The Candy Shop

by Kiki Swinson

  Teresa was on her way out the front door when I returned with everything I owned in tow. The first thing she noticed was the bruises on my face. And without hesitating, she rushed down the sidewalk toward me.

  “What the hell happened to you from the time you left me this morning?” she asked as she held my face in her hands.

  “Me and Papoose got into it when I got back to the hotel room,” I told her.

  “Now see, you wouldn’t listen to me,” she began to say, “But, didn’t I tell you that muthafucka was a woman beater?”

  I dreaded the “I told you so” spiel, but I couldn’t deny the fact that she was right, so I nodded my head and said, “Yeah.”

  “Where the fuck is that punk motherfucker now?” she continued as she became enraged. “’Cause I got the right mind to call the police and send their asses right over to where he is, so they can lock his bitch ass up!”

  “Well, I don’t know where he could’ve gone,” I began to explain. “He left the hotel about an hour and half before I did.”

  “So, where is your car?”

  “The fucking repo man got it while we were in the room.”

  “So, how did you get here?”

  “By some white man I met in the hotel lobby.”

  “Well, come on in the house so you can put your stuff up,” she insisted as she escorted me to her apartment.

  Now when we entered into her place, I set my things down and took a seat on the living room sofa. But, she had other plans. “Whatcha doing? Get up and come ride with me. We can finish talking when we get in my car,” she continued.

  “Where are we going?” I wanted to know before I attempted to stand back up.

  “I’m getting ready to ride out to Hunterville to my boy Walt’s house,” she told me.

  “How long are you going to be there?”

  “Not long. I just need to run in and out,” she replied in a convincing way.

  “Well, all right. Let’s go,” I said and got up to follow her.

  Once we were in the car and were heading in the direction of Hunterville, it didn’t take long for Teresa to get back on the subject of Papoose. She was so obsessed with him, it was pathetic.

  “So, tell me, what made him put his hands on you?”

  “Well, because he told me he didn’t want me leaving the hotel, and I did it anyway.”

  “And who the hell does he think he is? Your fucking daddy?”

  “He was sure acting like it when he was whipping my ass.”

  “Well, did you hit the bastard back?”

  “I did in the beginning. But, you know how it is when you hit a man and he comes back and hits you even harder,” I started off saying, “So, after I got stung a few times, I just gave up and begged him to stop hitting me.”

  “Well, I sho’ wish I was there. ’Cause I would’ve jumped right on that bastard’s back and helped you beat the hell outta him.”

  I burst into laughter after hearing Teresa’s remark. She did mean well, regardless of her many downfalls. And not only that, we were best friends, so I knew she’d always have my back. So of course, I felt the same way.

  We talked a little bit more about Papoose and then I went into the incident that transpired between Eric and me after I left her apartment.

  Teresa couldn’t believe it when I told her Eric was having an affair with his attorney. But, she did believe me when I told her how he humiliated the hell out of me in front of this woman and sped off in his car when she told him it was time for them to leave.

  Now, on a normal day she would have had a lot to say concerning my marital problems with Eric, but the only thing I got her to say was, “Girl, fuck ’im! You don’t need his selfish and immature-acting ass anyway. Always running to his family when y’all go through shit. Now tell me, what real man does that?”

  Teresa was right, what real man does that? But, I didn’t have a logical explanation for my husband’s actions, so I left well enough alone because it would be senseless to dwell on it.

  I sat in the car and waited for Teresa to run into this rundown-looking boarding house. The outside condition of the house was so wretched and sordid, I knew that city officials had to have come by and deemed it unlivable. And if that was the case, it was evident that Walt and his junkie friends thought otherwise.

  Now after sitting in Teresa’s car for nearly twenty minutes, I got a little perturbed that she would leave me outside for so long, after telling me that she would be right back. Plus, there was no doubt in my mind that she was up in that house getting high, and the thought of me having to wait out here for another twenty minutes gave me enough incentive to go in after her.

