Hood

by Noire

  “Where’s E staying at, man? I need to check her out.”

  “At Sackie’s,” Dreko said. “She moved in with Zena after her crib burned down. I hear she’s doing pretty good over there too. Yeah man, them two chicks done got real tight.”

  Chapter 26

  I led a sinister past,

  But y’all fag niggas livin a laugh,

  And I went straight to war, never been in a draft!

  HOOD RAN INTO a couple of his old partners on the way to Sackie’s house. He could have hopped in the fresh g-ride Dreko had waiting for him, but it was nice outside and he wanted to walk. His mind was full of Egypt, but he forced himself to pause for a few minutes to show his boys on the street some love. For some reason these cats seemed extra happy to see him. Yeah, most of them was glad he’d beat his charge and was back on the outside, but it seemed like there was more to it than that.

  “Hood!” Vandy ran up on him near Dumont Avenue. Vandy was a down nigga who had spent a lot of time spittin bars with Hood and Dreko in Fat Daddy’s place and Hood had real affection for him.

  “Damn, man,” Vandy said, showing him love. “When they let your ass out? You’s a sight for street eyes, baby! Let me guess. Dreko rolled up on that nigga you popped, huh? I bet that cat got up in that courtroom and couldn’t remember shit about shit.”

  “I don’t know how it went down, but it’s all good. That nigga shoulda took that heat round like a G instead of snitching like a little bitch. If he didn’t like what I put on him then he shoulda strapped on his tool and come gunnin instead of conspiring with them blue boys. I woulda respected that.”

  Vandy walked along beside him as he moved through the projects and headed toward a row of tenements on the other side. “Yeah. You always been that kinda guy. Everybody know you a cold nigga, but you righteous too. Got some street honor in you, man. But the game done changed. Niggas ain’t standing up like that no more. These days you can’t trust no fuckin body. Nobody. Everybody is scared. Cats who used to be down from the sandbox is now sliding knives in each other’s backs and killing women and kids. Shit is crazy out here. There’s a underground war going on in Central Brooklyn. You remember Miss Baker, right?”

  Hood thought back to those cold days of his youth. “Hell yeah. I got crazy love for that old lady. How she doin?”

  A look of disgust crossed Vandy’s face and he shook his head. “Not too good. She got burned out of her crib, man. One of her granddaughters used to be in my class, man. Diamond. The fine one who used to fuck with that guy Bop from the Plaza. Diamond had just stopped smoking when she got killed, man. Her and her three kids are gone. Miss Baker was in the hospital, but Diamond and her kids got trapped on the top floor and she tried to throw ’em out the window to save ’em but they still died. Diamond got burned up real bad and she died too. It was all messed up, man.”

  The good vibe Hood had been riding was suddenly gone.

  “Damn,” he said as they crossed the street together. “Miss Baker is good people. That lady used to feed me and Moo when nobody else would even open the door and take us in. I remember Diamond too. She was real cool. That’s some fucked up shit.”

  “Yeah it is. They got burned for calling the cops, ya know. Miss Baker was just trying to keep her apartment. You know she’s always been real involved in the community and shit. She started telling people they didn’t have to move out just so the drug dealers could move in. They got some neighborhood watch shit going and started calling the cops whenever they saw a trap boy. The cats who did it got popped robbing some narcs, but that shit still cost Miss Baker, though. Her whole fuckin family.”

  “So where she staying at now?”

  Vandy lifted his chin, pointing up toward Mother Gaston. “I heard she’s over in Seth Low, man. I don’t know exactly what building, but I think she got a sister or somebody who lives over there.”

  Hood veered left, slightly changing directions. He couldn’t wait to see his girl, but he needed to make a quick stop first.

  “Aiight, later Vandy. Get at me, son.”

  Vandy nodded, then called out at Hood’s back. “You watch yourself out here, man. Shit ain’t like it usta be! Especially on the borders. Dreko fucked up and stepped on Reem Raw’s toes, homey, and some major beef is about to spark off.”

