by Mikal Malone
“We don’t have no time for this shit,” C said walking around her.
Monie was right at his side, clutching his hand.
“I see you lost a little weight, bitch,” Persia said, trying her best to start a fight she couldn’t win.
“Glad you noticed,” Monie responded.
Monie could’ve cracked her limbs, but it wasn’t worth it. Besides Persia was pregnant, and Monie had C. The battle had been won and in a twist, the fat girl got the boy.
“What you mean you don’t have no time for this shit?” Oscar said to C, as if he just remembered what C said. “So you can fuck her, but you can’t do right by her in the streets?”
“Main Man, you don’t know shit about me,” C said to him. “You keep letting your girl fill you up with Heart Juice, and you gonna get your feelings hurt in a minute. Now back off.”
“Me get my feelings hurt,” Oscar laughed touching his chest. “You and what army?”
“Let’s bounce, baby,” C said kissing Monie on the neck. He was treating them like two flies around the picnic table. “We ain’t got time for no Wangstas. I’m trying to go to our house and dig that pussy out.”
When Persia saw C kiss Monie on the neck, and heard his comment, she started ticking like a bomb. All of the pain, the hurt and the rejection she felt all of her young life came flooding out of her pores. While most people felt bitterness on an inconsistent basis, Persia’s heart was jealous the majority of the time, making it difficult for her to make rational decisions.
So when they walked closer to their car she whispered in Oscar’s ear, “Did you hear what he just said? He said fuck your mother,” she lied.
Oscar’s chest swole up, and he immediately stepped to C who had just closed the door for Monie, and was walking around to the driver’s side.
“What you just say?” Oscar asked, his glasses steamy. “About my mother?”
C laughed at him, “So what, your girl lying to you again?” C moved to open his car door, until Oscar, who was moving his hands too wildly, accidently-brushed C’s cheek with his index finger.
In a second flat, C put the nigga on his back like a throw rug. His navy glasses crashed against his nose, and C stomped them. To make matters worse, C beat him like a clump of bread dough. C kicked him in the chin, neck, solar plexus, and everywhere else his black and silver Foamposites would land.
He didn’t stop whipping his ass until Oscar said, “Mercy. Mercy.”
With those words C bent down and looked at him. “That’s the last time I’ll be so lenient. If you come for me or my girl again, I’ll kill you.”
C grabbed the car door, and pulled it open. Persia could hear Monie laughing hysterically from the inside. This did nothing but ignite Persia’s fire.
When C pulled off Persia looked down at Oscar. In her opinion he looked quite bazaar, and she certainly didn’t want to be promised as his wife anymore. But first she needed him for revenge.
“You know what you gotta do when you get up from taking that nap don’t you?”
“No,” he said coughing up blood. “What?”
“You gotta call your mother. Wake up, boy, C just declared war.”
CHAPTER 23
KAREN
Karen was sitting in her office going over the financials for the Klan. Ever since she learned that she was HIV positive, which she kept to herself, she was not feeling well. Although she could’ve gone to the doctors, and got prescribed a cocktail to keep her disease at bay, she didn’t want too. She couldn’t risk one of the members seeing the medications, and alerting the other members. Instead she decided to abstain from sex, and make sure the Black Water Klan was financially stable in the event of her demise, so that Oscar, the next leader, would be okay.
She just finished running the numbers when Oscar, Persia, Roman and Lance rushed into her office. Roman and Lance didn’t know what was going on, but when they saw Oscar’s face, they became concerned and followed them.
“Ma, a war has started,” Oscar said to her, from the other side of the desk. His cracked glasses made him look eerie.
Karen leaped up from her seat, ran around the desk and sprinted up to Oscar. She observed his bruised face, and the spaces where his teeth use to be in his mouth.
“Son, what has happened to you?” She removed his fractured glasses. “Who did this?”
