by CJ Hudson
“You and yo’ dysfunctional-ass family.”
Tammy bit her tongue. She started to go there with Ivory, but knowing her past issues with her family, she let the comment slide, although she made a mental note to check Ivory about the snide remark later.
“Listen,” she said, getting back to her overly excited brother, “don’t worry about it. As long as Mama’s all right, everything’s cool.”
“But I ain’t never seen this cat before, have you?”
“Nah, but I trust Mama’s judgment. I can’t see her bringing somebody around the house who’s gonna do us harm. Just be cool. I’ll be there in a little bit.” After hanging up with Hakim, Tammy walked over and snatched the blunt back out of Ivory’s hand. “Let me get that. Your ass is babysitting.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“Oh, by the way,” remembered Tammy, “I need you to get me some pads with yo’ Rite Aid discount. It’s almost cramping time, girl.”
Ivory’s smile slowly faded.
“What? Don’t tell me you hit your discount limit again.”
“It ain’t nothing like that. Check this shit out. Darnell took me up there earlier so I could see my work schedule.”
Tammy rolled her eyes and popped her lips.
“Annnyway,” Ivory said, after staring at Tammy for a minute, “can you believe that they had the nerve to take me the fuck off the schedule?”
“What the fuck did you do for them to do that?” Tammy had an idea. The moment she looked over at Rite Aid when she and Ivory were coming from the store, she just knew that was going to come back to haunt her friend.
“That bitch-ass nigga Fred must’ve gone back and told my supervisor that he saw me at the store after I called in sick that day.”
“What the fuck does that nigga have against you?”
Ivory looked at Tammy like she had two heads. “What the fuck do you think? That nigga wants some of this pussy, and I won’t give him none.”
Tammy shook her head. “Typical ho-ass nigga,” Tammy spat.
“Tell me about it. Then when I got ready to leave, the punk-ass nigga was giggling like a bitch. I couldn’t take it no fucking more! I cussed his bitch ass out. Then the muthafucka acted like he was gon’ do something until Darnell came in and checked his ass. And when I asked my supervisor about my check, she was like, ‘We gon’ mail it to you.’ It don’t take a fucking genius to figure out that they’re firing my ass.”
“Damn, that’s fucked up.” After hitting the blunt once more, Tammy stood up and headed toward the door. “I got to go. I better get home and see what’s up with my moms and brother. They got into it this morning, and I know what happened earlier left a bad taste in his mouth.”
“A’ight, I’ll holla.”
Tammy left, hoping that she wouldn’t have to referee when she got home. But one thing was for sure. Janice Green was going to have to tell her who the hell this new man in her life was.
Chapter 8
Nancy’s face scrunched up from the pain of Samuel James’s ten-inch dick as it reshaped her womb. She loved black dick, but what her boss was doing to her was borderline torture. The two of them had been screwing on a regular basis for quite some time now, and Nancy had always found it enjoyable. But today, for reasons known only to him, Samuel wanted to rearrange her insides. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes as Samuel hammered her guts. With her legs resting on his shoulders, Nancy resembled a sideways V. Nancy looked at her boss with pleading eyes, silently telling him that she couldn’t take anymore. But instead of showing mercy, Samuel thrust himself deeper into her sex cave.
The sock that Samuel had stuffed in her mouth prevented her from screaming. The store had long since been closed, but he didn’t want to take the chance of someone coming back and hearing him banging Nancy’s back out. Just when Nancy thought she was about to pass out, Samuel’s body jerked, and he released a stream of semen inside of her. Exhausted, he fell to the side of her on the floor. Nancy lay there for a moment, stunned, and wondering why he’d chosen to punish her this way.
She glanced over and noticed that he wasn’t wearing his wedding ring. Maybe he’s mad at his wife and took that shit out on my pussy.
