Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

by Brenda Hampton

  Armstrong appeared to be very attentive to what I was saying. He respected me more than he did Miguel, and I suspected that he appreciated my “honesty.”

  Armstrong waved us off. “Both of you, get to work. If I get anymore complaints, we’re all going to have a long, unpleasant talk. I hope Internal Affairs doesn’t get involved and any officer who gives this precinct a bad name is going to have his head on the table. Got it!”

  We both nodded and turned to leave. I straightened the cap on my head and Miguel slid his silver framed glasses over his eyes. After that, we smiled at each other and jetted.

  We were no more than two blocks away from the station, and there was trouble. A man and woman were outside of a parked having a heated argument. We watched as he grabbed her by the arm, shaking her. She used her purse to whack him upside the head. It looked like a robbery attempt to me, but Miguel insisted that it was a disputing couple.

  “Man, leave them alone,” he said. “We got bigger fish to fry.”

  I placed a piece of Juicy Fruit gum in my mouth and slowly drove up next to the parked car and flashed my lights. Both of them turned their heads and looked in our direction.

  “Is there a problem,” I asked, while looking at the lady. She snatched her arm away from the man and rolled her eyes.

  “No, nothing I can’t handle.”

  “Are you sure?” I said. “I can always get out of the car and handle your business for you.”

  The man spoke up. “She cool. We just had a li’l disagreement, that’s all.”

  “Well, chill. Then get in the car and go home. That kind of stuff don’t look good out here on the streets.”

  Both of them nodded and the woman walked over to the passenger’s side of the car to get in. I drove off and saw Miguel look at his watch.

  “There goes five minutes of wasted time down the drain. They gon’ go home, fight some more and be fucking by the time the sun goes down. I get tired of wasting my time on these domestic violence calls, especially since some of these bitches know what what’s up with these knucklehead niggas they be dealing with.”

  “I agree, but that’s what we get paid for. You just never know when you might be saving somebody’s life.”

  Miguel looked out of the window and shrugged. I slammed on the brakes and sent us flying forward.

  He quickly turned his head. “Man, what the fuck?”

  I snapped my finger and smiled. “I forgot to tell you about Avena.”

  “Who? Who the hell is Avena?”

  “You know, that pretty chick with the big ass.”

  “You mean, the non-fucking ho who I still have nightmares about?”

  “Yes, yes, that’s the one. Man, you should have seen how fast I gathered my shit and left! The foreplay started off cool, but when we got to her bedroom, I put my dick inside of her and she went wild. I pumped three to four times and she had an orgasm. When I tried to get my shit off, she barely let me finish. I asked for some head and she damn near chewed my dick up. That was the first time I ever had to pull out of a woman’s mouth.”

  We cracked the hell up and I drove off.

  “I told you, didn’t I?” he yelled. “What planet did she come from?”

  “I don’t know, but what a waste? I damn near broke my neck running to the door. I was so out of it that I tripped and left the condom in my pocket. Cydney saw it and my ass got busted.”

  “I know, she told me,” he laughed.

  I stopped at the red light and cocked my head back. “Told you? When? When did you talk to Cydney and what did she say?”

  “Man, it was…yesterday. I called to tell you that I wasn’t coming in and she asked me about the condom. She said you told her I was playing a joke on you. I agreed that I’d done it.”

  I reached over to pat Miguel on his back. “Thanks for having my back. I was meaning to call and let you know what was up, but I forgot.”

  “No problem. I took care of it for you. Like I always do.”

  Later that day, we were cruising the streets in downtown St. Louis and got a call about a shooting on Cass Ave. When we got to the crime scene, a seventeen year old was lying on the ground with a bullet lodged in his shoulder. He was squirming around in pain, and after I rushed the dispatcher for an ambulance, I kneeled down next to him to find out what had happened. Miguel was talking to several people standing around, but as usual, nobody saw nothing.

  My attention remained focused on the teenager. “Listen, man, tell me what happened. You’re losing a lot of blood and I got an ambulance on the way to help you.”

