by K'wan
“Buck up, baby girl. It’s some sour shit, but it’s better than being in the shelter with the rest of them bum bitches, no offense.” Gucci started dragging the bag up the street.
“Let you tell it.” Tionna fell in step behind her, hauling a garbage bag of her own. With any luck, she’d be able to slip in quietly and get settled before the gossip network passed the wire that she was back. This thought was dashed all to hell when she saw Rock Head grinning at them.
“Gucci, what it is, ma?” Rock Head greeted her, with his fake cool smirk.
Gucci dropped her bag and exhaled before answering. “What it is is heavy. Do ya girl a solid and help me out.” She motioned to the bag.
“Always willing to help a beautiful young lady.” He hefted the bag and slung it over his shoulder. “Damn, what you got in here?”
“Stuff,” she said, striding past him to the card game. “Hey, fellas.”
“Lil Ronnie, what’s happening?” Rayfield greeted her.
“Mr. Ray, don’t play with me. My name is Gucci; I’m my own woman,” she told him.
“Indeed you are.” Cords looked her up and down. “Say, girl, when you gonna step out with an old sporting nigga, instead of hanging around with these young chumps?”
Gucci gave him a seductive smile. “Cords, I don’t think your heart could handle what I got cooking between these thighs,” she joked.
“Shiiit, I ain’t ever met a pony that I couldn’t ride.”
“See, that’s the problem right there. I ain’t no pony, I’m a stallion!” She turned so he could see the profile of her ass.
“She got you there, old-timer!” Harley half coughed, half laughed.
“Man, to hell with you, Harley, wit’ yo chain-smoking ass,” Cords said.
“Better the smoker than the smoked,” Harley shot back.
“Hey, Tionna,” Sonny called to the girl who was lagging behind.
“Mr. Sonny.” She nodded.
“You all come to visit with ya mama?”
“Not exactly. I’m moving into One Fifty-three,” she said, trying to mask the shame in her voice.
“One Fifty-three? I thought y’all was living out in Mount Vernon or something?” Harley asked.
“We were in Westchester County, but it didn’t work out,” she said, not bothering to go into the details of her coming back to the block.
“Well, I’m sure your mama will be glad to have y’all close to home again.” Rayfield said, picking up on her uneasiness and trying to give her an out.
“Yeah,” she said, looking at her feet. “Well, I better get this stuff upstairs.” She shifted the bag.
“Y’all need some help wit’ them bags?” Sonny asked, in his deep drawl.
“Nah, Rock Head got us.” Gucci nodded toward the young man, who had begun to perspire a bit.
“Shit, if y’all got that lazy mofo to do something, then he must want something.” Rayfield squinted at Rock Head. Unlike most people, who were afraid of him, Rayfield had no problem showing his dislike.
“Knock that off, Ray; you know we fam on this block,” Rock Head said. “Come on, y’all,” he turned to Tionna and Gucci, “let’s get these bags upstairs so I hit the block; you know this bread ain’t gonna make itself.” Rock Head headed toward the building.
“Okay, we’ll see y’all later,” Gucci said, following Rock Head into the building.
“I sure hope so,” Cords said, slyly.
“Bye, y’all,” Tionna said, waving with her elbow.
“Tough break,” Rayfield said when Tionna and Gucci had gone.
“Tell me about it,” Sonny agreed. “All that money they was sitting on, just to end up back ’round this piss hole. I was kinda cheering for her and the young boy to make it. I kinda liked his style.”
“Yeah, there was something about him that reminded me of the eighties. They don’t make young boys like him no more. He was a throwback hustler,” Rayfield reflected.
Everybody on the block was a little sad when they heard that Duhan had gotten knocked. Unlike people like Rock Head, he had class about the way he did his business and never shed blood unnecessarily. When he got put in pocket, he used love instead of force to solidify his position, making sure that every man who was willing to work could eat. The residents in the community knew that he sold drugs, but he also did quite a bit of good with his money. He would throw bus rides to Bear Mountain and make sure all the little kids had school supplies every year. Duhan had a lot of love on the streets, because he played the game properly. Not even when the deck was stacked against him would he go against the code of the great institution known to some as Hustler’s University.
