Savion slapped his brother across his knee. “Take my advice, big bro, beg! Call Jamaica and beg!”
“You think it’s worth it?” Tameer asked.
“Do I think it’s worth it?” Savion smiled, and tilted his head to the side. “Do you?”
Tameer nodded slowly. “Well, yeah…I mean, I guess. Of course!”
“Well, then, call her and beg,” Savion told him again. “Tell her you’re sorry, tell her you messed up, tell her you didn’t mean it and that it’ll never happen again.”
Tameer lifted an eyebrow and smiled. “I take it you’ve done this before?”
Savion produced a small, black, vinyl-covered notebook. “I call this the Savion Harris book of apologies. I got a thousand of them in here.”
Tameer laughed. It was his first time laughing since the previous day. “I guess you’re right, I’ll call.”
“Good!” Savion rose from his brother’s bed. “I’ll see you tomorrow, bro.”
“All right,” Tameer told him, as they clasped hands. “Later.”
“Later.”
“He’s an ogre, a barbarian, a…a…a pig!” Jamaica’s steps were rapid, quick, determined. She paced the floor of the motel room with a vengeance. “I mean, whoever heard of a fishing date! Fish are slimy, oily, polluted, smelly creatures! The nerve of him!”
Lying across Jamaica’s double bed, LaChina crossed her gorgeous mocha legs. “You’re absolutely right, Jai. The nerve of him!”
“Can you believe him?” Jamaica asked. She took another long swig from her glass of Courvoisier.
“The nerve of him!” added Jemia, who had supplied the liquor for tonight’s gathering. She raised her glass into the air. “All men are dogs!”
“Here, here!” concurred LaChina.
“Or frogs!” added Arianna, who was Jemia’s cousin on her father’s side.
All of them quickly broke into an alcohol-induced giggle.
“Frogs?” Jemia lifted an inquisitive eyebrow.
“Frogs!” LaChina nodded.
Jamaica sat her glass down on the nightstand and turned toward LaChina. “How can they be frogs?”
LaChina took another sip from her glass. “Girl, I don’t know. Remember Chris?”
“Chris?” Jamaica asked.
“The stockbroker,” LaChina slurred.
“Oh yeah, lil’ hoppy!” Jamaica burst into an alcoholic laugh, this time covering her face.
Laughing, LaChina held up her pinkie and began wiggling it. “We should have nicknamed his ass Lil’ Tadpole!”
All of the girls broke into uncontrollable laughter.
“Ooooh, girl!” Jemia shouted. “Not one of them!”
For the second time in twenty minutes, Tameer lifted his cordless phone to his ear. After listening to the dial tone for several seconds, he pressed the power button, turning his telephone off. Like before, he thought it useless. Slowly, the phone fell back down to his side, and again he found himself staring at the ceiling.
“I mean, I could have been in St. Moritz showing off my new Russian sable, or at Beaver Creek, skiing in my latest DKNY ski suit,” Jamaica whined as she paced the floor of the motel room. “I…I could have been in Bora Bora where it’s warm, drinking Chateau Margaux, or at the Vong in Hong Kong eating pastries. You know how Chin loves to fix crepes especially for me. I could have been in Paris, at the Hotel De Crillion, stuffing myself with canales from Bordeaux, or drinking Moet and Chandon at the Golden Door, while Romare gives me the best massage in the history of Western civilization.
“But no! I’m here in this God-forsaken place eating grease sticks and drinking hard liquor from a plastic cup! I’m here at this place, riding in multicolored, plastic, Korean death traps, and it’s all because of you!” Jamaica spun and pointed at LaChina.
LaChina waved her hands in a calming motion. “Jai, it’s okay.”
“It’s not okay!” Jamaica shouted. She began sobbing. “I have a Ferrari Enzo, a Bentley Continental GT, and an Aston Martin DB 9. I don’t have to ride in a Hyundai, and hold jumper thingys, and wait outside of the car while my dates pop clutches!”
Jamaica’s tiny hands rose, and she began walking toward LaChina. Her voice grew rough and deep. “I’m going to strangle you.”
