A Sticky Situation

by Kiki Swinson

  Samantha stood against the wall in disbelief. “Oh, my God! And I thought you got yourself into something when I found out how crazy Maxine was, but this one takes the cake.”

  I put my arms around her and said, “Listen, I know this is probably too much for you right now, but just remember that this is gonna all be over real soon and then we’ll be able to leave this place and never look back.”

  “Have you figured out how you’re gonna get him back?”

  “Yeah, I’ve run a few things through my mind, but nothing’s concrete.”

  “Have you figured out where you’re gonna do it?”

  “Well, he owns this strip club in Portsmouth called Magic City, so I was thinking about getting him right when he was about to leave the club. Then I figured too many police be around there, so that wouldn’t be a smart move.”

  “So, whatchu gon’ do about your mother? Is she going with us?”

  “Nah, baby, she can’t go ’cause she’ll slow us down. But I’ma leave so much dough behind, she’s gonna be a’ight.”

  “Baby, I love you!” She threw both of her arms around me.

  “I love you too, mommie.”

  Once the plan was set in motion with Samantha, I figured that

  there was only one thing left for me to do. After I left the mall, I called

  Mike. He was the last piece to my puzzle, and as soon as I could repay

  him for what he did to me, I’d be able to move on.

  “What’s good, son?” he asked.

  “Yo, Mike, I just called to tell you that I just got off the phone with my cousin and his peoples said that if we could fly down there this weekend, they’d make it worth our while.”

  “A’ight, so when you want to leave?”

  “Well, I’ma call the airlines right now and see if I can book a flight leaving Saturday evening.”

  “A’ight. Well let me know if you can get one and how much it costs.”

  “A’ight.”

  SETH

  Biting Off More Than I Can Chew

  After I got off the phone with Mike, I called several airlines and found the perfect flight plan to use for bait. The lady at Southwest gave me the schedule of flight 3401, leaving out of Norfolk at 8:17 and flying nonstop to Miami. She also told me that this last-minute, round-trip reservation would be five hundred dollars. I thanked her for her time and got Mike right back on the phone.

  “Ay yo, son, I just booked my flight.”

  “For real?”

  “Yeah.” I gave him the flight details.

  “How much was it?” Mike asked.

  “Five hundred.”

  “Word?”

  “Yep.”

  “What time does the flight leave?”

  “It’s a nonstop flight and it leaves at eight-seventeen.”

  “A’ight. Well, I’ma get Lacy to call them and purchase my ticket right now.”

  “A’ight, I’ma holler at you later.”

  “OK.”

  I decided to go by my mom’s crib to see how she was doing, since I was by myself. All the other times I came through, I had Maxine next to me, so we couldn’t talk like we really wanted to. When I got into the house, she was in the kitchen, pouring herself a cup of coffee. As usual, I gave her the “I love you, Ma,” spiel and a kiss, but this time she wouldn’t let me near her. She pushed me right out of the way when I tried to kiss her.

  “Dag, Ma, why you pushing me away?”

  “We need to talk,” she said and took a seat at the kitchen table.

  “About what?”

  “Have a seat,” she said. After I sat, she said, “What in the world happened to Maxine’s face, Seth? Now, you know I raised you better than that. I am not gonna tolerate no man putting their hands on a woman. I don’t care how crazy or possessive she is, because if that’s the case then you can leave her.”

  “Ma, calm down!” I grabbed her hand. “You know I don’t be putting my hands on women.”

  “Then what happened to her?”

  “She and Samantha got into a fight. Somehow Samantha got the best of her and beat her up.”

  Shocked, she said, “You have got to be kidding me. Samantha jumped on Maxine and beat her up?”

  “Yes ma’am.” I laughed.

  “And when did this happen?”

  “A couple of days ago.”

  “And you mean to tell me that Maxine didn’t get her locked up for it?”

  “She was getting ready to, but I talked her out of it.”

  My mom’s shook her head in disbelief. “I’ll tell you the truth; I thought I’d never sit here and hear you tell me that you had two women fighting like cats and dogs over you.”

  “Ma, it ain’t even like that.”

  “Oh it’s like that. And if you know like I know, you’d better be trying to figure out a way to prevent it from happening again. The next time, somebody will probably get killed.”

  “Trust me, there isn’t going to be a next time.”

  “And how you supposed to keep that from happening?”

  “I’m working that out right now as we speak,” I assured her and then we went into another conversation. I sat around with her for about an hour and then told her I’d be back to check on her later. On my way out the door, she gave me a kiss and that made me happy.

  SETH

  Gotta Take One Step At A Time

  From the time I got up Saturday morning, I had been feeling kind of weird. I knew it was because I was about to leave this place behind for good, so all I could do was take everything in stride. While I was getting dressed, I suggested to Maxine that she go out and pamper herself at an all-day spa while I went out and handled some business with Mike. She was reluctant to get an all-day treatment, but she did say that she’d go to a spa that provided a three-hour special. I handed her five hundred-dollar bills and told her to have fun.

  “Call me when you’re done, and that way I’ll be able to let you know when I can break away from Mike.”

