What's Really Hood!

by Wahida Clark

  When they pulled up in front of Nina’s, Nick and Reese pulled up behind them. Nina hurriedly dried her tears.

  Reese came up to the passenger side of the Rover. “Yo, ma, that was really gangsta back there. You aiight? You need anything?”

  “No. What’s up? Why you still following me?”

  “Just wanted to make sure you was aiight. Can I hit you up later?”

  Nina nodded her head yes.

  “Bet. I’m out.”

  FOUR

  Nina sat Jatana down on the chair while straightening out her clothes for the umpteenth time. I don’t see how mothers go through this shit with more than one child, Nina thought to herself as she looked around at all the kids running around like wild Indians, ignoring the threats of their mommas.

  Supreme stood quietly admiring his baby mama’s fat ass as she fixed his daughter’s clothes. Nina was bent over and right now he would give anything to hit that the way he used to. He was grateful that they were on good terms. Not as good as he wanted because he still had mad feelings for her. She had made it clear from the gate that she wasn’t doing time with her own daddy, definitely not her baby daddy.

  When she stood up, Jatana saw him and screamed out, “Daddy!” She wiggled out of her chair and ran to him.

  He scooped her up and gave her a big hug and kiss. “Hey, baby. How are you? Can Daddy have another kiss?” She gave him a kiss and kept on hugging his neck.

  Nina sat quietly as she watched the exchange between her daughter and the man she used to love. She had wasted no time burying those feelings as soon as he came to prison. She knew it was no sense in frontin’ because she was not cut out for playing the role of a prisoner’s wife.

  As soon as Supreme sat down he asked, “So to what do I owe this pleasant surprise?” He had the right to be sarcastic because his moms or sister was the one who brought Jatana down to see him almost every other weekend. He could count the times on one hand that Nina had brought her down.

  “How you doin’, Supreme?” she asked, ignoring his sarcasm.

  “Better than some, worse than others, but I’m here. How are you, Nina? You look good.”

  “Thanks. You look good too.”

  “So what’s up?”

  “Where do you want me to start?”

  “Oh. You came down here just to use me to vent?”

  “You said I could do that whenever I needed to. You forgot all about that, huh?”

  Supreme just stared at her. His mind drifted to how badly he wanted to tap that ass. He finally said, “So what’s on yo’ mind?”

  Nina let out a long sigh. “I feel like I’m suffocating. I can’t stand this city. The air stinks; it’s too crowded, too noisy. All I hear at night are screams, sirens, gunshots, car chasings, niggas out on the block. I can’t take it anymore.”

  “Then move, Nina. It ain’t like you can’t find a place somewhere else.”

  “My punk-ass brother broke into the house and took all my money, so now I’m damn near back at square one.”

  “What?”

  “He broke into my shit and smoked up almost every dime.”

  “Damn. I know you handled that nigga. If you didn’t, just say the word, Nina. He taking food outta my daughter’s mouth. I knew I should have wet his ass up when I had the chance.”

  “I’ve got to move, fast. Fuck everybody! It’s all ’bout me and my kids. I need you to hook me up with something big. I’m moving South.”

  “South where? South Trenton? South Jersey? South Philly? Where the fuck is south?”

  “Down South, Supreme. I’m going to Atlanta or Charlotte.”

  “For how long?”

  “What you mean for how long, Supreme? I’m going to live. Have you been listening to anything I’ve just said? I’m relocating.”

  “Not with my daughter you’re not!”

  “What the fuck you mean your daughter? She’s mines too!”

  “You can go down South but leave my daughter right here.”

  “Supreme, I—”

  “Nina!” he interrupted her. “I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.” He hugged his daughter and blew on her cheek.

  “Daddy,” she giggled.

  Nina could only stare at him in disbelief. She was so heated she couldn’t create enough spit to form a word. Her silence to Supreme meant that she had conceded to his demand. “Supreme,” Nina managed to say through gritted teeth. “As long as you are locked up, I have the final say-so concerning the welfare of our child. Now when you get out, we can talk and work something out. Do you understand me?”

