Married to a Balla

by Jackie D.

  “It won’t,” Kareem quickly replied.

  “Are you all hungry?” she asked. Both Jordan and Kareem shook their heads at the same time. “Well, let’s go get something to eat. I saw a McDonald’s down the street. I think getting out will do us all some good. We haven’t even been in this room long and it’s already driving us crazy.”

  “Ma, I don’t want McDonalds. Can we go to Joe’s Stone Crab? Do they have one here?”

  Skye couldn’t help but laugh. Her kids were definitely spoiled when it came to food most of the time. “No son. I’m afraid we’re gonna have to hit up the dollar menu until I talk to Asia. Gotta spend our money wisely.” She planned to make the stripper money last.

  Before leaving, Skye put on the wig that she used at the strip club along with the fake contacts. She didn’t want anybody to necessarily recognize, Precious, but she also didn’t want anybody to see her real features either.

  “Why are you even wearing that thing?” Kareem questioned.

  “Because it makes me feel a little more comfortable with it on. I’m hoping we won’t get recognized like this,” Skye advised.

  “But we don’t have on disguises,” Jordan butted in.

  “I know, but I’m planning on buying you and Kareem wigs today.”

  Jordan put his hands in the air. “Oh noooooo. Nope, I’m not wearing no wig.”

  Skye chuckled then pulled out a twenty dollar bill and left the rest of the money so she wouldn’t be tempted to spend it. Skye scanned the room making sure all the bags were packed and ready just in case they had to leave in a hurry. After changing Payton’s diaper they headed out the door and down the stairs.

  They hadn’t even made it to the car before Skye caught a glimpse of a weird looking black dude going up the stairs that gave her an eerie feeling. Even though he was yet another crazy looking junkie, she brushed it off as being paranoid and headed toward the car.

  Thirty minutes later, she and the boys were all enjoying a hot batch of fries when Skye noticed a man in a nice suit watching them closely. A few minutes later the man approached them, which instantly made Kareem stop eating. He eyeballed the stranger closely.

  “Hello. I hate to bother you all, but my name is Deacon Jones,” he greeted. “You look like you need help my sister, I have connections to a woman’s battered shelter if you need it,” he said handing Skye a card. It was at that time when she noticed a thick Bible in his hand.

  “Oh, thank you, but I’ll be okay,” Skye replied in an embarrassed tone. She realized she’d left her sunglasses in the room, exposing her black eye for all to see.

  The Deacon stood shaking his head. “I don’t understand why any man would do that to such a pretty face, please make that call if you ever change your mind.”

  Just before leaving the table, he winked at Skye then turned around. A Deacon winking… What the hell is up with this neighborhood, she thought. I really need to get in touch with Asia.

  As soon as the Deacon walked away, Kareem started breathing heavy and complaining. “Why can’t we just go back home? I’m not going to any shelter. What kind of mother would take her kids to a shelter? Dad promised he wouldn’t hit you anymore if we came back home.”

  Skye’s eyes increased as she looked over at Kareem. “Have you talked to your father? Did you tell him where we were?”

  “Yeah, I talked to him, but I didn’t tell him where we were,” Kareem lied.

  “He said he was sorry and had a big surprise for you.”

  Realizing that Sandino was probably half-way to Georgia by now, Skye jumped up, and told the boys to come on. Despite them telling her that they weren’t finished eating, Skye quickly made her way to the car and jumped inside. Making a mental note to call Asia again, she was prepared to leave Atlanta and drive somewhere else to keep from being found.

  Skye yelled at Kareem all the way back to the hotel so he had a clear understanding that he’d put all their lives in jeopardy. She even demanded that he hand over his phone and instantly threw it out the window. Realizing that he’d made a major mistake, Kareem remained mute and showed no expression until his mother opened the door to their room. They all stood in total shock at the damage.

