Welfare Wifeys

by K'wan

  Jada gave a dramatic pause. “Thought about it, and the answer is still ‘fuck you’! If you want your money then take it in blood, nigga.” Jada ended the call.

  “Jada, do you think it’s wise to antagonize Cutty like that?” Gucci asked once she was off the phone.

  “Fuck Cutty.” Jada folded her arms and turned to the window so Gucci couldn’t see her eyes watering up.

  “Jada, I know you’re fucked up by what happened between you and Cutty and it’s okay to be upset, but you ain’t gotta play the hard rock with me.”

  Jada turned back to her cousin and her eyes were filled with tears. “I gave my soul, my body, and my loyalty to this nigga and he can just cast me to the side like I’m trash? I ain’t nobody’s trash, Gucci.”

  “Of course not, you’re a Butler. Jada, y’all are mad at each other right now but give it some time and maybe you can work it out, if not for the sake of your relationship then for the sake of Miles. Cutty is still his father.”

  “As far as I’m concerned, Miles doesn’t have a father anymore. Cutty ain’t never gonna see his son again if I have anything to do with it.”

  “See, now you’re talking crazy. Jada, you’re my family and I’ll ride with you in any and all things, except this. Keeping a child from his father is wrong, especially when the father wants to be involved. There’s too much of that going on as it is.”

  Jada sucked her teeth. “Women raised us and we came out okay.”

  “But we’re not little boys, Jada. A boy needs his father.”

  “And a real father wouldn’t have left his son and his baby’s mother out here to fend for themselves. Gucci, you should’ve heard the things he said to me on the phone. I can never forgive Cutty for that,” Jada said emotionally.

  Gucci had never seen her cousin this emotionally distraught before. Since the girls had become old enough to date Jada had always been the one in control of the situation, bending men to suit her but that all changed when she hooked up with Cutty. Outside of her father he was the only man she had ever loved and it was apparent by the pain in her eyes.

  “I hear you, Jada. But let’s not get all depressed in here. The day is young and we’re younger, so where you wanna go first?”

  “Well, we can start by hitting the liquor store on 105th and Columbus,” Jada suggested.

  “Damn, the sun is still up and you’re ready to get it in?” Gucci asked in disbelief.

  “Look, you’re the one who called me talking about she wanted to hang, and this is how I hang. Now let’s do this.”

  Gucci crossed Hundredth Street and came up Manhattan Avenue along the back of the projects. As she passed the corner store she saw Happy with a young girl leaning in the window of his car while his hand explored her ass. She just shook her head and kept trucking around to the liquor store. When they got to the liquor store Gucci opted to get out and go inside because she knew if she sent Jada she was likely to come out with something way too strong for that hour of the day. She grabbed two cold bottles of Arbor Mist and a Lotto ticket and rolled out of the store. On her way back to her truck she spotted a familiar license plate on the back of a white Beamer. If Animal was supposed to be at the studio with Chip then why was his car parked near the projects? After what happened during Tech’s attempted takeover of the projects she knew he wouldn’t be down there hanging out so he had to be up to something.

  Gucci pulled out her cell and called Animal, but the phone just rang before going to voice mail. She tried him again and this time the voice mail picked up automatically. “So that’s how you wanna play it, huh?” Gucci stuffed her phone back into her purse and got back in the truck, slamming the door behind her.

  “Damn, what the hell is up with you?” Jada asked.

  “Nothing,” Gucci said, rummaging around in her purse for her wallet. “Jada, you feel like stepping out this weekend?”

  “After that bullshit with Cutty, hell yeah. But I’m broke and ain’t got nothing to wear,” Jada said.

  “I didn’t ask you about all that. Just hop on the phone and secure your babysitter for Friday night. We’re about to go shopping,” Gucci told her as she pulled her wallet out.

  “Gucci, I told you I don’t have any money.”

  “Don’t worry about it, cuzo. It’s on Animal.” Gucci held up his credit card and smiled wickedly.

