True Consequences

by Robert Barnes

  6

  Friday, June 17, 1995 finally arrived and the seniors at Tabb High would graduate at 3 pm at the Hampton Coliseum; it was around noon and the family was getting together at my parent’s house in Bethel Manor. Tammy and I decided to drive the BMW even though we knew my family would be asking questions. We made up a story about Tammy’s father being rich and told them he’d bought her the car recently as a late graduation gift.

  As we pulled into Madison Court in Bethel Manor, I saw my aunts, uncles, a few cousins, brothers, sista, and my parents all outside in the yard. It seemed like the earth stopped when Tammy and I stepped out of the BMW. Tammy wasn’t really showing yet, so she had on a fabulous charcoal gray, Dolce and Gabbana wrap skirt with a light gray silk blouse and some matching gray Dolce and Gabbana heels; I had on the light gray Polo slacks with a charcoal gray silk shirt and some charcoal gray Gucci loafers. All eyes were definitely on us as I introduced Tammy to all of my family.

  My brother’s were the only ones who really knew Tammy and our living situation. A lot of my uncles and cousins from North Carolina were pulling me to the side asking if Tammy had any sistas around her age. I even caught my dad staring hard at Tammy’s big beautiful ass. Surprisingly, no one asked about the car, except a few of my younger cousins.

  Andre was about to leave to head to the Coliseum so I gave him his gift and told him I’d talk to him after graduation. When all the adults got in the house, I decided to make my announcement. I gathered everyone in the living room and told them that Tammy and I were expecting a child early next year.

  The room was deathly quiet until my brother Cory started clapping and congratulating Tammy and me. I thought my mother was gonna pass out by the look on her face. I could tell Tammy was a bit nervous about the reaction of my family, but she handled it well. I went on to tell the family that it was still early in the pregnancy and we’d keep everyone updated on any new information.

  My sista Angie told Tammy she hoped that we had a little girl so she could spoil her. While everyone was congratulating Tammy, I went to speak to my mother who was now in the kitchen drinking some water. The first thing she told me was that God didn’t bring us into the world to shack up. I knew where the conversation was going, so I assured her that I would make Tammy my wife very soon. Tears started to well up in her eyes as she hugged me and told me that she loved me and would continue to pray for me and Tammy.

  It was close to 2 pm by then, so we all loaded up in our cars and headed to the Hampton Coliseum for graduation. Tammy and I talked about everyone’s reaction to the pregnancy. We laughed about my sista talking so damn much. Tammy had her wrap skirt pulled up to the top of her thighs so she could sit comfortably in the car. I glanced over and noticed that she didn’t have any panties on, as usual.

  I told her to pull her skirt down some or I was gonna have to make a detour to Derby Run. She started smiling at me and licking her middle finger. If we hadn’t been at the intersection of Mercury Boulevard and Coliseum Drive, I would have headed home for a minute. She slid her wet finger straight across her clit and down between both of her puffy pussy lips. I’m glad the light turned green quick so I could focus on the road and hurry up and get to the coliseum.

  We arrived at the Coliseum and found a parking space close to the front entrance. Andre’s graduating class had 300 students, and he graduated in the top twenty-five percent of his class with a high B average. The ceremony went smoothly and only lasted about two hours, and the entire family took pictures with Andre outside by the water after graduation. I spoke to Andre for about five minutes after we took pictures; I asked about his plans, and he informed me that he was probably gonna stay local for a year and then go to a college somewhere else after next year. I wanted to ask about him and Isaac but I decided to wait until another time.

  I told him about Tammy being pregnant and about us looking for a house to live in. He mentioned that he was gonna move out of the Manor by the end of the summer. The one thing that he never spoke about was whether or not he’d be working anywhere since he was moving out. He thanked me for the Movado and congratulated me on the pregnancy. I told him that I wanted to talk to him about some serious business in the near future.

