A Sucker 4 Candy Amaleka McCall
Chapter 4
It was Ben’s sixteenth birthday and he was surrounded by his new family—his street crew. Deezo raised a glass in preparation to make a toast.
“Ya’ll niggas pipe the fuck down! I got something to say!” Deezo screamed over his underlings’ chatter. Everybody lowered their voice in response to the boss’s command. He had that kind power over his younger posse. They all turned to look at Deezo. “Let’s make a toast to this little nigga, Big Ben, right here. This nigga graduated from delivery boy to weed spot to crack spot, now this nigga slanging that girl to those rich white muthafuckas,” Deezo sang out lifting his glass high over his head.
Ben was smiling from ear to ear. Deezo had summarized his story perfectly. Quan and a bunch of other dudes all made cheering sounds and took their drinks to the head. Ben couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. He took a swig of the Hennessey Deezo had given him. Ben was feeling good. Deezo and his dudes had treated Ben better than his own mother, Celeste, had. He was feeling like shit was all gravy. He was sitting on top of the world. He was back making good money and since he had been stashing drugs in his crib on a regular for Deezo, he had made his way to the top of Deezo’s “good guy” list.
When Deezo had first told Ben he wanted him to stash and bag heroin for him, Ben was a bit reluctant. Ben had become comfortable doing hand-to-hand on his corner. But Deezo had convinced him that standing out on the street for years wasn’t the way to get to the top. It didn’t take much convincing. Ben had been taking home baggies filled with heroin for a month now. He would put the high grade heroin into smaller baggies, which Deezo referred to as nicks and dimes, and Ben would distribute packages to other dealers that got their weight from Deezo. It was a much better arrangement for Ben, because he was able to be home and spend more time with Keon.
Ben had grown closer to his baby brother, especially since Ben had started buying all of Keon’s clothes, sneakers and necessities. Ben regarded his mother and her baby father as a waste of sperm. He had stopped giving Celeste any money. He was tired of supporting her lazy ass. She just didn’t want to get out there and find a job, and Ben wasn’t a little kid anymore. The first time he had refused to give her any money out of his so-called “pay check,” Celeste had went nuts, screaming and trying to hit him. Ben had grabbed her wrists and pushed her back. It didn’t take long for Celeste to realize her son was growing up and he wasn’t about to let her take all or any of his money anymore. Celeste was on her own. Of course, she turned her sights to Drake for money, which was a lost cause. Ben was the man now and he was making more money than he could’ve ever dreamed of when he first started hustling for Deezo.
“Yo Ben, tell us about the first piece of pussy you got last year from that bitch down on Halsey,” Deezo said, laughing. Deezo had noticed that Ben had zoned out. He didn’t want the party to end just yet. He knew how to keep his little soldiers loyal to him. The little birthday party he was throwing Ben was just a part of Deezo’s plan. “C’mon Big Ben, tell us about that tight ass pussy you got from that ho,” Deezo said again, his words slurring.
Ben smiled, just thinking about it now. He had been a virgin before Deezo made an older woman give him some pussy. Ben was blushing as Deezo started telling the story. Everybody started laughing. They partied all night in celebration of Ben. He hadn’t gone into the house until after five o’clock in the morning. Celeste didn’t care. She had been too wrapped up in her own life chasing after Drake to even remember that it was Ben’s birthday. He took note of his mother’s blatant disregard for his birthday.
Two weeks after the party, Ben was doing his usual—stashing, bagging and selling weight for Deezo. Ben was in a routine. He had walked into the dark, quiet apartment. He listened closely when he first went into the apartment, but he didn’t hear anybody screaming and cursing. He was relieved. He wasn’t in the mood to hear Celeste and that bum ass nigga, Drake, argue. He went into his room and unloaded some of the new stuff he had purchased. He pulled out three different colored fitted caps, three pairs of high-end jeans, and then he walked over and added two new shoe boxes to his collection. His sneaker collection was off the chain now. He had three stacks of boxes that towered almost to the ceiling.
