Notorious

by Kiki Swinson

  “And what was that?”

  “Have you ever had Chicken Oscar?”

  “No, not that I can recall. What is it?”

  “It’s a broiled chicken breast stuffed with lump crabmeat and a hollandaise sauce poured on top.”

  “Whoa, that sounds real good. What time is dinner?”

  “As soon as you get here.”

  “What else did you cook with it?”

  “Do you like asparagus?”

  “Yes, I love asparagus.”

  “Well, I steamed some and now I got it in a bowl of sautéed butter sauce. And for dessert, I am going to put you on a silver platter and spread whipped cream all over you and stick a cherry smack dab in the middle of your stomach. Now how does that sound?”

  “It sounds delicious. Too bad I won’t be able to eat any,” I replied with a chuckle.

  “You can have some of me.”

  “I can’t wait,” I told him. “Do you need me to pick up anything while I’m out?” I continued.

  “You know what? You can pick up a bottle of champagne if you like.”

  “What kind?”

  “I don’t know, sweetie. Get whatever you like.”

  “What about a white wine? Is that okay?”

  “Sure, baby, get whatever you like. Tonight it’s about you.”

  “It’s about you, too.”

  “Okay, well, it’s about us then. Now hurry up and get your ass here. You’ve been gone too long.”

  “Mario, I’ve only been gone for two hours. Good grief.”

  “That’s two hours too long. And I miss you, so get your butt back here.”

  I laughed at his comedic way and assured him that I’d be there right after I left the liquor store.

  Playing the Wifey Role

  After the great dinner and staying up late last night, this morning I decided to show Mario I could do a little something in the kitchen too. I wasn’t as good a cook as him, but I’d employed a few chefs to work in my home, so I knew a few culinary treats.

  While he was asleep, I ran to the store and picked up a dozen eggs, a pack of American cheese, a pack of Colby, and a pack of cheddar. I also picked up a pound of raw, jumbo shrimp, a half pound of scallops, and a pound of crabmeat. All that was left for me to do was pick up an onion, minced garlic, and a red bell pepper, so I did that before I went through the checkout. When I returned to the house he was still asleep, so I went into the kitchen and started heating things up. By the time he woke up around noon, I had cooked him a sizzling three-cheese seafood omelet with a hint of garlic. I ran to the bedroom and literally dragged him into the kitchen to eat. I didn’t even give him time to brush his teeth. I wanted him to have his meal when it was piping hot! And that’s exactly how he got it. I also poured him a glass of cold pineapple juice, since I had forgotten to pick up a carton of orange juice from the store.

  After breakfast, he and I both hopped into the shower and got a quickie in there. If I kept the sex thing going on, I was going to end up pregnant again, and I couldn’t have that, especially at that time. God knows I can’t bring a baby into this world while my life is upside down. Mario seemed like he was a little more stable than I was. But he could have been putting up a facade, like me. Time would tell, though. I just hoped sooner than later.

  I jumped back in the bed since he told me he was going to chill inside. The weather wasn’t too pretty outdoors. Although it was mid afternoon, the gloomy sky made it seem later. A lot of people called it baby-making weather. I called it sleep time, since that’s what I did. I slept kind of light, so when I heard Mario talking on his BlackBerry from the living room, I was able to tune in without straining myself. He tried to talk very low and be a little discreet, but I was born with the ears of a dog, so I can hear a pin drop from miles away.

  “What time you want to meet up?” I heard him say. “Dino, now you know that’s not a good spot. Too many police be coming through there all times of the night,” he continued. And then I heard him say, “Nah, man, you are trying to get me locked up talking like that. You know I don’t get down like that, so call me back when you learn how to conduct business,” he said, and then he fell silent.

  Now, I can’t tell you what that call was about. But I do know that whatever it was, it was dealing with something illegal. I lay back in the bed and wondered what it was he was talking about. Drugs came to my mind first. And then I thought maybe he could be buying illegal guns. But whatever it was, it didn’t sound right. And since I didn’t want to wrack my brain with it, I turned over and dozed back off.

