Carl Weber's Kingpins

by Brandi Johnson

  “Well, not all pregnant people are like that. I gotta admit, I do get emotional over some of the smallest things, but seein’ a butterfly landin’ on top of a flower? Ummm no!”

  “Well, Lauren’s ass is sickening.”

  “Let me call you right back!” Ke’yoko quickly hung up the phone on Kailo and pretended like she was occupied with her tablet.

  “Who was that?” Ja’Rel walked into the living room and asked.

  “Why do you always ask me who I’m on the phone wit’?” Ke’yoko frowned.

  “I ask what I wanna ask when I’m the one payin’ the bill.” Ja’Rel frowned back.

  “You’re right. You can ask whatever you wanna ask, but I don’t have to answer you,” Ke’yoko said smartly.

  “You better be glad you pregnant! Just wait until after you have that baby. Every time you get fly, I’ma put my foot off in yo’ ass. Something I shoulda done a long time ago. You done really got outta hand!” Ja’Rel said.

  “Yeah, whatever,” Ke’yoko said, waving her husband off. “Where you ’bouta go?” Ke’yoko asked for no reason at all.

  “Don’t worry about it, I’m grown!” he snapped.

  “You get on my fuckin’ nerves! I was askin’ ’cause I was gon’ have you pick Aiko up some Popsicles from the store. It ain’t like I was checkin’ for you,” Ke’yoko snapped back.

  “Truth be told, you get on my fuckin’ nerves too and I ain’t goin’ near no store! Get yo’ lazy-ass up and go to the store yourself,” he said, grabbing his car keys.

  “One of these days I’m gon’ pack up and leave yo’ black-ass,” Ke’yoko warned.

  “And, what you want me to do about it?” Ja’Rel snapped angrily. He had been hearing the shit for years and was finally tired of hearing it. “When you leavin’? You need help packin’? I can give your miserable-ass a hand with that soon as I get back.”

  Out of all the things Ja’Rel had said and done to Ke’yoko, hearing him say those words hurt her more than anything. Yes, she had been threatening to leave him for years, but all the other times he’d assured her that he would never let her go because he loved her too much. At least when he said those words, whether he was lying or not, she could still cling to a small shred of hope that he had really loved her at one point. To have him finally respond differently was heartbreaking. Ke’yoko thought that after all the years she’d stuck by his side and all the bullshit he’d put her through she was still worth fighting for.

  Ke’yoko had tears in her eyes. She was so hurt.

  “Save them tears for ya new nigga,” Ja’Rel spat and headed out the door.

  All Ke’yoko could do was break down and cry after Ja’Rel slammed the door. This wasn’t an ordinary cry; this was an earthshaking cry. After getting it all out of her system, Ke’yoko pulled herself together and made a quick call before calling Kailo back.

  “Let me guess: Ja’Rel came into the room,” Kailo said, answering the phone.

  “Yep, you guessed right,” Ke’yoko said.

  “Your nose sounds clogged up. You didn’t sound like that before. Have you been crying?” Kailo asked, concerned.

  “Naw, I think it’s my allergies,” Ke’yoko lied, not wanting her brother to get all riled up.

  “Okay, sis, don’t make me fuck that nigga up. You know I already wanna do some damage to his bitch-ass!” Kailo said angrily.

  “We already are, remember?”

  “Do he be putting his hands on you?”

  “Naw, boy. He did threaten me before he left, though; but he never follow through wit’ it,” Ke’yoko admitted. She was no fool. Even if Ja’Rel was physically abusive to her, Kailo’s overprotective ass would be the last person she would tell.

  “What? That chump ain’t no fool. He know if he puts his hands on you he won’t live to talk about it.” Kailo grimaced and meant every word.

  “I ain’t thinkin’ about that nigga,” Ke’yoko said.

  “I mean, who that fool think he is, threatening you?” Kailo said, not letting it go.

  I shoulda just kept my mouth closed, Ke’yoko thought as Kailo went on and on.

  “I mean really, what’s his problem? My sister ain’t no punching bag. If he wanna punch somebody, tell the bastard to come punch on me,” Kailo fumed. “I’ll be there in a few days and let that bitch-made punk come out his face sideways if he want to. I’ma give him what he looking for! That bitch betta know I’m not soft by no means!”