Tameer kicked his covers off, and tossed and turned in his bed for several minutes before finally sitting up. He knew why he could not fall asleep, as his first glance was toward the telephone. His fist pumped the air.
“Damn, I screwed up!” he said to no one in particular. “I had her, and I messed up! I had the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, and I treated her like crap. What the hell is wrong with me!”
He lay back down, knowing that sleep would not come easy.
“I hate you!” Jamaica screamed.
LaChina rubbed her throat. It was still sore from Jamaica’s strangle-hold. “Jai, murder is a felony!”
“I hate him!” Jamaica shouted. She stomped her foot hard against the floor.
“Then call him,” LaChina suggested.
“Why? I hate him!”
“Then tell him,” LaChina replied.
Jamaica sat down on the bed next to a snoring Arianna.
“I will not call him.” Jamaica pouted. “He’s a nobody. Besides, he knows where I am.”
“Then go to sleep!” LaChina said forcefully.
Jamaica folded her arms and pouted. “I can’t. I’m not sleepy.”
“I am, and you’re not keeping me up.” LaChina rolled over to emphasize her point.
Jamaica nudged her. “It’s your fault.”
“Is not,” LaChina told her.
“Is too.”
“We’ll discuss it tomorrow.” LaChina yawned.
“We can’t discuss it tomorrow, because tomorrow we’ll be shopping,” Jamaica retorted.
“I bet I can guess at which mall,” LaChina taunted.
“Hah!” Jamaica said excitedly. “You’re wrong! I’m not going anywhere near him, or that establishment.”
“We’ll see.”
“What?” Jamaica asked. “You don’t believe me?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“It’s the way you didn’t say anything.”
“Go to sleep, Jai.”
“I can’t.”
“Good night, Jai.”
Jamaica exhaled loudly, and lay back onto a narrow spot on the bed. “Good night, China,” she said out loud. Good night, Tameer, she didn’t.
Tameer pressed the power button on his cordless phone, again cutting it off. Slowly, he lay back in his bed with his thoughts on another part of the city.
“Good night, Jai,” he said. It was a whisper.
Chapter Eleven
“I thought you said that we were not coming anywhere near this mall,” LaChina said, while trying to keep pace with Jamaica’s rapid stride.
“Tameer doesn’t own this mall. He’s just a lowly employee at one of the many and varied stores throughout this establishment,” Jamaica replied. She raised her arms into the air and spun around freely, before stopping face-to-face with LaChina. “And, if he bothers me, I’ll have him thrown out. Besides, I’m not going anywhere near his store.”
LaChina folded her arms and exhaled forcibly.
Jamaica turned toward her friend. “What?”
LaChina shook her head. “I didn’t say anything.”
“I know, but it’s the way you didn’t say anything.”
“Jai, girl, you are mental.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
“I came to this mall to shop,” Jamaica told her. “What’s mental about that?”
LaChina extended her palm into Jamaica’s face. “Girl, talk to the hand.”
“I did!” Jamaica stomped. “I did come here to shop!”
“Okay, Jai, what do you want to buy from this mall that you couldn’t have bought any number of times before?” LaChina asked.
“I saw some cute uh…uh…” Jamaica glanced
over her shoulder and found a store out of the corner of her eye. “Shoes! Yeah, some cute little shoes.”
LaChina folded her arms and shifted her weight to one side. “From where, Jai?”
Jamaica turned and pointed. “From there!”
LaChina turned in the direction in which Jamaica hand pointed. “Oh, yeah right, Jai! Since when have you ever been inside of a Payless?”
“I have.” Jamaica nodded fervently. “They sell shoes, right?”
“Of course.”
“Well, then, let’s go,” Jamaica said, as she led off.
LaChina followed close behind.
The store was of the mall variety, meaning of medium size, and staffed primarily by young freckled face teens. It was well traveled, and the carpet showed this clearly. The shoes were stacked on racks that created aisles throughout the store, and there were little benches spread throughout the establishment so that customers could try on their shoes prior to purchasing them. There were several customers throughout the store today, and it smelled of feet, and bubblegum.
