A Sticky Situation

by Kiki Swinson

  Surprisingly, a visitor came knocking on my door that next morning. The first person that popped in my head was Seth because I wasn’t expecting anyone else. I jumped out of my bed with the quickness. Excitement engulfed my entire body, but when I opened the door and saw Heather standing there, every ounce of that feeling sputtered out of me like air being released from a balloon. My facial expression told it all, and Heather had a comment for it.

  “I can tell you’re not happy to see me this morning,” she said as she forced her way past me, carrying a take-out bag from Denny’s. I could only assume she stopped and picked up breakfast for the both of us, so I stood there in my satin robe and said, “I’m just surprised to see that you’re not at work.”

  “I took the day off to spend some time with you.”

  “Thanks a lot,” I responded with little or no enthusiasm at all. I closed the door and followed her into the kitchen.

  “Did I catch you at a bad time?” she joked.

  “No.”

  “Well, why are you looking like that?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “What has he gotten you upset about now?” Heather asked as she took the food out of the bag and placed it on the table.

  “It’s nothing major. I’m just giving him a few days to cool off.”

  “What happened?”

  “We just got into a little disagreement, but we’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah, OK. Whatever you say.” Heather took a seat.

  I took a seat in a chair next to her and watched her dig her fork deep into her plate of hotcakes. She looked up at me and said with a mouthful of food, “While you’re sitting there looking at me, you need to be opening up that container before your food gets cold.”

  I opened up the Styrofoam container and devoured my food. When it was all said and done, Heather and I had an enjoyable morning with a nice, hot breakfast and good conversation. She convinced me to take a ride out with her to the mall so I threw on a House of Deréon blue denim catsuit. It didn’t fit like regular overalls; this bad boy was tight and it stuck to my body like a hand in a glove. I accessorized my attire with my favorite pair of black and gold Gucci ankle boots with a threeinch heel and the Gucci satchel handbag. I didn’t know what to do with my hair, so I combed it back into a ponytail, placed my Gucci sunshades on top of my head, and called it a day.

  Once we were outside, Heather volunteered to drive. We went to MacArthur Mall, located in the downtown area of Norfolk, since we wanted to do a little shopping at Nordstrom and bebe. The traffic wasn’t bad at all. As a matter-of-fact, things were steady, and before we knew it, we were approaching our exit. Out of nowhere, a Dodge Magnum that looked just like Seth’s car raced right by us at the speed of lightning. I looked down at the license plate, realized that it was his car, and immediately forgot about taking the trip to the mall.

  Heather also realized that it was Seth’s car. “Wasn’t that your man?” she asked me.

  “Yes, it sure was. And I want you to follow him, too.”

  Heather gave me the look of death. “For what?”

  “Look, Heather, please do me this favor,” I begged her.

  “You are so lucky that I’m in a good mood today,” she said and steered her car in the far left lane to follow him.

  I sat back and watched Seth as he maneuvered his car in and out of each lane. It was apparent that he was in a rush, but I didn’t know what he was rushing to. I knew I would soon find out, so I sat back and enjoyed the ride.

  “I sure can’t believe that I am doing this,” Heather commented once more as she followed Seth inside the downtown tunnel.

  “You’re doing it for me, remember?” I interjected.

  “Don’t remind me.” She pressed down harder on the accelerator.

  We followed Seth as he entered into the city limits of Portsmouth and got off on Effingham Street, which was the very first exit as you came out of the tunnel.

  “Where do you think he’s going?” Heather asked me.

  As bad as I wanted to tell her, I knew I would be playing myself if I did. I lied and said, “I don’t know, but I’m sure we’re going to find out.”

  Heather bought it and continued to follow Seth. As we entered the neighborhood of Prentis Park, we followed Seth straight down Lincoln Street, but he didn’t make the stop to the white house on the corner of Richmond Avenue. He kept driving straight down Lincoln Street, made a left on Des Moines Avenue, and took it all the way down to the end of the street. He parked directly across the street from a barbershop. Parked on the other side of him—and also directly in front of the barbershop—was the black Hummer, but the guy Mike was nowhere in sight.

  “Pull over right here,” I instructed Heather, pointing to a spot about a block away from Seth’s car. I figured that we were in a prime location. We weren’t too close and we weren’t too far. The main thing was that we could see everything moving, and that was what counted most.

  Heather left her car running, but that wasn’t enough because she started running her mouth, too. All she wanted to know was why in the hell were we following Seth, and then she started complaining about how she had better things to do than to be sitting outside in her car spying on someone she could care less about. I ignored her because I wasn’t about to feed into her nonsense. My main objective today was to find out what Seth had going on. While Heather continued to talk my head off, a brown–skinned guy of medium build, dressed in a Michael Vick football jersey and blue jeans, came storming out of the barbershop with Seth and Mike charging behind him. Seth lunged at the guy and struck him hard in the back of his head. The power behind the blow forced the guy face down to the ground. Both my mouth and Heather’s mouth fell wide open. We were completely stunned, to say the least. I mean, I had never seen Seth attack anyone like that. Heather hadn’t either, so she had a lot to say about it.