  He painfully held his shoulder and squeezed his eyes together. “Ced and one of his boys shot me. I got jacked for some of his money and he was upset.”

  “Where does Ced live?”

  The teenager told me, and as soon as the ambulance came, Miguel and I boldly made our way through the apartment complex to look for Ced.

  I knocked on the door and Miguel and I held our hands close to our holsters. The door came open, and routinely, it was always a female who opened the door with a baby on her side.

  “Is Ced here?” I asked.

  She moved aside and we walked in. The apartment was a mess. Filthy walls, busted up furniture and it reeked of piss. When this big black dude with nappy dreads came out, I assumed he was Ced.

  I pulled my gun and aimed it at him. “Come sit down on the couch and tell me what just happened.”

  “I’on know what you talk’in bout,” he said, standing with his hands in his pockets.

  This time, I shouted. “I said, come sit down on the couch and tell me what the fuck happened! Also, get your hands out of your pockets!”

  He gritted his teeth and refused to obey my order. “And I said…”

  Miguel fired and blasted a bullet right into the wall next to him. Ced ducked to move out of the way. The woman started screaming and the baby cried. “Get down on the motherfucking ground,” Miguel yelled. “Both of you!” He quickly grabbed the baby and put her in a play pen. I covered him. “Isaac, you be too damn nice to these fools. Now, my partner asked you what the hell just happened! We need some answers, nigga! Speak up!”

  Ced moseyed over to the couch with his hands in the air. “One of my other boys shot that punk for smokin’ up his paper. He gone and said he wat’en comin’ back. Can’t tell you where he is cause I don’t know.”

  Miguel handcuffed Ced and I cuffed the woman. As they lay on the floor, we stepped over them and slowly made our way through the apartment. The rest of the place was empty, but when I noticed a stack of money on the dresser, I made a notion for Miguel to check it out. He went over to it and picked up the stack. He flipped through it and nodded.

  “About two, maybe three,” he whispered.

  Our rule was to only tamper if it was more than five g’s so I moved my head from side to side.

  “Just a couple of hundred, okay?” he whispered again.

  I nodded and Miguel counted out several bills for us to split. He then stuck them inside of his pants. We hurried back into the tiny living room, pulling both Ced and his woman from the floor.

  “What’s up with all this money, cuz?” I asked. “With money like this, I know there’s a stash of dope somewhere.”

  “That’s my girl’s money. She do hair and we’ve been saving for a new place.”

  “Is that right,” I said, looking around. “Yeah, you could surely use a new place. But, too bad it won’t be a place of your choice.”

  I shoved Ced to the door, and Miguel waited around so the chick could call a neighbor to come get her baby. Shortly thereafter, a friend came for the child. In the meantime, Ced and his down trick were hauled off to jail until we got to the bottom of where the money came from, and found out who was responsible for shooting the teenager. I was certain that once a search warrant had been issued, the two of them would go to jail for a long time. Then again, if Miguel and I ever got caught with our shenanigans, so would we.

  CYDNEY

  I cou
ld feel that things were starting to change even more between Isaac and me. I hadn’t seen or talked to him for two days, and normally, he’d always make his way home or, at least, call. His days away prompted me to give myself to Miguel once again. I felt horrible in the inside, but having sex with him wasn’t bad at all. During sex, everything was fine. It was afterwards when I felt guilty. Miguel always wanted to cuddle and talk, but I was always anxious to get the hell out of there. He insisted that he understood my pain, but nobody did. So for now, I was dealing with it the best way I knew how.

  Early Saturday morning, I rolled over in bed and Isaac wasn’t there. I didn’t expect for him to be, but I surely thought I’d hear from him by now. According to Miguel, Isaac was still alive so I wasn’t worried about him being in any major trouble. Having a busy day scheduled, I put on my gray sweatpants and an old family reunion T-shirt. I left my hair in rollers, but covered my head with a white scarf. I went into the kitchen to pour some orange juice and grabbed my clippers to do some work in my garden. As I passed by the stairs to the atrium, I heard loud snores. I slowly crept down the stairs and Isaac was lying on our contemporary sofa sound asleep. Hell, I didn’t even know he was home. I guess he’d gotten tired of sleeping in bed with me and that was fine by me. I headed back upstairs and made my way outside to the garden.

