by Yoshe
Shamari smiled as he listened to her tell his neighbor off with no thought to it. He couldn’t wait until she got to his cell so that he could get a good look at her. She sounded like she wasn’t too much older than him.
Shamari heard the Folger keys unlocking the slot to his cell. He looked up and was mesmerized by the pretty CO standing in front of his cell. He was so stuck that he forgot to hand her the green plastic mug in his hand.
“Hello. If you want juice, you gonna have to give me your cup,” she said.
Shamari finally snapped out his daydream and handed her the cup. When she took it from his grasp, her gloved hand touched his and he felt his body shudder.
“So, you’re Shamari Wallace. The guy from visits, huh?” she asked. Shamari shook his head. “I’m sorry to hear about your baby mama. I could understand why you spazzed out like that.”
Shamari smiled. “Word?” he asked. He was glad somebody understood how he was feeling. He had been crying ever since he found out.
“Yeah, word. Well, I don’t know if you know it or not but the Warden has you on suicide watch. Not that you gonna do any harm to yourself, it’s just procedure ’cause of your situation and all.” She looked around his cell and shook her head. “Okay, your cell is in order, that’s how it’s supposed to be. Anyway, go ahead and eat and I’ll be back to talk to you later, okay?”
Shamari watched as Jones walked away, with her ponytail swaying from side to side. Even for the environment she worked in, Jones seemed to hold it together amidst the yelling and screaming. After eating his dinner, Shamari managed to lie down on the thin mattress and continue to grieve the mother of his son.
Chapter 30
The following week, Brandi entered the Woodward Funeral Home on Troy Avenue. There was a big turnout for Amber’s wake and Brandi felt out of place walking inside alone. She was saddened that Shamari couldn’t be there. She stood in the middle of the funeral home looking for a familiar face but didn’t see one. She finally mustered up the strength to walk in and view the body.
When Brandi finally walked up to the front, she greeted Amber’s mother. Amber’s sister, Ashlee, and her other siblings, were crying silently. She walked over and hugged Mrs. Johnson. They stayed in that position for a minute, as the siblings looked on. Brandi greeted everyone with a hug, and after viewing Amber’s body, her mother invited Brandi to come sit next to her. It was a sad occasion watching young teenage girls, apparently friends of the deceased, run out of the room after seeing Amber in the cream-colored casket. Brandi felt a lump in her throat but managed to sit through the service, composed and serene.
After the service was over, Brandi spoke with the family. She had assisted the Johnsons with the cost of Amber’s funeral and they were more than grateful.
“Miss Carol, if you need anything, you call me. I’ll be by to pick up the baby this weekend,” Brandi said.
“Brandi, we are fine! You have been more than good to us ever since the day we met, child. You’re like family. In fact, you are family. We are the grandmothers of a little baby boy that needs us.”
Brandi smiled. “You’re right, Carol, you’re right. I’m gonna come and get the baby . . . wait I was so busy running around; I never even thought to ask my grandchild’s name. What did you all name him?”
Miss Johnson chuckled. “Now, child, you know better than to even ask me that question. His name is Shamari Maleek Johnson, but we call him Shamari, of course.”
Tears came to Brandi’s eyes and she hugged Mrs. Johnson tightly. “Oh, thank you, Carol! My son is going to be so happy!”
“Well, you just tell Shamari Sr. to make sure he gets home in one piece. He and his son need each other.”
Brandi said her good-byes and walked toward the exit of the funeral home. Standing there, to her surprise, was Sean Daniels, with flowers and a card in his hands.
“I wanted to pay my respects too,” he stated. Sean handed her the flowers. “I hope you don’t mind.”
Brandi took the items from his grasp. “No, Sean. I don’t mind. After all, it is a wake.”
Sean held his head down. “May I walk you to your car?” She agreed. They walked to Brandi’s Lexus and Sean slid into the passenger seat.
“I miss you, Brandi and I want to apologize for lettin’ this woman manipulate me. I don’t wanna lose you as a friend.”
