“So what now?” Kali used the back of her hand to wipe at her eyes. She knew Bird was telling the truth, but she couldn’t imagine being out of his life for good. She knew that, although he talked that big-boy talk, he would need her now more than ever, especially since his mother and sister weren’t dependable.
“Can we at least be friends?” She looked up to see Bird’s eyes water.
“I’d love that.”
“Me too.” Kali gave a halfhearted smile. “Well, as your friend, I’ll make sure money stays on your books. I’ll write letters as often as I can, and I’ll answer every collect call.”
“They’ll be moving me in a week or so to Jackson State Prison. I’ll hit you up when I get where I am going and give you the info.”
“Cool.” She nodded.
“So, back to what I was saying earlier: is any of what I’m hearing true? Are you out there hustling?” Bird whispered.
“I am.” Kali shook her head and watched Bird’s expression change.
“Kali—”
“Bird, you are not my daddy, or my man anymore for that matter. I respect your opinion, but I no longer have to listen to it. I’m doing what I have to do to get on my feet. This whole situation taught me to stop depending on people for everything. For once in my life, I need to be my own lifeline.”
“I understand,” Bird relented. Although he didn’t like it one bit, he knew there was not a damn thing he could do about it. “I hear y’all doing pretty good for yourselves. Who’s the plug?” Bird needed to be sure she wasn’t working with any snakes.
“That’s the thing I came to talk to you about.” Kali paused. “We sold everything that was in the bags you left me. We have run out. We need to re-up, so I came to ask who your connect was.” She knew she was asking for a lot, but she prayed Bird wouldn’t give her a hard time about giving her the information.
“I can’t give you that, Kali.” He shook his head adamantly.
“Why not?” Kali smacked her lips just as the guard hollered that time was almost up for visiting.
“Because you’re not ready for that information.”
“Bird, I will make sure we break you off a percent of every dollar we make,” Kali tried to bargain.
“It’s not about the money.”
“Then what is it?” Kali was growing more irritated by the second.
“Time’s up,” the CO yelled, and Bird stood.
“Who is it, Bird?” Kali stood up with him, insistent on getting an answer.
“I can’t.” He tried to back away, but Kali grabbed his sleeve. “You don’t really want to know.”
“Please,” she begged.
Seconds felt like hours as he stared into her eyes, and then he gave in. “Kali, it’s your father,” he whispered.
“What?” she hissed. “Have you lost your fucking mind? Please tell me you’re kidding.”
“Your pops has been my connect for years. He and I always talked, but we didn’t know each other personally until you introduced us. I swear.” Bird knew the bomb he’d just dropped was heavy. He felt bad for keeping such a secret and for dropping it on her like that.
“Not my daddy. You can’t be fucking serious!”
“I told you, you weren’t ready for that kind of information.” With those words, he walked away, and Kali fell back into her chair completely flabbergasted.
How could the good bishop also be the drug connect? She felt like she had no idea who her father was. She couldn’t believe that he had been leading a double life like that. And, all this time, he would speak to her with such disdain for and disapproval of her drug-dealing boyfriend, when he was the one supplying him. The hypocrisy of it all made her blood boil. She had a lot of questions for her father, and Kali was now hell-bent on getting them.
* * *
Kali looked for parking in her father’s church parking lot. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and church was in service. She decided to park in an empty handicapped spot in the front. She could hear the church choir singing their hearts out as she walked toward the sanctuary. She let herself in through the double doors and proceeded to walk down the aisle and straight to where her father was seated at the pulpit.
He stood up when he saw her walking. “Praise Jesus! My daughter has returned home!” he exclaimed as he raised his arms and looked up. “I tell you, church, God is good!”
The entire church erupted in praise. All through the sanctuary, you could hear “amens” and “hallelujahs” from the congregation.
Bishop Franklin walked toward his daughter and embraced her. “I’m glad you are here, child. I’ve been waiting on God’s promises to bring you back.” He leaned in and tenderly kissed his daughter on the forehead.