  Tammy and I got home about 6 pm that evening and she was already yawning. We’d stopped at McDonald’s on the way home from graduation, so she was stuffed. I called Rodney once we were home to find out what time to meet him at the Holiday Inn. We agreed to meet in the parking lot around 10 pm. Tammy and I curled up on the bed together and fell asleep. I woke up hours later to the sound of my cell phone ringing. I thought I was dreaming that the phone had been ringing for a while. Before I could grab the cell phone, it stopped ringing. It was almost 11 pm; I had overslept. I checked my messages and all of them were from Rodney. He told me to call him ASAP because things were about to hit the fan.

  I didn’t like the sound of his voice so I rushed and changed into a comfortable sweat suit. The party at the Holiday Inn was a come as you are party, so I wasn’t worried about a dress code or anything. I strapped one of the Desert Eagles with the holster around me. Tammy didn’t budge, so I eased quietly out of the house. It was cool outside with a slight breeze, which wasn’t uncommon for a June night. I took the Sonata instead of the BMW, and once I got close to Mercury Boulevard, I called Rodney’s cell. He answered on the first ring asking me where the hell I was at.

  The music was loud as hell, as Bone, Thugs and Harmony’s, “Gotta Get That Money” played in the background, so he had to scream for me to hear him. I told him I was pulling up, so he started headin’ out to the parking lot. I was surprised to see that Rodney was alone because he usually had at least two goons with him. He hopped in the car and started running everything down to me.

  He told me that things had finally gotten back to normal on the hustling tip since Eric and two of Frank’s goons had been sentenced, but the last two months had been stressful for him because Frank and Terry were starting to move their business closer to Jefferson Avenue instead of dealing with Roanoke Avenue and back towards Buxton Avenue. Eric had gotten twelve years because of his previous record, and both of Frank’s goons were sentenced to seven years each. Leon Tucker, the 5-year-old, had recently been released from the hospital, but he was now paralyzed from the neck down after being struck in the back by the stray. No one had been charged for the murder of Eric’s three goons.

  Just as things were starting to go well for Rodney, his customers started leaving him to deal with Frank and Terry. Apparently, Frank and Terry had partnered up with someone new and they were slowly starting to expand their operation. To make matters worse, Frank and Terry were at the party tonight with two other guys that Rodney didn’t know. Rodney had a gun on him as usual, but he wanted me with him inside just in case things got ugly. The bouncer at the door was a local Newport News guy that everyone knew, so we could get in without being searched. At first, I started to tell Rodney that I was gonna have to pass on going to the party, but something made me wanna go inside.

  Only after we got to the door of the party, did Rodney decide to let me know that he had purposely bumped into Frank before he met me in the parking lot. I started getting that feeling you get when you know something bad is gonna happen. I made sure I stayed alert because I knew things could change in a heartbeat. It was dark on the inside and it took my eyes a while to adjust to the darkness. The DJ was playing “Warning” by Biggie Smalls.

  I could feel a lot of tension in the air, although there were beautiful half-dressed girls all over the place. We walked around surveying the scene. I saw a few familiar faces, both guys and girls, just having fun. I knew that if Frank saw Rodney leave out and come back in, then he knew Rodney was strapped. Hopefully, Frank and his boys would have left through a side door to avoid any drama. Just as that thought ran through my head, Rodney tapped me and pointed towards the corner.

  Frank had spotted Rodney at about the same time and it looked like he was giving orders to some of his goon
s to do something. I reached inside my sweat jacket to make sure the Desert Eagle was off safety. I couldn’t quite make out the other faces with Frank because most of them had their backs towards us. I knew if anything went down, we’d have to get the jump on them because we were outnumbered by a lot. Rodney was slowly easing towards Frank and his goons.

  I saw that Rodney had his hand on his pistol, but his shirt was covering both his hand and pistol. Soon as the song said, “Whatcha think all the guns is for,” the four goons in front of Frank spun around. I was right beside Rodney when he started raisin’ his Ruger 9mm. We were about 20 feet away from Frank, and then I could see very clearly who the two guys with him were. I almost broke Rodney’s arm when I snatched the 9mm out of his hand, because the two guys were my brother Andre and Isaac. Rodney didn’t know what was going on because he didn’t know my brother or Isaac.