Arching her back so she could get a good look at his face, she stared into his eyes and saw nothing. His blank expression told her that his mind wasn’t even in the room. It seemed as if he were a hundred miles away. Nancy quickly stood up and put her pants back on. Every movement hurt as she tried to hurry up. The last thing she wanted was for him to get hard again and pummel her pink walls even more. After getting dressed, Nancy briskly walked toward the dressing room door. She looked back one more time and saw the same blank stare that she’d seen five minutes earlier. With pain slicing through her vagina at every step, Nancy walked out the door and headed for the bus stop.
* * *
By the time Tammy got home, Steve was gone. Hakim was still in his room with his door locked. He hadn’t come out since he’d realized that it was his mom and not his sister who was in the kitchen getting her freak on. Apparently, the thought of his mother having sex sickened him, and he would rather, for the time being, just be left alone.
Tammy walked into the house to find her mother sitting on the couch in her pink satin robe watching television. As soon as she laid eyes on her, thoughts of her bent over the table, getting serviced flooded her mind. It took everything in her not to throw up again.
“Hey, Ma,” she said, trying to avoid eye contact.
“Where you been? I was just about to call your cell phone. Did you have to work overtime or something?”
“I was just chilling with Ivory.”
“Hmmph,” Janice said, twisting up her lips. Although she had never tried to pick Tammy’s friends, she didn’t like her daughter hanging out with Ivory at all. In her mind, she was a bad influence on Tammy because she smoked weed. Little did she know that her daughter smoked more weed than half of the neighborhood. Tammy was very careful not to let her mother find out that she got high. It would kill her if she did.
“What, Ma?”
“I don’t know why you keep hanging out with that girl. You know damn well she smokes marijuana. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s smoking something else.”
“Ivory ain’t like that. Besides, she’s been a real good friend to me, and she has always shown you respect.”
Janice couldn’t deny that. Even though Ivory was as hood as they came, she did have the good sense to act civilized around her. The only way she found out about Ivory smoking weed was when a twenty sack dropped out of her jacket pocket while she was visiting one day. Janice got so mad that she told Ivory if she ever brought drugs into her house again, she would flush them down the toilet.
“Yeah, well, I just think you could hang out with a better class of people.” Just then, Hakim came walking down the stairs. “Well, well, well, look who decided to come out of hibernation,” Janice said.
“Whatever. Yo’ boyfriend still here?”
Janice glared at him.
“You got a boyfriend now, Mama? When did this happen?” Tammy teased.
“It happened a while ago, and the only reason I didn’t bring him around you guys earlier was because I wanted to make sure he wasn’t some kind of nutjob.”
Nah, you just wanted to make sure the nigga could fuck, Tammy thought.
Janice then walked up to her son and pulled him close to her. After hugging him tightly, she looked into his eyes. “I know you miss your father. And I’m sorry about the comment I made earlier this morning. But no matter what, you have to respect me. So don’t you ever, as long as you are black, talk about selling drugs in my house again.” She paused to let the severity of her words sink in. “Now, as far as the man you met in here earlier, Steve, he has been nothing but a perfect gentleman to me so far. I know he’s not your dad, but he works for me.”
Don’t you mean he works on you? Tammy thought.
“You want me to be happy, don’t you?”
she asked Hakim, looking directly into his eyes.
Hakim nodded solemnly.
“What about you, Tammy? Are you okay with this?”
“Mama, if you’re happy, then we’re happy,” she answered. The three of them engaged in a group hug. Tammy thought long and hard about telling her mother that she saw her getting her rocks off in the kitchen earlier. She would never tell her that in front of Hakim, but once he was out of sight, all bets were off. Before she could decide what she was going to do, the doorbell rang.
“I got it,” Hakim said as he made his way toward the door.
While he was gone, Tammy figured that she would say something to her mother about her indiscretion. The last thing she wanted was for Hakim to walk in and catch his mother getting screwed. She was only 42 years old, so her freak light hadn’t gone out yet, but still, she was going to have to be more careful.
