The Banks Sisters

by Nikki Turner

  Things had gotten so confusing the past few days that Me-Ma needed to make sure she had her house in order and not just her religious one. First this thing with Simone, nearly getting killed at the bank and now this thing with Walter reminded her of the need to get her affairs in order and what better person to help her to do that than her pastor. She took all her legal paperwork out of the safe box in the closet her husband had purchased all those years ago when their daughter was still a little girl and stuffed them in her purse.

  “We’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord . . .” one of her favorite hymns played over the speaker system in the church as she entered. The calming music immediately put Me-Ma at peace.

  “Trusting in His Holy Word, he never failed me yet . . .” she found herself getting carried by the spiritual singing along at the top of her voice. God didn’t care that she couldn’t carry a tune a half a block all he knew was her heart was pure. Clapping hands interrupted her singing and Me-Ma turned to see Pastor Cassius Street coming down the aisle of the sanctuary. He was the kind of man who dressed to impress so unless his look was a hundred percent together, he didn’t leave his house. His flamboyant purple suit shimmered as he moved up the aisle toward her, the off white collar shirt, pastel yellow, cream and purple lace tie, and ivory snakeskin shoes had taken him hours of careful planning to match so perfectly, but he would have never admit to that.

  “Pastor, you look so handsome,” Me-Ma gushed at how put together he was, not like these other men his age who still had their asses hanging out their pants. He reminded her of the way men got all decked out in the 70’s. He threw his arms around her hugging her tightly. This little lady may have gotten on his nerves with all of her suggestions and demands, but she sure did help to keep the coffers filled. Cassius had never met a compliment that he didn’t like so he made a point to give Mrs. Banks extra attention for hers.

  “I love that dress. Designer?” he asked staring at her appreciatively. The whole point of him being a clothes whore had to do with the way people responded to his efforts, the more effusive they were the higher up on the patron food chain they went. Well, that and the size and frequency of their donations also contributed to the kinds of time he allocated for them on his schedule. She also had that fine as wine granddaughter who would give the right look as First Lady.

  “How is my favorite member? And how is your granddaughter recovering after yesterday’s ordeal?” he reached for her hand and held onto it as he stared into her eyes, all sincerity. Cassius made sure to come off as a concerned pastor. He knew better than to let her know that he had a more personal interest in her granddaughter. He fashioned himself a religious Kanye West in need of a woman of equal measure to help raise his profile and Simone was fine enough and educated enough to do just that and she had that big ole hump on her backside which would even make the men jealous and the women envious

  “Pastor I need help with some important legal matters.”

  “Absolutely Mrs. Banks. Anything for you.”

  “I don’t have an updated will that includes my granddaughters. Who knows how long the good Lord will see fit to keep me here on earth?” The walk over to the church had worn down her body. The pastor led her over to a pew and the two sat down.

  “I am here for you? How can I help you?”

  “Will you be my witness?” She leaned close to him. “There are so many things I need to address. I figured if I ran them past you maybe you’d help me come to terms with what I need to do.” Cassius nodded his head up and down a little too eagerly, but Me-Ma had been so busy thinking about the heaviness of her decisions that she hadn’t been paying attention.

  “Absolutely, but first let us pray,” the pastor bowed his head and started to preach the gospel. Me-Ma lowered her head, her thoughts traveling to gratitude at having formed such a close bond with this man of God.

  “. . . Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” By the time Cassius released Me-Ma’s hand she had gotten real clarity on what to do next.

  “Now you know I love all my granddaughters equally, but the one that I trust the most to handle my business is Simone. She’s level headed and fair enough to look after the others and she’s also the oldest and most educated so I trust she will handle the legal matters and paperwork more appropriately than my other granddaughters.

  “What about your daughter?”

  “There is no way I could leave anything to her. Those girls would be homeless and hungry if she got her hands on my property or what little insurance money I have. Lord forgive me for saying this, but my daughter is the reason I need to put things in writing. My husband and I drew up these papers so long ago that Deidra is still the sole heir to everything and that would be a disaster . . .” Just as Me-Ma started to finish the door burst open and standing there owning a pissed off expression wrapped in a fuchsia colored dress a good size too small with all her woman parts bursting out stood Katrina. The pastor’s face clouded over as she strutted to where they were sitting, only to be replaced by a blank smile giving nothing away.

  “Pastor, may I speak to you?” she said through clenched teeth her anger so strong she didn’t use the good sense God had given her to have manners and acknowledge his visitor.

  “Why hello Katrina,” Me-Ma jumped in thinking that if this hot-n-tot thought she could be rude on her watch she had mistaken kindness for weakness and was about to get herself old schooled. The arch of Katrina’s right eyebrow raised up ’cause this wasn’t a sister used to dealing with other women in any capacity. In fact she usually dismissed females in the most rude and arrogant way. She had a body and an attitude made for men and men only so to have to give some ole biddy her attention fueled her annoyance at the pastor.