  You would’ve thought Hurricane Katrina had just touched down the way the room had been ransacked. It also didn’t take much to realize that they’d been robbed. All their possessions that were worth something were gone. Kareem’s G-Shock watch, Jordan’s DS game system, her diamond earrings along with the six hundred dollars Skye earned stripping that she’d hid inside the nightstand was now gone. Although their clothes had been pulled out of the suitcases and thrown all over the room, luckily they were still there.

  “I can’t believe this!” Kareem yelled.

  “Come on, let’s go,” Skye said.

  “Ma, aren’t we gonna call the police?” Jordan questioned.

  Even though it wasn’t Sandino’s style, Skye knew it was a possibility that he was behind this. She then thought about the suspicious looking man walking up the steps as they left. As questions bounced around her head, she had no idea who was responsible for the robbery, but didn’t plan to stick around and find out.

  “No, let’s go!” she demanded.

  They quickly grabbed their things throwing what they could back into the suitcases and ran down the stairs. Suddenly, Ivy came out of her room, and ran to the railing. “Precious, where are you going? What’s wrong?” she yelled.

  Not knowing if Ivy had anything to do with the robbery, Skye ignored her before they jumped into the Honda and skidded out the parking lot. With her adrenaline at another all time high, Skye looked in her rear view mirror to see if anyone was following them. That’s when she noticed a gold Tahoe with tinted windows hot on her trail. Her heart raced as she turned the corner going well over the speed limit. Skye clutched the wheel tightly never taking an eye off the Tahoe while switching lanes and swerving in and out of traffic.

  “See what you did Kareem? Dad is trying to kill all of us, he’ll never change. When will you ever get that into your messed up brain?” Jordan yelled.

  When Kareem reached over and punched Jordan on his arm, Skye felt like she was about to lose her mind. Now wasn’t the time to be bickering with each other, and apparently her speech from earlier hadn’t worked.

  Just as Skye was about to flip out, she spotted a parked police car on the side of the street. Trying desperately to get his attention, she quickly increased her speed, did an unsafe lane change then blew her horn non-stop. Within seconds, the police officer had his blue lights on and quickly headed in her direction. Strangely, when Skye looked back, the gold Tahoe was nowhere to be found.

  Chapter 8

  Skye pulled the car over on the side of the dark road and watched as the officer approached her car. As soon as he tapped on the window with his flash light, she rolled it down.

  “License and registration please, are you aware how fast you were driving? You could’ve killed someone dipping in and out of lanes like that. Have you been drinking?” he questioned.

  Skye looked in her purse for her license without saying a word as tears began to pour down her face.

  The officer shined his flash light in the car and noticed her crying and the bad bruises on her face. When Payton started to whine, he shined the light toward the back and saw the frightened looks on the boys’ faces. “Are you in some type of trouble Miss.?”

  Skye broke down instantly. “My husband is trying to kill us. He was driving a gold Tahoe. That’s why I was driving like that. I was trying to escape.”

  “Your husband was chasing you?” the officer asked trying to understand her story.

  “I’m not sure it was him, I didn’t see the driver’s face, but my husband is crazy. He could’ve hired someone. Please help me,” she pleaded.

  The officer gave Skye a skeptical look like she was making the entire story up, but the bruises and the sad looks on all their faces quickly convinced him that something had to be wrong. He put out a
description of the vehicle. “Is there some place I can escort you?”

  With no place to go and no money, Skye gave him the card from the deacon. The office took the card and went back to his car. After placing the call, the deacon provided the officer with the information to the secret shelter and he agreed to take them. Skye reassured her sons, it was only temporary.

  *****

  Justice looked at his watch; he was almost finished with his last exit interview for the evening. Several of the women and their families were leaving the shelter and moving into places of their own, which always required a lot of paperwork.

  Justice enjoyed helping the families, but he was growing tired of the same old routine associated with the shelter. He never knew how difficult it would be dealing with a bunch of hormonal women day after day. This wasn’t the big plan he visualized for Breaking the Cycle women’s shelter. A safe haven he’d opened in memory of his mother who was abused and killed by his father who later turned the gun on himself when Justice was only eight years old.

