Tamar screamed. Her shirt became saturated with blood from her flesh wound. Black Earth seemed unstoppable. She was ready to spill her daughter’s blood in front of everyone. It was a whirlwind of chaos spinning in a frenzy in the room. Children screaming and a knife-swinging mother going at her daughter.
“Mommy, stop!” Tamar screamed out like she was a five-year-old girl. Her eyes were wide with fear and her body felt paralyzed to the floor.
In the middle of the chaos, no one realized Cristal had finally returned, and seeing her friend Tamar in danger, she reacted. Without any hesitation, she picked up a vacuum cleaner and bashed Black Earth in the head with it. The bitch went crashing down to the floor, and that’s when all four girls went for broke and viciously beat her down. Tamar, injured and bleeding, went ham; hard as a muthafucka on her mother—now the shoe was on the other foot. It took police rushing into the bedroom to pull Tamar off of her mother. The neighbors had called the cops and the chaos was defused—temporarily.
Black Earth became so angry and volatile, she shouted crazily, “I’ma kill all of them fuckin’ bitches! I’ma kill ’em!” She tried to attack the cops that were in between her and her daughter. A quick tussle ensued. The towering woman was hard to restrain, but eventually, Black Earth was forced to the floor and subdued, and then she was arrested.
The woman continued to scream and holler heatedly, cursing up a storm, difficult to handle even when she was in handcuffs.
“Calm down, ma’am! You need to calm down!” an officer shouted.
“Don’t tell me to fuckin’ calm down! Them bitches attacked me. You should be arresting them!” Black Earth shouted.
“Ma’am, be quiet!”
There was no calming Black Earth. “Fuck you!” she retorted. Her blood was boiling and her fists were clenched with her arms contorted behind her back, the hardy woman threw her mighty weight into the cop closet to her and sent him crashing to the ground.
The hectic scene unfolded and it went on in front of her children—each of them gazing, aghast with tears in their eyes at their mother’s violent outburst.
“Mommy, no!” Little Lena cried out.
Mommy was out of control.
It took four cops to restrain their mother. She had to be brought under control by brute force; a cop threw her into a tight chokehold, and several officers roughly dragged her out of her own apartment. Neighbors were watching, and people were talking. But all in all, the neighbors were highly entertained by the fiasco.
Cristal, Lisa, and Mona accompanied Tamar in the ambulance. She was going to need stitches. Tamar looked at Cristal, surprised her friend had come back. “Damn, bitch, it takes your best friend getting cut up to bring ya ass back around,” Tamar said.
“Good thing, too. I see I just saved your ass,” Cristal replied.
Tamar sucked her teeth. “We had it under control.”
“Uh-huh, I bet you did.”
“Anyway, where you been at, bitch? Playing house wit’ E.P.? Cuz you done forgot about your peoples. It must have been some good-ass dick for a bitch to get amnesia,” said Tamar with sarcasm.
“It was different.”
“Different? Bitch, after I get treated in this muthafuckin’ hospital, we need to fuckin’ talk, fo’ real,” Tamar said seriously.
Cristal smirked.
“I missed you too, bitch,” Cristal said.
But yes, they needed to talk. Cristal had a lot to tell her friend, even having a job offer for her too.
At the hospital, Tamar received over a hundred stitches in her back. She was highly upset. “I hate my fuckin’ moms, that crazy fuckin’ bitch. Damn; this shit is going to scar.”
“You’ll be a’ight,” Lisa said.
“Bitch, let you have this cut across ya back and see how you fuckin’ like it,” Tamar griped.
Cristal definitely didn’t miss this kind of drama.
