Durty South Grind

by L. E. Newell

  Sparkle grimaced slightly before he nodded. “You get their phone numbers?”

  “I left a note on the coffee table.”

  Sparkle eyed the table and gave him a quick nod. “Thanks again, dude. I’ll holler at them niggas sometime today. They ain’t going nowhere. Shit, I’ve got to go buy myself some clothes; can’t keep wearing your stuff.”

  “Yea, especially since yo ass done hit up twice over here,” he said with a good-natured smirk. “Oh, yeah, before I forget, Johnny said something about he had a thang set up for the rack-em thang ya’ll used to work.”

  Sparkle snorted. “Rack-em thang, huh?”

  “Yeah, the rack-em thang,” JJ repeated.

  Sparkle nodded with a smile. “That’s my boy, aight, figuring that I want to get into stuff right off the bat. If he call back while I’m gone, tell him I said that we can do whatever; just like old times after I get myself straight.”

  He finished his meal and went into the bathroom to get himself ready to leave.

  A couple of hours later he was sitting on the bench in Five Points waiting for the train. He had spent an hour or so buying enough gear to last at least a week. He was rifling through the bags admiring his purchase when he heard Violet’s presence. He looked up from the bags into her smiling face. She had on the same boosting gear from the other day. “Damn, shawtie, you stay on the grind, don’tcha?”

  Her eyes lit up as she looked down at the bags between his legs. He could almost feel the warmth glowing from hers as she looked back up at him and said, “Mmm, looks like you’ve got the same taste I figured you for.”

  He rested his elbow on his thigh before he leaned back to look her up and down. As if she was reading his mind, she raised her head to check out the surroundings before she pulled one of the pleats in the dress back to show him a cluster of fine clothes packed the same way they were the other day. To his surprise most of the stuff was of the same brand and type that he had just bought. His mind immediately shot back to the talk that he’d had with “B.”

  She batted her eyes and gave him the kind of smile that women gave dudes they were really into—at least that’s what he took it for. Then she said seriously, “Now tell me that you got some of that good shit on you. I’m sure there’s some things in this stuff that’ll hit you just like you like it.”

  He swiped the back of his hand across his mouth and took a deep breath as he tried to stare her down. Was she trying to throw him a curb here or what?

  She spread her arms. “What’s up, playa? Cat’s got your tongue or something?”

  “Or something,” he mumbled.

  She leaned toward him, undaunted by his stare. “What’s up, man? Do my breath stink or something?” She aahed on her hand and sniffed. “You smell some stale pussy, ass…I mean what the fuck, man.” She reached between her legs and sniffed at her fingers.

  He cocked his head to the side studying her for a few seconds before he shook it. “Girl, you crazy; you know that?”

  “Well, that’s sho good to know,” she spat and sat back on the bench with her arms folded over her fake belly. She tried but she couldn’t hide the smile creeping to the edge of her mouth.

  He shook his head again. “Naw, shawtie, it ain’t even like that, but have you noticed all the people down here?” He stretched his neck around her to emphasize his point.

  She put her hands on her hips and pretended to struggle to her feet. “Shit, man, that’s all that’s putting the bug on you. Come on. Go with me?”

  He even surprised himself when he followed her. After a few steps, he started having second thoughts and stopped. “Where we going, girl?”

  “We going up top to catch the El to my car,” she said over her shoulder as she waddled in front of him.

  “Damn, step it up then ’cause there goes the train now.”

  She looked back. “Oh sure is, ain’t it?”

  She took a few steps and stopped, which caused him to bump into her ass. She turned her mouth down and smiled before she stepped to the side with a look of joy and surprise. “Mmh,” she gasped as she felt his hand clasp hers as the train came to a halt.

  They got off at the first stop, the East Lake station, where she retrieved her car. He noticed right away that they were proceeding on Memorial Drive. “So where we headed, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  She didn’t answer and pointed to the glove compartment. When he didn’t respond immediately, she reached over and started tapping on it with her designer nails.

  Once he opened it, he didn’t have to ask her what she wanted when he saw the glass-smoking bowl with the letter “V” engraved on it. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a baggie full of rocks. He filled the bowl and ran his lighter up and down the stem before he passed it to her.