  Chapter 30

  Animal wasn’t sure whether he felt better or worse after visiting Hanna at the nursing home. He felt better because he hadn’t seen her in so long, but worse because he knew that he was the cause of her condition.

  Many years ago, when Animal first got heavy in the game, Tech had accepted a contract on the life of a guy who had run afoul of one of Shai’s capos. Eager to prove himself Animal begged Tech to let him take care of it. He stalked Lionel for nearly a week before finally getting the drop on him one day at his house. Lionel didn’t even hear Animal creep up on him until the first bullet was whistling through his cheek. As he was leaning in he heard a noise behind him so he spun with his gun raised and reacted. The bullet struck Hanna in the head as she was coming into the kitchen to see what was going on. Thankfully she lived, but she had lost her sight because of Animal.

  For years the guilt of the accidental shooting rode him like a dark horseman, which is what prompted him to begin his masquerade as a concerned friend of Lionel’s. Tech had called him a fool for playing it so close to the crime, but it was something Animal felt like he had to do. When he got his weight up Animal began funneling funds through a dummy company to pay for Hanna to be moved into a prestigious care facility, and made sure that she was at least comfortable in the twilight of her life.

  Visiting with Hanna often took Animal through a series of extreme emotional highs and lows and the blunt he was steaming in the car only added to the emotional imbalance. When he looked up at his reflection in the rearview mirror he noticed tears dancing in the corners of his eyes. “The living have no need of your tears, you have promises to the dead to keep,” the face in the mirror said to him.

  “You’re right,” Animal whispered.

  He was too wound up to go home so he decided to spin for a while until he could get right. Animal cut across 125th Street to cop some reading material for him and Gucci. He selected a book called Eviction Notice for her and Soledad Brother for himself. He had read the book twice already, but it was one of his favorites and he had lost his copy at the airport. On the way back to his car he signed a few autographs for some high school girls who had recognized him from the video. The love he got lifted his dark mood a bit, but the sourness came back when he spotted the two CD vendors posted up in front of the gyro stand.

  “CDs, DVDs, one for five and five for twenty. Check ’em out,” one of the vendors was accosting people as they passed him, while his brutish-looking partner stood vigil for police.

  Animal’s eyes zeroed in on the stack of CDs baring his likeness on the top row of the rack. “I see y’all got that new Big Dawg shit, huh?”

  “You know we do.” The vendor grabbed two CDs and held them out for Animal to inspect. “I got that ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘Dog off the Chain’ by that kid, Animal.”

  “Word, I didn’t know The Animal’s CD was out?” Animal took the CD and examined it. It was a photo-shopped picture of him wearing a dog chain.

  “Yeah, yeah, we got the exclusive B,” the vendor said proudly.

  Animal tightened his grip on the bag of books in his hand. “A’ight, let me get all of these.” Animal waved the CD.

  The vendor looked at him to see if he was serious. “All of them?”

  “Yeah, I’ll take every copy of this CD you’ve got.”

  The vendor zipped open his roll-on and did a quick count of the CDs. “I got a hundred joints so that’s gonna be about five hundred dollars, but since you spending big with me I’ll let you have them for four-fifty.”

  “Four-fifty? I got a better idea. How about I’m gonna take them all and not give you shit,” Ani
mal said seriously.

  Hearing the threat the other vendor stepped up. The knife he held in his hand glistened in the sunlight menacingly. “Shorty, you better get the fuck up outta here with that shit before you catch a bad decision out here.”

  “Can’t be worse than the decision you two made by calling ya selves bootlegging,” Animal told him, moving to keep both the vendors in his line of vision as they tried to surround him.

  The first vendor laughed. “Who the fuck you think you are, Super Fly?”

  “No, I’m the muthafucka your pirating ass calls yourself stealing from,” Animal told them with a smile. “Now y’all can either give my shit up or I can take it. What you trying to do?”