Brandi looked straight ahead. “Well, Sean, that’s up to you. I mean, it’s pretty hard to get rid of someone that you’re physically involved with. That woman, Cruz, is going to be a pain until she gets what she wants and what she wants is you.”
Sean leaned his head back on the leather headrest. “Brandi, I can’t shake this chick! She’s at work with me all day and then she pops up at my house sometimes and sits outside. I should kick my own ass for fuckin’ with her!”
Brandi shook her head. “The sad part is a lot of you men seem to like mentally unstable women. You like the drama, the excitement. See, a woman like me is too predictable, but don’t get me wrong, I’ve been there. I was a drama queen for your ass! That’s how I know about women like Cruz. She’s a jealous, conniving sister whose out for your blood and any woman she feels that you’re interested in. I know I’m definitely on top of her list.”
“Nah, she’s not gonna—”
Brandi cut him off. “Sean, I want you to knock it off! You see, right there is what I’m talking about. You’re underestimating this woman. Women have all kinds of tricks up our sleeve, and you need to remember that we work on emotions. We will sit there and stir up a concoction on how we could get a motherfucker back, you know, a bitches’ brew! We are always cooking up some scheme. Don’t sleep!”
“Brandi, I really like you and I can’t stop thinkin’ about you. Look at all the shit I’ve been through. I even got assaulted by your son, and I still wanna be with you!”
“Well, Sean, if you wanna be with me, take care of your business. I have no room for any of that bullshit in my life. I’m a thirty-five-year-old single parent of an incarcerated male, who is the teenage father of my motherless grandchild. So what room do I have in my life for mess? None. So if you got some, don’t bring it this way.”
Sean looked at Brandi, taking his finger to sweep the hair out of her eyes. “I’m gonna clean all of this up, and after that, I’m comin’ for you. I don’t care who you’re with!”
Sean kissed Brandi on the forehead and got out of her car. He watched her pull out of the parking lot and fly down the street. He looked at the time, climbed into his truck, and headed home.
The next morning, Brandi walked toward her car, which was parked in the garage directly across the street from her building. She had her Coach briefcase in one hand and a Starbucks coffee mug in the other. She was pressed for time but was unable to walk quickly in her three-inch pumps. As Brandi approached her vehicle, she was surprised to see Yadi standing near the driver’s side. Startled, Brandi dropped her metal coffee mug and watched as it rolled down the sloped driveway in the garage.
“Well, well, well! If it isn’t Miss Brandi Wallace. So, you’re off to work this mornin’, huh?” she said.
Brandi was furious. She didn’t know whether to kick Yadi’s ass or be afraid. “Why are you standing by my car? Why are you even fucking here?” she yelled.
“I’m here to reclaim my spot!” Yadi explained, leaning on the hood of Brandi’s Lexus. “I’m here to tell you to stay away from my man!”
“Girl, please! Who is your man? Because if you’re talking about Sean Daniels, I have absolutely no interest in him being with me! So I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about!” Brandi replied, hoping she could get through to Yadi. “So if you here for him, you can leave. He’s not here!”
“Yeah, that’s what I wanna hear. Stay the fuck away from him. I fuck with him now and it’s final. Don’t need common street trash like yourself to interfere with our relationship. You wouldn’t want to put his job on the line by continuin’ to deal with him, now would you?”
; Brandi brushed off the verbal jab from Yadi and smiled. She walked up to Yadi, resisting the urge to punch her dead in the mouth, until she remembered that Yadi was a correction officer. She didn’t want to be arrested.
“Trash? If I’m not mistaken, you’re the bitch that’s standing in front of my car at 6:30 in the morning talking about some man that doesn’t belong to you. Now which one of us is a trashy bitch?”
“Mmm,” Yadi began, looking at Brandi from head to toe, in her business suit. “So proper, such a fuckin’ lady! You know what? I see why Sean would like you, but unfortunately for you, he loves me and you’re a distraction, so leave us alone!”
“Oh, leave you two alone? First of all, I don’t bother him. He loves when I call, and as for you, you’re the furthest thing from my mind. So if Sean is your man, like you think he is, tell him to stop calling me and see if he listens to you! Now excuse yourself so I can go to work!”
