Grand Opening 2

by Carl Weber

  “What’s going on? What’s wrong?” Eric asked, looking concerned.

  “Nothing’s wrong. Everything is right.” And in my mind, everything was right. Sure, I hated the fact that Li’l Momma had snitched on me, causing Levi to leave me, but maybe this was how things were supposed to be. No, I decided, there was no maybe. This was exactly how things were supposed to be, and it was time I realized that I deserved a good life just like the next ho. Perhaps I should have thanked Li’l Momma instead of decking her. If it hadn’t been for her, I could only imagine what the rest of my life would have looked like. Now I didn’t have to imagine.

  “The hell with Levi,” I said to Eric, and our faces formed the biggest identical grins ever. “The hell with the Duncans period. It’s me and you. I’ll follow you through and back if I have to.” I threw my belongings into the back seat of Eric’s convertible, and we rode off into the night. My fairytale had come true.

  LC

  40

  It was ridiculously late when I finally pulled into the driveway of our house. It had been another long day, starting with me getting up at five thirty to feed and spend time with my infant son. Although he was only a couple months old, Vegas was already showing signs of being an early riser, just like me. I would change him and give him a bottle while reading the morning paper aloud to him. I don’t know if it was the sound of my voice, but I swear, he was alert and seemed to comprehend what I was reading. I could tell that he was going to be smart.

  The hour or so that I spent with my son in the mornings was just the beginning of my day, The majority of my time was spent taking care of business at the dealership, and most importantly, selling cars. Business had picked up tremendously since our grand opening. Folks from all over Georgia would come not only to check out our inventory, but to see if there really was a black-owned dealership that sold luxury cars. I felt like some kind of a celebrity.

  After the dealership closed and the doors were locked, my day still wasn’t over. I would come home for a quick meal with my family and then head over to meet with the Council. For hours, we would discuss business at hand and strategize over moves that would benefit all of us. Not only was I learning a lot about the business world, legal and illegal, but they listened to what I had to say and appreciated my input. It made me feel valuable, and I was beginning to understand why Mr. Mahogany had invited me to take the seat he offered. I only wished that I could have shared everything with my brothers. The only saving grace I had was the ability to talk to Chippy about the moves the Council was making.

  My only regret was that ever since the vote on the Young Bloods, Mr. Mahogany had been keeping his distance.

  I turned off the car ignition and mustered up enough energy to get out and drag myself to the side door where I entered nightly. Just as I put the key into the lock, I heard something behind me in the darkness. I quickly turned around, reaching for the small piece I carried in the front pocket of my jacket.

  “Man, it’s about time you showed your ass up. Where you been?”

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” I said, both relieved to hear the familiar voice and angry at the same time. “Man, get the hell away from my house.”

  I stared at Lou as he came out of the shadows. I hadn’t seen him since the cookout, and I was still pissed at him for what he’d done. He had tried calling the dealership a few times, but I refused his calls, and every time he called the house, Chippy hung up the phone as soon as she heard his voice. She had vowed to stab him when she laid eyes on him, and I believed her.

  “Come on, LC. Don’t be like that.”

  “Motherfucker, do you know the severity of what you did? How you disrespected my wife? She’s still pissed at me for what you did, and she swears she’s gonna get you, man,” I warned him.

  “I’m sorry. If you’d just let me explain—”

  “Ain’t shit for you to explain. You ain’t no dummy, Lou. That’s why you sneakin’ around here instead of coming here in the day. There’s no explanation for that.” I tried not to yell, fearing that Chippy would hear us and come to see what was going on.

  “LC, if you would just listen for one minute—”

  A set of headlights pulled into the driveway behind my car, and again, I reached for my pistol. “Who the fuck is that?”

  “It’s probably Larry. He had to put on some clothes and take care of something before he came over here.”

  Sure enough, the car door opened, and Larry stepped out, yelling, “What the fuck y’all standing around for? I told you to be ready when I got here. Let’s go.”

