by L. E. Newell
In the distance they could hear the rat-a-tat-tat of Morehouse’s marching band throwing down on some funky cadences. They looked at each other and started bobbing their heads, marching to the beat. For a brief moment, Sparkle even thought of going to watch some of those young tenderoni majorettes and cheerleaders bumping and grinding the air to the jazzy rhythm, but let the urge slip away.
He noticed that the parking lot seemed to be a lot bigger than he remembered. Then it dawned on him that the bank was no longer there. Damn, a lot of shit done changed in the years since I left, he thought, admiring the assortment of luxury cars.
As they was about to cross the street, he felt Rainbow nudge his shoulder. “How about going over to the Krispy Kreme and hook us up with some of those chocolate and strawberry donuts and a couple of milk shakes? I’ll be at the bar kicking it with Big Bertha.”
Sparkle leaned away frowning with his mouth turned down and gritted. “Damn, she still here, man?”
Rainbow gave him the kinda look that said, Damn, ya’ll really don’t be hearing about shit down in that joint, do you? “Shiiit, man, Bertha’s been the one running the joint ever since Junior and Mack got shot up right after you got busted. I can’t believe you ain’t heard about that there, man.”
Sparkle stopped and gave him a puzzled look across his shoulder. “Man, I must have just been starting that bit, way up in Jackson somewhere not to hear about that there, dog. Why you just now hipping me to that? You know them my niggas, dog.”
Rainbow hunched his shoulders and spread his arms apart before he covered his mouth. “Hell, man, Mack’s been…hey, we can finish this when you get back with the donuts, nigga. Right in now all I can think about is getting off of this bum-ass leg, man,” he moaned, limping his way across the street waving him on to get the treats.
“Aight bet, I’ll see ya in a sec,” Sparkle said over his shoulder as he headed for the doughnut place on the corner of Lee Street. After getting a dozen of each kind of doughnut, a chocolate and a strawberry milk shake, he headed back to the club. When he elbowed his way through the first set of doors, the first thing he saw was a “Girls admitted free on Thursdays” sign with silhouettes of exotic dancers in various poses plastered on the wall behind a podium. It was an exact replica of a drawing he had done for Junior, when he and Mack had first converted the cafeteria-gas station combo into one of the hottest strip joints in the ward.
It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the red, yellow and black blinking lights when he entered the main room. He heard Rainbow’s voice over the din of loud music and crazed customers. Then he spotted him at the bar gulping out of a pitcher of Olde English.
He gave Bertha a warm smile as he placed the boxes on the bar and sat down beside Rainbow. She didn’t even take the time to acknowledge his smile before she reached over and ripped open one of the boxes and crammed a donut between her ruby-red lips.
He leaned over the counter as the creamy filling started oozing out the side of those juicy lips. “Godayum, Big Red, can you imagine what that cream oozing around those red lips of yours makes a nigga think about, mmmmmmh.” He arched his brow in mock excitement.
He flinched when she bucked her eyes wide open and slammed her big mitts on the counter. “Well, I’ll be damned, my baby boy Sparkle, when did you get up, you muthafucka,” she yelled in her squeaky little girl voice, sprinkling his face and shirt with particles of dough and cream. It was a voice that in no way fit her size and attitude.
Sparkle jerked his head back trying to avoid as much of the crumb avalanche as he could, brushing at his face and clothes. “Damn, girl, whatcha trying to do, give me a doughnut cream bath or something? I feel ya being happy to see a nigga. I’m just as happy to see your big ass but what the fuck!” he yelled as he reached over the bar and mushed her face playfully.
She snarled and snapped her teeth at his fingers. “Nigga, fuck dat, give me a hug with your little skinny ass.” Her eyes glittered with joy.
He rose up off of the stool and spread his arms, only to find himself gasping for breath as she bear-hugged the air right out of his chest and devoured his face and neck with a series of sloppy kisses.
He was finally able to squirm his way out of her bear-like grasp and grabbed a napkin out of a dispenser on the bar to wipe the wetness off his face and ear. “Thanks, Red, I really needed that, damn.”
