but it’s nice to talk to you. What is it that you wanna talk to me about?”
“Well,” Breon said, “I’d like to propose to Trina when we go out of town for our anniversary. So, I’m calling you to ask if that would be okay with you. I know I should be asking you to your face, but with all this snow, and the fact that I really don’t know where you live, I had to do it this way.”
“You good, you good,” Robert said. “And I can’t really say that I know a lot about you, Breon. I hear you a nice young man, but then again I don’t hear much and I really only hear the watered down, or spiced up, version from my daughter Tamar. I don’t know if you know Tamar, but you gotta be careful with what she says.”
Breon tried to hold back a snicker, starting to wonder if Trina’s father was the one with the most sense out of all of them.
“You really love my daughter, man?” Robert asked, sounding very serious.
Breon said that he did.
“So, what makes you wanna get married at such a young age?” Robert asked. “I mean, a lot of these young niggas out here don’t even know what it means to settle down. You the same age as my daughter, ain’t you? I know that we met a couple times when she’d come over to my side of the family.”
“Yeah, we did,” Breon said. “And yeah, we the same age.”
“Well, man, I can hear it in your voice that you really love my daughter,” Robert said. “I still want to meet you and really talk to you and stuff, but I don’t feel like I can really stand in the way of what you try’na do and stuff.” Robert then asked Breon if he had any children, a question to which Breon proudly responded, “No.” Robert then asked Breon if he used to run the streets and stuff and what he did for a living.
Here, Breon decided to be honest. He told Trina’s father about some of the stuff that he used to do in the streets and how he’d cut all of that out because it led nowhere. Robert applauded him for making such a choice, saying that it was good sign. Shortly before the conversation ended, Robert grabbed Breon’s attention one last time. “Just let me say this, though, real quick, if I could,” he said. “I can tell you love my daughter and stuff, but back before I met my ex-wife, I was involved in that shit too. Of course, Chicago was a different place then, but we was doin’ shit up in Milwaukee and Madison and down in Indianapolis and even went to Louisville a couple times back in the eighties. I just want you to know that sometimes you may finally get out of that shit and it just might come up, sneak up on you and try to pull you back in and stuff.”
“Yeah,” Breon said, watching the random strangers walk in and out of the Walgreens’ entrance. “I know what you mean.” Dante popped into his mind—a person who was truly someone he’d long put past him and had moved on from.
“Well, yeah, but if my daughter gets hurt in any way because of some shit you done did, just know that I can get down to Chicago real quick if I need to,” Robert said. “I don’t play when it comes to my three daughters, okay? I know they can be a handful, but I ain’t with lettin’ no nigga bring that bullshit from the streets to them and put they life in danger. I see Chicago on the news every fuckin’ day for some ole crazy shit and I just can’t help but to shake my head and worry. Nigga, Breon, you better promise me that none of that stuff from your past come up and affect my daughter if I walk her down the aisle and hand her over to you.”
Breon bit his bottom lip in hesitation. “I promise it won’t,” he said. Right then, at that very moment, he knew that whatever he tried to do to get back at Dante would have to be calculated and done right. He was going to work this Nikki situation the best he could, now knowing that he needed to keep her around, even if he only justified doing so by saying that his reason was to keep Trina happy. With the help of Nikki, Breon planned, all of what was going on with Dante would never have to affect her.
When Breon got off of the phone with Robert, the two men had promised one another that they’d get together the next time Robert was down in Chicago. They each genuinely wanted to get to know the other. Breon felt good, and confident, about talking with both of Trina’s parents. He was now motivated to keep on being the best man he could for her, and he was going to start by making sure that this trip to Gatlinburg was just right. As he drove down the road, he thought about how they would look up attractions up in the mountains that the two of them would like to go to together.
&
nbsp; Breon’s phone began to ring when he’d gotten halfway back to his apartment complex. When he pulled his phone out of his pocket and saw that it was Ray calling him, he answered as quickly as he possibly could. Ray was generally the kind of guy to text rather than call. The very fact that he was calling spoke volumes to Breon even before he’d heard any words.
“Yeah, wassup?” Breon answered.
“Nigga, can you talk right now or what?” Ray asked. “I got some shit I wanna tell you and shit, but you can’t be lettin’ people hear this shit ‘cause I ain’t even supposed to know this shit.”
“Yeah, man,” Breon said, keeping his eyes on the road. “I’m actually driving down the street right now, headed home to Trina and shit. Just got done makin’ a couple phone calls. Wassup and shit? What you talkin’ bout you ain’t supposed to know?”
“Okay, coo,” Ray said. “Nigga, I just talked to a cousin of mine that I been meanin’ to tell you about today but I knew that your ass would be at work or whatever. She work downtown in the Cook County Correctional Facility.”
“Yeah, and?” Breon asked. “What she say she know or whatever?”
“I thought about how Kiwi was sayin’ that Dante be disappearin’ and shit because he be in and out of jail,” Ray said. “So, I was like oh snap. I forgot about my cousin Kenydria who work downtown in processing. I got Kiwi to text me Dante last name to I could text her to ask her if she would look this nigga up.”
“Why we need to know his record and shit?” Breon asked. “I mean, what the fuck is that gonna do for us? It ain’t like we no prosecutor or no shit like that.”
“Naw, nigga,” Ray said. “See, you not gettin’ the bigger picture. Some of these dudes and shit gotta go to certain places and shit and they get checked up on. I don’t know what kinda shit this nigga Dante done did, but I got my cousin to tell me the address that he got on file for where he stayin’.”
“The address?” Breon asked, feeling a little excitement. “Runnin’ up in that nigga’s house after what he did to my cousin would be better than sendin’ this thot ass hoe that I got into a place and hopin’ that she could get some niggas talkin’.”
Wrath of a Side Chick 2: A Chicago Hood Drama (Side Chick's Wrath) Page 11
