Against the Grain

by Freeze

  Tank changed the subject. “Yo, Dre, where did you take Mina this time?”

  “You know I don’t do that,” Dre answered.

  “Do what? Damn nigga, I just asked where you went. I might want to take wifey if it’s nice.” Dre ignored Tank and walked behind the bar to get a soda.

  “Nigga, you kill me with all this secret shit!” After Dre didn’t say anything and just stood there drinking his soda, Tank said, “Fuck it, I ain’t taking Quchelle’s ass nowhere anyway.” They all laughed.

  Kay walked over to the bar. “Yo, Dre, I’m about to go to Mondawmin Mall. What’s up?”

  “Aiight, let’s go.”

  “Yo, Duke, Nut, let’s ride,” Kay said. P-Nut was Dre’s bodyguard.

  “We’ll holla at you niggaz later,” Kay told everyone as they left the rest of the crew sitting around smoking weed, talking and laughing with each other.

  • • •

  Kay and Dre left the club, while Agents White and Powell sat on the other side of the street in an unmarked car taking pictures.

  “There’s the new guy again. What did you find out about him?” White asked Powell.

  “Arkadian Frost. Just came home from prison. Served about nine years for bank robbery. He and some other guys were robbing banks all over the city. One day shit caught up with them and his friend was killed by the police. And our guy Arkadian here went to prison while the rest of them got away.”

  “What was the stiff’s name?”

  “Hold on,” she said as she thumbed through her notepad.

  “His name was Fillipe Lewis.”

  “How many perps altogether?”

  “I’m not sure; it wasn’t in the file.”

  “I’m willing to bet that the other bank robbers are our guys, Michael Daniels, Greg Happs, Terrell Payton, and Andre Black. The whole crew is back together except for the dead guy. Well, I won’t have a problem sending Mr. Happy-to-be-Home’s ass right back to prison. This time for good,” Agent White said.

  “Are we going to follow them?”

  “Nah,” Agent Powell answered, “I want to see what ole Mike is up to today.”

  14

  After doing a little shopping for Lil ‘C’ and T-Kie, and walking around for about two hours, Kay was ready to leave the mall, but he noticed Shu-Shu talking to some guys.

  “Yo, Dre, let’s go say what’s up to Shu-Shu,” Kay said as he nodded in her direction. Damn, this girl is fly, Kay thought as they got closer to her. She wore a gray mini-check Nehru jacket with matching pants that fit her like a second skin.

  When she looked up and saw Kay walking toward her, she told the guys, “Here’s my man right here.” Shu-Shu stepped to Kay and kissed him on the lips. “Hi, baby. What took you so long? These gentlemen were nice enough to keep me company until you got here.” She turned to face the guys, who knew they were getting played. Normally they would have stepped to Kay, but decided against that idea when they saw the two big-ass niggaz with Kay. Then they recognized Dre and knew that they didn’t want any trouble.

  “Aiight, shorty, take it easy,” one of them said, before turning and walking away.

  “Whew! Thank you so much. Them niggaz been buggin’ me for like fifteen minutes. They just wouldn’t take no for an answer. Shit is crazy. What’s a girl gotta do?” she said to Kay.

  Kay was still thinking about the kiss. It didn’t seem to faze Shu-Shu one bit.

  “So who you shopping for, Kay? Your girlfriend?”

  “Nah, I was bored so I just came out here to pick up a few things for my son and nieces.”

  “What’s up, Dre?” she asked.

  “What’s up, Shu?”

  Shu-Shu also greeted Duke and Nut before directing her attention back to Kay. “You’re going to have to give me your son’s sizes so that the next time I’m in New York, I can pick up something for him. I saw some cute little Tims for boys. They had different colors, too,” she said.

  “Aiight, I’ll do that. And I’ll pay you back for whatever you get him.”

  She sucked her teeth. “Did I say you had to pay me back? I can handle it. I ain’t no broke bitch.”

  “Aiight, shorty, handle your biz.” They both smiled.

  “Wanna go get something to eat later on if you have the time?” she asked, looking him in the eyes.

  Kay glanced at his watch. It was 5:30 p.m. “Yeah, what time?”

  “Pick me up at eight o’clock.”

