Down With the King of the South 2

by Diamond Johnson

  His black ass couldn’t care less that I’d been out here all this fuckin’ time waiting for Shae to come out.

  “You said that shit an hour ago. What the fuck do y’all got to do to make this process move a little bit faster? Hire more people? Y’all trippin’, man,” I snapped.

  Lord knows I wanted to reach across that table and jack his ass up then tell him to go to the back and get her for me, but I had to be realistic. I was going to fuck around and be put in a jail cell too.

  “Calm down, sir. She’s coming,” he nonchalantly said.

  Because I knew that if I stayed in front of him and kept talking, I was going to do all the shit that the voices in my head were telling me to do, so I walked away. I didn’t sit my ass down, though. The whole time, my phone was blowing up with Mahogany calling, Shae’s grandmother, and her ole boy. They were all wanting to know if she had gotten released yet, but she hadn’t, so I didn’t answer the phone for any of them.

  Almost ten minutes had gone by, and I was about to ask the cop again what the fuck was going on, but the doors had finally opened. Two women walked out first, and then I saw Shae. She didn’t look shit like she looked when she left this morning. Her hair was straight when I last saw her. How the fuck that shit was now curly and pulled back in a bun was beyond me. She was still in the same clothes from earlier, but the top was wrinkled. Her eyes were red along with her nose.

  She walked with her arms crossed as if she was hugging herself, and I could see the plastic bag that she was holding onto, which housed her belongings. From what I could see, her cell phone and wallet were inside. I watched her as she scanned the room for me with her eyes, and then they finally landed on me. Instantly, she dropped her head in shame.

  I walked over and pulled her into me. Her head crashed onto my chest, letting out every emotion that she felt.

  “He could… have still… been hereee. She killed him. She killed my baby, Miamii,” she cried into my chest.

  I didn’t know what the fuck she was talking about, but I didn’t ask any questions. I let her have her moment. For almost five minutes, I stayed wrapped up with her, and when her cries finally stopped, I gently pulled away. I examined her face just to make sure that physically she was alright, and when I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, we walked out together. My car was the first car in the row, and once we neared it, I popped the locks and helped her get inside.

  The moment my ass hit the seat, and I was backing out, my phone started buzzing in my lap. It was Shae’s grandmother calling me.

  “Here, this for you,” I said and passed her the phone.

  When she saw the name on the screen, she released a sigh, brought her hand up to scratch her hair, and laid the phone in her lap.

  “I don’t feel like talking to her,” she announced.

  “Shorty, right now, it ain’t what you feel like doing. She’s been calling me since I called her to let her know what was going on. Talk to her and let her know that you’re alright. You going to worry her to death,” I said.

  I could tell that she didn’t want to, but she ended up answering the phone and putting it to her ear. At the same time, I hopped on the main road, ready to jump on the turnpike after a couple of lights, so I could take us home.

  “Hey, Ma,” Shae said.

  Instantly, all I heard was a bunch of yelling from her grandma. I couldn’t make out shit that she was saying, but I did know that Shae was getting her ass cursed out. I liked the fact that no matter how grown Shae was, she still had enough respect not to go toe to toe with her folks. At the end of the day, she may not be the one who birthed her, but she was damn sure the one who raised her. That and the fact that she was also her elder.

  “Yes, ma’am… noo… okay. Yeah, I love you too,” she dryly said, and then handed me back the phone.

  She laid her head back on the headrest with her arm covering her eyes.

  “You ready to tell me why you went barging into that lady’s shit? I had been calling Manny and trying to get his side of the story, but his ass was too fuckin’ scary to even answer the phone and face me. Fuck is up with you, Shae? You don’t know what that lady had in her house. She could have had guns, knives, anything in that house to kill your ass with. Shorty, they charging your ass with home invasion and destruction of property. Make this shit make sense,” I said.

  I was staring at her every few seconds because she was trippin’.

  “I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to go home,” she had the nerve to say.

