Gentrified

by Kirsten McCurran

  two

  “Do we have to go out to your parents’ tonight?” Kyle asked. Jess loved him, but it amazed her that a grown man could whine like that.

  “I promised her. She complains that we barely see her anymore.”

  “She could always come see us.”

  “You know that’s not going to happen, Kyle.”

  He just grumbled in response.

  It was a beautiful day to be in the park. The weather seemed to have gone from being cold to hot and humid earlier in the spring and Jess thought it would go right from winter to summer, but the humidity had broken and it was sunny without being oppressive. She and Kyle sat on a bench watching as Maddy played with other kids in the playground. He tried to jump up at every disagreement, but Jess restrained him, assuring Kyle that it was important for kids to work things out for themselves. He’d always been a fixer. It was one of the things she loved about him.

  The park had fallen into disuse over the years, but the new residents had formed a committee to raise funds and buy new equipment and restore the square to its former glory. One of the things Jess liked about living in the city were these little gems. It was a pleasant surprise to find a nice park amid all of the row houses and former industrial buildings that weren’t too far away. A hundred years ago, these had been nice middle-class neighborhoods where the factory workers raised their families, but as the jobs left over the decades so did the people who could follow them.

  It had only been in the last several years that younger people had started moving in, trying to restore the area. There were clashes of course. Some of the locals didn’t like the interlopers, while some of the newcomers were aloof and saw the longtime residents as a nuisance. Jess wouldn’t say Kyle was aloof, but he did resent the old-timers’ resentment. Kyle noted ruefully that while the people who’d been living there resented their presence, they didn’t mind using the nice new things they brought with them—like the park. Jess told him to keep his opinions to himself. She knew they could sound racist, even if that was not his intent.

  “We should call her bluff. Tell your mom that if she doesn’t come down here she’s never going to see her granddaughter again,” Kyle said.

  “She loves Maddy, but that might not go in our favor.”

  Kyle smirked. “That depends on what you consider our favor.”

  “You like my mom,” she insisted, smacking him on the arm.

  “Of course I do, but the only reason she doesn’t want to come down here is that she doesn’t want to get that close to black people.”

  “She’s says it’s the crime. You know how older people get.”

  “Crime is code for black, which is racist. Come on, your dad isn’t any better. They think I’ve taken their precious little daughter down here to live with the natives.”

  “Shhh.” Jess looked around, but no one was close. “There have been three car break-ins on the block in the last month, and that woman was almost attacked a few blocks over. They aren’t entirely wrong about the crime.

  Kyle put his arm around her shoulders. “Are you scared, babe?”

  “I’m just saying it’s not the same as living out in Kingston, that’s all. That sort of thing didn’t happen out there.”

  “They have crime in the suburbs, Jess.”

  “You don’t have to be a condescending jerk about it. I’m just saying it’s different and my parents are allowed to be concerned. And I’ll admit it, I don’t like it when you’re away.”

  “I don’t like it either, but it’s my job. Hopefully it will earn me the promotion and I won’t have to go out to Chicago anymore. But we have the alarm, and Chaz is just a couple blocks over. You can always call him if you have a problem when I’m not there.”

  “Sure,” Jess replied unenthusiastically. She did not like his friend Chazz. She always felt him staring at her, checking her out when he was around. He’d even made a pass at her back at a college party years ago, but she’d never told Kyle. Jess didn’t want to make trouble. She didn’t like conflict.

  “Mommy, Daddy, look who it is!” Maddy called.

  Jess looked up to see their daughter dragging a smiling Winston across the park. Kyle looked concerned. He had not met their neighbor yet. For some reason, she hoped Winston hadn’t noticed their disagreement.

  “Winston, hi, how are you?” Jess said, standing from the bench. Kyle stood as well and she quickly moved to introduce the men. “Sweetheart, this is Winston. He’s our neighbor.”

  “I’m across the street and a few doors up,” Winston said. He offered his hand.

  “Kyle,” Kyle simply said.

  Jess couldn’t miss the weird vibe between the men, and it looked like Kyle was puffing his chest out as they shook hands. Kyle flexed his hand like he needed to loosen it when he took it back.

  “How, uh, do you guys know each other?” Kyle asked, looking to his wife.

  “He saved us, Daddy,” Maddy piped in.

  “It was something like that. Remember when I fell and hurt my knee? Well, Winston was outside and he came over to help us. He helped me up off the ground and then carried our things to the car. We were lucky he was there,” Jess said.

  “I guess I need to thank you for rescuing my girls,” Kyle said, putting his arm around Jess’s waist. Jess caught the emphasis her husband put on the my.

  “It ain’t no thing, man. Anyone would do the same thing,” Winston said. If he sensed any hostility from Kyle, he didn’t show it.

  “No really, a lot of people just look the other way,” Kyle pressed.

  “That’s not how I was raised. You got to take care of your neighbors, man.”

  “I’m not sure everyone around here feels the same way. No offense.”

  Jess wanted to bury her face in her hands. She hoped Winston was as easygoing as he seemed.

  “It’s cool. Try not to let the neighborhood get in your head, man. People hate change, even good change. They all feel like you looking down on them and want them out so you can move in the rest of y’all.”