  After spending nearly two hours clipping, cutting, trimming and planting, I was exhausted. Sweat rolled down my face and back. The sun baked me with every minute that passed by. When I heard Isaac’s old race car start up, I looked by the garage and he was backing it into the driveway. He was shirtless, and had on a pair of cargo shorts that fell slightly below his knees. The shorts revealed his muscular and thick calves. He looked at me, and without saying one word, he turned his head. I got back to work on my garden, and he started to work on his car.

  Another hour had gone by; we carried on as if the other person didn’t even exist. I was in dire need of some cold water, so I dropped my tools and headed inside to get some. Before going inside, I stopped to ask Isaac if he wanted some too. He lifted his head from underneath the hood of his car.

  “Yes, thank you,” he said, wiping his sweaty forehead.

  My eyes searched his dirty and sweaty body. I hated to admit what it did to me. Too bad I was upset with him for staying away from home, and even though I said I was going to let him know how I felt about it, I’d changed my mind. The less hurt he knew I was, the better.

  Instead of water, I made both of us a tall glass of cherry Kool-Aid. And after popping a few grapes into my mouth, I picked up the glasses to take them outside. Just as I did, the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and it was my mother-in-law, Loretta. I knew she was calling to see if we were planning to attend the surprise birthday party for Isaac’s dad, so I answered.

  “Yes, Mama, we’re still coming,” I said.

  “Hello, dear. I was just calling to make sure. It’s still early, but I’m putting together some last minute preparations.”

  “Is there anything I can help you with? If so, please let me know.”

  “On your way, just stop by the grocery store and pick up an extra bucket of vanilla ice cream. We never seem to have enough ice cream. Oh, and don’t forget the candles. I always forget the candles.”

  “I won’t forget. If there’s anything else you can think of, let me know.”

  “Thanks, sweetheart. You’re such a wonderful daughter-in-law, and I love you for being so kind. I’m blessed and I know it.”

  Her words brought tears to my eyes. “Mama, I’ll see you later, okay?”

  “Where’s that son of mine? Let me speak to him.”

  “He’s outside working on that raggedy race car of his.”

  She laughed. “He’s been working on that car since he was sixteen years old. Don’t bother him. I’ll just see him when he gets here.”

  “Okay, but I’ll be sure to tell him that you called.”

  We ended our call and I headed back outside to give Isaac his glass of Kool-Aid. When I got there, I was surprised to see Miguel next to his car talking to him. It made me nervous, but I maintained my composure.

  “Hi, Miguel,” I said, handing the glass of Kool-Aid to Isaac. He thanked me. Miguel couldn’t pass up an opportunity to wrap his arms around me.

  “What’s up, Cydney,” he said. He squeezed me tight and kissed my cheek. I spoke back then quickly backed away to address Isaac.

  “Your mother called. She wanted to make sure we’re coming to your father’s surprise party. She wants us to bring ice cream and candles.”

  Isaac nodded and squinted from the bright sun shining in his face. His hands were covered with greasy motor oil and he reached them out at me.

  “Come here,” he said, playfully trying to grab me. I backed away and laughed.

  “You’d better go wash your hands if you want to touch me,” I said.

  “I am. Cause I for surely ain’t getting nowhere with this damn car.”

  Just a little playfulness between my husband and me made Miguel uncomfortable. I smiled at him and he shot me a fake smile. Afterward, I walked away and continued working in my garden.

  I was just about ready to wrap things up, when a thick thorn stuck me in my index finger. All I could see was a lot of blood dripping down my finger. I looked up, only to see that Isaac had given up on his car. Him and Miguel were still outside talking. I headed inside, while squeezing my finger to stop the bleeding.

  “Let me see it,” Isaac said. I stuck my finger out to him and he wiped it with a dry paper towel. He attempted to remove the thorn, but I pulled away.

