A Hustler's Wife

by Nikki Turner

  Yarni was struggling with Melanie to try and hang up the phone. Melanie couldn't believe she still had Des on the phone listening. So she guarded the telephone with her all. She would not dare hang up on Des anyway.

  "I told her that you already had a girlfriend and that you wouldn't be interested in her, but would you at least say hi to her please?"

  "Where is she?" Des asked.

  "She's right in the other room."

  "Put her on the phone," Des demanded, but laughing to himself. I can't believe these little girls are playing on my phone, but I am gonna go ahead and play along with them.

  Melanie called out, "Yaarrrnnieee", as if she wasn't standing right there. Melanie extended her hand out handing Yarni the phone. Yarni shook her head no, but Melanie begged and pleaded with her on her knees until Yarni took the phone and softly said, "Hello."

  She was sweating from tussling with Melanie to hang up the phone, and tried very hard to catch her breath. She was also a little scared that Gloria might wake up, hear them, and come into her room to hang up the phone. Or even worse, pick up the phone and embarrass her in front of the king of all the big boys.

  Des went along, pulling on the jay he was rolling before the phone rung: "Hello, how are you?"

  "I'm well, thank you." She said.

  "Where in the county do you live?" he asked just making casual conversation.

  "Richmond Hills." He automatically knew that she must come from a good respectable family. Richmond Hills was an upscale elite community. There were only a handful of black families living there. She didn't want to tell him that she lived in Richmond Hills because she didn't want him to think that she was the stuck-up type. At the same time, she didn't want to lie.

  That was something that he could easily find out. They chit-chatted for about 15 minutes. Des couldn't believe how well spoken, confident and mature Yarni was. He wanted to see who the person was behind the voice.

  Des' pager went off. "Give me your number so I can call you right back, because I gotta go take care of something." Des said.

  I can't give him my number. He cannot call back here this time of night. My mother would flip the hell out. I can't tell him I'm on punishment, and I don't want my mother to tell him either because then he'll really think I am a little girl. Think quick Yarni, Umm... Umm... think!

  "I need to take a shower and get myself together, so how about I just call you back?" Yarni tried to save her underaged self.

  "That's cool So, just ring me back in about thirty minutes." Des was very persistent. He knew he would be in the house for the night because he had been out gambling for 3 days consecutively. He didn't really have anything else to do and he was in a good mood. Most of the time he had no time to be at home to kick it on the phone with a female. This would be different for him.

  From the time that Yarni hung up the phone from Des, Melanie started filling Yarni in about all the good things that were known about Des. "Girl, he got money! He is da man, you hear me? He brought every kid in the neighborhood bicycles for Christmas around the 233. He'll never let anybody go hungry.

  He takes care of everybody around there. Girl, and he fine as I don't know what. He black as midnight, but make you wanna smack yo momma! He taller than you, bout 5'8...5'9. Girl, he got coal black curly hair like he from some other country or something, but he right from here. He might be Indian. The nigga can dress his ass off, even got a pimp daddy walk. He got two open face gold crown teeth in his mouth that are spaced apart. I even heard he got a big dick too." Melanie boasted on how Des had a different car for each day of the week. Yarni didn't take Melanie seriously about everything she said pertaining to Des. Melanie couldn't believe that Des actually told Yarni to call him back. She secretly thought to herself that Des probably wouldn't even be there when Yarni called back.

  Thirty minutes flew by. It was after midnight, but she still waited fifteen extra minutes to call him back because she didn't want to seem pressed to talk to him. It sounded like they were having a party. There was music playing and people talking in the background. She asked, "It's loud, what's going on?"

  "My momma and cousin are having a couple of drinks before they go out," Des said.

  Yarni and Des talked for over 2 hours. He asked her mainly about her family life. He felt getting that information out of her would tell him a lot about her character.

  "Who do you live with?"

  "My mother."

  "What does she do?"

  "She has her own catering business. She works from home."

  "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

  "Yeah, I have a brother by my father, but he doesn't live with us."