  “I moved down here because I don’t want my kid growing up in some lily-white suburb,” Kyle said.

  “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that,” Jess protested.

  “It’s all good,” Winston said. He looked at Jess, stopping just short of staring. “You turned out good.”

  “I just want Maddy to be comfortable around everyone,” Kyle said.

  “People down here just feel like you takin’ away something. I say good. A lot of what y’all takin’ away was sh…” Winston looked down at Maddy and stopped short.

  Maddy crashed into Jess’s legs and the mother leaned down to hug her daughter.

  “That’s cool, man. Hey, seriously, I’m glad you were there for the girls. I owe you a beer,” Kyle said. He seemed to have relaxed—slightly.

  “You got Colt .45?” Winston asked. He watched Kyle turn pale and then burst out laughing. “Just f’ing with you, man. We cool.”

  “I think we should get going,” Jess said. “It’s almost lunch time.”

  “Yeah, we should probably head out,” Kyle agreed. “It was great meeting you, Winston.”

  The men shook hands again and the family started to walk away.

  “I’ll see you Monday morning,” Jess called over her shoulder.

  “Monday morning?” Kyle asked.

  “Oh, we see Winston every morning. He’s sitting out on his steps when we leave.”

  “He’s cool, Daddy.”

  “Funny how you never mentioned that.”

  Jess shot him a green-eyed glare. “You’re not jealous are you? That would be insane.”

  “Hey, I need to look after what’s mine,” he replied. Kyle could only hold the serious look for a moment before breaking up. “Seriously, he seemed nice.”

  “He is.”

  “Maybe you should take him to your parents’ and I could stay home.”

  Jess laughed. “My mother would love that. She’d yell to Dad to get the shotgun.”<
br />
  “No dark hands will ever touch their lilywhite daughter.”

  “Winston is not touching me regardless.”

  “You’re a little touchy. And hey, you’re blushing.”

  Jess looked away. Despite the warm day, she could feel the heat on her pale cheeks, but she couldn’t explain it. “I am not,” she lied.

  “I’m just teasing you, honey.”

  “Well, it’s not funny. And my parents aren’t racist, not really. They just don’t know any better. I bet if they met someone like Winston they’d like him just like you do.”

  “Maybe. If they ever come down to our house, we’ll have to invite him over,” Kyle teased.

