“What the hell you talkin’ about?”
“This shit you got goin’ on with Fe-Fe. Yo, you ain’t on that shit, is you?”
“Maaaaannn, hell naw. Fe-Fe is clean, dawg. Have you seen her lately? She lookin’ good as hell, her gold tooth shinin’. Don’t sleep on Fe. Fuck what dem niggas in the street sayin’.”
“A’ight, I’ll call you later. We can meet up about five or six this evening.”
* * *
Tom-Tom sat in his beat-up and rusted trailer in Buck Adams trailer park, laid out on his couch smoking a Newport, playing with his dick and watching TV. Nothing was going right. He had no money, his food was getting low, and Anshon had a price on his head.
He put his dick back in his pants, sat up, and started snorting a line of coke. Slowly but surely, Tom-Tom was falling off. He either had to come out of hiding or die.
He couldn’t believe what was happening to him. How did the little boy that he helped raise become the one to have a price on his head? After all, Tom-Tom was the one who taught Tammy the game, and she passed it on to Anshon.
“I made you, ma’fucker!” Tom-Tom yelled out as his high started to take effect.
“I’m the fuckin’ star!” Tom started thinking about Tammy. “Cripple bitch!” He took his index finger, held his right nostril closed, and snorted a line of coke with the open one. Thoughts of Tammy raced through his mind.
After Tom-Tom left Tammy, she had called him and cried for a month, begging him to come back. But he couldn’t. How could he when she had risen to the top of the game and refused to move over?
“Together?” he said to her the day he got out of prison. “Bitch, is you crazy?”
“But how can I give all this up?” she cried. “I’ve worked too hard. Look, baby, I got two female drivers to run the D.C. line, and all you basically have to do is chill and watch the dough roll in.”
“Naw, you think I’ma let a bitch lead me around in the game? You done lost your mind? I’m the one that put you on. Know what? Fuck it and fuck you!” It was not that he didn’t love Tammy, but his heart couldn’t take the way she ran the game without him. A quiet, red-head, freckle-faced, two-dollar waitress was slangin’ dem thangs better than he could’ve ever imagined, and to make matters worse, everybody that she was sellin’ to wanted to keep it that way.
That’s when Tom-Tom hooked up with Teck and Wallo. He’d heard through the streets that they were stick-up kids, the Dirty-Dirty’s version of the old DMX, robbin’ niggas and bragging about it. He hooked up with them and came up with a plan: snatch Tammy’s cash and force her to start over. Then he would regain the hustle and the bitch, Tammy, would fall back into her place.
But he never imagined that the robbery would go bust and Tammy would be shot in Redwood Village parking lot. So, the combination of Tom-Tom, Teck, and Wallo stayed on the low, until the night in the pool hall. That was supposed to be their coming out party. They just never expected that Doughnut was such a crazy motherfucker.
“I swear to God, I’ma kill that bitch!” Tom-Tom said, laying his head back and watching the ceiling. “I’ma kill her!”
Chapter 5
An hour later, Tom-Tom was coming down from his high. He looked out the window and then it clicked. He knew just what to do to teach Tammy a lesson.
He walked outside to the shed in his backyard and took out three bottles of lighter fluid along with a box of matches. “I’ma teach this bitch not to ever fuck with me!”
He jumped in his car and drove over to Tammy’s house. Once he got there, he remembered that the gate was controlled by a numeric code, but Tom-Tom was sure that Tammy hadn’t changed, so he punched in their daughter’s birthdate. The gate popped open.
He drove up close to the house and pulled his car around back. He took the lighter fluid and started to splash it around the foundation of the house.
“This bitch thinks that she runnin’ shit! I’ll fix her. Sleep well, ya mute-legged bitch!” Tom-Tom sneered, convinced that Tammy was in the house. “Sleep all night and burn in hell.”
By the time Tom-Tom was done, he’d emptied three bottles of lighter fluid. Then he stood back, pulled a Newport from behind his ear, and lit it. He took a drag and flicked it onto the grass. The fire blazed instantly, giving Tom-Tom little time to take off.
* * *
Anshon and Monica lay across the floor after two hours of hard fuckin’ when his cell phone rang.
“I hope your bitch-ass sister’s dope-dealin’ house burns to the ground, and I hope she sleeps well in it!” a sinister voice said.
Anshon repeated those threatening words in his head. The number appeared on his caller ID as UNKNOWN, and he kept trying to put it all together.
