Hell's Diva

by Anna J.

  “Mika? You talking about Tamika with the scar on her face that he used to fuck with back in the day?” Mecca asked, surprised.

  “Yeah, that Mika,” Craig said.

  Mecca was about to ask a thousand questions in regard to Tamika and Tah’s dealing with each other, but there was no need in asking Craig because he would lie for Tah anyway. Mecca knew she had to ask him face to face.

  “They got that ten percent shit down there. All he need is ten Gs,” Craig said, snapping Mecca out of the thought of Tah dealing with Tamika behind her back. Mecca walked back to the car and opened the passenger-side door, reached in the glove compartment, and pulled out a blue and white Gap bag. She handed the bag to Craig.

  “That’s eleven; go get the nigga.”

  Tah showed up at Mecca’s apartment the next day wearing a brown Pelle Pelle leather jacket and black Parasuco jeans, with brown and green Gore-tex Timbs known as “beef & broccolis.”

  “Yo, good-looking boo! I had to get outta there, they be hanging niggas out there, for real!” Tah said, sitting down on Mecca’s couch. Mecca rolled her eyes with a look that seemed to Tah like she wasn’t happy to see him.

  “What’s up with you? Ain’t you glad to see me?” Tah asked with his palms held out, shrugging his shoulders.

  Mecca sucked her teeth. “Please, nigga, if I didn’t want to see you I wouldn’t have bailed your dumb ass out. What the fuck were you doing with Tamika?”

  Tah put his hands on his lap and screwed up his face. “Who told you I was with Mika? Niggas got big mouths and don’t be knowing what they talking about.”

  Mecca stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. “Niggas was talking about what happened to you and how you got locked up, stupid. How the hell else I was going to bail your dumb ass out?” Mecca shot back. “You in Pennsylvania with Tamika instead of with me on my birthday, huh?”

  “It ain’t even like that, Mecca. Don’t go jumping to conclusions,” Tah said, knowing how heated Mecca could get in no time. He didn’t feel like her bullshit because he knew they would argue for the rest of the night.

  “Like what, Tah? Fuck is you talking about? You weren’t here with me, that’s the conclusion.”

  “You saying it like I’m fuckin’ her or something. That bitch a mule.”

  “So, what you was mule dicking her?” Mecca said sarcastically.

  Tah sighed, not wanting to continue arguing about Tamika. He felt stupid even dealing with her again sexually and bringing her out of town with coke in her bra, girdle, and pussy. It was this bitch’s fault he got locked up.

  A guy from Harrisburg approached Tamika in a bar and asked her name. Instead of saying her name then politely telling the guy she had a man, she said, “Don’t worry what my name is. Get your country ass out my face!”

  The guy slapped the taste out of Tamika’s mouth. She held her face then started swinging on the guy. Tah walked in the bar and saw the guy and Tamika throwing blows at each other. Tah ran over and tried to pull Tamika away. The guy kept swinging and mistakenly punched Tah in the face. Tah let go of Tamika, pulled a .45 from his pants, and shot the guy in his stomach and arm.

  The bar cleared in panic. Tah and Tamika took off running toward the hotel they were staying in, but they didn’t make it back to the hotel. The cops caught them three blocks from the bar. They had the ambulance with the shot guy in it come to where they stopped Tah and Tamika. Before the ambulance pulled up, Tamika started running her mouth.

  “Officer, I ain’t do nothing. I ain’t shoot nobody. I ain’t tell him to shoot him!”

  Tah tried to tell her to shut up, but she kept yapping. They opened the back of the ambulance where the guy lay on a stretcher, holding his stomach, pointing at Tah.

  “Please, Mecca. I ain’t fucking her. I don’t want to argue about this no more. I’m sorry I wasn’t here for your birthday, and I’ll make it up to you. I got to pick up some money first.”

  “I know you’re going to run and get my ten Gs back,” Mecca said while walking away.

  “All right. A yo, who Lexus is that in front of the crib?” Tah asked, walking over to the window and moving the black curtains to look at it.

  “It’s mine. It was a birthday gift!” Mecca yelled from the kitchen.

  “Damn, who gave you that for your birthday?” Tah asked curiously.

  “Shamel and his crew chipped in and copped it for me!”

