by Joy
That night at the club Tommy was supposed to handle a situation with some young buck named Rob from LA. It was something Ral had hooked up through some cat he used to cop crack from named Kill Dog. Ral had started to make runs here and there for him for a little change. Dollar thought it might have been smart of him to let the streets know he had a source of income. It wasn’t worth taking the risk of someone figuring out he was behind some of the stickups going down.
Through Kill Dog, Ral learned that some kid named Rob and a couple of his boys were going to be hitting Chi-Town to check this nigga named Steelo’s shit in. Supposedly, Steelo had set up a deal that went raw with some boys from LA. The LA boys were paying them Chi-Town niggaz a personal visit. Ral was getting paid to be their host while in town. Of course, after the hit he would lead them straight to the Chocolate Factory, where they, themselves, would get hit in the parking lot.
Tommy waited all night for Ral to show up with them so that she could make the call to Dollar. As it turned out, Ral and Rob and his boys were a no-show. So finally Tommy made a call to Dollar, but it wasn’t the one he’d been expecting.
“Ral been spending mad loot lately,” Dollar said to Tommy.
“Have you noticed? He got all kinds of shit up in his place, and did you see the sounds he got installed in his li’l ride?”
“Umm, not really. Well, I guess,” Tommy replied, focusing on the television show she and Dollar were watching in her living room.
It had been a week since their failed hit on them LA cats. “I mean, I heard he been trickin’ like mad lately, but what’s new? As long as he ain’t fuckin’ with that shit, he straight. He could have bartered for half the shit he got. You know how he is. He’ll sell a rope to a man threatening to hang himself.”
“Word,” Dollar replied, nodding his head, but not 100 percent convinced.
“This is the funniest show in the universe,” Tommy said as she continued watching television.
“Yeah, that’s a funny-ass muthafucka,” Dollar said, referring to Dave Chappelle of Chappelle’s Show. His thoughts went back to his friend. “Ral probably just been holding on to his loot from the hits, huh, and that little bit of change he gets making runs for Kill Dog? You know how sometimes people get the urge to just start spending? Yeah, he’s probably just going through one of them phases.”
“Yeah,” Tommy replied, half listening to Dollar. “Ah ha ah ha. I love this show. Dis nigga crazy!”
“You probably even dip into your stash every now and then to treat you and the girls to a little something nice, huh?”
Tommy took a deep breath and looked at Dollar. She picked up the remote and turned the television off. “Dollar, what’s on your mind? Just spit it out. What are you trying to say?”
“Things just ain’t been feeling right lately. I mean, there’s been too many interferences and circumstances. Like when we was gon’ stick up kid from LA, but he turned out to be a no-show; like somebody gave him a heads-up, dropped the dime or something.”
“Ral said them niggaz wanted to handle their business and dip back out of town. What’s so strange about that? Shit happens,” Tommy said in Ral’s defense.
“I know, but now all of a sudden Ral got all this spending money. I guess I just been adding two and two together.”
“So, what you trying to say?” Tommy asked. “You think Ral getting paid behind our backs; that he don’t want to split the pot no more so he handling shit on his own? That’s ridiculous. You just noided. That means it’s time for you to give this shit up, especially if you gon’ start worrying about how much money your boy is spending.”
“It ain’t like I’m clockin’ his dollars. I’m just saying.”
“You just saying what? Next thing I know you’ll be thinking Ral getting paid to talk, like he’s some informant involved in a conspiracy to put you back in the joint.” Tommy laughed.
Dollar remained serious as he glared off into space.
“I was just joking. You can’t honestly be thinking that,” Tommy said.
“Lately I just can’t erase the thought that Ral was a hard fiend. The shit a fiend would do for a hit, you’d never know.”
“Yeah, but not turn on their partners. Not Ral. He’d die first. Besides, it wasn’t a concern back when you wanted him on the team, so why should it be a concern now? He’s the same Ral. Besides, he hasn’t been high any of the times he’s been around me.”
“Yeah, you right. I’m trippin’,” Dollar said. “Turn that show back on.”