“Mama, I need to talk to you about something.”
“What’s on your mind, baby?”
“Well, earlier today—”
“Ya friend is back,” Hakim said as he came walking back into the room.
Steve followed him with a nervous look on his face. “Uh, I forgot my cigarettes.”
“Hakim, do Mama a favor and go get that pack of cigarettes out of my room. I took them upstairs earlier this evening.” While Hakim ran the errand for his mother, Janice took the opportunity to introduce Steve to her daughter. “Steve, this is my daughter, Tammy.”
“Nice to meet you,” Steve said with a smile. He stuck out his hand so that Tammy could shake it.
The minute his skin touched hers, a chill ran through her body. She cocked her head to the side. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” she asked.
“I don’t think so,” he said, looking at Janice with a confused look on his face.
Tammy continued to stare at Steve for a brief moment before shrugging her shoulders. “Sorry. I must be thinking of someone else.”
Tammy then said good night and walked up to her room in deep thought. She racked her brain as she closed her door behind her, thinking that she was sure she had seen Steve’s face somewhere before.
* * *
When Nancy woke up the next morning, her womb was so sore that it hurt her to even move. Her legs felt like jelly. When her cell phone buzzed, she looked at it, saw that it was her job, and gave it the finger. She decided on the bus ride home from work the night before that she wasn’t going to go to work the next day. She knew that Tammy was off and that they were going to be shorthanded, but she gave less than a fuck about that. All she wanted to do was lie around the house and rest her aching clit. Then, when she thought she was properly healed up, she would give Mike’s friends a call and see if he wanted to make a deal so she could get some more blow.
With great difficulty, Nancy crawled out of bed. Her growling stomach called to her for some much-needed nourishment, but with the way she was feeling, cooking was definitely not an option. Not that she had much to cook anyway. Her cocaine habit kept her refrigerator hollow. When Nancy started doing cocaine, she, like every other addict, was only a casual user. But as her urge to get high strengthened, her willingness to be responsible weakened. Pretty soon, she was using bill money to support her habit. In order to keep from getting evicted and still be able to get high, Nancy started prostituting her body for product.
After taking a painful piss, Nancy walked to her kitchen and almost passed out when she saw her father sitting at her kitchen table reading a newspaper. Sitting on the table in front of him was a bag from McDonald’s. Nancy glared at him as he smiled back at her.
“What the hell are you doing in my house?” she asked with scorn. She didn’t even bother to ask how he got in, because in his line of work, he could easily access a residence.
“Now, honey, is that any way to talk to your father?” he shot back.
“Father? Oh, is that what they’re calling what you are nowadays?”
The comment stung him, but Nancy didn’t care. In her eyes, he had put her through so much pain and disappointment throughout the years that she would never be able to catch up. She still got pissed off thinking about how he’d disappointed her on her sixteenth birthday. She was supposed to have a birthday party, but at the last minute, he canceled it because he wanted to spend the night with some tramp. Seeing the pain in his eyes gave her a small sense of satisfaction.
“Come on, honey, let’s not fight. Here, I brought you some breakfast.”
Nancy slowly and reluctantly reached down and picked up the bag. Under normal circumstances, she would not have accepted anything from him. No gift he bought would ever be able to make up for the early years of abandonment. But with hunger pains hitting her like a Mike Tyson jab, she had little choice. Nancy’s father then jumped up and walked around the table.
“Have a seat,” he said as he pulled the chair out for her. After she sat down, he went back around the table, sat down, and smiled.
“What are you smiling about?” she asked.
“I was thinking . . .” he started. “Remember when you were ten years old and we took you to the zoo? They were giving free elephant rides that day, and we stood in line for an hour and a half just so you could get a ride.”
The memory from yesteryear brought a slow smile to Nancy’s face. “Yeah, I remember.”
“You were scared at first, but when that boy who was smaller than you went before you, you arched your back up and decided that no kid that small was going to outdo you.”
