If it Aint One Thing it's Another

by Sharron Doyle

  ”Well, the next thing I heard was Annette going down the steps. She must have stopped when she got to the bottom, because the next thing I heard was her going back up the steps.”

  ”Ma’am, why didn’t you say anything before about this?”

  ”Because nobody asked me,” she replied flatly.

  The police waited outside in their car for a few minutes for Annette to come home. When she didn’t, they left and returned with a warrant for her arrest.

  When Annette finally arrived home, she was greeted by the police and homicide detectives and was served with the arrest warrant. She put up a fight before being handcuffed, and she was also now being charged with assaulting an officer and resisting arrest. She was making matters even worse for herself, as if she didn’t already have enough problems.

  After being fingerprinted at the precinct, Annette was allowed to use the phone to make her one call. She contacted her mother and told her what happened.

  What?! The police are charging you with killing BJ?! Are they crazy?! What precinct are you at? her mother shouted at the other end of the line.

  ”Mom, just go to the courthouse in the Bronx; that’s where I’ll see the judge,” Annette said. She was then told by an officer that she had to hang up. She did as she was told and was escorted back to her holding cell.

  The next day Annette’s mother posted her bail of fifteen thousand dollars. She was released.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  The police were able to contact Ladelle at the midtown restaurant where he worked. He was frantic when he found out what had happened to Lydia.

  He ran out of the restaurant to the street to hail a cab. He couldn’t believe that Lydia was being held hostage in their apartment. Ladelle knew this was all connected to Petie and his Escalade getting trashed. He was going to cut Petie off for sure now. The shit had gone too far.

  When Ladelle got uptown, the police weren’t letting anyone enter the building. He identified himself and was put in a van with the hostage negotiator. Janine was also in the van being comforted by crisis workers. She was a wreck over her baby girl, Janelle.

  News vans were everywhere, and a crowd of eager reporters had their cameras rolling to get the breaking story.

  The negotiator was asking Ladelle all kind of questions abut Lydia and their relationship as if he had something to do with the situation. This shit made him even madder than he already was. He told them that Lydia was pregnant and about what had happened to his truck, which he filed a report on. He also revealed what he knew about Kalif and that he might think he had something to do with his brother’s death a few years ago. Ladelle didn’t care that he was possibly giving the police something else to look into; he just wanted Lydia safely out of their apartment. The information helped the negotiator build a psychological profile on Kalif to go along with the arrest record he already had on him. He was very professional, and Ladelle felt that he was going to do his best to get Lydia out of this mess as quickly as possible.

  Hours had passed, and the surrounding floors had been evacuated and security was tight. However, Kalif still hadn’t made any demands. The negotiator contacted him again and asked him what it was that he wanted.

  ”Get me some food and some icecream,” Kalif demanded.

  ”Okay. Whatever you want, we’ll get it. But you gotta understand that we can’t help you if any of the hostages are harmed. Do you understand that, Mr. Reynolds?” the negotiator asked Kalif.

  ”Oh, y’all muthafuckas know my name?” he said and then paused for a moment. ”Listen, I understand. You just make sure I get what I want and nobody will get hurt in here—ya heard?”

  ”I hear you. Now what exactly would you like for us to get you to eat?”

  ”Get me some beef and broccoli and some butter pecan icecream. And make sure it ain’t melted. I want a pack of Newport 100s and get me two phillies. You got that?” The negotiator repeated Kalif’s order and told him they would get it right away.

  The Hostage Rescue Team had set up an ambush outside for Kalif. They would make their move when his food was delivered. The SWAT team had already entered the building. A helicopter flew above the location, and the pilot landed the aircraft on the side of the building in a spot where he thought Kalif wouldn’t recognize it. Meanwhile, the SWAT team was entering the apartment across the hall from where Lydia lived.