  “Go where? I ain’t going nowhere. I just got home.”

  “He ain’t buying what I’m selling, bro.” Lou walked away, and Larry stepped to me.

  “Then let me make it simple for you, LC. Lou ain’t crazy, and Momma’s alive. Now, get in the fucking car,” Larry said, making it clear it was an order, not a request.

  “What the fuck are y’all talking about?”

  “Lou found the cat that has something to do with taking Momma. The dude confirmed that Momma is alive. He knew where she was, but he wouldn’t tell us, so I tried to choked it out of him.” He hesitated for a minute then added, “I didn’t mean to kill him.”

  My heart began pounding at the thought of my mother possibly being alive. As much as I wanted it to be true, I didn’t know if I would be able to handle the disappointment if it wasn’t. “How do you know this man wasn’t lying? How do y’all know she’s alive?”

  “Because the motherfucker had this.” Lou held something up in the air. I took a step forward to see if it really was what I thought.

  “Is that—?” I whispered.

  “It is. It’s Momma’s.” Lou put the pearl-handled .45 in my hand. I looked at it carefully. It was my mother’s gun, the one that had gone missing the same night she had.

  “Now we just gotta find her. Let’s go,” Larry said again.

  “If you killed the guy who had it, how are we gonna find her?” I asked, still staring at the gun.

  “We gotta go talk to Donna. She—”

  “Fuck Donna.” I stopped Lou before he could go any further. “Now I’m starting to understand what went down, but I still don’t wanna have shit to do with her.”

  “LC, you don’t understand,” Larry told me. “She’s the only one who can help us at this point. Eddie might have said something to give her a clue to where they got Momma.”

  “I’m trying to catch her before she goes to work at the Waffle House, and we gotta drive all the way to Brunswick,” Lou added.

  “I ain’t going,” I said. “Y’all know she don’t mean me and mine no good. She ain’t the only one who can help. I’ll go see Mr. Mahogany.”

  “Hell no. We can handle this ourselves. This is a family matter, and that motherfucker ain’t family!” Lou shook his head. “Donna’s the one who’s been helping Lou this whole time, LC. We don’t have time to deal with Mahogany right now.” Larry touched my shoulder. “I get it, he’s your business partner and you think he has all the connections, but this is a problem he ain’t gonna be able to help fix.”

  “He can and he will. Trust—” I started, but Lou stopped me.

  “Fuck Mahogany and fuck you too, LC. Come on, Larry. Let’s go find Momma.” He headed toward Larry’s car.

  “LC, man, you really not gonna roll out with us?” Larry frowned.

  “No, you guys go. Where’d you put the body? I’ll get rid of it.”

  “A’ight, man, have it your way. I put him in the freezer in the garage. Go over there and handle it, but don’t make too much noise. You know Curtis is a light sleeper,” Larry said, sounding disappointed that I wasn’t going with them.

  He walked toward his car, and I headed in the house. I knew my brothers were pissed because I wasn’t with them, but there was no way I was going to ask Donna to help me with anything, not even finding my momma.

  I had to call Mr. Mahogany and tell him what was going on. Walking over to the phone
on a small table in the corner of the living room, I noticed a small piece of paper with my wife’s handwriting: Went to Waycross. Will be back before late. Kids are at Nee Nee’s. Love, Chippy.

  “What the hell?” I said aloud to no one. This entire time I had been wondering why Chippy hadn’t come out complaining about my loud-ass brothers, and come to find out she wasn’t even home.

  The ringing of the phone caused me to jump.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, baby.”

  “Hey, where the hell are you?” I asked my wife.

  “I’m about halfway home.”

  “Okay, I’ll try to wait up for you. Lou and Larry just left.”

  “What? Why the fuck was Lou at my fucking house, LC?” Chippy yelled so loud that I held the receiver away from my ear.

  “Calm down, babe. You’re not going to believe this. . . .” I told her everything that had transpired since my brothers showed up.

