Durty South Grind

by L. E. Newell

  Smiling from ear to ear, she said, “Yep, you remember that day that she bloodied his nose when he stomped on her mud pies.” She started laughing into the suds at the top of her glass.

  “Look atcha, girl, suds all over your nose and shit.” He flicked a napkin across the table.

  She shook her head and started wiping away the tears easing down her cheeks. She took a deep breath and sat back in the chair and coughed. “Aw man, every time I think about that look on Bee’s face, I flip out.”

  “That was some funny shit, for real tho.”

  “Yeah, it was.” She puckered up and leaned forward with her elbows on the table, “On the serious side, how’s my baby boy looking?”

  “How should I know; I haven’t seen him yet, either.” He picked up a saltshaker, sprinkled some on the back of his hand and started licking it off.

  She frowned, disappointed, figuring that he would be able to give her a rundown.

  “Whatcha frowning all up for, girl? I was just letting you know that he’d gotten out,” he said as he took another long swig of his drink.

  “I thought, I assumed, aw fuck it…anyway, when do you think you’re going to see him?”

  “Hmmm, I expect he’ll hang around the family for a few days or so; hell, maybe even for a few weeks. There’s really no telling… Aah anyway, I’ll let him know you still got the hots for him when I do.” He laughed into the glass.

  She giggled for a few seconds before putting on a more serious look. “Hey, man, on the real, let your folk know that Lieutenant Woo’s on the war path over there on the hotel strip. Little bitch tried to get me to sign an okay to harass my boys. Oh hell no, I couldn’t do that to ’ya’ll; my heart wouldn’t let me.”

  “Oh yeah!” he said, tingling with anticipation now that she had put him on full alert with that information. That bitch Woo was truly a terror. He’d have to tell his girls to slow down for a few days. Or at least be on the lookout for that bitch and her crew. Them niggas there ain’t have no sympathy for nary a nigga when that ho gave the command.

  He cut an admiring eye at her. Damn, all that money for tuition and love for this girl was well worth it. Mmm-hmm, to put this girl here through college was a fucking stroke of genius. He lit up a Kool cigarette. “Thanks for the info. By the way, how’s our nana? I haven’t had a chance to cut her grass lately.”

  She smiled. “Grandma’s Granny, you know; she’s as sweet and stubborn as always. Matter of fact, I’m on my way over there now to check on her.”

  Rainbow nodded his head, full of love for the old lady who had helped raise him with nothing but affection. He sniffled. “That’s a good woman there, yeah she is.”

  Beverly took a deep breath and sighed. “Let my boy know that I asked about him whenever ya’ll hook up.”

  “Why don’tcha welcome him home yourself? He’d rather hear it from you instead of me.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “Why not? Why in the hell not?”

  “I just can’t, okayyyeeee.” She moaned and stared off into space.

  His loving stroke across her hand broke the semi-trance she had slipped into. His arm swept up to her shoulder and he gave her a nice little squeeze. “Hey, Bevy, I understand.”

  “Do you?” she wondered as she got up and walked out the door.

  Rainbow waited until she was out of sight before he snatched his cell phone out of his lizard-skinned jacket and called Lady, his main broad. “Hey, baby, have you heard anything from my boy, Duke, yet?” He nodded to a few of the things she was reporting while he eyed one of his girls strolling by the window. For a second, he was tempted to call her to get whatever money she had hustled up, but thought better of it. There was always the possibility that one of those crooked-ass cops might have been spying on her. He quickly turned his full attention back to the Lady on the phone. “Check this out, baby girl, how about making a run down I-20 for me? Yeah, I want you to pick up whatever they got and reup them, if they need it. Oh yeah, and let them know that rats are in the closet.”

  He listened to her chattering for a while and then told her, “Naw, I’m going to let him get his feet wet first. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know he’s your favorite nigga, but baby, he ain’t even been out but for a second. We’ll holla at him soon enough. Uh-huh, yeah, okay, holla atcha in a bit. Bye.”

