He was a beige complexion and stood about five foot eleven with a wiry frame.
He must have thought it was packed with muscle because he always had his shirt off.
He had a tattoo on his arm of a hawk with the words “Lil’ Bird.” underneath.
Priest and I would tease him and tell him the only thing “Bird.” about him was his chest; after that, he’d get mad and want to wrestle or slap-box. His immature my-way-or-the-highway attitude could be a bit overbearing, but he was family and pretty much our little brother.
Henny came out of the back room wearing house slippers, sagging jeans and no shirt, the music still blasting.
“You say something?” Henny said with innocent curiosity.
“I said turn the music down!” Priest said, trying to control his temper.
Henny didn’t even wait for him to finish.
“Moses, what’s up my cat? I didn’t hear you come in,”
“You didn’t hear him cause you got that music up too fucking loud!” Priest yelled.
Henny didn’t even acknowledge him.
“You getcha some catfish, Mo? That Tasha can burn, I’m telling you!”
Priest now slammed his fist on the table.
“If you are gonna come over here, you’re gonna have to listen to me, so go turn that damn stereo down.”
Henny looked astonished at Priest’s complaint. “My bad man, I’ll turn it down. Relax.”
He was on his way to turn the stereo down when he turned to me. “You believe the treatment I get around here?”
I filled my plate with catfish and corn and took a seat at the table. Priest sat down and started going through his shoebox Rolodex.
“I gotta call all these people tonight, when I could just be down at the bar,” Priest complained.
“Then why don’t you just go down to the bar?” I asked Priest looked puzzled.
“I’m not going back to that muthafucka, man!” Priest shouted. “Relax, brah I’m just trying to help you out.”
Priest went right back to his paperwork. “Slim told me to tell you hello.”
Priest didn’t even pull his eyes up off the piles of paper.
“It’s pretty messed up over there. Nobody’s even talking to him,”
“Fuck Slim, he deserves it.” Priest said.
I dropped my fork; his comment had us peering at each other like it was ten paces and draw.
“He deserves it? The only thing he deserves is the right to retire without everybody talking shit!” I shouted.
Priest looked overwhelmed.
“You think I give a fuck about his retirement? He could have retired ten years ago, for all I give a fuck. It’s about keeping it in the family, and he sold to them clowns, for what? More money? We're supposed to be bigger than that. Slim sold out, and he expects everybody to throw him a damn parade. Shit, he’s lucky they don’t run him out that muthafucka! And I tell you what,” Priest said with the sneer of a cartoon villain.
“I’m gonna get the bar; I don’t care how long it takes, I’m gonna get it.”
What are you gonna do?”
Priest threw his head back full of arrogance and evil ambition.
“I don’t know, but by hook or crook, I’m going to get my uncle’s bar back!”
Priest always gave you the impression that he had one foot in the grave and the other in prison, but now it was beginning to feel like fate was going to clear up his indecision.
August 16, 1996
When I arrived at the gym, I was convincing myself I was there to work, but I knew I was there to get next to Angel. Hell Priest hadn’t mentioned Mr. Wilkes in days, so what did he give a damn? If he woke up and started to care, I’d tell him she wasn’t cheating, but until then I didn’t see anything wrong with a few quiet conversations with Angel.
I ran out of the locker room excited like I was the first player to break through the paper at the pep rally, but soon my exuberance was extinguished. When I walked into the Nautilus room, I saw Marcus and Angel involved in a flirting frenzy by the leg machine. I hunched my shoulders fixed my face and clenched my fist like I had heard the first bell of a prizefight. Our eyes met I gave her a nod like we were less than casual. I went and got my work out on, upset at myself for blowing the surveillance from the get-go. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.
After a while, I hit the showers and was walking out of the gym when I heard the clopping of clogs behind me.
“Moses, wait up.”
I turned around to see Angel running my way, grinning from ear to ear.
“Why did you leave so early? Wanna get some coffee?”
What was I going to do, say no?
“Sure,” I said with a half-smile.” But this time it’s on me.”
We made our way across the street to the coffee shop.
She had café mocha, and I stuck with regular coffee. We sat at the same outdoor table as the day before.
“So what’s up to Moses, you acted like you couldn’t speak earlier. What’s wrong?” Angel said with the sincere concern of a grandmother.
“No Angel, everything is cool. I didn’t want to interrupt your work out.”
“Is that right?” Angel said, unconvinced.
“So did you decide on something exciting to do besides workout?”
Angel looked downward with devious eyes and hid a half smile behind a sip of café mocha her eyes now peering at me. I almost lost it as she emerged with a froth mustache, which she removed with a slow lash of her tongue.
Angel took a slow sip of her café mocha, “I got something I’ve been dying to do, but you’ve got to agree to do it with me.”
As soon as she said it, I felt like the gates of heaven had opened, and God had peaked his head through a cloud and winked at me.
I concealed my excitement with a raised brow.
“What did you have in mind?”
I observed her mouth as she began to speak.
“I want to go on a balloon ride,” Angel said awaiting my excitement.