  “Oh my God. Where are they now?” she asked.

  “They went to find Donna at some Waffle House in Brunswick,” I told her then pulled the phone away again because I expected her to start yelling when she heard Donna’s name.

  Donna

  41

  I waited until the very last minute to leave for work. I had been up most of the night, waiting for either Lou or Eddie to call, but neither did, and I was worried—about Lou, at least. It was slightly after five in the morning, and my shift started at five thirty. I dialed Lou’s number one last time and got no answer, so I relented and headed out.

  The streets of Brunswick were pretty much empty, and so was the parking lot when I got there. We didn’t really get busy until around eight on Saturdays, so I wasn’t surprised. After I parked and got out of my car, I scanned the lot, hoping to see a car that belonged to one of the men I was waiting to hear from.

  “I thought we had a deal.” The voice came out of nowhere, startling me. I stopped in my tracks, squinting in the predawn darkness toward the direction it had come from.

  “Chippy,” I whispered, recognizing the shadow of a woman walking toward me. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  “What the fuck were you doing at my house?”

  I prepared myself for the fight that I knew was coming. It had been a week since the last time we stood face to face in the front yard of her home, and I could see from the anger in her eyes that she had been thinking about me as much as I had been thinking about her.

  “Don’t play stupid. You know exactly why I was there,” I hissed.

  She rushed toward me and snatched the collar of my uniform. I stumbled backward, reaching my arms out to steady myself and to block her.

  “We had a deal. You swore to me!” she yelled in my face.

  “You had a deal with a junkie. I’m not that woman anymore.” We stood head to head, eyes locked.

  “Do you think you can just take him from me?” She reached for me again, and I moved just in time.

  “He’s mine. He’s always been mine.” I snickered, determined not to be intimidated by her although my heart was pounding. Any other time, I would have been frightened. Everyone knew that Chippy had a crazy side. She was the one responsible for the scars on that woman Shirley’s face, and there was also talk about her killing her own mother. But I knew that this confrontation was a long time coming, and I wasn’t going to back down. I had too much at stake and was ready to fight for what was mine.

  “Never gonna happen, bitch,” she growled.

  “Why don’t we ask LC about that?”

  “Keep my husband’s name out your mouth.”

  Smack!

  This time, the palm of her hand connected with my cheek. I reached up to rub the stinging on my face then instinctively, my fingers balled into a fist, and I punched her in the stomach.

  “Yeah, I ain’t a weak junkie like I was in the past. I’m stronger than you think,” I told her. She flinched, but it didn’t stop her from coming at me again, this time with so much force that I did fall backward. Within seconds, she was on top of me, and she grabbed two handfuls of hair. I don’t know why this bitch was always going for my hair. My legs flailed under her body, and we both grunted and groaned in between blows.

  “What the hell is going on here?” My manager came around the corner.

  I don’t think Chippy even realized he was there until he pulled her off me. I scurried to get away and grabbed onto the side of my car to pull myself up off the ground. I felt a hand on my body, lifting me, and I looked up to see Larry, scowling. I snatched away from him and turned my attention back to Chippy. We were both panting and looked like ragged messes: hair tousled, clothes torn, and faces covered in dirt and sweat.

  “Shit! Chippy, Donna!” I heard Lou’s voice before I saw him.

  “Donna, are you all right? Should I call the cops?” my manager asked.

  “It’s okay, Jerry,” I said, trying to regain my composure despite my ripped uniform.

  “You know I don’t have that kinda stuff going on here at my place. I won’t stand for it.”

  Shit, the last thing I needed was to get fired. That job was damn near the only thing I had left in life.

  “I’m sor—”

  “Hey, no damage done, Jerry,” Lou said, releasing Chippy, who still looked at me as if she wanted to kill me. “Lemme just have a few moments with Donna, please.”

  “A few minutes? Her shift started damn near ten minutes ago,” Jerry replied.