  Supreme looked at her and said, “Nina, if my baby wasn’t sitting here in my lap, I’d bust you in your fuckin’ mouth! You do know that, right? I don’t know who the fuck you think I am. And let me say it one more time. You are not taking my daughter no-goddamn-where!” Supreme didn’t say what he was really feeling. He not only wanted his baby to stay close by, but the baby’s mama as well. He felt that if she went way across the country he would lose her to someone else for sure. They hadn’t broken up on bad terms but Nina always made it clear to him that she was not sticking by a nigga who was doing time.

  Nina reached over and grabbed Jatana. “Tell Daddy bye-bye, Jatana.”

  Supreme grabbed her back. “Nina, I know you gonna let me spend some time with my daughter!”

  “We’re ready to go, Supreme. C’mon, baby.” She was visibly pissed as she grabbed Jatana and stood up. “Tell Daddy bye-bye.”

  Jatana covered both of her eyes with her little hands and said, “Bye, Daddy.”

  “Nina, you know you fucking with the wrong nigga, right? And you should know better than anyone that I ain’t the one to be fucked with. Bye, baby.” He turned his attention to Jatana and leaned over to kiss her on her fat cheeks. “Daddy loves you. You know that, right?”

  Jatana vigoriously nodded her head up and down as her mother carried her out of the visiting hall.

  “Girl, shit is sooo fucked up for me right now.”

  Nina and Michelle had just finished winding it down. Nina had put the kids to bed while Michelle cleaned up the kitchen. Now they were sitting in the living room, feet propped up on the coffee table, smoking a joint.

  “I mean, for real. Can shit get any more fucked up for me?” Nina continued to cry the blues as she blew smoke rings up toward the ceiling. “I mean damn, my own flesh and blood kicks my door down, steals my life savings and then smokes it up. My baby daddy don’t want me to do the main thing and only thing that I’m focused on doing, and that’s relocating. He’s threatening me with Lord knows what he has up his sleeve. On top of that, I don’t have a man. I mean damn, what about me?”

  “Obstacles are only temporary and just like all the other ones you’ll get over this one, my sista,” Michelle assured her best friend.

  “They sure don’t feel temporary.”

  Bzzzzt! Bzzzzt! “I hate that bell! Who the hell are you expecting?” Michelle got up to peek out the front door. “It’s damn near midnight.”

  “I ain’t expecting nobody. Fuck it, don’t even answer it,” Nina said.

  “Girl, you ain’t gonna believe this shit! It’s your crackhead brother.”

  Bzzzzt! Bzzzzt!

  “Tell him to stop ringing my damn bell. He ain’t related to me no more.”

  Michelle cracked the door and yelled out, “Your sister said get the fuck off her bell. Y’all not related no more!”

  “Tell her I got something important to tell her,” he yelled loudly enough for Nina to hear.

  “I don’t want to hear it, you thieving-ass fiend!” Nina snapped.

  “Ni, I got some work for you. Just hear me out. I promise it’ll be worth your while. Please, yo, let me in for a minute.”

  Nina thought about it before finally yelling, “Let him in.”

  Derrick came through the door limping on one crutch. His head was bandaged up and he immediately began apologizing. She gave him the hand. “I’m so mad at you that killing your s
kank ass won’t even give me the satisfaction I’m seeking. So save the fake-ass apologies…”

  “Yo, Ni, I don’t care what you think, I ain’t rob you,” he mumbled through swollen lips. “Mommy asked me who did this to me; I didn’t tell her it was you. This is fucked up, you fractured my kneecap.” He pointed down to the cast that was encasing his knee.

  “You fractured my pockets! What the fuck makes you think I care about your fuckin’ kneecap?” Nina had jumped up off the couch and started throwing flurries at Derrick’s face.

  “Nina!” Michelle screamed as she went and pulled her off of Derrick. “Don’t wake up the kids with this bullshit.” She had both of Nina’s arms behind her back.

  “Get the fuck outta my house, Derrick!” Nina was screaming at him.

  “I got something to tell you, damn it!” he said, guilt obviously not allowing him to give up. He wiped the blood from his nose onto his sleeve.

