by CJ Hudson
The woman moved toward Nancy at lightning speed. Before Nancy could even open her mouth to protest or throw up her hands to defend herself, the woman attacked her. Mr. James stood there, stunned as his wife grabbed a handful of Nancy’s hair and slung her to the ground.
“Get her off me!” Nancy cried out to her boss.
“Baby, please, let her go. You’re gonna get us arrested.” Mr. James pulled his wife off of Nancy and received a hard slap to the face for his troubles.
“Get the fuck off of me! This bitch is the reason your stupid ass is being fired, and you wanna tell me to stop?” Mrs. James looked at her husband with a blend of tears and rage in her eyes. “How the fuck could you be the manager of this store and not know that they had put security cameras in your office, you stupid muthafucka?”
Just then, Mr. James’s boss, Darlene, as well as the security guard came in. “Is everything okay in here?” Darlene asked.
“Oh, everything’s fine. I’m just about to beat blood outta this tramp right here!”
The security guard quickly grabbed Mr. James’s wife as she made another lunge for Nancy. Nancy instinctively threw up her hands to protect herself.
“Come with me, Nancy. We need to talk,” Darlene said to her. Nancy followed her into the office. She ignored the nosy coworkers who had rushed to the scene to find out what the commotion was all about. “Have a seat.”
Nancy plopped down in the chair as if she knew what was about to happen. It had never entered her mind that the store might institute surveillance cameras. But instead of being worried about her job, Nancy was already thinking that she wasn’t going to be able to get any more money from Mr. James to buy more dope.
“I’m not going to beat around the bush with this. On an anonymous tip, I was informed that I should look into the relationship status of you and Mr. James. Upon acting on this tip, the company decided to install two cameras in Mr. James’s office. Imagine our shock when we looked at the video and saw you and Mr. James engaging in sexual misconduct here in the workplace. Now I know that I do not have to tell you of the seriousness of this situation. We simply cannot have this type of thing going on in the workplace. Therefore, Ms. Dryer, we have no choice but to terminate you. We will mail your check. Please see yourself out. Goodbye.”
Nancy walked out of the office amid the giggles and stares of her now-former coworkers. She was certain that it was one of them who’d dropped a dime on her. She looked down toward the end of the hall at Mr. James’s office. The door was open. Mr. James was finishing up packing his things, and his wife was standing there, shaking her head and tapping her foot. As soon as she saw Nancy, she reached for the door. “Keep it moving!” Mrs. James slammed the door so loud it almost broke.
* * *
Nancy walked into her living room and plopped down on the couch. She was stunned. It never crossed her mind that when she went to work, she would be getting fired. All the way home, she worried not only about how she was going to survive, but about how she’d support her habit. Nancy knew that she needed help to overcome the addiction that had slowly but surely taken over her life. But the shock and depression of losing her job caused her to slowly reach into her pocket and take out the remaining dope she had on her. Nancy stuck the rolled-up dollar into the bag and sniffed away. She didn’t stop until she had sniffed it all up. Tears ran down her face as her nose burned. Needing to talk to someone, she picked up the phone and called Tammy.
* * *
Tammy sat on the edge of her bed, feeling numb. She couldn’t believe that her mother was willing to put her and her brother out in order to please a man she barely knew. She didn’t know if her mother was serious, but she didn’t want to be anyplace she wasn’t wanted, and that included the house she grew up in.
Tammy heard her cell phone chirping but ignored it. Whoever it was would just have to call her back. After twenty minutes had passed, she got up, walked to her closet, and pulled out a large duffle bag and a backpack. She fought hard to hold back the tears threatening to roll down her face.
Her feelings were a mixture of anger and hurt. After packing her duffle bag with enough clothes to last her a week, she went into the bathroom and stuffed her backpack with toiletries. She then walked to her brother’s room to check on him. Shortly after Janice told them to leave and walked up the stairs, Hakim gave her the finger behind her back, went into his room, and slammed the door. Tammy suspected that he left quickly so she wouldn’t see the tears that he unsuccessfully tried to hold back.
“Hakim, you okay?” she asked as she knocked on his door lightly. “Hakim?” When Hakim didn’t respond to her knocks, Tammy opened the door and walked in. There she found Hakim balled up on the bed, crying his eyes out, his heart crushed by the one person he thought would always protect him. Tammy walked over to the bed and sat on the edge. Her heart broke as she saw the hurt in her little brother’s eyes.
“Why is she treating us like this, sis? Why is she acting like she don’t give a fuck about us?”
Tammy opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She had no idea what to say to him. All she could do was rub his back and try to comfort him. Tammy went back into the bathroom to get some tissue so her brother could wipe his tears away. On her way there, she looked downstairs and saw the front door close. Tammy ran down to her mother’s room and knocked on her door. After not getting an answer, she pushed the door open and confirmed what she already suspected. Her mother was gone. She got downstairs just in time to look out the door and see Steve’s car pulling off down the street. Tammy went back upstairs to check on her brother.
When she got back to his room, he was packing his clothes. He had a scowl on his face that scared her. Gone were the tears she’d seen fall from his face a few seconds ago. “What are you doing?”
