Family Business

by Vanessa Miller

  He wanted Coach to take his money back. But if he wasn’t doing that, the next best thing was to bring more customers into the fold. Demetrius smiled. His cut from these fights was going to be huge. He was putting in the hours and it was paying off. “Okay, give me his address and I’ll head right there.”

  When he got back in the car, he told Vivian, “I got to make a run.”

  “Are you serious? I’m hungry, Demetrius. This isn’t right. You asked me out and it’s been nothing but one big hassle all night long.”

  “Alright girl, calm down. There’s a McDonald’s on the way.”

  She didn’t respond to that until Demetrius actually pulled into a McDonald’s and ordered two double cheese burger meals. “This is not for real. Why are you treating me like this?” Vivian screamed at him.

  “You said you were hungry. I’ve got business to take care of and since you can’t wait, I pulled in here to get something quick. Now what do you want to drink?”

  Rolling her eyes she said, “Nothing, just take me back to my car.”

  He ordered iced tea with both meals, picked up their food at the to-go window and then kept driving.

  “I asked you to take me back to my car.”

  “I will, Vivian. I just need to make a quick stop. This is about business. So, if you want to be with me, you’ve got to understand that business comes first.” He put the bag in her lap and said, “Just eat your food and give me a minute.”

  In a huff, she turned her face toward the window and crossed her arms around her chest.

  The night was not turning out the way Demetrius had imagined at all. He thought he’d feel better about things if he started dating again. But all these women were high maintenance and more trouble than he had time for. He pulled up to Danny Green’s house and cut off the car. “I’ll be right back. So, just hold tight, okay?”

  “I don’t have a choice now do I?” Vivian said as she cut her eyes at Demetrius and then grabbed the McDonald’s bag.