  “You don’t got a fuckin’ choice! Yo, you realize that it’s almost midnight, and I just bonded your ass out of jail, right? Respect me enough to tell me what the fuck happened, given the fact that I could have chosen to let your ass it there until morning!” I spat.

  “Then my daddy would have come, nigga!” she yelled.

  “But you didn’t fuckin’ call your daddy, you called me! You want something to eat before I jump on this fuckin’ turnpike?” I asked, and she shook her head no.

  I’ll laugh about this shit later. I was right in the middle of laying her ass out, yet I was checking to see if she was hungry.

  “Don’t do no shit like that, yo. Don’t wave no other nigga in my face, even if it is your daddy. You felt comfortable enough to call me, so that’s what you did. I ain’t asking you to do shit but tell a nigga what happened. What made you do what you did?” I asked, this time in a calmer approach.

  She sighed and removed her arm from covering her face, but she still didn’t face me. She was looking out of the window.

  “I went to the church by the cemetery because I just wanted to pray. I was almost out the door when one of Vonte’s classmates stopped me. Her name is Olivia. We talked, she told me how she knew Vonte, and then the conversation switched to her talking about Taylor and the car crash. She told me that a month after Vonte died, she heard Taylor come into the church, praying and screaming about how she was sorry for taking Vonte’s bag. Crazy because I didn’t know shit about that girl, but I took her word. That girl could have been lying to me, but I still took my ass down to Taylor’s mother’s house. She didn’t want to let me in, so instantly, I felt like she was trying to protect her daughter.

  “Miami, I was too fuckin’ angry and riled up to just turn around, so I barged inside. The moment I stepped foot in that door, I knew I was going to jail, but I didn’t care. My main focus was on finding that bag. I searched everywhere for it. So, now I’m getting even angrier because I’m starting to feel like maybe Olivia was just lying to me and was saying that shit to get a reaction out of me. That’s until I saw the trunk that was under her bed. I was able to drop it to the floor, and the handle broke, so everything went flying out, along with Vonte’s bag. And this,” she said, and her voice cracked.

  She went into the clear bag that she had and pulled out the two inhalers. I hadn’t even realized that she had that all this time.

  “It all comes down to this. I can’t hold, kiss, and love on my baby anymore, all because of the simple fact that he didn’t have this. I lost my fuckin’ son because of her sick ass child, yet they lock me up! They should have locked that bitch up!” she cried and shoved the dashboard.

  I ain’t ever in my life seen Shae this pissed. I let her have it, though, because I knew that she needed it. “I was ready to be a fuckin’ grandmother to a baby that wasn’t even my son’s. That bitch came into Vonte’s hospital room that night, and she cried over my baby, knowing good and damn well that she put her there. Miami, she better be lucky that she died in that car accident or else I would have killed her and that baby with my bare fuckin’ hands. I swear to God I would have,” she cried and broke down.

  At the same time, I pulled the car into the driveway. When I say she broke down, I mean she broke down. Shit fucked me up too, and I ended up wiping a tear that had fallen from my eyes too. It felt like we were back at square one with this. I shut the car off and then came around and helped her out. Like she was incapable of walking,
I held her in my arms, carried her up the driveway, and I used my free hand to unlock the door, letting the both of us inside.

  I shut off the alarm seconds into us walking inside, and I didn’t make any other stops; I just carried her up the stairs and into the master bathroom. I stood her on her feet, only so I could start the bath water for her. I was pretty sure she felt dirty after sitting up in jail all night. I put in her favorite bubble bath, as the water filled up, I went over and helped her out of her clothes.

  Once all her clothes were removed, and the water had filled up, I lifted her again and set her down in the water. She drew her knees to her chest as she stared off into space. For about five minutes, we didn’t say shit to each other. The only sound in the room was me grabbing her sponge, putting her body wash on it, and washing her body for her.

  “You think I’m crazy? Be honest with me,” she finally asked.

  She was looking at me with eyes that pleaded for me to say that she wasn’t.

  “I don’t think you’re crazy for missing your son, shorty. Personally, I think any mother who loves her kid would wild the fuck out and often times have to question their sanity. On the other hand, there are times when I feel like you’re missing a few screws, yo,” I joked, getting her to laugh.