  While I was asleep, I got a call from Carmen. I tried to ignore it, but she continued to call me back to back until I picked up. I was really agitated when I finally answered it. “What is it now?” I asked.

  “Yoshi, I am so sorry to bother you, but I am sick as a dog right now and I need medicine bad.”

  “Well, take some.”

  “We ain’t got shit in this house to take other than Grandma’s hot tea with honey and that shit ain’t gonna help me. I need something stronger, like NyQuil or Tylenol Cold and Flu medicine.”

  “Well, get Rachael to go out and get it for you.”

  “She’s not even here.”

  “Where is she?”

  “She’s somewhere in those streets running down behind her fucking boyfriend. And even if she was here, that tramp wouldn’t go to the front door for me.”

  “Where is Grandma?”

  “She’s downstairs watching TV.”

  “What time is it?”

  “It’s a little after eight.”

  “So, what do you want me to do? Because I’m in bed right now.”

  Carmen started coughing uncontrollably. “Look, Yoshi, you know I wouldn’t bother you if I really didn’t need that medicine,” she said between coughs. “But my head is killing me and my throat is sore as hell. I think I’ve got a fever because I’m burning up in this fucking bed.”

  “It sounds like you got the flu.”

  “It feels like it, too.”

  “Okay, well look, give me about thirty minutes and I’ll be over there.”

  “All right,” she replied, still coughing and gagging.

  I hurried up and disconnected that call. I couldn’t take listening to all the irritating noise, so I shook my head and my arms like I had something on me and then I slid out of the bed and headed out of the room. I walked down the hallway toward the living room and when I looked around the corner, I realized that Mario was nowhere to be found. I turned around and looked into the kitchen and when I saw that he wasn’t in there, I knew that he had to be gone.

  “Where in the hell could he be?” I asked myself as I picked up the house phone and dialed his number. He answered on the third ring.

  “What’s up, baby?”

  “Where are you?”

  “In Hampton taking care of some business.”

  “What time are you coming back?”

  “I’m not sure. Why?”

  “Because I need to run out to Huntersville. My cousin Carmen is sick as a dog and she needs some medicine like right now.”

  “I know you want to go out there, but it’s too late for you to be in the streets this time of night. I would go crazy if something happened to you.”

  “Calm down, because nothing is going to happen to me. I am a big girl, so I can handle myself.”

  “Not in these streets. I know a handful of niggas who would randomly kill a woman at the drop of a hat. So don’t tell me you’d be able to handle them.”

  “Stop being so overprotective.”

  “I’m not. I just know how niggas out here are. They don’t play fair. And if they saw you roaming around here all by yourself, they’ll try you and you won’t be able to do shit about it.”

  “But, Mario, she sounded really bad on the phone. I can’t leave her hanging like that. That’s family and plus, I already told her I was coming.”

  “Well, call her back and tell her to get somebody else to do it.”


  “That’s the thing, she doesn’t have anyone else she can count on.”

  “She doesn’t have a man?”

  “No.”

  “Well, she needs to get one, because I can’t have you running out there this time of night every time one of your family members needs something.”

  “Mario, I understand everything you’re saying but I got to do this for her just this once. She’s counting on me. I can’t just let her sit there when I gave her my word that I would be there.”

  Mario fell silent. It was apparent he wasn’t trying to hear what I had to say. He was very adamant about me not going to Huntersville, but I still had a duty to fulfill and I couldn’t let him stop me. “Are you still there?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “Well, why did you get quiet?”

  “Because I don’t want to talk about it anymore. You know where I stand with this, but I see you are the type of woman who is going to do whatever she wants to do, so I am going to sit back and let you do you.”

  “Come on, Mario. It’s not that serious.”

