Against the Grain

by Freeze

  “Listen, shorty, take this ten dollars and make sure that you and your sister eat. As a matter of fact, go to the sub shop up on the Ave. and get two cheesesteak subs, fries, and something to drink.”

  “What about later on?” Tia was trying to save some of the money.

  “Don’t worry about that, shorty. Just do what I said and meet me back here at one o’clock and bring me the receipt for the food.” The two girls looked at each other, then at Kay.

  “What’s your name?” Tia asked.

  “Arkadian, but my friends call me Kay. You can call me Kay.” The girls smiled. They didn’t know this young man in front of them, but for some reason they trusted him.

  Kay pulled Tia to the side and told her, “Before ya’ll meet me back here, I want both of you to go home and take a bath and put on your best clothes. I’m going to take ya’ll somewhere.” Tia looked at him, trying to figure out what he was up to before telling Janita to come on.

  Kay walked over to Scatter, who was almost finished with his car. “Yo, Scatter, what’s up with those two girls?”

  Scatter looked over at the two girls walking down the street and then back at Kay. “They’re good girls, but they ain’t gonna last too long out here. It won’t be long before they sorry-ass mammy have the oldest one turning tricks to support her habit. She already been raped by her mom’s boyfriend. That’s the nigga right there.” Scatter pointed to a light-skinned nigga that was about 6′5″. He looked like he used to be one of them football playing niggaz at one time. He stood next to the girls’ mother. Kay couldn’t make out what he was saying, but it was obvious by his mannerisms that he was talking shit to her about something.

  “Why ain’t that nigga in jail then, Scatter?”

  “They too scared of him. Nobody wants to get involved. Plus when she told her mom about it, her mom jumped on her and told her she was lying. Called her a bitch and accused her of wanting her man.”

  Kay changed the subject. “How long before you’re finished?”

  “I’m almost finished now.”

  “How much I owe you?” Kay asked with a smile on his face.

  They went through this whenever it was time to pay. Scatter always had the same answer: “You know I don’t charge you, little nigga, just throw me a few dollars for my pocket.” Kay gave him fifty dollars and walked toward the football/rapist nigga. Scatter knew Kay too well; he had practically raised him. So there was no doubt in Scatter’s mind that the man was in trouble. Scatter did what any good friend would have done; he started up the car and waited. Watching Kay go take care of his business was like watching himself twenty years ago.

  When Kay got over to where the guy was standing the first thing he did was look at the girls’ mother. He handed her ten dollars and asked her to get him a pack of Newports from the bar across the street. He let her know that she could keep the change. Kay looked at her friend who liked hurting defenseless little girls.

  “What’s your name, big man?”

  “Red,” the man said in a voice raspy from years of doing drugs.

  “Yo, Red, you want to make a hundred dollars?”

  “Hell yeah!”

  Kay knew that he wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to make that type of bread. “Follow me over here.” They walked behind a little storage building.

  When they got there the man said, “Yo, man, I ain’t wit no gay shit.”

  “Do I look like a fag, nigga?!” Kay got heated that the big dude would even think some dumb shit like that, but he pushed the anger from his mind. He knew that it was important to stay calm if he wanted to successfully carry out his mission. That was what Scatter had taught him. Motherfuckers that panicked and lost control were the ones that left evidence behind and got caught.

  “So what I gotta do to get a hundred dollars?” Big Red was curious.

  Kay took a crisp one-hundred-dollar bill from his pocket and straightened it out. He held it up in the air above Red’s head and said, “All you have to do is catch this before it hits the ground.” Kay let the bill go and it whipped through the air and hit the ground before Red even knew what happened. Kay quickly picked the money up and put it back in his pocket, knowing that Red wouldn’t let him leave without giving him another shot.

  “Give me one more try, man.”

  “One more chance,” Kay told him. Before Red could set up, Kay threw the money in the air and it fell to the ground just as it had the first time. Kay scooped the bill up again and put it in his pocket.

  Red was getting frustrated, and he pleaded with Kay, “C’mon, man, that’s no fair. I never really had a chance.”

