Grand Opening 2

by Carl Weber

  “Eric, don’t!” I shouted.

  He turned toward me for a brief second but kept his gun raised.

  “Please,” I said.

  Eric sneered at me and turned back to Levi.

  Standing before me were two men I loved, and I had to make a choice.

  I squeezed the trigger. The bullet hit Eric in his neck, and he dropped to the ground. “Sorry, Eric, but how could I ever tell my baby I let his father be killed?”

  “Sh–Sh–Shirley?” Levi looked over at me.

  “Come on, Levi. We gotta get the hell outta here. Now.”

  Donna

  47

  “What the fuck do you mean, ‘Where’s Levi’?” Lou’s voice was so loud that I heard him through the front door of the Waffle House, where Larry and I were talking. I was still wiping the angry tears from my eyes and trying to get myself together before clocking into work.

  “Did he say Levi?” Larry looked at me.

  “That’s what it sounded like.”

  Without another word, we both headed back outside.

  “You’re never gonna believe this shit,” Lou said, rushing over. Chippy followed close behind him.

  “What now?” Larry looked like he’d about had it.

  “Chippy’s car is gone, and Levi took it.”

  “What? Why was Levi with you?” Larry asked Chippy, who was now distraught for a whole other reason that wasn’t caused by me.

  “I got him from Big Shirley’s. Li’l Momma told me that Shirley’s been cheating on him with some dude, and she’s planning on opening her own place. I couldn’t just leave him there,” Chippy told them. “He was sitting right in my car with his dogs. I don’t know what happened.”

  “Wait until I see Shirley,” Larry growled. “I’m gonna kill that cheating bitch.”

  “This don’t make no kinda sense,” Lou said. “Couldn’t nobody have jumped in the car and stole it with Levi’s big ass and them dogs in it.”

  “Well, maybe he took the car himself,” I suggested.

  They all turned and looked at me as if I had lost my damn mind. The thought of Levi taking off in Chippy’s car was kind of far-fetched, but it was possible.

  “Shut the fuck up, Donna. You know Levi can’t drive. Someone must’ve taken him.” Lou began pacing back and forth.

  “I’m sorry,” Chippy said. “I told him to wait right there.”

  “I don’t believe this shit. How the hell are we gonna look for both Momma and Levi?” Larry asked.

  “We ain’t looking for Levi,” Lou answered.

  “Huh?” we all asked at the same time.

  Larry pointed at me and Chippy. “They are.”

  “Who the fuck is they?” I folded my arms. “I have to work. I’m surprised Jerry ain’t came out here and fired my ass anyway.”

  “Fuck that job. This is both y’all’s fault, so y’all both go find him.”

  “How is this my fault? I ain’t have shit to do with this.” I glared over at Chippy and rolled my eyes. “She’s the one who brought her ass to my job and left him in the car, not me.”

  “She wasn’t rolling on the fucking ground by her damn self. Larry and I gotta go find Momma.” He turned to Chippy and said, “Look, you lost his ass; you better find him.”

  “I don’t even have a fucking car,” Chippy reminded him.

  “Donna does. Now, both of y’all go find my fucking brother. I mean that shit. Let’s go, Larry.” Lou was so damn forceful it was almost sexy.

  Before Chippy and I could protest again, the brothers had taken off across the parking lot and jumped into Larry’s car, burning rubber as they pulled out. I couldn’t believe what he expected us to do. First, trying to find Levi’s ass was gonna be like finding a damn needle in a haystack. We didn’t even know what direction he had gone in. Second, as much as I wanted to help Lou, there was no way I wanted to be around Chippy’s ass. Third, if I left, I was definitely going to be fired.

  “What the hell are you waiting on?” Chippy interrupted my thoughts. “Let’s go.”

  I didn’t respond.

  “Fine. If you don’t wanna leave, then give me your damn keys and I’ll go find Levi by myself.” She held out her hand.

  “Listen, I know you’re used to bossing folks around and having them do what the fuck you tell them, but I ain’t one of them, okay?” I glared at her.

