by K'wan
“Girl, what the hell happened to you?” Sandra finally noticed the blood on Pearl’s shirt. She rushed around the kitchen island and checked her for injuries.
“I’m fine. It isn’t my blood.” Pearl went on to give Sandra the short version of her fight with Kate and her friends.
“Pearl, why is it that every time I turn around, you’re in the streets, fighting like a damn hoodlum?” Sandra folded her arms.
Pearl sucked her teeth. “Because these bitches are always hating.”
“Watch your mouth, young lady! We’re cool, but we ain’t friends,” Sandra checked her.
“Sorry. I know I can be troublesome, but lately I’ve been trying to do better, and it seems like people take that for weakness. These chicks walk around sour for no reason, trying to start with me. It’s like they hate me for being fly.” Pearl absently twirled a lock of her silky hair around her finger.
“You know how it can be, Pearl. Whether you’re up or down, haters are gonna come, but when you’re up, it makes it twice as hard. You were blessed because you were not only born to money, but love, too. Not everybody can say that. Some people look at you and the things you have in your life and develop resentment because their lives are lacking in it. Shit, with these kids nowadays, you’re likely to find more madness in their homes than love.”
“Well, it ain’t my fault that their parents are fucked up or just not around,” Pearl tried to reason.
Sandra looked at her sadly because she knew that Pearl just wasn’t getting it. “Baby, it ain’t their faults either. Children are born innocent; it’s the adults that program the bullshit into them. A lot of young girls you see out there with their legs thrown open are looking for the love they were denied at home. Just like some of the guys you see up on them corners are really just kids who got tired of coming home to empty refrigerators. Sometimes you have to look beneath the surface of what’s going on to really get the picture. I know that when you look out that big picture window in your bedroom, you see the world as all roses, but it ain’t. It’s a cruel and nasty place that will swallow you if you let it. You just thank your lucky stars that your father was one of the rare few who were willing to go above and beyond to ensure that his kids could have better.”
“Yeah, everybody knows how far Daddy is willing to go over what he’s laid claim to,” Pearl quipped.
“And what do you mean by that?”
“Come on. I’m not eight years old anymore, Sandra. I know what time it is with my father, and even if I didn’t, you know the streets are always talking,” Pearl told her. “Just the other day we were talking at school, and Daddy’s name came up. This girl was saying—”
“Stop right there,” Sandra cut her off. “Whatever you’re about to say, I don’t want to hear it, and especially not in this house,” Sandra leaned in closer to whisper to Pearl.
“I was only about to tell you what I’d heard,” Pearl tried to explain.
“Only a fool entertains rumors, and it’s an even a bigger fool who discusses family business with people who ain’t family. I’m pretty sure I didn’t raise you to be no fool, did I?”
“No, ma’am.”
“That’s what I thought. Let me tell you something: regardless of what people say, you need to remember that there has never been a move your father has made without having you and your brother in mind. Good, bad, or indifferent, anything Lenox does is for the good of this family, do you understand me?”
Pearl nodded.
“Good. Now go upstairs and tell your brother that dinner will be ready in about an hour. Then Knowledge wants to see you. He’s downstairs in the game room.”
“Damn, as much time as he spends here, he needs to be paying rent,” Pearl remarked.
“Knowledge is just as much a part of this family as anyone else under this roof. Now cut that sass and do like I asked,” Sandra said, and went back to her cutting board.
“Okay.” Pearl sighed and slid off the stool. “Did he say what he wanted?”
“Nope, and I didn’t ask.”
Somehow Pearl didn’t believe her. Not too much went on under their roof that she didn’t know about. Seeing that she wasn’t going to get any more answers from Sandra, Pearl turned to leave. But before she exited the kitchen, Sandra called after her.
“If I were you, I’d change out of that bloody shirt before going to talk to Knowledge. You know he’s your father’s eyes and ears, and Big Stone will be far less understanding than I am about you being in the streets, fighting again.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Pearl bounced up the stairs to the second floor, where her room was located. She hated having her room on the same floor as her brother’s and Sandra’s rooms, and she’d pleaded with her father to let her have the larger bedroom downstairs, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He needed to be aware of her comings and goings at all times, and there was no easier way than to put her upstairs near Sandra. That woman didn’t miss a trick.
As soon as Pearl stepped off to the second floor, she caught the distinct smell of one of her scented candles, which was odd because she had been in school all day. She knew Sandra wouldn’t touch her stuff without asking, so that meant her little brother had been snooping around in her room again. Nostrils flared in anger, she marched down the hall to Stoney’s room. She didn’t bother to knock, instead twisting the knob, intent on barging in, but it was locked. Big Stone had a strict policy about no doors but his being locked in his house, so that meant Stoney was up to no good.
“Open up!” Pearl banged on his door like the police. On the other side she could hear panicked movements as Stoney tried to hide whatever he was doing. Pearl continued to bang until he finally snatched the door open.
