YVONNA
The heat in the room appeared to be stuck on hell, despite Ming’s attempts to reduce it. When she looked at Yvonna, she was turned to the opposite side of the room and she was mumbling. Ming was going to call down to the front desk to get the heater fixed, but they were on the run, and needed to keep their interactions with outsiders to a minimum. When the thermostat didn’t budge, frustrated, she slammed down on the bed.
Startled, Yvonna sat up straight and looked at her friend. “What was that?” She asked with wild eyes. “That noise? You hear it?”
“Are you still sick?” Ming asked, as she returned to cleaning the barrel of her gun. Her eyes were always glazed over and the clan was getting nervous. “Because you don’t look well, Yvonna.”
The moment Ming asked the question many thoughts flooded Yvonna’s mind. These days Gabriella and Bilal refused to leave her side. They hung in the shadows and never went away. They were with her always. So when she asked are you sick, for some reason, she thought Ming could see them too and that maybe she wasn’t so crazy after all.
From the other bed she asked, “Why you ask me that? If I was still sick?” There was a mixture of hope and interest in her question. “You wanna tell me something? You can tell me anything, Ming.”
Ming’s jaw dropped when she noticed the way her eyes moved wildly from left to right. “No reason. Just asking.”
“Ming, there is always a reason with you.” She scooted closer to the edge, and Ming hoped she wouldn’t jump on her bed, which was closest to the door. “You never just do anything. There’s always a reason with you.”
“Really, I just want to know if you okay. It’s no big deal.”
She sees them too. I know she does. Now if I can just get her to be honest with me, everything will change. “Tell the truth, Ming.” Without an invitation, she shared her bed. “You see them don’t you?” Her clammy hands covered Ming’s. “It’s okay. Just tell me.”
Her eyes widened. “See who?” She looked around the room even though she was certain they were alone. “What are you talking about, Yvonna? I’m so worried about you. You need help.”
“Ming, please. It’s okay to be real with me. You have to understand, all my life people have been trying to tell me I’m crazy.” She released her friend’s hand and tapped the side of her own head repeatedly with her index finger. “Now you’re my best friend. I never had a friend closer than you are to me.” She pointed at Ming while sweat poured down her face. “I thought I was close to the girls who did me wrong when I was younger. You know…the ones I was telling you about.”
“You mean Sabrina and Cream?”
“Yes.” She nodded her head up and down, in disturbingly swift motions. “But now I realize they were fake. Just people in my life to do me wrong but you’ve been real with me from the jump. So just tell me the truth.” She paused and looked at her with expectant eyes. “You see them don’t you?”
“Yvonna…I’m scared.”
Instead of understanding that she was the one creeping her out, she closed the small space between them even more. She figured if she sat closer, Ming could feel how much she meant to her and would no longer be afraid. “There’s no reason to be scared.” She reduced her voice to a whisper and looked out of the corners of her eyes weirdly. “They won’t hurt you. They really are nice people, they just…well….they just don’t show themselves to everyone. But if they’re showing themselves to you, don’t you see, Ming, it means you’re special.”
“So, you do see people?” She asked. “These are the same people who talk to you all the time in the bathroom?”
“This is not going to end well.” Gabriella said. “If I were you, I would quit while I’m ahead. She’s gonna tell you anything just to get out of her face.”
“If you tell her you see people she’s gonna think you’ve lost it, baby.” Bilal added, appearing by her side. “If you decide to do it anyway, don’t tell her shit about me. I don’t want everybody in my business. I got niggas looking for me already.”
She thought about what they were saying and decided to keep it real anyway. “Yes. I do, Ming. I see them all the time.” She stood up and walked toward Gabriella. “This is Gabriella right here. She’s been my friend for the longest.” She rapidly shuffled toward the other side of the room. “And Bilal is right here. He’s my boyfriend.” She shook her head recognizing her mistake. “I mean he was my boyfriend.” She looked into the ceiling because she was getting confused. “Wait…Bricks is my boyfriend now right?” Not waiting on an answer, she ran back to the bed and hopped on it. “So you see them?”