  Rainbow hung up and thought about his buddy, Sparkle, for a while. Then he got up and thought, Might as well get a few things lined up for my boy for whenever he decide to holla at a nigga. Shit, it’s been awhile since I pulled off a caper anyhow. Should be fun and a helluva way to get him back into the street rhythm. He wore a full smile as he headed for his car.

  Several days later found Sparkle beginning to wonder when JJ would get back with Percy. He was slowly running low on the rock supply they had left him the night before. He and Dee had already smoked up a couple of fifties since he’d come over to her crib a couple of hours ago. He certainly didn’t want them to think that he couldn’t handle his biz or a slick-ass bitch like Dee. But this shit had him geeking hard for a mutha. He contemplated going back to Debra’s. He had to squash that thought; he hadn’t taken the time to get himself a key and didn’t want to wake her or the kids. As high as he was right then, he realized that she’d get knee deep in his shit for fucking with this dope; especially since he hadn’t even bothered to go get his legal down.

  Most of the geekers had left, either because they were broke or going back on the track for some more money to score again. So Dee let him turn on the TV so he could watch some HBO or BET. He peeked at her every now and then, knowing that she was most likely scheming on ways to get him to smoke some more dope. She didn’t believe him, for one second, when he told her that he didn’t have any more by the way she kept throwing hints at getting a blast. After hanging around her for the past couple of days, he’d gotten used to hearing her spit game at him. It was all good, letting her spiel to her heart’s content in exchange for the use of her drug hut with the almost constant flow of folk looking to score. Thankfully this wasn’t one of those nights; he really wasn’t in the mood for dealing with all the games that went with nearly every score.

  He flicked his nose, uncrossed his legs and leaned toward her to brace his elbows on top of her soft thighs and spat, “Girlie, I know that a nigga done just set his feet back on the bricks and all”—he reached up and grasped her chin to turn her face to look directly in her eyes—“And if a playa is gonna get this cheddar the way he wants to, he needs a ho that he can really count on, even when the roller coaster goes downhill every now and then.”

  Her gaming switch automatically kicked on. He could see it in her eyes as she leaned toward him, smiling brightly. It raised his antenna as well. JJ’s words of warning immediately invaded his brain. That ho’s a she-devil; keep your antenna up at all times.

  She had a real serious look on her face when she batted her eyelashes. “Baby, all I’ve ever needed was for a nigga to trust me a little. Hell, you’ve witnessed it yourself; there’s some major ching-ching that be coming through this bitch.” She sat up daintily and twisted her shoulder around sassily. “Baby, all that’s ever been missing is a constant source to rely on. And being that we are playing square with each other, I’ve got to warn you right up top, playa: Don’t be giving me stuff when you know that things have slowed down. Like on Sunday, or the end of the month, or days or nights like this one here.”

  He recrossed his legs, took a deep breath, uncrossed his legs again, placed his hands on his knees and twisted his mouth down. Why he want to go and do that? Home girl gave him a quick snake roll of her head, looked him up and down and said, “What, you want a ho to be real with ya, don’tcha?”

  He didn’t even try to hold back the smile that crept to the corners of his mouth; home girl was pulling no punches whatsoever. She was coming straight up with her shit.

  He cleared his throat. “Yeah, shawtie, I want you to be real.”

  “So why you looking like that then?
”

  He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “Hell, I don’t know. Well, to tell you the truth, I ah, oh whaddafuck, I see a lot of game in you, girl, but that’s a good thang if we’re gonna make it rain money in this here bitch.”

  “Exactly.” She smiled and pursed her lips.

  Suddenly the doorbell started to ring, followed by the sound of JJ’s muffled voice.

  Before she got up, she reached over to rub his crotch and sashayed her fat jellyroll ass to get the door. Her head angled back to make sure that he was checking her out; of course he was, recalling the way that she had put that hot pussy on him.

  She had barely twisted the knob when JJ came storming through, looking all geeked up. Totally ignoring her, he walked straight over to Sparkle and squeezed his shoulder. “Come on, dog; we got a lot of things to do.”

  Sparkle flinched from the fingernails JJ dug in his collarbone. Grimacing just enough to let him know that shit was uncomfortable, JJ took a deep breath and removed his hand. Sparkle leaned away and started scratching his eyebrows before he ran his hand across his mouth. He straightened up and rotated his shoulders. “Shit, dog, let’s do this then.”