  Tah felt the anger build up in his chest jealously. “Word? Niggas feeling you like that?”

  Mecca walked back in the living room with her hand on her hip. “Please, Tah. At least niggas thought about me on my birthday. Niggas ain’t trying to get with me. Niggas is family. Niggas is loyal.”

  Mecca lied about Shamel, but she told the truth about the other guys not wanting to get with her. Tah got up and walked toward the door.

  “Where you going?”

  Tah opened to door and without looking at her, he answered, “I’m going to get your money.” Then, slammed the door.

  Tamika walked around Brownsville like she had no worries. At first she figured Tah loved her and wouldn’t hurt her. Plus, he was out of jail, and she knew Tah didn’t expect her to take the fall for the shooting. She already brought drugs out there for him, what else did he expect? All of those thoughts changed when she realized he was avoiding her. She tried to speak to him on the phone. She tried beeping him and calling his cellular phone but when he heard her voice, he hung up. He erased her number off his beeper and told a group of her girlfriends to tell Mika she didn’t exist to him anymore.

  Then Mika stepped over the line when she went to Sutter Gardens and knocked on Mecca’s door. Luckily for Tamika, Mecca wasn’t home, but her emotions superseded her intelligence. She wrote on Mecca’s door in black marker, Tah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I love you. She could never catch Tah at home, so she knew for sure that he would see her note at Mecca’s house.

  Mecca was usually out of the city staying at Ruby’s villa, which Mecca owned legally. The house was in her name and her SSI savings covered the mortgage. Ruby’s lawyer helped Mecca secure the home. She happened to be in the city often since she and Shamel started creeping around. Tah spent most of the time in Brownsville doing stick ups and hanging with his crew.

  He went to see Mecca twice a week, either to drop off money or spend a night after having boring sex. After the wonderful sex Mecca was having with Shamel, she seemed disinterested when she had sex with Tah. The sex she had with Shamel was always satisfying and they never did the same things. There was always something new when they got together. Mecca came to her apartment after spending time with Shamel and saw what Tamika wrote on her door.

  “Oh no, this bitch didn’t!” Mecca grumbled, opening her door. She picked up her phone and called Shamel. “Boo, you won’t guess what this bitch Tamika did to my door!”

  Shamel rushed over to Mecca’s Brownsville apartment to see what was going on. Shamel was shocked when he saw it and he knew that whoever this Tamika was, she done fucked up. He thought if he knew Tamika, he would have told her, “You don’t wanna do that. Mecca is not the one.”

  “This bitch doesn’t learn, huh? I cut this bitch face in school and she still don’t get it!” Mecca said angrily. “C’mon Shamel, we going to find this bitch!”

  Mecca drove her Benz with Shamel riding shotgun with the seat leaned all the way back. Mecca drove with her seat leaned back so far it looked like the car was driving by itself, if you looked from the outside.

  Both of them had their guns on them. Mecca had a chrome .45 with a pearl handle that Shamel bought off a crackhead for her. Shamel had a MAC-11 with a shoestring tied around it that he put on his shoulder under his red and gold Avirex leather jacket. Mecca saw Tah and his crew standing on the corner of Mother Gaston and Dumont and pulled up on the corner. She walked straight over to Tah.

  Tah saw the anger on her face and mumbled to his crew, “Now what?” Shamel got out of the car with her and that
angered him even more.

  “Where’s that nappy headed-bitch of yours, Tah?” Mecca yelled.

  “What is you talking ’bout, Mecca? What bitch?” Tah, asked confused.

  “Don’t play stupid! Tell the bitch she can tell you she love you in your face or on a postcard, not on my fucking door!”

  “Fuck is you talking about?” Tah asked, then he pointed at Shamel. “Fuck is he doing here? He your bodyguard now?”

  Shamel interjected, “Hold up, son. Mecca is my peoples. I’m holding her down. Ain’t nobody trying to take what’s yours. So leave me outta this, kid.”

  Tah looked Shamel up and down menacingly and so did Tah’s crew, who began mumbling under their breath. Mecca pulled out her gun and cocked it. Tah’s crew all pulled out their guns when Mecca brandished hers.

  “Ain’t nobody gonna front on my peoples. So y’all niggas don’t even think about it!”

