A Clean Up Man

by M. T. Pope

  “Okay, okay.” He backed up off of me. “I’ll just beat my shit with my hand like I normally do,” he mumbled as he went about his business.

  I left his house a little bit lighter than I came. I forgot all about my mother sleeping with my aunt the whole time I was in his house, but when I hopped in my truck and pulled off it all flooded back like a tsunami. It was another bandage type of solution for a stitches type of problem.

  Chapter 26

  Congratulations

  A few nights later . . .

  I was meeting Carlos, his mom, my mom, and Carla at City Lights Restaurant for dinner. Truth was I needed this. I needed to be around a family that had it together. I needed to feel the love that was flowing between them since me and my mother were on the outs at the moment. I hadn’t called her and she hadn’t called me. But what could she call me about? The only thing I wanted to hear from her was the explanation of her keeping the secrets that she kept. She was automatically invited and now we had to sit at a table with a happy family and pretend that we were one as well.

  City Lights Restaurant was on Security Boulevard and was only a few minutes from my house so I took my time getting dressed. I looked in the mirror at myself in my bathroom, smiled, and shrugged my shoulders. I really didn’t know what was going on in my life right now. I felt so lost and incomplete. I felt like I was just missing out on a lot. The question that always floated in my head from time to time was: if I had not had that experience with Jarrod in college would I be living a regular life with regular drama? I left my house with hopes of a good time on my mind.

  I pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, which was partially full, and found me a spot facing the restaurant. I sat in my car and from the car I saw everyone already sitting at the table chatting. They looked happy. After a few more seconds of sitting there in the car, I got out and walked into the restaurant.

  There was light jazz music playing as I entered. The dessert carousel that sat by the door looked appetizing as usual. I would surely be grabbing a slice of chocolate cake or cheesecake before I left. Something in me let me know that I would need to have something to snack on close by when I got home. I didn’t know how this evening was going to go, but dessert would help me cope either way.

  “Hi, how are you today, sir?” The very friendly Caucasian female greeter spoke as I walked up to the podium where she stood.

  “I’m well, thank you.” I gave a pleasant but faint smile. “Fake it to make it” was my motto right now. All I wanted to do was make it through this dinner with my sanity intact.

  “Table for one?” she inquired with a bright smile, but I saw the pity that oozed out of the sides of her smile.

  No, bitch! That was what I wanted to say to her, but that would have been taking my pain out on her and she was just doing her job. Eating alone wasn’t a sin and she didn’t know about any of my problems anyway.

  “No, I’m here with a party that is already seated.”

  “All right.” She nodded her head. “Have a great day.”

  I walked away from the podium and down a small set of stairs until I reached the table where everyone was seated.

  “Good evening, everyone!” I pushed a jubilant smile out onto my face, which was threatening to cause my head to explode. I pulled out a chair and sat at the round table next to my mother, who was sitting next to Carlos’s mom, followed by Carlos and then Carla, who was on the other side of me.

  “Hey, Ma.” I leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

  “Hey, baby.” She patted me on my thigh.

  “Did you guys order yet?” I asked no one in particular.

  “Nope, we were waiting on you,” Carlos answered. “Mr. Fashionably Late.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry about that. I ran a little over at a job I was doing.”

  “Awww . . . We forgive you, Kraig.” Carla spoke in a fuzzy-wuzzy voice and then kissed me on the cheek. “Just don’t let it happen again.” She laughed and so did everyone else. I had to admit she was quite adorable.

  “Thanks.” I was hungry and ready to eat. The stress of life made me eat a lot at times. I guess you can say I was an emotional eater. Having my mother sitting next to me was a trying thing, knowing that we weren’t on the same page as of late.

  “Hello, everyone.” A very handsome Latino-looking waiter stopped at our table. “Can I start everyone off with a drink and an appetizer?” Everyone at the table ordered their drinks and appetizers quite speedily. “I’ll put these orders in while you all decide what you want for the main course.” He walked away and I watched his butt as he did. I didn’t feel the least bit embarrassed as everyone was looking at me when I turned my head back toward the table.