  “Donna, we got customers in here waiting.” Jerry came out the door and called for me. “You’re late!”

  “I’m coming,” I yelled back. “Give me five minutes.”

  Chippy was still holding out her hand. “I need your keys before you go in.”

  “I’m not giving you shit. Are you crazy?” I snapped.

  “Look, Donna, either you give me the keys or I will fucking take them. Lou has been going on and on about how you’re being so fucking helpful and don’t have an agenda, now here you are being the bitch that I know you truly are. I was right about you all along.”

  “You don’t know shit about me, Chippy, or everything I’ve done over the past few weeks to help. I was the only person who believed Lou when he said Miss Bettie was alive. All of y’all said he was crazy and didn’t wanna listen, but I did. And yeah, I do have an agenda, because like it or not, the Duncans are family. My family. The only family I have left.” I didn’t want to let her see the tears that were threatening to fall, but it was no use. A single tear slipped out and traveled down my cheek.

  Chippy stared at me for a second then finally said, “If you’re so worried about family, then get in the fucking car and let’s go find Levi. What the fuck are you waiting on?”

  I glanced at Jerry, still watching us from the doorway, then back at Chippy. I could only pray I was making the right decision as I reached into the pocket of my uniform and took out my keys.

  “Let’s ride,” I said to Chippy.

  * * *

  For hours, we rode through the streets of Brunswick, hoping to spot Chippy’s car. At first, there was an awkward silence and we didn’t say anything. After a while, I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I broke the ice.

  “Chippy, I wasn’t going to take him from you. I promise. I just wanted to see him. I always think about how he looks now, how big he’s gotten . . . you know, shit like that. I was curious. I’m his mother; I’m not a threat.”

  She considered my words for a minute, but when she answered, she didn’t sound mad. “I guess that’s understandable, but you have to realize why I was upset. We had a deal.”

  “I wasn’t in my right mind when we made that deal and you know it, Chippy. One thing I’ve always respected about you is that you’re a smart woman, which is probably why you made me the offer that you did. You knew that I was a dope fiend, and you dangled a fix in front of my face during one of the hardest days of my life. You knew I would make the choice that I did.” Admitting that I chose heroin over my son was not something I was proud of, but I had waited a long time to have this conversation, and now it was time.

  “I . . . I did what was best for Junior.” Her voice cracked slightly.

  We approached a stop light that turned red, and I turned to look her in the eye. I could feel some sort of understanding between us, a kind of truce, you might say.

  “You did what you thought needed to be done to keep your husband,” I said. “You knew that if I kept the baby and LC found out, he would be spending time with his son, and that would mean time away from you. And although you knew he loved you, in the back of your mind, you knew that there was a slight chance that his love for his child might reignite his love for me. So, you decided to get rid of me.”

  Chippy just stared at me. She didn’t deny what I said, because we both knew I was right, but she did try to spin the story in her favor. “LC would’ve never let you have Junior strung out the way you were. He would have killed you. I honestly believe that.”

  “I don’t believe he could kill me,” I said. Deep down, I felt that LC still loved me. At least that was what I wanted
to believe.

  “Well, trust me, if he didn’t do it, he would have had Larry do it,” she said as the light turned green and I continued driving.

  I sighed heavily. “Kind of scary thinking about the man you loved doing something like that.”

  “Don’t take this wrong, but love doesn’t live there no more, Donna. LC and I are soul mates with an unbreakable bond. As special as you think you and him were, it doesn’t hold a candle to what we have.”

  “I think I found that out on my wedding day. You don’t have to gloat.”

  “I really wasn’t trying to. I was just trying to make a point.” She actually sounded sincere.

  “Point taken.” I decided to change the subject. “I never thanked you for saving us, me and Junior. Truth is, if you hadn’t come and kidnapped my ass, we probably both would be dead. So, you’re owed that much.”