“Shit, I don’t feel no sympathy for her,” Cords said. “That girl was running ’round like her shit ain’t stink when she was on top, thumbing her damn nose at the block like she ain’t grew up here. Look at her ass now.”
“Quit being such a damn hater,” Harley said. “We gonna play cards or what?”
“Yeah, it’s my deal.” Rayfield reached for the cards, but Cords’s wiry fingers beat him to the punch.
“The hell it is.” Cords snatched the cards. “It’s my deal!”
“See, this is why I don’t like to play with you muthafuckas, ’cause it’s always some extra shit,” Sonny said, swigging his drink.
It would probably be hours before Sonny, Harley, Rayfield, and Cords finished their game, with all their arguing, but with them it wasn’t so much about winning or losing the game, it was the shit talking in between that made the days worthwhile.
CHAPTER 3
“I don’t see why we couldn’t just wait for the elevator,” Rock Head huffed, as he reached the landing between the second and third floors.
“Because it’s only the third floor, and you know how that elevator is. I know you ain’t crying over that light-ass load?” Gucci rocked on her heel, with her arms folded defiantly.
“Gucci, I don’t see nothing in ya hand, so don’t even try it,” he told her.
“Rock Head, you can just drop it at the top of the stairs if you want. I appreciate you helping out,” Tionna said, dragging her garbage bag to the freshly painted door to apartment 9.
“Nah, it’s all good, Tionna. You my nigga’s peoples. It ain’t about nothing,” Rock Head said to her.
Tionna knew the hearts of men, so she knew from the time Gucci seemed to effortlessly enlist Rock Head that he had an agenda. Hood niggaz tended to be predictable that way. “Well, thanks just the same.” She put the shiny key into the yellow gold lock. Being that it was new, she had to jiggle it a bit before the lock gave. She offered to take the bag from him, but he insisted on carrying it inside.
“These joints is nice.” Rock Head walked casually through the apartment, inspecting it as he went. “They need to tear my building down and rebuild that muthafucka.”
“Why? So you niggaz can sell crack out the lobby and piss in the staircases like you’ve been doing?” Gucci asked sarcastically.
“Fuck you, Gucci!”
“Not in this lifetime, ya big-head muthafucka.” Gucci perched herself atop Tionna’s new wooden counter. “Rock, y’all niggaz got this whole strip on fire and you know it.”
Rock Head shook his head. “Man, the police just don’t wanna see a nigga rise up out this shit.” He motioned at the air. “They keep they foot so far in a nigga’s ass that it’s a wonder we don’t throw up shoe polish. They slap a case on you as a kid to let you taste the system, and once your beak is wet you accept what they feed you through the years. See, these muthafuckas program us to recognize that money is more important than anything. If you ain’t got no bread, you’s a subclass muthafucka. Ain’t but a weak-ass nigga that’s gonna stay broke for too long without eventually hitting the panic button and getting it how he gotta get it,” Rock Head ended, as if he were a ghetto scholar giving a lecture at Grambling. He actually made a lot of sense, but coming from somebody like Rock Head, the sincerity was suspect at best.
Gucci
sucked her teeth. “Rock Head, that’s bullshit and you know it. I ain’t talking about the fact that y’all hustle, but it’s how y’all hustle. Rock, y’all sell crack and stick people up on the same blocks you live on . . . your families live on.” She pointed her finger. “If you wanna do stupid shit, do it, but why you gotta make everybody else susceptible in the process?”
Rock Head measured her for a minute. In his mind, the way he did things made perfect sense, but he couldn’t articulate it properly. “G, we do what we do because it’s all we know. Yeah, the block is hot, but niggaz know they can’t roll through here like that. This is the jungle, baby, you know what it is.”
Gucci shook her head. “The jungle, I hear that hot shit.”
“So what’s up? Y’all gonna stand around here and argue, or are we gonna go grab the rest of this stuff out of the van?” Tionna was tiring of their antics.
