“I guess you’re right.”
“I know I am. Now call your pops and tell him you comin’ home.”
Anthony was in the counselor’s office. The fat red neck, who was as racist as they came, was on vacation so a young grad fresh out of Central Michigan University was filling in. He listened to Anthony’s story and offered to let him call his dad from the office phone, which was perfectly legal depending on the situation. Most inmates never get the chance to use the privilege since most of the counselors don’t give a shit about inmates. Their staff’s saying was one out the door, in two more.
The red headed Opie Taylor looking young man moved away from the desk but not out of the office to afford Anthony some privacy. Nervously, Anthony dialed the 773 area code and then the rest of the number. As it rang he thought about how he’d never been anywhere or done anything. He had never dialed any number that didn’t have a 313 area code. He thought about hanging up so he wouldn’t have the embarrassment of getting hung up on. Just when he was about to pull the phone from his ear and set it into its cradle and lie to the counselor that there was no answer, a voice spoke on the other end.
* * *
“Lucky’s. Hello, Lucky’s,” the woman named Tesha said.
Anthony hesitated then asked, “Can I speak to Anthony Davis?”
The woman paused, then covered her other ear with her hand so she could hear over the music that a band was playing. With someone calling asking for her boss by his real name, she needed to find out who it was. “Who is this?” she asked.
“My name is Anthony, his son.”
The woman was taken aback. She’d never heard of Lucky having a son—she almost hung up but decided to ask, “Lucky never mentioned that he had a son. Is this some kind of joke?”
Hurt by the statement and also not wanting to tell the woman all his business not knowing who the hell she was, he told her, “Look, I’m his son and this will probably be the only chance that I have to talk to him and I know he’ll be pissed if he finds out that his only son called and you didn’t put me on the line with him.”
With that the woman snapped, “Hold on.”
She pressed the phone to her chest so the man who claimed to be her boss’ son couldn’t hear. She walked over to Lucky who was sitting with one of his long time partners Frank. He was listening to a jazz band, evaluating their talent to see if he wanted to put them on for Saturday night’s show.
“Excuse me, Lucky.”
“What’s up girl? You know I don’t like being bothered while I’m evaluating talent,” he told her as he continued to rub his salt and pepper goatee while keeping his eyes on the band that was playing a rendition of Miles Davis.
“A guy is on the line. I tried to tell him that you were busy—”
“I am, honey. Come on now, do your job.”
Cutting to the chase, she said, “He said his name is Anthony, that he’s your son.”
Lucky’s fingers froze on his goatee.
Frank’s bobbing of his head ceased.
Lucky asked, “That’s what he said?”
“Yeah.”
Lucky stood, she handed him the cordless and he headed to his office. “Hello, this Lucky.”
Nervously, Anthony said, “Hey, I know this is kind of crazy and I don’t know where to start, but I guess hi Pops will do.”
Lucky made it to his office, and Frank watched as he paced back and forth as he talked on the phone. Frank had been Lucky’s partner since childhood and knew Lucky had a son named Anthony that was taken away from him when his mother just up and left one night with the boy without saying a word. For several years Lucky tried to find out where his son was but his search was futile and he gave up to quell the pain that was inside of him.
Tesha looked toward the office and then at Frank who was now standing. She noticed the stunned look on his face then asked, “Is it true?”
Frank said nothing.
She had her answer.
They both waited and about fifteen minutes later, the time the counselor allowed Anthony, Lucky walked out of the office. He looked at Tesha telling her, “I need you to head to the mall and buy some clothes for a twenty-eight year old. Whatever the type of shit these boys wear now-a-days. Get a grand out the safe. Get one of them MP majigums—”
She cut him off, “MP3 player.”
“Yeah, and load it with music from ten years back until now. I need it all by tomorrow.”
“I gotcha,” she said wondering if the man on the other end was really Lucky’s son.
“What’s up Luck? Is it really little Ant after all these years?” the tall, slim, baldheaded man asked.