  His dates normally enjoyed spending time with him. Vivian, however, wasn’t enjoying herself at all. Demetrius wished he could feel bad about that. But when Danny Green handed him twenty G’s, all guilt went out the door. He would take her to that soul food restaurant up Gettysburg, and let her order a piece of pie or something.

  ~~~~

  Angel didn’t understand why she was crying so much. She just knew that she had become so angry that she could barely see straight. She and Demetrius had been getting along so well, that Angel had begun to wonder if he was the guy for her. She had been trying to get her nerve up all week to ask how he felt about her. But she didn’t have to ask now.

  If bringing that woman home didn’t show her just what he thought, then hearing him tell Vivian that she was nothing more than a stripper certainly did. “We’re getting out of here, Mar-Mar.”

  Her son was stretched out on the bed sleep, but she kept talking to him anyway. DeMarcus was all she had in this world; he would never let her down. And she was so tired of being let down by men that she thought she could trust. Her father had been her world and Angel wanted nothing more than to follow in his footsteps, until the day the good reverend got caught cheating on her mother.

  After leaving home to get away from all the drama, Angel ran into Frankie, another man she thought she could trust. But he beat her, made her work at his strip club, and was about to pimp her out until Demetrius showed up.

  Angel plopped down against the wall, put her head on her knees and balled her eyes out. Demetrius came off as if he was that guy. The one that she could finally trust. But he was no better than her father or Frankie. How could he treat her like that? Angel didn’t know what to do. She was yet again stuck. She was once again dealing with a man who had no intentions of doing the right thing.

  Just as she was about to lose all hope and wave the white flag, she heard a still small voice say, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations’.

  Her father had read that passage in the Bible to her on numerous occasions. Angel even remembered that the scripture that had somehow been whispered in her ear was in the book of Jeremiah. And there was another part to that scripture that her father used to read to her, but she couldn’t remember the rest of it for the life of her.

  Demetrius kept a Bible in the top drawer of his dresser. He and his little girlfriend had left the house, because they were afraid that she might have put something in the food... Good. She was glad they didn’t want to eat her food.

  Angel got off the floor, wiped the tears from her face and went into Demetrius’ room to borrow his Bible. She sat on his bed and turned the pages until she reached the first Chapter of Jeremiah. And there it was. After the Lord told Jeremiah that he knew him before he was formed and that he was ordained to be a prophet. Then came the answer from Jeremiah, and it had always been the way she had felt herself...

  Then said, I: Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” But the Lord said to me: “Do not say, I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.

  She had asked her father what the passage meant, and he’d told her that God had something special for her. As Angel put the Bible back in Demetrius’ dresser, she was convinced of one thing. She wasn’t meant to be here. She was supposed to be doing something special for the Lord. But she had allowed her father’s sins to stop her from fulfilling all that God had created her to do.

  Her mother was probably worried sick about her. She had only tried to reach out to her mother one time since she’d been gone. By that time her telephone had been disconnected. Life had been miserable in Winston-Salem. Angel had never wanted to return. But the more she thought about the predicament she was in, the more she thought that she just might need her mother.

  Maybe if she went home, she could finally figure out why she had been born in the first place. If God had her on His mind before she was even born, then she had to be meant for something much more than what she had become. Right?

  She went back to her room and started packing. Angel had about a hundred bucks to her name. If it wasn’t enough to get a one way ticket home, she would beg for spare change until she had enough. She called a cab to take her to the Greyhound bus station, and then finished packing. She and DeMarcus waited in the living room for the cab to arrive.

  This room had come to mean so much to Angel in the time that she’d spent at Demetrius’ home, because this had become their gathering place. After eating dinner, Demetrius would help her with the dishes, because he didn’t like for her to be stuck in the kitchen while he and DeMarcus sat watching TV. Then the three of them would retire to the living room for an evening of baseball or whatever TV show happened to be on that night.

  She thought their friendship was developing into something more... much more than either of them could have imagined. But with the way Demetrius treated her today, like she was nothing more than the hired help, here to fix meals so he could entertain guests, Angel realized she had only been fooling herself. “What’s taking that cab so long?” Angel wiped fresh tears from her face and got up to go look out the window. But before she made it to the window, the doorbell rang.

