Soul Dancing

by Arlene Brathwaite

  “All I’m saying is Ron was your one-way ticket out of Smallbany,” Reese said. “He swooped into Albany and swept you off your feet like you were a ghetto Cinderella; and then he took you to his castle in California and gave you everything your heart desired.”

  “And then he fucked up your happily ever after ending by fucking his skeezer ex,” Jenna spat out. “Granted, Wayne is far from a knight in shining armor; and he may never be able to shower you with jewels and credit cards, but at least he was faithful.”

  “Faithful don’t pay the bills,” Reese said, smacking her lips.

  Elizabeth leaned forward in her chair. “You’re wasting your time, Jenna. Liana isn’t trying to get back with him. And even if she was, I wouldn’t let her. I’m not about to sit back and watch my home girl get back with a loser who shovels my snow in the winter and cuts my grass in the summer—believe that.”

  Reese’s sonar detected a light-skinned hunk strolling by the food court. “Do you see what I see?” she said in a sing-song voice.

  Elizabeth was the first one to recognize him. “Denzel from the Palace Theater.”

  He must have felt all eyes on him because he turned toward them. Reese smiled and nodded. He returned her greeting and kept it moving.

  “Nah, ah” Liana said, as Reese got up and grabbed her bags. “Where are you going?”

  “To get my man.” Reese took off without bothering to say bye.

  “Sit your hot ass down and—” Elizabeth started, but Reese had already widened her stride to catch up with her prey.

  “I don’t know about that girl sometimes,” Jenna said shaking her head.

  “She’s a slave to men,” Elizabeth said, as her cell phone rang. “Hey, baby,” she said into her phone. “I’m at Crossgates with my friends… what am I doing at six? I’m doing whatever you want me to do.”

  Jenna stuck her finger in her mouth and pretended to throw up. Elizabeth threw a French fry at her.

  “Yes, baby. I’ll be home, dressed, and waiting. Just make sure you’re on time… yes, I have a rent-a-car. You know I stay with one. I love you, too, bye.” Elizabeth continued eating her fries with a smug look on her face. She looked up at Jenna and Liana, who were staring at her the whole time.

  “What?” She said oblivious to why they were staring at her.

  “Since when does a man have you jumping through hoops and balancing a beach ball on your nose?” Liana asked.

  Elizabeth waved her off. “Girl, please. It’s the other way around.”

  “Clearly,” Jenna said with a chuckle.

  “Fuck you, Fu Manchu,” Elizabeth said, putting her hand in Jenna’s face.

  “You know what?” Jenna threw her burger down on her tray. “One day I’m not going to be in the mood, and you’re going to come out the side of your face with one of your racist remarks, and I’m going to Fu Manchu you right in your face.”

  Elizabeth started laughing. “You never punched anyone in the face.”

  “Well, you can be the first.” Jenna started to stand up.

  “That’s it. I’m out of here.” Liana grabbed her bags. “Why can’t we ever go anywhere without you two or Reese having to start some shit? I’ll meet you in the car.”

  “Can’t take you nowhere,” Jenna said out the side of her mouth to Elizabeth as they both watched Liana walk off.

  “You really wanted to punch me in the face?” Elizabeth said, avoiding eye contact.

  Jenna sighed. “You know I was just talking shit.”

  “So was I. You know I didn’t mean anything by it.”

  For the both of them, that was the closest they were going to come to an apology. They picked up their bags and headed to the car.

  “Shouldn’t we call Reese and let her know we’re leaving?” Jenna asked.

  “Humph, she’s probably in Denzel’s car, on her way to his place,” Elizabeth said.

  “She’s not as fast as you think,” Jenna said, trying to defend Reeses’s reputation.

  “You’re right… she’s faster.”

  ***

  Liana closed her bedroom door and flopped down on her bed. Nana told her that BJ’s called and left a message. They were more than happy to give Liana her old job back. Nana was pleased to hear the news, but Liana wasn’t. I’m always going backwards. I went from a cashier at BJ’s to a mini mansion in California, back to being a cashier at BJ’s and moving back in with my grandmother.

