Girls From da Hood 7

by Nikki-Michelle Redd

  “If I ever step foot in anybody’s church, as much shit as I done did, the bitch liable to burn up,” her mother would say.

  Growing up, Candy never did understand what her mother meant. But once she got older and started doing dirt, her mother’s words suddenly made sense.

  Candy closed her eyes and bowed her head. “Lord, please don’t let this church burn down, at least not while I’m in it,” she prayed. She opened her eyes, took a deep breath, and walked into the church.

  Candy was greeted at the door by one of the ushers. The usher looked around the church for an empty seat. Spotting one next to the mother of the church, he took Candy by the hand and escorted her to the bench.

  The mother of the church recognized Candy immediately. She picked up her purse off the bench, and placed it on her lap. She sat up straight and moved both of her legs to the right so that Candy could get past her. Once Candy was seated, the mother of the church gave her a hug. She patted Candy on her right knee. She was happy to see Candy, and expressed it by clapping her hands to the rhythm of the song that the choir was singing.

  Out of the corner of her right eye, Candy noticed the pastor walking into the church from an adjacent door that led from his office. He was dressed in a long red and black robe, with a cross in the center of it. His head was bald and his salt-and-pepper beard was neatly trimmed. Aside from the gray in his beard, he didn’t look like he had aged a bit.

  Damn, he looks good, Candy thought.

  The pastor walked to his chair and took a seat. He then reached over to his right and shook the hand of the reverend sitting next to him. He turned to the reverend to the left of him and shook his hand.

  Candy noticed that the church was in serious need of renovating. The gold cross above the choir stand needed to be repaired. The material on the pastor’s chair was discolored. The words “This Do In Remembrance of Me,” inscribed along the border of the table sitting in front of the front pews, were chipped. Two pianos sitting on opposite sides of the choir stand were out of tune.

  The pianist/choir director was playing a hymn while the ushers walked up and down the aisles, passing the collection plate around the church. Candy looked over her right shoulder at two ushers who were two rows behind her with the collection plate. She dug into her purse and took out a pen and her checkbook. She wrote out a check to the church and waited for the usher to get to her row.

  A man sitting to Candy’s left passed her the collection plate. Candy placed the check face down in the plate, which mostly held change. She tried to hand the plate to the mother of the church. But the mother of the church looked straight ahead, as if she didn’t see the plate.

  But, when they used to serve food in back of the church, yo’ old ass was the first to eat, Candy thought as she reached past her, and handed the plate to the usher.

  When the ushers were done taking up the collection, they poured all of the money into one bucket. They then passed the bucket to the pastor, who was standing at the pulpit. The pastor placed his offering into the bucket and instructed the congregation to bow their heads.

  “Lord, bless all of those who gave, and all of those who were not able to give. In Jesus’ name, amen,” the pastor prayed. He passed the bucket to one of the deacons who stood to his right. He then slipped on his reading glasses, and opened his Bible.

  “Today’s sermon is about Jesus on your caller ID.” The pastor nodded.

  The church erupted in a wave of “amen.”

  “Now, so many of us have had what I call callings. Callings from the Lord Jesus Christ, who is ahead of my life. Now, I don’t know about your life, but He who is in heaven is ahead of my life.”

  “Amen,” rang out over the church.

  “And when we have these callings, instead of answering them, we push ignore. In our minds, we push ignore. Now, when I say we, I’m not talking about me, I’m indirectly talking about some of you.” He pointed to the congregation. “Ain’t no need to ugh ... candy-coat it. I’m talking about you.”

  Candy looked surprised. It sounded almost like the pastor was talking directly to her.

  “When you about to do something against God’s Word and your conscience start bothering you, that’s the Lord calling.”

  “Amen, Pastor,” someone yelled.

  “When you listen to the choir singing, and you start singing the words to the song with a voice that you never knew that you had, that’s the Lord calling you to join the choir. When a person kills, robs, commits adultery, harms a child, set fire to the church, or just does anything against my God—against my God”—the church erupted in cheers and applause—“he or she who has done these wrongs had a calling from God before they did it. Y’all don’t hear me, church. Yes, thieves have callings, whether you believe it or not. On the outside they wanna be thought of as being hardcore, feared, nothing to mess with. I know y’all know what I’m talking about.”

  Candy was ready to go. She still had to go after Feo and Ken and needed to keep a clear mind. She didn’t have room for her conscience to be bothering her.

  “But, on the inside, they just as small as the day they were born,” the pastor told the church.

  One of the deacons walked from in back of the church with something in his hand. He approached the pastor and handed it to him.

  Seeing that the pastor was distracted, Candy stood up. She held up a finger, and slipped past the mother of the church, whose eyes were closed. Candy headed to the back of the church.

  “Amen,” the pastor said and looked at the paper that the deacon had given him. “I have a check in my hand in the amount of $250,000 from Carolyn Tweedy.” He looked at the name for a second time. Carolyn Tweedy? That name sounds familiar, he thought as he looked from member to member, trying to match the name with a face.

  Candy stopped walking. She looked to her right and tried to force her way through a row of seats.

