The Man in 3B

by Weber, Carl

  Cain leaned forward dramatically. “You wanna know what it is?”

  “I do.” I was on the edge of my seat. “What?”

  “You’ve got to live like you’re dying. That’s the only way you’re going to enjoy life. Act as if you only have one day to live.”

  He leaned back again and let that thought sink in for a minute. Then he asked, “What choices would you make?”

  I couldn’t answer right away. I’d heard the cliché before, “live like you were dying,” but I’d never really thought about what that would mean in my own life.

  “I gave you two pieces of advice the other day: stop worrying about everyone else and what they think, and start living for what makes you happy.” Cain looked around his spectacular yard as if to send the subliminal message, All this could be yours.

  “Now,” he said, “let me give you some more advice. They say that money is the root of all evil. Well, call me the devil because I’m here to offer you plenty of money.”

  “Doing what?”

  Cain laughed off my question and said, “Come on in the house. I want you to taste the good life. Then, after you go home and sleep on it, you’ll give me a call—when you’re ready to start living again.”

  Benny

  8

  I watched in amazement from my bedroom window as Ms. Nancy gently kissed her husband before he made his way past the other ladies sitting around the stoop and into the truck that carted him off to work. That lady sure deserved an Oscar for the performance she’d just given, acting like the dutiful, loving wife. She knew good and well that by the time he hit the Belt Parkway, she would be knocking on our door, and by the time he got to work, she would be in Pop’s bed, having her head knocked up against the headboard. This was their routine whenever Pop shifted from the day shift to the night shift.

  Like clockwork, there was a knock on the door. I stuck my head in my father’s bedroom. He was sprawled out across his queen-sized bed with a sheet covering half his body. “Pop, I’m pretty sure that’s Ms. Nancy at the door. Want me to let her in?”

  He lifted his head and glanced at the clock radio, then immediately shut his eyes again. He had barely been home from work two hours, and he obviously needed more sleep. He wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity, though.

  “Might as well,” he said. “It’s been over a week, and she ain’t gonna let me rest until she gets some.”

  “Didn’t you have Ms. Pam up here yesterday?”

  He lifted his head and opened one eye to look at me. “What, are you keeping score for me or something?”

  “Nope, just worried about you. You keep messing with all these women and you might end up dead from a heart attack—or worse, one of their husbands. Besides, you ain’t no spring chicken no more,” I joked.

  “What!” He threw a pillow at me, fully awake now. “I’ll have you know, if they’d let me, I could handle both those broads at the same time.”

  “Okay, player-player. Look, I’ll see you sometime tonight. I’m gonna head up to Fordham. See if I can get a couple of my classes changed before the semester starts next week.”

  “A’ight, son. I’ll see you tonight. You good on cash?”

  “Yeah, I’m good.”

  I left his bedroom and went to let in Ms. Nancy. She was standing there in the doorway, fidgeting like a crackhead looking for a fix.

  “Hey there, Ms. Nancy.”

  “Hey, Benny. Your daddy home?” she asked with a smile.

  I nodded politely, though I wanted to laugh. That woman knew darn well that he was home. Shoot, she knew everything happening on our block and in our building at all times. When it came to Pop, she knew his schedule better than he did.

  “He’s down in his room.” I stepped out of the way and she sashayed down the hall. I had to give it to her; I could see what Pop saw in her. She had a nice figure for a woman in her forties.

  By the time I got downstairs to the stoop, all the old hens had taken their horny tails back inside their apartments. They’d been spending more time outside than usual these past few days. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that they were hoping to catch a glimpse of Daryl from 3B. Without Ms. Nancy to keep them all riled up, though, I guess they’d decided to take a break.

  I headed out of the apartment building in hopes of getting to the Bronx without incident. I’d made it down the steps and was just about to break toward the bus stop when I heard the sound of screeching tires.

  “Yo, college boy! Let me holla at you a second.”

  “Shit,” I mumbled.

  I knew who it was without even turning toward the car. His name was Leroy Johnson, and he and his boys were some local thugs I’d gone to high school with. Recently they’d become my worst fucking nightmare come true. Now, I wasn’t no punk, but I also wasn’t a fool. Leroy and his bunch of hoodlums weren’t something to play with.