  “You love me, though,” she reminded me.

  “Sure do. You, my daughter, and my son,” I said with my hand on her stomach.

  “Please! That’s happy weight. You make me happy,” she said with a small smile on her face.

  “I ain’t saying you got a gut, shorty. You know exactly what I’m saying,” I let her know.

  She rolled her eyes and ignored me.

  Giovonni “Trip” Young

  Over the years, I done had some strange ass visits, but nothing topped this one. I wouldn’t even call it strange; just different, you know? More like shocking, since I feel like that’s more fitting for the situation. I was nervous because I knew who was out there waiting for me. I was dreading this day, but at the same time, I was kind of looking forward to it too. I barely slept last night because all I could think about was how this morning’s visit was going to unfold.

  I was walked out by one of the correctional officers, which wasn’t Raynell because this was her off weekend. I spotted my ole girl in the back, and Maya was sitting next to her. I took my time walking over to them both because I was nervous. I ain’t never in my life have to face no shit like this because Vonte was always the only child that I knew. It was only so much slow walking that I could do before I finally reached the table.

  I kissed my mama on her forehead and waved at Maya, who gave a small wave back. First thing that I noticed about her was that she was really tiny. Granted, Krystal was small when she was younger, but damn, the little girl looked kind of malnourished. She was adorable, though. The picture that her bitch ass mama had shown me didn’t do any justice because she was a doll in person. I then took notice of the old ass braids in her hair. Crazy how her hair looked this way, but the last time Krystal was here, she’d literally looked as if she’d just left the hair salon.

  I couldn’t tell how her clothes fit her because she was sitting, but I knew that the shirt that she had on hadn’t been washed because there were stains on it. It was only ten in the morning, and those stains were old. I was almost embarrassed that this was my supposed child, and she was out here looking like this.

  My eyes left Maya, and they landed on my mama, who looked pissed off about something. Not only did she look pissed, but she looked sleep deprived as well. There were dark circles under her eyes, and I didn’t know if her eyes were red because she was tired or if she’d been previously crying. She gave me a look that screamed that she didn’t want to be here.

  “The results came back for the test. She’s indeed yours,” my mama let me know.

  It wasn’t shit to have a DNA test done. I didn’t speak to Krystal not one time about any of this. The day she left here, I let my ole girl know what was going on. Although she didn’t want to get involved, she jumped right on it. The judge was able to order the paternity test, and today, my ole girl hit me with the results. Now that I knew she was mine, I didn’t even know how to feel. I wasn’t happy, sad, angry, or any of that.

  I wasn’t shocked that Maya belonged to me because although she looked more like Krystal, I could see bits of me in her, like her nose, her eyes, even her ears. She looked a little bit like Vonte when he was her age, just the girl version. I could sense hostility and annoyance coming from my ole girl, so I spoke up on that shit.

  “What’s your problem, man? I haven’t seen you in months. I would think that you would be happy to see me,” I said, and she sucked her teeth.

  “Giovonni, ask me where this little girl’s mother has been since we all had to meet up for the paternity test. She came up with some bullshit ass excuse about needing to go and pay her light bill and how she doesn’t like to take Maya because it’s always crowded down there. That was damn near three weeks ago, Trip. I done called just about every fuckin’ hospital, jail, and her ass is nowhere to be found. I don’t even know where the bitch lives, so it’s not like I can go to an address. I’m calling her phone, but it’s going straight to voicemail. Maya is badly speech delayed, so she really isn’t much help.”

  The whole time my ole girl spoke, Maya’s head was down, resting on her arms. It was as if she didn’t even know where the fuck she was. That was another thing that I had picked up on from the moment I saw her. Something was definitely off; I just couldn’t put my finger on it yet. I shot out the address to my ole girl since I knew where Krystal stayed. Well, that’s the address where all her letters came from.