“Oh, yeah? Did God also promise to never let you get caught supplying drugs to your people?” Kali got straight to the point. She saw her father’s face turn pale, and the smile he was proudly wearing quickly disappeared.
He looked around to see if anyone had been within earshot of what she had just asked him. “Let’s talk about this after service,” he said to his daughter as he looked into her eyes.
“No, we’re gonna talk about this now, or I will expose you in front of everyone, Father. For years, I have had to deal with your and Mom’s constant judgment of my life. You have made me feel so guilty about who my heart chose to love and, all this time, you were no better than him.”
“Kali, let me explain. Let’s go back to my office, and we will talk right now.” Bishop tried to usher his daughter so they could exit through the back of the stage. He hurriedly asked one of the leaders to take over the service for him.
When the father and daughter were finally in the office, the tension could be cut with a knife. Bishop Franklin was the first to break the ice. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry about what exactly? Sorry for lying to me all of these years? Sorry for making me feel guilty about my life choices? Sorry for you and Mom always judging me? I’m going to need you to be a little more specific.”
“I’m sorry about everything.” Bishop took a deep breath and sat in his chair. “I never thought you’d find out. I never wanted you to find out.”
“Well, I did, Dad. I know all about you being Bird’s supplier. He told me how you’ve been his supplier for years.”
“Yes, I am his supplier. I got into the business long before you were born. I made good connections with some people in Colombia, and I have been working with them ever since. Somewhere along the line, I found God; and, although I changed a lot of things in my life, I never was able to walk away from the drug game. I decided I’d just be a silent supplier. I met Bird’s mentor and began selling to him. When he was killed, Bird took over his position, and that’s when I became his supplier.”
Kali was listening to everything her father was saying, but she still didn’t understand why her father had been so mean about her relationship with Bird. He had been against them from the very beginning. “Okay, I get all that, Daddy, but why have you always been so cold about me being with him?”
“Because I never wanted my baby girl to end up with a drug dealer. Your mother and I gave you a good life. You had a great upbringing and never needed for anything. For you to end up with a drug dealer was a slap in the face.”
“But I fell in love with him! You can’t help who you love. I know you know that, Daddy,” Kali tried reasoning with her father.
“Yes, I understand that now,” Bishop Franklin said as he lovingly looked at his daughter.
“I’m glad you do. And I also need you to understand that I will now be taking over Bird’s position.”
“Absolutely not! No daughter of mine is going to be a drug dealer hustling on the streets.” Bishop Franklin practically jumped out of his chair and slammed his hands on the desk.
“This is not up for negotiation. I am taking over Bird’s position, and you are going to be my supplier, or I will expose you to your congregation,” Kali said as she took out her cell phone, to show her fat
her that she had been recording their entire conversation. “I’m sorry, but a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do and, right now, I need to make sure I get my money up so I can figure out my next moves.”
“Kali, I don’t think you know what you’re getting yourself into,” Bishop tried to school his daughter. “When you get into this business, you will be stabbed and double-crossed. You have to be on the constant lookout because you never know when someone will come after you. People you think you can trust will turn their backs on you. Friends will become enemies.”
“Oh, I’m good on that. My friends would never turn against me. Me and my girls are in this together,” Kali assured her father.
“For your sake, I hope to God you are right,” was all Bishop Franklin could say.
“Trust me, Daddy, I’ll be fine. I’ll let you know when I need to place an order.” With that said, Kali stopped recording and walked out of her father’s office.
EPILOGUE
KALI
Five Years Later
“Are you sure you’re ready to leave the game, sis?” Jamaica’s soft, sensual voice asked on the other end of the phone. She was smacking hard on a piece of Winterfresh gum. Although it was an old classic, it was still her favorite.