When he was done situating his new clothes and shoes, he took out the clothes and sneakers he had purchased for Keon. Ben smiled at how cute some of the miniature high-end items were. He took Keon’s stuff out of the shopping bags and folded them up. The baby was asleep in Ben’s bed, which told Ben that Drake was in his mother’s bed. He had gotten kind of used to sleeping with the baby in his bed now.
Ben finished putting the stuff away. Then it was down to business for him. He pulled out the half-gallon size baggie that Deezo had given him that night. He examined the heroin inside. He couldn’t really understand how something that looked like an off-white version of cooking flour could be so powerful and so expensive.
“Shit, I ain’t complaining that shit keeping my pockets laced,” Ben said to himself, giving the baggie a squeeze. He pulled his nightstand drawer out and then laid everything he needed to bag up on top of the nightstand. He pulled the drawer out to keep from having any accidents on the floor. If he spilled any bit of the drugs it would fall into the drawer, which he would be able to clean up later. Ben spent his entire night bagging up. He was exhausted afterwards and all he wanted to do was go to sleep.
Ben pulled the rubber gloves that Deezo had given him off and dropped them into the emptied big baggie that had previously contained the heroin. He balled the plastic items up and put them into his old newspaper bag. He would discard the empty plastic and gloves later he told himself. He usually took the newspaper bag out with him whenever he left the apartment and threw the drug paraphernalia down into the sewer grates a block up from his house. Ben had a system and he followed it to the letter. He couldn’t take a chance with Celeste finding any baggies with residue sitting in them.
“Ben . . . Ben!” Celeste called out, shaking Ben’s shoulder. He moaned and shrugged her off. “Ben! Get the fuck up!” Celeste hollered.
“Mmm,” Ben moaned and waved her off.
“Look, getcha ass up! I gotta go down to welfare and you gotta stay here with Keon,” Celeste told Ben.
Ben perked up when she said that. “Nah! I gotta go to work,” Ben grumbled, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.
“Well, too fuckin’ bad. That job don’t benefit me no more. I don’t see a dime of ya money, so I gotta go to the welfare office and let them lecture my ass on getting a job,” Celeste spat indignantly with her arms folded across her chest.
“C’mon man! I gotta go to work,” Ben complained.
“Like I said . . . you gotta watch the baby while I go get humiliated by these fuckin’ uppity ass white people. So here he go,” Celeste growled, pushing baby Keon down onto Ben’s chest.
“Dayum!” Ben belted out.
“Oh yeah, he just took a shit so change him,” Celeste said with an evil chuckled. She sashayed out of Ben’s room and out of the apartment. Ben put Keon down on the bed and sat up. “What the fuck I’m supposed to tell Deezo now?” he said to himself.
Baby Keon was laughing, he thought Ben was talking to him. “Don’t laugh lil nigga! I gotta sell these fuckin’ packages or else Deezo gon’ kill my ass and you gon’ be left here with ya trifling ass mother and father,” Ben spoke to the baby like Keon could understand him. Keon just smiled.
“Yo, to be a poor ass lil nigga you a happy baby,” Ben said, slumping down on his bed putting his head in his hand. He thought for a minute, he lifted up his head like a light bulb had gone off inside. There was no way he was going to let Deezo down again, not after all Deezo had been doing for him lately. He snatched baby Keon off the bed.
“Your hater ass mother can’t stop me from making my paper. I’ma just have to take you with me,” he said to Keon.
Ben changed and dressed the baby as quickly as he could. Then he dressed him
self. He grabbed his packages and threw them into Keon’s baby bag, which worked out perfectly for Ben. When he got to his first sale, he got strange looks from some of the hustling dudes.
“What the fuck is this, daddy daycare and shit,” a dude they called Beast joked with Ben.
“Yo, my moms be wilding out. She left my brother and just bounced on a nigga,” Ben explained.
“It’s all good . . . as long as daddy daycare keep supplying that straight white girl, I wouldn’t give a fuck if the baby brought it here by himself,” Beast said. Ben got a good laugh out of that one. He got the same type of comments at every one of his spots. Word traveled fast and before long, Ben saw Deezo waiting for him at the corner of his block.
“A’ yo, Ben, lemme holla at you,” Deezo called out. Ben had a smile on his face as he bopped over to Deezo’s ride.