“Persia and I were walking out of the compound, when C, and other members of the Emerald City Squad ran up to us. They jumped me, and said that there will be more where this was coming from. Other members will receive the same punishment.”
Oscar remembered all of the words Persia gave him to recite, just like a good little parakeet should.
Karen stepped back, and sat on the edge of her desk. “But this doesn’t make any sense.”
“It sure doesn’t,” Lance said. “Something sounds off.” He smelled something foul, but would keep his ideas of what was really going on to himself. “Way off.”
“Why would they do that, when they know we have Persia?” Karen inquired.
“Because they don’t care about me anymore,” Persia said walking up to her. “They want to rid the world of the Klan all together. We gotta do something, Ms. Karen. Before they get us.”
“You don’t care about your own people? And what we could do to them?”
“It’s not my concern anymore,” Persia said. “This family is.”
Karen didn’t trust the girl. But still, with her own eyes she could see that her son had been attacked. She felt dumb for trusting Carissa and her crew, and now she wanted blood. They could keep the money.
Karen walked back around her desk, and picked up the phone. She dialed a number, and waited a second. “Yes, Carissa, this is Karen. You wanted a war, well you got one.”
CHAPTER 24
CARISSA
I’m driving one of Toi’s cars, on the way to find Persia. Nobody knew I was coming alone to find her, but I didn’t care. Besides, Mercedes’ left Toi’s house to take care of personal business, and Yvette was in the house watching Treasure for me. Observing Yvette with Treasure is like watching a robot with a child. She seemed so unnatural and she isn’t maternal at all. But, she did it for me and that’s all that matters.
At first, I was confused when I got the call from Karen. I mean, how could I have started a war with her, when I had been hiding out and trying to save my own life? None of this made sense, but I’m sure my lying daughter was behind it all.
While driving down the street, I was about to lose my mind when I saw Persia walking up the sidewalk, a few blocks from the compound. I pulled the car over and said, “Persia, come here.”
Persia bent down, looked into the car, and kept it moving. I pulled back up on her, jumped out and snatched her by the neck. At this moment I could care less that she’s pregnant, and getting ready to drop this baby any minute. I stuff her into the passenger seat of the car, and when she tries to get out, I give her a stiff boot to the forehead, push her back inside, and slam the car door.
When I jog to my door, a man walking on the sidewalk says, “Hey, lady, you can’t do that. She’s pregnant.”
I pull my gun on him and say, “You wanna try me?”
He runs off in the other direction, and I get behind the wheel of the car and speed away from the scene. I’m so mad now I’m crying, and I have yet to say anything to Persia.
“Mommy, you’re scaring me,” Persia says softly. She wipes my dusty boot print off her head.
I don’t respond, I just move the car in and out of traffic like I’m on a racetrack. I’m tired of this little girl hurting my feelings. I’m tired of her talking to me in any kind of way. And more than it all, I’m tired of her not loving me. No I wasn’t the best mother in the world. And no I didn’t always give her my love, but I want to make good on that now, but she won’t allow me.
“I hate you,” she says to me folding her arms over her belly.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I say driving faster.
“You forgot my 12th birthday, mommy. How could you?”
“What are you talking about?” I say. “I ain’t never forgot not one of your birthdays. You sound like a fool.”
“You forgot it, mommy,” she says softer. “You didn’t remember.”
As she continues to lie, I pull up all of her birthdays in my mind. On her fifth birthday we had a party for her at Kings Dominion. On the sixth birthday, we had a party for her at Disney World. The seventh, eighth and ninth birthdays, we had one in Emerald city, so we could be close to our drug operation. On the tenth birthday, one of Lavelle’s best friends was murdered in Texas, so we had her party at a community center in Houston. It was real nice too, because we bought a balloon bounce and everything, and Persia made a lot of new friends. On the eleventh birthday, me and Lavelle got into a fight, so we had a small party in our apartment in Emerald City. On the twelfth birthday we, on the twelfth birthday we…we…uh…we…
I pull the car over and look at her. “We had a party, Persia, I know we did.”