  The pastor noticed the commotion and, removing his glasses, looked at the back of the church. “Something wrong?”

  Candy was awkwardly standing between two people sitting in the second-to-last row of benches. The pastor recognized her. He slipped his glasses back on and smiled.

  “C-a-r-o-l-y-n Tweedy.” He extended his right hand out to her. “Would you please join me up here?”

  Candy walked out from between the row of seats. She lowered her head and took small steps toward the pastor.

  “It’s all right,” the pastor said, sensing her nervousness. “Amen.”

  Candy stopped in front of the pastor. She kept her eyes on the carpet. For the first time in her life, she was ashamed of her life.

  “Nice to see you again, Carolyn.”

  Everybody in the church sat in complete silence.

  “I want all of you to meet Carolyn Tweedy. She was raised here in this church and sang in our youth’s choir.” He looked at Candy. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

  Candy kept her eyes on the floor. There was something about being in church that humbled her. It was as if the Lord was on her caller ID, and instead of pushing ignore, she answered it.

  “I don’t even know how to begin to thank you for such a huge contribution to the church.” The pastor smiled.

  Candy looked up and met his smile.

  “So, what is the nature of this blessing?”

  “Well, I noticed that the church needed a few repairs and, since I had the money, I thought that I would help,” Candy hesitantly answered.

  “You have done a good deed, and I am glad that you have decided to return to church after all of these years.” He folded his hands together on the pulpit and smiled. “Will I be seeing you from now on?”

  Candy didn’t want to lie to him, especially not in church, but she just wasn’t ready to change her life around. “Normally I ... um, work on Sundays. It took a lot for me to get today off. But ... um, once my shift changes, I’ll be here every Sunday.” Candy actually meant that once she decided to change her life around, she would attend church eve
ry Sunday. “As a matter of fact, I was just about to leave.”

  “All right, Carolyn, but you make sure I see you soon, okay?” He walked around the pulpit and down the three steps. He stopped in front of Candy. He then took a small bottle of anointing oil from the pocket of his robe and unscrewed the top. He shook a little onto his finger and made a cross across Candy’s forehead with the oil. “You mind if I pray for you before you go?”

  Oh, shit! This shit is too much for me, Candy thought. “It’s okay. Yeah, go ahead,” she said. Candy rolled her eyes beneath her closed eyelids.

  He put the palm of his hand against her forehead and closed his eyes. The congregation closed their eyes and lowered their heads.

  “Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you watch over your child, Carolyn Tweedy. I ask that you build a shield around her, protecting her from all of her enemies. Put your hands on her, Lord. I can feel evil spirits ...”

  Damn, he can even feel the shit I’m doing. Beads of sweat formed on Candy’s forehead and onto the pastor’s palm.

  “Evil spirits have planted their seeds within this child’s heart, and I only ask that you dig up those seeds, Lord, and replace them with ...” He paused. Tears were streaming from his eyes. He took a handkerchief from his pocket with his free hand. He then wiped his face. “Replace them with the Word of God. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.” He gave Candy a hug and kissed her cheek. “You be good.”

  Candy nodded, and turned away from the pastor. She walked up the aisle and out of the church.

  Candy ran to her BMW, which was parked across the street from the church. She pushed the keyless remote, opened the door, and jumped inside. The tears that she held in while standing in front of the pastor were flowing freely. It was okay to cry now. Her car was her shield. For the moment, it was protecting her from exposing her weak side to the outside world. Her emotions were trying to get the best of her, but she couldn’t let it happen.

  Candy wiped tears from her eyes. Her thoughts drifted off to Raynail and the possibility of him being sent to the electric chair. Her entire attitude changed. She had one more piece of business to take care of before Raynail’s trial.

  Candy started the car. She glanced at the church. Not now, God. She shifted into drive, and headed home to get ready for a late-night snack with Ken.

  It was nine-thirty at night and Candy had just scaled the six-foot wall that surrounded Ken’s million-dollar home. It was a three-story brick house with vines growing along both sides of the house. Flowerbeds filled with red and yellow roses sat on both sides of the front door surrounded by blue nightlights. The windows on each level of the house had different-colored vertical blinds, with the blinds on the third level of the house being pink.

  Assuming that the window with the pink vertical blinds belonged to a child’s room, Candy decided to enter the home through a second-story window. It wasn’t the children she wanted, but the man who fathered them.

  She circled the house in search of an open window. She noticed a crack in a window on the second floor. The vertical blind was raised with a Renuzit air freshener sitting in the corner of the window. She surveyed the vines along the wall. She was thinking of the easiest way to climb up to the window. There was no easy way. Candy took a deep breath and started up the wall.

  Moving like Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment, she slipped her right foot into a circular piece of vine. She reached over her head with her right hand and grabbed for a vine that resembled a rope. She then pulled herself up, being careful not to cast even the slightest shadow on any of the downstairs windows. She dragged her left foot along the wall, searching for a place to rest it. She looked down and noticed a brick, as high up as her right knee. It was covered by vines and had small specks of bird droppings on it.

