When he opened the hotel room door he saw Mattie lying on the bed in the dark, with the exception of the light from the TV. It wasn’t one of those super cheap fuck motels that NY had many of, but it wasn’t the Waldorf Astoria either. Once he pulled the trees out and sat them on the desk with the blunts, he turned around and noticed that Mattie was fighting to stay awake. He definitely wanted to get some of what he’d been missing, but he really wasn’t trying to rock like that.
“You look real tired ma.”
“No really, I’m cool,’ she said making a weak attempt to keep her eyes open.
K kicked off his Tims, removed his shirt, and lay beside Mattie.
“Come here,“ he stated offering his bare chest as her pillow.
She immediately made her way to her familiar resting place. As she snuggled against K’s large frame, he instinctively began running his fingers through her long thick hair, massaging her scalp.
“Dam niggah, I’ve missed you so much, “ stated a quickly fading to sleep Mattie.
“I missed you too baby, “ he said softly kissing her forehead as she fell asleep. “ I missed you too.”
CHAPTER 7
Two weeks passed by quickly. K was beginning to bubble his clientele and workload at a pace that he never would have predicted. He felt that it wasn’t really a good idea to lay up in a spot with Mattie and all his work at Jeff and Marcy’s house. He found a one bedroom in a nice secluded area in Wheatley Heights and moved Mattie in with him. That had been a week earlier. Now as he stood in front of James Barber Shop talking to his boy Darkside, they watched as a white Volvo with Pennsylvania tags pulled into the Jamaican food takeout joint across the street.
“Oh shit, I know that aint that niggah skulls, “Dante said to K.
“Yeah that’s that funny lookin muhfuckah,”K responded.
Dante was a wild young stick- up kid that K watched grow up and terrorize the town with his crew as a juvenile. Darkside had just come home from an up north New York State prison two days earlier.
“What up my niggahs? Like my new whip? “Skulls asked.
K and Dante knew he was fronting his ass off.
“Nah I’m frontin, that a fiend’s car but I’m getting one just like it,” said Skulls when he saw their facial expressions. They knew he was lying.
“When you get home Dante? I thought you was supposed to get out next year, “ said Skulls.
“The Parole board let me out early. I been on some chill shit. I’m trying to get some money, fuck the dumb shit. You see who I’m wit,” said Dante.
“Well you dam sure wit the right niggah. Yo K what up wit Va?” asked Skulls.
“I’m just $tackin right now. It really don’t make no sense to go OT (outta town) unless a niggah got something heavy. Feel me? What up out in Philly?”
“I aint in Philly. I’m in a spot called Allentown. That shit is poppin too. I’m tryna to cop something if you got some work. I had to come out here to see my sister Sha-sha,” said Skulls.
K had known Skulls for a long time. He knew Skulls to be one of the younger go getters to come up in the hood, and if Skulls got his mind right he could probably stack some real paper.
“Yeah I got you fam. I’m next in the chair to get a cut. After that we can go and handle that, “said K.
After K went into the Barbershop, Skulls and Dante started to chop it up.
“Yo Skulls who them chicks over there in the car? “asked Darkside when he peeped Skulls wasn’t alone.
“They just some shorty’s I brought wit me to hold my work on the way back down the highway. You know the game. Some sneakers, some trees, and some dick and some hoes will do anything, “answered Skulls laughing.
“Dam sun the bitches don’t look like no bitches around here. Themmuhfuckas is official,“said Dante.
“Oh niggah don’t get it twisted. It aint nothing but fine ass hoes out there.”
“They just love N.Y. niggahs “said Skulls.
By now the three girls that were riding with Skulls had gotten out of the car and were standing in the parking lot stretching their legs. Darkside was in scheme mode now. K had already told him he would throw him something to get on his feet when he was ready. He thought now; that he just might be ready.
“Yo Skulls, If I went back with you and took something with me, would you show me where I could get it off?” asked Darkside.
