No Justice No Peace

by Brenda Hampton

  “Hi,” she said, softly.

  “What’s up?”

  “You.”

  “Naw, couldn’t be me. I believe you’re the one with something on your mind.”

  “Yeah, sort of.”

  “Wha…what’s up,” I said, getting irritated.

  “I’m getting a divorce.”

  “And?”

  “And, I wanted to know if we could meet somewhere and talk.”

  “Today?”

  “Yes.”

  “I can’t make it today.”

  “Please, Kiley. I…I’m going through something right now and I really need somebody to talk to.”

  “Jada, I’m with my son right now. I just picked him up and we’re on my way to my house to spend some time together. How about I give you a call…tomorrow or Monday.”

  “I need you now, Kiley. My husband beat me up because he found out about my involvement with you.”

  “With me? You know damn well what happened between us only occurred one time since you’ve been married. I hope you haven’t told him it was more to it than just that.”

  “I told him the truth. And, the truth is I don’t love him, I love you. You can’t deny…”

  “Jada, look. What we had is over, baby. Now, I don’t know what it is you want from me. You got married and you moved on. I’m sorry things didn’t work out, but you can’t come running back to me because your marriage failed.”

  “Just call me in a day or two. Please.”

  “We’ll see,” I said, and then hung up. Desmon and Antonio were heading back to the car just as I ended the call. They hopped in the ride and said they were ready to go. Antonio had a small plastic bag in his hand, and when I asked what was in it, he pulled out three candy bars and a card.

  “I didn’t have enough to get what I came for so I had to improvise,” he said.

  “I thought you wanted some chips,” I said while driving off.

  “I changed my mind. Besides, I really needed some condoms but I didn’t have enough to get them. So, the card is to apologize to my girl for not being able to give her some because of my lack of condoms. The chocolate is to make her feel better when I have to let her down.”

  “Fool, then you should have said so. I’ll give you some money to get some condoms,” I said, already turning the car back around.

  “No problem, Kiley. I already got’em.” He laughed, and then reached in his pocket and pulled out a box of condoms. Out with the condoms came some KY Jelly and a stick of gum.

  I was shocked, but not in pure disbelief. “Were y’all playas in there stealing? What you got in your pockets?” I asked Desmon, as I could already see how fat they were.

  “Let’s see,” he said, pulling some shit out of his pockets too. “I got some chap-stick, some batteries for one of my games, and some condoms too.” He reached in his other pocket. “In door number two, I got some shoelaces and some Tylenol for the pain in my leg.”

  I had a blank expression on my face. Maybe Antonio didn’t have money to pay for his shit, but I knew Desmon had some money. He got a kick out of the shit and him and Antonio took pride in what they’d done. I pulled the car over to the curb and reached for the items he’d pulled out of his pocket.

  “What you doing?” he laughed, obviously not knowing how upset I was. “Go get your own condoms.”

  “Give me this shit, man!” I yelled. “What the fuck is wrong with you! I gave your punk ass some money and you around here stealing shit like a thief in the night.”

  His mouth dropped open. “What you tripping off of? They ain’t gon miss those few lil items I took. Besides, they shit overpriced just so they can make up for thieves like me.”

  “Well, Mr. Thievesses, or whatever the hell you call yourself, you gon take your ass back in that store to apologize. Then, you gon break out the money I gave you to pay for the shit. If the manager decides to arrest yo ass for being so stupid, then that’s gonna be your problem, not mine.”

  “Shiiit. Muthafucka, you crazy. I ain’t going back in there to get arrested.”

  I tightened my fist. “What the hell did you just call me?”

  Desmon eyeballed my fist, reneging on what he’d said. “I ain’t call you nothing. I just said that I wasn’t going back in there.”

  “Yeah you did. I know you didn’t call me no muthafucka, did you? He didn’t call me no muthafucka, did he Antonio?”

  “I, ah, wha…I didn’t hear what he said. I don’t think he did, though, Kiley.”