  After blazing herself to Scottieville, she passed the bowl to him. “Playa, I can feel you digging me and I already know that I’m digging you, so I might as well show you where your fine ass is gonna be housing it, huh? Any objections?”

  He was in the middle of getting blitzed himself so all he did was smile. After the rush, Sparkle lay back on the headrest and started checking out the scenery. Before he realized it, they pulled into a row of townhouses on Memorial Drive. Once they entered the apartment, she disappeared into one of the back rooms, only to reappear a few moments later with an armload of clothes. She dumped them on a red leather couch.

  Sparkle, who had taken a seat at the glass dining room table, sat there in semi-shock as he watched her grab the hem of the maternity dress and pull it all the way over her head. Strapped to her body was a harness-like contraption with a huge plastic bubble with large holes on each side.

  Violet’s eyes glowed as she pulled clothes out of the bubble and added them to the pile. She waggled her fingers for him to check out everything she had unloaded. Then she licked her lips seductively. “I do believe that most of these will fit you.”

  She picked up a couple of outfits and held them up to his body and nodded. Satisfied about the sizing, she threw them down, picked up another couple of outfits and went to his back. Rising up on her toes, she pressed them and herself against him and whispered in his ear in a husky voice, “Nigga, ain’t no need to try to front or try to fight it: Yo ass belongs to me.” She cupped his ass cheeks in both hands, giving them a nice tight squeeze.

  She gasped in pure shock when he suddenly spun around and grabbed her arms, pinned them to her sides, lowered his head to her neck and bit her. She aahed and melted up against him. Suddenly, he released her and turned back to the clothes on the couch. He picked up a gold silk pants set and held it against his chest, laid it back down and picked up several more pieces and did the same. It didn’t take long for him to realize that almost everything fit him. Then he realized that he was looking at the same stuff that he had seen the other day at the Decatur station.

  He felt her ease back slightly and breathe into his ear, “I told ya the other day that I had picked up some stuff for a new addition to my life. Didn’t I?”

  Of course he remembered and smiled down at her and to himself. “Damn, girl, you done put claims on a nigga already, ain’tcha?”

  She wrapped her arms around his waist. “What a bitch gotta do? Get on her knees and offer your ass a ring or something? I feel you, motherfucker; it’s as simple as that.”

  He continued smiling. “As simple as that, huh?”

  She pursed her lips and smacked a kiss at him. “Yep, as simple as that.”

  His eyes were glittering when he said, “Okay, fly-ass mama, it’s on then.”

  She reared her head back. “Okayeee, as simple as that, huh?”

  “Yeah, sweetie, as simple as that.”

  His cell phone started ringing on his hip. He frowned and pulled up the hem of his shirt to peer down at the flashing number. A look of puzzlement crossed his face. “Damn, who the fuck number is that? Hold on a sec, shortie. Let me check this out.”

  Violet was disappointed. Her body hadn’t
been heated up like that in a long, long time—much too long. But she nodded and backed off of him.

  He punched the return call button. His boy, Rainbow, picked up on the second ring. Helluva timing, damn. He listened for a few and then replied, “Damn, homie, it sho do feel good to finally hear that squeaky ass voice of yours again. When? Damn, I don’t know. Wait a minute.” He looked over at Violet, who had sat on the couch; frustration written all over her face. “Girl, how far are we from the DeKalb Mall?” With her lips turned down, she told him and he went back to his call. “About twenty minutes, playa. Sure I could meet you there, the Dairy Queen, right? Okay, I’ll see you there in a few then.”

  He could tell that she was disappointed and was ready to get her fuck on, but he couldn’t let his boy down. Hell, she’d be aight. He hung up, licked his lips and turned to face her. He didn’t bother smiling for it was player rule time. “Damn, baby, I hate for shit to be snapped like this but I got to go see my boy. We go way back to the kindergarten days and I’ve like been waiting for him to contact me ever since I got up.” She didn’t show any expression but it was evident that she was pissed. Oh well, playa to playette, she knows how it goes. He reached down to pick up his bags and headed for the door.

