by DhNAi Divine
It was mid light in Forest Kapsylek and strangely quiet. The only lady in the Palace to note it was Neimala. She was in meditation and accustomed to the noise that surrounded the land below their tree house, but without it she couldn't concentrate.
“Y'all hear that?” Neimala questions from her seated position the floor.
Meishanre turns around, leaning on the open window to peak at Neimala. “What?”
Neimala stares back at the girl, her eyes wide. “Nothin'.”
Meishanre frowns. “What the hell you talkin' 'bout then?”
“The Rainbow Fools—can't hear 'em.”
“So? Ain't that a good thing Nei? I was in the zone 'cause I couldn't hear they foolishness, but look at that.” Meishanre points at Neimala, “You won't shut up.”
Raishana was in the kitchen, leaning over on the counter. She enters their banter. “Shan you a asshole.”
The girl turns to her sister, “I'm just sayin'.”
“Nothin' at all,” Raishana replies to her. “How about you be quiet—'cause from what I see—when you open yo' mouth, nothin' good comes out.”
Neimala laughs and Raishana joins, Meishanre smacks her lips as she rolled her eyes. Then the girl returns her sight to the window behind her.
“Aye ladies!” I greet, hitting the ladies with my smooth stroll into the Palace.
Samita right behind smiled at the girls, moving briskly through the living room for her room to grab a blankie. I didn't waste no time to flop to the floor, waiting fa my girls to join me.
Once butts met floor and floor met butts, I asked, “I'm dyin' to know why this meeting was called.”
Meishan nods slowly, a smile creeping up, “We got a scoop from an insider.”
Rai adds, “An insider meaning Neimala.” We couldn't help it. We laughed at Meishanre.
“Whatever haters,” Meishan tells us. “Look—okay—its some old crusty, but highly valuable book residing in Bohrmys Borney.”
“And?” I said. “What that gotta do wit' me?”
Neimala answers, “You got an insider in Bohrmys. There's a store—small shop—attracts the strangies. If you know what I mean.” Neimala smiles, tussling her big pretty hair. “Drei should know about it. Bohrmys is too big for us to go on a search. We need you to get it out of Drei...without hinting on why we looking for it in the first place.”
“Alright,” I nod to the group, “I can do it.”
A few days pass without me kicking or even talking with my baby Drei. You know gotta keep 'em guessing. When we did reunite I brought him back to my favorite stream Auiji. This the closest I been to my house in days. He approved of the stream, throwing rocks in the water, even took a dip.
I was staring at the sky, thinking of the best way to ask Drei about this shop without giving too much away. When I looked at him, he turned to look at me. Wow. We so in sync. I was perched up on my favorite boulder.
He walked towards me, smiling. “This nice baby. You was holdin' back some goods.”
I giggle. “It ain't even like that. I brought you here before—just at night.”
He looks at the trees and to the sky, saying, “It was nothin' like this that day.”
“Bad day,” we both said, then laughed.
“Baby,” he said a hmm, I continued, “is there any creepy shops in Bohrmys I should know about?”
“A couple. The one I know best is Patricetma's place—west town. Hers is the best. Tawny Freaks. Patrice ain't from her—ain't even a Yay. She does well for herself though—definitely got fans.”
“Go there often?”
He collects some rocks, then looks up at me. “Often enough. Why you so curious about it?”
I shrug. “Just tryna get to know my baby's hometown a lil better is all. Maybe one day you can show me the place.”
The next day I took my FaiCita girls to Tawny Freaks. We don't know the west side of Bohrmys all that well, but what I can say is Tawny Freaks sticks out like a sore thumb over here. They highfaluting over on the west side. But Patrice may know what she doing. The girls go be mad at me.
While I was with Drei, he got the truth out of me. Don't judge! Have you seen that man's lips and hands? Them lips know well how to kiss and them hands know what to do with themselves during a good lip locking session. What was so messed up—the boys went right pass the shop the same day we came to check it out.
If I didn't know any better I would swear Drei set me up. Meishanre saw the boys and automatically on cue rolled hers and her frown did not drop when they walked in the door. The boys didn't take a breath, have a seat, stop at a pause before they told us off. Letting us know just how they felt about us not informing them on the real goodies in Tawny Freaks. Talking about they more entitled to Patrice's book of mysteries than us.
There was nothing else I could do except step back, standing next to Drei and laugh at our friends bickering. Samita was appalled at the audacity of Forcei interrupting our first meet with Patrice. Neimala over there trying to calm the youth crowd with chants. My girl Raishana standing alert, waiting for some shoving or just any moment where a line gets crossed. Meishanre let the boys know the truth, saying we don't trust y'all nagas.
The Forcei boys mirrored one of my girls in some way, except for Neimala. She really was one of a kind. When Patrice came out to help us, we made some weak agreement. But, hey, at least it ended our argument.
Peace y'all.