Yadi slowly moved away from Brandi’s car, slightly brushing by the woman. Yadi didn’t know much about Brandi, because if she did, provoking a fight with her would have been the last thing she would have wanted to do. The old Brandi would have emerged and scraped Yadi’s face against the concrete.
Yadi stood nearby as Brandi opened her car door, determined to get the last word. She knew that Brandi really liked Sean and she wanted to make sure that she was done with the handsome officer finally.
“Well, I’m pregnant with Sean’s baby!” Yadi lied. “So you can do what you wanna do. This is Sean’s first child, so you know I’m gettin’ the queen treatment from him!”
Brandi laughed loudly. “Damn, you are the most pathetic bitch I have ever encountered! You just won’t stop at nothing, will you? My son is almost twenty years old and look at me, do I need to have another baby? I have too much going on to be tied down with a crying-ass baby bouncing on these hips! So, go right ahead, if you want to. You’ll be sitting at home with your titty in your baby’s mouth every night while me and your baby daddy’ll be traveling the world together!”
Yadi pushed her hair out of her face. “You sorry bitch!” Yadi yelled. “I will whip your ass!”
Brandi posted up and stared Yadi down. Brandi was so close to her that she could feel Yadi’s breath on her face.
“Bitch, do you know who you’re fuckin’ with?” Brandi asked, pointing her finger in Yadi’s face. Yadi didn’t know that there was another side to Brandi’s professionalism.
“I had heat for hoes like you back in the days! You better do your fuckin’ homework and ask about me. I’m pretty sure some of them fuckin’ crooks right in the jail you work in know how I used to get down back in the day! So if you gonna come at me, you better come at me the right way, you scandalous bitch, or else I will split your fuckin’ wig! Now get the fuck outta my way and don’t ever let me see your ass around here no more!” Brandi put on her Chanel shades, got into her car and pulled off, leaving Yadi standing there to sulk alone.
Yadi stomped her feet and marched down the steps in the garage. She just had to get Brandi back; she had to win. As Yadi started her car up, she suddenly had an idea. She remembered that Brandi’s son, Shamari, was in the jail and smiled as she came up with a plan to make Shamari pay for the comments his mother had just made.
Chapter 31
Later on that evening, Brandi came home from work an emotional wreck. Her day went well although the runin with Yadi still had her shaken up. She didn’t understand what was going on and why was she at the center of the controversy between Sean and Yadi. Sean wasn’t even her man, although she wouldn’t have minded them working on something.
The situation with Yadi was starting to turn Brandi off every time she thought about it. It was like Yadi was trying to awaken the dead, with the dead being the old Brandi. The old Brandi would have demolished Yadi and her pretty face without a thought. It was disheartening to Brandi to work so hard at being the person she was today only to be sucked back into past behavior by some possessive lunatic of a woman named Yadira Cruz.
It was 1990 and Brandi was on Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York, checking on a few of her workers. It was a cold, winter night and Brandi wrapped her mink jacket around her body, practically running to her red BMW so that she could blast her heat. Suddenly, Nikki stepped out of a building in front of her.
“You need ta step off, Brandi!” the woman shouted. “My name is Nikki and Maleek is my man and I’m tired of you gettin’ in our way!”
Brandi was confused because she had never seen or heard of a Nikki until that moment. She was taken by surprise when the woman approached her.
“Excuse me?” Brandi exclaimed. “Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m Nikki! I know you know me! I know all about you and your son, Shamari. I been in your house and everything with your red leather sofa and your king-sized bed! Yeah, I know you real good!”
Brandi remained composed. Maleek was definitely a womanizer but women in their home was too much to bear. She was pissed but she wasn’t going to give Nikki the satisfaction of knowing how much.
“Okay and . . . What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to disappear, go away, go find another man ’cause Maleek is mine. Remember all the nights he told you he was with his niggas? Well, he was with me!”
Brandi laughed. “Well, if you are so important ta him, why do he have to lie to me? Are you sure that you’re his girl or is it his turn?”
“What are you sayin, bitch? You sayin’ that I’m his ho? No, baby, you’re his ho with that monkey-lookin’ baby of yours!”
