Satin Nights

by Karen E. Quinones Miller

  Regina looked at Yvonne but said nothing.

  “Oh, all right,” Yvonne said as she slammed the menu on the table. “Don’t say shit, okay? I’m treating because Robert hasn’t gotten his first paycheck yet. All right, smarty-pants?”

  “I didn’t say a word.”

  “Yeah, well, I heard what you were thinking.”

  Regina shrugged. “It’s true he just ordered prime rib on your dime, but you know what Mama Tee always used to say. If you love him, I adore him.”

  “And you really would if you gave him a chance.” Yvonne leaned over the table. “He’s really sweet, Gina. And he’s treating me like a queen. Fixing me breakfast in bed on the weekends, going food shopping with me . . .”

  “With your money.”

  “Don’t start, Regina,” Yvonne said in a threatening voice.

  “Sorry. Go ahead. You were telling me how great Robert is.”

  “Well, he just is. And I hope you and Puddin’ and Tamika would just give him a chance. If you were around him more, you’d see how great he is.”

  “Uh-huh, and how does he treat Johnny?” Regina asked in an innocent voice.

  Yvonne shifted in her seat. “Well, actually, Johnny’s been spending a lot of time with Mama Tee lately. They haven’t really been around each other. But when they do see each other, Robert treats him good.”

  Regina shrugged. “Like I said, if you love him, I adore him.”

  “Um, hey, baby. Did you order yet?”

  Regina looked up to see a wide-eyed Robert standing over the table, shifting from one foot to the other, like he couldn’t keep still.

  “No, sorry, sweetie. The waiter hasn’t come back yet,” Yvonne said, and patted the seat next to her.

  “Well, um, look. I’m gonna have to take a rain check,” Robert said, scratching his neck and looking around. “I, uh, got a phone call from the office while I was in the bathroom. Um, my office. I, uh, gotta get right over there for, um, a meeting.”

  “Oh. Well, okay,” Yvonne said with a crestfallen face. “I’ll see you tonight, then, okay?”

  “Yeah, baby. I’ll try to get home early,” Robert said as he continued to scratch and fidget. “Um, come on and walk me outside for a minute.”

  Yvonne got up without looking at Regina, picked up her pocketbook, and headed to the door with Robert, who left without bothering to tell Regina good-bye.

  He was in the bathroom either smoking crack or getting zooted up on angel dust, Regina decided. He wasn’t going to keep his job long if he kept going to the office high. But chances were he wasn’t going back to the office. He was going to hole up somewhere and finish his high. Damn, Yvonne was really biting off more than she could chew this time.

  She reached into her pocketbook, took out her cell phone, and dialed Tamika’s number.

  “Hey, Mika,” she said when her friend answered. “I’m sitting here having lunch with Yvonne, and, girl, we’re going to have to have a serious sit-down with girlfriend.”

  “Gina? Are you home? Can you get over here real quick?” Tamika said in an urgent voice.

  “No, I’m on 57th Street at Jimmy’s Downtown. I can jump in the car and get to you in like twenty minutes, though.”

  “Don’t worry about it, then. Let me call you right back,” Tamika said quickly. “I’m dealing with something right now.”

  “What’s up? You okay?” Regina asked, concerned at the distress in Tamika’s usually calm voice.

  “I don’ know yet. I’ll give you a callback in a little bit. I gotta get off the phone now.” The line went dead.

  Regina snapped her flip phone shut just as Yvonne got back to the table. “Look, girl, I gotta split. There’s something wrong at Tamika’s, and I’m gonna shoot over there real quick.”

  “Why? What happened?” Yvonne said as she sat down.

  “I don’t know, but it sounds serious. So I’m on my way.” Regina picked up her pocketbook and car keys. “You said you’re getting the bill, right?”

  Yvonne waved for the waiter. “Hold up,” she told Regina. “I’m coming with you.”

  “Tamika, what’s going on? Are you okay?” Regina said as she and Yvonne entered the brownstone and saw Tamika’s tearstained face.

  “Yes. I mean, no. I mean . . . damn, I don’t know what I mean,” Tamika all but wailed.

  “I can’t believe this shit.” David’s voice boomed from another room.