  When I got to the front door and knocked, some old, tall, smelly guy with an awful set of bad teeth, wearing grubby-looking clothing and thick bifocals, answered it and asked me what I needed. So, I told him I had been waiting for Teresa outside for quite some time and that I would like to speak with her.

  “Well, I’m supposed to charge everybody who comes in here two dollars,” he told me. “But, since you’re just trying to talk to your friend, I’ma let you in. But you gotta make it quick.”

  “I will. And thank you,” I told the man and walked right on by him.

  Now as I began to walk through this long, dark hallway, there was this foul odor of urine that permeated the entire house. The shit was so unbearable that it made you wanna fucking gag. But, what was even more disturbing was that every room I looked in had at least seven or eight junkies in it, either smoking crack or shooting up dope. Watching these zombies stick each other with the same syringe like that shit was okay was unbelievable. I mean, that place was like a fucking freak show, if you asked me. So, the quicker I found Teresa, the faster I could get the hell out of there. And in order to do that, I had some more searching to do.

  After going through every room on the first floor, I traveled up this old, squeaky-ass wooden staircase to the second floor and continued my search. I walked over and opened the first door to my right and got an eyeful of one fiend sucking another fiend’s dick. Now, I’m not talking about a guy and a chick. I’m talking about one nigga sucking off another.

  Believe me, the shit was fucking disgusting and that was another time I wanted to gag. But instead, I said, “Y’all are some nasty-ass motherfuckers!” And then I slammed the door back shut.

  Now, as I approached the next door I was kind of hesitant, especially after that last incident, so I took a deep breath and then I walked in and the first person I saw was Teresa. There were also two other people in the room with her, but they were off in the corner shooting each other in the neck with the same dirty-ass needle, like they were fucking doctors and nurses. I mean, to see them draw blood out of their veins and into the syringe, and then shoot it right back into their neck, was some horrific shit. But, they were enjoying it, so I got out of their way and proceeded over toward Teresa. Now, as I took a couple steps toward her, I noticed she wasn’t moving, which was a natural reaction for her after she spiked that shit into her veins. So, I was prepared to pick her up and haul her ass out of that room, if necessary.

  “Hey Tee, let’s go girl,” I said, as I reached down and grabbed a hold of her arm. But to my surprise, she wasn’t responsive at all. So, I let her arm go and grabbed her by her shoulders and started shaking her but she wouldn’t respond to that either, which of course made me panic.

  “Teresa, wake up!” I said in a hysterical manner. But, she still wouldn’t move. So, I immediately used both my pointer finger and my middle finger to press against her neck to see if she had a pulse and when I didn’t feel anything, I freaked out.

  “What the fuck did y’all do to her?” I screamed, looking in the direction of the other two dope fiends.

  “We ain’t do nothing to her,” the male junkie said.

  “What’s wrong, she ain’t breathing?” the woman junkie asked as she tried to stand to her feet.

  “No, she’s not!” I screamed once again. “What the fuck did
she have?” I continued as I opened up her eyelids and noticed that her entire eyeball area was white.

  And when the other woman noticed it too, she said, “Oh, shit! Her ass is dead and stinking!”

  “No, she’s not!” I screamed, not wanting to believe what this junkie was saying.

  “Oh, yes she is, baby girl,” the woman said once again as she looked Teresa all over.

  “Damn right, she’s gone,” the other junkie agreed. “Check her pockets to see if she got some more of that shit, ’cause whatever she had gotta be a muthafucking missile if it took her ass out that fast.”

  “What the fuck you mean, check her pockets?” I became enraged. “My friend is dead! And all you’re concerned about is checking her fucking pockets?”

  “Hey listen,” the man began to say in a calm voice, “I’m sorry you lost your friend. But if she got some more of that dope on her, then you might as well let us have it since she ain’t got no more use for it.”

  Appalled by his words, I said, “Why the fuck would you want some dope that killed another person?”

  “Listen, I’m a muthafucking veteran when it comes to that dope,” he began to explain. “And the reason why your peoples O.D.’d off that shit is because her body didn’t know how to handle it.”