It wasn’t what I had in mind; my brief dream deflated I tried to look as interested as possible.
“A balloon ride unh?”
“Aw you’re not interested, are you?” Angel said.
I looked at her like she had accused me of murder.
“Oh no Angel, a balloon ride sounds good.”
“Then it’s a date. Next week Monday, instead of coffee we will ride in the sky,” Angel smiled.
Her fascination with the balloon ride was borderline silly, but the magical smile that it put on her face warmed my heart, Hell I would have blown the balloon up to see it again.
When I reached my mother’s house the Salvation Army truck was pulling out of the driveway, as I walked through the side door, I could hear Melody’s portable stereo playing a soulful selection by Roberta Flack. Melody was standing with her back to me in the middle of the empty living room wearing jeans a T-shirt, and a handkerchief around her head. She was standing there as she had just climbed Mount Everest. Melody turned around suddenly, startled to see me.
“Hey, Moses, I didn’t hear you come in. you just missed the Salvation Army truck.”
“I saw it when I pulled up. What did the Salvation Army take?”
“What didn’t they take is more like it. The sofas, the bed, dresser, some clothes,” Melody was saying it like they had broken in and stole everything instead of her giving it away.
“So what is there left to do?” I said while Melody looked off into space.
“Very little, now.”
“I'm supposed to be meeting with a Realtor later on today.”
Melody was looking around the room like it was the last before the wrecking ball.
“I called off from work today,” Melody said her hands hard against her hips.
“I’ve been here since seven a.m. I can’t believe it’s all done.”
“Hey sis, you did a helluva job with the house. It would’ve taken me a month to do what you did i
n a couple of days,”
She didn’t even hear me.
“Moses, do you want to have some tea, one more time?” she sounded like a child who was afraid to hear no.
I was growing accustomed to being there for her, and a cup of tea was undoubtedly a request that I wouldn’t refuse.
“Sounds good to me.”
Melody gave a slight smile, which was more than I expected.
We sat in the living room on the only two boxes left. We were silent. Melody was gazing around the room.
I tried to read her thoughts and share with her.
“I wonder when this feeling is going to go away.”
Melody gave me a consoling smile.
“It’ll be alright Moses, as long as we have each other, it’ll be alright. It seems like just yesterday we were running around here fighting over nothing.”
“Well, it was a couple of days ago Melody.”
Melody smiled.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right, I propose a toast.”
I lifted my cup, Melody paused for a moment, and a tear rolled down her cheek.
“To Mommy,” Melody said with a broad smile.
“Most definitely,” I said as we clanked our cups.
It amazes me how you know your brother or sister all your life, and there are probably only a handful of moments in life that you feel completely related.
“So, did you decide which school you’re gonna go to?”
Melody sucked her teeth and was shaking her head.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
I knew that meant she wanted to talk about it.
“What are you talking about? Yesterday you were all for it, now you don’t wanna talk about it.”
Melody let out a couple of sighs.
“William doesn’t want me to go. He said it was bad timing? If it’s something, you want to do you should do it. Don’t tell me you’re gonna sit around and wait for him to tell you when the time is right.”
“It’s not that, Moses it’s like he said, if I’m at school all the time, we’ll never have any time to spend together. It’s just not practical right now.”
“You can say whatever you want to reason your dreams away, Melody. So when will the time be right, Melody? In five years, ten years, twenty?” I sounded exactly like my mother, and I knew it. I needed to use every angle possible to get her to listen.
“The hell with practical,” I continued, you’ve got to let him know that you have dreams, you’re not just his wife you’re more than that. “That was right from my mother’s playbook; all quotes that I had heard a million times and I knew for a fact that Melody was familiar with them. She had ignored that advice for years. I don’t know if it was the weight of the situation or my translation, but I had Melody’s full attention, which threw me off. When I ran out of quotes, I was left to make things up.
“If he ain’t with you, he’s against you.” I was walking the verbal balance beam; if she had questioned me, I wouldn’t have had the answer.
“You know what, Moses,” Melody said, putting her cup down. I prayed it wasn’t a question.
“You’re right. I’m always listening to what William says like its law. If he loves me than he should be understanding, right?”
I didn’t even want to answer that question. I just nodded my head. “I support anything that he wants to do, and it’s time for him to start throwing some support my way.” Melody paused for a moment inhaling deep basking in her newfound power.
“I’m so glad we talked about this Moses, I feel like I finally woke up. Things are going to be different from here on out.”
As I sat there watching Melody’s gaze turn from glassy-eyed to galvanized, I wondered if I bit off more than I could chew. I would’ve hated to be in William’s shoes. Melody and I finished off another cup of tea before we said goodnight.
It was getting pretty late, and seeing that Slim’s would not be around much longer I figured I would spend the rest of the evening there.
When I arrived, I saw Rico’s white Pathfinder and a moving van unloading. At that moment it hit me that Slim’s would no longer be around. I was beginning to feel like the winds of change had formed a hurricane, but my emotional feelings subsided, although the bar might be gone, Slim would still be around.