“Niggah it’s so much paper out there that I come to N.Y. every other day. It’s only a hour and fifteen minutes from the Holland Tunnel up I-78. If yo crazy ass came back with me, I would even help you get rid of yo shit first.”
The two Puerto Ricans and one slanted eye dark skinned honey made their way across the street. It was only a few cats out on the block grinding, but they were immediately aware of the outta town cutey.
“Cindy fucked up the blunt tryin to be fast yo, “Shira the dark skinned chick said to Skulls.
“That shit was stale as fuck. It wasn’t my fault, my rolling skills is tight, “responded Cindy in her defense.
“Aight aight, here. Go in the store and buy some more, “ said Skulls handing Shira a ten dollar bill of his re-up money.
They quickly went into the store, switching their asses in tight jeans loving all the attention. As soon as K came out of the Barbershop getting his cut, Darkside told him about his idea to go to PA with Skulls. As K pondered the idea two of the most crooked and shiesty uniformed patrol cops cruised by slowly ice grillin him and Dark conversing. RAT MAN and FATFACE had been accurately described by the nicknames given to them by niggahs in the hood. They were some funny looking muthafuckas, but any run-in with these two was anything but comedy. They had been known to take niggahs drugs and money, lock dudes up for drugs that wasn’t theirs, and had even gone as far as to give false testimony in cases when dudes went to trial.
They had a vendetta against K and a crew of money getting niggahs that he use to roll with called The 149 posse. This was the first time K had seen RAT and FAT since he’s been home and it made him a little uncomfortable.
“Yo lets roll out. Tell Skulls to follow us in the rental, I need to talk to you one on one,” K said to Dark.
As K was getting in the rental with Dante he noticed the chicks that were with skulls, coming out of the store headed to the Volvo.
“Damn! Them cuties is wit dat niggah Skulls? “K asked Dark.
“Yeah and he said it’s plenty more where they came from.”
After they were in the rental K thought about the real reason that he had left town going to Virginia the year before. RAT and FAT had pulled him over in his Acura Legend one night and told him that they were gonna make it their business to send him away for a long time. K took that threat seriously because he had seen them do it to a few other hustlers. So K had packed up, shut down everything, snatched up Mattie and bounced. Now when things seemed to be going well, he was faced with what he knew had the potential to be the same situation.
“I don’t know how much dough Skulls is spending, but what do you feel comfortable taking with you?” K asked Dark ready to break new ground in unfamiliar territory.
“Shit K, it don’t matter. I’m really on some money shit. Whatever you send I’m bringing back everything to the pot,” said Dark.
K wasn’t sure what was too much and what was not enough, so he sent Dark to PA with four and a half ounces. After he took care of Skulls and Dante he figured he would lay low. At the very least until RAT and FAT changed shifts. He couldn’t believe he had forgotten about them and now he had to include them in the equation of how he would maneuver.
CHAPTER 8
Mattie was vacuuming the carpet in the new apartment so she didn’t hear the banging on the front door. The fact that she was listening to SNOOP DOGG knocking through the stereo at full blast didn’t help the situation any either. The person at the front door waited until she caught a break between the songs and the vacuum had stopped. Bang bangbangbang!
“Mattie it’s me! Please open the
door!” she heard a voice scream on the other side of the door.
Instinctively Mattie went and stuck her hand in the couch where they kept the home security system known as The Ripper! The Ripper was a long barrel chrome.357 magnum. Mattie’s little hands could barely fit around the rubber grip and reach the trigger, but she had been trained to go by past life experiences. She made her way to the front door of the apartment as the banging continued with the heavyweight of the chrome cannon leaning her to one side. She looked through the peephole and saw her sister Reebie standing there with a black eye and busted lip. In shock and disbelief she yanked the apartment door open.
“Who did this to you,” screamed Mattie, broken by the condition of her sister.
“That Crazy ass niggah Jeffery! He hit me like I was a fuckin man,” she cried.