  I gave him his pistol back, told him to head to the parking lot and told him I’d meet him there shortly and explain everything. The look on Isaac and Andre’s faces when they saw me told me everything. I was the last person they ever expected to see here and they knew that they had a lot of explaining to do. My heart was racing a million beats a minute, because if anything would have been different my brother could have been shot and possibly killed. I was heading straight for Isaac, but Andre jumped in front of him before I could snatch him up.

  I grabbed Andre by the shirt and started leading him to the exit. Frank, obviously not knowing Andre was my brother, grabbed my shoulder and tried to stop me from taking Andre outside. Out of instinct, I released Andre’s shirt and pulled the Desert Eagle out immediately. I made sure the hole of the Desert Eagle touched Frank’s forehead. Just as he started reaching towards his waist, Isaac stepped in between the Desert Eagle and Frank. Little did he know, I was contemplating shooting his ass too. I lowered my Desert Eagle back into my holster and headed towards the exit behind Andre.

  When we got to the parking lot, Andre started crying and trying to explain at the same time. He told me that Isaac had planned to take him to the party about a week ago as a graduation celebration. I stopped him from talking for a minute and let him know that I didn’t give a fuck about who planned what; all I wanted to know was why the hell was he hanging with Isaac and the others. Evidently, Isaac had started coming around a lot more after he dumped Tasha. He and Andre started discussing the things that they’d heard I was into, and one thing led to another.

  Isaac was jealous of me and the things I had now so he wanted to show that he could do it also; Andre didn’t realize that. Andre didn’t know the specifics, but knew Isaac had been dealing with Frank and Terry for a few months. Rodney was sitting in his car, so I sent Andre to the Sonata while I went to holla at Rodney. I got in and told him about Andre and Isaac. He was stunned because he knew how close we’d been to having a shootout inside the party. I told him that I didn’t know what the relationship between Isaac and Frank was, but I was sure it had something to do with business. As we were talking, a black 740 BMW drove by us and I told Rodney that I had seen it the other day by Isaac’s house. He told me that it was Frank and Terry’s car and that’s why it seemed familiar to me when I saw it that day. I told Rodney to go home and chill until tomorrow so I could get to the bottom of this situation. He had that look in his eyes that told me that things were not over between Frank, Terry, and him.

  When I got back to the Sonata, I asked Andre if Isaac had driven them to the party, or did they ride with someone. He told me that Isaac had driven his Acura, so he was probably headed to Four Seasons already. The night wasn’t gonna end before I got to the bottom of this. We left the Holiday Inn and headed to Four Seasons Apartment complex. Lights were still on when we showed up at Isaac’s place and his Acura was parked out front.

  He opened the door with a look on his face that showed the night had taken a toll on him. Andre and I went in and sat on the leather sectional he had in the living room. I told him to start from the beginning and not leave anything out, from the time I last saw him at McDonald’s to the present. He started the story by telling me about Tasha and how much of a whore she was. I was the one who’d told him that at our last meeting, so I wasn’t trying to sit and listen to that shit all night.

  Evidently, he found out that Frank was one of the many guys that was fucking Tasha. He and Frank met up somewhere to discuss Tasha and ended up becoming cool with one another. They had both heard different stories about what happened to Tasha, but neither of them cared once they found out she was fucking at least five different guys. Frank slowly began to introduce Isaac to the heroin game as they spent more time together, and Frank eventually let Isaac set up on Roanoke Avenue at the house on the corner of 35th Street across from the barbershop.

  As the weeks passed, Isaac started seeing more and more money. Once he moved to Four Seasons, he brought Andre into the mix. I didn’t like where this story was going, so I turned to Andre and asked him why in the fuck would he get involved in this shit when I was already giving him anything he wanted? He just looked at me with a stupid look and shook his head. Isaac hurried up to say that he never took Andre out to Newport News to hustle, he just paid him to help package the bundles of heroin before he headed out to serve the users.

