Too Salty: Ain't a Damn Thang Changed (Part 6)

by Williams, Aleta

  Lupe heard her name, she then recognized the voice. OMG, thought Lupe. It was her aunt. She didn’t want to acknowledge her, but she knew if she didn’t she would be more embarrassed than she already was. Lupe turned around.

  Rosa thought she looked pretty. Her long, blond hair looked healthy. Her face was blemish free. The green contacts she wore looked natural, but those boobs read fake all over them. Rosa looked at her name tag. It read, Elizabeth. Rosa shook her head. Lupe was still in denial about who she was. Ever since Rosa’s sister sent her to that private school and kept her around all those rich, white folks, Lupe had been ashamed of who she really was, a Hispanic lady.

  “What brings you to the W today?” her niece asked.

  “Look, I have an emergency. I need you to tell me what room Dena Kenslow is in.” Rosa took a deep breath. “Her daughter. You remember Laurie, is having a crisis and I am afraid of what she is going to do to herself.”

  Lupe looked around to see if anyone was listening. She leaned over the counter. “I cannot do that. That is private information. Tell Laurie to take chill pill.” Lupe never liked Laurie. She felt that she was a selfish, rich kid who didn’t appreciate her worth. She didn’t understand why Laurie always wanted to hang in the hood with ghetto people when she had wealthy, rich friends who would love to hang with her.

  “Where is the manager?” Rosa looked around. She didn’t have time to play with Lupe’s wanna be, stuck up ass.

  “My manager will not only tell you the same thing, but have you escorted out of here. Now, please. Go. Laurie can handle herself.”

  “Where is the manager? I need to speak to the manager and now!” Rosa was getting pissed off. Baby Amanda saw how upset her Rosa had become, and she poked her lip out and started whining.

  “OMG… You’re embarrassing me, you’re going to get me fired.” Lupe typed the name in the computer. She saw that Mrs. K was in the presidential suite on the thirty sixth floor. She slid Rosa the key and whispered the room number. “If I get fired, it’s your fault.”

  “If you get fired, I will pay you a year’s salary.” She took the key from her, kissed baby Amanda, and hurried toward the elevator.

  Lupe watched with thoughts of contacting her aunt. She wondered just how much money she had. She was thinking about getting a brazilin butt lift.

  When Rosa made it to the room, she knocked first. She didn’t want to walk in on Calvin and Mrs. K like Laurie said she had. “Mrs. K, it’s me, Rosa.” She waited a few seconds before knocking again. Rosa slid the keycard across the slot on the door. She watched as it turned green and then pushed the door open. “Mrs. K, Mrs. K, it’s me and baby Amanda.” She slowly walked inside. “There is an emergency.”

  ~Laurie ~

  “What is it that you want from my family?” Laurie directed her question to Pastor G.

  “I want an innocent man free.”

  “Or else,” Big Man added.

  Laurie swallowed the lump in her throat when she looked at him. She knew what or else meant and she wasn’t about to play like she didn’t. The hangover had her head still hurt and her stomach nauseas. She darted her eyes over at the soda water and BC Powder. “Can I have that?” She pointed at the table. Pastor G told her to go ahead. Laurie slowly got up from the bed. She opened the BC Powder and upon looking at the white substance, she thought she better not. They may have replaced the aspirin with dope. She didn’t even want the soda water because it was open. Pastor G saw the expression of doubt on her face, and chuckled when she walked back over and sat on the bed. Rosa, hurry up and call, she thought, looking at the men who had kidnapped her.

  ****

  When Rosa walked into the living room, the suite was quiet. She looked around and it looked as if no one ever stepped foot in there. “Mrs. K,” she continued to call out. By the time she made it to the entrance of the bedroom, she figured that they may have stepped out. She put baby Amanda down and pulled her cell from her purse. As she dialed Mrs. K’s number, she walked in the room. Baby Amanda was right behind her. She placed the phone to her ear and it began ringing, and just as she turned the corner of the bedroom she saw Mrs. K laid out across the bed, butt naked and snoring loudly. She turned to look behind her to make sure no one else was there. Her eyes then scanned around the entire room.