  He got up immediately and followed him out the door. Before closing the door, he looked back at Dee, who had sat down on the arm of the couch. She had the nerve to try to be looking all innocent and shit. All he could do was shake his head at her good-playing ass. He walked back over to lean down, whispered in her ear and gave her ass a nice squeeze. “Don’t go overboard with that innocent bullshit. I’ll be getting you a nice package over here sometime tonight or early morning, aight.”

  She smiled over his shoulder and wrinkled her nose at JJ, who was leaning on the doorsill. She sniffed at his neck. “Whatcha want me to do if Violet and her girls come back through?”

  He shot her a quick glance from the corner of his eyes, remembering the other day when he felt that twinge of jealousy coming from her. And again he smiled at the prospect with the thought of two fly, money-getting hoes competing for his attention—not to mention the money flow and comfort the competition brought. Even though he hadn’t seen Violet since that first night, he couldn’t quite get over the electricity that flowed between them.

  “You can come over Debra’s to get one of us.” He looked over to JJ and got a nod; he knew he had said the right thing.

  She immediately shined. “Why can’t I just call?”

  “Because her and the kids will most likely be asleep.”

  JJ frowned from the door and nodded for him to get a move-on. He got up before she could see the smile creeping to the side of his mouth. And also to avoid seeing the snake-and-eye roll that he knew was about to come.

  She gave him neither and merely nodded. “Okay, I’ll see ya’ll then.”

  The two of them quickly stepped across the field toward Percy’s ride that was parked down the street from the apartment. He got out of the car as they were coming and lit up a cigarette. “Yo, Sparkle, I see you are getting in the groove of things. Though a little slower than I had hoped, but you getting there.”

  All of his instincts kept telling him that this nigga was a pure snake. He’d use those instincts to deal with him with a long-handled spoon. He didn’t want either of them thinking he was anxious to be under their rules with this dope thing. He massaged his chin as if he was in deep thought. “Yeah, playa, I feel you and I appreciate the get-up ya’ll provided for me, but I’m gonna take my own time on this; I don’t really know any of these folk I’ve been dealing with.”

  JJ finally spoke up. “That’s on point, so what we are to do now is, instead of you just going to the hotels to pick up and deliver when we think you should, you gonna be on your own thing now. You can hang around and meet a lot of the people who be rolling through and from there you can expand. You down with that?” JJ turned around in the seat and stared at him before adding, “Ah, hell yeah, you down. Man, let’s chop this here shit up and get this lettuce.”

  Percy turned around as well and spat. “You right, bro, be down for sure, so what we’re going to do is give you a couple of ounces and you can chop it up anyway you want. Just pay us what the ounce cost and use your turnover money to score your own weight. That way you can move as comfortable as you see fit.”

  Percy took the time to light himself a good hit. He also was squinting at Sparkle to make sure he was getting it—he was. “Now you’ve got to decide what kinda paper you gonna cut your folk for slinging for you. The general idea is the same way you been dealing with Dee. Oh yeah, and bro, I can feel ya calculating, but I can tell ya right off the bat that from the beginning, you probably ain’t gonna clock but maybe two hundred clear dollars to put in your pocket. I mean, like after handling what shorts you’re going to have to accept; and collecting your re-up digits. But it’ll get better as your clientele grows.”

  Sparkle, who had been clinging on to his every word, spoke up, “Hey man, ’nough said; let’s get this started.” He reached for the door handle but they both stayed put. “Yo, what’s the hold up now, dog?”

  JJ said, “Okay, before we even get out the car, the same rules apply, as less noise as possible. Chip and zip, chip and zip with no lip. We aight with this? Good; let’s roll.”

  JJ pulled a grocery bag from under the seat and they crept up to the crib. Just as they had previously, JJ slipped to the closet to get all the working gear, while Percy went to the kitchen to get the saucers and sandwich bags. After taking a good hit, they got busy. By the time they had bagged up all nine ounces, the early morning light was easing through the drapes of the patio windows. The suddenness of Percy’s phone ringing in the otherwise silent room caused all three of them to jump in their seats.