  “Oh my God, did David hit you?” Yvonne said, rushing over to hug Tamika.

  “What? Oh come on, Yvonne,” Tamika said angrily. “No. Of course, he didn’t hit me.”

  Regina shot Yvonne an angry look, wondering why she would even go there. To Tamika, she said, “Okay, you need to calm down and tell us what the hell is going on.”

  “You guys aren’t going to believe this,” Tamika said in a weary voice. “Two thugs came to my door demanding to see Darren. When I told them he wasn’t here, they told me that he had their drugs and they wanted it back.”

  “What!” Regina all but shouted.

  “Get the hell out of here,” Yvonne said as she sank down in a chair. “Darren?”

  “Yeah, Darren.” David’s towering frame suddenly appeared in the doorway. The six-foot-three man who Regina always thought looked like a teddy bear now looked like an angry grizzly. “Tamika,” he thundered, “did you go through the clothes hamper in the bathroom?”

  “No, I didn’t get to it yet.”

  David disappeared, and the women could hear him tearing through the bathroom.

  “Start from the beginning,” Regina said, sitting down next to Tamika.

  “Okay,” Tamika responded. “These two young thugs came to the door this afternoon and said that Darren had their drugs. They said they had paid him to hold the drugs for them.”

  Regina nodded. “I know they do that a lot. Get young boys to hold or run for them because if they get caught, they won’t get any real time, since they’re underage.”

  “Yeah, but Darren?” Yvonne said skeptically. “That boy isn’t into anything but video games. How the hell did he get into drugs?”

  Tamika shook her head dismally. “All I can figure is that he was trying to get money to pay for some video station, the Xbox 360, that I refused to buy for him last week. He musta been approached and decided to go for it to raise the money himself.”

  “Well, where is Darren? What’s he saying about all this?” Regina demanded.

  “He and Sissy spent the night over at Mama Tee’s. I’ve been trying to get him on the phone all afternoon since this happened, but there’s no answer.”

  Yvonne nodded. “Mama Tee took all the kids to Great Adventure this morning. They probably won’t be home until late tonight.”

  “Regina, you should have seen those guys. They were polite, but they were serious. They said they didn’t want any trouble, but they wanted their drugs back. They said they were going to stop by again tomorrow. I called David right after they left, and we’ve been tearing up the house looking for the drugs ever since.”

  “Tamika,” Yvonne said slowly, “what kind of drugs are they talking about, and how much?”

  Tamika started crying again but wiped at her eyes. “Crack. One hundred vials.”

  “Good Lord,” Regina said in a whisper.

  “Okay.” Yvonne stood up. “You checked his bedroom, I guess. And David got the bathroom covered. Anyone checked the kitchen yet?”

  Tamika nodded. “And the living room and den, too.”

  “Okay, Regina, you take the closets, I’ll take Sissy’s room.”

  “I already checked the closets,” Tamika said as they all stood up.

  “Well, I’ll check them again,” Regina said, heading for the closet in Darren’s room.

  This was no time to be neat, Regina decided as she checked shoe boxes and coat pockets, throwing things on the floor after they’d been checked. It wasn’t until she moved to the hallway closet and found Darren’s favorite jacket that she hit pay dirt.
<
br />   “I got it,” she shouted.

  Tamika, Yvonne, and David came running as Regina carefully spilled the stash of little glass crack vials onto the floor.

  “Where was it?” Tamika asked.

  “In this jacket,” Regina said, pointing to the lightweight green jacket.

  “I looked in there,” David said.

  “There’s a secret pocket in the lining,” Regina said. She picked up one of the vials. “I know because I bought it for him for his birthday last year.”

  “Will you look at all this shit?” Yvonne picked up another vial. “I wonder how much it’s all worth. Did they say, Tamika?”

  “No, but I know it’s worth a lot.” Tamika began scooping the vials up.

  “Give me those,” David said gruffly.

  “What are you going to do with them?” Yvonne asked.

  “I’m turning them over to the police.”

  Regina and Yvonne looked at each other, then at Tamika.

  “Um, David, do you think that’s a good idea?” Regina asked hesitantly. “I mean, those boys are going to be back here tomorrow for their product.”

  “And when they do, we’ll have the police waiting for them,” David said, and hugged Tamika around the shoulders.