  “Mrs. K?” She called out her name and shook her. “Mrs. K?” She shook her harder. It took her a good minute of hard shaking before Mrs. K moved a little bit. “You need to wake up now. It’s Laurie, she is having an emergency.” She slapped her face. Dena opened her eyes and closed them again. “Wake up, wake up” Rosa shook her.

  Dena got pissed, she sat up in the bed. “What the hell are you doing here?” Dena looked over toward the nightstand. “Amanda, get away. Rosa, get her.” Dena jumped up from the bed. By then, Rosa had turned around.

  “That is a no, no, no, no.” Rosa ran over to baby Amanda and snatched her up. She looked back at Dena, who was now standing right behind her.

  “Did she touch that? Check her hands.” Dena was nervous.

  “Oh, my God, you need to be ashamed of yourself. This baby could have killed herself. OMG, please, tell me you are not that stupid.”

  Dena ignored Rosa. She grabbed her grandbaby’s hands and examined them. She kissed each one of her little hands before walking over to the stand, grabbing the plate of cocaine, and walking into the bathroom. Before Rosa knew it, tears streamed down her face. “Rosa, you still haven’t told me what the hell you are doing here,” Dena yelled from the bathroom. She scooped up the cocaine with her pinky finger and put it in her nose. Instantly, her nose burned. She closed her eyes and let the drug do its job.

  I can’t believe she allowed that sick fucker to turn her on something she despised. Rosa was appalled, but at that moment Dena wasn’t important. Laurie was. With Amanda still on her hip, she pulled her cell out and dialed Laurie’s number. She then walked over to the bathroom door. She placed the call on speaker. Dena heard it ring and wondered who in the hell was she calling.

  “Rosa, did you find my mother?” Dena heard her daughter’s voice. She hurried and snatched the door open.

  “You better not,” she mouthed to Rosa.

  “Your mother is right here. She can hear you.”

  “I thought I told you seventy two hours? Did you think I was playing?” Both Rosa and Dena were shocked at the voice they heard.

  “Mommy, please, I am scared. Mommy, please …” Laurie began to cry.

  “You better not hurt her, you better not hurt her!” Dena was frantic.

  “Bitch, you better make it do what it do and ASAP,” Big Man ordered. Dena didn’t know who was speaking, but she now knew that Pastor G wasn’t alone and he had her daughter.

  “Don’t hurt her. I will take care of this. Laurie, baby.” The phone went dead.

  “What is going on?” Rosa asked as Dena ran off to get dressed.

  “I will tell you in the car. I gotta save her,” she cried.

  Mrs. K was so busy enjoying life with her man, she had totally forgot about Ken and the fact that she was ordered to call off her dogs. The drugs took over her mind and quick.

  ****

  It was the night she had asked Calvin to leave after seeing the plate of drugs on the nightstand. After seeing him walk away, she decided that she didn’t really want him to leave. For one, she was feeling him and may even had start to love him. And, two, the way she reacted toward Calvin was how she reacted toward her last husband and deceased son. If she put Calvin out and something happened to him, she didn’t think she would be able to live with herself and that was why she begged him to stay.

  When she and Calvin got back in the room, the tension was so thick it could strangle you. She thought about how she was going to approach him with offering her help. Before she came up with an idea, Calvin walked over to her and gently pulled her from the bed by her hands. He looked into her eyes before kissing her.

  “Sit down and let me explain something to you.” Calvi
n sat on the bed and pulled Mrs. K on his lap. He kissed her on the ear and she tensed up. “Cocaine does not control me. I do that shit for fun. It’s the same as drinking, smoking weed, and gambling…You have to have a weak mind to allow that shit to control you. Who in the fuck will gamble off their house note and kid’s college fund not knowing if they would win or not? A weak and stupid muthafucka. Who in the fuck will stay drinking after the doctor warned you that it will eat you alive and you would be dead before you know it?” He thought about his own father. Mr. Lewis died a drunk and broke. After he lost their house and their cars due to his gambling addiction, he went into depression and drank himself until he finally died. “I’m not weak and I will never allow that shit to control me. I do it for fun.” He pulled her face to his. “It won’t solve your problems, but it will help you relax.”

  “Are you suggesting that I try drugs?”

  “There you go.” He became aggravated just that quick. “Watch out.” He pushed her up off him. Calvin paced back and forth. Dena looked at him like he was crazy. He stopped pacing and looked at her. “I am about to go out for a little while. Let me drive one of your cars.”