  Kalif looked out of the window and saw the helicopter. He grabbed Janelle, now awake, out of Lydia’s arms and held the scared child out of the window, dangling her like a doll. Lydia screamed for him to stop before he dropped her. Janelle was crying and trembling now, and Kalif kept her hanging while law enforcement watched in terror through their binoculars. The helicopter circled back around the building, and Kalif pulled Janelle back inside and threw her at Lydia.

  The phone rang and Kalif immediately answered it. It was the negotiator. ”Hey, if you pull anymore stunts like that, you’re going to leave us no choice but to start applying force. We’re doing everything you ask us to do, but if you continue to behave recklessly you’re going to make us change our plans. I thought we had an agreement that nobody would get hurt.”

  ”Yeah, whatever,” Kalif said. ”Now let me tell you something: if I see another fucken helicopter out there, I’ll drop this rug-rat out the window. Do you understand that? You talkin’ ‘bout reckless...y’all keep playing with me and I’ll show you reckless. Now, where’s my fucken food at?!” he yelled into the phone as Lydia looked at him in complete horror.

  Members of the Emergency Response Unit and the Hostage Rescue Team, along with other law enforcement agencies, were all inside the building now. They had entered through the back way. The entire area was closed off to the public, and the reporters and their news vans were still on the scene, catching everything live.

  Kalif turned on the TV and wasn’t surprised to see his picture on the screen, along with footage of him holding Janelle out the window. ”Shut her up before I drown her ass in the toilet,” Kalif shouted when Janelle started crying again. ”I’m trying to watch the news!” Lydia held Janelle closer to her and began to sing gently. She wasn’t putting anything past Kalif; there was no telling what he might do after seeing him hang Janelle out the window. Kalif told Lydia that Denzel didn’t have anything on him right now; after seeing himself on all the news channels he felt like a star.

  The phone rang. It was Ladelle. To his surprise, Kalif gave Lydia the phone. He figured that Kalif didn’t know who he was.

  Ladelle didn’t waste any time. ”Listen to me, and don’t show any emotional reaction to what I’m about to say. The building is swarming with police. They are right across the hall. When he opens the door for his food, run in one of the bedrooms and lock the door. You hear me?”

  ”Yes, the baby is fine,” Lydia said pretending to be engaged in small talk with Ladelle.

  ”Is he right there?” Ladelle asked her.

  ”Yes, I’m hungry,” Lydia said continuing with the small talk.

  ”Okay, baby, hang up. And remember what I said,” Ladelle stated.

  ”I’ll let you go as soon as I eat and kill your man.... The next time they call I’m gonna tell them to send your bitch-ass nigga up here, and you and the little girl can bounce—fair enough?” Kalif said to Lydia as she hung up the phone. Lydia shook her head yes.

  The doorbell rang and an officer outside in the hallway called out to Kalif, telling him that his food had arrived. ”Leave it at the door!” Kalif yelled back to him. He listened until he heard the officer leave, and then he slowly opened the door with the burner in his hand. Before he could bend down to pick up the bag, the door across the hallway was flung open and there were six guns pointing at his face.

  ”Drop your goddamn gun, asshole!! Now!! Drop it!!” the SWAT team screamed at him.

  Ride or die, Kalif thought, and he licked off two shots before being tackled to the hallway floor. He was then thrown up against the wall and back onto the floor before being handcuffed. One of the
officers kicked him and another one spit on him as he was being restrained.

  Lydia and Janelle were rushed out of the apartment and were escorted onto the elevator. When they got outside, a huge crowd of people began to clap and cheer, glad to see that they had made it out alive. They were put in one of the police vans as Kalif was being brought out of the building in handcuffs.

  Kalif was greeted by the same crowd of people who had just clapped and cheered for Lydia and Janelle. They were now angry. They began to throw bottles at him, and someone grabbed at his shirt. He was eventually bum-rushed and thrown to the ground, and several police officers watched in amusement as he was kicked and beaten.