  "Oh, yo mother and father divorced?"

  "Dang, what are you Hawaii Five-0 asking all these questions?"

  "Hell no, I ain't no police," Des laughed. "No, far from the police baby, just a guy trying to get to know a girl, that's all.

  Something wrong with that?" He knew it really wasn't.

  "No. Now my father is the forbidden story," she jokes. "I usually tell people he lives out of town, which is only half the story.

  He does live out of town, but he's in prison." Yarni said. Des found this interesting, he turned his ears up.

  "For how long?" Des asked about the father's jail time.

  "Well, for a long time."

  "What's a long time?"

  "So far, 15 years plus."

  "Yarni, wait a minute, you're 15"

  "Yeah, you don't have to remind me."

  "Yeah, he's been locked up since I was 12 days old. As a matter of fact, that's how they located him. They went to Richmond Memorial, looked at my mother's records, got her address off of them and there he was with his newborn baby, me."

  "Damn, baby. Sorry to hear that." He paused then, continued prying into her forbidden story. "Damn, ain't that some shit?

  What, did he murder somebody?"

  "Bank robbery."

  "And they gave him all that time?"

  "Yep."

  "What's his name? My mother probably knows him."

  "Lloyd Pitman," Yarni said.

  "Lloyd 'Slot Machine' Pitman!" Damn, that nigga is a legend in this town. He pulled off one of the most infamous bank robberies in the state of Virginia. They called him Slot Machine because any bank robbery that he pulled off, always paid off like the slots in Atlantic City. This was back in the early seventies and he's still a legend even now in the late eighties.

  "Baby, I am sorry you had to grow up without your father.

  Every little girl needs her father." Des was warming up to her now.

  "Yeah, it used to mess me up, but when I evaluated the situation, I couldn't have asked for a better mother. She gets on my nerves at times, but one thing is for sure, and two things for certain; she's always been there when I needed her and even when I don't need her." Yarni threw out a fake laugh when she thought of the reality of the statement she had just made about her over-protective mother.

  "Do you write him?" Des asked, getting back to the more celebrated member of the Pitman family.

  "My mother makes sure that I write him. For the first few years, my mother would see to it that I visited him. Even though he's in prison, she wanted to make sure he was still a part of my life."

  Des thought to himself, damn, that alone says a lot about her mother. She is a faithful woman and has a lot of principles and her working from home has given her enough hands-on raising of Yarni. I am almost one-hundred percent sure that Yarni's mother has instilled those qualities in her daughter. She is only 15, but just maybe...

  Yarni suddenly realized how late it had gotten. She knew that she had to get up early to go to Saturday morning detention.

  She knew she couldn't fall asleep because then she would have to repeat it and would not be able to cheer in the big game next Friday night. Yarni was the captain of the cheerleader squad.

  Friday was the game that Henrico's basketball team played John Marshall. Everyone who was anybody was
going to be there. So Yarni ended the conversation and told Des it was nice talking to him, but that she had to go. He told her he definitely wanted to hear from her again the next day. She said O.K.

  Des sat on the couch looking dumb founded. He had never had anyone end any conversation with him first. Women would always stay around until he got tired of them and was ready for them to go. He thought to himself, "the nerve of this broad to act like she couldn't stay up and talk to me. Baby Jo must not have informed his lil sister of the caliber of the dude she was dealing with."

  Saturday and Sunday went by, and Des didn't hear from Yarni. It hurt his ego that after two whole days she hadn't called.

  He had even told his cousin and mother that if she called, to give her his pager number. By Monday evening he said to himself, whenever she finds out who exactly I am in this town and decide to catch the vapors and want to get with me, I am not going to even accept her calls! As soon as that thought crossed his mind, the phone rang. He answered it, "Yeah," thinking it was going to be for his cousin. He heard a sweet voice say,

  "Hello, may I speak with Des, please?"

  "Yeah, you finally decided to get around to calling me, huh?" Des said with a nasty tone. "Why even bother calling now?" he said.

