by Styles, T.
“You’ll get all the answers you need, man. But I need you to come wit’ me now.”
“Like I said,” I continued, backin’ away. I would’ve bust his head open right there but then I wouldn’t get the chance to help O. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere wit’ you! So whateva you gonna do, you can do it right here.” He walked toward me and I walked back. “Don’t come near me,” I told him. “I’m warnin’ you.”
“I’m sorry, man. I’m not goin’ to be able to do that. I’m not goin’ to hurt you. If I wanted to, you’d be dead by now.”
I knew this fool wasn’t goin’ to let me walk away. Whateva he wanted with me was serious. So I was ‘bout to take out my fire and smoke him, when I was struck on the head from the back.
When I came to I was sittin’ in a hotel room. I jumped up and reached for my gun and it wasn’t there. Where the fuck was I? I was just ‘bout to leave when he appeared through the door again.
“You aight?” he asked.
“Naw…I need you to tell me what the fuck is goin’ on.”
“Sit down, we’ll talk ‘bout everything.”
“I’m not doin’ shit ‘til you tell me what’s goin’ on,” I was prepared to wreck this fool if I had to. Gun or not.
“Nephew,” he said calmly. “I’ll explain everything. Just please…have a seat.”
Tuesday, 12:47 am
****
I guess all good things must come to an end.
-Jarvis
Jarvis made several calls to Prangsta but he didn’t get an answer. He had a feeling something terrible happened to him, but hoped that wasn’t the case. His phone had been ringing off of the hook and once again he saw Kyope’s number. As he had the other times, he ignored his call and placed the phone back in his pocket. He wanted to have proof that Kelsi was a snake before he talked to him again. He was in his apartment having a drink when there was a knock at the door.
“Who is it?” he asked, walking to the door with his drink in hand.
“It’s me,” Kyope said. “Open up, man.”
Jarvis took a deep breath, downed the liquid in his glass and placed it on the table by the door. Taking a look at himself in the mirror, he opened the door. It was time to deal with their issues. Once the door was open, Jarvis walked away without greeting Kyope. He shut and locked the door behind himself.
“So…what’s goin’ on, Jarvis? How come you ain’t been answerin’ my calls?”
“I didn’t hear it ring.”
“Oh really?” Jarvis said as he dialed his number. The phone rang in Jarvis’s pocket. “Seems okay to me.”
“A lot has been goin’ on. I just needed to clear my head.”
“So say that first. Fuck you lie for?” Kyope said, placing his phone back on the clip on his hip. Jarvis remained silent. “You’ve been doin’ a lot of that lately. Lyin’ that is.”
“Like I said…I needed to clear my head.”
“Clear your head huh?”
“Yeah. I was ‘bout to call you though. Seems you not on your game like you use to be, Kyope. In fact, your game is some shit right now.”
“Nigga, what is you sayin’?”
“Your man not as innocent as you think he is.”
“Not this shit again,” Kyope said. He knew he was referring to Aven. “When you gonna take responsibility for the shit you do? The breakdown in our operation ain’t got shit to do wit’, Aven.”
“Kelsi,” Jarvis corrected him. “Ain’t got shit to do wit’ Kelsi.”
“Kelsi? Who the fuck is that?”
“Helena’s, son,” Jarvis said hesitantly. He knew that although Aven wasn’t who he said he was, Kyope would look at this as still being his fault. Considering Helena was his girlfriend. While Jarvis thoughts kept him busy. Kyope was thinking about Kelsi. He remembered the first time he met him at Waves. He knew then that he looked familiar but Kelsi’s warrior spirit blinded him.
“So why is he here? Fuck does he want?” Kyope asked.
“I don’t know, man. I don’t know what he wants. I just know that he’s here and he’s been lyin’ to you the entire time. I think he’s after me for killing his mother.”
Kyope paced the room and placed his hands on his head. While he was thinking about the predicament, there was another knock at the door. Jarvis looked at Kyope and shrugged his shoulders. He proceeded to the door looking out of the peephole. It was Crane.