  Lou reached into his pocket, took out a couple of folded bills, and passed them to him. “This should cover any time she missed.”

  Jerry looked at the money then said to me, “You hurry up and get yourself together before coming in here.”

  “I will.” I nodded.

  “This ain’t over, bitch!” Chippy tried to lunge for me again, but Lou held her tightly. “Stay away from my family.”

  “I just wanted to see him, that’s all,” I said.

  “Why? He’s mine, he’s happy, he’s fine.” She spat at me. “I’m warning you to stay the fuck away from him.”

  “You don’t tell me what the fuck to do. If I wanna see my son, I’ll see him. And he’s not yours. He’s mine!”

  Again, she lunged at me. “Well, I got papers that say he’s not. I’m his mother, Donna, and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

  LC

  42

  I showed up at Mr. Mahogany’s house unannounced a little after six a.m., because I knew he played tennis with his driver at that time. I didn’t call ahead because I didn’t want to disturb Belinda, who had made it very clear she did not like when people called before seven in the morning. That was funny, considering when I stepped out of my car, she was rushing out of the house, dressed and made up like it was three in the afternoon, with two brothers carrying suitcases behind her. She had to do a double-take to notice me, otherwise she would have breezed right past without saying a word.

  “Oh, LC, how you doing, honey?” She gave me that fake-kiss shit on each cheek. “He’s around back with James.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “You look like you’re in a hurry.”

  “I am.” She smiled. “Going down to Saint Simons Island and the beach for the weekend.”

  “I won’t keep you then. I need to speak with Mr. Mahogany about my mother.”

  “Your mother? What about Bettie? Did they find those bastards that killed her?”

  I now had Belinda’s full attention. That’s the thing about women: they have this sensitive and nurturing thing about them. Not five seconds ago she looked as though she was headed out to conquer the world, but just the mention of my mother and she put the world on hold. That’s just one of the reasons why I respected her and Mr. Mahogany the way I did. If you were a part of their circle, you were like family. That’s a concept my brothers hadn’t adapted to.

  “Not yet.” I told her. “But my brother has found proof that she’s alive.”

  Belinda turned her back to me and took a few steps toward the gent
lemen. She whispered something to them, probably telling them her trip was being postponed, and then walked back to me.

  “Come on. I’ll take you around back.” She looped her arm through mine as she led me to their front door. We walked through the living room and then to the den and out a sliding glass door into their perfectly manicured backyard with a pool, pond, and tennis court.

  “Honey, you have company.” She waved at her husband, who was wearing an all-white short set.

  “LC!” Mr. Mahogany shouted, sounding surprised to see me. “Was I supposed to meet with you today?” He looked across the tennis court at James, who shook his head at the same time I gave my answer.

  “No, I just needed to talk to you.”

  “It’s about his mother,” Belinda chimed in. “Like I said before, we always have time for a friend in need.”

  A look of concern crossed Mr. Mahogany’s face as he walked over. I had to admit, other than my brothers and Chippy, no one else had expressed such deep concern or protectiveness for me. It made me feel all the more confident about my decision to talk with Mr. Mahogany.

  “What’s going on, son?” Mr. Mahogany asked. “Something we can help you with?”

  Belinda walked over to her husband’s side, evidence that they were a joined force. That was me and Chippy. That would be us in the future as well: a strong black couple. They looked like a force to be reckoned with. That’s what I aspired to be.

  “His brother convinced him his mother’s alive,” Belinda said on my behalf.

  “Bettie alive?” Mr. Mahogany said, extending his hand to the bench. “That sounds a little far-fetched, doesn’t it?”

  “It did until early this morning.” I took a seat, and Mr. Mahogany sat next to me. Belinda stood by his side. “My brother Lou showed me proof that she may be alive.”

  Silence fell over our group. For the first time since I’d known him, Mr. Mahogany was at a loss for words. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was shocked that my mother was alive, or if he thought I was crazy for believing that my mother, for whom we’d had a funeral, could be alive.