  “Whateva. You got yourself a good ass friend back there, but since I heard you call me a muthafucka, I’m gonna make it real hard for you now.”

  I drove back to Jake’s and before I could get out of the car, Desmon opened his door. He couldn’t go too far, so I watched as he hopped out and tried to get away while limping. Antonio stayed in the car and watched. I grabbed Desmon by the back of his neck and opened the back door for Antonio to get out.

  “Come on, Mr. Abrams. Don’t make me go back in there. If I get arrested, Anna gon be mad at me.”

  “You should have thought about that before you and Mr. Thievesses here went on a crime spree.”

  I marched back into Jake’s and demanded to speak to a manager. When he came out Desmon had his lips poked out and I could feel Antonio’s body trembling as I held him tightly by his arm.

  “May I help you?” the tall slender brotha asked.

  “Is there security in this place?” I asked.

  “Yes, sir, there is.”

  “Then, he or she needs to be fired. My son and his friend came in here and took these items from your store.” I placed the items on the counter. “Now, I don’t know what kind of system you got going on in here, but it’s evident your metal detectors don’t work. You’re losing a whole lot of money if they don’t, and I’m sure the kids around here are having a field day. What I’m really trying to say is,” I stepped away from Desmon and Antonio who were no doubt upset with me. “What I’m trying to say is, I don’t want these two boys arrested for stealing. I want this to be a lesson learned so go get your security guard and pretend that the police is on the way.”

  “But, sir, if they’ve stolen some merchandise from our store, I intend to call the police.”

  I eased my hand in my pocket. “See, that’s not gonna work. Since your store has non-working metal detectors, and I’m sure they haven’t been working for quite some time, I might have to report that. You wouldn’t want to make yourself look bad being upper management, would you? Besides, I intend…we intend to pay for everything that was taken.”

  He smiled. “Good. Stay right there and I’ll go get Smokey.”

  “You do that,” I said, and then walked back over to Antonio and Desmon.

  “Antonio, I’m gon call Anna to she if she’ll bail you out tonight. Desmon you know damn well Ginger ain’t coming no where and I’m not gon waste my money on something as petty as getting you out of jail. It’s time that you two learned a valuable lesson.”

  Desmon turned towards the exit doors and so did Antonio.

  “If you two are stupid enough to leave, that’s robbery. Your misdemeanor case turns into a felony, and from what I heard, judges are giving out five years right off the back for robberies.”

  Just then, the manager and the security guard, Smokey, came up front. The store was crowded and many people stared at us to find out what was going on. If anything, I could tell Antonio and Desmon were beyond embarrassed.

  “You two brothas wanna come with me,” Smokey said in a deep voice. If his voice wasn’t enough to intimidate them, then his thick neck and incredible hulk build was.

  Desmon looked at me.

  “Man, I’m out,” I said. “I’ll see what’s up with you in a few days. You gon learn just like I had to.”

  “Damn! I’ll pay for the stuff. Why y’all tripping?” Desmon said. He reached in his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. I could see how full it was with money and shook my head. “Here.” He handed some
money over to the manager.

  “That’s not good enough,” the manager said. “He has a serious attitude and he hasn’t even apologized. Actually, neither of them has.”

  People continued to look at what was going on, and even though Desmon and Antonio didn’t want to, they both apologized to the manager.

  “I didn’t hear you,” the manager said. “What did you say?”

  “Sorry,” they both said in synch.

  “Good. And please don’t come back in here again. If you do, you’ll both be arrested.”

  Antonio and Desmon looked relieved. The manager handed the paid for items over to me and we all left the store together. Neither of them said one word to me, until I reached Antonio’s girlfriend’s house. He thanked me for dropping him off, and before he got out of the car, I tossed the box of condoms to him.

  “Here. You might need those,” I said.

  “Thanks. And, can I have my KY Jelly too?”

  “What in the hell do you know about some KY Jelly?”

  “Before having sex I like to be rubbed with it. I also like to wet my condom—

  “Hey, whatever,” I said, giving it to him. “Y’all fucks me up. Things have changed and I—never mind. Just make sure you call Anna to let her know you’re okay.”