“I’m packing my muthafucking shit! If that bitch don’t want me here, then I ain’t gotta be in this punk-ass house!”
“Wait.”
“Wait for what? You heard what the fuck she said! She want us the fuck outta here!”
“You’re seventeen years old. You don’t have to go anywhere! She cannot legally put you out!”
“I don’t wanna fucking be here if she gon’ be fucking around with that punk muthafucka!”
Silence hung in the air as Hakim continued to pack. Right then, Tammy knew that whatever Hakim was about to do, she wouldn’t be able to stop him. She couldn’t say that she blamed him for wanting to leave if he felt like he wasn’t welcome there, but that wasn’t going to stop her from worrying about him.
“Where are you going to go?” she asked with concern in her voice.
“Over to Nikki’s house.”
“Nikki? When did y’all get back together?”
“I don’t know if I wanna say that we’re back together.”
“If you’re going to live with that girl, then you’d better want to say that you two are back together. She’s not going to just let you move into her house as a damn guest.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said.
“Do you think her mother is going to be okay with that?”
Hakim looked at his sister and smiled. “Somehow, I don’t think she is going to mind.”
Tammy stared at her brother for a few seconds. “Uh, why are you looking like that? Wait, never mind. I don’t even want to know.” Tammy then walked over to her brother and gave him a hug. She looked up into his eyes and caressed his face.
“Look, Hakim. I know it seems like Mama doesn’t care about us. But I have to believe that this is just a phase she’s going through right now. I mean—”
“Mama is too damn old to be going through a fucking phase,” Hakim said, cutting her off. “We gotta just face the facts that Mama is sprung off this nigga, and she loves him more than she loves us.”
Tammy hated to admit it, but her little brother was right. And the simple fact of the matter was that there was nothing they could do about it.
“Just make sure you call me and let me know that you�
��re all right from time to time,” Tammy said as she hugged Hakim again.
“You make sure you do the same.”
Tammy turned and headed for the door.
“Hold up, sis. You never did tell me where you was going.”
Tammy stopped in her tracks. She really hadn’t thought about it. “To a hotel, I guess,” she said as she shrugged her shoulders. “I might put off school for another year, though, because I’m going to look for an apartment tomorrow.” Tammy had assumed that she was going to stay at home and commute back and forth to school, but now that plan was up in smoke.
Hakim walked over to his sister and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Hold off on that. Going to college has been a dream of yours since we were little, so don’t give up on that.”
“I don’t want you to—”
“Ain’t nothing you can do to change my mind on that one. Whateva I got to do, yo’ ass is goin’ to school.”
Hakim turned around and continued to pack his clothes. Tammy turned around and walked out the door, sadly realizing right then and there that her little brother had married the streets.
Chapter 30
Janice felt like the lowest scum on the earth. She had just chosen a man over her children. As she walked to Steve’s house, she couldn’t help but wonder if her kids were going to hate her for the decision she’d made. She tried to rationalize that Tammy and Hakim were grown and that it was time for them to leave the nest, but deep in her heart, she knew that was bullshit. While it takes some addicts some time to get addicted to a drug, it only took one sniff for Janice to get hooked on the white lady.
Right after she’d left her kids sitting at the table searching for answers, she went upstairs and called Steve. She’d practically begged him for the stuff that made her feel like she could leave the world behind. Steve told her to come on over, but if she wanted the white lady, then it was going to cost her. Janice smiled as she thought about that. She knew exactly what Steve meant. She could almost feel his python working its way between her legs.
She had thought about asking Steve to come and pick her up, but the last thing she wanted was for Hakim to go crazy and attack her man again. She felt bad about putting her son in jail, but she didn’t want him to think that he could just jump on Steve whenever he got upset. She didn’t feel like waiting for the bus, so she just chose to walk.
Her feet started to hurt slightly as she bent the corner. Before Janice knew it, she was walking up on Steve’s porch. He must’ve been looking out the window, because before she could knock on the door, he opened it.
Janice smiled as she followed Steve into his living room. Her smile soon turned into a confused look when she saw a strange man sitting on the couch with his shirt off. There were also two very young-looking women sitting beside him, sharing a blunt.
Noticing the strange look on her face, Steve draped his arm around Janice’s shoulders. “Come on in, baby. Let me introduce you to a couple of friends of mine.”
Janice became slightly unnerved as Steve guided her into the room.
“This here is my man Camp. And the two ladies sitting over there having a little fun are Tracy and Bird.”
“Hello,” Janice spoke to them as they absentmindedly waved back. “Honey, can I talk to you in the kitchen for a minute?”
Steve smiled sinisterly as he followed Janice into the kitchen.
“Steve, what’s going on? I thought we were going to be together tonight.”
“We are together. I just thought I would call a couple of friends over so we could have a li’l party. It’s a’ight, ain’t it?” Steve said with a stern look on his face.
“Uh, yeah, it’s okay.”
“Good,” Steve said as he turned to go back onto the living room.
“Uh, do you have any more of that stuff you gave me the other night?”
“In due time, baby. In due time,” he said, smiling.
* * *
“What time you talking ’bout linking up?” Bobby asked Red over the phone. After listening for a few seconds, Bobby said okay and hung up the phone.