  Hearing Reem’s name froze Hood in his tracks. Dreko was playing with some dangerous shit. Reem was a powerful capo on the borders of East New York, and had been Hood’s loyal friend for a lot of years. He had grown into a hard-body G with a street team twice as large as Dreko’s. Not only was he popular and well known all over the map for his music, he was also promoting shows and bringing in other big-name rappers to his club. He rolled heavy with Freedom Moore, and was in on all the hot sets. He’d bounced over to Jersey for a quick minute and put in some work but had returned to Brooklyn with a vengeance, and he definitely wasn’t the kind of guy Dreko wanted to be fuckin with.

  Later, Hood told himself, thrusting his hands in his pockets and cutting across the pathways between the project buildings. He’d deal with Reem and his boys later. Right now he was gonna check on Miss Baker, then pay a little visit to a fine-ass chocolate honey that he had missed like hell.

  One of the cardinal rules of project living was to keep ya damn mouth closed. It didn’t matter what you witnessed or what you knew. If somebody came around asking questions the answer was always the same. “I don’t know shit,” or “I didn’t see shit.”

  Hood approached building 320 from the left side, looking around. There were a crew of thick-booty young girls in tight jeans, fly earrings, and colored contact lenses standing around in front of the building. They were listening to music, gyrating their hips, and licking big red lollipops. Hood knew better than to roll up on them with a bunch of questions. Instead, he skirted around them and headed for the small playground where several kids sped around on Big Wheels and scooters.

  “Hey little man.” He stood in front of a young rider, blocking his path. “You know Miss Baker who stay in 320, right?”

  The little boy nodded, his eyes big and his nose crusty.

  Hood went in his pocket. “Can you take this dollar up to 4F and give it to her for me? The other dollar is for you.”

  The kid shook his head, no. “She don’t stay in 4F. She stay in 11B.”

  “Yeah,” Hood said, holding out both bills. “That’s right, I forgot. She sure do.” He squatted down and put the bills in the boy’s hand. He was about seven, older than Moo had been, but he still tugged Hood’s heart anyway. “Tell you what. You ain’t gotta give Miss Baker nothing. You keep both of these dollars, okay?”

  Minutes later he was standing outside of apartment 11B and knocking on the door. When it opened he stood there facing an old woman whose eyes took him in with a quick glance and judged him even quicker.

  “What do you want?”

  “I’m Lamont. Miss Baker here?”

  She looked Hood up and down and her lips turned down in a frown. Hood had been surprised when she opened the door without even asking who it was, but now gazing down the nose of the .32 that had appeared in the hand she’d been hiding behind her back, he could see why.

  “Let me tell you something, motherfucker,” she said, leaning partway out the door with her gat trained dead on him. “Don’t let the gray hair fool you because I don’t give a damn who you be. Get the hell away from my door and leave my goddamn sister alone. She’s the nice one, you hear? Not me. I ain’t running from none of y’all low-life, drug dealing bastards. I will blow a hole in your fuckin stomach so quick you’ll shit out your breakfast before you hit the ground. Y’all caused us enough trouble. Fuck with me, and the next mama to bury her child will be yours.”

  “I’m sorry,” Hood said quietly. His lifted his eyes from the gat and looked at her with sympathy and sincerity in his face. “I came to tell Miss Baker that I’m sorry about Diamond and her kids. I’m Marjay’s son. Marjorie Jones from Van Dyke was my grandmother. Your sister knew me al
l my life. She used to help me and my baby brother out before he died. She fed us. Took us in out the cold. I heard about the fire and everything and I wanted to come by and see how she was doing. That’s all. You ain’t gotta shoot me because I didn’t come for no trouble. I came with love.”

  The woman narrowed her eyes slightly. She looked him over real good, but never lowered her aim a single inch. Hood stood there quietly, wondering if the old lady was gonna just say fuck it and pop him. Finally, her gaze softened like she could sense he was legit. She nodded and backed up a little.

  “Angelique!” she hollered over her shoulder. “You got some company!”

