by Noire
“C’mon now, Mink. I’ma need you to wake up, boo.”
Bunni was patting the side of my face real gentle-like, and for once she wasn’t yelling and screaming and waking me up bad.
“Mink.”
Move, dammit! I wanted to tell her. Couldn’t she see all my shopping bags? All my damn money? I started dragging the bags over to the door. There were so, so many of them but I had mad energy and I was nowhere near tired. When I got them all lined up at the door I grabbed two bags in each hand. I wrapped the twine handles around my wrists and twisted the doorknob and pulled. But it didn’t open. I pulled again and again and again. It was locked. I knew I coulda banged on the door or kicked that bad boy with my feet, but I was scared. What if somebody came to open it and tried to take some of my money?
“Mink!” A sharp pain shot through my earlobe. My eyes flew open and I looked dead at Bunni. That bitch had pinched me!
“Mink, please wake up,” she said softly. “Peaches is on the phone. He needs to talk to you.”
I sat up in the bed and rubbed my ear. Traces of my money dream and how good I had been feeling swirled in my head. I licked my lips and took the phone that Bunni was pushing toward me. Any other time she would be wildin’ and bouncing off the damn walls this early in the morning, and for a quick second I wondered why her eyes looked so sad.
“Hello?” I blinked a few times tryna make myself focus.
“Madame Mink?”
It was Peaches.
“Uh-huh.”
“I think you need to come home now, baby.”
“Wh-wh-what?” I frowned and my eyes searched Bunni’s. She sat down on the edge of my bed and put her hand on my arm. “Why, wassup?” I swallowed hard. “Don’t tell me that fool Punchie is still trippin. And oh lordy. Please don’t tell me nothing about Gutta! I thought you said that fool was over me and on to the next bitch?”
“It’s your mama,” Peaches said quietly. “The nursing home called me. They think she had a stroke. The ambulance just took her to the hospital. I’m on my way up there, Mink, but it’s looking kinda bad and they think you need to be there too.” His voice broke. “I’m sorry, sweetie, but they don’t think she’s gonna make it.”
“I’m coming,” I whispered as I pushed Bunni out the way and swung my legs over the bed. Tears rushed to my eyes as I ran over to the closet to get my gear. “Please. Tell mama to hold on ’til I get there, Peaches. Please. I’m coming.”
CHAPTER 28
It was a hurting-ass feeling when your lies came back to haunt you.
I had been told everybody in Texas that my mother was dead and gone, so there was no way I could ’fess up and explain why I needed to get back to New York so fast right now.
So, I lied again.
“It’s my boss at work,” I told everybody as the servants brought me and Bunni’s bags to the front door. “She was closing the shop up last night when somebody pushed her back inside and robbed her. She got shot and the doctors don’t know if she’s gonna make it.”
It was the fastest lie I could think of and it had actually happened to somebody I knew so the details were easy to cough up. But to my surprise, coughing up some money had been pretty easy too. As soon as I hung up from Peaches I had hit Uncle Suge on speed dial. He was at the house before I could finish packing my gear, and he tore me off ten g’s in cash.
“I’ve got an emergency and I need some money so I can get to New York. I’ll pay you back,” I had told him, hoping like hell I wasn’t gonna have to use his money to pay for no funeral. Mama didn’t have no life insurance and I didn’t know what I was gonna do if she died. I knew of people who had laid up frozen in the morgue for months waiting for their people to come up with some burial cash, and I couldn’t even think about nothing like that happening to my mama.
Uncle Suge was a down nigga for me. He came running and dug in his pocket stash with no questions asked. “Don’t worry about the money. Just get home and take care of business and get back down here as soon as you can. I can handle everything while you’re gone, but I’m gonna need you to sign this proxy form.”
“What’s that?” I asked, already scribbling my name.
“It’s a document that gives me the right to submit your absentee vote to the board so it can still be counted. I’m gonna take it to my lawyer and have him notarize it. We only have two days left before they meet, and I doubt if you’ll make it back in time.”