Eleven
Cristal hugged her Grandma Hattie tightly with so much love and was so happy to see her. Grandma Hattie was her heart. Her grandmother was everything that her mother wasn’t—loving, ambitious with life, spiritual, a great cook, and a great mother to her own kids. Cristal wished her own mother was the same way. Her mother Renee had the same blood, but they didn’t have the same traits. Grandma Hattie was a beautiful senior citizen in her early seventies and looked no older than fifty years old, with shoulder-length, gray-streaked black hair and brown skin that was wrinkle-free because of her great genes. Her bright brown eyes were always sparkling with life and the corners of her mouth were always turned up into a warm smile.
Grandma Hattie’s two-bedroom apartment in the low-income area of Flatbush, Brooklyn was always home to Cristal and everyone else. If someone came knocking with their hat in hand and crying for help, she couldn’t turn them away. And when things got rough for Cristal in East New York, she always made that escape over to where her grandmother was—always giving her kind and encouraging words and lifting up her spirits.
Her uncle Hardy was in the bedroom, apparently watching baseball. Right now, he was the only one staying with Grandma, but there were times when Hattie’s place swarmed with family members living with her until they got back on their own two feet.
Cristal could smell dinner cooking in the kitchen—collard greens, pork chops, and macaroni and cheese. It was Hattie’s favorite place to be, in the kitchen. It was where the soul of a home was always at—the kitchen, something her grandmother always preached to the family. Great cooking in the kitchen will always bring a family together. And when things got rough in the family, Grandma Hattie’s cooking was always the foundation to healing.
Cristal sat at the kitchen table near the window cutting up onions and watching her grandmother prepare her famous pork chops. Hattie was in her housecoat and apron, slaving over the stove with a genuine smile and gospel music playing.
“Everything’s okay with you, Cristal?” she asked, smiling at her granddaughter.
“I’m doin’ great, Grandma,” Cristal replied. “I just came by to see how you were doin’. I missed you.”
“I missed you too, Cristal. You don’t come by like you used to anymore. Something must have gotten your attention—or is it not cool anymore to hang around with a little old lady like me?”
“Nah, Grandma, I love comin’ by to see you. I just been really busy lately.”
“I hope busy doing the right thing.”
“Yes, I’m doin’ the right thing,” she lied.
“That’s good to hear. And I see you glowing over there. You must have met a man,” she said.
She had met someone. She felt he was special, and she had a job. Cristal knew the job she was planning to do was something her grandmother would be totally against. Murder for hire was a definite sin. But the family needed the money. She needed the money.
“I have met someone, Grandma, and I think he’s a great guy,” Cristal said with a warm smile.
“So, give me the details. What is his name? What does he do?”
“Well, he’s a really nice, smart and educated man. And he’s well off, Grandma,” Cristal revealed.
“That’s good to hear, but you know money isn’t everything. A rich guy isn’t always the best guy for you.”
“I know. But I know he really cares for me. He’s hookin’ me up wit’ a job.”
Grandma Hattie was checking in on her pork chops when she heard her granddaughter was about to be employed. It made her beam. “A job, that’s great, Cristal. So that means you and your friend will stop this shoplifting nonsense in these stores and dealing drugs, and fly straight.”
Cristal looked taken aback by her grandmother’s words. She didn’t think Hattie knew about her grind in the streets. She tried her best to keep it from her family, especially Grandma Hattie.
Hattie continued, “Don’t look surprised, Cristal. Yes, I al
ready knew about it, and I always worried about you. Stealing is wrong, young lady, and I’m not going to even preach to you about these drugs… you are so much better than that.”
“I just did what I had to do, Grandma.”
“Not by stealing, selling drugs, and acting a fool on these streets. That type of lifestyle will only take you one place, and that’s no place where I want my beautiful granddaughter to be. Your mother may not have made anything out of her life, but I know you can, Cristal. You’re still so young and have so much going for you. Just stay out of trouble and have faith in yourself, chile,” her grandmother stressed.
Cristal listened and nodded, but despite what her grandmother preached to her, her mind was already made up. She was going to work for E.P. killing people. She was tired of living poor and just surviving. Cristal didn’t even want the word “poor” in her vocabulary anymore. It was ready to be eradicated by employment with some heavy hitters.