  The apartment the women shared looked like it should have been in a private home instead of a pissy project building. It was clean and neat, and pretty curtains fluttered at the windows letting the sunshine in. Miss Baker’s sister walked down a short hall and Hood took a seat in an antique armchair and relaxed. He smelled fried chicken and macaroni and cheese cooking in the kitchen. It reminded him of how good Miss Baker’s house had made him and Moo feel during those cold, homeless days.

  “Monty!” Miss Baker seemed to flow into the living room and Hood stood up with a big grin on his face. Over the years he’d seen her off and on, and the fact that he was a street hustler had never stopped her from treating him like a son.

  “Miss Baker,” he said as she took him into her arms and hugged him like he was still a desperate, hungry ten-year-old.

  “Look at you!” she exclaimed beaming at him. She touched his face and smiled. “You grew up real nice, Monty. You sure did. After everything you and Moo went through, just look at you now. How’s Marjay doing?”

  They sat side by side on the sofa, and for Hood, a cloud seemed to darken the room at the sound of his mother’s name.

  “I don’t really know. I just got home a minute ago. I guess she’s straight.”

  “I heard they had you out on Rikers Island. That’s no place to be, baby.”

  Hood lowered his head a little bit and nodded, then changed the subject. “I came by because I heard what happened. To your crib. To Diamond and her kids.” He looked into Miss Baker’s eyes. “I just want you to know that I’m sorry. None of that shoulda happened to you. Your family has been good to a lot of people around here, and I’m just sorry something so bad happened to folks who are so special.”

  Miss Baker’s eyes filled up with sorrow. “It was bad, Monty. I still have horrible nightmares about Diamond where I can just hear her and those little babies screaming out for me to help them and I wasn’t there…” her voice trailed off but her pain was so raw and intense that Hood could actually hear those screams in his soul. “But,” Miss Baker seemed to push through her grief as she forced herself to brighten up, “none of us get through this life without our share of pain and loss. God takes who He will, when He will. What’s important now is that those who are left living seek His favor.”

  Hood nodded, but only because he knew she expected him to.

  “Look,” she said, taking his hand. “I know you had it hard as a kid, you and Moo. I did an awful lot of praying for you boys when you were little, and I loved you for trying so hard to be grown up and brave for your brother. But I’m too old to bite my tongue, and the stakes are too high for me to keep silent. I know exactly what it is you doing on them streets, Monty, and we both know it’s wrong. You’re not a helpless kid anymore. You don’t have to sell drugs to feed your brother, so there’s no excuse for what you’re doing. Do something else, Lamont. Find another way of life for yourself. I see what drugs have done to our community, and that’s why I help as many people as I can, because we all have to fight it.”

  Miss Baker squeezed one of Hood’s hands between both of hers and leaned close to him. “Monty, you be careful, you hear? There are consequences for everything we do in life, and sometimes they can be really harsh. You watch yourself because that poison can slide off your hands and sink down into your soul if you ain’t careful. Doesn’t matter if you never smoke it, sniff it, or shoot it up. Just touching it can kill you. Your mama wasn’t no fool and she wasn’t weak, neither. Her heart just got so crushed that she couldn’t find her way clear. She was a good, clean-living woman trying to raise her boys all alone, but that poison didn’t care about none of that. It still got her.”

  She reached into her pocket and took out a business card, then placed it in his hand. “Diamond might be gone, but me and my sister have devoted our lives to helping other folks who find themselves in a bad condition. You wouldn’t believe how beautiful our people can be when they stop killing themselves through diseases, drugs, and alcohol. Give this to your mother when you see her—or to anybody you know who might be looking for help but just can’t find their way. Tell them they can call on me, okay? Night or day. And if they’re really searching for healing, between me and my trigger happy sister Ree-Ree who answered the door, we can help them find it.”

  Twenty minutes later, Hood ran up the steps of a tenement building, then stood outside of apartment 3C, knocking hard. When nobody answered he knocked even harder, then waited as he heard movement on the other side of the door.

