by Tiana Laveen
“Yes, I’m judging you about this because your ass is supposed to be getting your grandmother’s affairs in order but instead, you’re distracted by some white dick that has been in prison for ten damn years, I might add! This is a recipe for disaster.”
“Like you’ve never made a mistake before! I told yo’ ass that Tony did that shit a long time ago, he was only eighteen for God’s sake. After giving you the details, which you clearly didn’t appreciate or take into consideration, you would think you’d cut him some slack. He wasn’t just out here shootin’ folks up like the Wild West! His best friend died and he held that boy in his arms, screaming at the top of his lungs in the middle of the damn street… so don’t talk to me about a mothafucka bein’ a gotdamn felon and sittin’ over there on your high fuckin’ horse after I paid for yo’ ass to go to Denver when you been sittin’ around at work goofin’ off, passin’ yo’ workload off on other people and not knowin’ I knew about the shit! You wanna talk about honesty, let’s do it!” She inhaled deeply and then exhaled after that rant didn’t allow her a moment to breathe.
“I don’t want to argue with you, Cassidy,” Peaches said dryly.
“Too late! You woke up the dragon. I’m here now, bitch, fiery breath and all! I’m not the one, the two, or the mothafuckin’ three! You invited me into this bullshit conversation, so this is it! Pass the cake and the punch because I’m ready to go tha fuck IN! What kinda fuckin’ friend are you?! Since I thought you were my day one, one of the first people I hired when I started the magazine, I let a lot of shit slide! You want to talk to me about how you looked up to me? Well, I’m disappointed in myself ’cause I looked up to you, too! I thought I had better discernment.
“Yo’ ass from Alabama so I thought we had a connection, Patrice, both of us being Southern Belles and all. Yet another reason I let you get away wit’ murder. And now, when I’m down and fuckin’ out, you wanna come swinging, talkin’ about he’s White, he’s a felon, he’s this, that and the third! This was the ONLY mothafucka that’s been here for me from sun up to sun down!”
“And I said that you could—”
“You ain’t called me but twice in all these damn weeks I’ve been here!” Her voice shook with anger. “I coulda been lyin’ in a ditch some-gotdamn-where but I bet if that check hadn’t directly deposited, you’d have been on the damn phone! How daaare you!” Peaches was quiet as she unleashed. “He hasn’t asked me for a dime, and has paid for practically everything we’ve needed since being here. No, he doesn’t have a lot of money, but he’s got a lot of talent and a lot of love! This man treated me like a queen as a child, and his own daddy was dead! He defended me! Took care of me and my grandmama!
“He was always there for me and he treated me and all of our friends the best way possible! This is the kinda man that would literally give you the shirt off his back and the last five dollars in his pocket. I’ve seen him do just that, and he spent time in prison for loving someone that was taken away from us far too soon—one of the few people in this entire, fucked-up neighborhood who was willing to befriend him, stick up for him! I am so…. so damn… disappointed in you, Peaches.”
Angry tears streamed down Cassidy’s face.
“This never had shit to do with race ’til you brought it up! Tony ain’t never called me a nigga, but my own people have. Tony ain’t never called me out of my name, but my own people have! Tony ain’t never asked me for a penny, but my email is full of strangers, the majority of them Black, wanting a donation for this, that, and everything in between! They’ve never asked to volunteer for any of the charities I support, to give back to the community, but are quick to treat me like a bank so don’t you sit over there and talk to me about Black empowerment, because if you truly knew what that was, you would have said to me, ‘Cassidy, I am glad you have a friend to help you.’ PERIOD! You coulda talked to me about this ol’ stupid ass shit later if it was so damn important to you. Don’t call me back, don’t text me. Don’t email me. Don’t send a fax, DHL, UPS, a baby stork, a carrier pigeon, don’t do shit! And now… we are done!”
Cassidy ended the call, her pulse racing, her body on fire with rage. She swung open Grandmama’s door and found Tony standing there, his brows furrowed and sadness in his eyes. He took her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it.