Smiling warmly she reached out and mushed his face and whined, “Aw, bastard, you better cherish that sugar there. Ain’t too many niggas are worth that.” She lowered her face and started to pout.
Sparkle erased the frown off of his face and reached out to grab both sides of her face and gently kissed her on the mouth. “Don’t look so glum, sweet stuff. You one of my favorite hoes.”
Like a puff of magic her expression changed as she looked at him under eyed, batted her lashes and frowned, “Baby, I ain’t been nobody’s ho since I got from under this dirty-ass yellow nigga here.” She nodded at Rainbow and rolled her eyes.
Rainbow cocked his head and brow like he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “Aw, come on, baby, you know you’ll always have my heart.” He gave her his brightest smile and squeezed his heart to emphasize his point.
She wasn’t going for it and rolled her eyes again and mumbled, “Uh-huh, fuck you, Lah. Oh damn, it’s Rainbow now, ain’t it? Man, you change your name more than Erica Kane changes husbands.”
“That’s right, and your big, fine ass better keep in mind that I’m that nigga that you’re gonna always love.” He paused to rub the side of her face gently before he continued, hypnotizing her with his penetrating stare. “And gonna always belong to me.”
“Yes, daddy,” she said demurely before she snapped her head back. “Nigga, you wish, those days been long gone.” She finished with a snake roll of her head and three finger pops.
Sparkle and Rainbow looked at each other and said in unison, “Damn.” All three of them burst out laughing hard as hell.
After the laughter subsided, Sparkle nudged Rainbow in the side. “Yo, partner, go ahead and finish up that shit you was telling me about Junior and Mack.”
A reluctant Rainbow took a deep breath and rubbed his hand up and down his face, then twisted his mouth to the side. “My nigga Mack’s been in a wheelchair ever since and Junior survived, but he’s all fucked up in his left arm and leg.”
Sparkle sat there staring off into space as a frown slowly crept to his brow. The pain in his eyes couldn’t even be measured. Rainbow reached across his body and started waving his hand back and forth in front of his face until he blinked a couple of times. “Where the niggas that done that shit, dog?”
Rainbow sat back, pinched his nose. “Hell, man, you can see dem niggas every time you pass the King station.”
That look in his eyes told Sparkle what he had already concluded, but he said it anyway. “Six feet deep, huh?”
“Oh yeah, me and Duke was in on that one, but that dirty-ass punk Wyatt Earp caught some fed time before we could catch up to his ass. Last I heard he was up there in Marion on super max.”
Bertha, who had been silent up until then, placed a tray of glasses she had been shining up under the counter and got in a little growl of her own. “I never did trust that dirty-ass sissy no how; especially from the way that he did my baby sister. I kept telling that stupid-ass bitch that he was a punk but she wasn’t’ hearing me. That is until she caught all that fucked-up time dealing with his sorry ass.”
Rainbow quickly added, “I don’t blame you one bit, baby. That sorry muthafucka done put a whole dorm of good niggas and hoes in the joint with all that snake-ass snitching he be doing.”
Sparkle added his two cents’ worth. “Uh-huh, as much dope as that bastard used to oil up, I don’t see how he got away with that shit he do and niggas let him live. Somebody should have given his bitch ass a battery shot years ago. But you know what, somebody had to be behind that there because that’s all that nigga does is dirty stuff for other niggas.”
“And don’t forget about him digging roots into the 617 and the Checker Club,” Bertha added angrily.
Sparkle leaned back against the bar listening to them until his attention was drawn to a little oriental sexpot, who had just joined three other girls on the circular stage. He looked behind himself on both sides because shawtie’s slanted cat eyes were staring right at him. When she was sure that she had his full attention, she started rotating her little golden-hued hips like she was easing onto a dickhead.
Her eyes were glued to his as she worked her way around the girls to the pole and pressed her cute little ass against it. She reached behind her to pull her cheeks apart and arched her back so that her pussy was sliding along the pole. She continued to eye him seductively like it was meant only for him. She reached up behind her to grasp the pole and rubbed it like she was urging someone to fuck her harder. With her other hand, she started massaging her small breasts.