  “Yeah, but, well . . .” Regina looked at Yvonne for help, but her friend just grimaced and said nothing. “David, you don’t know this type. You get them arrested, and that won’t be the end of it. The people they work for are going to come after you, if only to save face. They might decide to make an example of you.”

  “Regina’s right,” Yvonne broke in. “It might just be better to give them their shit and call it a day.”

  “Well, I don’t see it like that,” David said as he hugged Tamika more tightly. “Remember, as a lawyer, I’m an officer of the court. I’m not turning over this poison to these young punks to peddle on the street. And I’m not going to be intimidated, either.”

  “Oh God.” Tamika started crying softly.

  “Baby, please don’t tell me you think they’re right,” David said. “You don’t really think we should just cave in to these punks.”

  “No, David,” Tamika whimpered. “But I don’t want to put Darren, and even Sissy, in any danger. They said as long as I gave them back their stuff, they’d just call it even. Maybe we could—”

  “No,” David said emphatically. “That’s not going to happen. I’m the man of this house, and I’m going to protect my family. And I’m not going to do that by bowing and kowtowing to a bunch of drug dealers. If they come back here, I’ll be ready for them. And that’s that.”

  “David,” Regina broke in, in a hesitant voice. “There’s one more thing you might want to consider. If you go to the police, won’t they implicate Darren? I mean, he’ll probably get off easy, but . . .”

  “But he’ll just get a police record,” Tamika wailed. “Oh no, David. I don’t want my son to have a record.”

  “Tamika, calm down. If anything, he’ll get a juvie record, and I can get it expunged.”

  “David, I don’t want my son to get in the system.” Tamika beat him against the chest as she talked. “I’ve seen what can happen. I’m not going to let it happen to my son. You can’t let it happen. You can’t.”

  “Okay, Tamika, okay.” David grabbed Tamika’s hands and pulled her into a hug. “I won’t turn the vials over to the police. But I’m not turning them over to those thugs, either. I’ll get rid of the crack. I’ll throw it down the toilet or burn it in the fireplace or something. Everything’s going to be okay, all right?” He kissed Tamika on the cheek and tried to wipe the tears from her face, but she buried her head in his chest.

  “Ladies, thanks for coming over, and thanks for helping out,” David said as he cradled Tamika in his arms. “But maybe you should leave now. We’ll take care of it from here.”

  Regina nodded, and she and Yvonne walked back to the living room and gathered their things.

  “Morally, David’s doing the right thing,” Yvonne said as they stepped back into the fresh air.

  “Yeah, but I just hope their morals will keep their asses safe,” Regina said dismally. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride home.”

  “Mama Tee, aren’t you tired? We’ve been to seven stores already, and you’ve only bought one dress.” Regina tried to keep the grumble out of her voice, but her feet were hurting and her head was aching, and she knew that her day was far from over. Tamika, Sissy, and Darren were all at Regina’s, since the thugs had promised to visit Tamika’s house again. Camille and Renee were there, too, so Regina had a full house awaiting her.

  When she had promised to take Mama Tee to 125th Street to do some shopping, she thought they’d be finished in an hour, but two hours had already passed, and the seventy-year-old woman still didn’t seem ready to go home.

  “Hmph. You be too young to be complain so much, mon,” Mama Tee said as they strolled out of the children’s clothing store. “Look at me. I be old nuff to be you nana and me still be walking straight and strong. De Lawd don’t be making women like me He don’t. Push me first baby out when I was forty. Still be pushing dem out if me man Sefton ain’t die.”

  “Yes, Mama Tee,” Regina said, following the older woman, who was walking at a pace that was unbelievably fast for even a woman of fifty.

  “Mon, look at dis,” Mama Tee said, pointing at a mannequin in one of the women’s clothing stores. “Blumstein’s used to be here dis spot. You know dem was de first store on dis street with black dummies in the window.”

  “You mean black mannequins?”

  Mama Tee nodded as she moved down the street with Regina at her heels. “Black dummies and de first black Santy, too. Me and you mama brought you and Yvonne to sit on he lap.”

  “I remember,” Regina lied.