  Candy wrapped the vine twice around her wrist. She placed her left hand above her right hand on the vine. She took a deep breath. She then took four quick steps up the wall of vines, until she reached a large brick that was protruding from the wall. Candy leaped onto the brick with her left foot. She slid her right leg between her left leg and the vines on the wall, and rested her right foot on top of her left foot.

  She looked up at the window, which was still a great distance from the top of her head. She wondered how she would reach it. I would’a came out better just knocking on the damn door, she thought as she looked around for another loose vine. Even though the last climb had brought her a few feet closer to the top, it ultimately led her farther away from the open window. She had moved farther to her left, when the window was to her right.

  Beads of sweat formed across her forehead and above her top lip. The vine that was wrapped around her wrist had cut through her skin. A cramp had formed in the calf of her left leg, causing her to tremble. Candy felt that at any moment she was going to fall. She had to switch to another position, and quick.

  She spotted a light fixture protruding from the wall to the right of her and a few feet beneath the open window. She figured that if she could find another vine to her right, just as she had done before, then she could walk up the vines to the light fixture. She would then hold on to the light fixture and pull herself up to the window.

  Candy noticed a loose vine not too far from where she was standing. The vine started at the top of the roof and ended just above a downstairs window. Even though it wasn’t too far away from her, she would still need to either jump or climb to the right, in order to make it over to the vine. I’m puttin’ in all this work to get to this nigga? I swear when I get up there I’m killing his ass, for real.

  To keep from losing her balance, she twisted her wrist out of the vine. She then counted to three. Pushing off from the brick, she swung over to her right. She grabbed the vine with her left hand. She was now dangling from one arm. She could feel herself losing her grip. She held her lips together as she tried her best not to scream. She looked up at the vine that she was holding on to and reached her right hand above her head for the vine.

  Trickles of sweat had found their way from above her top lip down to the crease that separated her top lip from her bottom lip. She licked her lips and looked up at the light, which was only a few feet above her head. She planted both feet against the vines. She took one step up with her left foot. She then reached her left hand above her right hand and pulled herself up. She took another step up with her right foot, placed her right hand above her left hand on the vine, and pulled herself up again. She continued at that pace until she had not only reached the light, but had passed it. She had finally made it to the window.

  She reached for the window with her left hand, while still holding on to the vine with her right. Instead of pushing herself up like she so desperately wanted to, she listened for movement. It was quiet. With a sudden sense of urgency, she pushed up, while kicking at the vines to the right of her. Her left arm was now all the way inside of the window. She released the vine that she was holding. She then slipped her right arm into the window. The only thing standing between her and Ken was the Renuzit. She worried that she would knock it down while climbing into the window.

  Candy braced herself with her left arm. She picked up the Renuzit and threw it outside of the window onto the ground.

  Candy slid hands first into the window right above a toilet. To keep from falling on her face, she had no choice but to hold on to the toilet seat with her left hand, while holding on to the edge of the tub with her right. She then eased to the floor.

  Candy stood up and wiped her hands together. She walked to the open bathroom door, and peered out into the hallway. At one end of the hallway was a closed door, and at the other end was a door that was slightly cracked. She could hear moaning coming from the direction of the open door. This is gonna be his wife’s last fuck, she thought as she quietly followed the moans. The closer she got, the louder the moans became.

  When she reached the door, she looked inside and noticed Ken lying on his back, with his eyes closed and the blanket pulled up to his chest. Beneath the blanket a
nd between his legs was a head moving up and down. The body hung off the bed. A sheet covered everything but the feet, which were covered with white socks. Sounds like the wifey giving mad head. A slurping sound came from beneath the blanket. Candy frowned at the sound.

  “That shit sound nasty,” she whispered. Candy pulled the .357 Magnum from the inside of her bulletproof vest and pushed the bedroom door completely open.

  On the floor, leading from the door to the bed, were two pairs of men’s clothes. They were lying one in front of the other. A white dress shirt with one sleeve turned inside out was on the floor in front of the sock closest to the bed. To the right of the door was a makeup table with a mirror. The rectangular-shaped mirror had small light bulbs running along the perimeter of it. A chair was pushed up to the makeup table. And lying neatly over the back of the chair was a pair of men’s dress pants.

  Candy walked into the room. She discovered a second pair of men’s pants to the left of her on the floor. She looked back at the pants hanging over the back of the chair and then back at the pants that were right next to her on the floor. All kinds of thoughts were running through her head. She looked quickly from one area of the room to the next. On the floor between the bed and the window were two pairs of men’s dress shoes: one black pair and one tan pair.

  Candy stood shocked after realizing what was going on.

  Ken’s heavy breathing grew even louder and the first words out of his mouth since Candy had walked into the room raised the antenna on her head even more.

  “Suck that shit, Feo.” Ken licked his lips. He grabbed for the pillow next to his head. “Awwww, shit! Put ’em in yo’ mouth. Yeah, that’s it. Now, come back up to the head.”

  Candy’s eyes grew as wide as the sun. She lowered the gun. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Ken and Feo? Ken’s moans were starting to irritate her. She tried covering both ears with her hands to drown out the noise that he was making.