“Yeah it’s him. Get your shit packed. We’re heading to Michigan for a few days.”
These Bars Can’t Hold Me Now
“Girl, you the fuck up outta here,” Nessie said as she sat in the chair to the desk.
“I know I can’t believe it. It’s only been fifteen months but damn! I’m ready to get the hell out of here,” Lisa told her cellmate.
Lisa’s lawyer had gotten her out. He had worked hard on her case, but the big break was when a confidential informant for the Chicago PD told detectives of a guy he knew who claimed to have planted drugs in Lisa’s BMW. Once they finished working a case on the young man and he was in custody, during his interrogation he offered up the information. He agreed to testify for the feds when and if they ever arrested Slim or anyone in his crew who they attempted to prosecute.
“Fuck, I wish I had your lawyer then I wouldn’t have spent six years in this fucking place,” the thick half black and half Puerto Rican hissed.
“Yeah, but you’re going to be out of here in a few months though.”
Nessie jumped up from the chair and did her dance. She popped that thang then dropped it like it was hot while saying, “It’s going to be on. My cousin said he gonna have me a ride and a spot to rest my head. I ain’t got to pay for shit! When his girl came to visit, she told me that they were going to kick me down with about ten Gs to get me on my feet. I’m glad he still with her cause she the one who be keepin’ his head right. I remember when we were teenagers them girls used to trick Carlos out his money. I mean them chicken head vultures used to be on his ass since my uncle his dad got mad loot.”
“Nessie.”
The fast-talking young woman paused and looked a little dumbfounded when she asked, “What, I’m rambling on again?”
When they became cell mates a year ago, Lisa realized that Nessie got caught up because she talked too much. Once she started talking she couldn’t stop. And with her cousin being Carlos Fuentes, son of the largest drug dealer in Chicago, she needed to learn to pump the brakes on her motor mouth sometimes.
“Yes, you’re rambling.”
“Look at you with the ‘yes’. You done got all proper since you walked in here,” Nessie teased.
“It’s not that I got all proper. I just have to be ready to tackle the world when I get out of here. Mr. Goldstein told me that I could have a job as an administrative assistant and I’m going to do that and go back to school. I already have an associate’s so I’m going to get my bachelor’s.”
“Do you girl? I’m proud of you. Shit we need to keep in touch cause if I need a lawyer I’ll know who to call.”
“You not getting back in the game, are you?” Lisa asked hoping that her cellmate wasn’t. Time had taken six years of Nessie’s life and she was only twenty-five. Lisa couldn’t believe that she was thinking about heading back into the lifestyle of being a drug mule and keeping drugs stashed in her apartment.
“Girlfriend, I don’t know what else to do. I mean you’re smart so that lawyer offered you a job. Or either he just wants to have that secretary - boss relationship. If you know what I mean,” she joked trying to make light of the situation. Months earlier Nessie had told Lisa that she was going to get out and get a job and make something of herself. But the closer it got to Nessie’s release, the people from her cousin’s drug family started vi
siting. These were the same people who hadn’t visited at the beginning or the middle of her bid. Nessie had got caught carrying a kilo and kept her mouth shut. She had been a mule for her family from the age of fourteen to nineteen and was a good one. Never lost a package. Never came up short on money—the perfect mule for a kingpin.
Lisa leaned toward her friend and took hold of her hands. She looked into her friend’s eyes telling her, “Look, I know they have been coming and visiting you telling you that they are going to hook you up with this and that and going to give you all this money. I know it sounds good but what about if you get caught up again. Look at how many of us ended up in here because of snitches and you never know where that knife that ends up in your back is going to come from.”
