by Styles, T
“What is it?” I said unable to handle any more bad news.
“You gotta get out of here. You not safe.”
He walked out the door and I was right behind him, on his heels. “What do you mean I’m not safe?”
“Son.” Ramsey said walking up to the house. We both didn’t see Ramsey there we were so caught up in the moment. Everything was happening so quickly. First with Renee now with Dooway and then here was Ramsey. Did he hear us? “What’s going on?”
Dooway looked at his father, and then at me, and walked to his car without speaking. There was something he was trying to tell me, but he wasn’t trying to tell me in front of Ramsey. Ramsey and me both watched Dooway get into his car and pull off.
“What I miss?” Ramsey said walking into the house, with me following behind him. He palmed the boy’s heads like he always did, and then stepped into the living room to take off his shoes. “He seemed to get out of here pretty quick. Did you two have an argument or something?”
“That’s your son not mine.” I said. “He came over looking for you, and then the next thing I know, he had to go.”
“Wow. That’s odd.”
“But he did say I’m not safe here. Do you know what he’s talking about?”
“I’m just as confused as you are.” He was lying. “So…What are you doing tomorrow? I wanted to take you out to eat.” He walked into the bedroom, took his pants off, threw them on the floor and sat on the edge of the bed.
“Nothing. Why…Where we going?”
“Nowhere big. I’m thinking of one of the restaurants in Houston. So you may want to put some nice clothes on.” He walked into the bathroom, pissed with the door opened and said, “Oh yeah…And bring the boys, too.”
“Bring the boys? You never want to go anywhere nice with the boys. You know they don’t have any good clothes to wear.”
“Well I do wanna take them now.” He said giving me no real reason. Then he closed the door.
I took this moment to go through his pants while looking at the door periodically in case he came out. If I heard the toilet flush, I would stop what I was doing. But it didn’t take long for me to find a piece of white paper in his pocket. There were two numbers on it. One was Marisol’s which made me mad and the other caused my heart to thump. I looked hard at the number thinking I was seeing things. Or maybe he knew someone with the same name I knew all my life. And then it dawned on me, how many people in the world had the name Jace? I couldn’t think of but one.
I took the piece of paper, ran into the room and grabbed the boys. We took everything we could grab by hand and got out of the house. I never saw Ramsey again.
The More Shit Changes
2003 Five Years Later
Harmony
My two-bedroom apartment was hot as hell and the fan I had in the window wasn’t cooling off shit. Every window in my place was open and all it was doing was blowing more hot air inside. My life turned out to be nothing as I planned. Here I was, thirty-one years old, with two kids fourteen years of age. And I didn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. I hated the world, I hated everyone and I was starting to hate myself.
I was sitting in the living room, trying to adjust the fan when someone knocked at the door. It was early in the morning so I knew somebody must’ve wanted to borrow something.
“Madjesty, hurry up and bring my plate and then go see who’s knocking at the door,” I told my son. He had just made my breakfast. “And, Jayden, bring me my coffee!” I yelled. My coffee consisted of one part coffee and three parts Brandy.
“Mam?” Madjesty yelled.
“I said bring my food, tell your brother to make my coffee and go answer the door!”
Madjesty pimped slowly towards me, gave me my plate and pimped to the door like he normally did. Once there he opened it wide.
“What up, Felicia.” Madjesty said not really caring for her. Madjesty could be a snotty ass kid if you let him. “Ma, it’s Felicia!”
I rolled my eyes because I already knew what she wanted, some liquor. Our friendship started as a, ‘you help me and I’ll help you’, sort of situation, but lately it had turned into, ‘I do everything for your ass and you don’t do shit for me’.
“Alright, let her in. And get Jayden and tell him to bring my coffee!” I repeated. “I’m tired of talking to him!”
“I’m right here, ma.” Jayden said walking into the living room. He handed me my coffee and both Jayden and Madjesty grabbed their book bags and headed for the door. Their style changed a little over the years. Madjesty wore his hair in short cropped style and Jayden liked his hair long and braided to the back.
“I’ll see you when we get back home from school.” Jayden continued.
“Ma, you got some lunch money for us?” Madjesty asked.
“You know I don’t have no damn money. Tell them people at the school to give you something to eat.”
“But they said you already owe too much money.” Madjesty continued. “And that you gotta start paying them back.”
“Don’t make me get up and fuck you up.” I paused, looking at him seriously. “Now get the fuck out of here and get to school. I said I don’t have no damn money!”
When they left Felicia sat in the living room with me and I poured a little bit of vodka into two glasses giving myself the most.
“Girl, your sons are too cute. They so pretty they look like little girls.” She said downing all of her drink.
“Bitch, don’t say no shit like that to me. I ain’t raising no girls, I’m raising boys!”
“That was a compliment.” She said frowning. “I wasn’t trying to make you mad.”
“Well I don’t like it,” I told her. “Would you want somebody calling you a man?”
“Fuck no.”
“Then so be it.”