  “Aiight, I’ll be there. C’mon, let me take you to your car.”

  As they left the mall, Kay noticed the shopping bag in her hand. “Girl what you got in that big-ass bag?”

  “Nothin’ much, just a few things I picked up from Victoria’s Secret.” They got into Kay’s Land Cruiser and he drove her to her car. She drove a nice little Nissan Altima with rims on it. It was cute. It fit her, Kay thought.

  She got out the truck and turned to Kay. “Eight o’clock right?” Kay nodded.

  “And if you’re a good boy, I’ll model these for you,” she said holding up her Victoria’s Secret shopping bag. They both smiled.

  Back in the car, Dre said to Kay, “Nigga, if you hit that, you a beast.” Duke and Nut both voiced their agreement from the back-seat as Kay smiled.

  • • •

  It was 8:18 when Kay finally arrived at Shu-Shu’s front door with Big Duke. “You ready?” he asked

  “Yeah, let me grab my bag.” She got her bag and when they reached the truck, Kay handed her the keys.

  “Here, you drive.” Big Duke got in the backseat. As they rode through their neighborhood, Kay noticed how many dope fiends and crackheads were around now.

  “Where do you want to go?” she asked, bringing him out of his train of thought.

  “I don’t know, shorty. It’s up to you. You asked me out, remember? So you’re suppose to know where you want to go.”

  “Alright Mr. Smart-Ass. Let’s go pick up a few videos, then go to Crazy John’s and get something to eat. I’ve been wanting a cheese fish sub with extra hots all day.”

  “Aiight, that’s cool,” Kay said as he looked at her and smiled.

  She noticed him smiling. “What?”

  “Nothing, I just figured that you’d want some lobster or something. You know, the expensive shit.”

  “Puh-leeze, I’m still an around-the-way girl. I like that fancy shit sometimes. I just dress like this because I can afford it. But you’ll still catch me in some jeans and sneakers. I’ll even wash my own car. See, a lot of people look at me and think the same thing: that I’m one of these materialistic-money-hungry-ass hoes. I don’t ask a nigga to do shit. I get my own.” She pounded her fist into the palm of her other hand to make her point clear. “That’s why I don’t have a man now, ’cause they look at me and think I’m stuck up. It’s not that way though. I’m not dick-happy so I don’t just fall for anything a nigga tells me. My mama taught me to be patient. The man for me will come one day. Mama said that a woman’s body is her most prized possession and she should be careful who she gives it to.” She made eye contact with Kay and added, “Most of these girls out here is fuckin’ for hair and nail money. Fuck that! Those are necessities. A woman is supposed to have money to get that done anyway. You’ll never catch me looking busted and it’s not because I think I’m all that. It’s just not ladylike.”

  “I feel you, shorty.”

  Shu-Shu reached for her bag, took out a Newport, and lit it.

  “Damn, shorty, you smoking now? You gots to crack that window.”

  “Yeah, I smoke sometimes. It’s one of my foolish pleasures,” she said with a smile.

  • • •

  When they finally arrived back at the house, Shu-Shu got out and went inside while Kay and Big Duke talked.

  “Yo, Kay, shorty is fine, yo. Mike been after her for the longest, since she came back from New York. But she won’t bite. Her and your sista are too tight for that. Now you come home and get her.”

  “Nah, it ain’t like that, big
guy. We grew up together, that’s all. Her mom and my mom were good friends so we were always around each other. Her and her brothers used to spend the night at our house and everything. We more like family,” Kay said.

  Duke smiled. “Yeah right. That’s why she picked out movies like 9½ Weeks and Jason’s Lyric.”

  “Nigga, you trippin’. Yo, I’m out. You can bounce. I’ll see you in the morning. When I leave here, I’m going home.”

  “You sure, Kay?”

  “Damn, nigga, I only live down the street,” Kay said, laughing at his ever-protective friend.

  “You need one of the twins?”

  “Nah, I’m aiight. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Kay said. Once Duke saw Kay enter the house, he pulled off.

  • • •

  It had been years since Kay had been in the house Shu-Shu grew up in. As Shu-Shu burned some incense, he stood in the living room looking at all the childhood pictures of Shu-Shu and her brothers. When he saw a picture of her mom he picked it up.