  “What?” I looked at Carlos, and my mother, who was staring at me the hardest. I rarely did things like that in public, but today was the exception. “I can look, can’t I?”

  “Kraig!” My mother looked at me sternly. I wasn’t ten anymore, so her calling my name was of no consequence. I was an adult. I did what I wanted and I didn’t feel that it was disrespectful to be me. Plain and simple.

  “So what did you do today, Kraig?” Carla directed a question toward me, breaking the thick tension in the air.

  “A little of this and a little of that.” I shrugged my shoulders as I looked at the menu for the meal I was about to select. My left foot was tapping the floor because I was impatiently waiting for the night to progress.

  “Me so proud of you, Kraig,” Carlos’s mom interjected. “I know you mom is so proud of you too. I’m so glad we know you.”

  “Thank you so much.” I smiled politely. “I do what I can.”

  “Yes, I know you do.” She smiled. “I’m so glad you my son’s . . . homie. I say it right?”

  I chuckled because she was so serious. “Yes, ma’am, you said it right. He’s my homie.”

  “You going to be his best homie in wedding?” She smiled brightly.

  “When the time arrives, I hope to be.” I looked over at Carlos and smiled. Carla and he were necking and smooching again and not paying attention to what was being said. But, I knew that the time was coming sooner than I thought. I knew that they were in love, but it had only been a few weeks. Marriage was on the table already and I didn’t even have a steady relationship, or any prospects for that matter.

  “I need to go to the ladies’ room. I’ll be right back.” Carla broke the lip lock with Carlos, spoke, and got up from the table. I watched her walk away and then leaned over to speak to Carlos. My mother and Carlos’s mother were holding their own conversation after Carlos’s mom made the last statement.

  “Something you wanted to tell me?” I looked inquisitively at Carlos. I didn’t like to be left out of the loop, especially with something this important.

  “Huh?” He looked at me, confused. “Oh, that. I was listening but I wasn’t listening. That was supposed to be a secret.” He looked hard at his mother, who just smiled lovingly. “Do you think Carla knows?”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged my shoulders. She did run off to the bathroom some kind of fast, though. Maybe she did know something, but I wasn’t going to tell Carlos what I thought. “Is it going to happen tonight?”

  He nodded his head, smiled, and then patted his pants pocket, which I assumed had a ring box in it. Seconds later, Carla came back to the table. She looked refreshed: fresh lipstick, and even her hairweave was rearranged from falling down her back to an up-style hairdo. She was beautiful when I first walked into the restaurant, but now she looked stunning.

  The waiter followed Carla a few seconds later with our drinks and appetizers. I watched Carla pick up her sweetened raspberry tea and her hand shook just a bit. She looked my way and I smiled and then bowed my head and pretended to be focused on my Cobb salad that I had ordered.

  Everybody was quiet for a few minutes eating and then Carlos slid his chair back and got on one knee within seconds.

  “I love you, Carla.” He looked up at her, enamored. “W
ill you do me the honor of being my wife?” Carla was stuck with her mouth open. She was a really good actress. She played surprised really well. I almost clapped my hands and stood for a standing ovation. I looked at Carlos’s mom’s face and then my mother’s face; they both had tears in their eyes.

  “Yes, baby . . . Yes, I’ll marry you.” Carlos slid the ring on her finger and they embraced right there for almost five minutes.

  People at other tables clapped their hands in a frenzy. Everybody was smiling and cheering. I cracked a smile as Carlos looked my way. The fact that I was envious was eating me up inside. I felt robbed again. I wanted to share that experience with someone, but here I was attracted to married men.

