Pawns & Kings

by D D Bridges

  Everyone was almost done with dinner and I chose that time to make an announcement. Unbeknownst to all of them, I was about to do something very risky, but it was something that I needed to do. I didn’t know how they would all respond to my plans, but hopefully they would understand why this was important to me.

  “I have something to tell all of you,” I spoke up from my seat at the head of the table. All of their conversation ceased and all eyes were on me. I looked at each one of them before speaking again.

  “I’ve decided to go to Miami to meet my father’s family,” I said. I fixated my gaze on my mother and watched as all of the color drained from her face. I hadn’t told her about the information that Walter gave me about my half-brothers and sisters and where they lived in Miami. I could tell that my announcement caught her completely off guard.

  I could tell that everyone else wanted to lend their support of my decision, but they all seemed to hesitate because of the tension between my mother and I.

  “How long will you be gone?” Natalie asked, being the first to break the silence.

  I looked over at her and she had an unreadable look in her eyes. I hadn’t thought about how this would affect her and our relationship, but I didn’t expect it to cause any problems. This really had nothing to do with our relationship. This was about me meeting the family that I never knew in hopes of discovering more about my father and myself.

  “Maybe a week or two,” I told her before looking around the table again at everyone else.

  “Well I think that’s cool, bruh,” Mike said.

  “Yeah. Miami is the shit,” Kenny said with a smile. “When we leaving?”

  “See, that’s the thing,” I replied. “I’m going alone.” The gravity of the situation hit them all at once and it seemed that they were all waiting on each other to react before they said anything. But then they all started speaking at the same damn time.

  “What you mean you going by yourself?” Terry said.

  “What are you thinking, Darius? You can’t go all the way to Miami by yourself,” Derek added.

  “Darius, are you out of your mind?” my mom said.

  “You crazy if you think we ‘bout to let you go alone,” Kenny said.

  “Yeah, that ain’t gon’ cut it, boss,” Mike said. “Francisco is still out there looking for you.”

  “Yeah, and for all we know he may be just waiting on the opportunity that he can get you alone,” Derek added.

  “Look, I’ve thought about all of that,” I said after being bombarded by all of their questions and opinions. The only ones who hadn’t said anything was Jeremiah and Leah.

  “The bottom line is that this is something that I have to do for me,” I continued. “And it’s something that I have to do on my own.”

  “We understand all of that, but it’s not safe,” Terry reiterated.

  “It’s too risky, Darius. I don’t think you should go without us,” Derek said.

  “My decision is final,” I said. My boys didn’t like it, but they knew not challenge me. My mother on the other hand didn’t hold back.

  “So when were you going to discuss this with me?” she asked from her spot at the other end of the table.

  “Momma, please don’t take this personal,” I said, knowing that my decision was hurting her. Even though we reconciled after the truth came out about my father and his family, it was still a sensitive subject for both of us. But whether she chose to accept it or not, I was doing what was best for me.

  “Why are you going?” she asked.

  “Because I need answers,” I said simply. “And I have a right to know his other children. We do have the same blood in our veins.”

  “What if they try to hurt you like D.J. did?” she suggested.

  “Ma’, I doubt that they are all like him,” I said, dismissing her suggestion. It’s not that I hadn’t thought about the same thing, but I knew that D.J.’s ire was deeply personal. I seriously doubted that the rest of his family carried that much hatred in their hearts toward me.

  “I’m leaving Monday night. I’ve already put everything in place,” I told them, hoping that they would all stop worrying so damn much. Maybe I needed them to worry though because I definitely didn’t have any concerns about this trip. I expected everything to go smoothly and I didn’t plan to come back until I got the answers that I needed.

  Chapter VIII- Leah

  I folded the last of my clothes and put them into my suitcase which was lying open on the bed. It was my last day at Darius’s mansion and Jeremiah and I were preparing to leave. My parents would be back in town that night and hopefully my life would go back to normal. Living with Darius and Ms. Donna had been fun while it lasted. It kind of felt like a mini-vacation in a lot of ways. But now I would have to face my issues head on. Memories of what happened over a week ago in that old abandoned building still haunted my dreams, and I knew that it was only a matter of time before Allen would try to contact me again.

  There was a knock at the door and I figured that it was my overprotective little brother coming to bother me. Jeremiah was two years younger than me, but I swear that he sometimes tried to act like my father, especially when mom and dad weren’t around. But as much as he got on my nerves, I still felt blessed to have a brother who cared about me.

  I went to open the door and found that it wasn’t Jeremiah standing there, but it was Terry. He was all dressed up… well, as dressed up as he could be anyway. Terry never wore a suit or even a shirt and tie. Getting dressed up for him was putting on a nice pair of jeans, a jersey, and some clean, white Nike's. That was the exact ensemble that he was wearing, so I came to the conclusion that he was about to go out for the day.

  “Hey. I think I left my watch in here. Can you go look for it?” he said.

