“Hello, young ladies,” he said, greeting the girls from the driver’s seat.
“Uncle E., I’d like you to meet Coco, Danielle and Josephine. They have a group called Coco and Da Crew.”
“Not anymore. We just Da Crew, yo,” Coco said.
“Yep, Eric,” Danielle said, stepping forward. “It’s Coco, the crowd motivator, yo, Ms. Flamboyant Jo, and myself, D to the A to N to I…”
“The love-lay Dani,” Josephine said, rhythmically completing the melody. The girls laughed. Deedee opened the door and got in the luxury SUV.
“Come check us out this weekend. We’re gonna wreck shit at Busta’s Open-Mike contest, yo,” Coco said.
“I will, I will. Nice to have met you girls and good luck,” Eric said.
“I’ll see y’all in school tomorrow. Enjoy your rehearsal.” Deedee smiled as the Range Rover pulled away. She waved. The girls raised their hands.
“Peace,” Coco, Danielle and Josephine hollered, raising their arms in unison.
CHAPTER 19
Eric sat reviewing head shots and examining the facial expressions of three different male models. He wanted the one who looked the closest possible to him. There was one who stood out. From different angles, he could easily pass for Eric Ascot.
In order to test the subject chosen, Eric made a phone call sending both Kim and Tina out to lunch. When Eric was sure there was no one but the models and him in the office, he walked out. With a promise to use them in the future, Eric dismissed the other two models. He kept the other model, a dead-ringer look-a-like to Eric.
“Now you’re gonna have to put a little weight on and you’ll be good,” Eric said, looking the man up and down. “This is gonna be interesting,” Eric said setting back in the huge office chair. “Now I want you to listen up. There some clothes in the closet. I want you to wear them and you’re gonna run this studio for the rest of the day. I got to go take care of some business in Long Island.”
“What am I gonna do?’
“Go with the flow. Play me for a half a day. Do whatever you want. Listen to music, smoke a cigar and stay in the office. My studio assistant is Reggie. He’s an intern. Just yell at him for anything and he’ll be licking your ass to do everything for you, alright?”
“Yes, I’m clear.”
“And one more thing, don’t take any calls from Josephine.”
Eric slipped on his Marc Jacobs dark wrap-around. The fashionable sunshades shielded his face while he raced out the office and into the parking lot. He jumped into his parked red Murceilargo, pumped it and the tires screeched loudly. Eric peeled out, racing off to the Hamptons with a devious smile.
Back in the studio, the bevy of calls was being handled by his double and two receptionists. This Saddam thing was a very good idea, he chuckled thinking. Eric called Sophia and then sent her a text message, offering to pay for her plastic surgery. He felt his stomach tightening as his mind churned. Hitting the Long Island Expressway, Eric tried to put his thoughts behind him.
He called Deedee from his cellphone. It rang through to her voicemail. Eric left a message telling her he was on his way to the Hamptons where he would be meeting with contractors to repair the damages to the house.
Deedee and Josephine were still visiting with Coco at the Hospital. The girls sat around listening to music and Josephine helped Coco out of the bed. They danced around and rapped along to Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks.”
Yo. We at war
We at war with terrorism, racism and most of all we’re at war with ourselves (Jesus Walks)
God show me the way because the devil is trying to break me down
(Jesus Walks with me), with me, with me, with me…
The vibe of Coco’s two visitors had her in better spirits. After a few turns, Coco sat back on the bed, listening and laughing with her friends to music. She was unable to see but had survived. She could’ve been deep-sixed like Danielle. Her thoughts sparked an idea. She wanted to write a song but felt trapped by a mind full of gloom.
Despite the chatter of the visitors, Coco was still lost and alone in her world of darkness. She gripped the sheets and steadied herself to keep from shaking. No lights to illuminate her dark path, Coco braved the walk down an unfamiliar area in her life. Her fears hit her like a ton of bricks and in one uncomfortable rush, an eerie sequence of people dying came to the surface.