She looked around her grandmother’s kitchen. Everything was old and so used, the Salvation Army probably would’ve turned it away. She then gazed into the living room and shook her head at her grandmother’s worn and tattered furniture. She was in need of an upgrade in style and technology. Hattie still had an eight-track in her outdated apartment along with a record player, and the shelves were filled with vinyl records dating back to the sixties. As far as she could remember, her family’s life always had been subpar and so poor, they couldn’t even dream rich.
It was the main reason why Cristal and Tamar had started stealing and hustling: to wear the things that they couldn’t afford. They couldn’t be popular and stand out in their neighborhoods with hand-me-downs and last year’s clothing, and not having a penny to their name. The two always felt they were too good to live like that. Both of them had dreams of grandeur and yearned to live in prosperity.
“I do have faith in myself, Grandma, and I know I’m gonna be somebody in life. Watch me,” Cristal said convincingly.
“You keep thinking like that, Cristal. You were always smart and had a strong will to you. Go back to school and get your degree, and never think that life owes you something, because it doesn’t. You have to go out there and earn it, if you really want to keep it,” Grandma Hattie advised.
Cristal was listening, but she wasn’t trying to hear what her grandmother had to say right now. Those three days she spent with E.P. had opened her eyes, and now she could see what the finer things in life were—she had been missing out on so much for so long that there was a lot of catching up to do. She had a taste for the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Her mouth was drooling for the lap of luxury.
“And when I get it, I’m gonna keep it, Grandma, and give some to you,” Cristal said.
Her grandmother laughed.
It was moments like this that Cristal adored and always looked forward to. Being in the kitchen talking to her grandmother about anything and while she was cooking and taking a whiff of that sweet aroma, it made Cristal never want to leave.
“I tell you this, Cristal, when you live wrong and are out there doing unspeakable things, sometimes it doesn’t just come back on you, but it can also blow back on your family…the ones you love,” Hattie said.
“I understand.”
“Make sure you do. I love you too much to see anything thing happen to you.”
Grandma Hattie was finishing up her wonderful meal in the kitchen when Uncle Hardy came walking into the fresh-smelling room clad only in his boxer shorts and stained wifebeater. It appeared he had just woken up from his long nap and was ready to eat.
He scratched his belly and asked, “Ma, what you got to eat in here?”
“Dinner will be ready in a few, Hardy,” Hattie said.
“I’m starving like Marvin,” he joked.
“You don’t say hello to your niece?” Grandma Hattie uttered.
“Oh, hey, Cristal. I ain’t see you sitting there,” he said.
“Damn, am I that transparent?” she replied.
“Loan me twenty dollars,” he asked Cristal out of the blue.
Cristal frowned and sucked her teeth. Uncle Hardy was always asking someone for money, no matter who they were. But he was asking the wrong one.
“I ain’t got it,” she responded sharply.
“Cristal, I know you holding sumthin’ on you. I’ll pay you back.”
“How and when? You don’t even have a job,” said Cristal.
“Like you do. All that stealing and hustling you and your friend be doin’ out there, and you broke,” her uncle Hardy spat.
“Why you all in my business for?” Cristal exclaimed. “Get a job.”
“You first!” Uncle Hardy shot back, smirking at his niece.
Cristal sometimes despised her uncle and his ways. He was always begging and always annoying. It was a shame that he was family.
“You a bum, Uncle Hardy,” Cristal said with dislike.
“The two of you, cut it out. Y’all are family and we’re always supposed to stick together,” Grandma Hattie chided.
“Well, tell my niece she ain’t better than anyone.”
“I ain’t got time for this, I’m leaving, Grandma. It’s always good seeing you,” Cristal said, standing up and ready to leave.
Uncle Hardy left the room first, though. When he was gone, Cristal saw the opportunity to do something nice for her grandmother. Hattie had never had much in life, so Cristal reached into her pocket and pulled out a small wad of twenties and tens. It was some of the money given to her by E.P. She peeled off a hundred dollars in twenties and handed it to her grandmother. Like common, Hattie refused to take it.