“My fault, T, but you know ya peoples be vexin’ me on some other shit.” Rock Head raised his hands and let them fall to his sides as if their word exchange had exhausted him.
Gucci just shot him a disgusted glare.
“Well, y’all can go through the motions on your own time; I still got shit to do. I gotta finish unpacking and get right for tomorrow. I’m going to see my boo,” Tionna said, glancing at her watch.
“Yo, what’s good wit’ my nigga Du? He need anything?” Rock Head asked. His eyes were compassionate, but you could see faint wisps of larceny lurking behind the pupils.
“Nah, he’s chilling. You know a lot of niggaz loved Duhan on the street, plus his rider is always gonna make sure he straight.” Tionna patted herself on the chest, making sure that she looked directly into Rock Head’s eyes when she spoke.
“I know that’s right, ride for ya man,” Rock Head said, trying to laugh it off.
“Till death do us.” Tionna held up her ring finger, showing off her diamond ring. It was the last thing of value that Duhan had left her. No matter how bad she needed money, she refused to pawn it.
“I can dig it.” He paused. “But I’m saying, though . . . if he need anything, come holla at me.” He touched her arm. It was the faintest contact, but she still felt like she’d have to pay special attention to that spot on her arm when she next showered, and her eyes said this when she looked at him.
“How about I give you his info and you can go up and see him? I know he’d be glad to see his nigga.” The smile she gave him was that of a serpent that’d just convinced a field mouse that he was harmless.
“No doubt, I’ve been meaning to get out there, but I just ain’t had the chance yet, ya know?”
“Yeah, I know,” she said, brushing past him and going out into the hall. She stopped just outside the door, waiting for Gucci and Rock Head to follow her out.
Tionna was just locking her door when she heard the sound of footsteps behind her. She turned to the steps leading down from the upper floors and watched as a pair thick legs and thighs oozed up to a slim waist and breasts that were just reaching the peak of what they would be. When the face of the brown-skinned girl came into view, Tionna frowned. The girl looked down at her and returned the expression.
“ ’Sup, Sharon?” Rock Head called from behind Tionna.
Sharon was a young chick who was way too hot in the pants and didn’t have half as much game as she gave herself credit for. She was an eleventh-grade dropout who lived mostly by her wits and her mother and sister’s mercies, occasionally getting a check for shaking her ass in videos. Her sister, Reese, and her peoples used to ring off in the streets of Harlem with their off-the-wall antics and track records for tragedy, and Sharon was determined to walk a mile in their shoes.
There had been a few rumors connecting the young girl to Duhan, but Tionna had never been able to catch them red-handed. Sharon made it a habit to try to get under Tionna’s skin whenever she saw her, but for the most part Tionna ignored her because she was young. However, the way things had been going for her lately, she might decide to throw her morals out the window and dust Sharon off if she stepped wrong. Luckily for her, she didn’t spare Tionna a second look, focusing on Rock Head.
“ ’Sup, Rock, where it’s at?” She was speaking to him but cut her eyes at Gucci.
“You know I always got that, where you about to go?” he asked.
“I gotta shoot uptown right quick and see my peoples, but I might got a minute to spare. You got that Piff?”
“You know I do.” He smiled. “Let’s go get a Dutch and be about that. I gotta holla at you anyway.” He motioned for her to follow him down the stairs.
“Excuse me,” Sharon said in a stink tone, making it her business to brush against Tionna as she passed her.
“Watch that shit,” Tionna said, extending her arms a bit, almost knocking Sharon off balance.
“Damn, I know you put on a little weight, but you ain’t gotta block the whole staircase,” Sharon said sarcastically.
“Sharon, you can play with me if you want to and find yourself getting stomped out on these steps. If I were you, I’d keep walking,” Tionna said seriously.
“Whatever.” Sharon stepped passed Tionna to the landing where Rock Head was looking on. Just to rub salt on it, she turned around and said, “Oh, Duhan told me what happened. Welcome home, your highness!” She laughed and continued down the stairs.