  “That was taken right before she died,” Shu-Shu said to Kay, who had his back to her. She had been watching him as he looked around.

  Kay smiled. “Mrs. Collier was a nice woman with her shittalking self. She used to write me while I was in prison, talking about how she was going to whup my ass for robbing that bank, when I came home.”

  “She loved you, Kay. She loved the way you carried yourself. She loved your leadership, your respect for others, and everything you stood for. After my brother got killed and P-Lay went to prison, you were like the only son she had left. She loved you and talked about you so much that I began to love you.” Kay and Shu-Shu looked at each other. “On her deathbed she made me promise to marry you or a man just like you. She used to always say that you manifest all the characteristics and qualifications of a real man. That’s the real reason why I haven’t totally given myself to one man. I had to see if there would ever be a chance for us. When you sent that money from prison to help pay for Mama’s funeral, I knew for sure that I wanted to be with you.”

  “I loved Mrs. Collier, too. And I miss her. But damn, shorty, you putting a nigga on the spot. I never looked at you like that because of—”

  She cut him off. “Because of what?! Because of my brothers? Listen, I love my brothers to death, but I’m a grown woman now. Richard is dead and P-Lay got life without parole. He can’t protect me from in there. I need you, Kay.” She walked over to him and kissed him. Kay kissed her back, passionately.

  Sweeping her off her feet, he carried her up the stairs. “Which room is yours?”

  “All of them, silly, just pick one,” she said. They laughed. He kissed her and carried her into the first room he saw.

  Kay was asleep the next morning when Shu-Shu crept out of bed and went downstairs to get something to drink. She glanced at the clock on her way out the room. It was 7:05 a.m. She would have to get up for work in ten more minutes, she thought to herself. By the time she got to the kitchen, she’d decided to call in sick. She was feeling much too good for work. Last night had been a special night and she wanted to lie back and let it soak in. She got out fresh coconut flakes, vanilla extract, milk, and honey and put it all into the blender with a few ice cubes. She poured two glasses of her concoction and took them upstairs. She put Kay’s glass on the nightstand. He was still sleep and she just wanted to look at him for a while from the vantage point of the dresser, while she smoked a Newport and sipped her glass of coconilla. After about two minutes of watching Kay sleep, she realized she needed to call her job and let them know she would not be coming in today. She walked over to the nightstand and as she picked up the receiver, it rang.

  “Hello.”

  She smiled at the familiar voice. “What’s up, girl? I can’t go with you today, I’m going to be busy. I’m about to call in sick, take my phone off the hook, and turn my cell and pager off. . . . I got company, that’s why.” Kay woke up at the sound of her voice and turned over and looked at her. He was still naked. She sat on the side of the bed and rubbed his chest as he stretched.

  “Mmmmm-hmmmm, I finally got his ass,” Shu-Shu said smiling at him. Then she pointed to the glass of coconilla and he picked it up and took a swallow. “Who you think, ho?”

  Kay whispered to her, “Who dat?”

  She whispered back, “Your sister.” Then she spoke into the phone, “I’m talking to your brother.” Kay tried to stop her before she said anything but it was too late.

  “Hold on,” she said, and she handed Kay the telephone.

  “Hello.”

  “Oooooh, I’m gonna tell Mama,” Lyniece said.

  “Shut up, girl.”

  “Yo ass finally gave in after all these years, huh?”

  “What are you talking about? Ain’t nothing happen between us.”

  Shu-Shu yelled in the background, “He’s lying, giiiirrrrl!”

  Kay hit her with a pillow. He handed her the phone, put on his boxers, then went to the bathroom. When he finished, he turned on the warm water and began to throw water over his face with both hands. Shu-Shu walked right in the bathroom with the phone between her ear and shoulder. She lifted her nightie, sat down on the toilet, and started peeing.

  “Shut up, bitch, I had to pee,” she told Lyniece. She wiped herself then reached around Kay and rinsed her hands off. She smacked him on the ass and she ran to the bedroom. Kay ran after her and dove on her as she reached the bed. She dropped the phone when they began to wrestle each other. After playing for a few minutes, Shu-Shu remembered Lyniece on the phone.