“Why am I turned on again like when you got into that fight with Monica back in the day? I could fuck the shit outta you right now!”
Cassidy burst out laughing and pushed the silly man out of the way, making the journey back up the short hall and into the kitchen.
“So you heard the whole thing, huh?”
“I couldn’t help but hear it… you were yelling your head off.” She smirked as she slid on an oven mitt and looked inside the stove. “I already took it out, baby. It would’ve been burnt up by now.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right. I forgot you asked about that.” She took a deep breath turned around to rest her head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tight, giving her the love that she so needed and desired.
“I love you, Tony…”
“I love you too, Cass. We’ve got each other, and that’s all that matters…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Take it to the Grave
“Now see, I done told you, Cass, that not everybody who’s anybody is somebody.”
“Danica.” Cassidy sighed as she crossed her ankles on the bed in her hotel room and admired her fresh pedicure, her phone to her ear. “Girl, what the hell does that even mean? You sound like Yoda, just like Grandmama did in her will.” She tensed up when she saw the killer on the I.D. channel making his approach. She’d been watching a marathon of the true crime documentaries with re-enactments, heavily involved in every twist and turn. But now Danica wanted to get philosophical.
“It means that not every heffa out here in these here streets has yo’ best interest at heart. I can’t wait to get my ass back ova there. She need to be taught a lesson and I am a professor of ass-kickin’.”
“Why? She doesn’t live here in Florida. You just want to beat somebody up for old times’ sake!” She wiggled her toes, then popped another green grape into her mouth.
“You damn straight, and for the record, I still got it. I might be a little heavier now but I move around like a sting ray and buzz like a bee!”
“That’s not how that quote goes!” Cassidy cackled.
“Shut up. Who cares, Ms. Know-It-All? You know what I mean. Cass, I shoulda been a boxer… coulda been Muhammad Ali’s daughter. What’s her name again?”
“Laila Ali.”
“Yeah! Danica Laila Ali! I wish I woulda seen Rotten Peach’s ass face to face. I woulda took my black fist and jammed it right up ’er ass! Sent her right back to Africa since she ’fraid of the White man, thankin’ all White people out to get ’er… Silly ass bitch. I swear, sometimes we our own worst enemy. If she was a good friend, she woulda been askin’ how he treat you, you know, shit like that.”
“That’s what I told her. She’s tried to text a few times but I eventually blocked her. I have to calm down. It’s been a couple of days but I’m still pissed like a newborn baby’s diaper.”
“Folks always talkin’ ’bout some shit dey don’t know nothin’ about and seein’ as you could fire her like Michael Jackson’s hair in the Pepsi Cola commercial, she had a lotta nerve talkin’ outta pocket like that. I woulda told her to go and live her best life; you ain’t got time to go back ’nd forth with these heffas! ’Cause ya fiiired, bitch! Fired, bitch! Come on!”
Cassidy swallowed down a good laugh, refusing to encourage her friend to continue with her tirade.
“Nothing even surprises me anymore, Danica. For a split second, I thought she was kidding then realized nope… This woman was serious as a heart attack. You don’t know her, but I think you saw her at the premiere party you came out to a couple of years ago.”
“I wish I could get in a time machine, go back to that party, and slap h
er Black to the Future!”
“‘Back to the Future’. The movie was called ‘Back to the Future.’”
“No, I said what I said! Since she wanna be Marcus-etta Garvey and Fredericka Douglass, I can make sure, when she black out, she see all tha blackness she’ll ever need. Ol’ Black Panther wannabe! Wakanda forever, but we leavin’ her silly ass out of the kingdom. She can go and chill wit’ Erik Killmonger, but she steadily lookin’ like Forest Whitaker.”
Cassidy slumped down on her side, laughing so hard her stomach hurt. Danica always knew how to bring her out of a funk.
“So where’s my boy at? Monistat?”
“Now why in the hell are you calling him Monistat instead of Montana?”