  “Sure. We’ll all have brunch.”

  ~~~

  Winston watched the family leave the park and thought the first meeting with the husband went well. It was important that Kyle liked him and didn’t feel threatened. This would all go better if Kyle thought of him as a friend. Kyle seemed like a nice enough guy. He just had a chip on his shoulder about not being accepted. Winston understood that. Kyle would have been really pissed if he knew what everyone said about the carpetbaggers—that’s what his friends called the hipsters moving in—when they were in private.

  It was helpful to see the couple together. He had just assumed that there had to be some strain on the marriage because Kyle was so wrapped in work, but that might not have been so. If they were perfectly happy—something Winston had not seen in too many couples—he wouldn’t have had an in. But he could tell they were arguing about something when Maddy brought him over. It could have been nothing, but it could be something he could work with. He would have to do more digging. Jessica looked a bit embarrassed by Kyle’s behavior, and that was definitely something he could work with. It was always easy to manipulate white Liberal guilt.

  Winston sized Kyle up and wondered if he was taking care of things in the sack. He wasn’t a big guy, and he was away often enough that Jessica had to be left wanting. They had probably been married long enough for Kyle to start taking her for granted, too. Based on their ages, and Maddy’s, Winston guessed they were probably married for five or six years. That was long enough for the couple to have settled into a routine. Winston was just the man to shake Jessica out of that routine. She wouldn’t know what hit her.

  Damn, she was sexy. He’d tried not to be obvious—he hoped his sunglasses helped—but he could not help checking Jessica out the entire time. Her V-necked t-shirt was snug enough to show the swell of her breasts, but he got his best look at them when she leaned down for her daughter. He saw all the way down to her lavender bra, and Jessica had nice tits for such a thin girl. If she weren’t so innocent, he might have thought they were fake—small implants. And her baggy cut-off shorts didn’t hide what a nice ass she had. He couldn’t wait to tap that ass. He was confident now that Kyle would not be much of a challenge. He just had to work it right. Hell, maybe he could even convince that boy that he should be fucking his wife. How badly did he want to be accepted?

  Winston turned to walk away and walked smack into his boy DeSean.

  “What’s up with that?” DeSean asked.

  “What’s up with what?”

  “You ain’t goin’ bousie, are you?”

  Winston laughed heartily. “Yeah, man, I’m gonna meet them at the country club for drinks later. You boys need to chill on the new people.”

  “They don’t belong, but they all struttin’ around like they own the place.”

  “Chill, my brother. They want the same things you do, they just have the money to get it.”

  “Why they got to change everything?”

  Winston put his large arm over his friend’s shoulder as they walked. “You got to look at the big picture. These fools come in and spend a lot of money. They make everything nice. Then when you ready to move, you can sell your house for three times as much. In the meantime, there are lots of naïve people to take advantage of. You got to look at the positives.”

  “But what about people like my grams? She don’t wanna move, but the way the taxes go up, she can’t stay.”

  “First of all, you got to get schooled. They got programs for that shit. You know what an abatement is?”

  “What the fuck is that?” DeSean asked.

  This is what exasperated Winston. Fools who didn’t bother bettering themselves. Too many people were content to just go through every day, living their lives, never thinking of the future. Winston was always thinking of the future, and that was why he made sure he understood what was going on. And being smart meant that he could have the things he wanted. It meant he could bed fine women like Jessica, because he knew how to work the world around him. But guys like DeSean—a nice guy, a guy he loved to hang out on the corner and get high with—would never get it.

  “It’s a city program. I’ll talk to your grams about it. Keeps the taxes low,” Winston said.

  “No shit?”

  “Yeah, no shit.” He tapped DeSean on the temple. “You got to use this, man.”

  “Okay, but what that got to do with you hangin’ with those people?”

  “Did you see that blonde?”

  “The white girl? Yeah, she was nice. Kinda skinny, but pretty.”

  “You got to really look at that ass. It’s sweet. Her name is Jessie. And I’m gonna tap that ass.”

  “What makes you think she gonna fuck a ghetto brother like you?” DeSean laughed.

  “’Cause I got the rap. Trust me, when I got her ready, that white girl is going to be begging for my black dick.”

  DeSean slapped his hand into Winston’s. “You do that, you got to let me get a piece.”

  “No doubt,” Winston replied, but he wasn’t so sure. He hadn’t been shy about sharing neighborhood hos in the past, but he thought he might want to keep something special like Jessica all to himself. He was thinking about how she might taste as they walked out of the park.

  three

  The drive out to the suburbs was like travelling to another world, and part of Jess missed it. She liked the quiet streets and big lawns and the peace. She didn’t think it was better than where she lived now, it was just what she was used to. She was sure that someone like Winston would probably find her old neighborhood just as alien.

  Her parents still lived in the house she grew up in. It was a large white house with a sweeping front lawn and brick path leading to a warm red front door that matched the shutters. The backyard was so large that the in-ground pool didn’t make it feel crowded. It was like the motion picture ideal of the suburban home, the kind found in movies like Risky Business or Home Alone. Jess had an idyllic childhood there, and she wondered what Maddy’s childhood would be like with no front lawn to run in, and only a postage-stamp sized backyard.

  “You look too skinny,” her mother said, upon greeting them at the door. It was the same thing she had been saying to Jess since she was a teenager. Her mother was not heavy, but shorter and rounder. Jess had inherited her father’s naturally athletic build. It was only childbirth that had finally filled out her curves. Jess leaned down and hugged her mother.

  “It’s good to see you too, Mom,” Jess replied. She stepped aside so Maddy could hug her grandmother. Kyle followed his girls.

  “Diane,” he said, giving his mother-in-law a quick kiss on the check.

  “Kyle,” she said coolly. “Howard is in the sunroom.”

  Diane and Kyle had never really gotten along. Diane never really thought he was good enough for her daughter, and when he made the decision to move the family into the city it confirmed every bad thing she’d ever thought about him. She was polite enough to avoid making an issue of it, but the tension and the little sniping comments drove Jess crazy. Kyle and her father got along much better. Howard had worked hard to earn his money, so he appreciated Kyle’s drive. Howard appreciated what Kyle wanted to do with investing in the house, but he didn’t like his little girl living down there any more than her mother did.

  Kyle passed
through the foyer and back through the house, with Maddy chasing him. Her grandfather always had at least a dollar for her. Jess and her mother wandered back into the house, but diverted toward the kitchen. The wonderful smells of roasted chicken and the sides filled the kitchen. Jess saw the open bottle of wine on the counter and got herself a glass.

  “How are collections for the flea market going?” Jess asked. She found it best to stick to small talk with her mother.

  “Good. The church thinks we’re going to outraise what we did last year. You know, if there are any groups down where you live that could use a donation…”

  “I’m sure there are some, but it’s not as bad as you think, Mom. It’s not like there are beggars on the corners.”

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  “That’s because you won’t visit. Maddy’s birthday party is coming soon. You’re going to come to that, right?”

  “I thought we could have that here.”

  Jess had to concede that it would be easier logistically, but she really wanted their house to be their home. Besides, Maddy would want her friends from preschool there, and they were not going to traipse all the way out there. “I don’t think that will work for us, Mom.”

  Diane pulled a face. “You’ll have to try and convince your father to go down there then.”

  “I will talk to Dad.”

  Diane refilled her wine and changed the subject. “I saw Nicole’s parents in church last Sunday. They said she’s doing wonderfully.”

  “She is. The new job is going great and she just closed on her townhouse. She’s really excited.”

  Nicole was Jess’s best friend since kindergarten. They had been inseparable from the time they met. Nicole had also always been the devil on Jess’s shoulder—despite the perfect, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth façade she’d always presented to Jess’s parents. Nicole had been very supportive of the move—for Jess, not herself. Nicole said she couldn’t wait to go down to the up and coming neighborhood to hang out, but she couldn’t imagine living there.