Mattie wrapped her arms around her little sister and pulled her inside the apartment. All of the head games and playing dudes for their cash, making them believe that they were the only one, had finally run its course and caught up with Reebie in the worst way. As Mattie got ice and peroxide and proceeded to nurse her sister’s mental and physical wounds, Reebie explained who Jeffery was. He was a 6 foot 6 inch linebacker for a semi-pro football team that she had recently started dating. Mattie could vaguely recall the name and description sounding familiar, but Reebie was fucking with so many niggahs that Mattie couldn’t recall who was who.
“This crazy muthafucka actually came to my job and was watching me. He had to be waiting for a while because when Gerald dropped me back off by my car after lunch, Jeffery popped up from between two cars and started yelling at me. Before I could respond he attacked me!” said Reebie.
“Nobody tried to help you? Did you call the police?”
“I was parked at the far end of the parking lot, away from the building. He told me that it wasn’t over and if I called the police that he would kill me. Mattie I’m scared!”
Mattie wanted to track this Jeffery dude down and formally introduce him to the ripper. She could clearly see that her sister was terrified. Since the incident at the club with Raven and she had moved into the apartment with K, the closeness that they had established during his incarceration had slowly started to slip away. Mattie’s attention was diverted away from her sister when she heard the key spring the lock on the apartment door. K entered and headed straight to the bedroom talking on his cell phone. He didn’t even notice the condition of Reebie.
“Yo calm down and tell me what happened,” K said to the voice on the other end of the phone.
“They raided the house and locked up Lonnie,“ said a panicky Gwen into K’s ear.
This was bad news and he immediately thought of Mya and Moesha, Lonnie’s little girls. It was still early afternoon and K hoped that the girls were at the Day Camp that they attended. His temporary concern was soon replaced with thoughts of the 6G’s that he was supposed to pick-up this morning.
“Is it safe to talk Queen? Where you at?
“I’m at my sister’s house on Mount Avenue with the girls. They didn’t find the money but they locked up my Lonnie,” she stated and began to cry.
“What’s the address? I’m gonna come and get you so we can work on getting him out.”
She gave him the address and he gave her assurances that everything would work out ok. As K exited the bedroom, he noticed Reebie sitting on the couch with her grill fucked up.
“Dam shorty, what the fuck happened to you?” K asked.
Reebie never looked up, obviously embarrassed. Reebie and K had a love hate relationship. He held resentments and secretly blamed Reebie for some of the actions that Mattie had taken in the past and while he was locked up. He felt her sister was a bad influence on her even though whatever Mattie chose to do was entirely her own decision. But, he also had madd love for Reebie because she was a really goodhearted person. It was just that she was confused about many things in life. One of those things being relationships with men. K felt sorry for her and went over and sat beside Reebie and Mattie on the couch.
“What happened lil sis?” he inquired concerned.
Mattie explained the situation because Reebie had laid her head on his shoulder and began to cry.
“So where this niggah at? All I gotta do is call my dudes and we can handle it.”
“No K. Please don’t get involved in my mess. I created this situation and I’ll resolve it,” said Reebie.
“So there’s nothing I can do? You already know Pook got a crush on you All I gotta do is say the word.”
Reebie remembered how Pook was something like her bodyguard in school.
“Do you mind if I borrow your couch for a couple of nights. I’m kinda scared to be at my place alone. Plus I really don’t want anyone to see me like this,” said Reebie.
That was unexpected. Realizing that he had put his foot in his mouth and committed, there was no backing out now. He wanted to ask for how long but changed his mind. He locked eyes with Mattie and they were pleading with his to say yes.
“Yeah you good. You just gotta wash yo feet. I don’t want it smellin like corn chips up in my joint,” he said jokingly in an attempt to bring some humor to a tense situation.
They all laughed. K soon remembered that he had to go meet Gwen.
“I got some business to tend to but when I get back we can shoot over to your spot and grab you some clothes.”