  Leroy had been trying to jump me into his gang ever since I graduated high school two years ago. He’d been coming at me a lot harder lately because, as he told me, they had “some things in the works that required a brainy brother.” I’d been ducking him the better part of the summer, purposely laying low with hopes that they wouldn’t spot me. With any luck, they’d get arrested or wind up dead before I had to tell them no. Unfortunately, my luck had just run out.

  “Ay, yo, Benny, did you hear my man talking to you?” That was one of Leroy’s boys, probably the one they called Muscles. He’d gotten the nickname for the reason you’d expect; he was the most muscular son of a bitch I’d ever met.

  The thought of running back in the building came to mind, but that was dead when I heard the car doors slam. If I tried to run, they’d be able to cut me off in a flash. So I turned toward the voices. It was Leroy and Muscles all right.

  “Benny, where you been?” Leroy asked.

  “I been around,” I said, shrugging meekly.

  “Yeah, well, we ain’t seen you,” Muscles said.

  I turned my attention to Muscles and flinched when I saw the black teardrop tattoo underneath his right eye. I wasn’t anybody’s gangbanger or thug, but I knew the legend behind those teardrop tattoos. I sure didn’t want to be the reason for him getting another one tattooed underneath the existing one.

  “I been around, y’all. Ask anyone.” I was trying to keep it together, but my voice cracked.

  Leroy smirked, patting my shoulder condescendingly. “You know what, Benny? Don’t worry about it. The fact that you’re here now is all that counts. Where you headed?”

  “Oh, I’m, uh, just headed up the block to the bus stop,” I stammered, praying that they were going to let me go. “I gotta go up to my college and do a few things.”

  “Then it looks like I’m right on time,” Leroy said. “What do you say I give you a ride and we can, you know, talk about that thing? Did you get a chance to look it over?”

  “Oh, yeah, well, about that…” Damn, damn, damn! If only I’d left a minute earlier, I might have dodged this bullet. The last thing I wanted to talk about was “that thing.”

  I was in a spot, but I tried to stay calm and think my way through it before I said the wrong thing. Okay, Benny, you gotta think like Pop. How would he handle this?

  One thing I knew for sure was that my father wouldn’t back down. I took a deep breath, then straightened out my back, holding my head up high. “Look, Leroy, I’m sorry, but I made up my mind. I just can’t come through for you on that, man.”

  Every muscle in my body was tense as I waited for him to react. At first he stood there and stared me down. It probably surprised him when that wasn’t enough to make me change my answer. He glanced at Muscles, who looked like he was about to rip my head off, and then back at me. I nearly pissed myself when he roared out in laughter.

  “Do you hear that, Muscles? Benny here is a riot.” The veins in his neck seemed to throb with each wave of laughter. “He’s a straight-up comedian. He’s got his chest all pumped up, talking about he’s made up his
mind.”

  Muscles joined in the laughter for a second, and then just like that, Leroy stopped. He glared at me and said, “You know, you might be real smart with computers and shit, college boy, but you ain’t as smart as I thought you were. ’Cause if you were, you’d know that I do all the thinking around here.”

  Muscles took a step closer. He looked like he was itching to kick the shit out of me.

  “Let me make myself clear,” Leroy continued. “I wasn’t asking you a damn thing. I was telling you. Now, get your ass in the car before I put my foot in it.”

  I took a breath, then let it out slowly, trying to keep my composure even though I felt like I was ready to pass out. “Look, Leroy, I really do appreciate you guys including me in your plans and all, but I’m not getting in your car or robbing no jewelry store with you.”

  “Who said anything about you robbing a jewelry store? You just gonna be the lookout after you disable the alarm system,” Leroy explained simply.

  Knowing I was somewhat of an electronics whiz, Leroy and his boys had approached me a few months back about this alarm system they were supposedly buying. They said they were going to open a bodega and wanted to see if it was a reliable alarm system. They had the model number and the whole nine. Stupid, naive me looked at it as a challenge to see if I could disarm it. It turned out to be a simple system. I told him he shouldn’t buy one because a guy like me could disarm it in a heartbeat. Stupidest thing I’d ever said.