  Just like Tia never had a chance, you stupid motherfucker, is what Kay wanted to say but he remained cool. “Red, I’m going to give you one more chance. Are you ready this time?” Red shook his head, yeah. Kay held the bill in the air this time, right in front of Red. “Here it goes, Red!” Kay let the bill go. This time Red caught the bill and started jumping around in excitement. Then he looked at the bill in his hand and realized that it was a one-dollar bill and not a hundred.

  “Hey, what the fuck is this? This ain’t no hundred dollars!”

  “Nah, it was a hundred if you had caught it the first time or even the second time, but since you didn’t catch it either time, you lost out.” Then Kay turned and walked off knowing that his plan was about to come together. He heard the big man’s footsteps coming up quickly behind him.

  “Motherfucker, you better give me my money before I kill you!” As Big Red said this, he grabbed Kay by the arm and slung him around. Kay hit the oversized bully right in the center of his solar plexus, knocking the big man to his knees. Kay could have killed him with one blow if he wanted to; Scatter had taught him many deadly self-defense moves when he was a child. But when Red didn’t catch the bill on the first try Kay decided to spare his life. He just wanted to fuck him up real bad. While Red was on his knees gasping for air, he looked up at Kay. For his effort, Kay kicked him in his throat, crushing his windpipe. Red fell backward with a look of disbelief at this young boy actually doing this to him. Kay wanted to turn and leave but he knew the man would die if he left him like that. He walked and stood over the big man. Red grabbed Kay’s leg as he tried to scream for help, but no sound came out; he just gurgled blood. Kay put his hand in front of his mouth and spit out the razor he had stored in the roof of his mouth, a trick taught to him by Lady, Scatter’s bottom ho from back in the day.

  If Scatter was like a father to Kay, then Lady was definitely like his mother. She taught him a lot in the streets, including how to satisfy a woman. For Kay’s thirteenth birthday party Scatter and Lady had arranged for three girls to give him a birthday present he would never forget. And to top it off, Lady sat right there in the room and guided him until he made all three women climax. There were more lessons that followed, but that one was the most memorable. Kay felt a special bond with Lady and he truly loved her for molding him into a master of lovemaking.

  Kay took the razor and cut a slit in Red’s throat so he could get air, and forced Red to turn his head upward.

  “Look at me, motherfucker, because my face is the last thing your sorry ass is gonna see in this world!” With two quick motions Kay took the razor and sliced Red through the eyes. If his throat wasn’t crushed and sliced, Big Red would have been screaming like a madman, but under the circumstances he could only groan as Kay turned and walked away.

  When Kay got back to his car, Scatter was waiting with a look of disgust on his face. “Why you looking at me like that?” Kay asked.

  “Because you took too fucking long back there!”

  Kay knew Scatter was right and kept his mouth shut. A fool argued when he was wrong. Besides, Kay knew that no matter what Scatter may or may not have become, he was and always would be a killer at heart and would not stand for any type of disrespect.

  Kay jumped in his car and drove slowly toward Murphy Homes, never panicking. Ten minutes later he pulled up in front of Mike’s house.
His crew: Mike, Gee, Tank, Apache, and Dre were waiting for him to arrive. These were the niggaz he broke bread with, the niggaz he would kill for and the niggaz he would die for if necessary. Each of them had a unique personality, each one different from the next.

  Mike, aka Go-Go, earned his name because he moved to Baltimore from Washington, D.C., where they listen to go-go music all day every day, and that’s all he would play when you rode with him. Mike had light-brown skin and was a little taller than Kay. He was okay in the looks department as far as the women were concerned. Most women thought his large lips were sexy. Mike was Kay’s best friend.

  Tank was the comedian of the bunch. You just had to get the nigga drunk and it was on. This softer side of his personality was deceiving because Tank also had a short fuse. In a split second he could go from laughing and jokes to being the nastiest motherfucker in the group. With his deep-chocolate skin and bald head, women found him to be cute as well.

  Apache was the wild one in the clique: the gunslinger. Any kind of artillery they needed, Apache either had or was able to locate. He walked with two loaded 9 millimeters at all times. He also was the pretty boy of the crew—with his dark black curly hair and coffee-with-cream-colored skin, he resembled an Indian.

