by T. Styles
“It’s been a long time since I’ve cried over anyone, especially a man.” I explain. I remember something else he says. “And did you call me cute?”
He smiles and leans up against his sliver Altima. “You heard me right.”
I grin. “I think you have zero taste, but okay.” I call myself looking in his eyes, but they keep focusing on his ears instead. I’m bent already.
“You alright? Because you look like you about to fall.”
“Not really,” I confess, “So how ‘bout you help a bitch out?”
“With a ride?”
“Fuck no! With another drink.”
He laughs. What the fuck is so funny? “How about I give you a ride to wherever you want to go and then you can get a drink there. I just want you to be safe.”
I walk closer to him. He’s very handsome with his dark brown skin and pearly white teeth. His energy tells me he’s a nice guy, and it’s a shame he’s run into me. “Instead of taking me where I want to go, how ‘bout you keep me as long as you want and then drop me off wherever.”
He smiles. “Life for you is that easy?”
“It wasn’t always that way.” I think about my kids…my pregnancy…Jace. And HIV. “It is now.”
“So what’s your name?” I ask.
“Lonnie J and it’s a pleasure meeting you.”
“Let’s see if you feel that way later.”
****
We end up in a diner where everybody who walks by me smells like weed. They serve food that’s cold and tasteless but after eating the hospital meals for days, I welcome the change. “So, where were you on your way to?” I ask. I chew the eggs in my mouth and fork up some grits to get rid of the box taste. “Before you ran into me?”
“I just got off work,” he stirs his black coffee and his spoon bangs against the edges. “So before I saw your beautiful face, I wasn’t about to get into anything but my bed. So what’s your name?”
“Harmony Phillips.” I keep eating.
“Wow you gave me the first and last name.” He sips his coffee. “You must be famous with a name like that.”
“I don’t know about all that, but you can say I’ve lived the life of a porn star.”
Coffee comes flying out of his mouth and nostrils. He wipes it with the back of his hand and looks at me hard. “You playing right?”
“I don’t do a lot of playing, I don’t have time.” I chew some more box and grits. “So let me tell you what I want to do.” I ate the rest of my food and make him wait. It looks like he’s holding his breath. “I want to go to the liquor store again, go back to your place and fuck. After that if you decide you want to have this conversation again, you know, with me being a porn star and all, we can do that. But to be honest, the only thing on my mind right now is getting on top of you and riding you like it’s nobody’s business. You with that?”
He clears his throat and places his coffee cup on the table. “Look, maybe I gave you the wrong impression about me. I have freakish ways but I’m not a whore.” Never heard a man refer to himself as a whore in the same breath. Interesting. “I like what I like but I’m not rushing to do anything. If that’s how you move, that’s on you. It’s just not my way.”
He’s getting on my nerves but there’s something about him that makes me humor the situation. “What you looking for then? Because I’m gonna tell you right now, you not gonna get some dream girl over here, or somebody who’s looking to take care of a man. I’m a loner. I’m the shit the street sweepers didn’t clean and I like it that way. I hope you can understand that.”
“You being real heavy with me when you don’t have to be. So let’s do this,” he motions for the waiter, “how ‘bout we get you another order of eggs and grits, since you licking the plate,” it isn’t until he says that, that I realize my tongue is on the plate, “and get to know each other better. Okay?”
I place the plate down and look at him. He’s cool and all I can think about is how sad it is that I couldn’t have met him at a better time in my life. When I was young and impressionable. Unfortunately he met me during the most diseased time of my life.
KRESHON
TRUNK CLOSE
Kreshon speeds down Martin Luther King Jr., Blvd in Washington D.C, listening to Chuck Brown on CD. Jayden had been on his mind ever since he last saw her in New York. He was beyond embarrassed when the officers told him what he’d done and what he was charged with. He had nightmares of the expression on Jayden’s face as he whipped out his dick in the restaurant. That’s why he didn’t fuck with liquor anymore because while some just got drunk after having too many, he became a pervert. To make matters worse, he started drinking again…every night. Prior to that night, he had five years clean and now it was all or nothing. Metha knew that because they had alcohol anonymous meetings together and now he wasn’t coming anymore. But as long as he could win Jayden over, in his book, it would be worth it.