“’Cause he be so far up in yo’ coochie all the time, I figured that—”
“OKAY! That’s enough! That’s what I get for asking!” Cassidy got to her feet, her belly aching from laughing so hard. “He’s over at his hotel getting some drawings done for a client. I’m supposed to swing by and then we’ll go over to Grandmama’s for a couple hours to cook dinner and paint the bathroom.”
“Oh, okay. Speakin’ of drawings, I saw his website. Girl! Tony ain’t one to be fucked wit’!”
“Website? What website?”
“You ain’t seen it?! He told me about it when I was there. I asked to see some of his art and he said he had some on his website. I brought it up ’cause I remember how good he was. Remember Mrs. Brown, our art teacher, was tellin’ him he needed to go to art school?”
“Yeah, a lot of teachers who saw his work did.”
“She put his drawings in that one state competition and he won second place from the whole damn state, Cassidy.”
“I remember that!”
“Now where they do that at? Tony bad! That type of talent is scary.”
“I know… I told him that. Something has to be done, but because of his criminal record he’s been running into problems securing the jobs he wants. He already works for himself, which is good, but he knows he might be able to make more money if he got with a company that used him on a full time basis.”
“That’s a damn shame ’cause he could really be big out here in these art streets.”
“What’s the website address?” Cassidy went over to the desk in her hotel room and pulled out her laptop from the leather case while Danica rattled it off. Clutching her cell phone, she pulled out the chair and waited for the website to load. A great professional photo of her baby stared back at her, and she couldn’t help but smile. “Okay, he’s got a few different tabs here. This website looks pretty good, actually.”
“Yeah, it does. I showed Kevin. I showed everybody.”
Cassidy read each link:
She clicked on his biography.
My name is Tony Romano and I am an artist originally from Clifton, New Jersey. I now live in Jersey City but do work for clients all over the globe. I spent time in Florida during my teen years, and it was there that I chased my passion for drawing in order to escape challenges that had entered in my life. Over the years, I’ve honed my skills and now have created professional artwork for five-star restaurants and hotels, as well as discerning individual clients in the political and entertainment fields. I was commissioned to create a one-of-a-kind fresco for a celebrity home and have done everything from baby room murals to high school wall celebratory sport layouts and elaborate Italian landscapes. I have created unique company logos and countless portraits of wedding couples, children that have passed on, and even beloved pets.
There is pretty much nothing that I cannot capture via pen and paper, or paint brush and canvas—the sky is the limit. Art is an extension of me; it is a big part of who I am and I put my all into my work. If you like what you see and decide to purchase one of my pre-made works of art or hire me for a contract piece, you have my assurance that great care has gone or will be put into that work. All of my prints are limited editions, and I charge a reasonable fee for optional matting and framing. I look forward to speaking to you. I’m one brush stroke away from art that will last you a lifetime.
-Tony Romano
She shook her head and smiled as she read the words.
“Cassidy!”
“Oh, huh?”
“I been callin’ your name for ten seconds.”
“I’m sorry, Danica. I was reading Tony’s biography on his website.”
“Impressive, right? Anyway, I’mma try to get over there soon, Cass, my work schedule permitting. I miss you already.”
“I miss you, too! I wish you and Kevin and the boys would move to California. I need my best friend back. See if Kevin can get transferred.”
“Girl, I ain’t tryna be up there wit’ all them crazy people!”
“What crazy people?”
“The one you see when you look in the mirror.”
“Ha, ha, ha… very funny. Every place in the world has crazy people, Danica. Don’t act like Texas is full of mental giants.”
“California got way more of those weirdos. They walk around with them silicon bodies, surfin’ in shark-infested waters, throwin’ up gang signs and be high all damn day.”
Cassidy burst out laughing. “This coming from a college educated nurse! Danica, now you know you’re exaggerating. That’s not true!”
“Yeah, it is. Snoop Diggidy Doggy Dog stay high!”