  After everything calmed down, the waiter came back to congratulate Carlos and Carla and then take our orders. I noticed a wedding ring on his finger and a switch in his step as he walked away. Everything in me wanted to pursue him and fuck him in the bathroom, but I swore off married men.

  The night went on and we ate and were merry. My mother and I were cordial to one another during the whole meal. You wouldn’t have known that we were at odds outside of this restaurant. After dinner I even drove her home. She was my mother. I respected her. I just didn’t like her ways sometimes and I was sure she felt the same way about me, or close.

  I pulled up to my house and noticed a box on my steps. As I got closer, I noticed that it was the same box that I had had dropped off at Jarrod’s house the other day. I looked around and then picked up the box and took it in the house. I was instantly nervous. I didn’t even take my jacket off when I pulled off the white envelope that was attached to it.

  When I opened it and read it my heart dropped into my stomach.

  Home wrecking? . . . Two can play that game.

  Jarrod

  My hands shook as I read the note over and over again. He must have gotten the package before his wife did. I kicked myself for not sending it to his job. I thought that it would do more damage to his life if I sent it his house. I was wrong. Now, I had pissed him off and there was no telling what he was going to do. I was clueless and afraid. He was a cop; the possibilities were numerous. His ass could plant drugs in my car and have my ass arrested and sent away for years. I could lose everything I worked so hard for. Now I was thinking this revenge stuff really wasn’t worth it. But now it was too late to think about the consequences. I thought I had it all figured out and I didn’t. I was at his mercy. I did the only thing I could think of. I called his phone to see if we could work out something.

  “I’m sorry but the phone number you have dialed is no longer in service. . . .”

  I looked at my phone and dialed the number again, but got the same response. I was fucked. I couldn’t go to his house and I damn sure couldn’t go to his job. I had to sit and wait to see what he was going to do.

  Chapter 27

  Breaking Out

  It was about eleven o’clock at night and I just sat on an ottoman looking out of my bedroom window. I had been on edge all week long. It had been two weeks since I had received the box that I had gotten hand delivered to Jarrod’s house back on my front step. It sat on the dining room table since I put it there when I first got it back. I would walk up to it and stared at it every so often. I had called Jarrod’s number several more times during the week and the same thing happened. It never crossed my mind that he would get his hands on it first. I made sure I told the guy who delivered it to make sure the wife picked it up and took it in the house. Then it flashed in my head that Jarrod ran his house and his wife probably didn’t do anything without him, including opening mail.

  “Fuck!” I yelled out in the totally dark room. The word seemed like it echoed off of the walls and came back and hit me in the face.

  Vzzzzzzzzzzz . . .

  I snapped my head to the left to see my cell phone vibrating on my nightstand. I rushed over and picked it up in excitement . . . well, not excitement, but I was hoping that it was Jarrod calling me to give me a chance to apologize. But it wasn’t Jarrod; it was Carlos.

  “Hello.” I sounded disappointed. I really didn’t want to hear anything about him and Carla right now. I hoped that he was calling to just shoot the breeze or something like that.

  “Yo, you won’t believe this shit.” He went right into what he called me for. “Somebody broke into my mom’s house tonight.”

  “Damn . . . for real?” I perked up with concern. “She okay?”

  “Yeah, man.” He blew out a frustrated breath. “Thank goodness we were over Carla’s parents’ house having dinner.”

  “Oh, okay . . . Did they take anything?”

  “That’s just it, Kraig; they only took one of my mom’s Puerto Rican trinkets. She said that my father gave it to her and it was sentimental to her.”

  “Man, that sucks,” I exclaimed. “Why break in someone’s house just to steal something cheap? Don’t you have a plasma television in the living room and both of your rooms?”

  “Yeah, and they’re still there. It is just crazy. My mom’s a mess right now. The cops are here and they are taking fingerprints off the broken pane they broke on the door when they came in. They didn’t cut on any lights or anything; they just came in and stole the trinket and left. Man, it looks like a retarded crackhead broke in or something.”