When he makes it to the carry out, he parks his car and gets his and Jayden’s food order. When he’s done, he makes his way to Concord Manor. The moment he pulls up, he sees Jayden is waiting for him in the foyer with a smile on her face. Her long hair is dripped over her shoulders and her pink silk nightgown clings to her recently oiled body. He sits in the car for a minute, just admiring her body from a far. She looks foreign. So sexy, yet so familiar. He takes in what he knows was true all the time, Jayden looks like Harmony did when he first met her. When he was in love with her.
When he can’t take it anymore, he grabs the bag of food from the car and eases out. “You looking good, baby.” He shakes the bag. “I got the food you wanted. Hungry?”
She frowns and doesn’t seem too interested in the meal. “Did you get what else I ordered?”
He grins although he’s irritated with her impatience. “You wanna do that now?” He looks into her house. “With all them niggas in your crib?”
She steps out of the doorway, barefoot. “Kreshon, I told you what I need. Now if you can’t be that for me, you betta get another bitch who can deal with slackers. I want what I want and I always have a reason for it. The last thing I’m worrying about are the niggas in my house. Now do you have it or not?”
He frowns and the arm holding the bag hangs by his side. “Go put your shoes on. I’ll show you what you want to see.”
“I’ll be fine. I walked miles with no shoes for most of my life, I don’t have a problem with walking a few feet.”
She follows him out of the door and toward his car. He takes his time taking the keys out of his pocket, to activate the automatic trunk button. When it flies open, she walks hesitantly toward the back. Peering inside, she twinkles. Inside, hogtied with a tennis ball stuffed in his mouth is Shaggy, the man she wanted dead. The man whose disloyalty ruined her life and destroyed her bond with her sister. “I’m glad we finally meet again, Shaggy. Talk that shit now.”
****
Shaggy is in the basement face down on a mattress on the floor. The ropes on his wrists and ankles are tied with ropes connected to the opposite side of the wall. He’s face down, naked and gagged. Kreshon is standing on the opposite end of the basement with his hands on his waist. He doesn’t know what sadistic shit she has planned, but he’s scared about the outcome. Besides he fucked with Paco, Shaggy’s father, and didn’t want his son to go out like this. Now it was out of his hands. Ever since he met Jayden he’d done some crazy shit. Like stuffing Mr. Grover in his trunk, bringing Shaggy to her and even trying to kill her mother when he saw her walking down the street one day. Even though minutes later, she had his dick in her mouth, being with her was beginning to be too heavy.
“So you like to fuck people against their will, Shaggy?” She walks around him before bending down to remove his gag. “I asked do you like fucking people against their will?”
“Jayden, I swear to God I didn’t know she was your sister that night, man.” He lies. “And I didn’t rape her. She wanted to have sex with me.”
Jayden knew he
was lying immediately. If she knew nothing else about Madjesty, she knew she didn’t want a man to be anywhere near her. “So you telling me my sister wanted to fuck you?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I don’t know what she told you but it’s the truth. I don’t know why she would lie to you.”
“Gag this nigga.” She tells Kreshon who does it even though he’s freaked out.
Jayden walks to the edge of the room. She picks up a gas torch and a long grey iron fire poker from a table. She burns the tip of the poker until it turns orange. She parts his ass cheeks with one hand and rams it in and out of him until blood is everywhere. When she remembers what Madjesty did to her, she pushes it into him so many times, she pierces the wall of his anal cavity. Before long, he bleeds to death.