Tommy turned the show back on and in moments was back to laughing hysterically. Dollar tried to enjoy the show and Tommy’s company, but something was itchin’ at him. That something was Ral. Dollar couldn’t help but think that his loyalty to Ral, to clean him up and help him get his shit together, might have gotten in the way of his better judgment.
“So what’s been up with Storm and her girl?” Dollar asked Tommy out of the blue.
“They cool,” Tommy said. “Why do you ask?”
“No reason,” Dollar replied with a snide look in his eye. “No reason at all.”
CHAPTER 21
Can We Talk?
“Yo, Dollar Bill,” Redd called to Dollar who was getting ready to climb inside of Mr. Owens’s Navigator. “I didn’t know you were out here. You didn’t come in today. Matter of fact, you haven’t been coming in at all lately. Can I talk to you for a minute, just real quick?”
“Oh shit,” Dollar said under his breath. He hoped Kera hadn’t been running her mouth and he wouldn’t have to beat down her pops for stepping to him.
“Yo, Mr. Owens. Can you hold up a sec?” Dollar asked him, who he tried not to act awkward around knowing that he had set him up for a robbery.
“Sure,” Mr. Owens agreed. Dollar then followed Redd into his office.
Redd sat down at his desk, took a long, deep breath then stared at Dollar. He paused momentarily before speaking. “I won’t beat around the bush with this,” Redd said. “So, I’ll just get right to the point. Kera has been acting really strange lately.”
“Look, Redd,” Dollar interrupted.
“No, let me finish,” Redd continued. “I could tell she was hiding something from me.”
“Redd,” Dollar tried to intercept.
“Just listen,” he said sternly. “Kera told me about the night at the club and I’m not going to lie, I was completely shocked.”
“I can explain,” Dollar said.
“No need to explain. I mean, hell yeah, I’m pissed that you didn’t tell me. But teenagers need someone they can trust and I’m just glad she chose you.”
At this point Dollar was mystified. Since when did a father approve of who takes his daughter’s virginity?
“I still can’t believe my baby snuck into a twenty-one and over club and drank alcohol,” Redd said. “If you hadn’t been there to see to it that her and Leece got home safe, then I don’t know what could have happened to my baby girl. Some pervert probably would have taken advantage of her and I’d have to go back to prison on a 187.”
Redd began to laugh as Dollar contributed his fake laughter.
“Well, Mr. Owens is waiting on you so you better get going. I just wanted to say thanks for looking out for my baby girl. I’m glad I can trust you. Loyalty is priceless.”
“No need to thank me, sir; anytime,” Dollar said as he headed back outside.
“By the way, did you hear what happened to Mr. Owens? He got robbed. Two thugs did it, I think. It’s a fucking shame,” Redd said.
“Yeah,” Dollar added. “A fucking shame.”
Dollar and Tommy became a little nervous as they sat in Jimmy’s waiting on Ral to show up. He was already twenty minutes late. It wasn’t Ral’s absence that had them nervous. It was the fact that two cops came in and were dining at the table right behind Dollar and Tommy.
“You two ready to order or do you still want to wait on the other person?” the waitress asked.
“Uhh, actually, he just calle
d me on my cell phone,” Dollar said. “He’s stranded so we have to go pick him up.”
“Yeah,” Tommy said as she stood up from her chair. “We got to go pick him up. Thanks anyway though. If it doesn’t take too long, we might be back.”
Dollar and Tommy exited the diner suspiciously. Tommy was walking a hundred miles per hour.
“Slow down,” Dollar said to Tommy. “Relax.”
Tommy slowed her pace and began to take quick breaths. “Now what?” Tommy asked as Dollar walked her to her car.
“Let’s just drive to your house. We’ll talk there.”
“Not my house,” Tommy said. “What if those cops follow us?”
“Girl, you talking silly,” Dollar said.
“Meet me at the DQ on Broadway instead.”
“Okay,” Dollar agreed. “Drive slow. Stay calm and relax, dammit.”
Dollar followed Tommy to the DQ where they each ordered a small vanilla ice cream cone and sat in Tommy’s car to eat and talk.