  I rolled my eyes and shook my head at him. I knew that Ms. Donna and Darius had gotten on his case about being nice to me while I was here, and in his own way he had been trying to do that. But even when he was making an attempt to be nice and polite, he still managed to come across like an obnoxious jerk. This instance was no different.

  “You can come in and look around for it yourself,” I told him as I stepped aside and let him come into the room. He walked pass me and I noticed that he smelled like a mixture of fresh soap and Old Spice. The blue and white jersey that he wore had the name “Luck” on the back of it. I didn’t follow football so I had no idea who that was.

  Terry went over to the nightstand beside the bed and pulled open the two drawers. After searching through them, he realized that what he was looking for wasn’t there. He closed the drawers and went to the other side of the bed where the other nightstand was. As he opened the drawers he glanced up at me and noticed that I was watching him.

  “So, you’re going out today?” I asked, wanting to make conversation.

  “Yeah, I guess you could say that.” He found his watch and slid it onto his wrist before heading for the door.

  “Where are you going?” I asked, stopping him in his tracks.

  He turned to me and said, “I’m going to handle some business, that’s where.”

  “Can I come?” I said, talking to him as if we were old friends even though this was clearly not the case.

  “Can you come?” he scoffed. “Hell nah, you can’t come.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because.”

  “Because what?” I asked.

  “Because I said so,” he told me.

  “Please, Terry,” I pleaded as I took a step toward him. “This is my last day of freedom before my parents come back. I know that they won’t be letting me go out of the house anytime soon.”

  “Well that’s just too damn bad because I’m rolling solo,” he said as he turned for the door again.

  “Wait,” I said grabbing his arm. “Just let me come with you. I promise that I won’t cause any trouble and I won’t get in your way.”

  “You’re already in my way,” he said. “Besides, do you even know
what you’re getting yourself into?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, looking confused.

  “I’m ‘bout to go see some people out in Edgewood,” he said. “I bet you ain’t never even been to the 'hood, have you?”

  I looked away briefly because he was right. “No,” I mumbled. “But there’s a first time for everything, right?”

  He looked at me for a moment and then laughed as he shook his head.

  “A’ight,” he said, causing a smile to come to my face. “If you think you got what it takes to roll wit’ me, then I guess we’re about to find out.”

  To say that I was excited was an understatement. Why I would be so excited about going to the projects was beyond me, but I thought of it as an adventure.

  “Great. And then afterwards you can take me home,” I told him, not giving him a choice.

  “Whatever you say, Tinker Bell.” I rolled my eyes at that. I hated his annoying little nickname for me.

  I finished packing my suitcase and then zipped it closed. As I thought about where Terry was taking me, I began to remember all of the stories that I heard about the 'hood. Though I had never been, I had seen enough TV to know what rough neighborhoods were like. Suddenly, I was a little tense.

  “I’m not going to need my pepper spray or anything, am I?” I asked Terry as he grabbed my suitcase.

  “Nah, shawty, I got you. I ain’t gonna let nothing happen to you,” he told me. “Now let’s go.”

  We left the house and I was glad that there was no one else around when we did. The last thing I needed was Jeremiah or Darius questioning me about why I was leaving with Terry. I knew that it wouldn’t be long before they realized that I was gone and they’d go into panic mode, but I’d deal with that when the time came.

  Terry and I got into the black Denali and drove away from the mansion. We got to the gate and went right by security who didn’t even seem to notice that I was in the car.

  It took us about thirty minutes to drive to the other side of town. The hood wasn’t exactly what I imagined it would be, but then it was also everything that I imagined it would be. There were people everywhere, some sitting on their stoops and some walking in the middle of the street as if getting hit by a car didn’t concern them. Terry had the windows down and the music blaring as we rode through the streets.

  Everybody seemed to know who Terry was. People were calling out his name left and right. He stopped the car and turned down the music for a moment as this one trashy looking girl came up to the truck. She was wear a romper and had some of the cheapest looking weave in her hair that I had ever seen. She was sucking on a lollipop and had on some knock-off Gucci shades.

  “Hey Terry,” she said as she pulled her shades off and rested her arms against the door.

  “Hey Shay. How you doin’?” Terry said.

  “I’m good. Who’s she?” she asked, looking at me but not in a rude or disrespectful way.

  Terry glanced at me before turning back to her. “This is Leah. She’s kickin’ it with me today.”

  “Oh, so you fucking with her now?” she said, her disapproval evident in her voice. “I guess that’s why you haven’t been around here lately.”

  “I work for my boy Darius now. That’s why I ain’t been around,” he told her.

  “Oh,” she said simply. “Well when you coming to see me?” she said, leaning further into the car. It became obvious to me then that they probably used to be together.

  “I don’t know. When you want me to come through?”

  “Why don’t you come by after you drop her off,” she said.

  “I’ll think about it,” he told her.

  “What is there to think about?” she said seductively. She then turned and walked away. Terry watched as her ass jiggled with each step as she walked back over to her apartment. I literally wanted to throw up in my mouth.

