Lessons Learned

by Earl Sewell

  “Oh yeah.”

  “Big Mike,” she said sweetly.

  “Yeah, baby,” I said as cool as I could.

  “Bring some money so that I can put some more minutes on my phone because you’re burning my minutes up,” she said playfully, but I knew she was dead serious.

  “You got it.” When I hung up the phone, the only thing on my mind was hooking up with Toya. My only problem was that I knew that there was no way that my mother or father would allow me to go into the city to see a girl who had a baby and lived down the hall from Keysha’s mother. So that meant that I would have to sneak down to the city on Saturday by taking public transportation. I formulated a plan that would work, then I got onto my computer and checked the train and bus schedules. I couldn’t wait to see Toya so she could take my virginity and turn me into a man.

  thirteen

  KEYSHA

  Saturday, February 23rd

  Having to go through this visitation madness was taking its toll on the family. Neither Jordan nor Barbara wanted to waste time, energy or gas money driving me into my mother’s dangerous neighborhood to spend a couple of hours. Barbara, I had to admit, was a real trooper through all of this. I know that it was extremely difficult for her to deal with me moving into her house and welcoming me. Once she and I got past that hurdle, our relationship grew and we learned to like each other. But now, for her to have to turn around and come face-to-face with the woman her husband had a baby with was no picnic.

  And my mother, who has a variety of her own issues, didn’t make it easy for any of us. Especially with the way she forced herself back into our lives. That was a real sore spot in Jordan and Barbara’s marriage. I hear them arguing more than usual and that’s not a good thing in my book. I wanted to say something to Barbara but I didn’t know how to approach her. I’d decided to call Grandmother Katie and ask for guidance on what I could do to help Jordan and Barbara.

  “Let them work through this, Keysha. This is a difficult time for them. They’re being tested in a number of ways. But in the end, once this particular storm is over, everyone will have grown and learned a lesson that will make each of you stronger and better people.” I listened to Grandmother’s Katie’s wisdom, followed her advice and decided not to get in the middle of their dispute.

  Jordan and Barbara had just dropped me off again at my mother’s house and left. I was sitting on the sofa in Justine’s one-room apartment looking up at the ceiling because I couldn’t stand looking at my mother holding baby Flip who was crying at the top of his voice. Justine began pacing the floor trying to soothe and calm him down.

  “Ooh, this boy gets on my last nerve. He’s so loud,” complained Justine. The more I hung around my mother, the more I began to see that she hadn’t changed much. She was still emotionally unstable and it didn’t take much for her to lose her temper.

  “Do you want to hold your brother for a minute?” she asked as she tried to hand him to me.

  “No,” I said, looking at her as if she’d lost her mind.

  “Well, hold him any damn way!” She yelled at me and almost dropped the baby in my lap. “Stop acting like your ass has never held a baby before. You see that the baby is on my last damn nerve.”

  “Where is Simon at?” I asked because now she had me all tensed up and ready to fight.

  “He’s gone out somewhere. He’ll be back in a little while,” she said as she walked over to the sink filled with dirty dishwater.

  “Do you have any milk for this baby?” I asked, figuring that baby Flip was probably hungry.

  “That’s what I’m over here trying to get for him. I have to wash out a bottle for him,” she said angrily.

  “Well, I didn’t know,” I yelled back at her, which caused baby Flip to wail even louder. “Shh,” I said, trying to calm him down on my own. Justine finally prepared a bottle and gave it to me so that I could feed the baby. Once Flip got the bottle he stopped crying. I momentarily studied my brother who was a pretty chocolate-brown baby with silky black hair. He still looked very wrinkly and had puffy eyes but other than that he seemed to be a good baby, especially when he wasn’t hollering.

  “Thank goodness. That boy was so loud that I couldn’t even hear myself think straight.” Justine leaned her behind against the countertop.

  “Babies are a big responsibility,” I said as I made sure Flip was sitting upright as he drank. Justine reached up and pulled down a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from atop the refrigerator and fired up a smoke.

  “You know that you shouldn’t smoke around a baby,” I said.

  “I’m not over there in his face. A little smoke isn’t going to bother him. Especially with those strong lungs that he has,” Justine remarked.

  “Why did you even come back for me?” I asked suddenly. “You could’ve just left me where I was.”

  Justine blew a long plume of smoke from between her lips. “When I found out where you were and how you were living, I had to come for you. It just doesn’t make any sense that you’re living better than me and not sharing any of Jordan’s wealth.”

  “Ooh,” I swiveled my head from left to right disapprovingly. “You sound just like Grandmother Rubylee,” I said.

  Justine laughed. Apparently she was pleased with my assessment of her flawed character. “I do, don’t I? Simon says that Jordan is loaded. Says that he and your Grandmother Katie have all kinds of money. What do you know about that?” Justine asked.

  “What do you mean ‘What do I know about it?’ I don’t know anything,” I said.

  “Come on, Keysha. You have to have some idea of how rich they are. I know that prissy wife of his comes from money. And I know that big house you’re living in with him didn’t come cheap. So tell me, how much do you think he has?”

  “Why?” I asked. “Why do care?”