Danielle’s image came to the forefront of her mind. Then there was Bebop, a friend killed a couple years ago. Next the face of Deja popped up. Then it was Miss Katie’s face with her gentle smile. The appearance of Danielle rocked her mind again. Coco vividly remembered seeing snapshots of Danielle’s corpse.
Coco could still see the cop in the precinct. She and Josephine stood at a desk nervously watching a sergeant fidgeting with the papers in front of him.
“Have a seat,” he said.
Coco and Josephine sat close together, staring at the clutter on the battered desk. Both the teens anxiously waited on the slow-moving man.
“I could smoke, yo?” Coco asked. She placed a cigarette in her mouth, looking at no one particularly.
“Sure you can. I’m Officer Carter. Did anyone tell you why you were being brought here?”
“Yeah, they told us we needed to answer more questions,” Josephine said.
“We already told ‘em everything,” Coco said, a stream of smoke coming from her mouth.
Carter pulled an envelope from his breast pocket. He spread the contents on the table; black and white photographs.
“You told the officers that your friend was missing,” Carter said.
Coco and Josephine looked down at the pictures. They immediately saw photos of a girl, naked and grotesquely dead.
“I feel faint,” Josephine said.
“Get her some water. Are you okay?” Carter asked Coco.
She was scrambling through the pictures. Josephine rose and drank readily from the paper cup.
“Let me help you,” Carter said. He turned the pictures so the girls could easily see them. “Do you know this person?”
Josephine examined a photo closely. She saw that half of Danielle’s face was gone. Her tattoo was visible. Josephine started to sit down, but missed the chair. She fell to the floor.
“Oh my God! Oh, my God! It’s not—it couldn’t be,” she screamed, then passed out. Carter knelt, cradling her head in his arms. He held a white tab of smelling salt to her nose and squeezed it.
Coco selected a photograph and scrutinized it. The tattoo was Danielle’s. All three had had hearts tattooed on their breasts, as tokens of friendship. Coco clutched her throat and lay the picture down. She shut her eyes and felt swirling as her mind spun, rewinding memories of Danielle. She grabbed the table to balance herself.
“Here, drink this,” an officer said.
He handed Coco a paper cup. She gulped the fluid. He handed a second cup to Carter, tending to Josephine. Coco sighed loudly and lit another cigarette.
“I guess you guys know the person in the photo. She’s been Jane Doe to us. Who is she to you?” Carter asked.
“She’s our friend,” Coco said.
“Her name’s Danielle Richards. She’s…” Josephine sobbed uncontrollably. She could not continue. She grabbed her face and screamed.
Deedee was watching Coco slowly reclining on the hospital’s bed with a look of pain on her face. She left from where she was arranging flowers and walked over to the bed.
“Are you alright, Coco?” she asked. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’ve been thinking about death a lot lately, yo,” Coco whispered. “I don’t know, yo.,. but I’m beginning to feel real dizzy.”
“You should get some rest, Coco. Maybe with all the excitement… Should I get the nurse?”
“No, no, I think I’m good, yo. Let me just lay here and chill for a minute.”
“Whatcha need is some good weed. That’ll clear up all your congestion right now,” Josephine said, walking to the bed with a smile.
“Jo, you’re a nut. You know that, yo?” Coco laughed, then fell silent.
Josephine and Deedee watched her for a couple beats. Both could hear their own breath as they nervously glanced at each other.
“I’m gonna get the nurse,” Deedee said in an anxiety-filled murmur.
Josephine watched Deedee dashing out the room. She shrugged her shoulder and flopped on the bed next to Coco.
“Deedee is so much drama,” Coco said.
“Just hurry up and get well,” Josephine whispered. “I know you don’t like all the fussing about you. I can’t wait for the day when we’ll be able to chill and smoke some ‘dro, me and you alone.”
A few seconds later, a nurse walked into the room with Deedee. The nurse busied herself attending to Coco, checking her pulse, temperature and examining the bandage covering her eyes.
“The doctor will have to look at her. I’ll ring for him but when he comes, both of you will have to wait in the waiting area. And please, not so much noise,” the nurse instructed and walked out.