“You disrespectful little bitch!” Tionna roared. Had it not been for Gucci holding her arm, she would’ve perused Sharon and whipped her ass for talking slick.
“Chill out, T.” Gucci tried to tug her back up onto the landing. Tionna was pulling so hard that she thought they both might end up falling down the stairs.
“Gucci, that little ho is gonna let her mouth write a check that her ass can’t cash!” she fumed. “And what the fuck does she mean, ‘Duhan told me what happened?’ On the real, after all that nigga put me through, he better not be playing me with that little jail-bait whore!”
“Tionna, you bugging right now.” Gucci jerked Tionna around to face her. “You know better than to let a bum bitch like that bring you outta your character.” The seriousness in her eyes got Tionna to calm down a bit, but she was still tight.
“This is why I got up off Fortieth in the first place, so I wouldn’t have to deal with this kinda shit. Bitches are always hating. I ain’t have to put up with this in Westchester.” Tionna sucked her teeth.
“Well, this ain’t the suburbs, baby girl, this is the block, and you know how shit goes. Come on now, T.” Gucci’s tone softened. “You a made bitch, be it here or somewhere else. A chick like Sharon ain’t never had and won’t ever have, so you know she’s gonna try and cause waves whenever she can. Instead of acting a damn fool out here on the block, you need to step to Duhan about even putting you out there like that.”
This immediately got Tionna focused. “You’re right, girl. I can’t see why he had to stick his dick in that dusty hole anyway, when this pussy is sweeter than honeysuckle.”
“Because that’s how niggaz do,” Gucci told her. “T, you know Du is my peoples and I got love for him, but at the end of the day he’s just like any other nigga. For as much as they claim to love us, they still find the need to fuck other bitches. Now, you took a step back, but this is only a temporary arrangement.” She motioned toward the apartment door. “You can go out like a weak ho and fall back into this ghetto shit, or you can carry it like a real bitch and get back on your game.”
Gucci’s words hit her like a glass of cold water thrown in her face. At the high point of her and Duhan’s relationship, a chick like Sharon wasn’t even fit to speak to her, let alone try to clown her. Tionna was better than that and she knew it.
Just the thought of him with another woman took her back to the last visit she’d had with him. It was pouring rain that day and she couldn’t get a ride, but she still took the trip to see him on Riker’s Island. After going through the motions with security, she was directed to a small plastic chair where she was to wait for the inmate. Her heart
was aflutter when he came from behind the steel door. His rich chocolate skin was clear and smooth from lack of all the fast food he was used to eating, and he looked to be getting his weight up. His hair was freshly shaped up with his signature half-moon part on the left side. Duhan was so old-school. Tionna smiled, because even in the moldy jumpsuit her man still looked like a million dollars.
“Hey, baby.” She accepted his tongue when he offered it. The correction officers were oblivious to the balloon stuffed with heroin that she had slipped him. She’d had to practice the trick almost ten times before she’d gotten it down to a science. “I missed you.”
“I missed you more.” He squeezed her. For the next hour they talked about the kids, the case, and of course the streets, and before they knew it the visit was almost over.
“So listen, I need you to take care of that for me. Go see my man uptown and he’s gonna give you that for homegirl,” he told her as they said their final goodbyes.
“I got you, daddy, you know your boss bitch is on it,” she assured him. Tionna blew Duhan a farewell kiss and watched as he made his way back with the other inmates. Moving down the row, he had to pass a shapely light-skinned girl who had been visiting with another inmate. Tionna probably wouldn’t even have noticed her had Duhan not been smiling so widely. When the light-skinned girl mouthed her number to him, Tionna snapped.
“The both of you muthafuckas must be brain dead with a death wish. Duhan, I will finish you and this yellow bitch for trying to play with my heart.” Tionna hopped up and was marching toward the girl. The girl tried to hop up so fast that she ended up falling over in the little chair.
“Yo, chill.” Duhan tried to move to break it up, but two of the officers wrestled him to the ground. Tionna had almost made it to the girl when she was tackled by a female officer.