I walked in and was taken aback to see how empty the bar was; there were maybe six or seven people spread throughout the bar. Big Walt was watching television on the corner end of the bar and Dimples was sitting in a booth playing solitaire. I noticed that most of the chairs and tables were gone. Out of the back hallway came Slim and Rico. Slim looked to be explaining something to him. It was eerily quiet. I looked for the jukebox. I went over and coaxed Big Walt away from television long enough to get a drink and interrupted Dimples game of solitaire.
“What’s happening Sis, this seat taken?” Dimples greeted me with a broad smile.
“Hey friendly, I didn’t see you come in. Have a seat. As you can see
I’m bored to death.”
“What’s happening here? Yesterday it looked like a morgue, today it looks like a museum.”
Dimples flung her head back.
“You won’t believe what happen last night.”
“Try me.”
“It was a couple of hours after you left. I guess people were drinking too much. This one dude ordered a bottle of champagne, so I get it and bring it to him, and I tell him that would be one twenty-five.
Then he tells me drinks are half price like I don’t know that, so I say drinks, not bottles. He reaches into his pocket and slams seventy-five dollars on the table and grabs the bottle. I go and tell Walt. He goes over and asks for the rest of the money. By now they’re already drinking the champagne. So the guy says to Walt take your old ass back to the bar.
“Who is this guy?” I ask, interrupting Dimples story.
“I don’t know? He must’ve been a friend of the new owner. Anyway, Walt snatches the bottle off the table; the guy jumps out his seat, and Walt grabs the bottle and hit him over the head with it. His friends jump up and start beating on Walt, then it just broke into chaos, Slim came out of the office and shot a pistol in the air, and everybody ran out like the place was on fire. The police even came. It was ridiculous. So Slim said this was his last day. The new owner has been here since morning, changing things around. He offered me a job, but I don’t know if I’m going to take it.”
Her story was wild. Slim’s never had any of the types of drama; she was describing. It was a mellow spot, plus there was too much respect for Slim and Bird to lose your cool and bring the heat.
I imagined that Slim had to be at his wit's end, considering he was almost there last night.
“Anyway,” Dimples continued, “Slim’s retirement party was supposed to be here tomorrow night, but since last night the guest list has been cut in half and the party moved to Slim’s house. You and Priest are gonna show, right?”
“I know I’ll be there. I haven’t talked to Priest.”
Slim walked up to the table as Dimples sounded off.
“Hey Slim!”
Slim gave half of his trademark smile then looked my way.
“Moses, let me talk to you.”
He didn’t wait for my response; he just started walking toward his
office.
I walked in and noticed everything packed up in boxes. The only thing that looked like it was staying was the carpet. Slim offered me a drink out of the boxes of liquor stacked by the wall, where the wet bar used to be.
He was looking frantically for a cup when I told him I’d pass. Slim cracked open a bottle of whiskey and took a long sip. He was moving around like he had something to say. For some reason, he was stalling.
“So what’s up, Slim? I heard it got a little hectic in here last night.” “Yeah, it did,” Slim, said.
“I want you to do me a favor,” Slim said like a panhandler with some pride left.
“Yo
u name it,” I said with concern.
“Well you know tomorrow night I got this retirement party, and after that, I’m going to take a long vacation. I don’t know when I’ll be back. It’s going to be a lot of people from out of town coming. People we haven’t seen in years, some not since Birds funeral and some I’ve already talked to and they’ve been asking about you and Priest. So I want you to make sure that you both are there if you aren’t too busy.”
What he was saying was based on a true story. I was sure there would be a lot of people there that we hadn’t seen in some time who might’ve asked about us, but the truth was Slim wanted to make things right between him and Priest. Retiring wouldn’t have any closure to it if he and Priest were still at odds.
“I’ll be there,” I couldn’t say the same for Priest, so I didn’t. Slim realized my commitment was singular. I watched him sigh and put the whiskey to his lips. I turned to walk out. I couldn’t take it anymore. It was like watching Muhammed Ali fight past his prime. Slim was a shell of the man that I once admired. I opened the door to exit when I heard Slim shout. “Talk to him Moses, talk to him.”
I couldn’t even turn to look. Priest took another swig of whiskey. I could hear the liquor splashing against the glass. I just signaled the okay over my shoulder and avoided seeing him in dying dignity. On my way out of the bar, I wondered if Slim, somewhere inside felt that he did sell out. He certainly didn’t look sure of himself. I still didn’t believe he sold out. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the intelligence behind making group decisions about your future, but then again, in the “being-there-” for-people department, I was a novice.
I pulled in front of Priest’s pad; happy that I didn’t see Tasha’s ride anywhere. Once I got up the stairs, I opened the door greeted with a barrage of slap boxing punches from a shirtless Henny.
“What’s up? What’s up Mo?” Henny said, throwing punches and trying to get me to challenge. I didn’t even put my hands up.
“Sit yo’ ass down somewhere!”
Moses Scriptures Page 8