“It’s, Crane,” Jarvis said. He opened the door and Crane walked in and closed the door behind him.
“Glad you here, man,” Kyope said. “We got a lot of shit to handle and it’s gonna be a long night.”
Kyope and Jarvis were in mid-conversation until they saw the door swing open. Both Kyope and Jarvis looked liked they saw a ghost when they saw who walked in. Dressed in all black, wearing a long coat, stood Helena, or as the world had come to know her, Janet Stayley, Kelsi’s mother.
Tuesday, 1:09 am
****
Just when you think you know it all, you find out you don’t know shit.
-Kelsi
What he was sayin’ had me fucked up. Speechless. We were in a hotel not too far from Jarvis’s place. I could tell dude had been stayin’ here because his personal items were everywhere.
“Why you fuckin’ wit’ me?” I asked him leanin’ against the wall unable to support my own weight. My head was spinnin’. “If I was you, I wouldn’t fuck wit’ me.”
“I ain’t fuckin’ wit’ you, Kelsi. I’m your uncle and I’m here to tell you your mother is alive. I ain’t got nothin’ to gain by lyin’ to you, young blood.”
I looked at his ashy black skin and couldn’t find a shred of resemblance wit’ me or my mother. My mother was beautiful, and had almond colored skin. This man was unattractive and hard on the eyes to say the least. He looked like he spent a lot of time in jail and was goin’ back soon.
“My mother ain’t alive!” I said swingin’ at the air. The possibility of it being true angered me cuz I ain’t wanna feel let down if it was all a lie. “Stop fuckin’ wit’ me, nigga! She died months ago!!”
“No…they think she died months ago. But she alive, baby boy.”
“B…but…if she alive, how come she ain’t get at me? How come she let me go through this shit when she know how much I miss her? My moms would neva put me through the torture I been through!”
“Cuz she ain’t want nobody findin’ out she was still alive before everything was said and done. She wanted to make sure she protected her identity, but most of all, she wanted to protect you.”
I rubbed my head over and over trynna understand everything he was sayin’ to me. My mother is alive? Can it be possible? I looked at him coldly. I wanted him to know if he was lyin’, weapon or not, I’d kill him wit’ my bare hands.
“If…if you really my uncle, then why you kill Kenosha?”
“Cuz she was goin’ hurt you. Skully and Kenosha were the ones who shot your mother. And Skully made you think it was Jarvis so you could do his dirty work. You out here on Skully’s bullshit, young blood. Kenosha was sposed to be makin’ sure you went along wit’ the plan. But she ended up findin’ Jarvis by accident. I killed her to protect you. Cuz once you laid Jarvis down, she was goin’ kill you herself.”
As he spoke, I started rememberin’ all the late night calls from Skully. And how Kenosha always appeared to have ulterior motives when she asked me ‘bout my whereabouts. It was like she trynna make me angrier than I already was for Jarvis killin’ my moms.
“Where is she?”
“Who?” he asked nervously.
“My mother?! Where is she? If she alive, let me see her. Let me talk to her.”
“She’s handlin’ business, right now, Kelsi.”
“What kind of business?”
“She ‘bout to take care of Jarvis and Kyope.”
“Alone?”
“No,” he said calmly. “She got help.”
I had so many emotions goin’ on inside of me that eventually I st
arted to feel naïve for believin’ him. How I know he wasn’t wit’ Kyope and Jarvis and was fuckin’ wit’ me cuz of how I fucked wit’ them?
“If my moms is really alive, tell me somethin’ only she and I would know.”
He smiled and said, “She told me you’d say that,” he paused. “You killed someone in front of your apartment buildin’, and she helped you cover the crime.”
“Too easy,” I told him. “Everybody already think I had somethin’ to do wit’ that shit.”
“You and she killed Delonte and dumped his body in Ft. Dupont park,” he added.