Ming’s heart felt like someone had taken a mallet to it, and beat it repeatedly from the inside. Her friend looked like a mad woman with her wild hair and wheeling eyes. But to appease her, and in the hopes that this problem would go away, she nodded slowly. “Yes…I,” she cleared her throat, “I see them, Yvonna. I see both of them.”
An eerie smile unrolled on her face. “You do?” Yvonna placed a fist on each side of her cheeks. “Please don’t play with me. It’ll break my heart if you’re lying, Ming.”
“I do see them, Yvonna.” She swallowed and looked toward the area where she was told Gabriella was standing. “Gabriella, how are you? I’m sorry she had to kill you in Vegas. I hope you aren’t terribly angry with her.”
Yvonna frowned and leaped back on her own bed. Her toes scratched the dirty carpet as she stared at her with dissension. “Ming, this Gabriella was always separate from the Gabriella you met. That other Gabriella was nothing more than somebody posing as a friend. You were right about her the whole time. I should’ve listened to you because she fucked Terrell and couldn’t be trusted. No, this Gabriella right here is like a sister to me. Not exactly. But you get it right?”
“Oh, yes,” she nodded oddly. “I get it. So this Gabriella was never murdered. She was totally different from the one you killed. Even though they look alike, I’m assuming, and are the same person.”
“Yes.” She clapped her hands together. “You get it!”
Happy to have scored high on the insanity board she said, “Okay…well hello, Gabriella. How are you?”
“Bitch, fuck you!” Gabriella spat, although she couldn’t hear her. “You ain’t nothing but a fake ass slut puppet.”
Yvonna turned her head toward the empty space. “Stop being mean, Gab! She’s being nice to you and you’re being rude.” She faced Ming. “Forgive her, Ming. Sometimes she can be a little cross. She means well though,” she lied, “just as long as you stay on her good side.” A sinister grin spilled across her face. “Which I know you will.” After Ming told her she saw them, Yvonna was filled with confidence that maybe God did love her and she wasn’t deranged after all.
“You know she’s lying don’t you?” Bilal advised. “She doesn’t want to hurt your feelings but it’s true. She thinks you’re crazy, they all do.”
Yvonna quickly turned toward Ming. “Did you hear, Bilal?” her eyes rolled around. “You heard what he said right?”
“Uh…yeah.” Ming wanted to get the fuck out but the boys were gone with the car. Her homie was losing it more by the minute and she couldn’t bare to watch anymore. “I told you I could see them. Stop asking me that shit.”
“Well repeat what he just said.”
“Yvonna this is stupid. I said I see them, so leave it alone.”
“It’s for his sake not mine. Please.” She was off the chain. “Tell me…what did Bilal just say?”
Before she could respond, Bricks and Swoopes came through the door, smelling like a brewery. Bricks moved in slow motion, while he used Swoopes shoulder as a crutch. He looked worse than Yvonna ever seen him, then again, who was she to judge?
Seeing the despair on his face, Yvonna popped off the bed and approached him. “How are you, baby? Are…are you okay?”
“My brother’s gone, Squeeze.” He shook her off, removed his coat and threw it over a chair in the room. “I don’t know how much better
I can be.” He flopped on the bed and kicked his shoes off, not caring where they fell.
“Is there something I can do?”
“Bring my brother back from the dead.” The moment placed tension in the already small space. “Can you do that?”
“You know I can’t.”
“Then leave me the fuck alone.” He flipped on the TV and asked Ming, “Did you have any luck locating the other Captains Of Pain?”
Ming grabbed the papers off the nightstand. “Yeah…we found out where Anna Livingston is about an hour ago. I say we hit her in DC and then go after Ramona Cass in Virginia before hitting Abel in Delaware if she’s there.”
Yvonna felt left out, as plans seemed to move on without her. “So when were you guys going to tell me that plans were changing?”
“You know now.” Bricks shot back. He seemed to blame her for Melvin’s loss and it was evident to everyone present. “We getting shit done, be happy for that. Since that’s all you care about remember? You, yourself and Delilah.”
