by Styles, T.
Walking into the living room for the first time, when Adrian sees the gun, he screams.
“Shut the fuck up!” Shannon yells, banging the handle of the gun against her temple. “I can’t stand the noise! Be quiet!” she continues shaking the gun wildly at all of us. “Everybody sit the fuck down!”
Afraid the gun might go off, we all sit on the couch and out the corner of my eyes, I see Miss Dayshawn run toward the back of the house. Sneaky Day always knew how to get away.
“Wait…was that Dayshawn? The one you told me died in the fire?”
“No…I mean yes. I mean…not really.”
“I asked one question…and as far as I’m concerned, there ain’t but one answer to it.” Shannon demands.
“Okay…baby I need you to listen,” Tyrone says in a masculine voice although she’s wearing a dress, “Dayshawn died…but then he came back to life.”
She burst into laughter and Adrian and me whip our heads in his direction.
“So what…he’s Jesus now?” Shannon giggles.
“No…he got burnt really badly and was unconscious. Then they reccessated him and gave him some medicine. After that he was cool.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. I knew Tyrone was illiterate, but I never thought he was that ignorant too. The lie he gave her was so obscene, in good faith I couldn’t hear him say it again.
“Oh my God! You are sick!” she laughs. Then she falls into the seat across from us…the blood leaving her body was probably making her weak. “My mother told me there was no way on earth I could trust a person like you…but I kept telling myself that you were my husband. You know, after all these years, I never saw the man you were until now.”
“Please, Shannon. Let’s talk.”
“There’s no more talking!” she screams, letting off a bullet into the ceiling. “I’m done talkin’ to you! You are my husband and we made a vow through sickness and health, ‘til death do us part, that we’d be together forever. It’s time to die.”
“Shannon, please…please calm down.”
She fires another bullet into the floor next to my foot and I understand then that she can’t be reasoned with. When I look at Adrian and Tyrone, I see that they feel the same. If we want to live, which we all do, something has to give now.
With nothing else to lose, we all look at one another and charge her ass. She’s immediately knocked out of the chair and onto the floor, but the gun is still in her hand. Then Tyrone proceeds to punch her in the face multiple times until the gun falls to the ground.
“Tyrone, I think that’s enough!” Adrian says.
“Yeah, Tyrone! She’s not movin’.” I add.
When he finally stops, she’s laying lifelessly on the floor. I don’t know what killed her. Blood escaping her body by the pounds or Tyrone pounding her face to a pulp. And then I hear sirens in the background. Betty Badge could not have come at a better time, thanks to Dayshawn calling them when he ducked to the back of the house.
The police were there for two hours taking our testimony. And although we all confirmed Tyrone’s selfdefense story, I wonder what else was behind his blows. It was like he hated her or something.
At the end of the night, I know the cops will always remember three gay men dressed in drag, and the murder on 28th place. But what can I do? Like most incidents in my life, I have to move on. So that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.
With the house clean and Adrian and Dayshawn sleep, Tyrone walks up to the couch and sits next to me.
“Can I talk to you, girl?” he asks.
“What’ up?”
“I’m sorry about Shannon. I wasn’t expectin’ none of that shit tonight to happen up in here.”
“Tyrone, why did you hit her like that? And what money is she talkin’ about? And why would you tell her Day was dead? I’m confused.”
“The money was ours and I took it. But as far as me hittin’ her, you saw how crazy she was. She was tryin’ to kill us. That shit with Day was just to get her to let me stay at her house. I ain’t have no place else to go.”
“I think you could’ve been talked Shannon down off that ledge. But it’s like you didn’t care that she was your wife and the mother of your child.”
“But she had a gun! What the fuck was I gonna do? Let her kill me?” he pauses staring at me with wild eyes. “It was her or me and it wasn’t gonna be this girl, honey.”
I can’t believe how selfish he sounds. Shannon must have really been insane to choose Tyrone to be a part of her life.