  Without thinking she swung open the door, getting ready to ask the driver to help with her bags so she could get DeMarcus. But the cab driver wasn’t on the opposite side of the door looking back at her. It was Mo.

  He rubbed his hands together as he said, “Demetrius told me about the lasagna you cooked yesterday. Said it was the best in town.”

  Angel waved him into the house. “The lasagna’s in the fridge. Help yourself.”

  “Where’s Demetrius?”

  “Out.”

  “But he told me to come over here for dinner,” Mo Complained.

  “He likes telling people to show up over here, whether he’s home or not.” Angel threw herself back on the sofa and sighed.

  “What’s a
ll this?” Mo pointed to the bags.

  “Nothing. Just my stuff. I’m waiting on a cab.”

  “Oh, okay.” Mo stepped into the kitchen and put in a 911 call to Demetrius’ beeper.

  The house phone rang in less than a minute. When Mo picked up, Demetrius said, “You’re calling from my house, is everything okay with Angel? DeMarcus isn’t hurt is he?”

  “Angel is packed and waiting on a cab, bro. What you do to this girl, her eyes are all puffy from crying?”

  “Mo man, don’t let her get in that cab. I’m on my way back.”

  He stepped back into the living room and asked Angel. “Can you help me heat this lasagna up? I don’t know nothing about the kitchen.”

  Angel gave him a skeptical look. “Who was that on the phone?”

  “Demetrius. He said he needs to talk to you before you leave.”

  “He can shove it. I don’t have anything else to say to him.”

  “Where you plan on going? I thought you didn’t have no place to stay.”

  “I don’t have any place here, but I’m going back home to my mom’s place. I sure don’t want to be where I’m not wanted. That’s a fact.” And even though it was the last thing Angel wanted to happen in that moment, another tear drifted down her face.

  “Whoa.” Mo, lifted his hands as he backed up, not sure what to do about the crying woman in front of him. “I don’t know what went on here tonight, but Demetrius ain’t never said that he didn’t want you here.”

  “Whatever,” Angel said as the doorbell rang. “Can you help me with my bags?”

  “Yeah, yeah. You sit there and get little man ready. “I’ll handle this.” He grabbed her bags and opened the front door.

  “Did you call for a cab?” the driver asked.

  Mo closed the door behind him and followed the driver to the car. The driver opened his trunk so Mo could put the bags inside. But instead of doing that, Mo took two twenties off his stack and handed them to the driver. “Take that for your trouble, my man. I changed my mind about leaving.”

  “You don’t want the ride?” the cabbie looked puzzled.

  “No, so just go. Leave right now,” Mo urged the man and then headed back to the house as the cabbie got into his car and backed out of the driveway.

  Angel opened the door. She had DeMarcus on her hip and his car seat in her hand. The driver was backing out of the driveway. He sped off as she yelled. “Wait! Where are you going?”

  Mo walked over to her and admitted, “I told him to leave.”

  “Why’d you do that? I need to get out of here.” It was hard enough to make the decision to go back home and deal with all of the disappointments there. Now Mo had sent the cab away and she would have to convince herself to stay the course.

  “Look, I’m sorry for interfering, but you and Demetrius belong together.”

  “He has a girlfriend, Mo. Demetrius doesn’t want me and I just want to go back home.” At that moment, Demetrius pulled into the driveway and jumped out of his car.

  Vivian got out also. She was yelling at Demetrius, “As long as you stay black, don’t you never call me again. Do you hear me, Demetrius? Lose my number.” She strutted over to her car and swung open the door.

  Angel threw her hands up, went back into the house and slammed the door.

  “Good looking out, Man.” Demetrius took the bag from Mo as he patted him on the back.

  “She’s hurt, man. You need to go handle that.”

  Vivian rolled her window down and kept on yelling at him. “To think that you’d rather have a stripper than somebody like me. That just goes to show that you don’t have good sense... wouldn’t nobody give you the time of day if you weren’t Don Shepherd’s boy.”

  Trying to ignore Vivian he told Mo. “Coach Johnson’s friend just gave me a twenty thousand dollar bet. Since Coach talked to you first, I figure it’s only right that you and I split the earnings from both those bets.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Mo said just as Vivian threw a shoe at Demetrius’ head. “You want me to handle that?”

  Demetrius ducked and said, “Please get that girl off my property.”

  Vivian threw the other shoe, but Mo caught it as Demetrius opened the door and went inside. He put her bags on the floor and then walked towards her. “What are you doing? Where you trying to go?”

  Tears were rolling down Angel’s face as she said, “I need to go home. My parents have never even seen my son.”

  He kept walking until he was standing right in front of her. “I don’t want to stop you from seeing your parents. But why you got to leave like this?”

  “Why do you care? I’m nothing but a stripper, remember?”

  “I didn’t say you were nothing but a stripper. I just said that you used to be a stripper, that’s all.”

  Angel turned her back to him. “How could you tell that girl something like that? What I used to do is none of your girlfriend’s business.”

  “You’re right, and I was wrong for that.”

  Angel shook her head as she walked back to her bedroom and closed the door.