  “You know where the keys are.” She flopped on the bed and poked out her lip. She didn’t want him to go. Calvin saw that and smiled in the inside.

  “I am going out for a little bit.” He walked over to the plate, grabbed it, and sniffed the straight coke line. He left the coke that was in the form of an S there on purpose. When he was done, he sat the plate back down on his side of the bed, walked over, and kissed Dena, who looked in shock and then walked out of the door.

  A few hours had passed and Calvin still hadn’t returned. Just when she was thinking of him, her phone rang. “Hey, baby, is everything ok?” she asked. He crossed his fingers and toes.

  “Naw, look. My momma just called me and told me that she has cancer, and she needs money for medication and shit like that.”

  “Oh no, baby. Is there anything I can do?”

  “Yep, I am short. I need about twenty grand.”

  “When will you be here? Let’s talk.”

  “I don’t really have nothing to talk about. If you are not going to give it to me, then I need to think of a way to get it.”

  “Calvin, I never said that.”

  He looked at his boy that sat across the table from him and smirked. “I will be there in a minute.”

  When Dena got off the phone, she walked over and stood on her balcony. So much had gone on in one night, she was sure there was a black cloud over her. She looked up in the sky. There wasn’t a black cloud, but there was a full moon. Dena walked back in the house and over to her wet bar, and made a drink. She thought about everything that had gone on from the time Diesel was shot at Jazz’s BBQ to the time Rosa told her she thought he was using drugs to finding out that her son raped his girlfriend and her daughter helped pin the crime on another man. She thought about Diesel dying and Ken killing him. She thought about the fight she and Laurie had. She needed another drink. As Dena made a drink, her eyes landed across the room at the drugs Calvin left there. She took baby steps in its direction and within seconds, she was standing in front of the coke filled plate. I am not weak. I just need to relax. She picked up the plate and stared at it. Her heart beat fast and for some reason, her mouth watered. She sat on the bed, took the rolled up dollar bill, and sniffed just a little. She hurried up and grabbed her nose. “This shit burns, oh shit.” She jumped up and ran toward the bathroom. She turned on the cold water, placed her hand under the faucet, and then stuck a finger up her nose. She looked in the mirror at herself. She didn’t see herself as looking any different, but her body felt feel light and tingly. It was a strange feeling and for some reason, it put a small smile on her face. She wiped the water from her nose and walked out of restroom. She jumped. “Baby, you scared me.”

  Calvin stared at her. She felt uncomfortable and tried to walk away. He grabbed her by the arm. “Have you been messing with my shit?” She looked up at him. She was so embarrassed and he could see it. “You don’t know what the hell you doing.” He chuckled.

  She laughed nervously. “It burn like hell. Does it suppose to burn?”

  “A little. But, how you feel?”

  “Good,” she admitted.

  Only if she knew. Only if she knew… Calvin thought.

  Since that night, Dena had been dipping and dabbing. In her mind, Calvin was right. Only a weak person would get addicted because the shit had you feeling so good. Good thing for her she wasn’t weak. Not even if she did it three or four times a day for the last few weeks, she didn’t think she was addicted.

  ****

  “Come on, we need to go.” Dena rushed out the hotel room. “Rosa, grab my purse and make sure you lock that door!” she yelled as she made it out of the door. Rosa was still taken aback by what she had just found out Dena was doing. She couldn’t believe she would stoop so low. Rosa sat baby Amanda on the couch.

  “Stay right here.” She ran back to the room and into the bathroom. She grabbed the plate of cocaine, flushed it down the toilet, and after threw the plate in the toilet. The devil, the devil, she thought of Calvin. Rosa grabbed Mrs. K’s purse off the rack, and she and baby Amanda left out of the room.

  “What in the hell took so long? My baby needs me,” she fussed at Rosa when she made it to the lobby.

  “Where did you park?”

  “Calvin has my car.” She briefly thought of him. He’d taken her car when they first got there the afternoon before and she hadn’t heard from him since. “You did drive, didn’t you?”

  Rosa wanted to go off on her, but she didn’t. Her main focus was finding out who had Laurie and why. Once she was safe, she would get on her. The ladies hurried out of the lobby. They waited for the valet.