  That’s when Leroy told me about his real plan. They were going to rob Goldberg Jewelers, the biggest jewelry store in Queens, and I was going to disarm the alarm system for him.

  “Nah, man, I’m sorry, but I can’t be a part—” Before I could finish my sentence, I felt the full force of Muscles’s huge fist in my gut. I doubled over and struggled to catch my breath. I’d had my share of school yard scrapes, but I’d never been hit that hard in my entire life.

  “Dammmmn, that shit hurt, didn’t it? I know that shit hurt,” Leroy mocked, grabbing his stomach. “Now, if you don’t get your ass in the car, I’m gonna have my man Muscles do more than that to your face.”

  “I bet you don’t.”

  I’d like to say that I’d found the courage to speak those words, but they didn’t come from me. They had come from behind me.

  Muscles and Leroy turned toward the voice. “Oh yeah, and who the hell are you, his daddy?”

  “As a matter of fact, I am,” Pop responded as he made his way out of the apartment building and onto the stoop. All he needed was some theme music, and he would have looked like Shaft in a wife beater and jeans. “And now that you know who I am, who the hell are you?”

  “We’re a couple of your son’s buddies from high school. Isn’t that right, Benny?”

  “Buddies? I don’t think so. I know all my son’s friends,” my father said, “and trust me; you’re no friend of Benny’s. Now get the hell away from my kid!”

  “Sounds like you calling me a liar, old man, and I hate being called a liar.” Leroy took a few steps toward Pop as I felt Muscles grab the back of my neck, jerking me straight up.

  Pop stood his ground. “I don’t care what you like. I want you to get the hell away from my son and get the hell outta here.”

  “You hear that, Muscles? College boy’s daddy wants us to leave,” Leroy said with a smirk. “I guess we better go then.”

  Muscles let go of my neck, and for a split second, I thought they were actually going to leave.

  “You okay, son? I was looking—” Pop never finished his sentence because he was damn near knocked off his feet by a haymaker.

  “Pop!” I tried to run to his aid, but Muscles slammed me down on the concrete. He kicked me in the ribs a few times to make sure I stayed put and then went to help Leroy stomp the shit out of my father.

  I was struggling to get up, praying they weren’t going to kill my father, when out of nowhere, Daryl appeared on the scene. He spun Muscles around and punched his privates like they were a speed bag. Muscles doubled over, and Daryl planted a foot in his face so hard that Muscles fell right to the ground. It was like watching a superhero take out the villain in one of those comic books turned into a movie.

  Once Daryl finished with Muscles, he turned his attention to Leroy. He pulled the Thug Master off my father and slammed him to the sidewalk so hard that he had to have seen stars. Down but not totally out, a bloodied Muscles came charging at Daryl like a bull; but just like a matador, Daryl managed to move quickly to the side and get the raging bull in a headlock.

  “If you don’t get out of here and take your friend with you, I’m gonna break your fucking neck,” Daryl seethed through gritted teeth.

  Muscles wasn’t about to give up that easily. From his bent-over position, he was able to get some leverage and started lifting Daryl off the ground. Daryl still wouldn’t release Muscles from the headlock. He started pounding his fist into Muscles’s face.

  They tussled to the ground, where Muscles tried to pull out a gun. Things could have turned tragic in a heartbeat, but instead, Daryl quickly wrestled the gun away from Muscles and turned it on him.

  Daryl aimed the gun at Muscles, who still looked like he was going to try to jump bad again.

  “I wish you would,” Daryl spat. “ ’Cause to the cops, this ain’t gonna look like nothing but self-defense.”

  I don’t know if it was his words, the menacing look, or the gun in Daryl’s hand, but Muscles stopped dead in his tracks.

  “Obviously y’all don’t know who you’re fucking with, so you might wanna ask somebody.” Daryl threw up something that looked like a gang sign, and Muscles’s eyes became large. I couldn’t be positive, but he almost looked like he had a little fear. “Now, like I said, you might want to get your boy and get the hell out of here.”

