When It All Falls Down 2 - Strapped Up: A Chicago Hood Drama (A Hustler's Lady)

by Tamicka Higgins

  “Oh my God,” Sharli said, covering her mouth. “Is that Miss Vivica?”

  Sharli had known Miss Vivica for years because she’d been the landlady at one of the houses she and her mother had rented back in high school. In fact, Miss Vivica was the only reason that Sharli had even known her cousin Ayana’s man Tramar before the two of them actually had begun dating. The two had met when Tramar would come over with Vivica to check on her properties as a teenager because she was married to his father.

  Sharli watched the video over again a couple times, each time trying to pause and get a good look at the face, as tears strolled down it uncontrollably. Even though she hadn’t seen Miss Vivica in probably three or four years, Sharli was more than sure that she was the female in the video. It also didn’t take Sharli much to notice that the woman was under duress.

  Without thinking, Sharli closed out of her phone’s web browser. She called Ayana.

  “Hello?” Ayana answered, the background completely quiet.

  “Hey, girl,” Sharli said. “What’s up? What you doin’? I ain’t catch you at a bad time, did I?”

  “Hush,” Ayana said, clearly sounding as if she was being hesitant. “Naw, you coo,” she said, quietly. “Wassup?”

  “Girl, you sure?” Sharli said. “I mean, if you busy…”

  “Girl, no,” Ayana said. “It’s fine. Wassup? What’s going on? You sound like you got somethin’ you need to tell me or something?”

  “Girl, I do, I guess,” Sharli said. “Girl, I need to ask you something. Is Tramar’s daddy and that woman Miss Vivica still married or did they get a divorce or what?”

  “What you mean is Tramar’s daddy still married to Vivica?” Ayana asked, wondering why her cousin had just asked her such a strange question. “Of course they still married, girl. Why would you ask that?”

  “Well,” Sharli said, now wishing that she wasn’t the one to break the news about the video. It was very clear, even over the phone, to Sharli that Ayana didn’t know anything about a video. If she did know such a thing, the tone in her voice would be much different. “This nigga I kinda know done posted this video online.”

  “Video!” Ayana said, shocked. “Okay, a video of what? What the video got to do with Tramar’s daddy and his wife Vivica? What the fuck it gotta do with them still being married?”

  “Well,” Sharli said. “Girl, don’t be mad at me, but there’s this video the nigga posted online called something like what happened when a nigga owe some money or something and, well…. It’s a video that look like it’s Miss Vivica getting toyed around with. And she don’t look like she enjoying it.”

  “What?” Ayana said, almost yelling into the phone. “There’s a video of this online? Girl, where. Text me the link so I can see. I can’t believe that shit. When was it put up online?”

  “Hold up, hold up,” Sharli said. “Let me open my web browser and see if the shit is still pulled up. Wait a second.”

  Ayana waited as her cousin Sharli pulled up the World Star video. She copied the link then sent it in a text message to Ayana before getting back onto the call.

  “Girl, I just sent it to you,” Sharli said. “Look in your text messages.”

  No sooner than Ayana could pull the phone away from her head, she’d felt it vibrate against her ear. Quickly, concerned and very confused, she opened the text message from Sharli and clicked on the link. Within a matter of minutes, she was watching the same video that Sharli had just watched minutes before calling her.

  “Oh shit, Tramar,” Sharli could hear Ayana saying. “You not gon’ believe this.”

  “What’s goin’ on?” Sharli asked. “What’s goin’ on?”

  Sharli got no response. Rather, she listened to the background as she could hear the curse words spill out of Tramar’s mouth. It was very obvious that seeing such a video deeply affected him. Once again, Sharli hated to be the one with the bad news…especially when the bad news was something like that.

  Sharli was startled to hear Tramar jump onto the phone. “Hello?” he said. “Hello? Sharli?”

  “Yeah, I’m here,” Sharli said. “I’m here. Wassup? I’m sorry, Tramar. I just thought that you all should know. I swear, I ain’t know. I just found it.”

  “Where’d you find this shit?” Tramar asked.