“Oh, shit! Monica!” Anshon said. “My sister’s house! I gotta go check on her house.”
Monica was in a panic watching Anshon throw his clothes on. “What’s wrong, baby?”
“Nothing,” he said, zipping his jeans. “I gotta go check on my sister’s house.”
Anshon jumped in his car and called Teck. He didn’t get an answer. Then he called Wallo.
“What up, Anshon?” Wallo yawned. He’d been out runnin’ trains all night.
“Nigga, get dressed and meet me outside. I think that fuckin’ Tom-Tom has done something to my sister’s house.”
Wallo rolled his eyes in his head. He prayed that Tom-Tom wasn’t turning out to be like Doughnut’s crazy ass. “A’ight.” Wallo took a deep breath. “Come through.”
Anshon picked up Wallo and headed up to Tammy’s. When he got there, all he could see were blazes of fire and smoke. The firemen wouldn’t let anyone get close.
“Goddamn!” Anshon threw a punch in the air. “My sister could’ve been in that bitch!” He turned to Wallo. “I know it was that bitch-ass faggot, Tom-Tom!”
“Let’s go kick his ass!” Wallo said, pissed off that Tom-Tom would do some dumb shit like this. “Let’s go get Teck first.”
“Where he at?” Anshon asked, jumping back in his car.
“Where else? Fe-Fe’s.”
Anshon and Wallo practically flew to Fe-Fe’s. They told Teck the story, and he rolled out with them.
As the screen door was still swinging against the frame from Teck leaving, Fe-Fe’s heart started to race as she thought about what they might do to Tom-Tom. She prayed that they all came back home alive.
* * *
Tom-Tom was in his kitchen, paranoid from the coke he had snorted. He kept looking out the window and thinking that the police were coming to arrest him.
“This is some fuckin’ bullshit!” he muttered to himself, heading back into the living room. He stopped in his tracks, heading back to peek out the kitchen window. He hoped that Tammy’s death would make the news.
“See you in hell, bitch!” He laughed, walking back into the living room. He flopped down on his sofa and kicked his feet up on the armrest and closed his eyes.
He was dozing off when he heard a car pull up outside. His heart skipped a beat as Anshon, Teck, and Wallo shot up his door. He jumped from the couch and took cover.
“What the fuck!”
Wallo walked over to Tom-Tom and threw him on the sofa. “Stupid ass!”
Tom-Tom tussled with Wallo.
“Yo,” Tom-Tom stuttered. “I–I didn’t do nothin’.”
Anshon and Teck broke them apart. Tom-Tom wasn’t a small dude, and one on one he would have fucked Wallo up. But Tom-Tom knew he was about to get jumped if he overtook Wallo, so instead Tom-Tom tried to make a break for his .38.
Teck punched him in the jaw as Anshon came from behind and put a chokehold on him.
“Calm down, nigga!” Anshon hissed in his ear.
Tom-Tom continued to struggle with Anshon as Teck and Wallo started raining blows to his face. Anshon wrapped his leg around one of Tom-Tom’s and tripped him up. When he was on the floor gasping for air, Anshon pointed the 9 mm to his head.
Tom-Tom rolled to his back as Wallo kicked him in t
he ribs. Blood ran freely from Tom-Tom’s busted lip. As Teck went to pick up Tom-Tom and throw him across the room, he peeked four bottles of lighter fluid and matches.
“Bingo!” Teck said, pointing to the evidence.
“Man, I ain’t—” Tom-Tom tried to speak but was cut off by Wallo’s left foot to the side of his head.
“Shut up, fuckin’ snitch-ass lame!” Wallo yelled.
“Strip!” Anshon said, kicking Tom-Tom in the leg. “Get naked, punk!”
“Fuck you!” Tom-Tom shot back. “You ain’t no killer!”
Anshon smiled then nodded at Teck, who started to put some duct tape around Tom-Tom’s wrists and ankles.
Tom-Tom started to struggle but ceased when Wallo pulled out a box cutter and put the blade to his throat. Once his ankles were tightly taped and the same for his hands behind his back, Wallo then used the box cutter to cut his clothes off.
“Don’t cut the lame!” Teck said as Wallo nicked Tom-Tom for the third time.
Tom-Tom was scared now. He was butt-ass naked and couldn’t do shit.
“Hold the fuck still!” Anshon said to Tom-Tom as Teck pulled out a Magic Marker and wrote DEAD NIGGA on Tom-Tom’s forehead.