  We drove a few more blocks before we arrived at our destination. Terry parked the Denali in front of a battered three-story apartment building. There was graffiti on the walls, trash on the lawn, and broken windows. I tried to keep an open mind and not be judgmental, but this was so different from what I was used to.

  “Wait here. I’ll be right back,” Terry told me as he opened the door and began to climb out of the truck.

  “Can I come?” I asked because I was curious to know what he was up to and because I didn’t want to sit in the car by myself.

  “Nah, shawty. You don’t wanna do that,” he told me, now standing on the sidewalk.

  “Why not?”

  “Because my baby mama is crazy as hell. And if I bring some chick up in there then she gon’ cuss both of our asses out.” He closed the door and headed for the apartment building.

  “Baby mama?” I said to myself. I had no idea that Terry had a child. For all I knew he could have more than one. Not that it was my business or anything, I was just shocked. I guess it wasn’t a big deal as long as he was taking care of his kids. It was just hard to imagine that someone like him would be living the infamous cliché of having “baby mama drama”.

  I watched from the car as he climbed the stairs to the second floor. He went to the first door, knocked and waited for it to open. A woman came to the door holding a small child. She had a pissed-off look on her face and I assumed that this was the child’s mother. I looked at the little girl that she was holding and I had to admit that she was a cutie. She didn’t really look like Terry, but I guess that didn’t mean anything. There were plenty of kids out there who did or didn’t look like one parent or the other.

  Terry exchanged a few words with the woman and then turned all of his attention to the child. He took the child from her and then they went into the apartment.

  About twenty minutes later I saw him come out of the apartment and begin making his way down the stairs. I was glad because I was starting to get bored while waiting for him. As he approached the car I saw him pull a medium sized plastic bag out of the pocket of his jeans. It had a green and brown substance in it. He opened the door and got back into the truck.

  “So you have a kid?” I asked as soon as he shut the door.

  He looked at me for a moment, probably trying to figure out what my angle was. He wasn’t sure how I would respond to the truth so he was probably contemplating how much he wanted to tell me.

  “Actually, I have three. Two sons and a daughter,” he said. “You got a problem with that?” He turned toward me as he put his arm across my headrest and waited for my answer.

  “No,” I said in a small voice. “I just didn’t know.”

  “There’s a lot that you don’t know about me,” he said. He reached between my knees and opened the glove compartment. There were two guns in there along with the normal things that you see in a glove compartment. I tensed when I saw the firearms. I’ve never liked guns and being in such close proximity of one caused a mild form of anxiety.

  Terry reached on the side of everything and pulled out a piece of paper. He tore off a smaller, rectangular piece and put the rest of the paper to the side. It didn’t take me long to realize what he was doing. Using the arm rest that was between us, he began to roll a blunt with a small portion of the weed that was in the bag. Once he completed that task, he put the rest of the weed that was in the plastic bag into the glove compartment and closed it shut. He dug a lighter out of his pocket, held the blunt between his lips while he lit it, and then took a long drag from it. He blew the smoke out of his lips and a cloud filled the inside of the car.

  He looked over at me and said, “You don’t smoke, do you?” I hated how he was looking at me as if I didn’t belong in his world. It wasn’t a condescending look, but a look of pity, almost like he felt bad that he was exposing me to all of this. I don’t know why, but for some reason that made me feel like I had to prove something to him.

  “Of course I smoke,” I lied as I reached over and took the blunt from him. I put it up to my lips, trying to mirror the technique that he used. I took a drag and instan
tly began to cough after the smoke filled my lungs.

  Terry laughed at me as I handed the blunt back to him and put my hand to my chest as I tried to get the coughing under control.

  “Don’t worry. You’ll get the hang of it,” he told me before taking another drag. He took a shorter one this time and then blew the smoke out of the window. I caught my breath just as he stretched the blunt out to me. “Try it again,” he said. “Take it slow this time.”

  I took his advice and slowly let the smoke fill my lungs. I removed the blunt and blew a steady stream of smoke through my lips.

  “There you go,” he encouraged and I could feel the intoxicating effects already taking over. I passed it back to Terry.

  “So, how old are you anyway?” I asked him.

  “24,” he said before taking a drag. “How old are you?”

  “I’m 20.”

  “Is that so,” he said looking me up and down.

  “So, you’re 24 and you have three kids,” I said to distract us both from the way that he was looking at me.

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you smoke a lot?”

  “Nah. I don’t want my lips turning black,” he said.

  My eyes grew twice their size. “Smoking weed makes your lips black?!” I immediately pulled down the mirror over the passenger seat and checked to see if my lips had been discolored in any way.

  “Nah ma’, you good,” Terry said as he began to laugh. “I’m playin’ wit’ you. That’s only a myth.”

  I relaxed a little, but I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep partaking in this recreational activity. I had never been high in my whole life, but I had to admit that it felt pretty good. We spent the next ten minutes puffing and passing, laughing and talking. By the time the blunt was gone, we were both high as a kite. I couldn’t seem to stop laughing and Terry was sitting over there with his head tilted back against the headrest looking like he didn’t have a care in the world.