“Relax, Harmony. I didn’t mean it like that,” she continued. “But I know you got so much to deal with, with the little girls calling here for them don’t you?”
She then shook her cup for me to pour some more vodka in it. I looked at her glass knowing full well I wasn’t giving her shit else.
“Yeah they call here all the time, and I give them young bitches the business, too. Especially Ivory, the little girl that likes Jayden. She relentless with her nagging ass. He ain’t feeling her too much though. He not like Madjesty who loves the girls 24/7.”
She laughed and said, “I heard that, girl. Uh…Can I have a little more?”
“Yeah…When you finally buy a bottle.”
She looked a little pissed but I didn’t care. “So you still fucking Diamond’s husband?”
I laughed and said, “So I wouldn’t give you some liquor and now you decide to ask me about your cousin’s husband?”
“I asked because I heard they were moving again ‘cause of you. Diamond said she think Dooway still fuckin’ you and she gotta get her husband out of here.”
“What?”
“Her exact words was that she wasn’t gonna let Mrs. Scarface slash Ripped Earlobe steal her man.”
I laughed because the ugly jokes couldn’t hurt me no more. “Well we gonna do us. And that’s all you need to know.”
She laughed and said, “So, you got any smoke on you?”
“What you talking about?”
“Come on, girl. You know.”
I had a twenty bag of weed but I wasn’t giving her shit. “I got a little something but what you gonna give me for it?”
“What you want?”
“You know what I want. For you to testify against that bitch for me in court.” I told her walking to the cabinet to get the bag. “I don’t know why I got to keep asking you anyway. If you didn’t tell me it was cool to go in when I did, I would have never known about the money or the smoke.”
“She’s my cousin, Harmony. Damn, you know I can’t testify for you. You shouldn’t have broken into her apartment.”
“Nobody knows I broke into her apartment. Diamond just thinks it wa
s me because she hates me. You the only one who knows for sure. But don’t forget you smoked her shit up right with me.” I continued. “All you got to do is tell the judge that I was with you that night. That’s it. If I’m with her cousin, you know they can’t pen this shit on me.”
She was silent for a while but I knew I finally had her. The only person broker than me was her. And if she didn’t have me as a friend, that meant she wouldn’t have liquor or weed. I could supply my own high but she couldn’t.
“Okay…Roll that shit up. And,” she paused, “pour me another glass of vodka too.”
I rolled my eyes and did what she wanted. We spent the next twenty minutes getting high and I couldn’t wait to get this court shit over with. I hated court and had been in court for more things than a little over the past few years. I had been locked up for shoplifting, for fighting, for selling pussy and for robbery. If my father could see me now, I wonder what he’d have to say about me. He probably would be disappointed. But I checked out on life a long time ago and now I just did whatever I had to do to get by. It’s funny how life can go a different way for you. I wonder where I’d be if my parents were still around.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Is it your sworn testimony Ms. Felicia Koone, that Harmony Phillips was with you on the entire night that Diamond Koone’s apartment was broken into?” Judge Patricia Barksdale asked her.
I needed her to stick to our story and was confident she would. The only thing that gave me a little doubt was that I saw them talking to each other outside of the courtroom earlier. I hoped Diamond wasn’t able to convince her to go against me. Diamond wanted nothing more than to have me arrested, especially since I was fucking her husband. We were even together earlier in the day and had plans to be together later that night. He could give a fuck about me breaking into her apartment and told me several times he’d made a mistake by marrying her. I wanted Dooway to be mine. I wanted somebody to finally love me and I was hoping it was him.
At first I thought Ramsey would love me, since he couldn’t get a girl like me otherwise. But it turns out that he was setting me up for Jace to catch me. I didn’t even know what Jace wanted. Was he after the kids? Or did he know I was involved in the attempt on his life? Not only did Ramsey try to set me up, I found out how he knew how to get in contact with Jace. He had gotten back with Marisol and they had gotten married while he was living with me. That’s the day he got all nicely dressed. He was a married man and was going to deliver my kids and me over to Jace to get us out of his house. That whole thing he did by asking me if I wanted to go was to throw me off, and it worked. Turns out he never wanted me to begin with.
“Don’t lie, Felicia! Tell the fucking truth!” Her cousin Diamond Koone yelled in the courtroom. “You know damn well this bitch was not with you!”
The judge banged her gavel and said, “Order in court! Order in court!” When Diamond was silent she said, “Now, Ms. Koone, I don’t know how you handle things where you live, but in my courtroom you will maintain your composure.” She demanded. “One more outburst like that and you will be in contempt of court and I will throw this case and you out immediately! Do I make myself clear?”
Diamond rolled her eyes and said, “Yes, your honor judge.”
I was laughing like shit inside. I was going to get away with all of this shit and it was nothing that bitch could do about it.”
“Now, Ms. Koone, is it your sworn testimony that Harmony Phillips was with you the entire night Diamond Koone’s apartment was broken into?”