Nessie broke free from Lisa’s grip and stood. She slid her grey sweatpants down her shapely hips and legs and Lisa looked at her friend’s body as she slid a pair of shorts up over her prison issued panties. Not that Lisa swung that way as a matter of fact she and Nessie beat a girl down when the dyke tried to come in the cell on Lisa and gorilla her for some head. Lisa was just thinking that her girl was built to get any dude she wanted. Her body was tight and her face was on dime piece status. And with men on this exotic video look, Nessie fit the bill with her mixed heritage. All she needed to do was get the hood out of her and she could very easily cop her a man that was doing it—legally.
“Girl, I know you mean well, but you got more doors opened for you and more avenues you can travel. Me,” she shrugged her shoulders. “I ain’t got nobody but the streets. That’s all I know and that’s what’s been good to me,” she told Lisa as she hopped up on the top bunk hoping that Lisa was ready to end their conversation.
“I’ve been good to you.”
“Shit girl, no doubt, you definitely family in my eyes. Whenever that ex of yours would fatten up your commissary, you hooked me up.”
Nessie was talking about Terrance, the professional baseball player for the New York Yankees who Lisa was in love with, but was too slow in choosing between him and her drug-dealing boyfriend—Slim. When Slim caught wind of her cheating with Terrance, he set her up to do jail time.
“That’s what I’m talking about. Your peeps weren’t really sending you shit until a few weeks ago,” Lisa told her as the lights went out and she stretched out on the wafer thin mattress.
Nessie didn’t say anything. She just lay on her bunk and thought for a second. She then leaned over the bunk and looked down at Lisa saying, “You gonna be my road dog forever, no matter what. I love you girl. You kept me fed and kicked down with all the underground shit we could get in here from cosmetics to liquor.”
“We did get our buzz on last week. Thanks for hooking that shit up!”
They slapped hands.
Nessie told her, “Shit I just had the connect. It was your loot. That nigga Terrance may say he got another woman, talkin’ bout you wasn’t truthful with him but he still got love for you. Shit, he ain’t still got love, he still in love. Fuck who he kickin’ it wit. Them your draws. All you got to do is show up at his doorstep and he’ll be eating your pussy like its honey dipped.”
“Girl I told you don’t talk like that. I don’t have long to go so I’m not trying to get all hot and bothered,” she said as she squeezed her legs together. “Besides he’s into his woman and I’m happy for him.”
“Whatever, she probably some skinny assed white chick. You know how they get when they get a little money. They should at least get one with some meat on her bones.”
“Now you’re trippin’. Let me get some sleep ’cause Shay is visiting tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I got one too. My peeps LaTanza is comin’.”
“That’s good, night-night.”
“Night, fam.”
Lisa closed her eyes. She licked and sucked two fingers until they were well coated then slid them into her shorts. She didn’t have on any panties because she had been thinking of Terrance all day and needed an orgasm. She slid her fingers over the hairs on her mound then found warm moisture and inserted a finger and massaged that button with the other and before she knew it, “Ahhh,” quietly escaped her lips. Nessie smiled when she heard the sound of pleasure and decided to travel the road of ecstasy so she could get off also.
A Visit Amongst Friends
Nessie looked Lisa up and down. She told her, “Damn, make sure you send me some pics with your ass in some Baby Phat or better yet some Apple Bottom jeans cause your ass looking good in them khakis. Shit no waist and them tits you’ll have some nigga feeling you up real soon.”
They both laughed as Lisa continued to fix her hair that was shoulder length with brown highlights. Lisa ran three miles five days a week and did countless numbers of pushups and sit-ups for the past eighteen months so her body was tight and she couldn’t wait to get into some real clothes and out of the prison khakis. She tied her hair into a ponytail and applied some of the good makeup she and Nessie had smuggled in, to her pretty face.
“Mayfield, you have a visit,” the guard yelled down the walk.
“Alright girl, see you in a bit,” Lisa said.
“A’ight, tell Shay I said hi just in case I don’t see you guys when I get out there.”
Lisa had introduced Shay to Nessie one time when they had a visit and talked about Nessie all the time in letters and on the phone. Nessie was from the streets and was connected so she didn’t have any problems being locked up the only thing was she hated being away from her peeps.