“Now you see what the fuck I’m talking about when I say interference and circumstance?” Dollar said to Tommy.
“What’s going on, D?” Tommy said, confused. “I mean, Ral should have at least called you on your cell or something.”
“I paged him on the way here and he ain’t hit me back yet,” Dollar said. “I should have listened to you in the beginning. You said we shouldn’t fuck with Ral.”
“What we gon’ do, D?” Worry covered Tommy’s face. “I can’t do this. My nieces. This is too much. I’m sick of this shit. I can’t do this.”
“Come on, T. Be cool. Everything is going to be okay.”
“I don’t want the cops sniffing around my tail, and for what, a few punk-ass stickups? I got enough saved to maybe start doing my own thing. Fuck this shit!”
“Dammit, Tommy, stop talking like that,” Dollar said. “We can’t let one monkey stop our show.”
“We not fucking teenagers anymore, Dollar. Can’t you see that? I might as well have done that fucking bid nine years ago because I’m locked up anyway. I’m locked up between these fucking city walls. They trapping me, man,” Tommy said out of frustration. “I don’t think the game was designed for us to win, D.”
“Stop pumpin’ out that negative energy,” Dollar snapped.
“We can do this shit. Just you and me. We can make shit happen.”
“Yeah, but Ral knows everything. He knows what we’re about. If he’s playing us while he’s part of the plan, imagine what he’d do if we cut him off.”
Dollar sat listening to Tommy who was on the verge of frantic. His soft serve vanilla ice cream cone began to melt down his hand. He rolled down the window and threw it out.
“Well,” Tommy interrupted Dollar’s thought. “What are we going to do about Ral?”
“We don’t have a choice,” Dollar said. “He’s poison. We got to spit his ass out.”
“I told you that you’d be back,” Storm said as she straddled Dollar who was sitting on the couch in the Champagne Room. Storm slowly crooned to the music.
“I guess you were right,” Dollar replied as he stuck a twenty dollar bill between Storm’s breasts after already having paid Bear the one hundred dollars just to get back in the room.
“I’m always right.” Storm put her hands behind her back and began to untie her bikini top. Dollar grabbed her hands and stopped her.
“What’s wrong, poppa, don’t you want me?” Storm said as she pulled Dollar’s head to her breasts.
“Yeah, I want you,” Dollar said as he began to lick them. “I want you to do something for me.”
“Anything. Tell me what you want and tell me how do you want it,” Storm said as she began caressing Dollar’s penis.
“I want M&M. Exes, overdose,” Dollar said while pulling Storm hard against his penis.
Storm immediately pushed away from Dollar and got off of his lap. She went and poured her a glass of champagne and started drinking it.
“Did you hear me? M&M.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Storm said as she took another sip of her champagne.
“Oh, you don’t hear me now? It ain’t like I’m muthafuckin’ 5-0. Don’t even try to front. I already know underneath all that sex appeal you ain’t nothin’ but a hit ho.”
Storm continued to ignore Dollar.
“Well, maybe you’ll hear this,” Dollar said as he pulled out fifty one-hundred dollar bills and waved them in Storm’s face.
The corners of her mouth turned up. “Well, as they say, money talks,” Storm said, removing the money from Dollar’s hand nice and slowly.
Never once did Dollar think twice or even reconsider his decision. Ordering a hit on Ral was preventative maintenance. As far as Dollar was concerned, it was only a matter of time before Ral killed himself anyway. Ral had been missing meetings with the drug counselor and word on the streets was that he’d been lacing his blunts with cocaine. Dollar felt that Ral’s destructive ways would somehow be the downfall of his mission. Boys or no boys, friend or no friend, Dollar couldn’t just sit back and let that shit happen. This was his second chance at the game and he’d be damned if he let a dope fiend be the cause of his downfall.
Dollar paid Storm a portion of the money for the hit up front and promised her the rest once he received the call from her stating that the deed had been done. And on that note, Storm let Dollar hit it from the back on the strength.