Mattie walked K to the door.
“Thank you. I really appreciate what you just did, “said Mattie before they kissed and then he was out.
CHAPTER 9
When it rains it pours, K thought as he shot pool in the local bar on the strip. He had bailed Lonnie out for $2500, but his crib was on shutdown. For the past two days Rat and Fat had been parked on the corner of Lonnie’s block in their patrol car. Lonnie had only had a slow quiet little hustle until K started hitting him off with the slabs that made the traffic run crazy. Gwen was scared and rightfully so, because they had trashed her house. The worst part of the whole situation was how they had drilled Lonnie with questions about K. But, Lonnie was a soldier, and stood strong.
“Somebody been doing some serious talking,” Lonnie had told K on the day he bailed him out.
K had decided to throwback a couple of shots and shoots a couple games of eight-ball. His problems were beginning to $tack on top of each other and he needed to revise his game plan. Last night he had went by Norma’s house to pick up his money and when he pulled up there was an ambulance and two police cars in the driveway. His first thought was that it was a robbery gone wrong. He figured it was only a matter of time before the stick-up kids would try their hand.
Naturally he didn’t feel that it was in his best interest to stop, so he sent a fiend that was up the street to be nosy. He waited up the block until the fiend returned, impatiently fearing the worst.
“They said Norma Od’d on heroin. She aint dead yet but it’s not looking good,” the fiend said as he returned with an update.
K only had 2G’s tied up in the spot because the goldmine had slowly begun to fall off. He knew Norma was a heroin addict, but when she had started to work for him it wasn’t a problem. But the more money, she made the heavier her habit become. It had gotten to the point where she was too fucked-up nodding out to handle business.
So now two of his main spots were pretty much shut down, and the boys in blue were inquiring about his business.
“Twelve ball, two rails, cross corner,” he stated as he sank the shot like he could have done it with his eye’s close.
“Oh it’s like that? If you miss it’s over,” said Money Al, who was playing K.
“Oh, I hear you yappin, but I done won four of the last six and one of the two you won I scratched on the 8 ball,” said K.
K knew once he got in his groove he was unstoppable. The small crowd of about 20 afternoon occupants were broke off into about six small groups, all obviously discussing something criminal. Outside of K wanting to relieve some stress, he did have anothe
r purpose for being in the bar. Dante had called him three hours earlier from a 610 area code. He said he was on his way back and he had good news. K really needed some good news. Just as he was about to seal the deal with an 8-ball bank shot, skulls and Darkside entered the bar. K had told him where he would be.
Dark and Skulls gave dap and acknowledgements to the usual suspects as they made their way to the rear of the bar where the pool table was located. K gave a quick greeting to Skulls, handed him his pool stick and motioned for Dark to come with him to a table in the corner.
As they sat down the barmaid approached the table.
“What up thickness? My next drink on you,” Dark asked the 5 foot 11 inch 240 pound barmaid.
“That all depends on how you gon pay me back,” said the barmaid that everyone knew as Thumper. She had gotten her name from many sources.
The first being her fight game was crazy.
“Girl you crazy as hell! Bring me and my man 2 Heinekens,” said Dante and slapped her hard across her extra wide ass.
She took off smiling, but not before giving him the evil eye and getting some kind of confirmation of a time they would hook up later. Everybody knew Dark had love for the big girls and they had love for him.
“So tell me something good,” K said when Thumper was gone.
“Check it out fam. It is crazy cash out that muthafucka. I got 9 G’s outside in the car and if I would have sold some weight I would have been done the same day we got there. You sellin O’s here for $750 and they payin $1200 all day long, “said Dark excited about future prospects.
K too was getting excited as he ran numbers through his mental calculator. He had bubbled his paper to just under enough to grab 2 bricks. Then something clicked in K’s mind. In all his stress he had forgotten that he only sent him with a 4? ounces.
It Was All A Dream et-1 Page 4