  He directed his attention to Deidra, who’d completed her last piece of paper work for her new apartment. Deidra and her son had come to the shelter six months ago after a terrifying experience.

  “Okay Deidra, you’ve completed all your paperwork, so we’re done here. It’s certainly been a pleasure having you here. You were always strong enough to stand on your own. We just gave you the reassurance you needed.” Justice stood up and gave her a hug.

  “Thanks for everything Justice, I don’t know what I would’ve done if you and BTC hadn’t helped my son and I.”

  Deidra squeezed Justice so tight, she almost took his breath away. She was a big girl, about 300lbs. Justice often wondered how any man could beat her ass.

  Once she released her grip, Justice fixed his shirt. “The movers will be here in a few hours to help you move all your belongings. Make sure you sign my boy, Malik, up for a little league baseball team, he got skills. You did a wonderful job raising him. Pat yourself on the back mama.”

  Deidra wiped a tear from her eye. “Thanks again Justice. You’ve always been such a sweetheart,” she said leaving the office.

  Justice sat back down and shuffled through the huge stack of papers on his mahogany desk. He dropped his head thinking about how long it was going to take him to finish up. A sudden knock on his office door startled him.

  “Come in!” he yelled.

  When his assistant, Mercedes, pranced inside she was popping gum as usual wearing her usual cheap platform heels. She was your typical Puerto Rican girl with thick, full lips that always displayed gold lipstick and dark lip liner. Her long jet black hair had golden highlights, which she always wore in an outdated, crimped hair style.

  “Excuse me Justice, Deacon Jones is on line one for you. Do you need me to help out with any of that paperwork?” She walked over to his desk and quickly sat on the edge. “I’m sure you remember what happened the last time we worked late.”

  Mercedes leaned over revealing her 36D cup sized breasts. It was the one asset she was truly proud of. “Don’t you remember having these babies in your mouth? Remember how many times you kept telling me how perfect my nipples were.”

  “Knock it off Mercedes. I told you before, us sleeping together was a mistake,” Justice said.

  “You could’ve fooled me. The way you were moaning didn’t sound like a mistake baby.”

  She rubbed her hands against his low cut hair then down his face.

  Justice immediately pushed her hand away. “Mercedes, I told you I don’t want to jeopardize our working relationship. Besides I’m not feeling you like that. You need to forget that shit ever happened. Get out of my face anyway. You smell like cigarettes.”

  “You weren’t complaining about the smell when you were in between my pussy,” Mercedes shot back. “I can’t forget about that night, and neither can you, no matter how hard you try to front like it didn’t mean anything. I know it meant something.”

  “It didn’t.”

  “Stop lying,” Mercedes replied before jumping off the desk, sashaying out the office and closing the door.

  Realizing that he needed to find another assistant, Justice shook his head before picking up the receiver and pushing line one. “Hello, Deacon Jones.”

  “Hey Justice, how are you?

  “Busy as usual. What can I do for you?”

  “I met a young lady and her kids today, she was badly beaten. I gave her a card and didn’t really think she would contact me, but I received a call from an officer saying she was running from her husband. He’s escorting them there. They should arrive within minutes. She has a very pleasant sprit, I watched her interact with her three kids and she seems to be a loving mother. She’s a beautiful woman as well.”

  Justice chuckled. “I know where you’re going with this. I don’t mix business with pleasure Deacon.”

  “Yes, I know, but I have a feeling you might make an exception on this one,” the Deacon said.

  “Are you sure you weren’t interested in her?” Justice joked.

  “No, son…not at all.”

  “Whatever you say. So, I guess you’re trying to set me up.”

  “I promised your mother I would look after you boys and I’m a man of my word Justice.”

  “Okay Deacon, I’ll be expecting them. We have three families moving out this week so it’s plenty of room. I’ll talk to you later,” Justice replied then hung up.