  Liana looked at the three thousand dollar engagement ring on her finger. So what if he fucks his baby moms every now and then. I’m going to be the one with his last name. I’m going be the one he comes home to every night. No man’s perfect.

  Liana gathered her thoughts and looked at the 5x7 picture of her mother on the dresser. She struggled to remember her mother’s touch, her voice, her smell; but losing her mother at two years old didn’t give her a lot of memories to work with.

  Her mother was the epitome of island beauty: Honey-gold complexion, long wavy hair. She could have had any man she wanted, but she chose Lee, Liana’s father. Lee was a player from as far back as ’83. Liana remembered Nana telling her that he moved to Albany from Brooklyn. He wore the slickest clothes and had the tongue to match. It was only a matter of time before he had Anna, Liana’s mother, under his spell. Anna was four months pregnant when she found out that Lee was an undercover crackhead.

  Liana turned away from the photo and stared at the ceiling. She blinked back to reality when her cell phone rang. She looked at the caller ID, and sighed. “What’s up, Wayne?”

  “Just called to see how you were doing.”

  “How’d you get my number?”

  “Nana gave it to me. I told her I had to call and apologize.”

  “Apologize for what?”

  “For upsetting you last Saturday.”

  “You didn’t upset me.”

  “Yes I did.”

  “No you didn’t.”

  “Yes I did.”

  “You’re upsetting me now,” Liana snapped.

  Wayne remained quiet for a moment. “What are you doing tonight?”

  “Eating a gallon of chocolate ice cream.”

  “Have dinner with me.”

  “I don’t think so,” Liana said in a depressed tone.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t want to.”

  “You scared you’ll have a good time and forget about Rob?” Wayne poked.

  “Ron.”

  “What?”

  “His name is Ron; and no, I can never forget about my fiancé.”

  “He’s not one of those insecure brothers, is he?”

  “Where do you want to go?” Liana asked, not in the mood to play games.

  “To my favorite restaurant.”

  “The Golden Corral isn’t a restaurant, it’s a buffet.”

  “I say tomato, you say tomahto. It’s still a vegetable.”

  “Actually, it’s a fruit.”

  “The Golden Corral?”

  “No, silly. I was talking about the—”

  “I know what you were talking about. Back to what I was talking about.”

  Liana closed her eyes. “What time are you coming to pick me up?”

  “I’m already out front, hurry up.”

  Liana looked out her bedroom window. “I can’t hurry up. I have to get ready.”

  “Get ready? This isn’t a date. We’re just going to grab something to eat.”

  Liana closed her eyes. “You know what? I think I’ll pass.”

  “All right… you win. I’ll splurge and take you to the Olive Garden.”

  “Save your money, Wayne. I don’t have much of an appetite.”

  “You just said you were about to eat a gallon of ice cream.”

  “Trust me, I’m not going to be very good company.”

  “Whatever, Liana.”

  Liana heard the frustration in his voice. “Don’t try to make me feel guilty.”

  Wayne hung up on her.

 
; “Hello? No he didn’t.” Liana looked out the window just in time to see him pull off. She got his number off her caller ID and dialed the first three digits. What the hell am I doing? She slipped on her rabbit slippers and headed to the kitchen for her ice cream.

  “You can’t eat your problems away,” Nana said, as she entered the kitchen and looked into the refrigerator.

  “No, but maybe I can eat myself into a coma. That way I won’t have to deal with them.” Liana grabbed a spoon and headed back to her room. She picked up her pace when she heard her phone ringing.

  “If you ever fucking hang up on me again—”

  “Slow down, baby, I didn’t hang up on you.”

  “Oh, Ron, it’s you.”

  “You don’t sound too happy to hear from me.”

  “What would ever give you that idea?” Liana dug into her ice cream.

  “Liana, you need to come back home, so we can straighten things out. I fucked up. I know that now. I don’t know what I was thinking. I didn’t set out to purposely hurt you. Let me make this up to you.”