  He was paying Andre a few hundred a day to have things packaged for the three runs—morning, noon and evening. I couldn’t believe that my lil brother was playing run boy for this dumb ass Isaac. The shit Isaac made was pennies compared to me. I stood up to leave because I was disgusted with all this shit. I told Isaac he’d been a few seconds away from possibly getting my brother killed tonight. He just dropped his head and mumbled how sorry he was. I told Andre to come on, and before I walked out, I told Isaac not to ever call or go around to my parent’s house again. As far as Andre, Isaac was to act like he never knew him.

  We left Four Seasons heading towards Bethel Manor at about 2 am. Nothing was said between Andre and me until I pulled up in front of my parent’s house. I told Andre that I loved him dearly and I wanted a better life for him than the streets could ever give him. I told him that if I knew a year ago what I know now, I would have never gotten involved in any of this shit. I made him promise me that he’d never go around Isaac again and never deal with anything involving drugs or the streets.

  My brother was only sixteen months younger than me, but at that point I was like a father figure to him. He’d witnessed me go from having nothing to being able to buy almost anything I wanted before my 20th birthday. I knew I was to blame for him wanting to follow in big brother’s footsteps, because he’d only saw one side of the life. I prayed that he’d never have to see the other side.

  7

  I got back to Derby Run at about 2:30 am, and Tammy was still curled up in the same spot on the bed that I’d left her in. She looked angelic laying there with a shiny glow all around her body. I curled back up with her and went to sleep.

  Tammy and I woke up later and decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood. As we walked, I filled her in on the events that had happened last night while she was in a deep sleep. She couldn’t believe that Andre had gotten involved with Isaac or anything dealing with the streets. She told me that she didn’t want me dealing with Isaac at all because it could easily turn into a situation like Tyrone. I let her know that I shared her feelings about Isaac. Once we returned from our walk, I decided to call Rodney. He was always up early in the morning, whether he was selling heroin or not. He answered on the first ring and immediately started questioning me about last night.

  I told him to meet me at Buckroe Beach in Hampton at 12 noon and I’d explain everything. It was only about 9 am, so I had a few hours to spend with Tammy. We ate a big breakfast and discussed some of our options concerning business. I decided it would be in our best interest to sell the fifteen kilos we had left and put our money into legal business ventures. Too many things could go wrong if we continued to dabble with the streets. We planned a trip for July 4th to visit her brothers, pay Trey his
$250,000, and officially announce her pregnancy and our departure from the drug game completely. That left me a little over two weeks to get rid of the fifteen kilos.

  At about 11:30, I jumped in the BMW and headed to Buckroe Beach. I met Rodney out on the pier and we discussed the night before, as well as the things I wanted to do in Richmond. Rodney had no intentions what so ever of getting out of the drug game anytime soon, so I told him that I’d speak to my connect about supplying him in the future with whatever he needed. He was with me 110 percent on the Richmond project because he wanted to get away from Newport News for a few weeks.

  The Frank and Terry situation was starting to get to him. I knew I’d have to talk to Tammy before I’d ever be able to plug Rodney in with Trey, but we’d have to deal with that issue at a later date. Monday morning Rodney and I were gonna head to Richmond to holla at Black Jay in Highland Park. Before we left the beach, I told Rodney that he’d make $60,000 off of our Richmond operation. That was the $4,000 a kilo that I wouldn’t have to pay Tyrone.

  When I got back to Derby Run, Tammy was gone somewhere in the Sonata. She’d left a note saying that she was going to Dairy Queen across from the Shady Banks Shopping center by Bethel Manor. Since I was still thinking about Richmond, I decided to call Black Jay. He picked up on the second ring sounding half asleep. After a few seconds of him asking who I was, he realized who he was talking to. I wasn’t one to stay on phones long, so I let him know that I’d be in Richmond on Monday at noontime. We decided to meet at the Burger King on Azalea to discuss our plans. He let me know that he had found out some more info about Tyrone and he’d fill me in on Monday. Once I hung up with Black Jay, I made a call to the owner of the condo in Henrico. I hadn’t received any calls from him or the police, so I assumed that he hadn’t been notified of any problems at the condo. I got an answering machine, so I hung up without leaving a message. I decided I’d just stop by and talk to the nosey neighbor on Monday after meeting with Black Jay. Tammy arrived back home shortly after I ended that phone call.