  Sharli explained the posting again, and that the video he’d just watched was the link. She also went on to say how the post belonged to a Juan, and how she knew this Juan. Not wanting to say too much, Tramar, who breathed heavily from his anger, handed the phone back to Ayana. All Sharli could make out from what he was saying, after a long phrase, was that he was going to kill some nigga.

  “Girl?” Sharli said, trying to get Ayana’s attention. She could feel that something was going on, and that she was left out of the loop on this something. “What is going on? I’m so confused over here. Who is Tramar talking about he gon’ go kill and shit over that video? What is goin’ on? Where are y’all?”

  Ayana fumbled as she tried to come up with something to say. It was truly a struggle, as she knew that by telling Sharli she was no longer staying with her mother, Sharli would definitely be on the scent. And at this particular time, the last thing Ayana needed was anyone else even trying to be involved in what they had going on. It was hard enough for her to believe that she had a starring role in this movie.

  “Girl, it’s complicated,” Ayana said. “I mean, I’d have to explain it to you when we meet up again, whenever that is.”

  “What you mean whenever that is?” Sharli asked, hearing the tension in her cousin’s voice. “What’s going on, girl? I can tell something is wrong? Why don’t you tell me? Why don’t you just tell me?”

  “Sharli, girl, now is not a good time,” Ayana said. “Girl, let me call you back sometime after tomorrow.”

  “After tomorrow?” Sharli asked, confused.

  Before Sharli could begin to pull a response out of Ayana, she’d ended the call by saying bye and hanging up. Now Sharli lay in her bed ten times as confused as when she’d called Ayana. Something deep in her soul was telling her that something was wrong. Not only did Miss Vivica look as if she were really distraught in the video, but the anger coming from Tramar on the other end of the phone, and her cousin Ayana’s apprehension were just too much. Sharli ran her hands through her blonde wig as she thought long and hard about what could be going on, and why Miss Vivica, of all people, would be pulled into it.

  Chapter 4

  Ayana would never have expected her night to change the way it did simply by answering Sharli’s phone call. Even further, Ayana didn’t expect the information she’d get from her cousin. She didn’t expect to find out that this Byron guy, who she hadn’t even met, was going as far as putting photos of Tramar’s stepmother on the internet. Who could be that ruthless?

  Ayana pondered the answer to that very question Thursday night as she struggled to fall asleep. It was probably the quietest night she’d ever had with Tramar. She’d never seen him as angry as he’d been when she had gotten off of the phone with Sharli. With his fists balled and his muscles practically bulging from the rage running through his veins, he punched a wall. While the motel wall did indeed have a dent in it, Ayana had expressed more concern about Tramar’s hand. If they were going to rob a bank in the middle of Downtown Chicago on Friday afternoon, she knew that he’d need every bit of his body to really pull it off.

  Thursday night, once Tramar had finally fallen completely asleep, Ayana looked over at him. She could see his chest going up and down, as he snored lightly on his back. It had taken him a while to finally fall to sleep; however, once he finally did , he was out cold. Ayana, on the other hand, lay awake from the constant mental limbo. At times, she felt okay with everything that was going on. Sure, it was a little exciting to be helping her man in this way. While it wasn’t an excitement that anyone in their right mind would wish for, she still felt as if she were doing her part.

  On the flipside, however, Ayana was scare
d. She was scared beyond belief. Even though she knew that Tramar would do the exact same thing for her – help her rob a bank to get the money needed to get her family back – she knew that this was a mighty big risk for her to take. She thought about how Tramar had brought up the point that she hadn’t been scared with all of his other hustling activities. In fact, Ayana knew very well that she didn’t give the car theft ring a second thought. She hadn’t even put Tramar’s face in the same context as the guys she’d seen on the news who went down for the operation four months later. She lay awake wondering why, up to this point, she had felt like Tramar was so untouchable. As she was quickly finding out, if he messed with the wrong fire, he could definitely get burned.