  “Always,” he said. He gave Desmon and slamming handshake and jetted.

  Desmon remained quiet all the way to my place. I wasn’t going to kiss his ass to talk to me, and even though I didn’t say it, he knew it. When we got inside, I pulled my shirt off and tossed it on the couch. I walked over to my booming ass system and turned it up loudly. I then sat on the couch and tried to make use of the joint Anna had smashed out earlier. Seeing that Desmon was still standing by the doorway, I looked over at him.

  “Make yourself at home. I got plenty of food in the fridge and if you’d like to lay down, go check out the room I fixed up for you.”

  He didn’t say anything, but I could already tell how impressed he was by the way I had shit fixed up. My place was nothing like Ginger’s shack and was decorated with contemporary furniture.

  I took a few hits from my joint and watched as Desmon slowly made his way throughout the house to check it out. I watched as he went from one room to the next, but when I didn’t see him come out of his room, I got up to see what he was doing.

  I stood in the doorway as he sat on his king-sized bed, gazing at the 145 gallon aquarium I had built into the wall. His furniture was black lacquer. The bed was made like a wall unit with glass that nearly covered one entire wall. To make the room even more luxurious, it had a plasma TV on the wall, a silver and glass radio system, a computer and football trophy’s I had made for every year he’d played were on a shelf I had designed for his accomplishments.

  He continued to stare at the fish tank, and seemed unable to get any words to come out of his mouth.

  “So, do you like it?” I asked.

  He turned and looked at me. “It’s cool, but I wish you’d stop doing stuff like this for me. It’s like you trying to buy me, man, and I can’t be bought.”

  I walked into the room and sat on the bed next to him. “I don’t know what else to do, Desmon. I know you can’t be bought, but I’m willing to do whatever I got to do to have my son in my life. Don’t tell me it’s too late because I don’t believe that for one minute. I’m not trying to change who you are, but I want you closer to me. Is there something wrong with that?”

  “Nope. But all this stuff makes me feel unworthy. You…you know I don’t deserve all these things. After I looked in that closet I had to take a chill pill. Man, why you buy me all that stuff?”

  “I’on know. I just felt like doing it. I think about you all the time so why not?”

  “Because, Kiley!” he said raising his voice. “I…I don’t understand all this love you say you got for me. Why can’t I feel that kind of love for you…for Moms? Honestly, I care but it’s not like what I feel for my best friend Antonio. I know you’re trying, but I just can’t reach out to you in the way that you want me to.”

  His words stung, causing me to take a hard swallow. He was the only person who had this type of effect on me. “Time, Desmon. Just allow us time together. I have to grow on you like you’ve grown on me. And even though we’ve been apart for many years, I never forgot about you. You were too young to remember everything about me, but I held on to everything that I remembered about you. Ginger even sent pictures of you as you grew up, but you didn’t see my face again until several months ago. Again, if you just allow us time together, you’ll see what kind of father and son relationship we can have.”

  “So, what you want me to do? Move in with you?”

  “Only if you want to. But before you decide to, I want you to know that I have rules. Rules that you will have to follow.”

  He smirked. “Name’em.”

  “For starters, you must go to school.”

  “No problem.”

  “No more disrespecting me…calling me names will get your ass kicked. And, all of the cussing needs to stop too.”

  “Bet.”

  “No carrying a gun anymore. I want you to give it to me so I can put it in a safe place.”

  “No problem cause I already got rid of it. One of my boys needed it and I sold it to him.”

  “Stupid move, but you’d better not be lying.”

  “I’m not. Do you want to call him?”

  “No, but I’ll find out. And, finally, no smoking weed or fucking in my crib.”

  “Now, we got a problem. Why is it that you can smoke weed and I can’t? And, why can you have sex in the crib and I can’t?”

  “Because I’m grown and this is my house, that’s why.”

  “But, you’re the one who said we’d compromise.”