  She beat him to it and pressed her back to the door. “You ain’t got to take all those bags with you. Why don’t you slide into one of those outfits before you go see ya manz. Shiiit, I got them all for you anyway.”

  He looked her up and down and licked his lips. “You sho sure of yourself, ain’tcha?”

  She lowered her shoulders, resigning respectfully to the game, then took a deep breath. “Hell yeah. I’m sure of myself; ain’t you? Hey, it’s been a long time since I’ve had the chance to feel this way about a nigga. You got that look, muthafucka, and I want to be the one you be looking at. I guess you can say that I know what I want, and I want you.”

  He stared into her eyes and felt hers dig deep into his soul. This was it and he knew it. Still he was on a cop-and-lock mission and had to stay with the script—no matter how hard his heart was thumping. He stared at her for several more seconds and turned toward the couch. He asked over his shoulders. “Okay, sweetheart, which one you want to see me in?”

  Her face lit up like a candle as she rushed to the bedroom and quickly returned with some tan Timberland boots as she waved her hand at the bundle of clothes in grandeur. “Get fly, my prince, get fly.”

  He chose a dark brown silk outfit and held it up against his body for her inspection. She had settled at the dining room table and crossed her legs. Wiggling her fingers in excitement, she said, “Let me watch you put it on.”

  He laughed and did as she’d asked. Violet oohed and aahed. He walked over to the full-length mirror mounted to the outside of the hall closet. He quickly nodded his okay to the fit and the image before he headed for the door. He opened it to leave, leaned back in and flicked her a bag with four fifty blocks of rocks in it. “Okay, star, we gonna see where this here goes and takes us.”

  She put the bag inside of her bra, got up and walked past him. “You don’t really think that I’m going to let my prince ride no damn bus, do you?”

  He let out a short snort and smiled as he admired the way she swayed her sexy-old ass out the door. Shiiiiit, nigga, you done caught yourself a muthafuckin’ legend ho.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The Boss Team Gets Reunited

  Violet let him out at the BP station on the other side of I-20. He wanted to grab a pack of Kools and a sixteen-ounce bottle of Olde E. Sparkle also wanted to walk the remainder of the distance so he could clear his mind and calm his ego from the amazingly easy way that he had copped a hood star. He also thought he’d be a little cautious because of the drug bust he had witnessed the other night. He didn’t particularly care for some leftover cops to see him getting out of Violet’s luxury ride. Police still had the tendency to pay extra attention to black folk rolling on fine wheels.

  He spotted his boy as soon as he trotted across the highway. Rainbow was stepping out of a dark green Cadillac in the parking lot of the Dairy Queen beside the Citgo service station. There were three snazzily dressed sex bombs following him when he looked up to see Sparkle approaching. Rainbow’s Max Julien smile lit up like a ray of sunshine as he spread his arms out in welcome. “Sparkle, Sparkle, Sparkle, is that you, my nigga? Aaah fuck, I thought you had given up on your peeps there, dog. Come here. Let me squeeze the life out of your skinny ass.” His smile was so genuine that Sparkle felt his heart flip with warmth as Rainbow leaned back against his shiny ride.

  As he approached he raised his neck and started massaging his chin as he inspected the luscious bodies of the honeys. “You know how it is, partner. I got caught up in this and dat.”

  Rainbow started laughing loudly at the direction of his gaze. “Still sweating my bitches, I see.” He waved his open palm with a pimp flair at the girls, letting him know that they were all up for his pleasure; like always with any bitch he had in his stable.

  Sparkle pinched his nose and nodded sharply. “Good enough to sweat, dog.”

  Rainbow saw the way his hoes were watching his boy and went straight into his macking mode. “Bitches, how many times I got to tell ya’ll to get out of range when I’m talking to a nigga? Get the hell on up to the room. Princess, you’ve got the key, so get!” he screamed at the one that Sparkle had seen earlier. It was at one of the hotels he’d first hit with the dope JJ had given him. She was the sexiest of the three.

  All of them were dressed in some come-get-the-pussy gear. Sparkle felt like a piece of prime meat as they went straight into their ho struts and eyed him up and down seductively as they headed toward the Red Roof Inn.