  Ke’yoko had never heard her brother talk like that before, so she knew he had to be mad.

  “Aiko lost a tooth today,” Ke’yoko said, quickly changing the subject to something more positive.

  “Oh, wow, that’s cool. Now you know you gon’ have to put a least five dollars under his pillow tonight,” Kailo said, calming down some.

  “Five dollars, shiiiiit. We didn’t get five dollars when we lost our teeth.” Ke’yoko laughed.

  “Shit is different nowadays. Haven’t you heard of a thing called inflation, sis?” Kailo joked.

  Ke’yoko laughed. “Right.”

  “Okay, sis, I’m about to get off of here,” Kailo said.

  “Let me guess: Chad came in,” Ke’yoko said.

  “Yep, you guessed right.” Kailo laughed.

  “A’iiiight, knucklehead, I’ll talk to you later.” Ke’yoko hung up the phone and continued her house hunt.

  * * *

  Ja’Rel was on his way to Kassidy’s house to make sure she was all right. She had sent him a text telling him that she thought her water had broke. Ja’Rel was trying his best to get to his destination without breaking the speed limit; he didn’t need no extra heat brought his way right now. Just as Ja’Rel put his blinker on and busted a left on Chadbourne Road, police lights started flashing out of nowhere.

  “What the fuck?” he asked himself, not realizing they were even behind him.

  Ja’Rel looked down at his seat belt to make sure he had it on while slowing down and pulling over on the side of the road. “Now, I know I wasn’t speedin’. So I don’t know why they pullin’ me over,” Ja’Rel said aloud, while putting his car in park and turning the engine off. “I don’t got no warrants so I’m all good.”

  The officer took his time getting out of the cruiser, walked up to Ja’Rel’s car, and tapped on the window with the blunt end of his flashlight. Ja’Rel rolled the window down and put his hands on the steering wheel. The way these police were out here killing all these black men around the world like it was a sport, he wasn’t taking no chances.

  “License and registration,” the officer said.

  “I’m about to grab my wallet out of my back pocket and then get my registration out of my glove compartment,” Ja’Rel announced.

  “Move slow, ’cause my trigger finger is itchin’ and I’m lookin’ for a nigga to help me scratch it,” the officer looked Ja’Rel dead in the face and said without cracking a smile.

  Ja’Rel slowly reached his hand in his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. “What you pull me over for?” Ja’Rel asked while taking his license out and reaching over, grabbing his registration out of the glove compartment, and handing them to the officer.

  “I’m askin’ all the questions here! You don’t have a light on your license plate, that’s why I pulled you over,” the officer said, snatching the license and registration from Ja’Rel’s hand and walked back to his cruiser.

  “Fuckin’ asshole!” Ja’Rel spat angrily once the officer was out of earshot.

  Ja’Rel impatiently sat in the car waiting for the officer to bring his stuff back so he could get to Kassidy, who was blowing his phone up with text messages and calls.

  “Hello?” he finally answered after getting tired of hearing his phone buzzing.

  “Where you at, baby?” Kassidy asked, breathing heavily.

  “I got pulled over by the police,” Ja’Rel answered.

  “For what?”

  “For some bullshit! He talkin’ about I don’t have a license plate light. But let
me call you back. He’s gettin’ back out of his car,” Ja’Rel said, relieved.

  “Okay, baby, please hurry. I’m in a lot pain,” Kassidy said, trying her best to breathe just like they’d taught her and Ja’Rel in the Lamaze classes.

  “Love you,” Ja’Rel said.

  “Love you too,” Kassidy said before hanging up the phone.

  “Can you step out of the car?” the officer walked back up to Ja’Rel’s car and said.

  “For what?” Ja’Rel asked nervously.

  “’Cause I said so, that’s why,” the officer replied.

  “What the fuck?” Ja’Rel asked, confused, knowing for a fact he didn’t have any warrants that he knew of. “I gotta get outta the car for a license plate light?”

  Ja’Rel watched as another cruiser pulled up as he stepped out of the car.

  “Naw, you got a failure to appear,” the officer said.

  “Failure to appear? You must got me mistaken wit’ somebody else. I’ve been to all my court dates,” Ja’Rel protested.