  In the dimly lit motel room, thanks to some street lamps out in the motel parking lot, Ayana lay on her side. She looked at the white wall on the side of her bed, blinking every so often. When her eyes would reopen, she’d wonder why she was still awake. While she couldn’t quite put her finger on what was really bothering her, she knew it was there. It may have been invisible, but it was there. It was almost as if she’d been so shaken by Tramar’s anger at this Byron guy that she couldn’t go to sleep. Also, Ayana began to wonder what she was going to do in terms of the story she’d have to make up for Sharli. She knew she couldn’t look her favorite cousin in the eyes anymore, especially in a few weeks’ time, and not have some sort of explanation not only for why Vivica would be on the internet like that under such a telling post title but also why she’d heard Tramar react in the way he did. Strangely, that was having a harder toll on her than the actual act itself. Ayana felt locked into her situation – her role.

  Friday morning would go on to be the one morning that Ayana would remember for the rest of her life. There was no doubt about it. She’d reach eighty or ninety years old and be able to look back on this day, hopefully. This was the morning she’d woken up with the intentions of helping her man and his best friend rob a bank downtown. That sentence alone was something she’d never thought she’d say.

  When the sunlight slipped through the cheap, ruby red motel curtains and into the room, Ayana reacted, in the dead of her sleep, by putting her hands over her face. She normally welcomed the sun in the morning; however, she felt differently this morning. She realized that she’d probably only had a good five hours of sleep once she factored in the waking up in the middle of the night occasionally. This morning, when Tramar woke up, he was definitely in a different mood than he’d normally be in.

  “Morning,” Ayana said, noticing that Tramar’s breathing had broken its soothing, sleeping pace.

  Tramar, sleeping under the sheets in only his boxers, turned and looked into Ayana’s face. He was clearly still upset, not having been able to sleep it off. “Morning,” he said, his voice very short.

  “You okay?” Ayana asked. She hesitated as she thought of the question, but then decided that it’d probably be better out and on the table, so to speak.

  “Fuck naw, I ain’t okay,” Tramar answered. “I wanna kill that nigga.”

  Ayana could understand Tramar’s feelings, as she would probably feel the same if she were in the same situation. However, she wished he would stop talking so violently. She didn’t like to hear him talking about killing anybody. “I know, Tramar,” she said, scooting closer to him. “I know.”

  “Yeah,” Tramar said, his face scrunched up as he looked up toward the ceiling. “I swear to God I want this shit to be over with. As soon as I get my daddy and stepmother back, I’mma go kill that nigga. I don’t care what that nigga Jackson say. He the reason we in this mess to begin with.”

  Ayana nodded, thinking about how just last night Tramar had put so much blame on Jackson. She could see the way it was taking its toll on Jackson as well.

  “Yeah, well,” Ayana said. “We just gotta make sure that everything goes okay today, you know?”

  “Oh, the shit is gon’ go okay today,” Tramar said, nodding his head. “I don’t give a fuck. I’m the one planning this shit, not that dumbass nigga. We gon’ go up in this bank, get what we need, and get the fuck outta dodge. I swear to you, Ayana. Once this shit is over, I wanna start a new life. With you.”

  Ayana’s attention, like any woman’s when a man says something like that first thing in the morning, was piqued. She listened intently as she had really given some thought to moving away.

  “How we gon’ do that?” Ayana asked Tramar. “How we gon’ just get up and start new lives? We ain’t rich or nothin’?”

  “Who said that we gotta be rich to start new lives, baby?” Tramar asked, turning and looking at Ayana. “I know you said that you had to think about that shit when I was talkin’ to you about it last weekend, but you just don’t know how serious I was. Hell, a nigga is probably more serious now than I was last week. After we get this money, get my family back, and kill that nigga Byron, I’mma be ready to get the hell up outta Chicago. Shit, I’mma be even ready to get the fuck outta the Midwest. I wanna go somewhere completely new.”

  “Yeah,” Ayana said, feeling as if her back was up against a wall. “But what about your son, Quan?”

  “Yeah,” Tramar said, taking a deep breath. “I was thinking about that shit last night. I would definitely come up and see him. And he could come down and stay with me. Once he get a little older, and out from underneath his crazy ass mama and shit, I would try to talk to him about coming and living with me. I’m not gon’ be one of these niggas who gives up on they kids and shit. That ain’t me. My daddy ain’t do that to me, so I’m not gon’ do that to him.”