  “OK, I can do that,” she assured me. Within twenty minutes of our conversation, she was in her car and on her way down the road.

  I left right after she did, but I went in the opposite direction and headed to my mother’s house. Thank God she wasn’t home, because there was no way I would have been able to explain to her that I was on my way to murder a nigga and then I was leaving town for good. When I got into the house, I went straight up to my bedroom and grabbed all my money from out of the vent. Then I grabbed a couple of shirts, three pairs of my favorite jeans, some boxers, T-shirts, and pair of sneakers, and threw all of it into a large duffel bag. I also grabbed a couple pictures of my mom and a few other family members and stuffed them into the duffel bag, too. After I did all the necessary packing, I went into my mother’s room. I grabbed one of her personal deposits slips from her bank and slipped it into my pocket. I wanted be able to deposit some dough into her account later on today, before I left town for good. When I was leaving, I stood in the foyer and turned around to look at all the pictures my moms had on the wall and soaked it all in. I did this because I wanted to remember everything just like it was. When I had this mental picture in my mind, I said goodbye and walked out the door.

  Once I had everything packed up in my car, I drove straight to a used car lot right up the street. It was called E-Z Autos, and the cat who owned it was crooked as a motherfucker. I think he was an Arab. I knew that all I had to do was bring him at least forty-five hundred in cash and he’d put me right in something suitable to my taste. I didn’t have to show him a pay stub or let him run a credit check. He didn’t give a damn about none of that, and all he wanted was to see the green. After we made the trade, I signed a few promissory notes for the balance of the car, along with some legal documents for DMV and a form stating that I would purchase car insurance as long as the car had a lien on it. After I did all of that, homeboy put me in a 2002 Land Rover. It was black in color and it was spacious as hell. I figured it would be perfect for my t
ravels, so that was why I picked it. After homeboy stuck a set of thirty-day plates on my truck, I was set to go. “Hey man, can I leave my car here until later?” I asked.

  “Yeah, sure. Just park it over here behind the building,” he said, pointing to the exact location he wanted me to go. After I parked, I was out of there.

  The next stop was my mother’s bank, which was Bank of America. She’d been banking there for a long time, and I remembered when she first got the account, back in the day, when it was called NationsBank. When I walked into the lobby, one of the tellers recognized me and asked me to come to her window.

  “How are you doing today?” the young black chick asked.

  I smiled. “I’m doing good, and yourself?”

  “I’m fine. Now, how can I help you?”

  “I would like to deposit this amount in my mother’s account,” I said and handed the chick fifty grand.

  “Boy, this sure is a lot of money,” she commented.

  I smiled again. “I know.”

  “You sure you didn’t rob another bank?” she teased.

  “If I did, I wouldn’t have brought it here, because I would be on my way out of town.”

  She chuckled. “Now, that makes sense. Wait right here; I’m gonna have to send this through one of our currency machines.”

  “A’ight.” I watched her walk over a few feet to a small gray machine. A couple of seconds later, she fed the machine every bill I gave her until it stopped running and the sum totaled fifty grand. I saw the numbers big as day.

  “OK, so you want to deposit fifty thousand dollars into your mother’s account?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “All right.” She started typing away at her computer keys. Next, she separated the twenties, the fifties, and hundreds and then placed them in labels. She stuck them all in canisters and dropped them into a drawer right below her top drawer. Afterward, she printed out a deposit receipt and handed it to me. “Here you go,” she said.

  “Thank you so much,” I said and left.

  Throughout today’s journey, Maxine made it her business to call me every thirty minutes, it seemed. She called me while I was at my mom’s crib and she called me while I was at the used car lot and I answered my phone both times. When I was inside the bank I couldn’t answer my phone, so she started calling me back to back until I answered.

  “Where you at? And why you haven’t you been answering my calls?”

  “Maxine, I was inside a bank and you know they don’t allow you to be on your cell phone when you’re inside their lobby.”

  “Whatchu doing at a bank?”

  “Maxine, I was with my mother,” I lied.

  “Well, where is she at? I don’t hear her in the background.”

  “That’s because I’m outside and she’s still in the bank.”

  “Seth, don’t be lying to me.”

  “For these last few days, have I given you any reason not to believe me? I mean, I have been with you every single day, and the only time I stepped away was for a couple of hours, to take care of some business. I told you I needed get my money straight so we could open up our business. That’s it. So get all that dumb shit out of your head. I am not out here doing nothing wrong and I am not with Samantha, so give me a break, please.”

  Hearing the frustration in my voice, she softened her tone. “So, how long are you going to be out?”

  “Well, I just got off the phone with Mike and he wants me to take a quick run with him to Roanoke so he can pick up some money from a couple of cats out there.”

  “But what does that have to do with you?”

  “The thing is, he doesn’t want to go out there by himself, just in case those niggas are thinking about doing something stupid.”

  “How long is that going to take?”

  “Probably about a couple of hours, at the most. If we leave about five or six o’clock, then I should be back no later than ten.”

  “Baby, I don’t know about that. That doesn’t sound like a good idea.”