I knew damn well I wasn’t gonna make it back in time. Yeah, Barron had signed those papers so the board could hold the meeting on schedule and I would get to vote, but that wasn’t gonna do shit to help my DNA test results come back saying what I needed them to say. Matter fact, when shit popped off ugly and the results finally did come in I wasn’t gonna be coming back to Texas at all. Wouldn’t be no reason to. Dy-Nasty would get the whole gwap, which was probably hers to have anyway. But of course I didn’t say none of that. As much as I was feeling Uncle Suge, and as good as he loved on me, I still wasn’t tryna tell him all my bizz. Yeah, he knew some things about me, but there was a whole lot more that he didn’t know too.
Selah rushed over and hugged me before I left. It was good to see her looking all concerned about my feelings again. “Oh, baby. I’m so sorry to hear about your boss. Keep in touch with us, okay? We’ll be praying for her to pull through.”
Even Barron was decent enough to look like he had a little bit of sympathy for me. At least until he opened his stupid-ass mouth. “What’s your boss’s name and what hospital is she in?” Mr. Nosy Ass with the shaved-off eyebrows wanted to know. “I’ll send her a bouquet of flowers.”
“She’s in intensive care,” I snapped as I headed out the door and toward the limo. “She can’t get no flowers in there!” I wasn’t worried about him finding out that I was lying. There was so much random violence in New York City that somebody, somehow, somewhere, in some fucked-up borough, had gotten robbed and shot last night.
The whole family followed us outside and Dane put his arms around me. He squeezed me and whispered in my ear, “The board votes the day after tomorrow. What the hell are we gonna do?”
“Uncle Suge’s got it covered,” I whispered back. “I signed a proxy.”
Fallon and Jock both came over to hug me. Jock was frontin’ me off a lil bit ’cause he still had the ass with me for busting him out about that dead white girl, but for some reason Fallon held on to me real tight. “I hope your boss pulls through okay, Mink. I can’t wait until you and Bunni come back.”
The only one who was acting slick and funky was DyNasty. After all the dirt we had gotten down on together there was something crafty about the look in her eye that told me she was operating in full-blown scheme mode. I could already feel the knives coming up outta her pockets and sliding deep into my back, and I just knew that Philly trick was gonna double-cross me as soon as I left. But so what? My mama was dying. Wasn’t no amount of money gonna make me turn my back on Mama. I was going back to New York. I had to go.
I got in the front seat of Suge’s truck and Bunni got in the back. Selah stood up on the running board, then leaned into the open window and kissed me good-bye. I felt some kinda way because the last time I left Texas she had broken her neck to ride with me to the airport. She had held on to me and cried like a baby when we got to the departure terminal, and Bunni almost had to drag my ass outta the whip so we didn’t miss our flight.
But this time? Not so much. She had Dy-Nasty to keep her company so I guess all I was good for was a lil kiss and a wave. Selah was still waving when we started pulling off. DyNasty took her by the arm and started turning her toward the house. That scandalous-ass guttersnipe had the nerve to bust on me over her shoulder and flash me a real evil smirk. And then with her free hand dangling at her side where Selah couldn’t see it, she gave me the finger down low and mouthed, Fuck you, bitch!
We were parked outside the departure terminal at DFW International Airport and Bunni had gone inside to get us checked in. Uncle
Suge had come around and opened my door, but instead of getting out I swung my legs around and scooted forward until he was sandwiched between my thighs.
“I’m sorry about your boss getting shot,” he said and pulled me closer to him. “Do what you gotta do in New York and then come on back, okay?”
It’s my mama! I wanted to scream. But instead I sighed and swallowed hard. I didn’t know about all that coming back shit. I knew once those DNA results came in there wouldn’t be no reason for me to come back to Texas, and I wouldn’t be welcome at the mansion no more anyway. The thought of that kinda hurt me and I snuggled up deeper in Suge’s arms. I pressed my face down in his neck and inhaled his strong, sexy scent. Probably for the last time.
“C’mon, lemme walk you inside. I’ll be right here when you get back,” he said gently.