KALI
THE ‘A’
Kali sits outside in the backyard of a house they rented in Atlanta, with his fist nestled in the center of his palm. He’d been calling Jace for months and it bugged him that he had the audacity not to return his calls. It wasn’t like he’d been waiting the entire time for his call. Kali found Atlanta to be quite the money pit, especially for his career of choice…a hired killer. It didn’t take long for Kali’s name to ring bells and before long, he was known as the man you needed to call if you wanted to get rid of a problem. All of that was good and sweet, but he still had business back home.
When he hears the sliding door open behind him, he reaches for the hatchet until he sees Ann standing over top of him, with a glass of ice tea in her hand. She made it obvious on more than one occasion that although Kali was brokering the deal with Jace for her life, she wasn’t interested in going home without him.
“I made you this,” she extends her arms. “It has extra honey in it, the way you like it.” He looks at the cup and turns around. She takes a few sips to avoid waste and stays put. “Kali, what’s on your mind? You’re scaring me. These past couple of days you’ve been quieter than usual.”
“Ann, the last thing I’m worrying about or care about is scaring you.” He looks around the yard, frustrated. “I can’t believe this nigga Jace acting like I’m not good to my word. Don’t he know what I’d do to you, if he doesn’t come up with my money? And Shaggy? Haven’t I showed him the limits I’m willing to take to avoid being fucked with?”
Suddenly the tea seems bitter so she sits it on the table beside him. “Kali, I don’t want to get in your head because I know you don’t like it.”
“Ann, that’s your problem, you still think you know me. You could never get in my head. You think too highly of yourself.”
She clears her throat. “I didn’t mean it that way. It just that I pray every night that you won’t hurt me if Jace doesn’t come through with what you’re asking. I feel like you and I have a bond outside of Jace now, and I want to make that work. Think about it, you haven’t had to tie my hands or force me to do anything I don’t want to. I willingly turn myself over to you every night. And I willingly give you my heart.”
Kali wasn’t about love when it came to Antoinette. Yes he was feeling her, which shocked him more than he realized. And on most nights he could even tolerate her but the situation he had with Jace was about business, not pleasure. “Ann, I hear you, but all I can suggest is that you pray a little harder. Truth be told, I don’t know what I might do until he fucks up his end of the deal.” He removes his cell from his pocket and dials a number he hasn’t called in years. It rings two times before it’s finally answered.
“Kreshon, what’s up with you?” Kali says.
Kreshon laughs and finally responds, “What the fuck you doing calling me? We thought you were dead.”
“I’m not even gonna get into all of that because this will be quick. Me and your man had an arrangement and I’m getting the impression he’s not going to honor it.”
“What the fuck that got to do with me?”
He’s arrogant and he figures he’s drinking again. “Kreshon, where is Jace?” He says, irritated with his lack of seriousness. Since he’s so lackadaisical, Kali makes a note to see him too when he touches down.
Kreshon laughs. “Nigga, you mad funny.”
“I bet it won’t be funny when I murder his trophy wife.” He looks at Antoinette, who doesn’t feel as comfortable as she did in the past, that he won’t hurt her. “Because I guarantee you there won’t be shit to laugh about when I blow the features off her face.”
“Truthfully I don’t give a fuck what you do to his bitch. And to be honest, Jace wouldn’t either.”
He frowns. “And why is that?”
“Because you were spotted in Atlanta a long time ago, nigga. We knew where you were and we knew you were fucking her. When it got back to Jace he didn’t care anymore.” Kreshon feels dumb for being caught slipping until he says, “and even if you did kill her, he still wouldn’t care because we buried my man months ago.”
Kali is outside but he feels like he can feel the earth spinning. Sure he wanted the money Jace owed, that had always been one of his gripes. And yes he wanted Shaggy’s head on a stick for what he did to his only child. But a part of him, the part he would never admit out loud, loved the dude and didn’t want to see him fall. He felt the man deserved a soldier’s death, by his hands if nothing else. He would’ve placed a bullet in his head a long time ago if it was only about the money and called it quits. Jace was the first person who treated him with respect when they were kids, and he was the first nigga who gave him a break when he needed one.