  “How can you make this up, Ron? You were in our home, in our bed, fucking Bridgette. How are you supposed to make that up? Please, tell me.”

  “I’m not seeing her anymore. I broke it off with her as soon as you packed your bags and left. This might sound crazy, but it took this situation for me to realize that I can’t live without you. I’m hurting, Liana. I’m losing weight, I’m losing my hair, I’m losing sleep, I’m losing my mind. C’mon home, so we can make this right.”

  Liana opened her mouth to tell him to go fuck himself, but the words wouldn’t come out.

  “Baby are you there?”

  “No, I mean yes, but I can’t do this right now. I need time to think.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow night just to check up on you, okay?”

  “Yeah, whatever.” Liana hung up and tore into her ice cream.

  Reese’s gold digging words ran through her head, but that wasn’t Liana’s style. Jenna’s words of rational entered her mind, but rational wasn’t making much sense to her right now. Then Rasheem, Indio’s cousin, the “perfect gentleman” Elizabeth introduced her to last week popped into her head. Rasheem was sweet and said all the right things. For Liana, that was a bad sign. Men are the perfect companions until you get intimate with them. As soon as you let them into the most delicate areas of your life, they just kick off their shoes and show their asses.

  Liana thought back to the four men she’d been intimate with. There was Wayne, her first. Then there was Guy and Steve, the two she dated when she went away to college. And then there was Ron. They all did her dirty, especially Wayne.

  There’s got to be one special man out there for me who will treat me the way I deserve to be treated. Her mind drifted back to Rasheem and how comfortable he made her feel. He knew the situation with Ron, and he knew she was vulnerable; but he didn’t take advantage of her, even when Liana blatantly told him she wanted to sleep with him just to spite Ron. He might be the one. Or maybe he’ll be just like every other man I let into my life. She put the box of ice cream down and rubbed her belly. She could feel a stomachache coming on. Good. She would welcome a stomachache over a heartache any day.

  CHAPTER 3

  Wayne was up before the sun and was on his third house by one o’clock. Tuesdays and Fridays were his father’s days off so he had to work twice as hard. He stabbed at the dirt around Miss Levinson’s house like an inmate shanking a CO. He always threw himself into his work whenever he didn’t want to deal with unpleasant feelings. He made a fool of himself when he asked Liana out to dinner. When he pulled away from her house, he pulled a scab off of his heart as well. And now, he was trying to stop the bleeding by working himself ‘til exhaustion. He headed to his pickup to grab the bag of fertilizer, and wasn’t at all surprised to see Taz sitting in the passenger seat, bopping his head to his Sean Paul CD.

  “And girl I, wanna be the papa, you can be the mom, ho-ho” Taz sang out loud, as he saw Wayne walking toward the back of the truck. He stuck his head out the window. “There’s the hardest working man in Albany.”

  “How long have you been sitting in there?” Wayne asked, as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

  “About half an hour.”

  “You’ve been watching me bust my ass all this time, and it didn’t dawn on you to get off your lazy ass and give me a hand?”

  “I was, but you were wielding that spade like a madman, and when I saw you arguing with yourself, I thought it be best for me to sit tight until you finished your argument.”

  Wayne grabbed the bag of fertilizer and hoisted it onto his shoulder. “I’m not going to be done here until around one-forty-five.”

  Taz got out. “I’ll keep you company.” He followed Wayne to the side of the house. “Aye, yo, you should’ve stayed at the hotel that night with me, Caroline and Peaches. I popped in that R. Kelly CD, and man… oooh weee!”

  “I’m glad you got your shit off,” Wayne said, getting on his knees and busting open the bag of fertilizer.

  “Man... let me tell you. First I—”

  “All right, I don’t need all the details. Pass me that spade.”

  “Damn, you trying to work me like a Hebrew slave?”

  “Stop playing and make yourself useful.”

  Miss Levinson slipped out the side door with a glass of lemonade in one hand and a plate of food in the other.