I knew I might not never see him again, but even still there was no way in hell I could tell him the truth about who I really was, why I had come to Texas, or why I now had to leave. Instead, I raised my head and found his lips. We tongued each other down and I could tell this wasn’t the same kinda kiss he gave me when we was just having fun. This was something different and I liked it.
I broke away first.
“I’ll call you when I get there, okay?” I lied.
He lifted my chin with two fingers, then pressed his forehead to mine and kissed my lips again. “You can call me anytime you need me, baby. Day or night. And it don’t matter what you need neither. Whatever it is, I got you. All you gotta do is say the word.”
I stared at him. He was so damn strong. So damn fine and sexy. I had never had no man talk to me this way before. I wasn’t tryna make Suge out to be no big-ass liar, but I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing him say.
“For real? Are you serious?” I stared in his eyes and hoped.
He touched his hand to his big, strong chest.
“I’m feeling you, Mink. Right in here.”
I nodded and reached for his other hand in mine. It was big and rough. A grown-man’s hand, and I pressed it to the spot right above my breasts. “I’m feeling you too, Suge,” I admitted shyly. “Right here.”
Suge left his truck parked at the curb and we walked inside the terminal together holding hands. I felt real good walking next to a dude like him. Like I was safe and I didn’t have to work so hard plotting, scheming, or hustling no more. Like he had my back and I would always be taken care of as long as he was around. I looked up at him and we both grinned. I knew me and Suge wasn’t family and we never would be, but we were damn sure more than friends.
We landed in New York and me and Bunni left the airport and took a taxi straight to the hospital. Most of my family had already gathered around by the time I got there and it looked like they was having a LaRue family reunion outside in the hallway. All them yellow faces and hazel eyes were looking just like mine.
I couldn’t stand they asses. All my aunts and cousins were up there running off at the mouth, and so was my grandmother, my father’s scandalous-ass mammy. Everybody tried to hug all on me like they cared about me and shit. I fake-kissed my grandmother and gave her trifling ass her proper respect, but I brushed the rest of them phony-ass LaRues off and went straight to Mama’s bedside.
She was in intensive care, and they had her hooked up to mad stuff. She had all kinds of tubes running in her mouth, up her nose, and an IV was stuck in both her arms.
Mama looked real bad. So much had changed about her since the last time I’d seen her. Her lips were blue and twisted. They were clenched extra tight around the tubes in her mouth. The rest of her body looked funny too. She was even more stiff and curled up than before, and her eyes had sunk deep in her face and the color of her skin just wasn’t right.
“Mama.” I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out loud. It looked like the human part of Mama was dead and the machines was doing all the living for her. There was so much stuff hooked up and going in and out of her body that I didn’t know where to touch her. I bent over and pressed my lips to her forehead. “Mama. It’s Mink. I’m here now, Mama. I’m right here.”
“Well where in the world was you at all this time, baby?”
I whirled around. My grandmother and Aunt Bibby had followed me inside Mama’s room. Granny was old but still a fine-ass peach. She had big titties and a plump, wide booty and real soft hair that had gotten thin and gone completely gray. Looking at her I could see exactly how I was gonna look when I got old.
“I was down in Texas, Granny,” I answered her. “Working.” And then I busted on Aunt Bibby so I could change the subject. “I thought only two people was allowed in here at one time?”
She shrugged. “It don’t matter, Mink. Two people, five, or ten. It just don’t matter no more, baby.”
I turned back to Mama. I was shocked to see that her eyes was open, and I could tell right away that she recognized me.
I got amped. “Mama! Can you hear me, Mama? It’s Mink. I’m here now, Mama. Can you hear me?”
I swear to God I saw her nod.
Yep, Mama had nodded her head. It was just a little nod, but she did it. I saw it.
And then I saw something else. Mama’s mouth was moving. Not like she was tryna untwist it or like she was messing with the tubes or nothing, but like she was tryna say something. Like she was tryna say something to me.
“Shhhlll . . . Shhhlll . . . Shhhlll . . .”
Mama’s face was getting red. She was squinting her eyes like she was concentrating, and her crooked little hands was reaching out toward me.