  “Course dem only did it ’cause of Adam Clayton Powell, may the Lawd bless his sainted soul.” Mama Tee stopped at one of the many vendor tables on the street. “How much you charge me for dis?” she asked, tapping on a hardcover book.

  Regina gasped. “Mama Tee, since when did you start reading Zane’s books? You’re old to be reading this!”

  “I charge you twenty dollars for it, auntie,” the vendor said in a Nigerian accent. “They sell for twenty-four dollars in the store.”

  “How you be calling me auntie and den charge me twenty dollars?” Mama Tee asked in an indignant voice. “Mon, you gimme dat book for sixteen dollars or I take me damn money elsewhere.”

  “Auntie, I got to feed my kids,” the vendor protested. “Give me eighteen dollars.”

  “Mama Tee, do you know what this book is about?” Regina said, snatching the book from the table. “I don’t think you want—”

  “Me give you seventeen dollars, mon, and not no more,” Mama Tee said firmly.

  “You robbing me, auntie. You want a bag?” the vendor said, taking the book from Regina’s hand.

  “Wait. Gimme dis one and dis one, too.” Mama Tee picked up two more hardcover books. “Same price.”

  Regina looked at the titles and shook her head. “Mama Tee, do you know what kind of books Zane writes?” she asked as they continued down the street.

  “How you do what de girl be writing ’less you read dem?”

  “Yeah, I do, but—”

  “Dem good enough for you and not for me?” Mama Tee chuckled.

  “Mama Tee, those books are erotica. You don’t—”

  “Girl, hush now. Me know what kind of books dem be. Done read five of Zane books already. Good books.” Mama Tee stopped at another vendor stand, picked up a package of incense, and made a face before throwing it back down. “Me like Zane. If me Sefton ain’t die, we be doing dat stuff dat girl be writing, mon. Just ’cause me ting be old don’t mean it be dried up. Me still got the juice.”

  Regina tried to keep a straight face but inwardly laughed. Mama Tee was a mess.

  “Blumstein’s still were not no good store,” Mama Tee said, resuming their earlier conversation as if th
ey had never changed subjects. “Dem ain’t hire no colored folks . . .” She paused. “No black folks till Mr. Powell made dey. And dem charge too much money for dey stuff.”

  Mama Tee stopped in front of another stand, picked up a small plain copper bracelet, and waved it in front of Regina’s face. “You got you baby one of dese yet?”

  Regina nodded, causing Mama Tee to smile. “You mama trained you right,” she said. “Copper bracelets keep a child in good health. Dat and a spoonful of castor oil every day. You be giving dat baby her castor oil?”

  “Yes, Mama Tee.”

  “And her cod-liver oil?”

  “Yes, Mama Tee.”

  “Good girl. Yvonne don’t be give the stuff to my grand, but Johnny gets it when he comes stays with his nana.” Mama Tee put the copper bracelet back down on the stand.

  “You don’t want no bracelet, miss?” said the stand vendor, a light-skinned man with shoulder-length dreadlocks.

  “No. Don’t be needing it,” Mama Tee said as she prepared to move away.

  “Makes me sick when people be poking around my shit and they ain’t intending to buy,” the dreadlocked vendor told a teenager standing next to him. “Old fucking hag.”

  “I beg your pardon, mon?” Mama Tee turned to face the vendor. “What you be calling me?” she asked, fixing him with a stony stare.

  “You’ve got some damn nerve.” Regina stepped up close to the man and pointed her finger in his face. “You’d better—”

  “If you don’t be wanting people to pick up you wares, you don’t be putting dey out here to be picked. Every mon be selling on dis street know dat,” Mama Tee snapped at him. “And you best learn some respect for you elders.”

  “This man disrespect you, auntie?”

  Regina looked up to see the man from whom Mama Tee had bought her books.

  “Called me out me name, de bloody clot.” Mama Tee spat on the ground. “De boy got no raising. He need be thrashed.” She turned to the book vendor. “Go to it, mon. Thrash him good.”

  “Miss, I didn’t mean no harm,” the dreadlocked man said, putting his hands in front of him as if in surrender. “I wasn’t even talking about you.”

  Regina grunted. “Yes, he was. The coward. It’s easy enough to talk shit to an old lady, but I see you change your tune when a man steps to you, huh?”