  “I’m driving,” Dena advised.

  She drove like a bat out of hell all the way to the court building. She was lucky there was a park out front. She parked right in front of the building, jumped out, and ran up the stairs.

  What in the hell is she doing? Rosa thought as she saw Mrs. K drop to her knees at the doors of the court. She looked back at baby Amanda, she was asleep. Rosa got out of the car and hurried up the steps.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I need to talk to Judge Gramble.”

  “It’s Saturday, they are closed. Now, tell me what in the hell is going on. Do that supposed to be man of yours have your daughter in danger? Tell me right now what is going on.” She bent down shook Dena.

  Dena snatched away. “Calvin had nothing to do with this. It’s that Ken.”

  Rosa looked puzzled. Dena broke it down as to what was going on. Rosa was now crying and scared. She prayed nothing happened to Laurie.

  “Can’t you call somebody?”

  “Gamble is the only one. His wife doesn’t like me, so I can’t go over there.” She stood up from the ground.

  “Call him”

  “He does not turn his phone on, on the weekends. Call Laurie’s phone.”

  “Done?” was how G answered Laurie’s phone.

  “No, the court is closed. But, I promise I will take care of it first thing Monday. Please, let her go.”

  “No can do, I will call you Monday.” G hung up and turned off the phone. Laurie cried a storm. “I gotta go pick up Stacy,” G told Big Man.

  “Man, go get another room first. This shit stank up in here.” He looked at the vomit on the floor.

  About ten minutes later, G came back with a key for the new room they would be staying in.

  “You get stupid, your ass will regret it,” Big Man warned Laurie. “Now, stop all that damn crying. Now!” She jumped and wiped her eyes. “You wasn’t crying when you lied on Ken.” He gave her an evil glare. Laurie put her head down and the three exited the room.

  Jay Bo looked out the window as Big Man, Laurie, and G walked pass. He wondered what the fuck was going on. Were they her pimp? The thought only crossed his mind a short second. Pam had come
out of the restroom and was ready to finish her game of cards they were playing.

  Chapter 16

  Mrs. K was having a fit. Rosa got on her nerve questioning her about what she was doing. She was worried about her daughter and Calvin’s ass was MIA again. She ended her weekend at the hotel and went home. She warned Rosa to leave her the hell alone and to only bother her if there was an emergency with baby Amanda or she’d gotten in touch with Laurie. All she wanted to do was sit in her room and relax. Only the cocaine was able to help her with that. However, she was getting low and she had no idea where to cop from. Calvin handled that.

  *****

  Calvin sat in the substation waiting to for Monday to come around so he could see if his PO would violate him. He would have been out. The bail for assault and disturbing the peace was nothing, but the punk ass system didn’t give him a bail because he was on parole. He knew Dena was probably wondering what was going on, but he couldn’t call her. If he did she, probably would have put her nose where it didn’t belong and she would have found out some shit she wasn’t supposed to find out, and then he would have to kill her. There was no need in worrying his mother. She was out of town, anyway, and, plus, there was nothing she could do, so he waited it. For some reason, he thought about that punk ass nigga Detective F. He still didn’t understand what his visit was all about.

  ****

  Detective F had Mrs. Brown and Jazz’s house watched by surveillance. He couldn’t locate Pam anywhere, but when he did he was for sure to pay her back. Not only did she escape, jeopardizing his case, but she assaulted an officer. She damn near killed Michaels.

  He knew something was going on between them by the way he acted the day he had dropped by. He was a detective and he was far from stupid. They wouldn’t give each other eye contact, stuttering and shit. He knew. He didn’t call them out on it because he didn’t think Michaels was that stupid to risk his job by tampering with police property. He better be glad he snuck up on him that day, he may have never woke up. There were plenty of wild animals that wouldn’t mind eating him. Michaels suffered from a slight concussion. F told him to call in sick with an excuse to keep his ass out of hot water. He threatened that Michaels could lose his job for what he did and Michaels didn’t want that, so he followed F’s advice. Detective F was now sitting in front of the hospital waiting on Pastor G and Stacy to come out so he could follow them. He doubted they would lead him to Pam, but was sure that they knew where Jazz was and, eventually, Pam would show up.