“Yeah, I’m done. So much shit has happened in so little time that my head is spinning!” Kali looked at her reflection in the rearview mirror. She still looked good, but she’d aged tremendously in the past few years. At twenty-six years old, she shouldn’t have had wrinkles in her forehead, or gray strands of hair. Yet there they were. “This shit ain’t for me, Jamaica. It never was.” She sighed hard thinking about how she’d gone from being an innocent church girl to the cocaine and heroin queen.
“What about the money?” Jamaica pressed.
“What about it?” As much as she enjoyed the financial stability, she hated all the bullshit that came with every dirty fucking dollar.
“Whatever!” Jamaica smacked her MAC-glossed lips.
“For real, J. Fuck the money, fuck the fame, and fuck the haters. I told you I’m done with that shit.” Kali laughed.
“But you’re so fucking good at hustling!” Jamaica paused. “Besides, Kali, we’re a team. What about me and Fly? Are you really going to leave us twisting in the wind like that?”
“It ain’t about leaving you twisting in the wind,” Kali said. “I need to do this for me. It’s time to move on, J. I can’t stay young and dumb forever. Let me grow up.”
“I feel all of that, believe me, I do, but what about us?” Jamaica continued as if she hadn’t heard a thing Kali was saying.
“Y’all bitches need to grow up too.”
“I don’t know if you noticed, sis, but I’m grown as hell.” Jamaica laughed to lighten the mood, but she was dead-ass serious. She didn’t need another bitch to validate her level of maturity, not even her girl Kali.
“Bitch, I know you’re grown, but growing up is something different.” Kali rolled her cat-shaped eyes as if Jamaica could see them. “You need to stop worrying about your hair, getting your nails done, buying new bags, and clothes, and start worrying about shit like real estate, retirement plans, stocks, and bonds.” For the last couple of years, Kali had been investing her street dividends wisely, and she’d encouraged her girls to do the same. She doubted they were listening, though. All they cared about was staying fly and flashy.
“Look, Kali, I ain’t really in the mood for the speeches and shit. All I need to know is can me and Fly at least get the plug’s info?”
“J, I already told you my connect doesn’t want to deal with anybody but me. If I’m out, then my plug is too.” Kali was getting frustrated with having to go into this much detail on the phone, especially because she knew Jamaica knew better.
“I understand that’s your plug, but we are supposed to be a team; or, at least, that’s what I thought.” Jamaica paused then tried to redirect the conversation. The last thing she wanted to do was piss Kali off when so much was at stake. “Look, sis, just hear me out. I’ve been in the fucking game way too long to be starting back at square one. This thing we got going is too smooth to stop now. I don’t want to get in bed with nobody else.”
“J, I’m out,” Kali repeated.
“Sis, you don’t even have to get your hands dirty, I promise. Just keep hooking me and Fly up and you can keep like ten percent of the profit.” Jamaica wasn’t taking no for an answer. “Think about it, Kali, you’ll be making money without having to do anything.”
“J, I appreciate what you’re saying, but I’m done. End of story!”
Jamaica was pissed. After everything they’d been through, she felt it was messed up of Kali to just walk away and not even be willing to let her and Fly keep the business going. “Well, can you at least get one more order to hold us over until we find someone else?” she asked grudgingly.
“Hold on, girl, let me get this call.” Kali put Jamaica on hold then clicked over. The call was just in the nick of time.
“Hello? Hello?” she repeated in an aggravated tone when there was no answer. Someone had been calling her private phone for the past two weeks, and it was starting to get on her last nerve. “Stop playing on the gotdamn phone!” she hollered before clicking back over to Jamaica. “Sorry about that, girl.”
“Still getting them prank calls, huh?” Jamaica said after noticing the irritation in Kali’s voice.
“Hell, yeah, and the shit is annoying.” Kali smacked her nude matte-painted lips before pulling up in front of a two-story brick home resting in the center of a cul-de-sac.
“I would’ve been changed the fucking number if I were you,” Jamaica stated as a matter of fact.