“All I know is that the situation could’ve gone a lot worse. Somebody else could’ve gotten killed. Really, Tyrone…you’re gonna have to start carin’ about somebody other than yourself. Too much shit follows you wherever you go.”
“Care about people?” he says with sass. “You mean like you care about your mother?”
Have you ever had an experience…where you’ve been in someone’s presence and felt like punching them in the mouth, snatching out their tongue and strangling them with it? Well when he said my mother’s name, that’s exactly what I felt like doing.
“Tyrone, let me tell you somethin’,” I say pointing my finger in his face. “What went on around here ain’t got shit to do with my mother. And I’m gonna leave it at that. But if you ever mention her again, there will be problems for me and you. Are we clear?”
He smiles and says, “Crystal.”
Silence.
“Good…now remove yourself the fuck outta my face…I wanna sit down alone and sort some shit out.”
“So I guess you don’t want to hear anything else I have to say.”
“Tyrone, if I hear your voice again I’ma throw up. So you tell me?”
He gets up and says, “I guess you don’t want to know who burned the house down and almost killed us.” He walks away.
“What did you say?”
He turns around and says, “I know who burned the house down.”
“What are you talkin’ about? I thought it was an electrical issue.”
“It wasn’t. The fire department did a full investigation and found out that shit was done on purpose.” He continues. “I heard it was Queen Paul.”
To be honest, I hadn’t given the burned house any more thought once we made our move to 28th place. Besides, had it not been for the fire, I would not have come up with the scheme to hold the parties. But now that I know a person was actually responsible for that shit, I wanted blood.
“How do you know for sure it was him?”
“W…what you mean?” he stutters.
“Why would anybody tell you anything? Somethin’ don’t sound right to me.”
“They didn’t tell me. They told Garisha. They told him Paul was tryin’ to get some money from his house insurance.”
I think he’s lying but can’t prove it.
“Go head, Tyrone.”
“The ‘T’ is that Paul was mad that you beat him into another state and he wanted to pay you back and come up on some cash. So instead of facin’ you queen to queen, he burned the house down his mother raised him in.” he continues. “But I know where he lives, Wayne. All we gotta do is pay these people five hundred bucks to beat the brakes off of Queen Paul and it’s done.”
I consider my options. Do I hurt somebody off the strength of what she says, or do I let shit go and take it as a loss? Then I remember, I hadn’t heard anything from that fish name Paul since I taught him a lesson. And since queens believe in revenge and would sell their mothers to get it, why didn’t he come for me?
“Do it.” I say pulling the money from my stuffed bra. “And let me know when it’s done.”
“No problem,” he says accepting the money.
“Let whoever does it know that I’ll give them an extra fifty if they show me a picture of his fractured face. But…and hear me good, you betta not fuck this up. I don’t want you nowhere near the scene. Understood?”
“I got you.”
“Good, ‘cause if he burnt down his own ho
use, there’s nothin’ to stop him from tryin’ to do it here and I don’t want to have to kill his ass.”
“It’s as good as done, Wayne.” She smiles.
I hope I didn’t just make a GRAVE mistake.
Reflecting On The Younger Years Miss Wayne
Wayne, Parade, Sky and Daffany built an unbreakable bond. No longer did Wayne feel like an outcast or any of them for that matter. They finally belonged…together.
One afternoon over Wayne’s house, they were all enjoying some turkey sandwiches and cool homemade lemonade in the kitchen when Wayne noticed Parade’s dingy clothing.
“Parade,” he said after sipping his juice, “how come your clothes never look clean?”
Parade looked at him and then the rest of her friends. “What you mean?” she asked swallowing hard.
“I love you, honey but you just never look fresh,” he said softly. He truly wasn’t trying to embarrass her. Their friendship had grown so much that he knew he could ask her such a personal question around the rest of their crew with no hard feelings because they all loved her.