  “Come on now, Maxine. After I make this trip with him, you won’t ever hear me mention his name again. I promise I won’t do another job for him, OK? Is that a deal?”

  Maxine hesitated a moment and then she said, “All right. You have a deal.”

  We talked for a few more minutes and then she told me she had to go because one of the ladies at the spa was waiting to give her a facial. Before we hung up, I gave her the OK to call me as often as she liked, just to prove to her that I wasn’t out with Samantha or any other chick. She agreed and then we hung up.

  SETH

  It’s My Time To Shyne

  Right after I hung up with Maxine, I called Mike and asked him if he was ready to head out. He acted like he was excited as hell, and I couldn’t get that nigga to shut up if I had to. I told him that I’d swing by his spot to pick him up around six-thirty, since our flight didn’t leave out until eight o’clock that night. When he agreed, I told him I’d holler at him later.

  In the meantime, I decided to get Maxine squared away. I went back to her crib while she was still out and gathered up all the evidence I needed to get her silly ass fired from her job. First, I grabbed a few pictures she had of us posed together at my birthday party, and another one while we were on vacation in Las Vegas and then I attached a letter explaining who I was. I stuck them inside a manila envelope and then I placed the video disk of us making love in the shower in there too, and sealed it. On the front of the envelope I printed To: Carolyn Granger. I figured she would be the perfect person to receive the package since she hated Maxine’s guts, not to mention, she was on the verge of becoming her supervisor. Then after I put the address on it, I put a couple of postage stamps up there, stuck the envelope under my arm, and exited her crib. The first mailbox I came upon, I dropped it off and then I drove off. By this time on Monday, Maxine would definitely be packing her bags.

  Since I had some time to waste, I headed back out P-Town to see what the spot was looking like. When I pulled up on the other side of the horseshoe and saw the police had it blocked off, I made a U-turn and parked on the opposite side of the street. Then I got out and walked to the other side of the Dales Homes on foot. People were standing around all over the place, so I stood among the crowd to see what they were watching. When I saw several big white boys wearing FBI vests walking in and out of Melody’s crib, I knew shit was serious. I put my head down and turned around to leave because I didn’t want anybody to see me. The last thing I wanted to do was bring attention to myself. Shit, those motherfucker’s were probably looking for me. Right after I turned around to leave, Faith was standing right beside me. I ain’t gon’ lie, she scared the shit out of me.

  “Why you always walking up on me like that?”

  “I scared you again, huh?”

  “You damn right!” I said and started walking.

  She started walking alongside me. “I know you’re glad you wasn’t in there, huh?”

  “Come on now, what kind of question is that?”

  “You know they been in there for about two hours now?”

  “Word?”

  “Yep, and they took out a lot of shit, too.”

  “Who did they arrest?”

  “They got those two new guys that just started working over there and they got Melody too.”

  “But I thought she was their snitch?”

  “She wasn’t snitching for them. She was a snitch for Portsmouth Police.”

  “Ahh damn! Well, she fucked up now.”

  “Yep, she sure is.”

  “So what’s up with Hakeem and Bishop?”

  “Ain’t nobody seen them since they ran off with them boys dope.”

  I laughed. “How much did they run off with?”

  “I don’t know, but Melody been running her mouth, saying that one of them new boys gave Bishop and Hakeem both two hundred pills. He told them to go on the other side of the horseshoe and catch the sales that were filtering over into Lincoln Pa
rk. But when they left, they never came back.”

  “Ah man, I know Mike was mad about that shit!”

  “Yeah, I believe he was, because the very next day, he came out here and all I heard was a whole bunch of commotion inside the house.”

  “Well, you know what? That’s their problem and I’m out of here.”

  “You think I can hold something before you go, because I know I ain’t gon’ ever see you again.”

  “Yeah, you sure can.” I pulled out three hundred dollars and handed it to her.

  “Damn, I wasn’t expecting this much.” Faith smiled with excitement.

  I smiled back at her and said, “Go take care of your business.”

  “Shit, ain’t no good dope out here. The feds got all the Black Label packed away in a brown paper bag in the back of their car.”

  “Then you better head on over to Norfolk.”

  “You know what, Seth? I am so tired of getting high. I really would like to have my life back so I can see my baby girl.”

  “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her in a couple of years now.”

  “How old is she?”

  “She’s going on eight now.”

  “So whatchu gon’ do about it?”

  “I want to get clean.”

  “You sure?”

  Faith’s eyes got watery. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

  “A’ight. Well, if you want me to, I can drop you off at a rehab center over in Norfolk.”

  “You’d do that for me?” Faith smiled again and tears started falling from her eyes.

  “Yeah, so wipe your tears and come on.” We got out of there.

  SETH

  Taking Back What Belonged To Me

  Seeing the feds shut Melody’s spot down made me feel so good that I was out of the game for good. However, I was having an eerie feeling about those same feds running up on Mike before I could get to him. I called Sam and got her to act like she was sick so she could get off work early. When she walked outside the mall to meet me, I ran everything down to her and told her that we needed to get out of there as soon as possible.