  Gee was Jamaican; The Dread is what they called him. Gee was a little darker than brown skin, and had the coolest walk in the world due to a motorcycle accident that broke his leg in three places. It never healed properly. He definitely was the coldest nigga in the group. His brother was the main weed distributor in B-More, Philly, and Texas. So Gee was set up. His family had money and the connections that would serve well if a nigga needed to bounce out of town.

  Dre . . . well, Dre was just Dre. He was a little lighter than the rest of the crew but not enough to be called light-skinned. He was also the shortest in the crew and always wore his hair cut with a one against the grain. Nobody really understood him but Kay. Dre didn’t drink, he didn’t smoke, he didn’t mess around on his girl, and he was a man of few words. He rarely spoke to people outside the crew. He stayed on point at all times and didn’t trust anybody but the niggaz he got money with. The niggaz he robbed banks with.

  Kay had a little of all of them inside him so it made him the leader. He was the brains behind their operation and essentially held the group together.

  When Kay pulled up, his friends were looking at the new stereo system Apache had installed in his Jeep. He had spent over three thousand dollars on it. When Kay approached the group they all gave him a pound and embraced him like they hadn’t seen each other in weeks. They had actually been together the night before, going over the plans for their next bank job. Kay checked out Apache’s system, then looked at his watch. He had other business to take care of and wanted to move this business along.

  “Let’s move this in the house, fellaz.” They all followed Mike through his mom’s house and to the basement. On their way, everybody spoke to Ms. Daniels, Mike’s mom. She stopped Kay and asked him how Janice, his mom, was doing. Kay told her she was fine and that she should call her. Ms. Daniels took Kay’s advice while the boys slid on down to the basement where they went over the plan at least ten times while drinking a couple of 40s and smoking weed. This was their usual routine for their planning sessions. It had been decided that Kay would be the driver this time. Kay was a little upset because he liked the excitement of running up in a bank, but this was their fifth job and each time a different guy drove the getaway vehicle, so it was only fair that he take his turn.

  As the planning continued, Kay’s mind wandered and he didn’t hear Mike ask him twice to pass the spliff.

  “Damn, nigga, tell us about that piece of pussy that got your mind like that,” Gee said in between drags off his own spliff. Everyone started laughing.

  “Nah, it ain’t nothing like that. I’m just thinking about something I need to speak to my sister about.” Kay reached in his pocket for his cell phone.

  “Hey, tell your phat-ass sister that I said hello,” Apache said. Kay gave him a look like, Aiight, nigga, I don’t play that shit. He knew Apache was only joking, but he was protective of Lyniece, even with his friends.

  “Perfect Ten!” the voice said on the other end of the phone.

  “Hi, this is Kay. May I speak to Lyniece?” The woman on the phone liked Kay’s manners.

  “Sure, Kay, I’ll get her.” All the girls at the shop secretly had crushes on Kay. His perfectly chiseled body, short curly fro, and milk-chocolate skin made them melt on the inside. He was what women called fine. But he never messed with his sister’s friends. It was just a little rule he had for himself.

  “What’s up, boy?” Lyniece said on the phone.

  “Are you busy?”

  “No, not really, why?”

  “I need you to do these two girls’ hair for me. I’ll pay you.”

  “Two girls?” Lyniece yelled into the phone.

  “It’s not like that, girl. I’m just doing a favor for someone.”

  “What time you talking about?”

  “In about four hours, around five o’clock.”

  Lyniece agreed to do it this time but told Kay that he owed her one. Kay told her that she knew that he loved her and hung up the phone before she could say something smart.

  “Yo, fellaz, I got to make a move. I’ll meet ya’ll back here at nine o’clock sharp to go over the plans again,” Kay said. They exchanged pounds and he left.

  When Kay got back to the car wash he didn’t bother to pull into the parking lot. The two girls were waiting for him. He stopped in the street and honked the horn. Their faces lit up when they saw it was him—they didn’t think he was coming back. They ran and jumped in the car. Tia got in the front seat and her sister sat in the backseat directly behind her.