  “Ms. Banks,” she responded painting on a faux smile. Now Katrina’s legendary bad attitude and temper weren’t exactly wiped away, but she realized she needed to play her position after her goal was to became Mrs. Street and First Lady of the church and she couldn’t have anything getting in the way of that. Her current position as part time church bookkeeper made it so she didn’t have much interaction with the members, but in her new role she’d have to at least pretend to like these people. Cassius stood up, always a gentleman and turned to face his visitor.

  “Katrina, I am in the middle of something. I can call you later if you need to discuss the books,” he offered trying to maintain professionalism, but she had an agenda and would not be deterred from it and she sure as hell wasn’t playing second to this old biddy.

  “Well, Pastor, excuse my interruption, but I needed to stop by and make sure that you were okay? When you failed to show up to the elaborate dinner I had prepared in your honor, the one you had confirmed earlier in the day I got worried.” Her words may have been polite, but this bitch was two seconds from blowing. Well before Cassius could respond Me-Ma had grown too tired of this hussy’s interruption to put up with another moment of her foolishness and responded for him.

  “Ms. Katrina, our pastor was simply being too polite to tell you that he’s not interested in whatever you are serving up tonight. Now, you need to get on out of here in that dress you done grown too big to wear and stop embarrassing yourself,” Me-Ma said to a stunned Katrina. At first the fullness of what had just happened didn’t register fully to her so she glanced from Cassius to Me-Ma before she had recovered enough to go ham about to pummel a senior citizen.

  “He can tell me himself,” she growled her right eye twitching that this old woman had the nerve to be all up in her business. Katrina assumed that it had probably been too long since she remembered what a good dick felt like, but this old lady needed to stop cock blocking and get her ass to stepping. Katrina had no plans to go anywhere until she got exactly what she had come for. Now the pastor cursed himself for mixing business with pleasure because this hothead knew entirely too much about him.

  “Please I need a moment,” he asked Mrs. Banks as he jumped up and hust
led ole girl out of the sanctuary and into the hallway where they could have some privacy. Even from inside the office where she sat, Me-Ma, could hear the litany of curse words streaming out of Katrina’s mouth rolled her eyes at the foolishness. Lord she wished these girls could have just a little dignity which made her think about her daughter, Deidra who had called the other day to announce she had taken up with some new under achiever and was living not too far. Pretty is as pretty does, which was damn ugly as far as Me-Ma could see when it came to her only child. If that girl hadn’t been so beautiful she might have had to develop other qualities like humility and kindness, none of which were evident in her. No matter how many times she had prayed up that child Deidra, being Deidra, consistently proved to be an utter disappointment to both God and to her mother.

  “Sorry for that,” Cassius announced as he hurried back to rejoin her. After his “conversation” with Katrina in the hallway, Cassius was anxious to wrap up with Me-Ma. Secretly he was hoping Mrs. Banks wouldn’t notice his rush to get her out of there. Katrina had been gracious, well maybe that wasn’t the right word, desperate enough to offer him a nooner.

  “No problem. It gave me time to sit with the Lord.”

  “I need to say that as much as I appreciate your desire to add a religious component to this I really think that what you need is a good attorney.”

  “When my husband and I prepared this last paperwork Pastor Jasper helped us and then we got a notary to sign it. Gale who used to be a member here.”

  “And I would be honored to do that, but these days there are so many stipulations and loopholes that unless you have a law degree you can’t figure it out. Not to mention you need to make sure that your document is air tight from what you told me about your daughter. Do you know our member, Sister Lauryn Shelton? She’s incredible and I have had the good fortune of sending some of our other parishioners to her and they all raved about her.” He tried not to focus on his watch, but the blowjob he had been promised made it difficult to think about wills and deeds and whatever else Me-Ma wanted him to look at.

  “I know that chile. Her grandmother was a good friend of mine before she passed.”

  “Great. Why don’t you call her office and her secretary will be able to make an appointment for you.” No sooner had the pastor finished with Me-Ma then he found himself with his pants down around his ankles and getting properly serviced by Katrina. There were two kinds of women who could be depended on to give the best blowjobs. Either big girls or ugly girls, it was almost like they had something to prove but whatever the case they made a lot of men happy. Hell, Cassius thought with a smirk they were the very reason somebody had coined the term, ‘booty-call’ in the first place ’cause a man of his stature couldn’t be seen publicly with them.

  The pastor couldn’t help but to be grateful about the perks of the job, he had them coming and going and they were more concerned about protecting his reputation so he rarely had to worry about things getting out. Katrina on the other hand was the exception and she was already starting to be a problem. He was a little sad that he’d have to end things with her after he shot his load into her mouth. Damn. He loved anyone who could swallow like a professional.

  -14-

  “Thank you for shopping at Nordstrom’s,” said James, the cashier, a third year sophomore at VCU, who was working part, time for a few extra dollars to party and buy weed. But at that very moment, he would have traded a pound of the most exotic marijuana, for a taste of this exotic flower—gray eyes, long bone straight hair, stopping at the small of the back, right where the tightest designer Robin jeans in six inch Gucci stilettos standing at his register. Nordstrom’s policy on pushing up on customers was clear; get caught, get fired.