  “It may not be for you. But it means a big deal for me because I am a man, and if my woman is in the street this time of the night and something happens to her while I am not around, that shit will fuck with me.”

  “Listen, I’ll tell you what. This is the last time I am going to go out this time of the night without you. And while I am out, I promise I will be very careful.”

  “Yeah, a’ight,” he replied nonchalantly.

  “And what does that mean?”

  “It means, all right,” he replied sarcastically.

  “Okay, Mario, I am going to say bye now because I see that you aren’t going to let this go.”

  “I’m done.”

  “Okay, well, I’ll see you when I get back.”

  “All right,” he said.

  When I got off the phone with Mario, I leaned against the countertop in the kitchen and wondered what was going through his mind. I didn’t want him to be upset with me because I went against his wishes. I just hoped he didn’t hold grudges long, because I sure could. And two people who do that and are a couple won’t last very long.

  See No Evil

  As much as I didn’t want to go out this time of the night, I had to go over to my grandmother’s house to check up on Carmen. Mario was against me leaving his house, but I had to go after I heard how badly she sounded over the phone. I knew that if he was home and not in the streets taking care of business, he would have either stopped me from leaving or he would have driven me out to Huntersville himself. Since Rachael wasn’t around to go out and Carmen needed medicine to get over this bad cold she had, I elected to play good Samaritan and do it myself.

  Carmen looked like shit when I walked into her bedroom. I immediately took a seat beside her on the edge of the bed. Covered up in pink flannel pajamas, a flower-printed satin head scarf, and an old-looking wool blanket, I told her she looked really bad. She tried desperately to laugh but it wouldn’t come out. So I rubbed her across her leg and told her to take it easy.

  “What do you normally take for this type cold?” I asked.

  “I usually take lemon and honey TheraFlu. It comes in a blue and yellow box and the box has about six or seven packs of the powder medicine in it. You can also get me a half gallon of orange juice.”

  “Any particular brand?”

  “Simply Orange or Tropicana is fine.”

  “Okay, you got it,” I said, standing up.

  “What store are you going to?”

  “I was going to that Thomas Market place on the next block.”

  “Oh, that’s cool. They should have what I asked for.”

  “Okay,” I said, and left.

  When I exited the house, I looked up the street and then at my truck parked directly in front of the house. The distance between where I was standing and the store was only two blocks, so I figured that it might not be so bad if I walked instead of driving.

  As I started making my way in the direction of the little convenience store, I realized that there wasn’t a lot of foot traffic outside. It was only a few minutes after ten o’clock, so that was unusual for this time of the night. The few days I’d been in town, I noticed how busy these streets could get when the junkies and the crackheads beat the pavement down to get their next high. It got so bad, it looked like a circus. At times, I thought I was watching a fucking drug convention. But for some reason, the streets weren’t jumping this night. I figured maybe the police came through and ran a lot of the freaks to the other side of the neighborhood. Who knows, maybe all the drug dealers ran out of dope and left to go re-up. But whatever the reason, it felt good to walk down the block and not have to say “excuse me” every five to ten seconds.

  This was my second time going to this little convenience store, so I remembered where the orange juice was. And I had a female store employee point me in the direction of the cold medicine. After I picked up the brand Carmen wanted, I paid for my items and turned around to leave. But before I took the first step, I looked back at the woman behind the counter and asked, “Where is everybody?”

  “Who are you talking about?” she asked.

  “I’m talking about the people outside. It looks like a fucking ghost town out there. There’s not a drug dealer or a dope fiend in sight.”

  She laughed at me. “If the streets are that clean, then that means that either the police done been through here and did a sweep or the drug boys ran out and left so they can get some more. Just count your lucky stars that you don’t have to walk through all that garbage tonight.”

  “You got a point,” I replied, and then I left.