  “Oh my God! Did you just see that?” she belted out, her eyes wide.

  I was speechless. I couldn’t respond as I watched both Mike and Seth beat this man with their bare hands. They literally attacked this guy like he had stolen something from them.

  Upset by the whole scene, Heather shook her head in dismay and said, “So, what? You just gonna sit here and let them kill him?”

  “What am I supposed to do? Go over there and break it up?” I snapped. “Shit, I just got banged up yesterday behind a couple of niggas. You think I am going to allow myself to run into some more bullshit? Hell no! I’ve had my share of niggas putting their hands on me.”

  “Well, I am going to call the police because I can’t continue to sit here and watch this madness and not do anything about it.”

  While Heather dialed 911, I watched Seth and Mike repeatedly punch, kick, and stomp on that poor guy. The man looked helpless. What was so crazy was that there were a few bystanders watching the whole thing as it unfolded, like they were at a professional boxing match. From where we were parked, we could see how much blood was covering the victim’s face. It became so unbearable to see, I told Heather to leave. As she was about to pull off, a dark green Impala with tinted windows came around the corner, its tires squealing, and whoever was inside opened fire on Mike and Seth. My heart immediately crashed to the floor and I envisioned Seth lying in his coffin, and that wasn’t a pretty sight at all.

  “We gotta get out of here,” Heather said, putting her car in REVERSE and pressing down on the accelerator.

  “Wait,” I blurted out, “we can’t leave him!”

  “I am sorry, Maxine, but I am getting out of here.”

  My heart ached as tears started falling down my face. What was really scary was the feeling of the unknown. Not knowing what condition Seth was in really began to bother me. That changed when I wiped the tears from my eyes and saw Seth bolting down the street toward us, shooting rounds aimlessly at the Impala before it could make its getaway around the corner.

  I became overjoyed. “I see him! There he is!”

  Heather backed her car into
the opposite corner from the Impala.

  Heather refused to respond. Instead, she sped off in the direction from which we came. As soon as we made it back on the other side of the water, her mouth wouldn’t stop running.

  “You know what? I hope the police lock all of their asses up! Out there acting like ignorant-ass fools!” she snapped. “Do you know we could’ve gotten hit by one of those stray bullets?”

  “Heather, you are truly overreacting, because for one, we were too far back for them to even graze your car. And two, no one was even shooting in our direction.”

  “Seth was.”

  “OK, you’re right, but he was aiming at the green Impala.”

  “I don’t give a fuck who he was aiming at, because he could’ve still hit us.”

  “All right, Heather. I see you’re upset, so I am gonna let you have that one.”

  “What’s to have, Maxine? We just witnessed a guy getting beaten to death by your boyfriend and then, on top of that, we almost fell victim to a fucking drive-by. Now, how can you justify that?”

  “I am not trying to justify anything.”

  “Well, answer this and tell me what are you going to do about it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come off that bullshit, Maxine. You know what the hell I’m talking about,” she screamed. “I want to know if you plan on violating his ass?”

  “Heather, you know I can’t discuss that with you.” I tried to avoid answering her question. “He’s federal property and—”

  “Oh, cut the bullshit!” she interjected, cutting me off in mid-sentence. “He ain’t nobody’s property but your own, and I’ve got a deep feeling that you ain’t gonna do shit to him. You are just gonna let him get away with it, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean, you don’t know? I mean, come on, you are a probation officer. You’re an officer of the court who’s supposed to uphold the law. What’s the fucking problem?”

  “Calm down!” I finally lashed out. “I don’t need you preaching to me about what I am supposed to be doing. So mind your fucking business, will ya?”

  “I knew it!” Heather yelled. “I knew you weren’t going to do a damn thing to that menace-ass thug of yours! But you know what? One day he’s going to get his, and if you don’t wake up, you’re going to get caught right up in it.”

  “Trust me; I am not going to get caught up in anything that I don’t want to.”

  “Don’t try to convince me.”

  “I’m not.”

  Heather shook her head and chuckled. “Girl, that nigga got your silly ass wrapped around his fingers and you’re too stupid to see it. I hope for your sake that you get out of that relationship with him before you fuck around and lose everything.”

  “Don’t worry, I got everything under control.”

  “I find that hard to believe, because the old Maxine would’ve gotten that nigga arrested and violated on the spot. I remember when you used to be so hard on your parolees. You wouldn’t take shit off their asses. If they acted like they were getting ready to do something wrong, you didn’t hesitate to put their asses back behind bars. Now it’s like you’ve lost all sense of who you are, and I don’t like it.”

  “Believe me, nothing about me has changed.”

  Heather pulled her car in front of my house. “Yeah, tell me anything,” she said and waited for me to exit her vehicle.

  I saw that there was no way that I would be able to convince her that I hadn’t changed, so I said goodbye and got out. Before I closed the passenger side door I said, “I’ll call you later.”

  “No. Don’t call me unless you’re done dealing with that fool and he’s back behind bars.”

  Shocked by her words and the tone in which they were delivered, I said, “Are you serious?”

  “Yes, I am.” Her expression was somber. “Now, close my door so I can get out of here.”