“Cristal, I can’t take this,” she protested.
“Why not, Grandma? I know you need it more than me.”
“Because, it’s yours and I’m doing fine,” she returned.
Cristal knew that was a lie. She saw the bills piling up on the coffee table in the living room. The light bill was overdue, her rent was late, and the refrigerator was running low on food. Who wanted to live like that?
“Grandma, just take it,” Cristal pleaded. “I told you, I have a job now and I’m gonna start helping out more around here. Ya always helping everyone else, so this time allow someone to help you.”
Grandma Hattie smiled at her granddaughter, most times; she had the heart of gold and was so giving. It was hard to see Cristal doing any wrong on the streets. Hattie sighed and took the cash. “If it’s going to make my granddaughter feel better, I’ll pay the light bill with it.”
Cristal smiled. “I promise you, Grandma, there’s goin’ to be plenty more where that came from.”
“As long as it’s coming from somewhere decent and hardworking, and not anywhere corrupt, then I’ll be happy to allow you to help out around here, Cristal,” Grandma Hattie said with civil tone.
Some guilt surged through Cristal’s body. The money she was going to make was going to be blood money, but someone in the family had to do something and step up somehow. She wasn’t going tell her grandmother the truth anyway; she was comfortable with telling her grandma a bold-faced lie, as long as she was helping out the family. It was the way she justified going to work for E.P.: to take care of herself and her family, because God knows, there wasn’t anyone else doing it.
Twelve
With the cat away, the mice began to play. Black Earth was being detained on Riker’s Island for numerous charges, including assaulting a police officer and aggravated assault on her daughter. Also, she had a prior warrant out for her arrest. At her arraignment, the judge set her bail at fifteen thousand dollars. She didn’t have that kind of money, so she sat in jail until her trial date came.
She was going to have to do six months in Riker’s Island because of the warrant on her, and now with these new pending charges, Black Earth was fucked. Her kids were taken into custody by Administration for Children�
�s Services. Even though Tamar was eighteen, and could be considered their legal guardian, she wasn’t in any condition to raise three kids and she didn’t want to anyway. She refused to take them out of the state’s custody. Her life was too busy and hectic for her to take in her sisters and brother.
Lisa frowned at Tamar’s choice.
“That’s your family, Tamar, and you just gonna let ACS snatch them away like that?” Lisa had argued.
“I didn’t have ’em, they ain’t my kids, and they better off there in the first fuckin’ place. I’m barely taking care of my fuckin’ self, and you wanna add more fuckin’ stress to my life. If you want my sisters and brother out so badly, then you go get them and have them live wit’ you. Shit, you the one living at home wit’ both fuckin’ parents, Lisa!” Tamar had heatedly replied. She was upset that Lisa was all in her business.
Tamar didn’t want to hear anything else about her siblings and her fight with her mother.
Plus, Tamar was still healing from the vicious wound down her back. It was ugly to look at, and Tamar hated it. She felt disfigured, and her pride was more hurt than anything. The doctors said it would take some minor plastic surgery to restore the side of her back to normal. Even though Tamar was still a pretty girl, she felt scarred and unattractive, and she wouldn’t be able to wear open-back dresses for a long time.
Like clockwork, Mona started to roll up a blunt with the urge to get high. Music blared throughout the apartment. The girls had cleaned up the mess left during the fight, and now it was time to talk, smoke weed, drink, and grill Cristal about her whereabouts with E.P. They acted like the incident with Black Earth hadn’t happened at all.
Cristal left the apartment and went out onto the roof to smoke her cigarette, and to peer out at Brooklyn from up above and think about some things. She needed some alone time, too. E.P. was heavily on her mind. She missed him already. He had to fly to L.A. on business and promised to be back in town before her departure.
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