  “Tell me, then get the fuck out! I hate you right now.”

  “Canada’s mom got access to a bunch of checks from Columbia University. She don’t got nobody trustworthy that can get the ID to cash the motherfuckers, then give her her cut. They are in different people’s names for different amounts. She wants to meet with you tomorrow because she don’t know how long she’s going to have access to them.”

  This did get Nina’s attention and she managed to calm down a tad bit. “What she want out the deal?”

  “Half.”

  Both Nina and Michelle burst out laughing. “Half? What the fuck that bitch been smokin’? I supply the IDs, get the team together and take all the risk? And she want half? That ho must be crazy! And you even crazier for bringing me some shit like that. Get the fuck outta here!”

  “It’s okay, Sis. Let her get that.”

  “Nigga, you smokin’ too much. And I am not your sis. Get the fuck outta my house before I shoot you!”

  “Ni. Listen to me. After y’all cash the checks, she will come to collect and when she leave, we gonna rob that ho. That bitch ain’t gettin’ nothin’!” Derrick stuck his chest out as if he was proud and wanting an award for his master plan.

  He had Nina’s attention once again. She thought about it for a few minutes, finally concluding that it could be done. But then it hit her: “I’ma be the first person she accuses of setting her up.”

  “No you won’t. At the meeting with both of y’all, that’s when we gonna get dirty.”

  “So you think I’ma trust you with my half, nigga? You got me fucked up! I’ll talk to her and see what she working with but that’s all. Robbing her with your crackhead ass will probably get me killed.”

  “Think about it at least, Ni. I’m telling you it’ll work. And fuck her! You shouldn’t care if she know you had something to do with it or not. You bouncin’, right? Here’s her number.” He handed her a business card. “Call her tonight.”

  Nina took the card and pointed to the door.

  “I’m out, Nina, damn!” he cursed as he limped out the door.

  The next day, after the meeting with Canada’s mom, Nina was explaining to Michelle that it was something they could do real quick and it would just about put her stash amount back to where it had been. Canada’s mom had a stack of freshly dated checks for different amounts. She wasn’t sure if they were financial aid checks, tuition reimbursements or what. Her only concern was that they were fresh, meaning only two to three days old and good. They hadn’t been reported stolen and were scheduled to go out to the payees in that day’s mail.

  Michelle thumbed through the checks one by one, calling out the amounts. “Twelve hundred forty-six eighty-seven, 2,468.43, 682.90, oh shit! This is what I’m talking about, 9,087, oh yeah! Seven thousand, two hundred and forty forty-seven. Damn, Ni, I think we can do something with this, 4,321.03. If we bust all of these, that’s what? Twelve thousand dollars? Then if we rob this ho, now that’s twenty-four Gs. She didn’t have any over ten grand?” Michelle was talking a mile a minute.

  “She did but I didn’t want them. So we gonna do this or what?”

  “You know I’m down. We gonna go to the banks or check-cashing spots?”

  “We gonna have to do both, unless you wanna get some more help.”

  “This is only six checks. That’s three apiece. We’ll be done with that in an hour.”

  “She had more but they were in a man’s name. We don’t have any trustworthy men for this mission. I can’t afford no fuckups.”

  “C’mon, Ni. Crack the fuckin’ whip, put your crackhead-ass brother to work and his little posse. Give them a rock, and get this money. We might as well get it while we can, especially since it’s been thrown right in our laps.”

  Nina ran over in her mind everything that Michelle had just said. She was still pissed off at Derrick, but she reasoned that she needed to put her emotions in check and get this money. The thought even crossed her to rob him. Give him a taste of his own medicine.

  Two nights later…

  Nina let out a loud yawn as she turned off her computer. She grabbed the pages off the printer stack and carefully inspected each driver’s license. Tomorrow her crew would be out cashing the checks she had gotten from Canada’s mom. After she gave the last ID her final approval she decided to call Michelle.

  “What up, chica?”

  Nina heard a beep for the other line. “Hold up.” Nina clicked over. “Hello.”

  “What up, bat girl?”