  Being a Gemini, I am a very proud person, so I wasn’t about to let Heather see how upset she was making me. Shit, I didn’t need her, for real. Besides, what kind of friend was she being by trying to tell me what to do about my man? Whether she knew it or not, I wasn’t about to send him back to jail just because she said to. Not only that, but a spark inside me lit up when I saw him chasing that car down the street and firing that gun. I was literally turned on. Seeing him in action like that made me feel like I was watching an episode of The Wire. Believe it or not, I loved that show, and deep down inside me was a bad girl yearning to come out and do some wild shit. I guess that was why I got involved with Seth in the first place. I couldn’t divulge that information to Heather. She was a goody two-shoe type and wouldn’t understand if I spelled it out for her. All she would do was judge me, and I couldn’t have that. To kill two birds with one stone, I gave her what she wanted. I didn’t say another word and closed her door, like she asked. She immediately drove off and didn’t look back. I really didn’t care how she felt about the situation, one way or another. I walked into my house.

  SETH

  The Belly Of The Beast

  "Ay yo, nigga, you a’ight?” I asked Mike as he scrambled to his feet. “Yeah, come on. Let’s get out of here before the police come,” he urged me as he rushed toward his Hummer.

  I ran across the street and jumped in my car and sped out of there like lightning. Mike sped off in the opposite direction, but I knew where he was going. We did this to distract all of the nosey-ass people from pointing out to the police which way we went. When we met up on the Norfolk side, I followed him all the way down I-264 to Great Neck Road. We got off at that exit and drove another ten miles until we came to an area called Pelican Bay. The huge wall of stone with those two words engraved in it symbolized one thing, and that was that everybody who lived out here had money. As I followed Mike into this new development, I could see that there were still some houses under construction. The houses that were up were hot to death and most had families living in them. What set it off were the Porsches, Jaguars, Cadillacs, Range Rovers and Benzes that were parked in the driveways. We circled around a man-made lake and drove down Concourse Lane to a two-story, Windham style brick home, tucked away in a cul-de-sac. The mismatched stones on this bad boy were gorgeous as hell. Plus, there was a three-car garage attached. I knew off the bat that Mike had to pay at least a mill for this joint.

  When I stepped out of my car, I asked him, “Ay yo, son, I know you forked out at least a mill for this joint, huh?”

  Mike smiled. “Nah, but you’re close.”

  I followed him up the driveway.

  I passed this pearl white Acura RL with wood grain and cream-colored leather interior. The shit was so plush, I did a double take. I didn’t know it, but Mike saw me through his peripheral vision. He caught me off guard when he said, “That joint is hot, huh?”

  I smiled, nodded my head, and followed him into his crib. Inside, we were greeted by his wife Lacy. Oh my God, homegirl was fucking beautiful. She’d put you in the mind of an Asian and black chick. Her hair was long, black, and silky and her skin was flawless. What was even more appealing about her was that her five-two frame was so tight, you couldn’t even tell she was pregnant. I smiled at her and waited for Mike to introduce us.

  “Baby, this is my man Seth. Seth, this is Lacy,” he finally said as he stood beside her. Looking at the both of them together was like looking at Mike Tyson and Kobe Bryant’s wife. That’s how pretty Lacy was and that’s how big Mike was, towering over her.

  She and I both said hello to each other and then Mike escorted me into the den area. “Baby, y’all want something to drink?” I heard her yell down the hall at us.

  “Yeah, bring us two Coronas.” She brought us two cold beers before she asked Mike, “Did you need me to do anything else before I leave?”

  “You getting ready to leave?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Where you going?”

  “I’m going shopping with Megan.”

  “A’ight,
but don’t spend up all my dough.” Mike smiled.

  Lacy looked back at him and said, “There are not enough hours in a day to do that.”

  “You’re right, but I’m sure it’s crossed your mind.”

  “My mother always told me never let your right hand know what your left is doing. So, I guess it’s best that I stick to that,” she replied and disappeared around the corner.

  “Her mother’s right,” I commented and took a sip of my beer.

  Mike laughed and said, “To hell with her moms because she ain’t nothing but a gold-digging bitch!”

  After hearing him blast his wife’s mother like that, I didn’t know whether to laugh or act like I didn’t hear him. I was saved by the bell when his cellular phone started ringing off the hook.

  “Yeah, what’s up?” he answered. “A’ight. Well, tell them that something came up and we ain’t gon’ set up shop until later.” He continued talking and then ended the call.

  “Niggas getting impatient about that product, huh?” I inquired.

  “Yeah, that was Melody telling me that a lot of fiends keep knocking on her door trying to score. I told her to tell ’em something came up and that we’ll set up shop later.”

  “What time you want me to go out there?”

  “I want shit to cool down out there first. I would hate for you to run right back into them cats while you got my shit on you.”

  “Come on now, Mike. Do you honestly think I would let them niggas fuck with your shit?”

  “I know you wouldn’t, but those niggas are on some bitch-type shit! They would set you up to get busted by the police in a heartbeat. That’s why I keep my distance from them.”

  “Is that what the cat back at the barbershop did?”

  “Hell, nah!” Mike said. “That was Melody’s baby daddy, Rick.”