  She paused "Excuse me," she asked indignantly. "How about I never call you again, would you like that?" He did not like her tone. She didn't like his either. He was in shock because nobody spoke to him in that tone and expected not to get smacked. But then, he was too far away to hit her and put her in line.

  "Wait a minute, baby," he said. "Maybe we should start this conversation over. I don't want you to think this is game I am about to kick to you, but I have been waiting for your call for the last two days. I am a man of my word. My word is bond. When I say something then you can bank on that, and that's what I expect from others. So, when you tell me you are going to do something, that is exactly what you do. So, I don't tolerate anybody lying to me about anything. Nothing big or the least little thing."

  "That goes for me as well," said Yarni. "I don't like to be lied to or played with either. There are a few things I need to talk to you about anyway since we're being honest with each other." He braced himself, and to his surprise, she didn't back down.

  "Melanie lied to you. I have never actually seen you, nor do I know what you look like and I never said that I was attracted to you," Yarni filled Des in on everything. "And even if I had seen you, I wouldn't have ever gotten Melanie or anybody else to approach you. I probably wouldn't have said a thing. And if I'd ever felt like I was at the point where I just had to meet you, I am very much my own person."

  She reminded him that she was still in high school and the reason she couldn't call him back was because she had detention, which caused her to be on punishment. Her mother had taken her phone out of her room so she had to sneak to talk to him. She explained that she just didn't feel like sneaking around using the phone. So, she decided to wait to call him when she got her phone privileges back. She also explained that since she was only 15, her mother didn't allow her to date or get involved in relationships with guys. Her mother, especially, would not let her even be bothered with Des. He was 21 years old, and his street reputation made him older than that.

  Des could not believe his ears. Yarni was so mature and well spoken. He couldn't believe how honest and to the point she was. She wasn't like the other chicks trying to scheme on his money and wanting to say they were screwing him for his reputation. As a matter of fact, he was wondering, is she just acting like she don't know about my checkered past? How I'm living now, or does she truly not know? Des had only delt with older women, and this young tender thing now had his undivided attention. None of his old heads were even competition for Yarni, and this was still at the beginning of the game. Des couldn't understand what was going on with him. Why am I entertain-ing the conversation of this arbitrary person, and she ain't but 15 years old at that?

  He replayed bits and pieces of their conversation in his head over and over again. He wanted to see her. Fifteen or not, I must see her. He reckoned with himself beauty and brains don't come hand in hand. Her conversation was intriguing. So she probably would look a mess. Curiosity was killing him. He decided that he was going to see her and even bet with his main man, Slim, that she would be busted. After he sees that she was tore up from the floor up, he would close out that chapter of curiosity and move on.

  For the next 3 days, he would stop whatever he was doing to come in the house around 7 p.m. every evening to call Yarni. He wanted to talk to her on his house phone so there wouldn't be a bunch of distractions like people running up to him asking him for this and that, as well as people begging. "Des can I have five dollars? Des, I need help with my light bill...Des, Des, Des." He didn't want her to hear none of that. He also wanted her to have his undivided attention. Besides, he didn't want Yarni to have any indications on the extreme status of his lifestyle. He knew what kind of upbringing she had, so he wasn't sure how she'd take to his lifestyle. He expected that Melanie had already given her some ideas, but he wasn't tripping on what Melanie said.

  Friday, the big game day, finally came. The game was always a sellout. It was a big deal in this town.

  Yarni and her fellow cheerleaders had been rehearsing several cheers to keep the overflow crowd excited. Yarni looked around the gym at all the people who filled the stands. Her girls were really showing off. She could feel that tonight was going to be a good night. Right before they were about to perform in their half time show, she glanced at the door and an entourage of dudes came in. They all stood out. Pretty much everybody had on all kinds of leather suits or a "Dappa Dan" jacket.