  Kalif was badly bruised when the police picked him up off the ground. They took him to an ambulance where he was strapped down onto a stretcher. The angry crowd refused to let the ambulance move. More than eighty people blocked the vehicle. ”Let him die!! Let him die!!” they shouted. One of the officers picked up a bull horn and addressed the crowd, finally persuading them to let the ambulance move. Kalif was taken to Harlem Hospital, where he was arraigned on several charges.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Lydia and Janelle were taken to the hospital to be treated for trauma. Janine was glad to have her baby girl back safely.

  Ladelle held Lydia in his arms like she would disappear if he let her go. ”Did he put his hands on you in any kind of way?” he asked her.

  ”He hit me once, and he tied me up and put socks in my mouth,” she replied.

  ”I swear to God, if I get my hands on that nigga, I’ma kill his ass,” Ladelle said.

  ”I think he was smoking some stuff, because the house smelled funny when he came out the bathroom. Then he just started to act real different,” Lydia said.

  ”What—he was smoking trees or something?” Ladelle asked, wondering what she could be talking about.

  ”I don’t know—something I never smelled before.” Lydia continued to tell Ladelle how Kalif just started tripping, and talking about aliens and worms.

  After being examined Lydia was released. The doctor had told her to go to her regular physician for a follow-up.

  Lydia was shaken up and didn’t want to stay in the apartment. Ladelle took her to his mother’s house for the night.

  The Hostage Rescue Team had agreed to meet with Lydia in the morning so she could make a statement. She wasn’t ready to deal with all of that, but she knew she had to so Kalif couldn’t walk the streets anymore.

  Ladelle went back to their apartment and put some clothes and personal items in a bag for Lydia. He went to his stash spot and took out some money. The last thing he wanted was for the police to find it and start asking a bunch of questions. He called Lydia at his mother’s house. He told her that he was on his way back over there, and he asked her if she needed anything else.

  ”No, just get here,” she said. Ladelle told her the authorities were still at the apartment and they couldn’t stay there if they wanted to. They’d be there until further notice.

  Ladelle just wanted to take a shower and go to sleep. He prayed that tomorrow would be a better day.

  A week later, Will and BJ’s aunt were making arrangements for his wake at Convent Baptist Church on 145th Street and Convent Avenue. The church was packed with all of BJ’s co-workers, family, his peeps from the hood and some of his old college classmates. Venus knew the majority of the people in attendance, but she didn’t know how loved BJ was until now. It made her cry even more. Almost everyone he’d come in contact with in his twenty-six years had come to pay their respects. BJ didn’t have a large family, but his street fam came from as far as Georgia and Virginia to lay their brother to rest.

  The preacher gave a beautiful sermon that put everybody in tears. Some people spoke about BJ when he was younger and how good he was on the basketball court as a kid growing up. Will spoke about how BJ had turned his life around after coming back from up North. He had been determined to do the right thing and never look back. That made Venus cry even more; she remembered how motivated BJ was when he started going to college.

  When BJ’s aunt began to sing Black Butterfly, the whole church was in tears. She sang the song even better than Deniece Williams did. Everyone shed tears for their brother, who had passed away before his time.

  A female in a black dress approached BJ’s casket as his aunt continued to sing. ”Oh, God!” she screamed, as the tears began to roll down her face.

  Venus wondered who she was. ”Who is that?” she asked turning to Will.

  ”Nobody. Believe me, she’s a nobody,” he replied, hoping that Venus would be satisfied with his answer. She wasn’t.

  ”Will, don’t lie to me at a time like this. Tell me who she is,” Venus insisted. Will looked at her and contemplated on it. He finally told her that the crying woman was Annette.

  ”What the hell is she doing here?!” Venus said furiously. She told Will to get her out of there immediately. Will just looked straight ahead, ignoring her request.

  When the song was over, several people got up to take one last look at BJ. Annette was still standing at his casket when Venus walked up to her and said, ”You don’t belong here. Leave now.” Annette’s tears stopped in an instant. She turned them off like a faucet. Venus told Annette who she was and then told her to bounce.

  Annette spazzed out. ”Oh, so you’re the old lady he was messin’ with?” Venus took a step back and started to size up Annette. ”Did he tell you I was having his baby?” she added. ”Oh, I guess not! He always talked shit about you anyway—especially that you were seven years older than him...now I see why he was always at my house—look at you!”