“What’s that, Mama? What you tryna say?” I held my hair out the way and leaned over until my ear was damn near in her mouth. “Try again, Mama. Say it again so I can hear you!”
“Shhhlll . . . Shhhlll . . . Shhhlll . . .”
It was like she was whistling around that big-ass tube they had in her mouth. I needed them to take it out. I needed them to take it out so I could catch what Mama was tryna say!
A nurse had come in the room. She looked like she was about to tell one of us to get out, but I grabbed her shoulders and turned her toward my mama.
“Can you please take them tubes outta my mother’s mouth? She’s tryna talk to me. Please! She’s got something to tell me. Take them tubes outta her mouth so I can hear her!”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. We’d need a doctor’s order before we could do that.”
“Well then get a damn doctor up in here!” I shrieked as Mama reached out weakly with her trembling, crooked hands. “Where’s her goddamn doctor?”
“Someone is on the way. He should be here shortly.”
I turned back to Mama. Her face was even redder and now her eyes were locked dead on mine. There was so much damn pain in those eyes of hers that it slammed into my gut. Her hands rose about four inches off the bed. I grabbed them and squeezed them as she held me with her eyes and shhhllll’d all around that tube.
“Mamaaaa . . .” I cried. “Mamaaaa . . .”
And then it was over.
Mama’s hands went limp in mine and the fire in her eyes went totally out. Her body was completely still, and I stood there looking at her in shock and watching all the color slowly drain outta her face.
“Mama!” I screamed. I shook her arms and bent over and pressed my face into her breasts. “Mama! Don’t die. Please don’t die!”
“Jude is gone, baby,” my grandmother said. “She’s gone to glory.”
“Nooooo!” I cried. I was hurt and I was mad and all I could think to do was fight somebody! I was about to wild out! Straight clean shit up! The only thing that stopped me from going bonkers was my Aunt Bibby. She was crying too. She wrapped her strong, manly arms around me and rocked me gently, like I was a little baby.
“It’s okay, Mink.” She kissed my forehead and tried to soothe me as tears ran from both our eyes. “You gonna be okay, baby girl.”
“But Mama was tryna tell me something, Aunt Bibby!” I cried and moaned. “It was her last breath, and she was tryna
tell me something!”
Outta the blue, my aunt blacked straight the hell out.
“She was probably tryna tell you the goddamn truth!” Aunt Bibby turned my shoulders loose and grabbed my wrists and shook the shit outta me. “The truth about your life, dammit! Open up your eyes, Mink and stop acting so damn stupid! God knows I loved me some Jude, but that woman was a big-ass liar! Why you think she drove her car into that goddamn river with you in it? Huh? Not even the lowest, raggediest, black-hearted dog-ass mama does no crazy shit like that! Hell nah, Jude didn’t have no right to do half the low-down shit she did, and what her ass shoulda told you before she clocked out was the goddamn truth!”
I stared at my aunt through a haze of confused tears. And then slowly, I glanced down at my mother’s still body. Jude Jackson. Even in death she was beautiful. I looked over at my ol’ raggedy piece of grandmother and she closed her eyes and nodded, yes.
I couldn’t believe it! These bitches was hatin’! My mother’s spirit had just flown free, and these trifling-ass Bad News LaRues was still hatin’!
I turned back to Aunt Bibby with fire shooting outta my eyes. By all rights I shoulda clocked this bald-headed bitch for calling my mama a liar and talking bad about the dead, but something inside me was frozen, and instead I asked her quietly, “What you mean Mama shoulda told me the truth? What’s the truth, Aunt Bibby? What the hell is the truth?”
Aunt Bibby shook her head and wiped at the tears in her eyes. “I don’t know everything, Mink,” she said, still sniffling. “Hell, I don’t think we’ll ever know everything about all the crooked little stunts Jude pulled over the years. But one thing I do know for sure is that there were two of y’all.”
“What?”
Aunt Bibby took a deep breath and let it all out.
“You heard me. There was two of y’all. Somewhere out there you got yourself a sister, Mink, ’cause you was a twin.”