Stoney was two years Pearl’s junior, but he was already taller than she was and seemed to be growing more each day. He was a beanpole of a young man, with his mother’s high yellow skin and pink ducklike lips and his father’s dark, heartless eyes. His body language was tense, as if he had just been caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar. When he saw that it was only Pearl and not Sandra, he relaxed and regressed to the adolescent asshole that he was.
“Why you banging on my door like the po-lice?” Stoney asked in a cracking tone. He was at the age where his voice was changing, so its pitch danced between high and low.
“Why you got the door locked, knowing how Daddy feels about that?” Pearl shot back.
“Oh … we was just in here playing video games for money, and I didn’t want Sandra busting in. You know how she feels about gambling,” Stoney said as if it were that simple. It was clearly a lie, and Pearl knew it.
“Then how come it smells like chocolate Thai in here?” Pearl pushed passed him and stepped in the room. Stoney wasn’t alone.
Sitting on the floor at the foot of his bed, trying futilely not to look suspicious, were Stoney’s two cohorts, Raheem and Domo. They were two kids from Newark who he had met when he’d gone away to basketball camp, and they’d ended up developing a friendship outside of sports. If you looked up the phrase Project Nigga in a dictionary, you’d likely find a picture of Raheem. He was a pudgy kid who wore his hair in thick, neglected dreads. Hygiene had never been one of Raheem’s strong suits, and even when he was wearing clean clothes, he still looked like he could stand a good bath. Pearl didn’t too much care for him because he was always begging. Raheem was the type of nigga who never brought anything to the table but always wanted a taste of whatever was being served.
Domonique, aka Domo, was only a step or two up the ladder as far as Pearl was concerned. He was a dark-skinned youth who didn’t say much but watched everything. He carried himself a little neater than Raheem, but he still had that same hood nigga mentality and was always looking for a come-up. Domo was only a year or so older than Stoney, but the way Pearl heard it, he was involved in some very adult things. Like the rest, he was a degenerate and more likely to catch a lengthy prison bid than finish high school, but Pearl rocked with him because he
looked out for her little brother. No matter what type of gangster shit he was into on the other side of the Hudson, he never brought it with him when he came to hang out with Stoney.
Pearl looked around the room at the faces of all three of the youngsters and shook her head when she noticed how red all their eyes were. “Now I know y’all know better than to be getting high in Big Stone’s crib.”
“That ain’t weed. Domo was smoking a Black & Mild,” Stoney lied.
Pearl looked at Domo, who happened to be the poorest liar of the trio. When he averted his eyes, she knew she had them. “Bullshit. Y’all are high as hell. I know you’ve been in here smoking, and if y’all don’t cut me in, I’m telling Sandra.”
Stoney and his older sister stood there, eyes locked in a battle of wills. He was weighing whether or not he should come clean or continue to try to bluff her. Pearl was generally supercool as far as big sisters went, but he also knew how cutthroat she could be when it came to getting what she wanted. There was no doubt in his mind that Pearl would make good on her threat and tell Sandra, and that was the last thing he wanted. He was already in the doghouse for getting suspended from school, but Sandra hadn’t told his father yet. If she found out about the weed, she likely would, and he could expect an epic beatdown when his father arrived back in the States. Stoney gave Raheem the nod, and he reluctantly produced their weed stash and broke Pearl off a few buds.
“Why you gotta be in here trying to extort us?” Stoney asked with an attitude.
“You need to be glad I’m just banging you for a few buds and not convincing Daddy to check your ass into a treatment program,” Pearl shot back. “Since when did you start smoking weed, Stoney?”
“I don’t … not really. This is only my second time trying it,” Stoney lied.
“Well, don’t let there be a third time.” She wrapped her buds in a piece of loose-leaf paper and tucked it into her bra. “Stoney, all you ever talk about is how you want to play pro basketball one day. How do you think it’s going to affect your draft stock if you can’t pass the urine test?”
“As long as Stoney keeps scoring the way he does, he won’t have to worry about it,” Raheem answered for him. “When you’re a star player on a team, they always tell you before you gotta drop a piss sample.”
“Nigga, you sound stupid. You’re the oldest one out of this little crew, but you got the least amount of sense!” Pearl snapped. “Stoney”—she turned her attention back to her little brother—“I’m going to let it slide this time, but if I catch you getting high again, I’m telling on you.”
Stoney sucked his teeth. “Dang, Pearl, why you riding me like that?”
“Because I want you to have a future and not end up like some bum-ass corner nigga.” She cut her eyes at Raheem and Domo.
“A’ight, you got it,” Stoney agreed. He just wanted her out of his face and his room.
Pearl had barely cleared the room before Stoney slammed the door shut and locked it again. She shook her head sadly, thinking about the menace her brother was growing up to be. Big Stone paid top dollar for them to have the best of everything, from clothes to education. She was no angel and got into her fair share of mischief, but the things Stoney did were borderline criminal. Big Stone or Sandra would jump in his ass whenever he got it trouble, but it still didn’t seem to deter him. He had an unhealthy fascination with the streets, and Pearl couldn’t say she blamed him, considering who their father was.