“I try to wash my own clothes but if my mother don’t give me no money, then what can I do?”
“Well,” Wayne said dipping into his pocket, “I have ten dollars and you can have it.” He pushed the money across the table to her.
Sky and Daffany looked at Wayne and followed suit.
“I have two dollars,” Daffany said. “I tongue kissed this boy at school the other day and he gave it to me. You can have it though.”
“Here’s ten from me. I can get you some more anytime you need it. All you gotta do is ask,” Sky bragged. “You know my peoples’ pockets stay fat.”
Parade took the money into her small hands, looked at her friends and cried. Stuffing the money inside her pocket, she stood up and said, “Thank you…but ya’ll don’t know what kinda life I got, and you wouldn’t understand it even if you did. Nobody would.”
“Help us understand.” Wayne said standing up from the table.
“It’s too hard. I have to go!” She said before bolting out the front door. She could be violent if followed and her friends knew this so they left her alone.
Parade ran to her house, which was in the same apartment complex that Wayne and the rest of her friends lived. The moment she opened her front door, she saw her father sitting on a leather recliner, rocking and watching Family Feud on TV.
“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked seeing her upset.
“Nothin’,” she said wiping her tears. “I’m okay.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t tell. I could swear I see tears in my daughter’s eyes,” he said kindly.
Parade walked up to her father amazed at how different he was from her mother. He talked to her when they were alone whereas her mother acted as if she didn’t exist.
Parade walked slowly over to her father, and sat on his lap. “Now…tell me what’s wrong, baby?”
“My friends are so much better than me. They have new clothes and money to do stuff with and I never got nothin’. I’m embarrassed to go to school sometimes, daddy. I hate my life.”
“I know money’s been tight around here,” he said holding her lovingly in his arms, “but things will get better. You’re in middle school now and you have four friends who care about you. Be happy for the small things.”
Parade listened to her father attentively and her stomach fluttered. She loved him so much. He always knew what to say to her when she was upset and she was grateful.
When he finished with his words of wisdom, she turned to him and kissed him softly on the lips. He rarely showed emotion, or even hugged her, unless they were alone.
When their lips separated, he looked into her eyes, smiled and their lips met again. The kiss was passionate and Parade loved the secret relationship she had with her father. He picked her up and carried her to her bedroom.
He was the one who taught her how to move her hips and perform oral sex. She enjoyed the tingling sensations that overcame her body when he kissed her softly on her special place and out of appreciation, she returned the favor. During these times, she felt wanted and loved. To her what they were doing wasn’t wrong. It was love. They spent the next thirty minutes indulging in everything but a healthy father and daughter relationship.
What they didn’t know was that Parade’s mother had come home early and caught their indiscretions. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing and their betrayal ripped her apart. Sure she had her suspicions all along…but she hoped it wasn’t true. Sadly she turned around and walked away from her daughter’s bedroom door, never saying a word to either of them. But what she witnessed made her hate her only child even more.
A few years later the secret relationship Parade shared with her father ceased and vanished from her memory. Remembering only bits and pieces of it in her dreams. But soon, that all would change.
Smash
jbig boody brandyL
Big Boody Brandy waited impatiently at the Anacostia Park train station for Tyrone. Ever since she found out she tried to set her up by having Garisha’s brother rob her, she’d been extorting money from him. This was the main reason she didn’t want to kill him like Paul wanted. She figured she’d wait until Tyrone couldn’t pay anymore, and then take care of him. She’d already gotten ten thousand dollars out of him with plans to take more.
Walking out of her brand new white Saab, she left her dog Maxie inside because it was raining. She left the windows down so her puppy wouldn’t suffocate but was still worried about him. Tyrone called her a few minutes earlier and said he was around the corner with her five hundred dollars.
When she saw the car pull up, she stood up straight and gripped her Fendi purse closely. Although she knew Tyrone knew better than to fuck with her, she always carried heat just in case.