  Moments later, he started the paperwork for the new arrival, which was the part he hated the most. He didn’t like to see the women when they first arrived. They were so mentally and physically hurt, most times he could hardly take it.

  When opening the shelter he planned to be more of a behind the scenes owner. He had hopes that Mercedes would be the perfect candidate to run the business, but after monitoring her behavior and how she sometimes looked down on some of the women, he realized that her heart wasn’t genuine. How quickly she’d forgotten that she too was just like them when she first came to the shelter.

  Plus she was more interested in fucking him instead of handling things on a professional level. She’d let her emotions get in the way. Justice had to admit, Mercedes was fine, but he really regretted sleeping with her. Ever since that night, she’d been acting crazy as hell. To make matters worse, Justice couldn’t stand her two bad ass sons.

  He never meant to get involved with a woman he worked with or someone who was a former occupant. He was there to help the women…dating them wasn’t an option. He didn’t have the heart to build them up and when things didn’t work out, break them down again. If Mercedes didn’t get herself together Justice knew he’d have to let her go.

  He listened as kids ran up and down the hall. After only a year and a half of running the shelter he wanted to do something different already. Justice had several profitable organizations interested in taking over, and after he tied up some loose ends he was going to think about stepping away.

  Opening up a few envelopes with his letter opener, the big read letters reading PAST DUE on his utility bill made Justice shake his head.

  “These fucking bills never stop,” he mumbled to himself. After opening up his mortgage bill that said the exact same thing, he threw the papers to the side.

  Justice looked up at the clock and decided to buckle down and knock out the paperwork. Hopefully he could get out in time to see the Monday night football game. He grabbed his IPod and placed the small white earplugs in his ears. The lyrics from his favorite rapper Jay-Z echoed in his ears.

  “If you're having' girl problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain't one!”

  You got that right Jay, he thought.

  Chapter 9

  Skye drove behind the police car closely as the officer escorted them to the shelter near Stone Mountain. Even though he was way out of his jurisdiction, he wanted to make sure Skye and the kids arrived safely. While driving, Skye kept looking in her rear view for signs of the Tahoe, but th
e truck never reappeared. She was definitely confused. Even though Skye didn’t get a good look at the driver, and she knew Sandino wouldn’t have trashed the room, she still didn’t wanna ignore the fact that he could’ve been behind of all this.

  Skye watched as they drove another ten minutes before turning down a dark, poorly lit road and drove a few more miles into a deep secluded area. Nobody’s gonna find this shit, she thought. Minutes later they finally pulled up to a white colonial style house that sat on about an acre and a half of land. The house was in desperate need of a paint job, but the two big columns in front and rocking chairs added lots of charm.

  Skye turned off the car and turned around. “Listen up guys, when we get in there, we can’t tell anyone who your father is. It’ll be safer that way. Don’t even mention him.”

  “I still don’t understand why we gotta come here,” Kareem said looking around. “This place don’t look right.”

  “Look, I’m not thrilled about this either, but right now we don’t have much of a choice.”

  “How long are we gonna stay?” Jordan asked.

  “Hopefully not long. As soon as I talk to Asia and she sends us some money, we can leave. Whoever broke into our room stole all we had left.” Both of the boys were quiet. “I promise. Things will work out.”

  “Okay,” Jordan said. Kareem replied shortly after.

  “While we’re staying here, I’m gonna be using the name Janelle,” Skye informed them.

  “Do you have to change ours? I like my name,” Jordan said with a concerned expression.

  “It probably would’ve been better if we changed your names too, but something tells me you’re gonna forget anyway, so you all can continue to use your real ones. But don’t tell anyone our last name is Washington. We’ll use Coleman for now. Got it?” When both boys shook their heads, Skye adjusted her wig then opened the door. “Okay, let’s go.”

  They all got out the car, grabbed their bags and walked behind the officer. He kept looking at Skye like he wanted to ask her more questions but didn’t. Moments after ringing the doorbell, Mercedes came to the door.