“Oh…oh…oh my God!” Jamaica’s hands flew to her chest, as she traveled through the aisles examining the shoes and their prices. “Cheap shoes, I’m…I’m…I’m hyper…ventilating. Get…me…out…of here.”
LaChina folded her arms and glared at her friend. “I ought to leave your butt in here.”
Jamaica continued her shallow breaths. “Don’t play…get…me…out…”
LaChina grabbed Jamaica’s arm, and headed for the store’s exit. In the middle of the aisles leading to the mall, sat an extremely large woman, jamming her size-ten foot into a size-eight shoe. A child hovered near the fat woman, like a planet orbiting its sun. He popped his bubble gum loudly, and smiled at Jamaica revealing a missing tooth.
Jamaica leaned forward and smiled. “Somebody’s going to get a visit from the Tooth Fairy.”
Smiling back at Jamaica, the child of the fat woman stuck his short stubby finger inside of his once pink nose, turning it red, and then quickly jammed it into his mouth.
Jamaica’s hands flustered about frantically. “Ooooh…oooh…China…air…air!”
It became a race for the exit.
“Miss, it’s getting cold outside, and my children need shoes!” the woman at the counter reiterated. “I don’t care what Check Rite says, my check is good. It has to be a mistake!”
The discussion caught LaChina’s attention. She clasped Jamaica’s arm and pulled her back into the store.
“Ma’am, I’m sorry, we can’t take your check!” the manager intervened. He lifted his arms defiantly. “Now, I know you shop here, but thousands of others do as well. If I did business based on personal acquaintances, I’d be out of a job, and every housing project in the city would be full of people wearing new shoes!”
Jamaica stared at the children’s feet. Their shoes were filled with holes, and were coming apart in several places. The little boy’s shoes flapped when he walked, as the sole had completely come apart. LaChina nudged Jamaica.
“Did he just say what I think he said?” Jamaica whispered.
LaChina nodded and moved in closer.
“But, sir, my check is good,” the woman continued. “Please…”
The store manager’s hand rose into the air, stopping the woman in mid sentence. “If it’s good, go to the ATM machine right down the hall, withdraw the money from your checking account, then come back and see me.”
“Excuse me,” Jamaica intervened.
The woman turned, and Jamaica reached into her gigantic Hermes Kelly Bag and pulled out her wallet. From it, she removed four crisp one hundred-dollar bills and handed them to the woman.
“Here, ma’am. There’s a store just down the hall that sells high-quality athletic shoes.” Jamaica glared at the manager. “I’m sure that you’ll find the service much better.”
The woman’s thin wrinkled hand trembled as she took the money. “God bless you,” came from her mouth, and tears from her eyes.
Jamaica hugged her. “It’s okay.”
Jamaica smiled at the little girl, and waved to the family as they left the store. It was the little girl who continued to wave.
“’Bye, Tiera!” the little girl shouted from the mall. Her mother peered down at her as they continued along their path.
“Who are you talking to?” the mother asked.
Inside of the store, LaChina waited patiently until the family was out of earshot. Her steps toward the counter were cool, calm, collected. LaChina’s demeanor made Jamaica cringe. She knew the look. It was LaChina’s war face.
“Do you know what dignity is?” LaChina asked the manager.
He remained silent.
“I didn’t think so.” With that, LaChina turned and walked out of the store. Jamaica followed close behind.
“I thought that you were going to read him up one side, and down the other,” Jamaica told her. She placed her arm around LaChina’s shoulder.
“I wanted to, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to control it, once I let it out.” LaChina smiled and pulled Jamaica close. “That was good, Jai. That was real good.”
With their arms wrapped tightly around each other, LaChina and Jamaica shared a long, wide grin.
“I’m hungry,” Jamaica said. “Let’s get something to eat.”
Their path to the mall’s food court led them past a store that they had forgotten about.
“Jamaica! Jamaica!” Tameer bolted from the store calling to her.
Jamaica and LaChina stopped, turned, and stared at him. His words flowed out clumsily.
“I…I’m…I’m sorry,” Tameer said softly.
Jamaica’s expression remained stoic.