“I ain’t got time for all that shit.” Just as Kali started her sentence the phone beeped again. This time Kali clicked over without a word to Jamaica. “Stop playing on this muthafucking phone before I find your ass and make you regret it.” Lately, she’d been trying to turn over a new leaf, but every now and again the hood side of her came out to play.
“You’re a dead bitch!” The computerized voice sounded like one from a scary movie.
“What?” Kali was alarmed. Within the past two weeks the caller had never uttered a word, and now the motherfucker was bold enough to toss threats.
“Count your days, bitch! Your time is coming!” Click!
For a second, Kali held the phone in silence until it rang again. “Hello.” This time she answered cautiously.
“Why did you hang up on me?” Jamaica asked.
“Some crazy shit just popped off, J, but I’m good. Let me hit you right back.” Kali needed to get her bearings before she got out of the simple but clean 2017 burgundy Lincoln MKX.
“You don’t sound good, sis. Do you need me to draw down on a bitch or something?” Jamaica was always down for whatever, which often proved to be a gift and a curse.
“Nah, sis. I’m good. Let me go in here and holler at Fly real quick. I’ll hit you back later.”
“I’ve been calling that bitch all day, and she ain’t answered none of my calls. I see how it is.” Jamaica was in her feelings. “Anyway, I’m one call away, B. Hit my line if you need me.” She was using her New York accent, and Kali laughed. Although her friend had lived in Detroit for the past fifteen years, her New York swag sometimes came out. Lately, she’d been consistently wearing Tims, saying things like “dead ass,” and calling niggas “son.” It amused Kali for the most part, but sometimes Jamaica was too much.
“Thanks, J. I’ll holla back shortly.” Kali placed the phone into her purse, grabbed the navy blue duffle off the passenger seat, and got out of the car.
“Are you coming in or what? I can’t keep standing here all night, Kali. I have to get back to the phone,” Fly hollered, anxious, from the porch of her four-bedroom house. She saw when Kali pulled up and had been waiting on the porch for her to come in. She was pacing back and forth like a crackhead and puffing on a Newport cigarette like it was going out of style.
; “You look like a fiend,” Kali joked, trying to lighten Fly’s spirits.
“Bet I’m the freshest fiend you know, though,” Fly said halfheartedly. As usual, she was dressed to the nines in the latest Victoria’s Secret Pink spandex outfit. Diamonds were dripping from her ears, neck, and wrist, and her hair was spiral curled to death! Even on her worst day, like today, Fly somehow managed to look good.
“Shut up,” Kali said. “When did you start doing that shit again?” She pointed at the cancer stick before giving her friend a much-needed tight hug.
“I started back today. This bullshit got me stressing, girl.” Fly flicked the butt of her cigarette into the flower bed filled with pink daylilies. Together she and Kali headed inside the house. “I can’t believe these niggas violated me like this.”
“What time did it happen?” Kali asked while closing and locking the wooden door with colored stained-glass panes.
Fly’s house was hooked all the way up. In addition to the stylish brown, cream, and gold décor, there was a movie theater in her basement and a large fish tank in the wall separating the kitchen from the dining room. Although she wasn’t much of a chef, she loved to entertain her friends with lavish dinner parties, card parties, movie nights, and karaoke.
“It had to have happened sometime between last night and this morning.” Fly walked across the large living room toward the brown oversized leather sectional, and she took a seat. Kali followed, inhaling the scent of jasmine and vanilla that filled the air from the incense burning on the table.
“Did you notice anything strange before you went to bed? Was anybody parked on the block?”
“No.” Fly shook her head while replaying last night’s events. “I picked Braxton up from school around four thirty, and I took him out for dinner. When we got home, he did his homework and showered, and we decided to watch an episode of Nightwatch. As soon as it went off, he said he was tired, so we said good night. He went into his room, and I went into mine. When I got up this morning, I made breakfast like I always do on Saturday. I never have to call Braxton because he always smells the bacon.” She laughed with watery eyes.
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