  “Y’all niggas chill!” Tah yelled to his crew. He turned to Mecca. “Mecca, put the biscuit away, ain’t nobody gonna do nothing.” Tah smiled at Shamel. “I don’t know what you did, son, but whatever it is, put me on, ’cause I doubt if she’ll do that for me.”

  Shamel ignored Tah’s sarcasm. “Son, she bailed you out as soon as she heard you got locked up, and…” He figured he should cap it off with what he knew was somewhat true. “She love you, son, you’re all she talks about when she in the East.”

  Tah looked at Mecca, and then he reached out to hug her. Mecca pulled back. “Where’s this bitch? She wrote on my door, Tah. She must think you live there or she lost her mu’fuckin’ mind!”

  “Mecca, I don’t fuck with that bitch. Why would I fuck with a bitch who snitched on me?” Mecca started walking back to her car with Shamel in tow. Tah stood there with his crew, angry.” I’m saying, where you going, Mecca? Let me talk to you!”

  Mecca looked back at Tah with the “yeah, right” look on her face.” Talk to that bitch of yours, because I ain’t doing no talking.”

  Mecca drove around Brownsville looking for Tamika. Crews of guys hanging out on corners stared as Mecca drove down Rockaway Avenue and Mother Gaston Boulevard. Girls stared with envy when they realized it was a girl driving. Some recognized Mecca from going to school with her. Some of them waved to Shamel out of spite, which Mecca ignored. Mecca noticed Shamel shake his head when the girls waved at him.

  “I’d rather die than be like them bitches,” Mecca said.

  “I feel you on that.”

  Shamel noticed Mecca’s eyes widen when she looked at another group of girls on the corner of Pitkin and Belmont.

  “There go that bum-ass bitch right there!” Mecca pointed.

  Shamel looked at the group. “What you wanna do?”

  Mecca pulled over.” This bitch ain’t worth killing, I’ll beat her ass.” She put her gun in the glove compartment. “Just hold me down just in case these bitches try to front,” Mecca continued.

  “No question,” Shamel replied.

  They both got out of the car. Tamika saw Mecca coming and shock was all over her face. Tamika could have pissed her pants at the sight of her nemesis. The girl who cut her face back in junior high. The girl who took her man. Yet, Tamika had to save face in front of her crew, so she initiated the standoff.

  “Bitch, you walking over here like you—” Tamika was cut off by the sound of Mecca’s fist against her jaw. Mecca kept swinging and punching Tamika in her face. She tried to fight back.

  “Bitch, don’t you ever come to my crib.” Mecca spoke after each punch. “Looking for Tah. You bum-ass bitch!”

  Mecca held Tamika’s head down with one hand and upper-cut her in the face with the other. Tamika’s nose was bleeding and her jaw was dangling from Mecca breaking it with her first punch. Tamika’s friends were yelling at Tamika.

  “Mika, beat her ass! Don’t let her do that to you!”

  One of them even tried to grab Mecca. Shamel held his hand out in front of the girl while putting one hand in his jacket. “Get the fuck back before I pistol whip one of you bitches!”

  The girls saw the menacing look Shamel gave and backed up.

  “That’s it, Mecca, damn, you got it!”

  Mecca threw Tamika on the ground and saw that a large crowd was watching. Most of them were shopping on the busy strip of Pitkin Avenue. Some people stood at bus stops watching the girls. Groups of guys watched to see if one of the girls’ clothes were ripped off to get a flash.

  Chunks of Tamika’s extensions came out of her hair. Her tight blue Guess jeans had dirt on them from the ground and one of her sneakers flew into the street. Mecca stomped her face on the ground and Tamika mumbled inaudible words. Shamel saw Tamika on the verge of damn near dying and grabbed Mecca.

  “C’mon, Mecca, let’s boogie.”

  Mecca was out of breath, but stopped to look down at Tamika.” Bitch, don’t ever come near my crib again!” Mecca spat on her and walked off.

  “Now, was all that necessary?” Lou asked Mecca after showing her the vision of the fight.

  Mecca laughed. “You damn right it was necessary.”

  Lou shook his head. “You don’t have to use that language, Mecca.”