“His name is not Snoop Diggidy Doggy Dog! You are a whole fool, Danica!” She chuckled.
“That air was smoggy not from the traffic, but people blazin’ up! My eyes were bloodshot just from walkin’ down Crenshaw.”
“Same here in Belle Glade! I can walk outside of Grandmama’s house and get a contact high and test positive for marijuana the following morning.”
“True, but that don’t address the gang problem. My silly ass will be wearin’ all red somewhere and find out it’s Crip territory and get shot up like Swiss cheese!”
“Gang violence has actually gone down.”
“When you have five hundred murders in one month and it goes down to four hundred twenty-five, that don’t give me no type of relief or peace of mind! That’s still four hundred twenty-five bullets, minimum, flyin’ through the air. They’ll ask me what set I’m from and I’ll be talkin’ about the T.V. set and they’ll shoot me outta pure frustration.” Cassidy shook her head. Dear, dear Danica. “Count me out. It’s pretty there, and fancy, too, but I can’t do it. I ain’t that brave… nope. Keepin’ my ass right here in Texas.”
“I’m going to keep working on you. You know I don’t give up that easy. Anyway, I better get going.”
She clicked on several of Tony’s pieces which he had for sale.
These are beautiful! And I know the photograph of each artwork doesn’t do it justice.
“Call me tomorrow, okay?”
“I will, sis. I love you, Danica.”
“Love you, Cass, and tell Tony I love him, too…. ’cause I do. Anybody who treat my sister from another mister like he did, come back, pay his respects and try to get his one true love got my blessin’. Wit’ the world we live in now, you can’t be lookin’ no gift horses in the mouth. People ain’t like they used to be; they soulless now. Don’t nobody care about how they do one another, how they hurt folks. A love like y’alls come once in a lifetime. You got lucky, baby… lightning struck twice…”
Tony took a deep breath and stared down at the asphalt.
Things had changed but managed to somehow stay the same. Fox Street had a new business he didn’t recognize, and many faces he’d never seen. But that old apartment building Maize had lived in was still there… same color, same palm trees rooted out front… same Haitian flag waving in the air.
This is where he died. Right here, on this spot.
Flashes sparked inside of his skull, the feel of the warmth of Maize’s body in his arms slowly fading away into a deathly coolness… The night sky had been full of stars that evening; the air smelled of gun smoke and burgeoning misery. After a short while, Tony
got back into his rental car and drove to Gator Blvd. where Forever Glades Cemetery was located. He parked his car, then noticed a black vehicle, a BMW with tinted windows, pull up not too far behind him.
That hazy, half lucid feeling washed over him… the same feeling he’d had when he realized his brother had been entangled in a life that promised him a death sentence. He remained at that spot for a little while, pad and pencil in hand, then continued on the search for Maize’s grave. After ten or so minutes, he found it and read the tombstone.
Maize Samuel Jones
Beloved son, brother
“Hey, Maize… long time no see… You may be surprised to see me, but on second thought, maybe you’re not. I haven’t been here before; this is my first time. The way I take it is, uh, you’re not here, you know? I’ve been talking to you a lot since your passing, so this is more symbolic than anything. Your soul is somewhere else, but the physical essence of you remains here… I’m less concerned about that I suppose, but I wanted to come here at least once. I needed to. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to attend your funeral, but I’m sure you know why. Kinda hard to appear at a service when you’re behind bars.” Tony smiled sadly. “I remember many of our conversations… I’d venture to say that I remember most of them.”
Tony opened up his paper pad and began to draw, his pencil looping along the stark whiteness. “I wanna thank you for being my friend, Maize… for helping me out of a rough situation. I didn’t have any pals and things were hard, ya know? All of my friends were in Jersey and it was tough here, hard to get a foot in. My Dad had died, I was in a new place, my mother wasn’t home because she needed to work a lot, and we were broke. I felt like I was caught up in some nightmare I could never wake up from.”
He sharpened his pencil, blew the debris off the page, and continued.