  “I lied. Parents don’t compromise with kids. They tell you how it’s gon be and that’s how it’s gon be.”

  “They don’t lie to kids either. So, instead of compromising can we work out a deal?”

  I laughed. “What’s the deal?”

  “I’ll cut back on the weed, if you allow me to bring females to the crib.”

  “I never said that you couldn’t bring females over here. All I said was you can’t screw them here.”

  “Well, where else am I supposed to do it? Before you answer that would you do me a favor?”

  “What?”

  “Just close your eyes.”

  “What!” I yelled.

  “Just close your eyes,” he insisted. I closed my eyes. “Okay, now think back to when you were my age. Think about smoking blunts with your pops and later creeping off into the bedroom to bust that cherry. You can feel the explosion as you’re in deep thought.”

  I opened my eyes. “Sorry, that didn’t happen.”

  “Quit lying. You told me—

  “Okay, maybe I did. But, I want things to be different with you Desmon. I don’t want you to be like me.”

  “And, I don’t want to be like you either, but help a brotha out. Setting this issue in stone now will cut back on much confusion in the future. Besides, I’m gonna do it anyway. Whether it’s here or somewhere else, I’m gonna have my smoke and my girlees.” He placed his hand on his chest like Kareem used to do. “You want honesty, so I’m just being honest.”

  I stood up. “One or the other Desmon. Decide now and be done with it.”

  “Cool. I choose sex. I cut back on the weed anyway, since my coach said it’ll mess me up if I wanted to continue to play football. And since I cut back, you need to cut back too.”

  “Never,” I said, reaching my hand out for his. I pulled him off the bed, giving him a tight hug. “Let’s make this work this time around, au-ight?”

  He moved back. “Yeah, but I got a feeling that Moms ain’t gon like this one bit. I don’t know if I should call or send her a post card.”

  We both laughed and I told Desmon we’d break the news to her together. Realistically, I felt as if she really wouldn’t give a fuck either way.
r />   TURNING BACK THE HANDS OF TIME

  Chapter Twelve

  Ginger didn’t start looking for Desmon until late Wednesday evening. I’d been taking him back and forth to school, and since I’d hooked him up with many nice outfits, he didn’t have to go home to change. When she called, I told her he was with me. She was furious, but there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. I gave Desmon the phone and he told her that he was staying with me until school let out. He promised her he’d stop by and visit, but for her, she claimed it wasn’t good enough. She’d even started to cry like she really was going to miss him, and when she made him feel guilty, that’s when I took the phone. I told her I’d make him stop by, but she knew better than anybody that a promise from Kiley Jacoby Abrams wasn’t worth a damn. Either way, she agreed that maybe we needed to spend time together and she claimed Desmon being with me would surely give her a break.

  Through my eyes, though, she had too many breaks. Desmon was seriously messed up. Being with me for these several days allowed me to see so much more about him. He was lazy, didn’t want to clean up, didn’t want to go to school, and had mega issues with sharing. When he’d cook something, he’d only cook for himself. He never offered to cook for me or to go the extra mile for me like I’d gone for him. I wasn’t going to trip because I knew it was hard to change a kid who’d been so accustomed to doing shit his way.

  On Thursday, I dropped Desmon off at school and headed to IHOP to meet Jada for breakfast. She’d been bugging the hell out of me since I hadn’t made arrangements to meet up with her. So, we made plans. The thought of getting in touch with Marissa was heavy on my mind, but I hadn’t decided if I wanted to know the truth about Desmon yet. Something inside told me to leave well enough alone, but a huge part of me wanted to know if he was really my son or not. I’d been staring at him every time I got a chance. He’d noticed my stares and questioned me about them. Basically, I told him I was happy he was with me and I left it at that. To me, there really wasn’t no denying him. He looked like me, acted like me, and it was hard not to recognize an Abrams man when you saw one. If I had to place a million dollar bet, Desmon, no doubtfully, was made by me. Maybe, though, Marissa knew something I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to rush into possibly making my life more chaotic than it already was. Not right now.