  “Hold on, Kay. Hello! Hello!” Lyniece was gone. Shu-Shu got up and went to the dresser to take another sip of her breakfast drink. She turned to face Kay.

  “Let’s fly to New York today so I can take you shopping.”

  “I’ve got plenty of clothes.”

  “I know, but I want to pick out something nice for you. Something a little more casual.”

  “My money ain’t right yet, shorty.”

  “C’mon, it’s my treat. I’ve got some other business to take care of while I’m up there. We can kill two birds with one stone.”

  “What kind of business? Where you getting all this money from?”

  “I work at the Mercedes-Benz dealership, and I make good money.”

  Kay looked at her with a smirk on his face. “Yeah right, shorty. You might as well come clean with me.”

  “Stop calling me shorty! Aiight, it’s like this: When I was in school in New York, shit got kind of hard at times. I shared a two-bedroom apartment with three other girls. All of us were broke and trying to go to school. We lived off Oodles of Noodles and pb-n-j. One day, one of my roommates met this guy that was driving a cab. He told her that we all could make seven thousand dollars apiece. All we had to do was agree to marry some of his Nigerian friends so that they could get to the U.S. then get their green card. We didn’t have to have sex or live with them. We just had to be on call just in case Immigration showed up.

  “I ain’t no dumb bitch. I knew it was something bigger going on, so I stayed with my husband and paid attention. They were bringing in pure heroin from Africa. I learned the whole operation and saw millions of dollars being made. I never opened my mouth and I got a degree in business before I decided to bounce on his ass with about a hundred thousand in petty cash that he had laying around. Shit, the way I see it, he owed me that for all the nights I slept with him. I came back home and remodeled the house, paid off some of Mama’s debts, and put the rest up,” she said, never once taking her eyes off Kay.

  “So why do you want to go to New York? Aren’t they looking for you?”

  “Puh-leeze, he just wants some pussy. I ain’t seen the bitch-ass nigga in months. That hundred grand that I took is like ten dollars to him. He’s soft anyway. I hate soft-ass niggaz. That’s one of the reasons I left.”

  “What business do you have to take care of, then?”

  “I get welfare checks for me and my three imaginary kids every month in four diffe
rent states. I get three checks in New York in different names. Checks come out twice a month in New York, so I make two trips a month there. My girlfriend, Gidget, works for US Air, so I travel free. Then my other girlfriend, Mia, hooks me up with credit cards that have $25,000 limits. I pay her $5,000 cash, then charge only $15,000 worth of shit so I won’t alarm anyone. Then I break the card and trash it. We got this shit together. Can’t sit on our asses and wait on a man to do something for us. I’ve got a little over $110,000 in cash and another $70,000 in jewelry, all in a safe-deposit box.” Kay was impressed. Little Miss Shushawn had done good for herself. She was thorough and Kay liked that.

  “Tell me more about the heroin thing.”

  “The first thing you would need to do is find a connect with some good heroin. It will have to take at least a fifteen. That means you can cut it fifteen times and it still be the bomb. It’s going to cost around a hundred ten grand for a whole kilo. What’s up? You trying to get into the business?”

  “Yeah, I might. Keep talking,” he answered.

  “How much money do you have?”

  “About nine grand.”

  “I’ll give you eighty grand if you make me a partner.”

  “Sounds like a plan. I can get the rest from Mike. He owe me anyway.”

  “Negative! We don’t need nothing from Mike. I’ll get the other twenty grand. Mike is a fucking idiot. He only cares about himself. I don’t want nothing from him and I don’t want him in our business. That coke money he’s making ain’t shit. Let him have that. Find a connect and, nigga, I’ll make you a millionaire in six months.” She had Kay’s full attention.

  “I’ve already got a connect. I just got to get to California.”

  “How soon do you want to leave? I’ll set it up. First class there and back. And I’m coming with you.”

  “Give me a few days to put this together, then I’ll make a move. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

  “Hell yeah. If it takes a fifteen, we’ll put an eight on it and lock the city down. You’ll have to do all the footwork though. You’re going to need a team of soldiers ’cause shit is going to move real fast. You do that and I’ll handle the books,” she said as she walked over and sat on Kay’s lap. “All this talk about money is making me horny,” she said, kissing him.