Deedee and Josephine sat in silence with Coco until the doctor came. The nurse shooed them out and they left immediately.
“Bye Coco,” Deedee said.
“See ya later, champ,” Josephine smiled. “We’ll be outside waiting.”
“Quietly,” the nurse reminded them.
Deedee and Josephine exited and sat together in the waiting room. They tried to evoke small talk but it went dead after a few exchanges. Then Josephine dropped a bomb.
“Hey, I guess I better tell you before you hear from anyone else. I think I’m pregnant and it’s Eric’s,” she said.
Deedee shot her an icy stare without saying anything. Josephine returned the favor. They both huffed, got up and walked away from each other.
CHAPTER 20
The next couple of weeks saw Josephine and Deedee visiting Coco on the regular. They often bumped into her mother, who was always in the hospital for her daughter. Coco’s recuperation was going according to schedule. All post-surgery procedures were monitored by the best ophthalmologist in the business. Eric Ascot didn’t spare any cost and demanded the best in the medical field.
Six weeks after surgery, the doctors authorized the removal of Coco’s bandages. She was elated at the possibility of testing her vision. Coco wanted to be out of the hospital and getting back into her music. With the chance to enjoy the rest of summer, she anxiously awaited the day.
Deedee knew Josephine’s schedule at the studio. She started spending more time at Sophia’s and made visits to the hospital to see Coco whenever Josephine couldn’t. The maneuvering to avoid Josephine was made simpler because Josephine’s mother was in the city. She and her mother stayed at the W Hotel together. After Eric hired Kim and Tina, Josephine felt out of place at the office and visited Coco a lot. They passed the time chatting.
“You’ll only be there for summer. Aren’t you going to college in the fall, yo?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not gonna go back with her and her boyfriend,” Josephine said on a visit. “They’re married but I don’t think he could be my father.”
“He’s your stepfather, wacko.”
“He’s a pervert, looking at me, licking his lips like he wanna have sex with me.”
“That’s who your mother married, yo. You better take that up with her. Like yo, I don’t how I’m gonna say this but your man be sizing me up.”
“She’ll probably blame me,” Josephine said thoughtfully. “She told me that I’m rebelling and that my bad behavior and temper is a result of the anger I felt about how my father abandoned me.”
“What you feel, yo?”
“It might be that but it’s also her acting spoilt and attaching herself to the first dick that came along. She was just too happy to kick dad out and hook up with Mr. Pervert.”
“I don’t know… I mean I feel you should tell her straight up what the fuck is up with that, yo.”
“I’m telling you, it’s fucked up when your parents get divorced. They don’t care what they put the kids through,” Josephine said and her voice drifted.
Coco could hear the sadness in her friend’s voice. Josephine had been sheltered by her parents. Their break-up was tearing her apart. She was on her own much the same way Coco felt alone. Deep down inside, neither could stop the gnawing emptiness they each felt but there was comfort in their companionship. Josephine held Coco’s hand.
The evening wore on and Josephine began stirring. She was moving from here to there in the small room. Despite fingering the remote, Coco could sense her nervous shifting and commented.
“You always act this way when you think Deedee is coming, yo,” Coco said as So Ghetto, a Jay Z classic, began ringing out.
I’m so gangsta prissy chick don’t wanna fuck wih me
Iceberg Slim ride rims
I’m so gutter ghetto girls fall in love with me…
“I think she doesn’t like me too much. You better turn that shit down,” Josephine warned. “Remember the last time?”
“Whateva! Later for them. It ain’t even that loud, yo.”
“You’re soo ghetto…”
“You’re the one to talk, yo. First Deedee lets you stay at her uncle’s apartment, then you steal him. And you walking around talking ‘bout you prego for the nigga and talking ‘bout, ‘That bitch don’t like me. Who’s ghetto?”
“Coco c’mon, you know me. I’m a loveable type person. And she goes out of her way purposely to be mean and bitchy to me.”
“I think it’s your paranoia, yo.”