Brandi stopped. She was going to let the bitch off until she disrespected her son. Shamari was an innocent toddler who had nothing to do with his father’s escapades.
“What the fuck did you just say?” Brandi asked, with her hands in the pocket of her mink jacket.
Nikki put her hands on her hips. “I said, you’re his ho with that monkey-lookin’baby! I didn’t stutter!”
Before she knew it, Brandi pulled out her chrome .22 pistol and shot Nikki in the thigh. The young woman fell to the sidewalk, screaming in pain. Brandi’s workers ran around the corner to see what had happened. They put their hands over their mouths when they saw Brandi standing over Nikki. Maleek’s jump-off was lying on the ground with blood oozing from a gunshot wound. One of the workers ran over to Brandi and snatched the gun out of her hand. The others hustled Brandi to her Benz as quickly as they could, but not before Brandi kicked the wounded Nikki in the face.
“Go tell that, bitch, and I’m gonna come back and kill you! Talkin’ about my baby! You must be out your mind!” Brandi shouted.
After that incident, Brandi never saw Nikki again. She was rumored to have moved out of the neighborhood and down to Georgia, never showing her face in East New York. Maleek never said anything about it and neither did Brandi. She made her point when she plugged that bitch, Nikki, in the thigh. She was lucky that Brandi didn’t kill her ass.
Careful not to disclose her past to anyone, Brandi never really got close with too many men anyway. After Maleek’s death, she chose to dedicate all of her time and energy to making a productive living situation for her and her only child. Now that she was much older and wiser, Brandi felt that she was being tested. Could she suppress her inner gangstress and let the confrontation with Yadi slide? That was yet to be confirmed.
She knew that Sean was a good catch and she needed someone she could enjoy being with without all the drama. Sean was young, had a good career, and he seemed extremely comfortable with her. He was the antidote that she needed. She normally threatened most men and Brandi couldn’t understand why. The phone interrupted her thoughts and Sean’s deep voice came through the phone after she answered it.
“Hello, miss. How are you?” he greeted her warmly.
“Hello, Mr. Daniels,” Brandi responded in a curt tone.
“Whoa, you sound a little short. What’s the matter now?”
“I got an early morning visit from your friend.”
“What friend?” Sean asked cluelessly.
“Sean, don’t play with me!” she replied. “Yadira Cruz, that’s who!”
Sean sighed and wiped his face. “Where did you see her?”
“Standing near my car in my garage parking space! What is wrong with her?”
“Do you wanna make a complaint, Brandi? You can, you know!”
“I know but I don’t want to drag you into this!”
“Brandi, don’t worry about me. I’m a big boy. I can handle what comes my way.”
Brandi hesitated. She didn’t want to tell Sean that she still lived by the code of the streets. She didn’t want to involve the police; she would rather handle it herself before she got the cops involved.
“No, no. I’m just gonna watch my back. I don’t want that woman to do anything stupid. I would hate to have to whip her ass!”
Sean suppressed his laughter, as he thought back to what Born told him about Brandi. He was hoping that Brandi would save him the trouble and release her street side on Yadi. She deserved every bit of the ass whipping that Brandi would give her. He didn’t tell Brandi that Yadi popped up at his house that morning as well. It would only complicate matters.
“Look, Sean, could I call you back? I just walked in the house from work and I wanted to get settled.”
“Are you really gonna call me back, Brandi?” he pleaded.
“Of course, Sean, I’m gonna call you back,” Brandi replied, then ended the call.
Brandi sat on the bed for a few more moments. The whole situation was starting to wear on her and she didn’t like it one bit. It was like history repeating itself all over again only this time it wasn’t about no man. It was about maintaining her dignity and she was about to pass that test with flying colors.
The day after the brief encounter with Brandi, Yadi was able to return to her co-op apartment. She successfully had Devin moved out, with the assistance of the co-op board. Yadi was equally relieved when she discovered that Devin had to move back in with his mother. It served him right for trying to screw her over. She watched as the moving men put all of her furniture and the rest of her household items back in their rightful places.