“Wassup boss,” Ben said all cheery.
“What the fuck is up?” Deezo barked, his facial expression serious.
Ben immediately wiped the smile off his face. “I . . . I . . . I had to babysit so I couldn’t leave him so I just took him with me to drop off the weight,” Ben stammered. He knew Deezo wasn’t happy.
“Muthafucka, you must be smoking that shit you dropping off! You gon’ take a fuckin’ baby around with you? Don’t you know that shit would bring attention to your dumb ass!” Deezo screamed at Ben.
Damn I fucked up again. Ben hung his head in shame.
“Gimme my fuckin’ money and get the fuck away from my fuckin’ car!” Deezo belted out.
Baby Keon started crying from his stroller at the sound of Deezo’s deep, booming baritone. Ben dug down into the baby bag and handed Deezo all the money. He waited by the car window a few minutes waiting for Deezo to give him his cut of the money.
Deezo flipped through the stacks of bills. Then he gave Ben an evil look. “What the fuck is you waitin’ for? You ain’t gettin’ shit off this run. You better be lucky I don’t fuck ya ass up for having that fuckin’ baby out here,” Deezo said.
Ben stood up straight, gathered himself and began pushing baby Keon towards home. As soon as he and Keon were almost at their building, Ben spotted Celeste. She had her arms folded and her face was curled into a monstrous snarl.
“Where the hell did you have my baby at?” Celeste erupted, her voice high-pitched and shrill. Ben ignored her, he was too angry to deal with this shit right now. “I asked you a fuckin’ question Benjamin,” Celeste continued, calling Ben by his Government name, which told him that she was really upset.
“I was fuckin’ at work!” Ben screamed back.
Celeste hadn’t expected his defiance so she was quiet for a second. “You didn’t take my baby to no newspaper route!” she continued to scream. By now, some of their ghetto ass neighbors were watching their altercation. “You think I didn’t see you talking to Deezo!” Celeste belted out, dropping a bomb on Ben.
His eyes widened and he started to feel hot with embarrassment. “So what?” he spat, getting on the defensive.
“So he is a fuckin’ drug dealer and I told you ain’t no child of mine selling no drugs . . . not living up in my house!” Celese screamed.
“Just because I was talkin’ to him now I’m a drug dealer . . . whatever,” Ben replied. He pushed the stroller towards Celeste and turned his back on her.
“Don’t you fuckin’ walk away from me when I’m speaking to you!” Celeste screamed at Ben’s back.
He ignored her ranting and headed in the opposite direction. He needed to get his thoughts together. He didn’t know what he was going to do if Deezo completely cut him off.
Celeste stormed into the building. When she got into the apartment she couldn’t help herself. She was very angry with Ben, but she was more worried that her sixteen year old son might be into hustling drugs. She went into Ben’s room and began tearing it up. “You wanna play with me? I am not to be played with,” she said to herself as she pulled out Ben’s dresser drawers. She sifted through all of his stuff that fell onto the floor. She didn’t find anything accept a few sealed condoms.
Celeste continued her whirlwind destruction of Ben’s room. She emptied every last one of his sneaker boxes. She shook the sneakers out and tossed them onto the floor if they were empty. “This boy thinks his mother is a joke,” she continued talking to herself.
She went to Ben’s tiny closet and started pulling stuff off the hangers and top shelf. She still didn’t find anything that suggested that Ben was selling drugs. “I know where to look!” she beamed, having an ah-ha moment. She rushed over to the bed and struggled with the heavy mattress as she turned it over.
“This bastard thinks I’m stupid! His ass probably ain’t been to no fuckin’ newspaper job,” Celeste stated as she strained to get the mattress off the bed. When it finally fell over, Celeste was disappointed that she didn’t find anything under it. She was on a mission. She continued to destroy Ben’s room. She walked over to his nightstand and picked up his newspaper bag. She examined it. She peeked inside, but there was nothing inside the bag except an empty, balled up plastic baggie. She balled the bag up and put it under her arm.
“How he go to work and his newspaper bag laying right here. I’ma keep this shit and let me see how long it take him to look for it,” Celeste said to herself out loud. She had seen Ben leave everyday with his bag, but not today. “Just because he took the baby wouldn’t mean he wouldn’t need his bag . . . he think he slick,” Celeste continued.