He started to cry and mumble. Wallo planted a boot in his stomach then kicked him in the head.
“Now you gonna know what Cain felt like. Pick his bitch ass up!”
Tom-Tom pleaded with Anshon. “Yo, man, chill. I’ll leave town. I’ll do whatever, man. . . . Yo, Anshon!” he shouted.
Anshon ignored him.
“Man, please!” Tom-Tom shouted, falling to his knees. Snot ran from his nose as he started to crumble. “Please, man. I didn’t mean to do it.” He sobbed.
“Look, I raised you, Anshon. I taught Tammy the game. She stole my shit. Teck, Wallo, tell ’im. Tell ’im.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Wallo shouted.
Teck answered by kicking him in the mouth.
“I got something for your ass!” Anshon said, running back to his car. He remembered that Monica had left her overnight bag in his car.
He went in the bag and pulled out a big electric curling iron. When Anshon returned back to the house, Tom-Tom snickered. He thought Anshon was going to come back with a gun and kill him, but he never expected a curling iron.
Anshon walked in and picked up the lighter fluid, then he walked over to Tom-Tom, who Wallo now had in a chokehold. He took the lighter fluid, poured the whole bottle on top of the curler, and shoved it up Tom-Tom’s ass.
Tom-Tom started to scream as Anshon started pushing the curler further into his asshole. Teck grabbed an extension cord from the floor, swung it in front of Tom-Tom’s face like a pocketwatch, and threw it to Wallo, who plugged the iron into the socket. Tom-Tom shitted on himself.
The curling iron was making snap, crackle, and pop noises up Tom-Tom’s ass. He dropped his head, slob sliding out the side of his mouth, and he fainted—never to wake up again.
“Die slow, ma’fucker!” Anshon said as he, Teck, and Wallo headed out the door. “And that’s on the strength of my sister!”
* * *
“Boy, what happened to you?” Fe-Fe said, looking at Teck’s ripped and blood-splattered jacket. Too afraid to know what had really happened, she retracted her question. “Ain’t no need in tellin’ me.”
“No matter what happens,” Teck said to Fe-Fe, flopping down on the bed next to her, “always know that I really care for you.”
“Boy,” Fe-Fe said, feeling the lump rising in her throat, “be quiet.”
“Hey, Fe,” Teck said after a few minutes of silence. “I got something for you.” He went in the bedroom and came back out. “Here.” He handed her a diamond bracelet.
“Oh my Lord! Teck,” Fe-Fe squealed. “Jesus!” She started hugging him tight. “What happened to the box, baby?”
“I . . . I don’t know,” Teck stuttered. “Just accept the gift, Fe. Damn.”
“I’ll take this gift if you can take mine.”
“What?” Teck smiled, watching Fe-Fe unbuckle his pants.
“This,” she said as she started giving him head.
“Damn,” Teck mumbled. “I should’ve given you this bracelet a long time ago.”
Chapter 6
Anshon was glad the sun was out. He was at a stoplight on New Bern Avenue when he dropped the top with Slick Rick’s “Hey Young World” massaging the four 12s in the trunk. He called Monica, hoping that she was up. She picked up on the second ring.
“What up, shawtie? Let me come scoop you.”
“Anshon, you heard what happened to Tom-Tom?” she asked.
From Monica’s tone, he didn’t know if she was asking him or telling him. “Is that a question?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Oh. Naw,” he said. “I ain’t heard nothin’.”
“He was electrocuted. His insides were outside of his body by the time the police found him. You know anything about that?”
“Come on now, shawtie. What I look like? I can’t say that I feel bad about the nigga being dead . . . I mean, my sister may feel some kinda way, but hell, we all gotta die sometime.”
“Whatever, Anshon.”
“Yo, I’m tryin’ to see you. Wassup?”
She sucked her teeth and blushed at the same time. “Come on, boy.”
Anshon smiled. “Fe-Fe and Teck are having a small card party later on, so I hope you know how to put your Spades game down.”
* * *
“My book!” Fe-Fe yelled at Teck, grinning.
Teck did a double take. “Baby,” he said, not wanting to embarrass her in front of Monica and Anshon. “Where’s your other cap at?” He pointed to her mouth.
“I wanted to surprise you. I got implants, one porcelain and one gold.”
“Let me see,” Monica said to Fe-Fe. “You look good, girl!”