“Nothing,” she says softly with tears running down her face. “You forgot.”
“But there was a cake. A cake was there, remember,” I ask. “It was pink and you got your first purse too.”
“Daddy bought that cake for me,” she pouts. “And my purse. Not you. You forgot.”
Warm tears stream down my face, and fall into the crease of my breasts. I turn toward her, and grip her hands into mine. They are soft, like they were when she was a little girl, and we’d stay up all night playing Patty Cake.
I look deep into her eyes, and with everything I say, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Persia. I was the kind of mother I despise, and you didn’t deserve that when you were growing up. You didn’t deserve any of it. I was wrong, and I will never forgive myself. But you tell me how I can repair our bond, and on my life I will do it. I’ll do anything you say, you just gotta let me know.”
“It’s too late,” she mumbles.
“It’s never too late,” I say gripping her hands tightly. “Don’t say that.”
“I don’t love you anymore,” she says.
My heart pumps wildly. Like it wants to fly out of my chest. “I can’t deal with that, Persia. I can’t deal with you not loving me. I can’t deal with you not being in my life. I’m lost without my girls, don’t you see? Fuck the money, fuck the drugs, and fuck everything else.”
She looks at me and rolls her eyes. “So you admit to doing drugs now?”
“Yes,” I say. “But, I’m done with that shit. I made a mess of my life and in turn, I made a mess of you and your sister’s lives too. But I’m going to do better now, Persia. You just tell me what to do.”
“Anything?” She says with wide eyes.
“Anything.”
“Help me get with C,” she pleads. “Help me show him I can be a better girlfriend than Monie. Please, mommy.”
I feel deflated. Like I’m a balloon, and someone just popped me with a shiny stickpin. “Persia, C’s heart is not mine to provide. I’m sorry. But, he has moved on with his life. Now I know C, and I know he’ll be a great father to your child. That much I can be sure of. I also know that I’ll love my grandbaby with everything I have, and Mercedes will too.”
“Mercedes?” she frowns. “She not coming near my baby.”
“Persia, let’s talk about all of that later,” I say. I don’t want to make her too mad when I gotta take her out of here.
“No, let’s talk about it now,” she says. “If I can’t have C, Mercedes will never see my baby,” she screams in my face. “Do you hear me? Never!” She pushes the car door open and dips into the neighborhood.
I’m about to chase her, but she leaves her purse behind. I go into it, and pull out about ten pages of a Xeroxed document. The document looks handwritten, and I’m immediately curious. I read the 50th Commandment out loud.
“Thou shall follow thy leader, always.”
What the fuck type of shit is this? As I go through the document, most of the lines read the same way. Some commandments are weirder than others, and I’m worried more for my daughter’s life.
I gotta get her out of there and I gotta do it now!
CHAPTER 25
YVETTE
When Carissa comes back with the doctrine that she’d gotten from Persia, and I scan through it, I’m blown away. I’m sitting on the edge of one of the twin beds looking at Carissa, who is sitting on the other mattress directly across from me.
“What kind of shit is this?” I ask holding the papers.
“Exactly,” she says.
“Take this bullshit back,” I hand them back to her. “What do you want to do about this, Carissa? We in a fucked up position now, with not a lot of freedom, or authority.”
“I know,” she cries. “But I gotta get my baby out of there, Yvette. She’s not about this life. She’ll die in there.”
I sigh. I’m not going to lie, Persia is getting on my last nerves, and I don’t have no more space in my heart for her. I mean, why she gotta be giving her mother the blues all of the time? This poor girl haven’t had a break since never. Still, Carissa’s pain is mine. She’s my sister, so we have to do something.
“So what do you want to do?”
“Pay her off,” Carissa says.
I stand up and walk across the room. “I thought she said she didn’t want money?”
“They always want money,” she responds.