  “Oh shit!” he heard a female’s voice as the eyepiece slid across the peephole. Then, “Egypt! Egypt!”

  It was Sackie’s sister, Zena, and Hood knocked again as he heard her calling for Egypt. Just knowing that his woman was on the other side of the door had his drawers bricking up like a mother.

  When the door opened Hood stood there staring.

  “Hi,” Egypt said. The way she was standing behind the door, only her head and the top half of her body showed. She had a towel wrapped around her hair and she was wearing a bright-colored bathrobe.

  “Sup.”

  “You’re home,” she said, smiling like it hadn’t been more than five fuckin months since she’d been to see him. Hood forced himself to make his heart go as hard as his dick.

  “Yeah. I’m home.”

  “When’d you get back?”

  He shrugged. “I been back a minute. You gone let me in?”

  She bit her lip and shook her head. One of her locks fell from the towel and hung down past her chin. “Zena got company—”

  Hood snatched her so fast she bit down on her words.

  Pulling her against him he kissed her deeply, sucking on her tongue and pushing his hands up under her robe to caress her softness. Her skin was still damp from her shower and she smelled like Coast soap and Johnson’s Baby Oil.

  Egypt responded immediately, opening her mouth and pressing her breasts against him as he cupped her naked ass. She moaned as she nibbled his lips and touched his hardness through his pants.

  “Down here,” she said leading him away from the apartment and down the short hall and past the elevator, over to the window. There was no way in hell she could let Lamont get inside the crib. Her and Zena had gotten higher than shit the night before, and the bedroom and dining room were both filthy and littered with empty vials, beer bottles, and blackened dirty stems.

  Hood leaned back on the sill and pulled her close, his tongue seeking hers again as he consumed her mouth, moaning because she tasted so good. Finally Hood knew he was home for real. He’d spent about a hundred and eighty long nights dreaming about his girl. He’d seen her perfect titties, long sexy legs, and milk chocolate skin every night as he jerked his dick off in his fantasies. He forced himself to pull back and catch his breath.

  His heart was all over the place. He wanted to hold her and hit her too. His dick throbbed and his hand jumped at the same time. He snatched the towel from her head and saw that her locks had grown a lot and they were laying around her shoulders. She was thinner, but still fine. Her big brown eyes pleaded with him from her ebony face. The whiteness of her smile put his heart on lock. Like time had stood still since the last time they’d been together. No other bitch in the world touched his body the way she did and he needed to feel those warm female hands on him right now.

  Egypt couldn’t believe how
good he still looked and made her feel. He had put on some weight in the joint and his frame was solid and cut, like he’d been drinking gallons of muscle milk. He still had clear, smooth skin and that curly light brown hair, but it was his eyes that threw her off balance. Even as he touched her and generated heat in all the right places on her body, his eyes were colder and harder than she’d ever seen them before. Like he’d seen and done shit in jail that had just made him an even harder version of the rock he had been before he got knocked.

  He must’ve gotten fresh for his court date because his hair was freshly trimmed and his light goatee perfectly edged up. His cologne was sexy as hell. She unbuttoned his G Unit shirt and trailed her fingers down his taut stomach, her hand tingling as she skimmed his washboard abs. Fuck a sixpack. Hood had a delicious twelve pack and she couldn’t stop herself as she bent down and pressed her lips to his bulging stomach muscles and licked them.

  She almost yelped when he grabbed her, his fingers digging into her shoulders. He pulled her up toward him and stared at her with some sure nuff love/hate in his eyes. She could read his confliction and understood it perfectly. He had feelings for her and needed to fuck her. But he was angry too. Furious. He couldn’t understand why she’d flaked out on him for five months, and Egypt damn sure wasn’t in a position to explain it.

  Instead she slid her fingers down past the waistband of his pants and touched the head of his dick. It was throbbing, and slippery with his early juices. She stroked it gently, trying to tame the beast she saw lurking in his eyes.

  “Let me go in the house and get dressed,” she whispered, trying to get as close to him as possible. “Then let’s go someplace…”