“Hey, Brandy,” Tyrone says once out of the blue Nissan Sentra Garisha was driving.
“Don’t hey me.” She says eyeing Garisha who was so scared of her, she didn’t look in Brandy’s direction. “You got all my money right?”
Tyrone dug in his ugly black pocketbook and handed her the cash. “It’s all there.”
After Brandy counted all of the money she says, “Good. And what took you so long?”
“Garisha took forever to pick me up,” he pauses. “But can I ask you somethin’?”
“What?”
“How long is this gonna go on? I mean, I think I paid my debt to you by now, Brandy. Don’t you?”
“Oh…you think so?” she asks sarcastically. “So tell me, how much do you think my life is worth? ‘Cause I can tell you now it’s worth more than ten thousand dollars.”
“I’m not sayin’ it like that, Brandy. I’m just sayin’, it was only a fifty-dollar bag of weed bag. And since my wife killed herself, I don’t know how I’m gonna get you no more money.”
“I heard! But damn, you really did have that bitch wrapped around your little finger.”
“Seriously, Brandy. You call my house all hours of the night, show up when you need money for the club and I just want it to stop.”
“Then what you waitin’ on, Tyrone? Do somethin’ ‘bout it?” he smirks. “I’m standin’ right here. Make a move.”
Tyrone’s lips tighten and he says, “I’m not tryin’ to start no shit wit’ you, bitch.”
“You already did.”
“I know…but this is fucked up. It’s not even fair.”
“And I don’t give a fuck what you think. When I’m done with you, you’ll know. Just make sure that you have five thousand a month for me until I say so. Or I’m goin’ go to the cops about that football player I know you and Garisha’s manly lookin’ ass murdered. Don’t fuck with me, Tyrone.”
“I won’t.”
To kill two birds with one stone Brandy says, “Oh yeah…what you gonna do about Paul? I told you he wanted me to kill you.”
“I’m goin’ over there now. You sure he havin’ t
he party?”
“What you think? I ain’t got not reason to lie. I’m out. I’ll holla at you later.”
After Brandy walked away leaving Tyrone to himself, she smiled realizing her good luck. She knew Tyrone was a punk but this was ridiculous. Once Brandy made it to her car, her heart dropped when she saw her dog Maxie lying lifelessly on the floor of the drivers seat.
“Maxie!” she screams in horror.
Her purse fell to the ground as she wrestled to open the door. And when she did, her guard went down and she was grabbed from behind. Placing his forearm around Brandy’s neck, he used his other free hand to place a napkin containing Chloroform over her mouth and nose. And when she passed out, he pushed her in the car, and drove to an undisclosed location. Brandy would never be seen alive again.
A Who Ride
jQueen tyroneL
“I shouldn’t even be talkin’ to your ass right now.” Garisha says to me as she’s driving down the road. “I can’t believe you still dealing wit’ Big Boody’s bitch ass.”
“Look, stop whinning over dried shit.” “Stop whinnin’ over dried shit?!" He repeats. "Did you forget that that bitch stabbed me?”
“Don’t put that shit on me, Garisha. How I know he was gonna catch you in your car lookin’ stupid? If anything I should be mad at you.”
“How you figure?” he asks whipping his head toward me.
“Because had your brother been smart enough to wear a long sleeve shirt, I wouldn’t have gotten into a beef with Big Boody to begin with. Now that hag extortin’ money out of me and shit. Where Detroit at anyway?”
“Girl, locked up! Again!”
“Has he ever considered the fact that crime may not be his thang?”
“I don’t know, girl” he says waving me off. “But why you payin’ this bitch anyway?”
“You playin’ right?” I ask staring at her.
“Heaven’s no…why?”
“Because she was with us the day we were with Andy. All she gotta do is tell the cops we were the last who saw him and Betty Badge would be all over our ass. There’s no statute of limitations on murder, ugly.”