  Again when I was back on the streets, it still seemed very odd that I wasn’t being bombarded with a slew of fiends. I felt a bit strange, but the woman did say that I needed to count my lucky stars, so that’s what I did, walking back in the direction in which I came. This time around the walk seemed longer for some apparent reason. I had to pass a row of houses and then cross a dark alley that smelled like nothing else but urine. When I passed by it the first time, I had almost regurgitated the couple slices of pizza I had eaten earlier. And since I knew my stomach wouldn’t tolerate that unbearable stench this time, I held my breath, put my head down, and tried to walk by it as quickly as possible.

  Before I got past the alley, I was startled by a shout down at the end of it. I immediately turned my head in that direction and noticed that there was a bit of commotion going on. I stopped in my tracks to zoom in on what was happening down the alley, and that’s when I realized that two men had guns pointed directly at the head of another man. They had him surrounded like they were the predator and he was the prey. I could tell the man was pleading for his life.

  “Maceo,” he said. “Man, I wouldn’t ever snitch on you. Whoever told you that shit is a motherfucking liar! You can take me to them so we can straighten this shit out now!”

  “Nigga, shut the fuck up! And stop acting like a fucking pussy!” Maceo roared.

  “Yeah, nigga, shut the fuck up and take this shit like a man!” the other man added.

  Witnessing all this mayhem scared the hell out of me, so I put one foot in front of the other and started making my way back to my destination. I refused to be a witness to anyone’s murder, but fate dealt me a different hand, because as soon as I took the second step, I heard four gunshots fire, one after the other. Panic-stricken, I dove down on the ground, crawled to a nearby Dumpster, and hid behind it. I scraped my knees up underneath my three-hundred-dollar denim jeans. I damaged my jacket, too, but I couldn’t have cared less. My life was more important, and I wasn’t going to risk it for an outfit. I could replace clothes, but I can’t say the same for my life.

  Two seconds later, Maceo and the other guy ran out of the alley, toting their guns in hand, and hopped into a black 2009 Expedition truck with tinted windows. Not once did they look back, so there was no doubt in my mind that they didn’t see me. I l
et out a big sigh of relief after they sped off and made a right turn onto the next street.

  Before I stood up to my feet, I looked back down the alley and saw the man’s lifeless body lying face down on the ground. His head was lying in a huge pool of blood. The sight of it began to turn my stomach inside out, so I stood up to get out of there. I made sure the coast was clear, and when I felt I was no longer in harm’s way, I ran like hell. While I was running back toward Grandma Hattie’s house, I couldn’t do anything else but think about that guy who was just shot to death. And then I began to wonder whether or not he was dead. I mean, what if he wasn’t? I probably could have saved him. But then again, I figured he had to be dead because they shot him four times. There was no way he could be helped. Panting, I finally arrived in front of my grandmother’s house. And it didn’t shock me to see her standing at the front door awaiting my arrival.

  “Oh, my God! I heard the gunshots. Are you all right, child?” she asked as she stormed out onto the porch.

  “Yes, ma’am. I’m fine,” I assured her, and collapsed on the old sofa she had placed there for outdoor decor. Yes, the same sofa I swore I’d never sit on.

  “Thank you, Jesus. I thought you got caught up in a drive-by,” she said.

  And as bad as I wanted to respond, I couldn’t. Instead, I held my hand over my heart, closed my eyes and began to thank the Lord in a quiet prayer for watching over me.

  “Well, did you see where the shooting was coming from?” she wondered aloud.

  I really wasn’t in the mood to revisit that nightmare. So, I lied, “No, Grandma. I didn’t see a thing.”

  Her questions continued. “Well, I wonder if anybody got shot.”

  “Grandma, I can’t answer any of those questions because as soon as I heard the first gunshot, I started running and didn’t look back.”

  She shook her head in dismay. “These young people out here are going to kill each other before it’s all over with.” She headed back into her house. She stood there in the doorway and waited for me to follow her, but I handed her the bag that contained Carmen’s medicine and orange juice and told her I would see them in the morning. She gave me a hug and told me to be careful.