  Nina was caught by surprise but tried to play it off. “Who is this?” she asked, even though she never forgot a voice or a face.

  “This is me. You got some time to talk?”

  “Yeah, hold on.” She clicked back over to Michelle. “Sorry about that. You straight for tomorrow?”

  “Who was that on your line?”

  Nina couldn’t help but laugh. “None of your business! Are you straight for tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, I’m straight. Is it that nigga from New York?”

  “Why?”

  “Why? Why you gotta be all secretive and shit?”

  “Bitch, don’t be tryna keep tabs on me. I’ll call you back.” Nina clicked back over to Reese. “So what’s up?”

  “Getting straight to the point, huh? You ain’t got time to just shoot the breeze?” Reese was smiling.

  “Yeah. I just wanted to know what’s up.”

  “I’ll be down that way tomorrow afternoon. I wanna get with you.”

  Nina spun around in her swivel office chair. “No fault of yours but your timing is really off. I shouldn’t have given you my number.”

  “That was in exchange for me fixing your door, remember? We had an agreement. I earned that.”

  “Like I said, I apologize but I do got a lot on my plate right now, lot of shit I got to deal with and tryna do. I know you can understand that? Right?”

  “Oh yeah, I understand, but what does that have to do with us getting together for a dinner or something?”

  Okay. I see this nigga can’t take a hint, Nina thought to herself. “Look, Reese, right now, I got a lot of drama. I got three kids, three babies’ daddies and I’m tryna make some moves for the kids and my future. Now I know I look real good to you and all that but nine times outta ten you just want to fuck. Maybe, if you would have caught me at another time, just maybe, I would have been with it. But not right now. I don’t have the time. Especially not to play.”

  “Why are you so defensive? I don’t know what makes you think I want to play. Shit, I got three kids and three babies’ mommas my damn self. I’m always tryna make moves to secure their future. So I got drama, probably way more than what you got. I only want to take you to dinner, not jump the broom or no shit like that.”

  Nina smiled. She hadn’t been prepared for that response. So she kept twirling around in her swivel chair. She could faintly hear Floetry playing in the background. She finally conceded and said, “Call me around this time tomorrow.”

  “I’ll see you around this time tomorrow.” Click.

&n
bsp; Nina was left listening to the dial tone.

  FIVE

  On a mission…

  Everything went like clockwork. Nina had a carload of peeps in her car that she drove to the banks and check-cashing joints. After each stop she collected the money on the spot. Michelle had a carload of folks whom she oversaw and did the exact same thing.

  Both crews finished up a few minutes before the banks closed. They were scheduled to meet up at Nina’s brother Peedie’s spot at three-thirty, which was the designated meeting place. This was his day off and Nina knew no one would try anything stupid in his presence.

  When she arrived on his porch he yanked the door open and yelled, “Yo, Sis, take that shit in the basement and I’m charging a hundred dollars by the hour, ya dig?” Peedie stood hovering over her. He was so black, all she could see was his teeth.

  “You got that. But can a sista get some light? You did pay the bill, didn’t you?”

  “Lights are fifty dollars extra.”

  “Nigga, go ’head with that bullshit. I ain’t no damn feen.” She went back outside and motioned for everyone to come in.

  Peedie stood in the doorway mean-muggin’ everybody as he forced each one of them to squeeze by him.

  “Everybody down to the basement,” Nina instructed. “And don’t touch nothing!” She rolled her eyes at her brother before slamming the door behind her.

  “Slam my door again, and that’s your ass!” she heard him yell.

  Once they were downstairs the payout went like clockwork. She paid the fiends their fifteen percent for their work while Derrick escorted each one out one by one. She gave Michelle twenty percent of each check that she had cashed. She counted out Derrick’s five percent and held it out for him.

  “Yo, what’s that, man? Looks rather light to me,” he said, looking at what she was holding.

  “What the fuck it look like? It’s your cut. Take it or leave it!”

  Derrick snatched the stack of bills out of her hand. “This is bullshit, man!”

  “What the fuck you mean? You just robbed my mother-fuckin’ house, I shouldn’t give you shit!” Nina was poking his forehead.