  “Do I have to spell it out for you, little girl? You know the type of background you come from. You know what this is about.”

  I just glared at Justine without saying a word. She looked at me for a long time before finishing her smoke.

  “I spoke with your Grandmother Rubylee. She’s getting out of prison and wanted to know if it was possible for me to work with you to roll Jordan the same way we did auntie Estelle’s husband. We need to do the identity theft thing again. Simon is even in on it. What we need you to do is just give us some information, like a social security number, bank statements and stuff like that. If you do this, we’ll make sure that you get some nice stuff,” said Justine without any shame.

  “Are you kidding me?” I asked, upset that she wanted me to betray Jordan and Barbara. “I’m not going to do that. Not for you or Rubylee. I have a good life with them and I’m not going to ruin it for you.”

  “Look, little girl!” Justine barked at me. “You have to stop being so damn selfish and help me out here, okay? I’m in a jam.”

  “I thought you were working. I thought you had a job and was doing better for yourself.”

  “I did have a job for a little while. I only worked long enough to get access to you so that you could get Jordan and Barbara’s information for me. I quit my janitorial job yesterday.”

  “What? That’s crazy. That’s insane!” I said as I placed the baby over my shoulder and patted his back softly until he burped.

  “Keysha, listen to me. I’m not the type of woman who works at a job. I can’t deal with people telling me what to do. I never could. I’ve always made my own way, did it by any means necessary. I’m a hustler and I’ll always be a hustler. Now, if you’ll let me show you how this works, I’m telling you, Keysha, you can make a whole lot of money in a very short time.”

  I felt sick to my stomach when she said that. I placed the baby on the sofa because he’d drifted off to sleep. “You don’t have to be this way,” I said to her. “You’re not trying hard enough to turn your life around,” I said, thinking that perhaps I could talk some sense into her.

  “What you don’t understand is that I want to be this way
. I like being this way. Now either you go and get that information for me or I will be forced to file an abuse complaint and get you removed from that big fancy house while an investigation takes place. I know that you don’t want to have to come back here to live with me.”

  I sprung to my feet, “You can’t do that!”

  “Are you sure about that?” Justine lit up another cigarette. “Remember. I know how to work the system. It didn’t take me very long to get you pulled out of that house. Even with all of that money your daddy paid that attorney. They still couldn’t stop my hustle.” Justine blew another long cord of smoke from between her lips.

  I didn’t know how to respond to that. The only thing I could think about was being forced out of the house by some elaborate lie that Justine would cook up. “It’s not fair,” I said.

  “I know it isn’t. Life is a real funny like that. Just keep this in mind, Keysha. If I’m not happy, I’m going to make sure that you’re not happy.”

  “Why are you so evil, mean, wicked and nasty? Why couldn’t you just leave me where I was? I was doing fine without you!” I shouted at her because I was really ticked off that she still had power left to destroy my life.

  “Like I said, it didn’t make any sense to me for you to be living so good while I’m struggling so hard. Share the damn wealth, Keysha. Because if you don’t do it now, by the time your Grandmother Rubylee gets out of jail, she’s not going to show any mercy. And by the time she’s done working the system and creating havoc for you, that family you’re living with won’t have a pot to pee in or window to toss it out of. So get your priorities together, girl, because either you’re going to help me get it or I’m going to take it. Now, when you come for your next visit, you’d better have some information for me.”

  fourteen

  MIKE

  Saturday, February 23rd

  When Saturday morning rolled around, I got up early to head off to track practice. I spent all morning doing 200-meter-dash drills because the coach was extremely impressed with my speed and quickness.

  “You’re going to be our secret weapon this year, Mike,” said Coach Miller, who was overjoyed to have such a young, solid sprinter on the squad. I made a few new friends and hooked up with a few old ones from the football team. Both Romeo and Marlon were on the team and they asked me if I wanted to head over to the House of Pancakes for breakfast after practice.

  “Sorry guys, I’ve got something to do today,” I said as I was changing my clothes in the locker room.

  “Yeah, you’re going to go do that crazy stalker girl, Sabrina,” said Marlon, which caused Romeo to laugh.

  “Yo, I heard that you were in the hallway trying to dump old girl and she got all crazy on you,” said Romeo.

  “Yeah, I was trying to put her down nice and easy but you know how it is. She’s hooked on me. She doesn’t know how to let me go. She wants to keep all of my pimp juice for herself,” I bragged about how I had Sabrina in an emotional frenzy.

  “Well listen up, pimp,” said Marlon. “You be careful playing around with that girl’s emotions because a chick will turn on you in a New York minute. One minute you think you have your situation under control and the next, boom! She’s bringing you all types of drama.”

  “I know that’s right,” said Romeo. “I did this one girl and the sex was just horrible. She didn’t know how to move or anything so I had to let her go. The minute I tried to drop shorty she went all crazy on me.”

  “Man, I’ve told you a thousand times to leave them big girls alone,” said Marlon who was clearly clowning Romeo. Everyone in the locker room started laughing.