“Carissa, we don’t hardly have no money right now. Do you remember, everything we owned is gone?”
“I know, and the fucked up part is I’ll need what little money we got,” she says.
My eyes widen. “You need it all?” I laugh. “I just told you that we can’t afford to be giving that bitch none of our paper, and you tell me you want it all? Carissa, you not thinking straight.” I hit the top of my head with my knuckles. “I know you want your daughter back, but you gonna put us in the dog house to get her? Is that smart?”
“We’ll get more money.”
“News flash, sweetie, we need money to make money,” I say. “If you take it all we assed out. I’m talking about no ends.”
She sighs. “Will you help me out or not? That’s all that matters.”
Fuck! This is the worst time for her to be pulling the friend card. Yes I want to be there for her, but why it gotta be like this?
“Okay,” I moan.
“Okay what?” she smiles.
“Okay I’ll give you what I got,” I respond. “But you gotta ask Mercedes for hers when she gets here. She’s still out on business.”
Carissa grins like a happy kid, and pulls out her phone. “I’ll call Karen now. Maybe I can meet up with her and give her the money for Persia tonight.”
“You mean we,” I tell her. “I’m not letting you go nowhere by yourself. Fuck that. I don’t trust my foul-ass sister.”
I walk back towards her, and sit on the bed across from her. She dials the number, places the call on speaker, and Karen answers. I can’t believe my sister Karen is being such an evil bitch, and I wonder how our lives would’ve been if we grew up together. I guess we will never know.
“Karen, this is Carissa.”
“I know who you are,” Karen responds dryly.
Carissa clears her throat. “Is my daughter with you?”
“She is.”
“Good, because I wanted to talk to you about an offer.”
“I’m listening.”
“As it stands now, my daughter is brainwashed by you and your organization.”
Karen sighs.
“But, I want my family back. Now I’m willing to give you the last fifty I owe you, plus fifty more if you relinquish Persia to me now.”
Karen starts laughing. “What’s so funny?” Carissa asks her.
“I don’t want your money, Carissa, I want your life.”
“What the fuck you just say,” I yell to my sister.
“Hello, Yvette. Funny talking to you again.”
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“What did you just say to my friend, bitch?” I yell.
“I think I made myself clear,” Karen responds. “Now you and your friends have killed two of our leaders, Black Water and Tamir. And just recently you have beaten my son to every inch of his life. So I’m saying that you wanted war, and now you have one.”
“Tamir and Black Water’s lives are on us, but they were coming for us, Karen,” I tell her. “We had to defend ourselves. But your son’s punishment is not our doing. You are barking up the wrong tree.”
“Stop lying, Yvette,” Karen yells. “Unlike your friends, I am not amused by your words. My son was beaten savagely and he almost died today. Not to mention I am aware that Mercedes wanted war with us. A conversation was overheard by one of our members, so I know it is true. Don’t bother lying.”
“Where did you get your tales from?” I ask.
“Persia.”
Carissa’s eyes widen, and pain spreads all over her face.
I’m equally as devastated. I mean I know Persia was doing the most over there, to get at C, but I never thought she would go this far. She’s staging a war, just because she can’t get who and what she wants.
“I love my niece, but she’s lying to you,” I say.
“We’ll talk about who’s lying on who, after blood is drawn,” she says. “I’ll be in contact.”
“Not if we get to you first,” I say.
CHAPTER 26
MERCEDES
“Well what do you want,” Mercedes questioned. “Because whatever you want I can give it to you. I’m a very wealthy woman, Karen. And, I can give you anything your heart desires. Just speak on it.”
Karen laughed. “It’s just like you bitches to think everything is about money. What I want runs much deeper than monetary value.”
“I’ll give you whatever you’re asking,” Mercedes said. “Just say the word.”
“I want salvation,” her wild eyes looked into Mercedes’. “Can you give me salvation for abandoning one of my commandments? If you can’t, this baby can give me salvation with his life.”