  Animal already knew how it was going to play out so it was no surprise when the vendor with the knife made a move. The strike was a novice one which Animal easily blocked and countered with the bag of books. The novels connected with the bridge of the vendor’s nose, breaking it and splattering blood on both of them. Animal followed with an overhand right that rocked the armed vendor to sleep before he even hit the ground. The second vendor landed a sucker punch and busted Animal’s lip. The taste of blood in his mouth only served to fuel Animal’s already mounting anger and he attacked the vendor viciously with a series of rights and lefts. The vendor tried to sag to the ground but Animal held him up by the front of his shirt.

  “Muthafucka you must be stupid.” Animal smacked him with the books. “I put my heart into this shit.” Animal smacked him with the books again and this time he let the vendor hit the floor. The vendor was barely conscious, but this didn’t stop Animal from stomping him mercilessly over and over, cracking his skull and cheekbone. A crowd of spectators had formed around him, but Animal couldn’t see anything but the blood running from the vendor’s head onto the cracked pavement.

  “Leave that man alone. You’re gonna kill him!” a woman shouted.

  “Fuck that nigga up!” someone else added.

  “Let me get my camera phone so I can YouTube this shit,” a girl chimed in.

  “Ain’t that The Animal?” Another voice was added to the mix.

  Hearing his name struck a cord in Animal’s mind and brought him back to reality. At his feet the two vendors lay twisted and motionless. Animal looked around at the faces that only moments before had been praising him, but now they wore horrified expressions like he was Frankenstein’s monster. He was suddenly overcome with a feeling of vertigo and he staggered through the crowd toward his car. Just before he reached it he felt someone behind him and spun with his gun drawn, ready to pop. His finger froze on the trigger as he found himself staring into the frightened eyes of a young boy, holding one of the bootleg CDs.

  “Fuck is you rolling up on me like that for?” Animal snapped.

  “Sorry, I just wanted to get your autograph.” The boy nervously held the CD out.

  Animal signed the CD and handed it back. “Here ya go, shorty.”

  “Thanks, man. When I grow up I wanna be just like you, blood!” the boy said excitedly.

  Animal looked down in embarrassment at his bloodstained clothes. “No, you don’t,” he said and hopped in his ride.

  Animal had driven almost ten blocks before the adrenaline had finally begun to fade. He was mad at the vendors for selling his CDs but he was angrier with himself for the way he had handled the situation. He had let his emotions think for him and as a result he had almost killed two men in front of a hundred people on 125th Street. Even when he was still putting in work his sloppy behavior would have been unacceptable, but the fact that his face was plastered on billboards and magazines across the country made the move even stupider. It seemed like every other week he was reading about a rapper fucking up his blessing and landing in prison for something stupid and he had come very close to joining that number.

  “Dude, you bugging,” Animal told himself.

  There was only a few hours left before he was to meet Don B. and the crew at Code Red so his best bet was to push back to the crib and lay low until then, but first he wanted to swing by the liquor store and get something to sip until then. A stiff drink was just what he needed to calm his nerves.

  Animal pushed the Beamer up Broadway knocking the new Styles P. joint and feeling himself, as everyone watched his car. It felt funny riding up to 145th Street as a civilian considering all the dirt he’d done up that way over the years. There was a time when Animal would only venture that far up Broadway to buy drugs or kill someone, so he made sure to stay on point for people who might’ve had old scores that needed settling or general haters.

  When Animal pulled into the bus stop outside the liquor store it seemed like every eye on the block landed on him. When he slid out of the vehicle his heavy jewels drew positive and negative attention. Those in the know could smell death on the fresh-faced young man so they wisely gave him a wide berth, and those who didn’t know what it was would find out if they tried to press him. Three minutes after he’d entered the liquor store he came back out, clutching the black bag to his chest like it was the game-winning football and jumped back in his ride. The Hennessy and Nuvo would provide him a nice buzz, but the additive he’d stashed in the car would make the ride a truly dreamy one.