  By now there was a crowd of people staring at Venus, who had said nothing to defend herself. But when Annette started to sound off again, she grabbed her with the quickness and threw her to the floor. She jumped on her and pounded her like a nail in the wall. Venus got to her feet and pulled Annette up off the floor, punching her and knocking her into two other mourners. She grabbed Annette’s hair with one hand, and with the other hand she uppercut her in the ribs. A group of people had to tear Venus off of Annette, who continued on with her tirade until Venus told everybody that she was out on bail for BJ’s death. That’s when everybody went ballistic, pushing Annette out the door. ”Get the fuck outta here!” they all shouted.

  Annette hopped down the stairs with one shoe in her hand. She looked like she had been ambushed. Venus stood at the entrance just staring at her. She was ready to jump on her again.

  Everyone was ushered back inside the funeral home. Venus addressed the other mourners, apologizing for the disturbance. Will got up and hugged her, and she began to cry in his arms as everybody prepared to go to the gravesite at Woodlawn Cemetery.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Renee was at the clinic waiting to get her results from the HIV test. The counselor entered the waiting area and motioned for her to come into her office. Renee was nervous; she’d never had an HIV test before, and the anticipation over the past two weeks had almost killed her.

  The counselor asked her what she knew about HIV. ”Not that much. Please just give me my results,” Renee said.

  ”You realize that a positive result doesn’t mean you’re going to die. There are many—”

  ”Listen, just give me my results,” Renee said cutting her off. The counselor took the paper containing Renee’s results out of a folder. She looked at them, placed them on the desk and sat back and folded her hands. Then after a few seconds she removed her glasses before looking across the desk at Renee.

  ”Your test came back reactive, which is a positive result for the HIV virus. Now, what I would—”

  Renee jumped up and ran out of the office. She burst into tears when she got outside the building. The counselor approached her and tried to comfort her. Renee spazzed out. ”Get off of me! Get away from me! I want another test! God, please!”

  She finally broke down and fell into the counselor’s arms. Realizing that she had nowhere
else to turn, she did the only thing she could do. She went back inside the building with the counselor.

  Petie was shocked when Ladelle called him and told him what had happened to Lydia. ”Didn’t you have the TV on? It was live on all the news channels,” Ladelle said.

  ”Nah, I ain’t been watching that shit. I got tired of seeing my own face on TV,” Petie replied. Ladelle told him that everything was okay with Lydia and that they were staying at his mother’s house.

  ”I know for a fact that the same kid busted up my shit, too,” Ladelle said after informing Petie about the Escalade. He told him that Lydia didn’t want to stay in the apartment anymore.

  ”Listen, I’m gonna run into that cat in the system; I know them crackers are gonna run up on me any day now. It’s been over two weeks, and my time is limited, dick,” Petie said. They continued to talk, and Petie asked Ladelle if he’d heard from Renee; he hadn’t spoken to her in over a week.

  ”I need to holla at you about something,” Ladelle replied, not giving Petie an answer. ”Maybe we can meet up tonight. I wanna let you know about some things that went down before we got knocked.”

  ”What you wanna holla at me about, dick? I mean, you talking to me like it’s some life or death shit. What’s really good?” Petie asked, wondering what the fuck he was talking about. Once again, Ladelle didn’t answer Petie. They agreed to meet at the Carver houses later on that night.

  Petie called Renee at Rhonda’s house, but no one answered. He was tight about not being able to reach her. For almost the past two weeks, whenever he called, Rhonda would say she wasn’t there.

  Petie decided to drive to Manhattan. He put on his do-rag and baseball cap, hopped in his ride and headed toward the expressway.

  Renee got home after leaving the clinic and was glad to see that no one was home. She needed time to herself to regroup. She had decided not to get re-tested immediately; maybe in the next three months. She wanted to go and see Share and she needed to talk to Petie. She was devastated.