  “Donna, I’m sorry—”

  “Don’t. Please don’t patronize me. I still don’t like you, and you don’t like me. We ain’t friends, and we never will be. This ain’t no fucking Kumbaya moment, Chippy. It just is what it is. We both made choices that we have to live with. You made yours, and I made mine. I’ve said my peace, and that’s all I ever wanted to do.”

  “I respect that. And you’re right, you’ll always be a bitch that I can’t stand,” Chippy responded.

  “Now, where the hell is Levi? We been down every street in Brunswick at least three times. The sooner we find him, the sooner we can get the hell away from each other.”

  “Let’s go to Waycross. Maybe he’s at Big Shirley’s,” Chippy said.

  “Yeah. Plus, I could use a drink.”

  We made it to Big Shirley’s, and all eyes were on us when we walked inside. I know folks were shocked not only to see me, but to see me there with Chippy. She spoke and acted like it was no big deal as we walked over to the bar.

  “Have you seen Levi?” she asked the bartender.

  “No, Miss Chippy. Not today.”

  “Give us two bourbons. I’m going to Shirley’s office to use the phone,” she told him.

  “Sure thing, Miss Chippy,” he said.

  “You gonna wait here?” She looked over at me.

  “May as well,” I said, sitting on one of the stools.

  “Lawd, who woulda ever thought there would come a day when prissy-ass Donna would be sitting at Big Shirley’s whorehouse having a drink.” She chuckled.

  I was just about to respond when the front door burst open and Shirley came rushing inside, with Levi right on her heels.

  “Shirley! Levi!” I shrieked.

  “And in walks the only woman in the world who I hate more than you right now,” Chippy said with a scowl.

  Larry

  48

  We pulled into the parking lot of Donna’s building and sure enough, there was a blue Continental, which I assumed was Eddie’s. We jumped out, and Lou began looking through the glove compartment of Eddie’s car, while I fumbled under the front seat until my fingers found what I’d been looking for.

  “Bingo,” I said, holding up the keys.

  “There ain’t shit in here but eight tracks and chewing gum,” Lou said.

  “Let’s check out the trunk,” I suggested. We walked around to the back and I popped it open.

  “What the fuck is this shit?” Lou asked, waving his hand in front of his nose. “Is that garbage?”

  “Looks like it.” Inside the trunk was a garbage can and several plastic bags full of trash that looked like someone had already rummaged through. Papers were strewn everywhere.

  “That Eddie was one strange motherfucker,” Lou replied.

  We took out the garbage can and began to sift through the papers. It appeared that whoever the trash belonged to was an important person, based on the business envelopes and letters. These weren’t just standard bills. They looked like official documents.

  “Who the fuck is Dwayne McCarty?” I asked, holding up an envelope and reading the name on the front, “It looks like this is his shit.”

  “Dwayne McCarty? That’s the guy the dude was asking Eddie about right before he smoked him.” Lou took the papers from my hand. “Said he had something to do with Momma.”

  “You ever heard of this cat before?”

  “Hell no. But we’re about to meet him.”

  “I guess we’re headed back to Atlanta, huh?” I took back the envelope, tearing off the address and putting it into my pocket.

  “Yeah.” Lou slammed the trunk and we hurried back to the car, heading to Atlanta in search of Dwayne McCarty and hopefully, another clue to finding our mother.

  * * *

  “Hey man, wake up. We’re almost there.” We’d just hit the Buckhead city limits when Lou tapped me awake. We had grabbed a map when we stopped to gas up and use the bathroom. It had been a long-ass night, and it seemed that the day was going to be even longer. I hadn’t had much more than a cat nap here or there over the past twenty-four hours, but I wasn’t tired. Driving a tractor trailer had taught me how to condition my body to endure very little sleep.

  “Hey, let me ask you a question,” Lou said as I sat up and looked around.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Are you sure that it was a good idea having Chippy and Donna pair up like that to find Levi? We probably shoulda just brought Donna with us.” He sounded genuinely concerned, which surprised the hell out of me. He wasn’t one to get sentimental.

  “They’ll be fine. Chippy may be crazy, but she ain’t that crazy,” I assured him.