  “If she’s not there, I’m dropping her ass off somewhere. I didn’t sign up for this shit, Giovonni. I’m not even being mean, but it’s one thing to be a grandmother, and it’s a whole ’nother thing to take on the responsibly and be a full-time mom. I’ve been bringing Maya with me to work at the cafeteria because I don’t have money to pay for a babysitter. Her ass cries all night, and I’m changing the sheets of the bed every day because she’s still pissing in the bed. This was you and Krystal’s doing, not mine! I’m making ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck. She is another bill. Another bill that I cannot afford right now,” she vented.

  I would say that I hated she was saying all of this shit in front of Maya, but I swear that little girl wasn’t even paying us any attention. Physically, she was there, but her mind was on a whole other planet. I kept wondering what the hell that was all about.

  “Fuck is you saying? That’s my child, Ma. I can’t take care of her while I’m here, so this is where you gotta step in. Fuck are you going to do? Put her out on the fuckin’ streets? She’s five, yo. She ain’t ask to be here!” I yelled.

  “And I didn’t ask to be in this ghetto ass situation. You should have thought about your predicament before you went fuckin’ on bitches, knowing that you are in no condition to be anybody’s father. I won’t drop her off in the fuckin’ streets, but I’ll take her somewhere,” she snapped.

  If she wasn’t my mama, I would have slapped the shit out of her. She had some fucked-up ways about her, but I never thought that she would be so fuckin’ mean and heartless to the point that she would pretty much say fuck her own grandchild. When I was free, and Vonte was younger, she didn’t mind watching him on days that Shae was either working or in school, and I would be somewhere running the streets. What the fuck was so different now? It probably had to be that back then, I would front her a little money to keep Vonte. Now that I was locked up and didn’t have shit to give her, I guess her outlook on being a grandparent changed.

  “Ask Shae for me, Ma, and—”

  “Tuh!” she hissed, throwing her hands up in the air and rolling her eyes at me like I was crazy for even letting something like that come out of my mouth.

  “Please! Are you serious? What are you doing in here, sniffing coke?” her stupid ass asked me.

  “Man, say what you want. I know
that lady better than anybody else. She won’t do it for me, but she’ll damn sure do it off the strength of this being Vonte’s sister. Shae is not going to just say fuck a child like that, no matter how much she hates me. If you’re able to reach out to Shae, do that for me. I won’t ask you to do shit else for me, Ma. After this, you don’t even have to come back down here and see me, but just don’t drop her off to anybody. Do that for me,” I all but begged her.

  It meant so much to me to have Maya somewhere safe because I already put her in a situation where she was another black child whose father was either incarcerated or dead. I figured that having her somewhere safe, where she could lay her head at night was the least that I could do. I knew Shae’s heart, and I couldn’t see her saying fuck Maya, who like I said, was Vonte’s little sister.

  “Yeah, whatever you say! Maya, meet your daddy,” she nastily spat and stood up from the table.

  Maya didn’t respond. She was in her own little world. My ole girl all but snatched her up, and the two of them walked out the doors together, never once even telling me bye. My eyes stayed trained on Maya the entire time. She walked on her tippy toes, trying to keep up with my mama. What was keeping her from catching up was those big ass jeans that she had on along with those little ass shoes. I could kill Krystal right now for even having our daughter looking crazy like that. What the fuck was the purpose of her having a daughter if her dumb ass wasn’t going to take care of her?

  That hoe wanted to be put on the same level as Shae so badly that she was willing to birth a baby that she didn’t even want. My visit was up, so I stood up, and I was led back to my cell. Immediately as I got inside, it was as if a light bulb had gone off in my head. I remember Shae sent a letter to me a couple of years ago, and it had her job address on it. I tore this little ass cell up, looking for it.

  I had over ten years’ worth of letters from Shae that I had to go through, but I eventually found it. I usually didn’t pull my phone out during the day because it was too much of a risk, but because this was important to me, I ended up pulling the phone out. I took a picture of Shae’s work address and sent it to my mama. I let her know that she could drop Maya off there. I knew that I had a lot of nerve asking Shae to do some shit like this for me, but it was the only option that I had.