  “Well, when I ran your name it told me otherwise. You got like six unpaid parking tickets.”

  “Wait a minute, I gave Tamika the money to . . .” All Ja’Rel could do was shake his head. “That dirty bitch!” He had slipped up not checking up on the job assignments her greedy-ass was supposed to have taken care of. He’d fired her ass for being sloppy and had been meaning to go back over things.

  Ja’Rel voluntarily turned around and placed his hands behind his back so he could get cuffed. Of all the times to go to jail, he had to go on the night that his chick was in labor. Ja’Rel looked down at the seat at his vibrating cell phone and shook his head when Kassidy’s name kept popping up across the screen.

  Ja’Rel felt real fucked up the entire ride to the county because this would be the first time he wouldn’t be present for the birth of any of his children. He could still remember the proud feeling he’d had as he and Ke’yoko had witnessed Aiko being born. There was no feeling quite like that in this world.

  Ja’Rel sat at the desk as the booking officer entered his information into the computer.

  “Can I make my one call?” Ja’Rel asked.

  “Yep, the phone is right there,” the booking officer said, never taking her eyes off of the computer screen.

  Ja’Rel picked up the old-style phone and dialed the one person he knew no matter what would always have his back. Even when he dogged her, cheated on her, or talked crazy to her, she would always be there for him.

  “Hello?” Ke’yoko answered, half asleep.

  “Baby, I’m in jail,” Ja’Rel said.

  “And? What you want me to do about it?” Ke’yoko shot, before hanging up the phone on Ja’Rel, giving him a taste of his own medicine and loving every minute of it.

  Ja’Rel looked at the phone like it had done something wrong to him. He couldn’t believe Ke’yoko had just played him like she did. “Stupid bitch,” he spat. “Can I make another call?”

  “Nope, you made your one call,” the booking officer looked at him and said.

  “You see she hung up on me,” Ja’Rel replied.

  “So? That ain’t got nothin’ to do wit’ me. You musta done somethin’ to her. You know how you niggas are,” the booking officer said, shaking her head. “What you do, fuck her sister or somethin’?”

  “Ha ha ha, very funny,” Ja’Rel said, unamused by the officer’s sense of humor, even though she’d hit the nail on the head. “I ain’t done shit to her! You know how you black women are,” Ja’Rel said, sitting back in the chair with a straight attitude.

  “No, I don’t. How are we?” the officer responded.

  “Miserable, always bitchin’ about somethin’, lazy as fuck in the bed, don’t wanna have sex after y’all get y’all’s hair done ’cause y’all are so afraid that fake-ass shit is gon’ get messed up, you know, just to name a few,” Ja’Rel said.

  “Ha, I see why she hung up on your stupid-ass,” the officer spat with an attitude.

  “See, that’s the attitude I’m talkin’ about. Y’all always rollin’ y’all’s neck and eyes,” Ja’Rel said, shaking his head. “I see why brothers get them a Becky and take good care of her and leave Ta’niqua, Sha’quantay, and Chardonnnay in the hood right where y’all belong. I shoulda been smart and got me one!”

  The booking officer looked at Ja’Rel and shook her head in disgust. “Come get this Uncle Tom–ass nigga up outta my face before I accidently do somethin’ to him,” the officer yelled to one of her partners.

  “I struck a nerve, huh?” Ja’Rel said as the other officer helped him up out of the chair to escort him to his cell.

  “Not at all, inmate. I’m goin’ home to my husband tonight; where you gon’ be?” the guard asked with a smirk. “You dumbass nigga; that’s why you not gon’ get another phone call, and if you keep runnin’ that smart-ass mouth of yours, just maybe your paperwork might come up missin’ as well.”

  “This ain’t shit. I won’t be in here long. I’ll be out as soon as I call my attorney in the mornin’,” Ja’Rel said with a cocky attitude.

  “Sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite, and I mean that literally.” The booking officer winked with a shit-eating grin on her face.