“Yes. She was with me and we were playing Bingo. So she could not have broken into her apartment. My cousin was mistaken.”
The judge looked at Felicia suspiciously but things were out of her hands, I had an alibi. The judge ruled in my favor and me and Felicia was on our way out the door when Diamond came behind me and pushed me.
I fell face first into the cold dirty floor and turned around. I jumped up as fast as I could and we started fighting in the court building. I was flailing wild punches at her until a cop snatched me up, while another snatched her up and pulled her someplace else.
I was still fussing at her until I saw a familiar face staring at me. She’d aged a bit but it was still her all the same. It was my aunt Angela. If she was there, that meant it wasn’t long before someone from my past found me. It could be Jace or it could be Kali. All I could think of was that I didn’t want to die.
Twin Problems
Madjesty and Jayden Phillips
Madjesty was in the back of the class looking at the cute little girl in the desk directly in front of him. The blue jeans he wore were ragged and the white T-shirt he had on was not too clean. Still there was a swagger about Madjesty that girls were automatically attracted to.
“Rocket.” Madjesty whispered. Rocket was a cute girl whose boyfriend, Baisley, was on the football team. Even though Madjesty knew how deep Baisley and his crew was, it didn’t stop him from hitting on his girlfriend. “Turn around, I gotta ask you something.” He smiled.
“Boy, shut up!” Jayden who was also in the class with him said. “You loud as shit.”
“Man, you shut up.” Madjesty combated. “I wasn’t even talking to you.”
“But the girl don’t want to be bothered.”
Madjesty wasn’t paying his brother any mind. “Rocket, let me get your number?”
“For what?” She flirted back. “You know I got a boyfriend.”
“That ain’t got shit to do with me. I’m trying to get to know you and I know you wanna get to know me, too.”
Finally Rocket turned around and said, “You messing with me and I can’t hear the teacher,” she smiled. There was no denying that she really did like him. “You gonna get me in…”
“Madjesty Phillips, come up here right now and answer the question on this board. Since you want to interrupt my class with side conversations.”
“What? I don’t even know what the problem is about.” Madjesty said pulling his cap down further on his head to hide his eyes. Madjesty always wore a cap and it acted as his safety mechanism against other people. Under his cap he felt no one could see how much he hated his himself inside.
“Exactly. Now since you want to disrupt my class, come up here and do it in the front of everyone.”
Madjesty was so embarrassed but he reluctantly got out of his seat. On his way to the board, Rocket placed a piece of paper in his hand. He didn’t look at it right away because he didn’t want the teacher taking it from him.
Reluctantly he approached the board because school scared him in general. Like his brother, he could barely read. Harmony never bothered to teach them anything by way of education. Once at the blackboard, Madjesty stared at the math question confused. He didn’t know where to start because it all looked foreign to him.
“Go ahead…Answer the question.” The teacher persisted.
“I’m not sure how to answer it,” he said looking at Rocket, who was trying to look away. She was embarrassed for him.
“Well you not being sure how to answer the problem, is not good enough for me. You interrupted my class and now I want you to answer this problem. And my pupils do, too.” She said looking out amongst them. “Don’t you class?”
They all agreed. It was settled, Madjesty was going to have to do an awful job of attempting to answer the problem until the teacher said, “Madjesty, are you okay? I mean…Did you cut yourself?”
“No. Why?” He turned around and looked at her suspiciously.
“Because you’re bleeding. Go to the nurse’s office right now!”
Madjesty tried to look at himself but he couldn’t. The blood was in an awkward position.
“I’m going with him,” Jayden said right alongside his brother.
The teacher knew better than to come in between the closeness of their bond so she allowed them both to leave.
Nurses Office
The nurse’s office was cold and open. And Madjest
y and Jayden sat as quietly as possible waiting on the verdict. When Madjesty first came into her office, the nurse’s mouth dropped when she saw the amount of blood on Madjesty’s clothing. Since she was not authorized to conduct a full examination, she immediately called the paramedics.
“Are you okay, son?” the nurse asked. “Are you in any pain?”
“No, I just don’t know what’s going on.” He said holding his brother’s hand.
“Me either, son. But we’re going to find out right away,” she said examining Madjesty carefully with a once over.
When the paramedics arrived, they took off his clothing and briefly looked over his file. A call was placed to his mother that went unanswered. They didn’t realize that Harmony was locked up at court earlier that day and was unable to answer the phone.
Unable to wait on Harmony any longer, after some time Madjesty and Jayden were placed in the back of the ambulance and rushed to the hospital. After an examination, there were four or five doctors in the room who didn’t understand the information the school nurse had on Madjesty Phillips’, chart versus what they saw. Physically they saw one thing but clerically the chart said another.
After going with his professional assumption, the doctor decided to address Madjesty.
“Madjesty, I have good news,” the doctor said in a concerned tone. “You are fine and there’s nothing for you to worry about. But…But…I’m a little confused on what the nurse has on your health record as your sex.”