  Ayana smiled. She always loved to see Tramar’s dedication to his son. It was not only admirable to her, but it also turned her on to know that there were still guys from the streets who cared about their children.

  Ayana and Tramar remained in bed, lying next to one another, for about thirty more minutes. Finally, they got up and showered.

  “You hungry?” Tramar asked, as he dried off with his towel. He’d just sent a text message to his boy Jackson, asking when he was getting up. Tramar wanted to go over the entire plan they’d talked about last night. He wanted to make sure that everything was airtight. And if it wasn’t, he wanted all three of their minds to find the holes in the situation. All he could think about was how his father and stepmother were locked away in some house, somewhere in Chicago. And it was all because he went along with his boy Jackson and didn’t even do the job right. At times, curse words would slip out of Tramar’s mouth from the regret building up inside of him. He played the scene at Byron’s house over and over again in his mind, wishing he’d just pulled the trigger when he had the chance so none of this would be happening.

  “Yeah,” Ayana said, shrugging her shoulders. She smiled. “You know I am, Tramar. Why you ask me that?”

  Tramar walked over to Ayana, leaned over and kissed her. Normally, the two would have morning sex. Normally, Tramar’s manhood would have woken up, ready to invade what he would sometimes call Ayana’s “Sleeping Pussy.” However, there was just too much on his mind this morning to even think about smashing the way he normally would.

  “Bet,” Tramar said. “Get them clothes on and we gon’ go get something to eat. That nigga Jackson ain’t up yet, but that’s coo. By the time we get back, the nigga should be up and shit.”

  The two of them got dressed and headed out of the door. Before Tramar locked the motel room door, he checked to make sure the money was still in his hiding place. Even though no one had been in the room except for him, Jackson, and Ayana, he still had a habit of checking for it. In fact, the money was just another reason he wanted to go ahead and get out of dodge. He felt so uneasy having that kind of cash on hand.

  Tramar held the car door open as Ayana climbed in. Within minutes, they were out on the main road, looking at the signs of restaurants on both sides of the streets. As luck would have it, they wound up finding a Bob Evans that was about two miles down the road. They decided to eat there and pulled into the parking lot.


  Tramar and Ayana sat across from one another, eating their breakfast. The mood of the conversation between the two of them varied throughout the meal. At times, it was more upbeat and positive. At other times, it was depressing and the anger in Tramar’s voice could not be missed.

  “Tramar, I want you to promise me one thing today,” Ayana said. She waited for Tramar to respond.

  “Yeah, what is that, baby?” Tramar asked. “What is it that you want me to promise you?”

  Ayana hesitated before continuing with what she was saying. “I want you to promise me that you not gon’ go up in that bank and kill nobody today,” she said.

  Tramar, who had been holding his orange juice in his left hand, looked around. He sat the glass down and looked around. “Damn, Ayana,” he said, looking dead into her eyes. “You try’na get niggas caught before we even go up in there and shit? Damn.”

  Ayana looked around, realizing the mistake she’d made. She hadn’t really been thinking clearly. Her entire focus was on simply trying to make sure that Tramar was feeling as good as he could with all of this. She looked down toward the table. “Sorry,” she said, softly.

  Tramar grinned, realizing how he’d just come across to her in his tone. He instantly reached out and spread his hand over Ayana’s hand. “I’m sorry,” Tramar said, gently. “I ain’t mean it like that, baby. I know you meant well. You know that a nigga got a lot on his mind, is all. I ain’t mean it like that, I’m sorry.”

  “I know,” Ayana said. “I understand that. I was just sayin’.”

  “So, why you want me to promise you that?” Tramar asked. “Why you really think that a nigga is gon’ go up in there and kill somebody? You heard what me and Jackson was sayin’ last night, ain’t you? We said we gon’ go up in there and just get the money. We ain’t the kinda niggas that are trying to kill anybody or anything like that. I wouldn’t even be doing this shit if I ain’t need the money. And if this bank ain’t got all the money we need, we gon’ have to go to another bank, you know that right?”