“Still not good enough,” although I was startin’ to believe him.
“The night your mother was murdered, ya’ll had plans to kill your father for the insurance money.”
That’s what I wanted to hear.
“I need you to do me a favor,” I told him.
“Anything,” he said.
I hoped the nigga was straight up, but needed to know for sure.
“I need you to call my moms,” I told him. “Right now. Please, man. I gotta speak to her.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
September 30, Friday, 10:40 pm
The hardest thing in life is knowin’ your child’s hurtin’, and not bein’ able to do a damn thing about it.
• Janet Staley
The Day of Her Supposed Death
Janet was shot by Skully as Kenosha stood watching.
“Let’s get outta here,” Skully said. “Before somebody calls five “O”.
They were in an abandoned apartment building in Bladensburg, Maryland. Although no one lived in building for years, a few nearby buildings still had tenants.
“We just gonna leave her here?” Kenosha asked, looking down.
“Yeah,” he said taking one last look at Janet who was on the floor with her arms tied behind her, and around a pole. “Let somebody else clean up our dirty work.”
They left hand and hand, leaving Janet’s soul to escape her body. When they left, an elderly woman who heard the gun shots walked into the basement. Like a few of the local crack heads, she came to tear the copper out of the abandoned building for money to support her habit.
“Oh, sweetheart,” the woman said seeing her condition. Janet’s face was badly beaten and blood was pouring from all parts of her body. When she checked her pulse, it was faint. She looked behind her a few times to be sure the shooters didn’t come back. “Hang on, I’m gonna get you some help.”
Reaching into her pants, she used a stolen disconnected cell phone that was only good for dialing 911. She had plans to sell it later for money. Janet was unconscious and sinking deeply into death.
“911…what’s your emergency?”
“Yes…please hurry!” the fearful woman said. “A lady has been shot!”
“Where are you, mam? What’s the address?”
“2151 Monroe Street, Bladensburg, Maryland. She’s in the old abandoned buildin’. In the basement.”
“Okay, mam. Can we have your name?”
Realizing she was probably getting in over her head, she ended the call and left Janet alone. She figured she’d done her good Samaritan deed for the day. The rest was up to them.
The ambulance arrived minutes later.
“This a damn shame,” one of the male paramedics said. “I’m sick of comin’ over here for bullshit.”
“Nigga this your job,” an aggressive female paramedic replied, as they lifted the gurney onto the ambulance. “Who called anyway?”
“I’m not sure but I think its crack head Hanna,” he said pointing to the corner of the building. Thinking they were talking about her, she ran away. She’d been watching from the side of the building ever since she made the call. She wanted to be sure they came for her. “But who knows. It could’ve been anybody.”
They whisked Janet off to Prince Georges Hospital Center’s, Trauma Unit. They arrived within minutes. Because she was hanging on to life, she was unable to tell them who shot her. And since it was an attempted murder, the hospital and the local police department was hesitant about releasing any information, for fear of her life. Months later, Janet still hadn’t regained consciousness from the multiple bullet wounds in her chest. She was in a coma. Every other day a detective would stop by to see if she came around and their visits were all in vain.
Meanwhile, Skully had grown irritated with Jarvis and figured now was the time to play on Janet’s young son’s vulnerability. He figured by now her death had caused Kelsi all sorts of painful emotions. When he felt the time was right, which happened to be Christmas day, he killed a German Sheppard, removed its heart, and shipped it to Kelsi with a note that read, ‘Nobody Has Heart When They’re Dead’.
On the same day, Janet came out of her coma. Realizing the police would get in her business, and ruin her plans to be with her son again, she pretended to have no knowledge about her situation or how she was shot. She claimed to have amnesia. And since not many people survived multiple gun shot wounds, it was easy to believe. Her plan was to get better, and find her son. She knew Kelsi would be in New York avenging her death because before she was shot, Skully told her how he would use Kelsi.