Pearl hated to come down on Stoney, but from time to time he needed it. Everything from school to sports had always come naturally to him, so he sometimes took them for granted. Stoney was not only a great athlete, but he was also a genius. He tested so high, normal private schools were no longer challenging enough, and Big Stone was paying a ton of money for him to attend a specialized school for the gifted. He was a kid who literally had the whole world at his fingertips, and all he to do was reach out and grab it.
Pearl went into her bedroom and peeled off her uniform. She held up her white shirt and examined the bloodstains. It was ruined, and she’d likely have to throw it out. She had a good mind to kick Kate’s ass again because of it. On the bright side, the school hadn’t called about the incident, which meant Kate hadn’t told on her, and that kind of surprised Pearl. She thought for sure the prissy white girl was going to snitch, but apparently she misjudged her. She almost respected Kate for keeping her mouth shut. She was still a royal bitch, but at least she wasn’t a rat.
After tossing her skirt into the laundry hamper and trashing her shirt, she went across the hall into the bathroom and took a hot shower. When she had scrubbed the day’s grit off her, she went back into her bedroom to put on some comfortable clothes. She grabbed her favorite sweat pants and was about to slip them on when she remembered that Knowledge was downstairs, waiting to see her. A devilish grin crossed her face, and she tossed the sweats back onto the bed and put on something more appropriate.
* * *
The game room was located in the basement of the brownstone. This was where Big Stone and his boys went to unwind or watch sporting events. There was a ridiculously large plasma television dominating nearly an entire wall, a pool table, and a bunch of old-school arcade games set up throughout the basement. Pearl had spent many hours down there, trying to conquer the prehistoric games, but she hadn’t had much luck on anything other than Ms. Pac-Man.
As she neared the bottom of the stairs, she could hear the soft whispers of Maxwell coming through the surround-sound speakers. When she stepped into the basement, she could smell the sweet aroma of chronic floating in the air. In the center of the room, leaning over the pool table, a blunt dangling from his mouth, was the man her father trusted like a son, Knowledge.
Knowledge was a wiry youth, with skin so black that it sometimes looked blue in certain lights. He wore his hair in a low Caesar that was almost always covered by a crispy fitted cap. That day he was sporting a red St. Louis Cardinals cap turned to the back. As usual he was wearing a fresh white T-shirt that looked like he’d starched and pressed it before he came out of the house. The muscles in his tattooed forearm bulged as he stretched the length of the pool table, trying to get just the right angle for his shot.
Pearl stood there watching him, trying to keep her thoughts pure. Knowledge was gorgeous, but also off-limits. Even if there wasn’t an age difference between them, Pearl doubted if she could get him to bite. Big Stone’s dog only bit at his command.
Knowledge had been under Big Stone since he was about twelve years old. He was a neighborhood kid with no father and a mother who smoked up every dollar they got. His mom, Genie, had been a dime back in the day, so it wasn’t uncommon to see her keeping time with whoever was on top at the moment. Then the eighties rolled and crack hit, and it was all downhill from there. Like so many others, Genie had fallen victim to the pipe and in under a year had gone from a diva to a dud.
Being that Genie spent the majority of her time high, Knowledge was free to run wild from an early age. From the time he had gotten his hands on his first gun, he’d proven he was a hungry dog and nobody’s food was off-limits. It was his wild-ass antics that had brought him to the attention of one of Big Stone’s lieutenants—he robbed one of their stash spots. He was local, so it wasn’t hard for Big Stone’s people to find him and snatch his ass up. Big Stone expected him to be afraid or at the very least apologetic, but he was neither. The boy was either too stupid to be afraid or he just didn’t give a fuck. Most likely the latter.
The kid had balls, and Big Stone admired that, but it didn’t change the fact that he had touched what belonged to him; an example had to be set. He found himself with two choices: break the little bastard’s legs or kill him. Neither appealed to Big Stone. He didn’t have a problem dealing death or punishment to adults, but he had a strict policy about harming children. Still, if he didn’t do something, he ran the risk of looking weak, and he couldn’t have that. After much contemplation, Big Stone came up with a third option. He wo
uld make Knowledge work off his debt. Until he had repaid him for the drugs he’d stolen, Knowledge belonged to Big Stone.
Knowledge started out small, running errands for Big Stone and some of the other guys. In time he would come to earn Big Stone’s trust enough for him to let him hit the block and start making money. Knowledge took to the game like a fish to water and soon became one of Big Stone’s most promising young stars. He was a hard worker, never came up short, and would do things without Big Stone having to ask. His natural leadership abilities allowed him to quickly climb the ladder of the organization and become one of Big Stone’s must trusted lieutenants. Knowledge was as loyal as a dog and would kill or die for Big Stone without even thinking about it, and Stone knew it, which is why he kept him so close.
“You know Daddy doesn’t like nobody to smoke weed in the house.” Pearl leaned against banister of the stairs.
Knowledge blew smoke into the air and dropped what was left of the weed in a near-empty Corona bottle. “He doesn’t allow you to smoke in the house.”
Pearl rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Sandra said you wanted to see me, so what’s up?”
“Yeah.” Knowledge bounced the cue ball off the nine but missed the shot. “What happened in school today?”