Shay had let Nessie put her boyfriend on her visiting list Lisa’s request. That way Nessie could get a visit sometimes when Lisa got one. It was good looking out for a cell mate that at the time wasn’t getting any visits.
Lisa exited the cell and walked down the range with a tall brunette guard who was okay. She didn’t do any favors or go that extra mile for the inmates, but she wasn’t an asshole and didn’t treat the inmates badly like a lot of the guards. Lisa thought for a second then asked the C.O. could she go back to her cell. They took the short walk back and Lisa gave Nessie her two picture tickets. She and Shay had taken plenty and she knew that Nessie didn’t have any.
* * *
Lisa signed in and smiled when she saw her girl sitting at the table. Shay stood as Lisa walked toward her. They hugged as if Shay hadn’t been there two weeks ago. But they had been friends for life and Shay hated to see her girl incarcerated and was happy to know that this would be her last time traveling south on the interstate to the prison.
“Girl, you look better every time I see you,” Shay told her friend as she stepped back to get a better view.
Lisa noticed the stares of a few of the inmates. One that was a known lesbian smiled slyly. Lisa quickly turned back to Shay telling her, “Uh, remember where I’m at while you looking me all up and down.”
Shay whispered, “Oh yeah girl. I forgot this is dyke city.”
The two sat at the table.
Shay broke the silence by telling Lisa, “Well, Goldstein has everything set up for you. He said to tell you that when you get out, you take about a week to get settled in and then come and see him.”
Lisa made a prayer with her hands saying, “I’m so glad that he is giving me a chance. When he came with the news that they had agreed to let me out, I couldn’t believe that he also offered me a job at his new firm.”
“Well, you deserve it and he sees the potential in you. Are you still going to start the classes at Chicago State?”
“As soon as I can. You know I was just telling Nessie about how I was going to take this opportunity and run with it. You know she’s thinking about getting back into the game.”
Shay frowned as she shook her head.
Lisa continued, “I told her to come see me and I’d see what I could do to help her out, but her people have started visiting her now that’s she’s getting out. Offering her a place of her own, a car and money.”
“Didn’t you say she was related to that guy, Fuentes?”
�
�Yeah, you know that’s the guy who was supplying most of the Latins, including Felix.”
“So that means he’s Slim’s rival. Speaking of Slim, what are you going to do if you run into him?” Shay questioned trying to see where her girl’s head was.
“Turn the other way.” Wanting to get off the subject of Slim seeing as how she had no intentions of dating a drug dealer again or even accepting so much as a drink from one. Seeing as how that chapter in her life was over and the story ended badly she asked, “So what’s up with Terrance.”
Shay knew her girl still had feelings for their childhood friend but knew that he’d moved on. Terrance had it all. Playing for the New York Yankees making millions and was one of the nicest men you’d ever meet. He had given Lisa his heart and proposed to her. But she took too long to cut off Slim and ended up in prison, but by the grace of God, she’s getting out early. Shay told Lisa that he was still with the woman he started seeing about six months ago and that they were moving to Chicago, because a few days ago he’d been traded to the Cubs. That stung a bit, but Terrance had been good to Lisa and still was. To this day he had been looking out for her. He always made sure her commissary was fat and sent autographed photos to any of the women who were locked up with Lisa who bugged her about it. He also paid for her an apartment in South Holland, a suburb south of Chicago. It’s close to her lawyer’s new office and not too far from Chicago State, which is on the south side. He’s not in love with her anymore seeing as how she broke his heart, but he still has love for her because before they became lovers, they were childhood friends living off 69th on Stewart Street. He, Lisa, Shay and Peaches were all best friends and to him Lisa’s involvement with Slim caused their friendship to hit a huge stumbling block in which they all will take awhile to recover from. Especially since Peaches ended up doing time in Los Angeles because of Slim.
The Corner II Page 4