  Demetrius followed, he tried the door but it was locked. “Open up Angel. We need to talk about this.” She didn’t respond, so he said, “Vivian isn’t my girlfriend, okay. I used to hang out with her, but I haven’t seen her since you moved in.”

  “Then why’d you invite her to dinner?” She screamed at him from behind the door.

  “I ran into her at the club last night and... and,” He didn’t know what to do other than tell it like it is. “I need to get you off my mind, okay. You were acting like you wanted nothing from me, so I thought I should start seeing someone so I wouldn’t try to push up on you.”

  She opened the door and peaked her head out. “You wanted to get with me?”

  “That’s all I’ve been thinking about, girl. But you all like ‘don’t-touch-me’. So, I thought I should move on.”

  And with that admission from Demetrius, all thoughts of moving on and going home to discover what God had her on earth to do, completely left her mind. Demetrius wanted her around, and that was all that mattered.

  Seven

  On December the third, the fight between Joe Frazier and hulking Floyd “Jumbo” Cummings got under way. The fight took place in Chicago, Illinois and the gang was in attendance. Demetrius, Joe-Joe and Stan were seated in the third row, down on the floor like celebrities. His dad had said he would meet them there. Demetrius assumed that Al was late getting in town and Don was waiting on him.

  Joe-Joe nudged him and Demetrius turned to see his father strutting down the middle aisle with a long haired, dark skinned beauty on his arm. Don and the woman both had on floor length fur coats; his father’s was black with hints of grey around the collar. The coat the woman wore was snow white, contrasting beautifully with her skin. His daddy was showing off tonight.

  Demetrius was slightly annoyed by this because he had asked for an extra ticket so that he could bring Angel to the fight. But he’d been told that this was a business trip, no distractions allowed. Angel had given him the cold shoulder after he told her he would be spending the weekend in Chicago. Sometimes he didn’t understand that girl at all, but that didn’t stop him from longing to be near her.

  Don and his lady sat in the second row directly in front of Demetrius. He leaned over and asked his daddy, “Where’s Al, I thought he was coming to the fight?”

  “He’s holding things down at home. We’ll see him when we get back.”

  Demetrius leaned back in his seat wondering who this woman was and why Al suddenly decided not to attend the fight. But he didn’t have much time to dwell on it because the bell rang. Smokin’ Joe Frazier and Floyd “Jumbo” Cummings entered the ring. This was the first time anyone had seen Joe Frazier in the ring since George Foreman pummeled him over five years ago. But this fight was going to be Joe’s coming out party. Once he destroyed this opponent, he wasn’t going to stop until he got his shot at the WBA heavyweight champion, Mike
Weaver.

  Those were Joe’s plans. But Floyd “Jumbo” Cummings was a body-building bruiser, who’d taken up boxing in prison after being convicted of murder. And he wasn’t about to give any mercy to the aging Frazier, who’s reactions and timing were glaringly off.

  In the opening round Frazier stepped into punch after punch. It wasn’t hard for the audience to see and believe that Frazier’s glory days were long gone. No one wanted to see the aging fighter go down like this... no one, except Don Shepherd, who had millions riding on Frazier’s demise. He glanced back at his boys and smiled.

  Demetrius leaned forward to say something to his dad, but that’s when he noticed that Don had a hand on the woman’s thigh. He nudged Joe-Joe and asked, “Who’s the new squeeze?”

  Joe-Joe smirked. He leaned closer to Demetrius and whispered in his ear. “That’s Lisa Wilson. Leo’s wife.”

  Demetrius nearly fell out of his chair. His father had said that splitting the proceeds from these fights with Leo would benefit the man’s family. But Demetrius was pretty sure that Leo wouldn’t think that sleeping with his wife was any sort of benefit that he signed up for. His dad was a snake and Demetrius again longed for the day that he was on his own and doing things his way.

  As the second round began, Demetrius turned his attention back to the ring. Frazier’s left hook landed just right and the crowd went wild. Smokin’ Joe Frazier was back in business. Demetrius leaned back in his seat and enjoyed the show. Maybe this would be the night that Don Shepherd got what was coming to him. Because Joe was showing some brilliance throughout the rounds. His best punch of the night came in the fifth round, which sparked hope in the audience yet again. But by the ninth round Cummings appeared to be in control.

  Frazier’s blood soaked mouth hung open as Cummings kept drilling on him. Joe was in trouble, and even he knew it as he almost hit the canvas in the last round. But managed to hang in there to get a draw decision after the tenth round.

  Demetrius expected to see nothing but pure joy on his father’s face. But the man appeared troubled. The fight was a draw, so nobody wins and they wouldn’t have to shell out any money. But then Demetrius remembered that two men had bet on a draw. One of them was his customer, Danny Green who had been introduced to him by Mr. Johnson. The old man had twenty thousand to burn. So, he put it all on the Frazier fight... saying that he knew for a fact that Smokin’ Joe had enough left in him to go the distance, but not enough to win. And as long as he was left standing by the end of the fight, the judges would call it a draw.