“Oh you think so, huh?”
“I mean why—”
“Coco, we’ll see. Well I’ll see and you’ll hear,” Josephine said, looking at the bandages over Coco’s eyes. “Still don’t know when they’re gonna take those damn things off your eyes? I mean ain’t it time you be out?”
“I’m gonna leave as soon as they say so, yo. Furthermore, I can see far better with the bandages over my eyes. I get to see people with my third eye. I can easily feel out fake ones, yo.”
“Whateva, Coco. Check out your fake-ass friend, when she gets here.” Coco ignored her and listened to the music.
I’m so gutter ghetto girls fall in love with me
You know him well… Goes by the name of Jigga
I’m so gangsta prissy chicks don’t wanna fuck with me…
As the rhymes from Jay Z flowed gently in the background, Deedee walked into the room. She was relaxed in her black Armani jeans and beige blouse and beige Manolo heels to match. Deedee bought a box of chocolate from Balducci’s for Coco.
“Are you allowed chocolate?” Josephine asked when she saw Coco take a couple straight down. She joined Coco and Deedee on the bed, eating chocolate. “This is real good.”
“Isn’t it? But don’t be eating up all my munchies. I gotta have some for later, yo.”
“Let me find out. You be up in here steaming weed or sump’n, huh? Why you be getting munchies, Coco?” Josephine asked.
“Get off my block, yo. Since your nosey ass is already at my front door, it’s because I can’t get up and walk down to the vending machine.”
“Whateva. Don’t give me your stink attitude, blind-girl,” Josephine laughed.
“Yeah, go ahead, I told you, yo. It only forces me to use my third-eye.”
“Hmm… hmm, we’ll see.”
“Y’all two are constantly on each other like sisters,” Deedee opined after quietly listening to Josephine and Coco.
“I gotta put up with her until she gets out of this place,” Josephine said with a chuckle. “Then after that, I’m gonna whup that ass.”
“You can’t be, serious, yo. Whup whose ass? You better watch what you say to me, yo.”
“Oh, this is what I get for visiting a friend, bitch?”
“Ahight, you just been visiting me, Deedee’s been here damn near every day since I’ve been in here. So don’t even act like you been getting it in big time, yo. You still coming
up short.”
“I ain’t had no time for your blind ass. I was busy covering at the studio. The receptionist got married, you know?”
“Oh really? That’s what it was, yo? I thought it was sump’n else.”
“Like…?”
“Like a certain producer…”
“Are you talking about Uncle E.?”
“He’s at the studio with—”
“Nope, he’s in the Hamptons.”
“I told me he was going to the studio, that’s all,” Josephine , sounding impatient.
“He’s been in the Hamptons for a couple days now,” Deedee assured.
“You sure? I’m with Eric all the time. I mean the new receptionists, they told me he was in the listening booth and I know he’s been working with Showbiz and Silky Black making some new tracks for the movie soundtrack,” Josephine snarled. Her claws were about to extend. There was an icy chill.
“I know he’s in the Hamptons. I know nothing about any new receptionists,” Deedee said.
“See, that’s what I mean. You don’t know everything that he’s doing. He hired Kim and Tina last week. I saw them when-”
“Wait up, yo. Hold up. He hired who?”
“Kim and Tina,” Josephine repeated.
“Kim and Tina from ‘round my way?”
“I don’t know. They filled out the applications and gave them directly to Eric. They knew that girl, Pricilla, and that bullshit with Geo—”
“Them the two bitches I can’t stand the most, yo.”
“I didn’t know it was that serious. They were acting like everything was cool. If I’d known, I’d have told Eric not to hire they fake asses. I wanted to do the receptionist gig and I was doing a good job until them two came in the picture,” Josephine said.
“One is Puerto Rican and real pretty and the other is ahight, a black chick, right?”
“Yeah, that’s them—”
“Jo, you better tell Eric to fire their asses right now, yo!”
“Are those the same ones who fired the gun—” Deedee started to ask but Coco didn’t let her finish.
Ghetto Girls IV Page 14