“That’s not fair, Bricks! Don’t be mad at me like it’s my fault what happened to Melvin.”
“What about Rufus Day?” Swoopes inquired, trying to take some of the heat off Yvonna. “Did we find his address yet?”
“Yep,” Ming nodded, flopping on his lap, before planting a soft kiss on his cheek. Instead of being irritated at her affections like he had in the past, he kissed her back.
“Ming, can you focus and tell me what’s up?” Bricks asked.
“Oh…uh…yes, Yvonna’s friend Chris was on point by giving us the information we needed. Right now, Rufus doesn’t seem to have too much security at his compound in DC, so we shouldn’t have a problem laying the C4, if we can get in. I think it should be the last move we make though. And then we can find a way to make it to the Philippines.”
“Maybe we can ask Chris for his help with the passports. He seems to be able to get everything anyway.” Bricks volunteered.
“It’s worth a try.” Ming responded, still sad Swoopes would not be going.
Bricks snatched the sheet Ming had in her hands. “Let’s do what we gotta do. And I say we move tomorrow.”
“Me too.” Swoopes added. “For now, let’s get some sleep. We all need it.”
Everyone was in a deep slumber when Yvonna walked into the bathroom to talk to Bilal. After the way Bricks treated her, she had to admit, it was nice having him around again. She closed and locked the door and sat on the toilet. “Bilal, I know I haven’t asked you this, but how am I supposed to help your son when I find him? I mean, exactly what am I supposed to do?”
“I want you to check on him for me. Until I escort you into your next life.”
“You’re serious about leading me to death?”
Silence.
“I don’t know if you took a look at my life, but I’m not necessarily the best person to be checking up on anybody. Plus Bilal, Jr. is almost a man now.” She looked down at her hands. “Even if I were to go see about him, he still hates me.” When she remembered poisoning him with the Coca Cola she felt guilty all over again and shook her head. “How am I going to get through to him?”
A few thunderous raps at the door startled her. Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Yes?” She yelled.
“Squeeze, who are you talking to?” Yvonna whipped her head toward Bilal and again he was gone.
Frustrated at his interruption, she got up from the toilet and opened the door. Bricks trudged inside and although he slept some of his drunkenness off, he still looked heavy. Yvonna wasn’t trying to be insensitive, but she couldn’t deal with Melvin’s death and everything else at the same time. Too many problems were the reason she was deemed insane to begin with.
“What do you want, Bricks?”
“You heard me, babes, who are you talking to in here? What’s going on?”
“If I tell you, you won’t believe me.” She could feel the tears already stirring in her eyes. “And I want to tell you so badly but I don’t want you to judge me.”
“Squeeze, talk to me.” His eyelids seemed to cover most of his eyes. “You been spending a lot of time in the bathroom alone lately.” He opened the door wider and moved to leave. “Come to bed.” He grabbed her hand and she pulled away from him.
“I gotta tell you something first, Bricks.” She slammed and locked the door before plopping back on the toilet. “When I tell you, you have to promise not to say anything mean.” He wouldn’t respond. “You have to hear me out because that’s the kind of relationship I want us to have, okay?”
“Yes, Squeeze. Go ‘head.” His head fell backwards before crawling forwards. “I need some sleep, it’s been a long day.”
“Bilal and Gabriella come to me a lot lately. And at first nobody could see them. But baby, today I found out that Ming can see them too.”
He took a few steps back and looked at her as if she were an ingrown toenail. “Wait a minute, what you talking about?”
“Let me talk slower,” She was so excited that she rushed her words. Taking two deep breaths she said, “Okay…remember when I told you that I was diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder with a touch of Schizophrenia?”
“Yes.” It was all he could think about.
“Well I found out today, that’s what the people wanted me to think. They wanted me to believe I was crazy, so they could overmedicate me. You have to remember that the money is in the drugs not in the cure.” Sweat poured down her face. She looked at the door and lowered her voice. “But a wonderful thing happened tonight. I found out I’m fine, baby. I’m just as sane as you.”