“How he die?”
“He contracted HIV. We think he had it for a minute but we not sure. Any nigga who fucked with Harmony, has turned themselves in for a check up, I suggest you do the same.” He says as if he didn’t just participate in a new blowjob by her recently.
“I hope you’re taking your own advice. At one time you wanted to marry the bitch.”
He laughs. “I got myself checked homie and I’m good over here. My suggestion to you is that you worry about yourself.”
Kali isn’t worried. He was checked after he left her alone, when he went into a clinic under another name to find out why he had a strange pain in his arm. When his labs came back clean, he hadn’t fucked with her since. Nor did he have a desire too. That’s more that could be said for most dudes.
“You seen my daughter?”
“What am I…your best good girlfriend?” Kreshon responds.
Kali sighs in frustration as he presses the phone to his ear. “I’m asking you a fucking question, nigga. Either you answer it or you don’t.” He pauses. “And take caution with how you speak to me. Don’t let the state lines fool you, I’m still a killer.”
Silence.
“I didn’t see her but Jayden said she came by the house not too long ago. She don’t fuck with her too much anymore and I’m not sure why. Anyway, the last I heard, she was pregnant and had a kid.” Kali is rocked physically by the news. “I think one of Bernie’s friends stole it from her for crack. Since then I been seeing her roaming around D.C. looking like she could use a bath or too. I tried to pull up on her to give her some paper, but she ran the moment she saw my face.”
“So you saying she living on the streets?”
“Don’t know and it ain’t my problem.” He pauses. “Oh, and if you worried about Shaggy you don’t have to be anymore. The debt is settled. So there ain’t no reason for you to harbor any ill will.”
This piece of news makes him grin. “How can I be sure?”
“I saw to the shit myself.” He lies. Jayden laid down the murder game, not him. “And since I did, I need for you to leave Jayden alone.”
Behind his words Kali can feel his reason. “Let me find out you fell in love with a kid. Your man’s daughter at that. If he was alive I’m sure he’d have a problem with how you carrying shit.”
“Well thank God he’s not and I didn’t say I’m fucking her. I just want you to know that I’m fully vested in Jayden and everything she does. I won’t have anybody coming at her in a way that may cause h
er harm. You hear what I’m saying?”
Kali thinks the man is hilarious and decides to play on it. “That’s cool and everything, but there’s still the debt that Jace owed. Him being dead doesn’t mean that the debt is negated. Just that there’s a new debtor.”
Kreshon sighs in frustration. “You can’t be serious, man. That’s not her beef.”
“If I serve it to her, she gonna eat it.”
“Stay away from her, Kali. I’m warning you.”
Kreshon hangs up and Kali sits back in his seat. Kreshon popping them bubbles didn’t do anything to ruffle his feathers. He was a gangster. He and Kreshon both know who the real killer is. Since his man was dead, the only thing on his mind is Madjesty. He’s worried that she’s five seconds from being a statistic. And where is Harmony? How could she allow her daughter to live on the streets? What the fuck did he mean she looked like she needed a few baths? If there was one thing that could be said for Madjesty, she always kept herself fresh so something had to be wrong. And if Shaggy and Jace was dead, she had no other enemies.
There was nothing left to do, he had to get to D.C. and he had to do it quickly. His mind is heavy but he has a daughter and judging by what Kreshon told him, she needs him more than ever. In the beginning he didn’t want her, but now that she entered his life, part of what he did was for her, including trying to find Shaggy and murder him for raping her. Money came and went, but blood, when it was his, lasted forever.
“We gotta get out of here.” Kali says to Ann when she walks in front of him.
Since he used the word we, which meant he wasn’t going to kill her even though he learned that Jace was dead, she put fire to her ass and got things in order before he changed his mind and chopped off her head. She didn’t have the details so when they walk into the bedroom she asks, “What happened?” She stuffs her suitcase.