  But these dudes, oh, they took it to another level, and were rocking full-length furs, Gazel glasses and jewels glistening like the sun on white Bahama sand. Yarni noticed one guy in particular who stood out. She thought he was fine. He had a medium build with a chocolate complexion and black wavy hair. There was a certain charisma about him. Yarni's co-captain, Stephanie, was motioning to her, to look over at the dudes, but she didn't want to seem pressed. Right when she looked back over there the music dropped. The song "It Takes Two to Make a Thing Go Right" by Rob Bass played. Yarni just showed off, all the cheerleaders did. She really put her all into it. Her flips, splits and everything, but never making any eye contact with any of the Big Hats who had just walked in the door.

  Henrico won the game 72 to 70. Afterwards Yarni changed clothes because she wanted to floss her outfit at the after party.

  Gloria was chaperoning the party. Yarni didn't mind her mother being there because they looked like they could pass for sisters.

  She and her mother shared the same exact caramel complexion.

  Most of the time Gloria possessed light brown eyes but they sometimes changed to green or gray. Her mole above the right side of her mouth brought out all the beauty that hid inside of her well-maintained long black ponytail. Gloria, in her forties, not looking a day over twenty-five, still possessed smooth skin and a nice figure. Now, Yarni had more butt and breast than her mother did, but their builds were still the same. One could see that Yarni was more flamboyant and outgoing than her conservative mother.

  With Gloria being there at the dance, Yarni pretended like she could really hang. She had on a purple short leather skirt, and a purple leather jacket to match. She wore some purple tall riding 9-West boots that tied up at the bottom while everyone else had on black. Gloria had gone on a shopping trip and got them months ago at the King of Prussia Mall in Philly. Yarni hadn't worn them yet because she had been saving them especially for that night. Everybody was telling her how cute she looked, and she knew it. Yarni always stood out in anything she wore.

  She constantly dressed on a more sophisticated and classier level than her peers. There were girls who wanted to compete with her dressing, but there was just no competition because she had a style of her own.

  When she was coming out of the bathroom with Stephanie, one of the guys
that was in the entourage came and asked,

  "Which one of yall name is Yarni?" Stephanie pointed. He said "oh" and walked away.

  The next day, Des called.

  "You did an excellent job cheering last night. I liked what I saw and I may want you to be my own personal cheerleader."

  "You came to the game but didn't make your appearance known to me? You didn't even speak to me!" She was upset and let him know it. He liked Yarni because she had spunk.

  "Look, baby, that was yesterday. I can't bring that back.

  Today is a new day and I want to see you." Yarni was in shock.

  Wait a minute, he wants to see me?

  "Can you meet me somewhere around your way?" Des asked.

  How can I pull this off? Think Yarni, O.k. I can meet him up the street. Only white people live in that block and none of them know my mom, so I won't have to worry about them trying to snitch on me that I am meeting a grown man.

  The date was set. When she saw him roll up in his Cadillac, chills struck through her body and she was mesmerized. Oh, my God, it's the dude from the entourage at the basketball game last night. This can't be the dude I have been talking to over the phone. Well, shoot me running! Why do I have to be 15? Ohhh, I just cannot believe this shit. I know he'll never be my boyfriend, hell, I've never even had a boyfriend my own age, let alone one that's 21 years old! Yarni, just keep your cool and lose the thought of him being your boyfriend.

  Once up close she tried not to focus on the anchor pendant on his necklace that was fluttered in diamonds.

  "You are even prettier close up," he said, as she blushed.

  "Thank you, you're not too bad yourself," she said calmly as she melted inside.

  They talked for a little while longer before she said, "I hate to break this up, but I have to get back home before my mom gets suspicious."

  "Okay I'm glad you snuck out to meet me. I will call you in a little while to make sure you got home safe." Yarni strolled back down the street, passing all the large houses that sat up on the hill. Why am I so young? My age stops me from doing everything! He would never take me serious anyway. I'd be his "little girlfriend." Get real, Yarni, he's a grown man having sex, and you are still a virgin. Taking all those things into consideration, she dismissed the idea of ever being anything to him, and walked on home.