He smiled as he thought about how Tammy had read his story and was seemingly impressed. He couldn’t help but wonder if she really liked it or if she was just being nice. As if she knew that he was thinking about her, the phone rang with her on the other end. Bobby smiled. His heart started to warm as he rushed to press the button and see what his newfound love had to say. His heart sank when, for the second time, he answered the phone, and she was in tears.
“Bobby, can you come and get me, please? I need to go to a hotel.”
“A hotel? The fuck you need to go to a hotel for? What the hell is going on?”
“I really don’t want to go into it over the phone. Can you please just come and get me?”
“I’m on my way,” Bobby said as he hit a U-turn in the middle of the street. Bobby didn’t know what was going on, but after reaching up under the seat and grabbing his gun, he punched the gas and sped toward Tammy’s house. When he got there, he saw Tammy sitting on the steps. Her elbows were resting on her knees, and her hands were covering her face. She was so distraught and deep in her thoughts that she didn’t hear or see Bobby pull up.
Bobby got out of his truck as quickly as he could and ran over to his boo. “What’s up? You okay?”
Without saying a word, Tammy jumped up and jumped directly into Bobby’s arms. She wrapped her arms around him and held on as if someone were trying to abduct her.
“It’s okay, li’l mama. I’m here now.” Bobby noticed the duffle bag and backpack sitting on the ground.
“Will you take me to the Marriott downtown, please? I’ll explain what happened on the way down there.”
Bobby didn’t say a word. He simply picked up her bags and carried them to the truck. He knew that she was going to tell him what was going on anyway, so all he had to do was wait for her to feel like talking about it. After putting the bags in the truck, Bobby went back, grabbed Tammy’s hand, and escorted her to the truck. He helped her get inside and drove off.
After ten minutes of silence, Bobby couldn’t take it anymore. He had to know what was going on, and since it was clear that Tammy wasn’t in a hurry to give him any information, he figured the only way that he was going to get anywhere was to ask her straight out. “Okay, you gotta tell a nigga something. What’s going on with you?”
Tammy opened her mouth to speak, but instead of words coming out of her mouth, they were replaced with tears streaming down her face. Bobby lifted his arm and put it around Tammy’s shoulders. With no hesitation, she leaned her head over and laid it on his shoulder.
Tammy then proceeded to tell Bobby what happened. Bobby just shook his head at the entire situation. He wanted to go find Steve and put a bullet in his head for being the cause of Tammy’s family being broken apart.
Tammy sat up and stared out the window. Up until that moment, it hadn’t hit her that they were going in the opposite direction of downtown Cleveland. “Where are we going?”
“Well, first, we gon’ swing by Rally’s and get you something to eat. While you were lying on me, I heard ya stomach growling. When is the last time you had some grub?”
Tammy thought about it and couldn’t remember. She didn’t know how hungry she was until Bobby said something. All she could do was hunch her shoulders up.
“And then I’m gonna take you back to my place. Fuck that hotel bullshit. There’s plenty of room at my crib.”
Although Tammy was grateful, she didn’t know if she wanted to accept Bobby’s hospitality. It wasn’t that she felt that she wasn’t going to be comfortable in his place. She just wanted to be alone at the moment.
“And don’t worry. I ain’t gonna bother you,” he said as if he could read her mind. “I know you probably want to be alone right now.”
“Thank you. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”
“Don’t worry about that. I just wanna make sure you a’ight.”
Bobby was
paying such close attention to Tammy that, for the moment, he forgot all about having to meet up with Red.
* * *
Hakim sat on the bus, fighting to hold back the tears stinging the insides of his eyes. His emotions were more mixed up than a Rubik’s Cube. He didn’t know whether he was coming or going. All he wanted to do was find Steve and snap his neck in four places. He didn’t know whether to feel sorry for his mother or hate her ever-living guts. She’d turned her back on them for a piece of dick.
Hakim started to think that his initial thought about his mother being on drugs was correct. In his mind, there was just no way that his mom could’ve gone from a loving, drug-hating woman to someone who was willing to toss her own kids out unless she was smoking or snorting something. Hakim hoped that Nikki was at home when he got there. He’d tried to call her twice, but she didn’t answer either time. Just as he lifted his cell phone to call her again, it vibrated.
“Hey,” she said as soon as he answered the phone. “What you getting into tonight?”
“Not much,” he answered. He wanted to see what she was going to say before he asked her if he could stay there. He fully expected her to say yes, and quite frankly, he didn’t know where he was going to go if she said no.
“I was thinking that you could come over tonight and spend the night with me, if you ain’t too busy.”
“Well, to tell you the truth, I was on my way over there now. I wanted to surprise you,” he lied.
“Oh, for real? I’m about to get ready for you. I’m gonna leave the door unlocked while I take a shower, so let yourself in, okay?”
“That’s cool.”
After hanging up, Hakim’s dick immediately got hard. Picturing Nikki in the shower had him literally running to her house. Either her mother and sister weren’t at home, or Nikki just didn’t give a fuck. And if she didn’t care about boning while her mother and family were at home, then neither did he.