  Taz arched his eyebrow. Miss Levinson was a fifty-year-old history teacher at Albany High. The students called her Grandma Dynamite because she had the banging body. She wore a pair of jeans and a button-up white shirt. As she got closer, Taz could see the imprint of her nipples straining against the fabric.

  “Oh, hi Jamal,” she said, calling Taz by his real name. “I didn’t know you were out here working with Wayne. Can I get you anything?”

  “Would you, please?” Taz said, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand and picking up the spade with the other. “Wayne got me working like I just snuck across the border last night.”

  Miss Levinson walked past him and held out the glass and plate to Wayne. “Take a break and put something in your stomach.”

  “Thank you, Miss Levinson.”

  She playfully punched him on the shoulder. “How many times do I have to tell you to call me Carol?”

  Wayne smiled and took the glass and plate from her. She watched him walk to the picnic table and sit down. Wayne had on a pair of Levi’s jeans, construction Timbs, and a blue tank top.

  Taz could see Miss Levinson’s nipples stiffening against her shirt. He cleared his throat.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Jamal. I’ll go get you that drink.” She folded her arms, trying to cover her chest as she walked by him.

  Taz stared at her butt, and clinched his fists. “Umm, now that’s some old pussy I wouldn’t mind tapping. You should’ve seen the way she was staring at you. She looked like she wanted to put you on that plate and eat you for lunch. You saw how her nipples were poking out at you?”

  Wayne took a couple of swallows of his iced tea. “You should’ve been here last week when I was installing a ceiling fan in her den. She was walking around damn near naked.”

  “She’s got to be putting in mad hours at the gym because her shit is tight.” Taz lowered his voice. “You hitting that, ain’t you?”

  “Nope.”

  “Get the fuck out of here. She’s practically begging for the Mandingo.”

  Wayne looked at him like he was crazy. “She’s a school teacher, and she’s old enough to be my moms.”

  “You’s about the corniest dude I know,” Taz said, sticking the spade in the dirt and walking off.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To go see if I can make Grandma Dynamite go kaboom!”

  Wayne finished the plate of food, and was getting back to work when his cell phone rang. A number appeared on the caller ID that he never saw before.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey,
it’s me,” Liana said.

  “I almost didn’t pick up. I didn’t recognize the number.”

  “I’m at Jenna’s. Besides, I knew if I would’ve called you from my cell or Nana’s phone, you probably wouldn’t have picked up.”

  Wayne didn’t say a word.

  “Anyway, I just called to say I’m sorry about Saturday night.”

  “There’s nothing to be sorry about. I asked you if you wanted to go for a bite to eat, and you said no.”

  Liana sighed. “I didn’t say no, at first. It’s just… well, I got a lot going on in my life, right now. I’m just trying to figure some things out. Nevertheless, forget about all that. I called to apologize and ask if you wanted to grab a bite to eat tonight, my treat.”

  “Hmm, I wish I could, but I got two more jobs to do before I call it a day, and I probably won’t be done until about seven.”

  “We can make it a late dinner.”

  “The only thing I’m going to want to do after work is fall into my bed. I appreciate the offer, though. Maybe some other time.”

  “Yeah, maybe some other time,” Liana mumbled.

  “I have to get back to work.” Wayne hung up and then clasped his hands behind his head. I’m too old to be playing cat and mouse. He pulled on his work gloves and got back to work.

  Taz exploded out of the side door ten minutes later, screw faced. Wayne looked up at him, recognizing the expression all too well. “Damn, that was quick. Grandma Dynamite didn’t have a heart attack riding you, did she?”

  “Fuck that crusty, bitch,” Taz said, spitting on the side of the house. “That bitch had the nerve to excuse herself and go put on a bra. Can you believe that shit?”

  “She probably wanted to slip into something a little more concealing for you.” Wayne chuckled.

  “You got jokes? A real standup comedian, huh? Well, don’t quit your day job.”

  Wayne stood up. “Either you’re going to help me, or you’re going to wait in the truck. I’m not going to get anything done with you grumbling about getting turned down by a woman twice your age.”

  “Yo, fuck all that. My main reason for hunting you down is to ask you for a favor.”