Nancy let out a slight chuckle. The thought of that day brought a little joy to her heart. It was one of the few times she could remember when her father actually had time for her. Another happy thought went through her mind.
“What about the time we went to Cedar Point and got on that roller coaster? You tried to act brave, but I could tell that you were scared.”
“Scared? I wasn’t scared,” her father said.
“Oh, please. You were screaming louder than I was.”
For the next twenty minutes, Nancy and her father caught up on old times. It was twenty of the most enjoyable minutes of Nancy’s life. That was, until her father’s cell phone rang. As soon as he finished the conversation, he pressed end and looked at Nancy. She immediately knew what was about to happen and got mad.
“Let me guess. Your ass is about to leave, right?”
Nancy’s father rubbed his brow. He’d known all along that Nancy would react like this when it was time for him to leave. Never mind the fact that they hadn’t seen each other in three months. Forget about the fact that the nature of his job prevented him from being the father Nancy so desperately wanted and needed. The father who was around all the time.
“I’m sorry, but yes, I do have to go.”
Nancy then let out a disgusted laugh. Shaking her head, she got up, walked to her bedroom, and slammed the door.
Chapter 9
Tammy was sleeping peacefully in her bed, dreaming about R&B singer Usher. Just as they were about to climb into bed together, her mother threw open the bedroom door and yelled into her room.
“Tammy, get the damn phone!”
Still half asleep, Tammy reached over and picked up the cordless phone sitting on her nightstand. “I got it.” When Tammy was sure that her mother had hung up the phone, she spoke. “Hello?”
“What you doing?” Ivory asked her.
“I was asleep until your silly ass called and woke me the hell up. Why the hell did you call the house phone anyway?”
“I called yo’ cell phone first, but it went straight to voicemail.”
Tammy got up and looked around. After a few seconds, she spotted her phone on her dresser. It was unplugged, so she knew instantly that her battery was dead. “Damn,” she whispered to herself. She plugged it in and then plopped back down on her bed. “My damn battery is dead,” she told Ivory.
“Oh, no wonder. Hey, what you doing later today?”
“Shit, I don’t know. Why?”
“I want
you to roll up to Rite Aid wit’ me and pick up my check.”
“I thought they were going to mail you your check.”
“Cookie called me this morning and told me that they came in today. I’m going up there to get my damn ends.”
“You’re crazy,” Tammy said as she started laughing.
“Crazy, my ass. I’m serious as a fucking heart attack. Them muthafuckas ain’t never gon’ say my shit got lost in the mail.”
“That’s a place of business. They wouldn’t do anything like that.”
“I ain’t taking no damn chances with my dough. You rolling with me or what?”
“I guess so. I don’t have anything to do today.”
“Even if you did, you betta cancel that shit. You know we down for each other.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll call you in a couple of hours.”
After hanging up, Tammy went back to sleep, hoping that she could continue her romantic dream with a singing superstar.
She woke up exactly one hour later. She didn’t bring it up when she talked to Ivory earlier because she didn’t want to give her crazy friend any ideas, but she hoped like hell that Ivory wasn’t going up to Rite Aid to start some bullshit. The last thing she needed was to be caught up in some dumb shit before she started school.
This thought made another cross her mind. She still hadn’t told her mother that she had filled out and sent back the application. She made a mental note to do that before she walked out of the house.
After taking a quick shower, Tammy jogged down the stairs and went into the kitchen. She cringed as the thought of her mother and Steve quickly ran through her mind.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” her mother asked when she noticed the look on her face.
“Huh? Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about something. Where is Hakim?” she asked.
“He told me that he was going to the gym to play basketball.”
“Oh. Well, there’s been something I’ve wanted to tell you for the last couple of days, but things have been getting in the way of me doing it.” Tammy walked over to the sink, where her mother was washing dishes, and grabbed her by the hand. “Come and sit down for a minute.”