  “Shit, I think Big Shirley would beg to differ. We see just how crazy Chippy is every time we look at Shirley’s face.”

  “Man, fuck Big Shirley. Here I was thinking that she really loved him.”

  “Me too. But it’s her goddamn loss.”

  Lou was laughing, and I gave him a strange look. I didn’t see a damn thing funny about everything that had been happening lately.

  “We own a whorehouse,” he explained. “Our brother’s not gonna have a problem getting laid, but with that cut-up face of hers, she’s gonna have one hell of a time finding a job.”

  “You know, I never thought about it like that.” I started to laugh too.

  Lou turned to me. “Hey, Larry, you think maybe Levi really can drive?”

  “Hell no. Who the hell woulda taught him? Think about it. Do you really think Levi is capable of stealing a car and driving it? Come on, man. That’s crazy talk.”

  “Hell, I ain’t think that nigga could make a baby either, but it happened,” Lou replied.

  “Damn, you got a point there too.” I nodded. “Well, we’ll deal with that shit later after we find Momma. We gotta figure this out first.”

  “This is the street, right?” Lou asked.

  “Yeah, we’re close to this cat’s house.” I pulled the address out of my pocket and double checked. “Yep.”

  Lou let out a low whistle as we turned down the street. “This is a rich-ass neighborhood.” I sat up and looked out the window at the huge houses we passed.

  “There it is.” I pointed at a huge brick house with a perfectly manicured lawn.

  Lou slowed down a bit then parked about a block from the house. We’d learned from our old loan sharking days you never park in front of someone’s house. I prepared myself to jump out of the car, but he stopped me while my hand was still on the door.

  “Wait a second,” he said.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Something’s going on over there. Look.” There was a bunch of guys near a van parked outside his house.

  “Maybe they’re his security. I told you those papers looked important, and look at these houses. It’s obvious he’s rich.”

  “Naw, these ain’t no security-type dudes. Let’s just wait this out a second,” he said.

  We watched as two guys opened the back of a blue van. They both were armed and waiting on something or someone. A few seconds later, three men came out of the house. One was white, and his hands were t
ied behind his back and his mouth was gagged. The men tossed him into the back of the van, then they all climbed in.

  “You think that was the guy we’re looking for? Dwayne McCarty?” I turned and asked Lou.

  “I’m thinking it is. Come on. Wherever they’re going is the same place we are.”

  The van took off, and we followed.

  Big Shirley

  49

  “Chippy!” I rushed over to the bar where she was standing. I had no idea why she happened to be there, but seeing her was a sight for sore eyes. Then, in my peripheral vision, I caught a glimpse of the woman seated on one of the stools, and I stopped walking so suddenly that Levi bumped into me. “Why the hell are you here?”

  “I’m here with her,” Donna pointed at Chippy.

  “That’s a damn lie and we both know it. You need to get the hell out of my place before we throw your ass outa here.” I walked over and stood in front of her, “Now get the fuck out.”

  “She ain’t going nowhere.” Chippy walked over and stood in front of me, “As a matter of fact, I should be asking you why the hell you’re here. You think we don’t know about you cheating on Levi? When Larry and Lou get here, you’re the one who’s gonna get thrown out.”

  Chippy was so close to me that I could feel her breath on my face. I took a step back. There weren’t many woman I’d back down to in a fight, but she was one of them. The last time the two of us had a confrontation, she caused permanent damage, and I wasn’t about to take the chance of her doing it again. Besides, I was more concerned with finding the Duncan brothers and telling them what happened.

  “Looks like you’re the one who needs to be leaving, Shirley,” Donna said with a smirk. Then that bitch had the nerve to look past me and say, “Levi, are you okay? We’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “Yeah, where the hell have you been, and where the hell is my car?” Chippy walked over to him.

  “I–I–I g–got Sh–Sh–Shirley.” He smiled at her.

  “What the hell you mean, Levi? Who took you to get Shirley?”

  “He did. He drove himself. He said he saw me, and he followed me,” I explained.