  Ja’Rel was stripped down and given an orange jumpsuit, some shower shoes, and a thin blanket before being escorted to a tiny cell. He lay there thinking about all the dirty, underhanded shit he’d done to Ke’yoko all these years and began feeling bad. He had made it up in his mind that after he got out, he was going to treat her better, just like she deserved. As Ja’Rel lay on the hard bunk thinking and damn near scratching his skin off, he looked down on his blanket and the last words that the booking officer said to him instantly hit him. He quickly threw the bed bug–infested blanket off of him and jumped up and ran over to the door.

  “Guards!”

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Ja’Rel was sitting at the table trying to eat the slop they fed them for breakfast while waiting for them to come get him for court; yet again, they called everybody’s name but his. They had been playing him crazy ever since he’d been locked up in the county. Every time he was supposed to go to his hearing they kept spinning him, telling him they couldn’t find his paperwork. And when he would call his attorney to get to the bottom of how he was being treated, his attorney acted like he was taking their side. If he didn’t know any better, he would swear on a stack of Bibles that his attorney was against him too. Not giving him his mail and turning Kassidy and the kids away on visiting day took the cake. They kept coming up with different excuses why they couldn’t let them in. From her clothes being too tight, to his name not being on Kennedy’s birth certificate, just to name a few. Ja’Rel had even tried calling Ke’yoko a few times, but she wouldn’t answer the phone for him.

  “So I just ain’t gon’ get to go to court again today, huh?” Ja’Rel asked the CO, who was escorting another inmate back who was about to go home.

  “I didn’t call your name, did I?” the CO said smartly before turning to walk away.

  Ja’Rel was fed up and beyond furious. He had been in jail for over a week all over some unpaid parking tickets. He had missed the birth of his daughter, didn’t know what was going on with Ke’yoko, didn’t know what the hell Ka’yah was saying; he was stressed the hell out! He had never heard of such nonsense his whole twenty-seven years on earth. Luckily, he had Mitch around to make sure the company and everything was running smoothly. But he was second-guessing that too now; for the past couple days, Mitch had started acting funny too and stopped accepting his calls.

  “Don’t worry, old man. I’ll go to your house and keep your wife warm and play daddy to your kids,” the young dude said jokingly.

  Ja’Rel didn’t find any humor in his statement. Before he knew it, Ja’Rel had pounced on the young cat and had begun beating the life out of him. Ja’Rel had lost it. He took all his built-up frustration out on this young dude.

  “Stop! You killlin’
him,” a few of the other inmates yelled as they stood back and watched Ja’Rel nearly take this young dude’s head off. There was no way they were going to try to stop that.

  The COs heard the commotion coming from the block and took off running to see what was going on. There was blood everywhere when they ran into the block. The COs began yelling for the other inmates to return to their racks until they got the situation under control.

  “Stop! Get off of him,” the COs were yelling at the top of their lungs while hitting Ja’Rel in the back with their batons.

  Ja’Rel was so gone he didn’t even hear them, nor did he feel the blows. The only thing that was on his mind was killing his prey.

  “Stop, stop!” the COs continued yelling, afraid to go near Ja’Rel.

  Two other COs ran into the block and began using their Tasers on him. That was the only thing that seemed to make Ja’Rel pause. Ja’Rel slowly tried to stand up, staggering, and looked down at what he’d done to the young boy. He hadn’t completely stood up and before he knew it, the COs had bum-rushed him, making him slip on the blood and fall backward, hitting his head on the hard, cold steel seat.

  Chapter Forty

  Ke’yoko was sprawled out across the bed, knocked out. It had been a long time since she had a good night’s rest. Between her fuller bladder and listening to Ja’Rel snoring like a grizzly bear all up in her ear she was kept up many nights. Sleeping alone was something she could definitely get used to.

  Ke’yoko was abruptly awakened by her ringing cell phone, making her jump up out of her sleep. She looked at the clock on the wall and tried to roll over as quickly as her heavy body would allow her to. Her first thought was anybody calling her at two a.m. had to have an emergency.

  “Hello?” she answered without checking the caller ID.

  “You ’sleep, sis?” Kailo asked.

  “No, I’m up,” she lied. “Is everything all right?” Ke’yoko asked nervously.

  “Yeah, well, no, not really. I got somethin’ to tell you about Ja’rel,” Kailo stammered.

  “Is he dead?” Ke’yoko asked, fearful. Even though she couldn’t stand him, she didn’t want to see him dead.