I hope not. He thought. “Squeeze, I hate to tell you this, but Gabriella and Bilal are dead.”
“I know they’re dead!” She screamed, causing him to jump back and fall into the fighter stance. Seeing his defensiveness she took three more breaths to relax. “I mean…I know…they…are…dead, Bricks, but they come back to me, because I can hear them.” She pointed to her head. “In here and Ming can too.”
Bricks wanted to break Ming’s jaw for adding to the problem. “So you’re saying they’re like ghosts.”
His ignorance was weighing on her. “No…they’re real people!”
“But they can’t be real and dead at the same time, Yvonna. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
“He’s plotting against you to have you recommitted, Yvonna.” Gabriella advised softly in her ear. “And if you don’t kill him he’ll succeed. Do it. And do it now.”
Yvonna thought about what she was saying and looked into his eyes. She would kill him if she had to, she knew it. But she loved him so realizing he was her man and not her foe she said, “Baby, you have to believe me.”
“Kill this nigga!” Gabriella screamed. “Waste no more time! Take care of it now!”
Yvonna pointed to the empty space. “You see her? She’s right there.”
He looked in the direction. “Yvonna, nobody’s there.”
“Why are you doing this to me, Bricks? I thought you loved me? I thought you wanted to protect me.”
“And I do!” he defended himself. “But I’m not about to sit up in no bathroom and pretend to see mothafuckas who ain’t there either! Now if you want to talk to walls, knock yourself out! But I just lost my brother and don’t have time for this shit right now!” He walked out and slammed the door behind him.
BILAL, Jr.
It was warmer than the day’s prior and Bilal, Jr. was thankful as he sat in a motel room alone. After Melvin’s murder, he was given five hundred dollars to do what he willed. For him it was simple, grab a hotel, pay it up for a few days and kick back and relax. He wanted some space between him, his twin brothers and his aunt Easter who refused to die. As the second day rolled by in the hotel room, suddenly he felt lonely.
Remembering the person he hadn’t seen in a while, that he ran into the other day, he decided to give her a call. Everything in his soul told him to leave her alone and that she was bad news, but he was young and
would ignore his intuition. What was the worst that could happen if he spent a little time with an old friend?
After speaking to her on the phone, she agreed to keep him company. So he sent a cab to get her and waited impatiently for her arrival. He wanted to be with someone familiar. Someone who was all about him, even if only for the night. When there was a knock at the door, his heart beat faster and faster as he anticipated her face. She was beautiful the last time he saw her on that DC Street, but he could only imagine what she looked like now.
The moment he opened the door, Rozay extended her height by rising on the tip of her toes before throwing her arms around his neck. He changed each time she touched him, for the good, bad or indifferent. When they separated, he looked at her wide eyes and bright teeth. The girl was perfect. When she eased into the room, as he kept the door open, he took notice at the way her blue True Religion jeans hugged her curves.
“You gonna close the door or what?” She asked, knowing all the while he was worshiping her body.
“My bad,” he closed the door, ran his hand through his curly hair and stood before her. She smelled so good. Like expensive perfume and a recent trip to the beauty salon.
“B, it’s so good to see you!” His dick immediately hardened and he looked down, hoping it didn’t show through. “You don’t know how excited I was to see you the other day. For real, I didn’t think you would call me though. I mean, what took you so long?”
“Life.”
He was different and she was trying to figure out why. “Where do you live now?”
“With my brothers.”
Her neatly arched eyebrows rose. “You got brothers? I didn’t know that.”
“Me either at first. They’re twins.”
“You look like them?” She dug deeper, hoping they would still have things in common to talk about.
“I guess so.” He didn’t want her inquiring too much about them, because he wasn’t sure if he would stay around too much longer anyway. He dipped away from her and toward the spread of alcohol on a table next to the door, to maintain control of their meeting. “Everybody tell us that anyway.”
Shyt List 5: Smokin' Crazies The Finale' (The Cartel Publications Presents) Page 19