  “Screw you, Marlon. You’d better keep an eye on your girl because I hear that she may have a little something on the side—but you didn’t hear it from me.” Romeo pointed his finger at himself and continued laughing. Marlon quickly approached him and playfully punched him on the arm

  “I was just kidding, man,” said Romeo.

  “Watch your mouth, knucklehead,” Marlon said as he continued to play punch Romeo.

  “So, what are you doing this afternoon?” asked Romeo.

  “I’m going to be getting busy,” I said.

  “In your dreams don’t count, fool,” Romeo teased.

  “I wouldn’t know anything about that, but apparently you do,” I snapped back at him and everyone in the locker burst into laughter again.

  “That’s a good one,” said Romeo, who decided to leave me alone after that. Marlon gave me a ride home from track practice, which was cool because I had a busy day planned and I only had so much time to do what I needed to do. When I got back, I was glad to see that Jordan and Barbara had already taken Keysha to see her mother, which was perfect. I went into the house, changed clothes, grabbed my condoms and took two hundred dollars from my stash of cash in case I stayed a little too late and needed to catch a cab back home. I then headed downstairs and wrote a note that said:

  I’ve gone out to the mall with some friends. I’ll be back later. Call me if you need me.

  I stuck the note on the refrigerator so that my parents wouldn’t freak out about not knowing where I was. Even though my location was a total lie, it was something that they didn’t have to know about.

  I walked out to the garage and grabbed my bike and bicycle lock. I hopped on it and rode as fast as I could to the Metra train station so that I could catch the ten o’clock train into the city. After securing my bike, the train arrived a few minutes later. I got on, found a seat and exhaled. It was both unnerving and exciting at the same time to be sneaking around doing what I was about to do. It took forty minutes for the train to arrive at the 55th Street station that was located in Hyde Park, which was Barack Obama’s neighborhood. I got off the train and walked down to the 55th Street bus stop. I waited for almost thirty minutes in the bitterly cold air for a bus to come.

  When it finally did arrive I felt like I’d turned into a block of ice. I paid my fare, got a transfer and sat down next to a guy with very long, Bob-Marley-like dread-locks. I took the bus to Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. Then I had to stand and wait for the King Drive bus to arrive. I took the King Drive bus all the way down to 63rd and King Drive and walked back toward Toya’s apartment building. As I approached her building, I pulled out my cell phone and called her.

  “Hello?” Toya answered the phone. She sounded as if she was sleeping.

  “Hey, you,” I said as I hurried across an intersection to avoid being hit by oncoming traffic.

  “Who is this?” she asked.

  “It’s me, Mike,” I said.

  “Oh, hey.” She didn’t sound very excited and that concerned me.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I was just out a little late last night.”

  “Where were you?”

  “Taking care of some business.”

  “Uhm, what type of business?” I asked because I was trying to determine if she’d been with some other guy, which would have made me very upset.

  “Baby, don’t worry yourself about that. It was just some business. Have you missed me?” she asked.

  “Yeah. I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you so much that I’ve come down to see you,” I said.

  “Really? Are you driving that pretty Trans Am you were talking about?” she asked.

  “No. Not this time around. I took the train down,” I said.

  “Well, where are you now?” she asked.

  “Walking up the street toward your building. Can you come and open the door?” I asked.

  “Dang, Mike. Why didn’t you call me first?” Toya asked.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t think about calling first. I just came because I wanted to see you,” I said. “I’m almost at your building. Come down and open the door now,” I said.

  “Boy, you’re lucky that my grandmother has already left with Junior,” she said. “I’ll be down in a minute.”

  “Cool,” I said and hung up my phone. This is perfect, I thought to myself. It’s
only 12:30 p.m. so we should have plenty of time. As promised, Toya came down to open the door. She had on a T-shirt with no bra and a long pair of pajamas with no underwear on. Just looking at her got me all excited. I didn’t even care about the scarf tied around her head or the crust that was in the corners of her eyes.

  “Where’s Keysha at?” she asked.

  “In the house with her mother I guess,” I said as I trailed behind her watching her behind jiggle around in her pajamas. Toya stopped at Keysha’s door and listened for a moment. We both heard Keysha shouting at her mother.

  “Yeah, she’s in there,” said Toya. We then entered Toya’s apartment. Toya and her grandmother shared a small two-bedroom apartment. There was a small kitchen on the right side with old appliances similar to the ones that were in Keysha’s mom’s apartment. To my left was a small dining area that had a small table that was cluttered with mail, newspapers and dirty dishes. Just past the dining area was a narrow hallway that led to the bathroom and two small bedrooms. Directly in front of me was a very small living room with a love seat, two straight-back chairs and an oversize black projection-screen television that took up the majority of the space. Hanging on the wall was a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy.

  “Come on back to my bedroom. There is really no place to sit down up here.” I followed Toya back to her bedroom which was also very small. Her bed took up most of the space. There were several laundry baskets on the floor filled with clothes, along with several large black trash bags also filled with what appeared to be baby clothes. There was a small closet with a missing door overflowing with Toya’s other belongings.

  “Come, sit on my bed with me,” she said, and I was more than happy to join her.

  As I got comfortable in her bed I said, “Oh, it feels so good to be here with you.”