  Sparkle shook his head as he recalled Princess’s jazzy-talking ass that night at the Motel 6. Under Rainbow’s iron hand of discipline, her ass was like a lamb; the complete opposite of the bitch he’d dealt with earlier. Man, I should have known that JJ and that nigga Percy couldn’t handle a fine bitch like that. And that my nigga wouldn’t let a ho of her caliber survive these streets without his guidance and instruction. She’s a whole different bitch now. My nigga’s got her ass in his mortal lock.

  His trance was broken when Rainbow grabbed him in a bear hug. “Damn, I miss your skinny ass, muthafucka. Boy, it’s good that you finally made it back to these bricks, playa, for real yo.” He leaned back and grasped his shoulders in a firm grip. “Man, I had us a lick jam up. Why didn’t you holla at me when I hit that nigga JJ on the phone?”

  Sparkle pinched his nose and smiled. “Joh…oops, I mean Lah… oh damn, it’s Rainbow now. Man, who the fuck you going to be next week?”

  Rainbow gave him a fake frown. “Whoever the fuck I want to be.” He laughed and lunged toward Sparkle, putting him into a headlock up against the car. They wrestled around for a while until Sparkle grabbed his forearm and twisted it up until he screamed out loud in pain.

  As soon as Sparkle had done it, he immediately thought, Aw man, I forgot all about how his collarbone be popping out of its socket so easy. Both of them slid down the side of the car and plopped loudly on the pavement.

  Before he could go to bitching, Sparkle grabbed his arm and pulled. Rainbow grimaced in agony and squirmed around for several seconds until Sparkle finally heard the shoulder pop back into place. After the shocking pain subsided, Rainbow started laughing despite the tears that were running down his cheeks.

  Sparkle couldn’t hold back the laughter as he stood up and reached down to carefully help him up. “Ah man, I forgot all about that fucked-up arm of yours.”

  Rainbow grunted, straightened out his clothes and pushed him upside the head. Then he lifted his head to look around. “My man, my man, whew, I’m just glad that one of them wild-ass bitches didn’t see that. One of them crazy muthafuckas might try that shit and I’d have to kill their stanky ass.”

  After frowning about that dreaded possibility, he stared at Sparkle for about thirty seconds, shook his head and draped his arm
around his shoulder. “Damn, I miss you, nigga. Damn, those years was a long motherfucking time, dog.” He ruffled the curls on the top of Sparkle’s head. “Come on, let’s grab one of them Waffle House specials.”

  They gathered themselves and sprinted across the street to get their grub on. Rainbow waited until they had feasted halfway through some pancakes and cheesy eggs before he finally spoke. “Yo, partner, I figured that you had gotten a little busy getting your groove back. But damn, you sure waited long enough before you hollered at me. Damn.”

  Sparkle nodded between bites of cheesy egg as he waited for him to continue.

  “Taint no biggie, though. You still want to get down? I got a couple of construction workers lined up for a prime spiel. It’s a pretty good lick too, partner.”

  Sparkle stabbed into one of the strawberry pancakes. “Man, why you keep doing that sting there, dog. I know you got money’s mammy.”

  Rainbow’s eyes started to glitter as he smiled across the table at him. “My nig, you of all people know that it’s all about the sport of it, man—simply the thrill of the game, man.”

  Sparkle continued to play in his food as he shook his head. “You crazy, you know that, don’tcha? Just don’t get enough excitement out of handling those hoes, huh?”

  Rainbow arched his head in a circle as he sat back in the chair and rubbed his neck. “Man, I’ve been bored with this pimping thing for nearly a decade,” he responded blankly; at a loss for words.

  Sparkle leaned forward to place his elbows on the table. “Why the fuck you keep doing it then? You don’t need the money; that’s a fact. Hell, I’ve even heard about your buying up some slum apartment buildings and shit. Man, your ends are longer than a rainbow.”

  Rainbow blew his nose into a napkin and sucked on his teeth while staring at him.

  Sparkle cocked his head to the side and started laughing. “Man, you know that you look just like that nigga Max Julien in The Mack when you do that?”