  Damn that thing is loud as hell, Sparkle thought before he realized that it was probably the coke that had their senses extra sensitive.

  A frowning Percy lifted the tail of his shirt to check out the number. He cut his eyes at JJ and whispered, “Man, fuck, damn, it’s those worrisome-ass sisters of mine. I told them girls that I’d call them when everything was ready, damn.”

  JJ stifled a laugh. “Man, go ahead and answer them because you know they are gonna keep calling ’til you do. And dog, we got lucky that loud-ass phone of yours didn’t wake Debra or the kids.”

  He didn’t get the chance to finish when his attention was drawn to a yawning voice coming down the hallway. “Debra what?” she said as she appeared knuckling the corners of her eyes as she cinched the sashes of her robe.

  She emerged out of the shadows of the hall gritting. “What the fuck ya’ll sneaky-ass niggas doing in my house this time of the night; oh shit, morning, I meant.” She stopped to look at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room. “Oh hell no, not this shit here again. I done told ya’ll.” She grimaced angrily as she stifled the next yawn.

  JJ was on his feet immediately and rushed over to her. She wasn’t having it and whacked his groping arms away from her.

  He put on his best jeffing face. “Come on, baby, you gonna wake the kids.”

  She pushed him back and stepped away, growling, “I’m gonna what? Wake the what? Nigga, please, I done told you not to be having that shit up in my house.” Then she whirled on Sparkle, who was acting like he was asleep on the couch. “Nigga, ain’t no need for that shit there; that fake-ass sleep ain’t gonna work with me. You the first one I saw, fool, and your stupid ass ain’t been out a whole week and already knee-deep fucking with this shit. What happened to looking for a job, bro; what’s up with that?”

  He gave up the act and sat up. “Aw, baby sis.”

  “Aw, baby sis, my ass. Whatcha gonna do; kick bricks right back at the penitentiary before you even get your feet wet? That’s fucked up, man. You ain’t even going to give yourself a chance to do the right legal thang,” she nearly screamed as a tear rolled down her cheek.

  Suddenly everybody’s heads jerked to the hallway behind her, where Ebony and Mike were stretching and yawning.

  Debra gath
ered herself and placed an arm around each of their shoulders. “Ya’ll gon’ clean yourselves up and get ready for some breakfast. I’ll have something to eat in a minute; gon’ now.”

  The mumbling pair made their way back down the hallway. Percy’s phone started ringing on his side again. He already knew who it was but looked down at it anyway and grimaced.

  Debra, who by now was breathing fire, whirled around with her hands on her hips and growled, “Might as well go ahead and answer it and don’t be making no deals that I can hear, either.” She huffed and twisted back around and headed for the kitchen to fix the kids something to eat.

  Percy spent several moments whispering into the phone and nodding before he clicked it off and went to peek out of the patio curtains. He walked back to the table and grimaced. “Man, do you believe them damn girls are out there in my car, waving and smiling up at me? Damn, I thought I’d locked the damn door. What’s it going to take to get rid of them monsters?”

  He huffed and turned to take another look out of the curtains. His head jerked back when he looked beyond the twins, who were still waving at him. He turned back to them with an aggravating look on his face.

  JJ raised a curious brow at his expression and then frowned at Sparkle, who could only hunch his shoulders in response. JJ threw his hands in the air. “Damn, dog, what’s the deal? You act like you done seen a ghost.”

  Percy shook his head. “Man, here comes that bitch, Dee, walking across the field like she on a mission.”

  JJ jumped up and rushed to the patio to see for himself, before he turned back to Sparkle. “Aw fuck, she sho is. Yo, bro, go handle things with that ho before she get over here.” He reached under the couch where he’d thrown the coke when the kids had appeared in the hallway, picked out one of the baggies and tossed it to Sparkle.

  Sparkle snatched the bag in flight, eased it into his jacket pocket and turned to see if Debra was paying any attention. Luckily, she was reaching into one of the cabinets. He sprinted quietly to the door before she could turn around.