“Thank you,” Fe-Fe said, covering her mouth. As she did that, her present from Teck slid down her arm.
“Wow, Fe-Fe!” Monica screamed. Anshon and Teck looked at her like she was crazy. “That bracelet is beautiful! Let me see.”
“Teck gave it to me.” Fe-Fe held her arm out.
Monica looked at the bracelet and her eyes lit up. “This is mine! Where did you get this from, Teck?”
“This ain’t yours,” Fe-Fe said, snatching her arm back. “My man gave me this.”
“That is mine!” Monica said. “My name is engraved on the lock. Look at it closely. That’s my bracelet that I was jacked for that night in the club.”
Fe-Fe took off the bracelet and looked at the lobster claw lock, and it read Monica. Fe-Fe felt like a fool. She looked at Teck.
“I thought this was the jeweler’s inscription. I’m sorry, Monica. I thought maybe I had a name brand piece.”
“I can’t believe this shit,” Teck said, looking at Anshon, who had his face twisted. “I bought that shit from the pawn shop. I would’ve never known that it was stolen.” He took the bracelet out of Fe-Fe’s hands and gave it to Monica. “Here you go, baby girl. My fault.” He turned to Fe. “I’ll get you another one.”
Fe-Fe sat back down in her chair, embarrassed. This was one time that she wished she was still getting high.
“Girl, you hear what happened to Tom-Tom?” Monica said, trying to break the uncomfortable silence.
“Naw, what?” Fe-Fe mumbled, peeking at the bracelet that was now on Monica’s wrist.
“My homegirl, Gina,” Monica said, “called me this morning and told me that Tom-Tom’s next door neighbor found him electrocuted. The insides of his ass were on his living room floor.”
“What!” Fe-Fe screeched, looking at Teck. “Who done it?”
“I don’t know.” Teck frowned. “What the fuck is you, the law? Don’t be looking at me.”
Fe-Fe looked at Anshon. He simply turned his head. Fe-Fe sucked her teeth, grabbed the deck of cards, and reshuffled them.
“Anshon?” Monica said. “You seen my electric curling iron? I left it in your ca
r.”
Anshon spit his beer out. Teck looked at him and handed him a napkin. “What the hell kinda question is that?” he asked. “I don’t keep up with no damn curlers.”
“It ain’t that deep, Anshon. I just asked.”
“Well, naw,” he snapped. “I ain’t seen it.”
The card game was downhill from there. They finished the hand they were playing and then Anshon started yawning.
“I’m getting a little tired. We’ll get up with y’all tomorrow,” he said, looking at Monica.
Monica lifted her arms in the air and stretched. “Okay, baby.”
“Well, I’m glad y’all came by,” Fe-Fe said.
They all stood up from the table and walked toward the front door. Anshon and Teck walked outside to Anshon’s car, while the girls lagged behind.
“Fe-Fe,” Monica said, grabbing her hand. “I got something for you.” She handed her the bracelet.
“What you doing, Monica?” Fe-Fe was surprised and tried pushing the bracelet back into Monica’s hands. “This yours.”
“You can have it.” Monica smiled. “The diamonds ain’t real, and the gold is just ten karat. I don’t need it. You take it.”
Fe-Fe didn’t know what to say. She kissed Monica on the cheek. “Nobody never gave me nothing. Anything I ever had came ’cause I sucked dick real good or I stole it. So thank you. I really appreciate it, but it’s yours, and I don’t want it. Please take it back.”
Monica could tell that she was making Fe-Fe feel uncomfortable. “Okay, Fe-Fe, but the next time, I want you to take what I give you.”
“I will.”
Monica kissed Fe-Fe on the cheek, and she and Anshon left.
* * *
The next morning, Teck and Fe-Fe were bagging up coke when Fe-Fe asked, “You think Anshon killed Tom-Tom?”
Teck picked up two grams off the table and rolled them in the palm of his hand, making sure they were the same size. He placed them back on the table then carefully picked up a razor. Fe-Fe repeated her question.
“Yo, check this,” Teck snapped. “You see I’m tryin’ to handle this.” He pointed to the coke. “Just mind your business and handle this trap right here. This li’l spot is all we got to worry ’bout. I got a wrist fulla rubber bands, which equals mo’ money and mo’ problems, and that’s more than enough to have on your mind. Don’t worry about what happened to Tom-Tom.”
For the Strength of You Page 6