Every night, when the hospital rounds from the nurses were few and far between, Janet would get up and practice walking. Night after night she built up her strength without the hospital staff knowing. And when she was strong enough, she walked out of the hospital doors.
Her first stop may have been a shock to some, but to her it made perfect sense. She went to her old apartment building, waited until dark, and dug up a gun she’d placed there months earlier. Then she paid someone a much needed visit.
Nick Fearson walked out of the Prince Georges County, Homicide police department clueless that tonight everything would change for him. He was five feet from his personal car which was a few blocks from the station. She knew who he was the moment she saw his six foot tall frame, and his chocolate smooth complexion.
“Make sure you wear that little outfit I like,” he said on his cell phone. He laughed, paused for awhile and continued. “Oh really? You remember the last time you said that.” He deactivated his car alarm. “I had you bent over beggin’ me not to stop.”
“Nick Fearson,” Janet said smoothly.
“Yes-,” he responded.
It was the last thing he said before her bullet pierced his throat. She had to kill the detective. Because when she and Kelsi committed their first murder together by killing Delonte, Nick’s friend, he vowed to make them pay. And she didn’t want anybody kicking over old tombstones now that she’d regained consciousness. With him leaning over his Chrysler 300, she watched him slide to the ground. His murder felt good. In fact, it revived her. She was back up to her old antics. With no money in her pocket, she stopped by the only place she felt she could. Her brother’s house. The day was one she wouldn’t forget.
Janet arrived at her brother’s house in Northwest D.C., early in the morning. She knocked three times before the door opened. The moment he saw her face, he was visibly shaken.
“Helena? Is that you?” her oldest brother asked. Having just gotten out of jail, he had that hard look. His skin was dark and ashy and he appeared unkempt.
“Yes,” she sobbed.
The moment his recognitions were confirmed, he sobbed uncontrollably. He never got over what he did to his baby sister. He never got over how he raped her because their father made him for his own sexual gratification. He never got over how he watched his other three brothers rape her also to feed their father’s sick needs. Abusing his sister was why he never was able to have a functional life. The two younger brothers were killed in a botched robbery they all participated in, and he and his middle brother were the only survivors.
“Yeah…it’s me,” Janet limped. “C…can I come in?”
When she walked in, her other brother stood up. He greeted her as they watched her limp inside. They were happy to see her and were willing to do whatever they could, to r
ight the wrongs in her life.
“What happened to you?” the oldest asked.
“It’s a long story? Got time?” she smiled.
She told them about her run-ins with Skully and Jarvis. And they told her some things she didn’t know. It was then that she learned that her father was murdered at a local cleaners, after the father of a young girl he raped, blew his head clean off his body with a sawed off shotgun. Hearing the news brought Janet to a gentle peace. He finally got the justice he deserved.
She told her brothers about Skully and Kenosha and how she had to save her only son. She knew she couldn’t do it on her own. Her brothers, who were no strangers to breaking the law, jumped at the chance to help. Even if it meant sacrificing their own lives.
After all, they hoped getting their nephew back would give Janet some peace. The plan was well executed and they took their time with the details. To get the money to fund their project, the three of them robbed a few local dealers. When enough cash was generated, they decided to put their plan into action. Her brothers were none other than Cole and Rick Hope.
Rick was to keep an eye on Kelsi while he roamed the streets of New York, which he did. He would be in places Kelsi didn’t even know. And because Janet explained how much she already hated Kenosha, coupled with the fact she tried to kill her, when he got a chance, he was told to kill her without hesitation. Rick carried out his duties perfectly.
Cole Hope on the other hand had a different job, which he also did very well.
Present Day
Tuesday, 12:54 am
****
The worse thing you can do is separate a mother from her only son.
-Janet
“J…Janet,” Jarvis said stepping back. His blood looked like it was drained from his body. “How the fuck you get in here?” He cursed himself for not having his gun on him. It was in his bedroom, useless to him at the moment. Kyope stood in silence and Crane watched her the entire time.