CHAPTER 22
Pro-choice
Dollar had finally given in to Kera’s persistence. She wasn’t going to stop hounding him until she got with him again. Dollar had already hit it once, so why not hit that twice? Kera wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle, so he invited her into his home. No dinner, no movie, no nothing. Dollar refused to butter up to Kera. If she wanted to be like Stevie Wonder and pretend she couldn’t see the real, then that was her own mistake. Like all sleeping beauties, Kera would someday find that Prince Charming to wake her up with a genuine kiss. Until then, Dollar might as well keep doing what he do.
Dollar couldn’t really enjoy being inside of Kera. His thoughts were on Hennessey. He had been kickin’ it with her for a minute now, yet he hadn’t gotten into her head. He hadn’t gotten into her drawers.
Dollar would have definitely wanted to spend most of his time with Hennessey, but she always made it seem like she was so busy. The most time she would allot Dollar was lengthy conversations on the phone. It seemed like that was the closest he was going to get to her. Talking dirty after dark just wasn’t doing the trick for Dollar anymore. One could say that Hennessey had Dollar questioning his manhood.
Hennessey was a real woman, not like Kera and Mya who were barely a class up from being chickenheads. As Dollar lay on top of Kera, the more he thought about Hennessey and how she continued to reject him, the deeper he shoved himself inside of Kera.
“Oh shit, Dollar,” Kera cried out.
“Umm, you like that, bitch?” Dollar said, pumping harder and harder. “You like that shit?”
“Dollar, stop it!” Kera cried out. Her cries were silent to Dollar’s ears as he aggressively assaulted Kera’s insides.
Kera had shown up at Dollar’s house that evening on the inevitable drive-by; no call before coming, just an “I was in the neighborhood.” All that meant was that she wanted to be screwed. This was the third time she had pulled this stunt.
“Oh shit. I’m cummin’,” Dollar roared. “I’m cummin’.” He wrapped his hands around Kera’s throat as he ejaculated.
Tears of pain and anger strolled down Kera’s face as she lay beneath Dollar who was breathing heavily. Eventually he got up and showered. Normally he probably would have led Kera into the bathroom with him so that they could shower together. Just like the last time, she would have probably let him get one more off up in her, but this time Dollar showered alone, leaving an emotional Kera alone in his bed.
As the water ran down Dollar’s butter pecan toned six pack, for the first time he saw h
is life for what it was. He had put in work hustling. He had the riches, jewels, and a nice crib out of the hood, yet his mind was still in the ghetto. Did he ever really want to leave the streets alone, no matter how much money he had? It must be true what they say about being able to take the boy out of the ghetto, but not being able to take the ghetto out of the boy.
Dollar realized why a lot of cats didn’t leave the hood. It was like an addiction, a fear. They were scared to leave what they had learned to love and what loved them back. Dollar loved the streets. He was married to them, forsaking all others.
After Dollar got out of the shower he dried himself off and wrapped the towel around his waist. He went back in the bedroom to find a fully dressed, teary-eyed Kera grabbing her purse and sweater.
“Aren’t you going to take a shower?” Dollar asked Kera.
“Fuck you, Dollar,” Kera said.
“Little mama, what’s wrong?” Dollar said, none the wiser to the situation at hand.
“What’s wrong? I don’t know what that shit was,” Kera said as tears flowed down her face.
“What what shit was?” Dollar asked, completely ignorant of what was going on in Kera’s mind. “You didn’t cum?”
“That sex, fucking, screwing or whatever you want to call it. It sure wasn’t making love.”
“Making love.” Dollar laughed. “We ain’t never made love. People who care about each other make love. You and me ain’t like that.”
“You are one big piece of shit, do you know that? I can’t believe I fell for you. Fuck you, Dollar. You don’t ever need to say two words to me again, ever.”
“Am I supposed to be mad? Are my feelings supposed to be hurt? Ma, this was just a fuck thang. I thought you knew,” Dollar said, spelling it out in black and white to Kera.
Dollar’s words were destroying Kera. He felt it was time to get rid of her anyway so he might as well go for the jugular. “You let me hit that the first night you were ever with me. That was a ho move. Did you think I was going to make a ho my girlfriend?”