  “Where’s the receipt?” Kay asked, first thing. Tia dug down into her pocket. Kay noticed that the jeans she wore looked just as dirty as the ones she had on earlier. When she put the receipt in Kay’s hand, he balled it up and threw it out the window. Tia looked confused.

  “Ain’t you gonna look at it?”

  “No, I just wanted to see if I could trust you to bring me one.” Kay looked over at Scatter, who was giving him an evil look that said, Get the fuck out of here now! Kay didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to expose his hand around the girls. He just pulled away, once again knowing that Scatter was right.

  “Where are we going?” Tia asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” Kay said looking in his rearview mirror. Janita was staring at him just as she had earlier. For some reason it made Kay feel uncomfortable so he looked away.

  “It all depends on if Janita answers this riddle right. Janita, since you’re a schoolgirl, answer this right and we will go grocery and clothes shopping.” Both girls were excited because it had been so long since they had anything new. Kay asked, “Are you ready, Janita?”

  “Yeah,” she replied, then sat up closer in her seat so she could hear.

  “Okay, there was a king that had two sons and he couldn’t decide which one to leave his kingdom to. So he sent them on a monthlong journey together, knowing they wouldn’t return together. He fixed two bags. One bag was huge and heavy. It held enough food for a month. The other bag was big, but not as big as the first one. It contained enough clothes for both men, and pots, pans, bowls, and canteens for water. The two brothers left the kingdom on their journey. The question is, which brother came back to the kingdom first and why?”

  Janita thought long and hard before answering the question. Tia had her fingers crossed; she didn’t know the answer herself and thought it was a trick question. Then Janita said, “I think that the brother that took the biggest bag got back first.”

  “Why?” Kay asked.

  “Because every day they had to eat from the bag. His bag got lighter by the day. And by the end of the month his bag was empty, so that means he could walk faster than his brother whose bag remained the same as when they left.”

  Kay was su
rprised that she got his riddle on the first try. When Scatter had asked him the same riddle, he didn’t get it right away. Kay looked at Janita through the rearview mirror.

  “Give me five, girl, you got it.” The girls giggled and Kay joined in, too. Janita grabbed Kay’s hand and squeezed it tightly. Kay noticed the extra-hard squeeze, but quickly dismissed it. About five minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot of Mondawmin Mall. Kay found a parking space and said, “Are ya’ll ready?”

  The sisters looked at each other and said, “Yes,” at the same time. Kay could tell that they were nervous and excited.

  “Where do ya’ll want to go first?”

  Tia stopped and put her hand on Kay’s arm. “Kay, why you doing this? You don’t even know us.”

  “I don’t know. I just don’t want to see two girls miserable anymore. You deserve better. Maybe it was God’s will for us to meet at the car wash like that. And I don’t question him.”

  Tia looked Kay in the eyes like she was wondering if he had a girlfriend or not. She wanted to kiss him, but she figured he was way out of her league. She didn’t want to overplay her hand and him get upset and not take them shopping. Janita was watching Tia and Kay. She could tell that Tia liked him but she wasn’t going to get him, because she saw him first.

  Kay wanted to clarify himself. “Look, shorty, I’m saying, it’s like this: I do so much dirt that I feel this is my way of giving back. When we get inside, I want you to get whatever you want.”

  “The high-priced stuff, too?” Janita asked.

  “Whatever you want, the price don’t matter. I just want you to be happy for a little while. I want to see you smile.”

  It was clear to the girls that Kay meant it with all his heart. For the next three hours they shopped and shopped. They covered every inch of the mall at least four times. They ended up with tons of bags filled with clothes and shoes. Kay also bought them both gold chains with crosses. And on the back of the crosses he had the jeweler engrave From Kay. During the whole shopping spree, all Tia could think about was being with Kay. Not because he had money and a nice car or because he took them shopping, but because he made her feel special. She had never had a man treat her like this before. Actually, she had never been in love before. Sure she had sex before, but that was all about providing for her and her little sister. Survival. She fucked when she needed money to buy food. Her feelings were different with Kay. She wanted to make love to him and there was a big difference between fucking for a profit and making love.