As he sat there mesmerized, her eyes suddenly turned into mere slits as her mouth formed into an “O” of pure lust. Her gyrations against the pole got harder and faster and then she put one, two and then three fingers in her tiny mouth. She started sucking on them as if she was draining the last drops of cum out of a throbbing dick.
Sparkle’s eyes were hypnotized to her movements and the lust she was urging his way. He hardly noticed when his hand eased to his crotch as he started rubbing his aching dick. When she realized what he was doing, she began fucking the pole to the rhythm of his stroking. They were so into each other, there was no doubt that they were making love at a distance.
Suddenly her whole body started shaking and she started rubbing her pussy, faster and faster, her eyes locked on him the whole time. To them no one else existed in the room. When it was obvious that she had started nutting, he exploded all down his pants leg. She honed in on his dick jerking through his pants knowing that he had cum right along with her. With her nostrils flared in lust, she gyrated to the edge of the stage. She squatted right in front of him and pulled the crotch of her thong aside, inserted two fingers in her pussy and showed him the pussy juice he had caused to flow.
“Damn, dude, you aight?” Rainbow said as he shook Sparkle’s shoulder.
Sparkle flinched from the unexpected contact and shook his head out of the sexual trance shawtie had put him in. “Man, who the fuck is this hot little bitch?”
Bertha, who had been enjoying the show herself, leaned across the bar and whispered in his ear, “That’s my little buddy, Mercedes. She’s something, ain’t she? And she’s digging on you too, man. I ain’t never seen that little bitch get off like that for nary a nigga, for real, yo.”
Sparkle couldn’t keep from smiling as he watched her sexy little ass twist that tight little booty off the stage. She twisted half around to watch him until she bent the corner toward the dressing room area.
Right after she disappeared, his attention was drawn to a figure hobbling with the aid of a black cane around the circular stage. His emotions were laced with both elation and sadness as he watched his old buddy, draped in a gold silk outfit, struggling with each step. Despite the obvious pain he was in, his face was lit up with a bright smile.
“I thought I heard some clucking hens out here that sounded familiar. What’s up, Sparkle, my man? I heard you’d graced these old bricks again. What’s up, Lah? Ah damn, I forgot yo crazy ass is Rainbow now.” Old slick-ass Junior pinched his nose, coughed a few times, sniffled and started laughing as he continued in a gravelly voice, “Nigga, you change your name more than I change my CD player.”
“That’s the same thing I just told his ass,” Bertha hissed.
Junior stopped in front of them cocked sideways leaning on the cane and beaming all thirty-two. “Man, I heard you had risen. Why didn’t you let a nigga know you was out? We could’ve thrown down in this bitch.”
Sparkle hunched his shoulders and replied, “Hey, bro, what can I say? I got caught up catching up. Hell, you know I was gonna get around this way sooner or later.”
Junior rubbed the stubble on his chin nodding to Sparkle’s reply and sat down at the nearest table. Laid his cane against it and crossed his legs O.G. style. Then he reached into his pocket and lit up a Black and Mild cigar. “Your boy Duke was just in here the other night.”
Rainbow snapped to attention and started scratching his neck. “Oh yeah, what was up with that?”
Junior turned his mouth down and looked around the room before he answered, “Uh-huh and big bro left some good blow on the house, dog. Ya’ll niggas wanna go do a few rounds, you know, to sorta celebrate my nigga here getting out of the stir?”
Rainbow cocked his brow and looked at Sparkle, who in turn cocked his brow at Junior. “Nigga, please, after a day like we done had, where it at?”
Junior sprung out of the chair and started hobbling to the back. When he got halfway around the stage, he noticed that they hadn’t moved. He looked over his shoulder frowning. “Well, come on then, what the fuck ya’ll waiting for?” He continued hobbling his way around the stage, greeting some of the regular customers along the way.
They followed him down the corridor through a door adorned with pictures of gorgeous girls dancing nude and semi-nude in various sexy outfits. They passed through another door into a room full of mirrors and dressing stalls. There were six girls in different stages of dressing and doing their make-up thang for their routines. Nearly all of them were clucking so it was like a pen of hens.