  I almost laughed when he said that, but I held it in because this was a serious situation.

  “So what are you going to do? Are you going to stay there tonight?”

  “Man, I’m a hood dude. Ain’t no one scaring me out of my home. I’m going to board this door up, comfort my mom, and go on to bed . . . Plain and simple.”

  “Okay, call me if you need anything from me. And tell your mom I love her.”

  “All right, I got you. Later.”

  “Later.” I hung up the phone and shook my head. “Who does stuff like that? Robs a house and takes nothing. Crazy I tell you. Only in the hood.”

  I hopped in my shower, watched a couple minutes of television, and was out cold not long after that.

  Chapter 28

  Mind Your Business

  Another week had passed and I was on my way home from another job when I saw a cop car driving behind me. My heart started to beat really fast and I kept my eyes straight ahead. I didn’t want to look over my shoulder and call attention to myself. All of this time that Jarrod had stayed away was driving me crazy. It was like torture waiting for someone to exact revenge on you. I didn’t know what, when, or how. But I knew that he was going to do something that was going to mess me up some kind of terrible. I knew if I were a DL cop and someone sent a package of the nature of the one I sent him I would try to ruin every part of his life. I reached over and turned down the gospel music that I had been playing over the last couple of days. I needed God to intervene and change Jarrod’s heart and mind. I prayed that he considered the box a close call and turned from his DL lifestyle to tend to the warm and loving family that he had at home. That was what I prayed, but right now it didn’t look like my prayer had reached God.

  Boop . . . Boop . . . Boop.

  The sound of the siren startled me, but I pulled over as cautiously as I knew how. I breathed a sigh of relief when Angie got out of the car and moseyed up to my truck. I couldn’t say I was excited to see her, but at least it wasn’t Jarrod.

  “What’s wrong with you?” That was the first thing she said to me when she got to my truck.

  “Huh?” I looked at her, confused.

  “So you slow now?” she said sarcastically to me. “You want me to paint this truck orange?” This bitch is too smart.

  “I don’t have times for twenty questions or guessing games. What do you want?” I almost hissed like a snake. My disdain for her was rooted deep.

  “Your mother told me that you totally disrespected her a few weeks ago. What’s up with you and your attitude? It needs an adjustment.”

  I couldn’t believe this bitch was abusing her power and pulling me over for some nonsense like this. Mind yo
u, this was something that went down a couple of weeks ago.

  “Must we do this again?” I blew out an irritated breath. “How many times must I tell you to mind your business?”

  “Look, disrespect her again and see what happens.”

  “Was that a threat?” I looked her dead in the eyes.

  “And a promise,” she countered.

  “Look, dykes-are-us.” I looked her up and down with a salty look on my face. “Go on with all of that talk and bullshit before I beat your ass and then use your radio to call for backup to scrape your ass up off of the ground.”

  “It’s like that?” She put her hand near her gun as if to say, “Give me a reason.”

  “If you’re going to use it you better send me to my Maker, because if you don’t you sure will be meeting yours,” I stated boldly.

  “Whatever, just stop disrespecting your mother.”

  “Again, what goes on between my mother and me is our business and not yours. Now go find some road kill to scrape up.” I laughed and pulled off, knowing full well she wasn’t going to come after me. During the conversation me and Angie were having I could have sworn that I saw Jarrod’s police cruiser pass up the other side of the road. Maybe I’m just seeing things, I thought.

  I decided to treat myself to a movie. I needed a stress reliever and since I knew that Carlos was laid up with Carla, I would be doing the solo thing tonight.

  A couple of days later . . .

  Carlos and I were sitting in a Mo’s Seafood Restaurant on Eastern Avenue, watching the game and just talking about life’s possibilities. I felt good to be out, but I was still a little apprehensive about being on this side of town, close to where Jarrod lived. I hoped with everything in me that he didn’t pop up anywhere with some revenge while Carlos was in the car.