  Mecca sucked her teeth and replied. “Does it matter? I’m going to hell anyway! I beat that bitch ass,” Mecca teased and chuckled. Then she pointed a finger at Lou like a parent or teacher scolding a child. “Plus, I know who you are. I read the Bible and I even read the Qur’an. You the uh…” Mecca snapped her fingers. “You’re Satan! That’s who you are! I figured it out when you said you don’t know why God created people who were going to cause bloodshed among each other, and you wanted to prove Him wrong. I read that in those books!”

  Lou began to clap his hands. “Hurray for Mecca, she finally got something right! You thought for a second, instead of just reacting!” Lou stopped clapping, then continued, “If you would have figured things out when you had the chance you would have had a better life.”

  Mecca sucked her teeth. “You make it seem like I was stupid or something.”

  “No, not stupid. You just made stupid decisions. Listen, Mecca, I’ve walked the planet since its creation and you’re not the worst person I’ve seen or met. Wow! I’ve met people like Hitler, Idi Amin, some of the pharaohs of Egypt. Liars like Columbus and others involved in the most treacherous treatment of human beings, the enslavement of your ancestors. All I did was watch.”

  “What does this have to do with me?” she asked, cutting Lou off from reminiscing.

  Lou folded his arms and rubbed his chin.” Well, Mecca, for some reason I kind of felt sorry for you, and you were one of the few people who didn’t blame me for the things you did. Honestly, I don’t know why you did the things you did.” Lou shrugged his shoulders. “Things happen that we have no control over. But a job is a job, so let us continue.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful.

  Proverbs 14:13

  “My appeal looks good. I’ll probably get offered a deal instead of going back to trial,” Ruby said to Mecca in the visiting room at the Federal Correctional Center for Women in Ohio.

  Ruby put on a few pounds since she’d been down. Her face was puffy around the cheeks with the beginning of a double chin forming on her neck. She tried to conceal the weight gain by wearing a large, beige, prison-issued shirt and pants. Her hair was pulled in a tight ponytail, but the wrinkles developing on her forehead and eyes told of Ruby getting stressed and older.

  Mecca listened attentively to her, despite the noise in the crowded visiting room. There were kids running around while their parents, mostly black and Hispanic, engaged in sexual acts performed while guards turned their backs. The visiting room smelled like popcorn and cheap perfume.

  “Hopefully everything goes good for you,” Mecca replied.

  “Yeah, this crooked mu’fucka convicted me on some bullshit. They had no evidence against me for no murders except for the Spanish cat because the police was right th
ere, but there were witnesses that seen him come up behind me with a gun. I got an affidavit from one of the witnesses, some lady from Long Island. There’s another witness from uptown, a black dude, but he act like who don’t wanna help a bitch. I got his address. I’ll send it to you to see what you can do!”

  Mecca nodded while unintentionally seeing a black inmate getting oral sex from a fat white girl two tables away from where Mecca and Ruby sat. Mecca thought, People in jail will deal with any person willing to deal with a person behind bars. The person could be fat, ugly, a whore, an old lady; it didn’t matter as long as they had some ties to the outside world. Men and women in prison were the same.

  Looking at Ruby saddened Mecca regardless of how many times she came to visit her, which was usually once a month, depending on where Ruby was located. The Feds usually transfer inmates to different prisons throughout the country so an inmate won’t get too familiar with the prison and area around it. Ruby looked powerless, which was something Mecca wasn’t used to, nor Ruby. She conducted herself as if she were still running the show on the streets, though, because Mecca made her feel that way even though Mecca ran things and Ruby’s name was forgotten.

  Mecca made sure Ruby’s commissary account stayed above $5,000. Money that Ruby had when she got locked up, she was spending on high-priced lawyers. She currently had three expensive lawyers working on her appeal. The cost was a little over $1 million.

  Mecca kept Ruby updated often on what was going on in the streets. She told her about Dawn, and Ruby only replied, “People get what their hand calls for.” Mecca spoke of Shamel so much and so highly that Ruby figured it out.

  “You feeling Shamel, ain’t you?” Mecca blushed. “Yeah, you feeling him,” Ruby replied, already knowing the answer.

  To Mecca’s surprise, Ruby just smiled and said, “He’s a good nigga, Mecca. Better than that Tah cat. I don’t trust him. You know how niggas from the ville is. The grimiest they come.”