  When he got to the top of the block he happened to look out his window and notice a mural painted on the wall. It was of a fresh-faced, brown-skinned youth wearing a Gucci bucket and gold crucifix. The birth and death dates put the young man at about twenty-two years old. When Animal closed his eyes, he could hear the shots and smell the acidic bite of gun smoke as if he were living the moment all over again. The boy had made the misfortune of running afoul of a member of the Commission. It was never made clear what the offense had been, nor did it matter to Animal at the time. When the money was dropped the boy’s life was forfeit.

  A car beeping behind him snapped Animal out of his daydream. He looked in his rearview and saw a tinted blue BMW 335i flashing its high beams and beeping the horn hostilely.

  “Fuck is wrong with you, move ya shit!” he could hear a female voice shouting at him. Animal shook off the ghosts of his past and rolled through the light just as it was turning yellow. On the next block he pulled over at the bodega to grab a few Dutches before he went home. As he was getting out of the car the BMW that had been flashing him pulled to an aggressive stop behind his ride. Sensing trouble he dipped his hand into his back pocket where he had put his .380. The car was tinted but he could see two chicks in the front, but there was no telling who could be lying in wait in the backseat. No one knew better than him how trifling females could be.

  “Ain’t you that kid Animal?” the driver called out. She was a pretty Spanish girl with chinky eyes and silky black hair that she wore in a ponytail.

  “That all depends.” He squinted, trying to see through the tints. His body was tense, poised to spring into action at the first signs of something shady.

  “Damn, baby, why you all uptight? I’m just trying to get an introduction. Come here and let me holla at you.”

  Animal gave her a comical look. “Shorty, what the fuck I look like to you?”

  “Get out the car and go talk to him,” the dark-skinned girl on the passenger side urged the driver. She and the driver went back and forth for a minute before the driver finally got out of the car and when she did Animal had to do a double take. She was about five feet five with a slim waist and hips that curved almost perfectly. As she moved toward him he let his eyes roam from her angelic face to the tight blue jeans that hugged her thighs like a second skin.

  “You can eighty-six the hammer. I ain’t got nothing on me that can hurt you,” the pretty girl said when she stepped on the curb. To prove her point she turned in a slow circle so Animal could check her out.

  “That’s a matter of opinion,” Animal said slyly with his eyes locked on her ass. “So, what you want from me, ma? An autograph or something?”

  “Stop it five, I’m a fan, but I ain’t no groupie. You can save the autograph, but I’
ll take an introduction. My name is Kelly,” she told him. When her lips moved it was like watching two rose pedals blowing in a soft breeze.

  “As you already know, they call me The Animal.” He shook her hand. Her nails were freshly done with a fly airbrush design on them. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kelly.”

  Kelly held his hand a little longer than necessary. “Nah, the pleasure is all mine. Since we’ve got the introductions out of the way how about you slide me your number so we can continue this conversation at a time when we’re not double parked and at risk of getting tickets.”

  “I don’t give my number out like that, shorty,” Animal told her.

  “Isn’t the female supposed to be the one to say that?”

  “Baby, you got jokes. But to keep it one hundred with you, I got a girl and a chick as fine as you is liable to cause a situation,” Animal said honestly, not believing the words coming out of his mouth. Tech was probably rolling over in his grave at that moment.

  “That’s good to know. That means you won’t turn into one of them clingy ass niggaz on me.” She smiled. Her teeth were almost perfect except for the slight gap in the top row. “Check it out, daddy. I ain’t trying to marry you, just trying to make a new friend. I don’t wanna scare you.”

  Animal chuckled. “I don’t fear nothing but God, shorty. I’m just trying to let you know what’s good with me.”

  “And I’m letting you know what’s good with me.” Kelly pulled a business card from the pocket of her jeans and handed it to Animal. “I ain’t gonna take up too much of your time because I know you’re a busy man, but you might wanna make your next move your best move. Take care, Mr. Animal,” she said and sauntered back to her car, where her friend was giggling like a schoolgirl.

  Animal stood there for a time still trying to make heads or tails out of what had just happened. He loved the shit outta Gucci, but Kelly was a bad bitch and for a minute he thought about jumping out the window.