Instead of the conversations slowing down, they were greeted with a chorus of sexy hi’s and hellos as they passed through, on their way to a door of frosted glass that prevented folk from seeing whatever was going on inside.
Sparkle spotted Mercedes in the last stall while she was changing into her street clothes. She winked and licked her lips seductively as she eyed him through the mirror. He made eye contact with her and mouthed silently, “I’m gonna get your little sexy ass, for sho,” as he gave her a one hundred-watt smile.
She shifted her petite body on the stool, bit down on her bottom lip and mouthed back at him, “Come on, I’m waiting,” and flared her nose like she could hardly wait.
Now wasn’t the time, though, so he nodded and followed Rainbow and Junior inside the door.
The special décor in the room drew an immediate smile from Sparkle as he radared the area. The spacious office was laid out with a black cushioned circular sofa that nearly occupied the entire wall. The floor was made up of black marble tile with gold flakes that gave it a glittering effect. Behind a black ivory desk sat old man Mack sitting in a cushioned wheelchair chomping on a stinky cigar, blowing halos.
When they stepped in, he peeked up over the rim of a pair of oval red-tinted glasses and grimaced. “Well, I’ll be damned if it ain’t two of the muthafucking amigos. What’s up, fellas?”
Rainbow smiled and responded quickly, “Just browsing the neighborhood scoping for some potential vics. Looks like we done ran into a pretty good pair with ya’ll old fools.”
“Yep, we heard that there was some good money snatching around these here hills, so are ya’ll going to give it up nicely, or do we gotta go gangster up in this bitch?” Sparkle added his brand of humor with a brilliant smile.
Mack wheeled his way from behind the desk and spread his arms out wide. “My nigga, my nigga, feels good to see your narrow ass, boy. Godayum, you looking good, son. Whatcha doing, how ya doing?”
Sparkle responded quickly, “Just getting in where I can fit in.”
Rainbow chimed in, “Hey, man, we been out there reliving old times downtown, know what I’m saying?”
Junior recognized that look on his boy’s face and patted him on the back. “Mmmh,
the way I taught ya, huh, baby boy?”
Rainbow caught his hand as it rose to his shoulder. “Hell, is there any other way? Of course, we did it like you taught, old man.”
Mack started scratching the back of his ears. “I betcha some foolish feeling somebody’s out there mad as all holy hell looking for ya’ll two snakes.”
“Probably is, probably is, but we need to be hunting their asses because the bastards tried to play a playa. Sons of bitches had more than they said from the start. You reckon they didn’t trust a nigga or something? Ain’t that a bitch?”
They all looked at one another and burst out laughing.
After the laughter had petered down, Rainbow took a seat on the couch and pulled out the green money bag they had scooped off the vics and started leafing through the wads. He counted aloud until he got to three g’s and handed it to Sparkle. Then he licked his finger and continued counting the rest. When he finished, his face balled up into a knot of anger and he recounted.
Afterward, he frowned in Sparkle’s direction. “Aw, hell naw, Spark, we got to go back downtown and kick those muthafuckas’ asses. The bastards done shorted us about twenty dollars.”
A flustered Sparkle snatched out the wad he had folded in his pocket and recounted it. Feigning anger, he snarled, “That slick-ass country hick, he’s got some nerve, my nigga. That was some Oscar-winning Hollywood shit they paid for. You just don’t get good acting like that every day.”
Rainbow’s nose flared as he agreed, “You damn right, partner; that was some fucked-up shit they tried to pull on a nigga who be out there giving it his best, know what I’m saying?”
They burst out laughing again. Junior joined them on the couch holding his side. Mack wiped the tears out of his eyes and placed a crystal ball on the desk top, unscrewed the top half off and took out what looked like at least two ounces of that pinkish blow. “Dudes, our boy Duke says that this be some new shit that he copped on his last trip down the way. They be calling this shit Peruvian golden flake. See how it glitters when you tilt it from side to side. The best shit I’ve ever had, straight up.”