  But pussy trumped policy.

  The cashier returned the credit card to the hottie along with two white shopping bags and a receipt for the purchase. “If you need any help with anyyyy . . . thing else, Ms. Green, I put my name and number on the back,” James said, gesturing toward the receipt.

  You bold, Ginger thought, of the cashier and then snickered to herself . . . and cute. But he also wasn’t in her league and was clueless. Clueless about her name; the cloned credit card she’d used was in the name of Rebecca Green, and clueless about her sex. Or was he?

  Ginger put the plastic away, next to the other four in her cross body Louie bag, and returned the cashier a beautiful smile. “I doubt if you’d be able to handle me,” she said, with a raised eyebrow before stepping away toward the store’s exit.

  Ginger handed both of the bags to Deidra, who was waiting outside.

  “Is everything in there?” she asked, Ginger, who was the youngest of her children. She’d always been the one who’d tried the hardest to please their mother, even when Deidra didn’t deserve a damn thing, which was most of the times, never. The woman was possibly one of the most selfish women on the planet. All she cared about was her self, and what was best for her; no one else, not her children, not her mother, just herself, Deidra.

  Up until this afternoon, as usual, Ginger’s plans had been to do her thing solo, especially when she tightened plastic. When doing dirt, she always preferred to do it alone. This was her preference and her motto. Just in case, if something went wrong it was no one else to blame, just herself. And she didn’t have to break bread with anyone, unless she chose to. But the main reason Ginger preferred to work ‘dolo,’ instead of with an accomplice it eliminated the stress of worrying about that person, down the line, ratting her out in order to get themselves out of a jam.

  A crease wrinkled her plans after she got a call from her mother before leaving the house. For ten minutes Deidra prattled her way about a two-week vacation to the Caribbean, she and her “friend” were taking. Ginger hadn’t bothered asking if her “friend” was a man or not, because Deidra only had male friends.

  Before she knew it, Ginger had been persuaded into agreeing to not only get her some things, but to let Deidra to accompany her to mall.

  Of all the siblings, Ginger was the one who yearned Deidra’s approval and jumped through hoops to get it. Deidra took advantage of it every chance that she got.

  Ginger racked up more than twelve grand in charges on designer clothes, shoes and accessories, for Deidra to take on her trip—not including the two shopping bags from Nordstrom’s—to five separate, bogus credit cards. “You going to be the best dressed bitch your age on the cruise,” she said to her mother.

  Just as Deidra was fixing to say something, a tall black man with chocolate complexion, walked by. Ginger thought he resembled Morris Chestnut. His chocolate drop eyes thoroughly inspected Ginger and Deidra’s assets. And before keeping it moving, a smile creased his face, like a dog trespassing on a truck, with racks of prime cut filet mignon.

  “Ahmen.” Deidra cleared her throat, as if the way her dress clung to her bubble butt and toned legs. “Thanks for the compliment,” she said to Ginger, referring to being the flyest bitch her age, on the trip. “But make no mistake about it,” Deidra added, “Deidra Banks look good for any age.”

  Good genes ran in the Banks family: and Deidra was blessed with a closet full of them, enough to pass down to her four children, and plenty left over for herself. Something she proudly passed on to each of her children.

  As they were leaving the outdoor style mall, Ginger put a little extra in the sway of her hips, matching Deidra’s high-heeled strut bounce for bounce. Strangers mistook the two for sisters, clueless to just how clueless they were.

  “Where do you want to do lunch?” Ginger asked, enjoying their time together, something that rarely, if ever happened when she was a child. “It’s on me.”

  “Oh! My! God!” Deidra heels anchored into the linoleum stopping her strut. Ginger followed the path of Deidra’s eyes, which were locked on the bag in the window of the Louie Vuitton store. “Damn,” said Deidra obsessing over the design of the purse. “That thing right there would look so good on my arm,” she said.

  Ginger looked
at the small rectangle card, connected to a string, from the inside pocket of the purse, $3,200.

  Which was a problem, five thousand was the limit on each of her cloned credit cards and she had already ran through half of her limit on all of them. It was only one way to cop the bag that her mother wanted. She would have to use two cards, and even then, she would be well over the amount that she usually charged on any piece of stolen plastic.

  It was no need in pushing her luck anymore today, “How about if I get it for you next week, Ma?”

  “That’s cool,” Deidra said, sucking her teeth, before pouring a cold glass of guilt. “Too bad the trip isn’t next week, huh? I guess I could carry it when I get back from the trip, huh?”

  Ginger had to fight to keep from laughing at her mother’s shameless attempt to con her. When Ginger was young, the rare times Deidra was around, Ginger would do anything to make her happy and proud of her to make her want to spend more time with her. Back then, nothing Ginger did ever worked, but to this day, she never quit trying.

  “Let me go in, and check the temperature.” Meaning she wanted to get a feeling for the vibe inside the store. “If it looks right, I will swing it for you. No promises.”

  “Are you sure that’s what you want to do?” Deidra asked as if it was all Ginger’s idea. “Because I have no problem waiting.”