  Muscles helped Leroy up off the ground, and they leaned on each other as they limped to their car.

  As we watched them drive away, my father said, “Daryl, I don’t know what to say except thanks.” His face was bruised and he probably had a few broken ribs, but thank God, he was alive. “You saved me and my boy.”

  “Don’t thank me,” he replied. “That’s what neighbors are for.”

  From that moment on, Daryl Graham was no longer just my neighbor. He was my new hero.

  Krystal

  9

  Wow! was the only thought that ran through my mind as I tried to savor the last spasms of the best orgasm I’d ever had. Of the many, many orgasms I’d had that day, it was hard to pick the best, but yeah, I’d say this one was it. Daryl had always been good in bed, but he’d actually taken things to the next level this time. There’s something to be said for reunion sex, I guess.

  I exhaled slowly, then looked down to see him sliding up from between my legs until his lips met mine. I could taste myself as he kissed me, and I bit his lower lip. My hands roamed over the array of tattoos along his muscular shoulders and back. The feel of his Adonis-like body pressed against me sent mini-tremors down my spine… and to that special place that he’d so masterfully pleased with his lips and tongue only a few moments earlier.

  I gasped as he positioned himself between my legs, sliding into my slippery canal with ease. He was my own personal Kryptonite, making me weaker the further he pushed himself into me.

  We’d barely even said hello earlier. He kissed me at the front door of my vacation rental and then swept me off my feet. I didn’t protest at all when he carried me into my bedroom and undressed me. The way he looked at me, I felt like I was the most precious thing in the world, and I belonged to him and only him. He kissed me from head to toe, paying extra-special attention to all my erogenous zones.

  And to think I was scared to death of how he would react when I first opened the door.

  Truth be told, I almost hadn’t recognized Daryl at first. He’d filled out and gained a little weight, not to mention the fact that he’d gone from cornrows to a faded haircut and beard. Not that I’m complaining. He looked sexy as hell
with a beard.

  “Has anyone ever told you that you’re the greatest lover ever?” And that your dick is the absolute perfect fit for this pussy?

  He moved his hips and hit that spot inside me, making me gasp and jump. “Yeah, just one that I can remember.”

  “Who was she?” I asked, suddenly feeling a little jealous.

  “It was about five years ago,” he answered without missing a beat with his gyrations. “Fine little thing. A college girl, if I remember. She kinda reminds me of you.”

  I finally caught on. “Well, dammit, she sure as hell didn’t lie.”

  He kissed me gently and then pushed up on his arms. I looked up into his eyes as he hovered above me, grinding his hips to get even deeper. I smiled when I saw the Jewish star pendant hanging from a chain around his neck.

  “Is this the one I bought you? I can’t believe you still wear it.” I reached out and touched it, running my hand along its edges.

  “It sure is.”

  He stared at me with this adoring expression, as if there was more he wanted to say but couldn’t. I knew how he felt. I also had a lot on my mind, remembering how the whole world seemed to fade into the background whenever we were together.

  How did I ever give him up?

  I spoke to him in a whisper, looking deep into his eyes. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. If I could do it all over again…”

  He shook his head, then placed his lips over mine, kissing me quiet. “I know. It’s okay. I forgave you a long time ago.”

  “How?” I asked. How could he forgive me when I’d committed the worst of sins? This man, this wonderful man, had saved my life, gotten me off drugs and back in school. Meantime, I had taken away the one thing, the only thing, he’d ever asked me for without even giving it a second thought. You don’t forgive a woman who does that, and you damn sure don’t forgive a woman who aborts your child against your wishes. Do you?

  I didn’t even know I was pregnant at the time, but it didn’t take Daryl long to figure it out. He knew my cycle like clockwork, and when I didn’t have my period on time, he made the declaration that I was with child and needed to take a pregnancy test. When I protested and said it must be something hormonal and I was probably just late, he went right down to the drugstore and picked up a First Response test kit. You should have seen his face when he saw the double pink lines—like he’d won the damn lottery. He was too hyped to even notice my disappointment.