She had made herself exhausted going through Ben’s room and belongings. She hadn’t found anything of substance that pointed to Ben selling or using drugs. “He better be lucky I ain’t find no bullshit up in here,” she said.
She took Ben’s bag and hid it in the closet in her room. She wanted to see how long it was going to take before Ben asked or looked for it. Although she expected to find drugs, Celeste was really secretly relieved deep down inside that Ben might’ve been telling her the truth. She reminded herself that the next time she saw her no-good ex-boyfriend, Deezo, she would be sure to tell him to stay the fuck away from her son. Celeste and Deezo had history and she hated the very ground he walked on.
It had taken a few days but Deezo finally started speaking to Ben again. When he calmed down, Deezo realized that taking a baby with him to do drops wasn’t the worst thing Ben could’ve done. At least Ben was focused and determined enough to still go after the loot.
“Yo son, I’ma give your little ass this last chance. That baby shit was your second chance . . . one more strike and your ass is out,” Deezo said, his tone grave and serious. He couldn’t let Ben know that it was all good. Deezo would never admit he reacted too fast and harsh and made a mistake.
Ben immediately felt better. When he had taken the baby out with him, all Ben was trying to do was make sure he met his commitment to Deezo. “I’m sorry Deezo, I was just tryna make sure your paper got collected and the shit got out there,” Ben explained apologetically.
Deezo nodded in agreement. “We back on track and shit. Instead of every couple of days, I need you to stash and bag and get that shit out every day now. These niggas won’t let me rest over that good good,” Deezo told Ben.
Ben was happy as hell inside, but he tried to play it cool.
“You got the potential of making some real good paper off this lick right here. You better getcha mind right and stay focused,” Deezo said, playfully slapping Ben upside his head. Ben gave Deezo a half-hearted smile. “Go get a new package from Quan. I’m sure you hungrier than a muthfucka since you ain’t made no loot in a few days.”
Ben shook his head. He didn’t have much to say. When he got out of Deezo’s car, he felt like he would vomit. How the fuck am I going to handle stashing and bagging every single day? Ben thought to himself. He knew his mother was already growing more and more suspicious of his “work” since he was doing a lot more shopping. He was going to have to be very, very careful. He was caught up now. He felt like he was in the middle. If he got caught with dru
gs in the house his mother was going to call the police on him herself, as she had threatened more than fifty times. If he didn’t agree to stash, bag and drop the heroin for Deezo, he knew he’d be considered a sucker and Deezo would stop letting him get money.
Ben was at a crossroads in his life and unfortunately, he had nobody to turn to for advice on which road to take. He did what he knew best, he took the road he thought was going to keep him fed and clothed. He met up with Quan and picked up another large package of heroin. This time the gallon sized baggie was almost full.
“Deezo said to bag these small nicks and dimes with only a few twenties here and there. Deezo is upping the price on this shit,” Quan told Ben. Ben nodded his agreement but didn’t say much more. “Deezo said you can possibly make fifteen stacks off this one bag alone, so you better not fuck nothin’ up,” Quan warned Ben.
Fifteen stacks! Ben screamed inside of his head. That was more money than he had ever dreamed of making in his short life. He grew excited. He was sure nothing would go wrong. He stuck the bag down into the front of his pants and gave Quan a pound.
“Tomorrow, have that shit bagged and ready to go,” Quan continued. “Deezo ain’t gon care if you gotta sit up all night and bag that shit up. Just have it ready. Remember that is raw, uncut shit, straight from Asia, and it ain’t no fuckin’ joke.”
Ben left and went straight home. It was time to start the stash and bag process all over again. He could only hope that things go smoothly. He wanted to please both his mother and Deezo, but they were polar opposites. Speed walking on his way home, Ben was kind of proud that Deezo didn’t really trust any of his other younger workers to handle such a large amount of weight. He knew that Quan was Deezo’s right hand man, but Quan had moved too far up to be stashing, bagging and dropping weight off. He smiled a little bit when he thought about his new role. He was officially Deezo’s heroin boy.
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