“It was my father. I…I caught him…” Tameer lowered his head, directing his gaze toward the ground. He couldn’t decide whether to tell her and risk losing her, or not tell her, and lose her for sure. He decided to risk telling her.
“I caught him using drugs, Jai.” His sniffle was unintentional. “I caught my father using drugs.”
Jamaica’s hands flew to her face and she covered her mouth. “Oh, my God!” Jamaica trembled at the thought, and quickly reached out and embraced Tameer. “Oh my God! I’m sorry, Tameer. I’m so sorry.”
LaChina clasped Tameer’s forearm and squeezed it reassuringly. “It’ll be all right.”
He nodded.
Jamaica leaned back from their embrace and smiled at him. “So, where are you going? Are you off work already?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m taking a break.”
Gently, Tameer took Jamaica’s hand into his and led off. “So, where are you two going?”
“We were going to the food court to grab something to eat,” Jamaica replied. She nudged him slightly with her shoulder. “Care to join us?”
“Yeah, sure.” He smiled. “But first, I wanna stop by the record store and grab this new CD.”
“A rap CD, I presume?” Jamaica smiled.
Tameer smiled sheepishly. “Is there any other kind?”
Together they shared a laugh.
“So, when are you taking me out again?” Jamaica asked.
“Well, my car is kinda on the fritz right now,” Tameer told her.
“When is it not?”
“Well, actually, this time it’s bad. It’s kind of like…dead.” Tameer shifted his gaze to the floor and exhaled loudly. “Yeah, the Gray Ghost is gone.”
Jamaica tugged his shirt sleeve. “I’m sure that it’s in that big junkyard in the sky.”
“You know you didn’t like my car,” Tameer told her.
Jamaica smiled. “Actually, I thought that someone should have done a mercy killing on that thing a long time ago.”
Jamaica and LaChina giggled.
“Hey, I loved that car.” Tameer squeezed Jamaica’s hand lightly. “I’m sure it’s in Heaven.”
“I’m sure it is,” Jamaica told him. “So, what CD are you going to buy?”
“It’s a new CD from
this group called Southern Merchandise. I heard it on the radio last night during the mix show.”
LaChina gasped. “The music store!”
LaChina leaned forward and peered around Tameer at Jamaica. “We’re going to the music store?”
Tameer smiled and nodded. “Yeah, that’s where one usually goes to buy music.”
“Oh my God!” LaChina’s hand flew to her chest and she started breathing heavily.
Jamaica stared at her strangely.
LaChina began nodding her head in the direction of the store. Jamaica caught on.
“Oooooh, ooooh!” Jamaica moaned, and her eyes flew open wide. “Oooooh girl, walk slow,” LaChina told her.
Tameer shifted his gaze toward LaChina. “What?”
“I said, Swing Low,” LaChina said, swallowing hard. “Swing low, sweet chariot. It’s my favorite song.”
LaChina began humming the tune and snapping her fingers. “As a matter of fact, I can’t wait to get to it. I’ll tell you what, I’m going to run ahead, and I’ll see you two when you get there.”
She was off.
After putting some distance between her and Jamaica and Tameer, LaChina turned back to her friend. “Jai, swing low, girl! Swing low!”
Jamaica nodded and grabbed Tameer’s arm. She placed her arm inside of his, and stopped to stare into the nearest window display. It was a pet store window.
Jamaica put on her best entertainer’s face and smiled, while pointing at the display. “Look at all of those cute little fishies! I just love fish. Ooooh, look at the little black-and-white one!”
Chapter Twelve
LaChina bolted into the record store, where she quickly located a salesperson to assist her. She was still breathing heavily from her all-out sprint to the store. “Uh…I…I…I’m looking for your…Tiera CDs.”
The salesperson, a twenty-ish, freckle-faced female stared at LaChina as though she had just escaped from an asylum.
“Sure, ma’am.” The salesgirl waved her hand toward a shelf on the far wall. “They’re right over there.”
The salesgirl led LaChina to a section on the wall which contained Jamaica’s CDs. The store stocked a lot of them. Jamaica’s face stretched for several feet, splashed across the front covers of each of her six CDs, which contained her numerous multiplatinum hits.
Two Thin Dimes Page 8