  “Ouch, that hurts,” I said.

  “Then, be still.”

  He continued to doctor me up, and once he removed the thorn, he wiped my finger with another paper towel. He then placed the tip of my finger in his mouth and sucked it. I slowly pulled my finger away.

  “Thank you,” I said, doing my best not to look at Miguel.

  “It feels whole lot better now, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes. But a Band-Aid can take care of the rest.”

  I walked inside and went to the master bathroom to get a Band-Aid for my finger. Once I covered it, I saw Miguel standing right by the door.

  “You know my feelings are hurt, don’t you?” he said.

  “Well, I’m not trying to hurt your feelings, Miguel. Sorry if I did.” My eyes searched behind him for Isaac. “Would you mind going back outside? I don’t want Isaac getting suspicious.”

  “I told Isaac that I had to use the bathroom. He knows I might be a minute, but I thought I could come in here and sneak a little kiss.” He leaned in, but I pushed him back.

  “Not in my house, Miguel. I don’t play games like that.”

  “Game? This ain’t no game, baby. When you need me, I’m always here for you, so you definitely got to be there for me.”

  He leaned in again, and just to get him off my back, I gave him a tiny peck on the lips.

  “Aw, you can do better than that, Cydney. Give me one of those kisses you gave me the other night. Not on my dick, but on my lips.”

  My heart started to race. I was getting nervous. “Miguel, I can’t. Later, alright?”

  He ignored me and forced another kiss on me. Since I didn’t stop him, he got a bit more aggressive and started rubbing his hands all over my ass. When his hands went up my shirt and touched my breast, I pleaded for him to stop.

  “Please, Miguel. Not like this…not in my home. I’ll call you later, I promise.”

  Miguel ignored my demands. He backed me up to the wall and raised my T-shirt over my head. I couldn’t scream because any noise from me would alarm Isaac. Miguel knew that as well, and kept on touching all over me. He sucked my breasts, and once he had my nipples wet with his saliva, he backed up and snatched my sweat pants down to my knees. With a devious gaze in his eyes, he unbuckled his pants and unzipped them. I pleaded with him again.

  “Miguel, we can’t do this. Isaac has plenty of guns around here and
he wouldn’t think twice about using one if he walked in on this.”

  “Fuck Isaac, baby. Step out of your sweats so we can get this over with. The more time you waste, the riskier this gon’ get. I promise to make it quick.”

  At this point, all I could do was give Miguel what he wanted. I stepped out of my sweats, and after he put on a condom, he stepped up to me. He lifted me against the wall, inserted himself and pumped away. I straddled his waist, in total disbelief that this was happening.

  Miguel grinded hard and deep inside of me. “Come on, baby, work with me. You worked good for me the other night…I need for this pussy to make me come. You want me to come, don’t you?” Near tears, I slowly nodded. “Good.” He kissed my cheek. “I want you to come too.”

  I put forth a little more effort to make Miguel come, but I also knew he wanted me to talk dirty to him. He loved dirty talk and required it every time we got together.

  “Yeah, baby,” he said, stroking me fast. “Hit me with this good pussy. I want you to wet my magic stick and cum all over it.”

  “I’m coming,” I said, faking it. “Your magic stick about to get slippery wet, baby. Just keep fucking me. Please don’t stop fucking me.”

  I’d gotten rather loud, just so Miguel would speed up the pace and think I was into this. He closed his eyes and sucked in his bottom lip. As my backside pounded against the wall, I took a hard swallow and regretted ever giving myself to him. This had to be one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

  Once he came, he took a deep breath and lowered my trembling legs to the floor. I quickly stepped away from him and eased up my sweats. I stood in front of the mirror and placed the palm of my hands on the sink. While zipping his pants, Miguel came over to me and whispered in my ear.

  “That was sweet. I wished Isaac would’ve walked in on us and you should be wishing the same thing too. After all he’s done to you, I don’t know why you want to spare his feelings. If and when you need me again, though, you always know where to find me.” He smacked my ass and kissed my cheek. After he flushed the used condom down the toilet, he walked out.