  After listening to what this man had to say, I looked back at Teresa and started rubbing her hair back from her face. My tears started falling uncontrollably as I started thinking about how I could’ve prevented this whole thing from happening. If only I’d come in sooner. Or better yet, if only I would’ve tried to talk her out of coming there, then maybe she’ll still be alive. And then I looked down at her stomach and thought to myself that her baby didn’t even have a chance. What a fucking shame!

  “Ay yo, baby girl,” the guy spoke out, “I know you’re fucked up behind losing your peoples, but you gon’ have to cry somewhere else. ’Cause if the police finds you here hanging over her body, they gon’ give your ass a murder charge, and that’s some real shit!”

  “Now, how can they give me a murder charge? I wasn’t the one who shot the dope in her.”

  “They don’t know that. And she ain’t gon’ be able to tell ’em whether you lying or not. So, you better do yourself some justice and get ghost.”

  “But, I just can’t leave her like this,” I protested.

  “Well, suit yourself,” the guy said and both him and the woman junkie raced out of there as fast as they could.

  Now, after the fiends left I sat down on the floor next to Teresa and pulled her away from the wall and into my arms in a cradled position. And from that moment it seemed like everything I loved was being taken away from me. So, now I was feeling like my life meant absolutely nothing. But not only that, what was I going to do with myself now? I wouldn’t have anywhere to go after Teresa’s landlord put her things out in the street. My car was gone and I knew I wasn’t gonna have Teresa’s vehicle long, because her family was going to want to take it. So, it looked like I was going to be up shit’s creek without a paddle. And it wasn’t no one’s fault but my own.

  Meanwhile, as I was going through the motions, I heard loud footsteps running in my direction and then the door to the room burst open, so immediately I became startled because I wasn’t sure what was gonna happen next. And then all of a sudden this tall black guy with a red baseball cap appeared.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” he asked me in a nervous way.

  “What does it look like?” I replied sarcastically, because by this time it had become clear from a previous description given to me by Zena, that I was speaking no one other than the infamous Walt.

  “Look, I know you’re trying to have a moment to grieve over your friend,” he began to say, “but I can’t have you doing that here.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, not understanding quite what it was he was trying to say.

  “What I mean is that, I’ve got to get her out of here before the cops come.”

  “So, where are you going to take her?”

  “She’s gotta go outside. I can’t have her laying up in here dead. This is where I stay at. And if the police catches her here, they gon’ put my ass in jail and close down my crib. And I can’t have that.”

  Without saying anything else, he reached down and grabbed Teresa up off the floor, threw her over his shoulder, and carried her downstairs and out the back door of this house.

  Crying until my eyes were blood red, I stood in the back door of Walt’s house and watched him as he walked all the way down the back alley until he found a place to put her body, which was next to a tree.

  Before he left her lying there, he reached down and started digging into her pockets. And after searching the second pocket was when I observed him pull a small item out. I couldn’t see exactly what it was, but from the looks of his face, it had to have some kind of value to him, because he didn’t hesitate to stick whatever it was in his pocket. So, after that was done, he covered her face with an old, grungy sheet. And when I witnessed that, I damn near lost it. I mean, I was feeling like complete shit for just allowing him to throw her body out like she was trash. But hey, what did I know? That type of shit was normal protocol for these people. And if he said that we could get a murder charge for being around her when the police found her body, then I couldn’t do nothing but believe him.

  “What’s your name?” he asked me the minute he walked back into his house.

  “Faith.”

  “Oh yeah, I remember Teresa telling me about you.”

  “I’m quite sure she did,” I said, looking down the alley where her body was.

  “Yeah, she talked real good about you,” he said as he stepped out of the way to shut the back door closed.

  “Do you think we should call the police and let them know she’s back there, so her body won’t rot?”

  “Yeah, I’ma make the call from a pay phone, but in the meantime, you gon’ have to leave. ’Cause, I’m getting ready to close this place down for a while.”

  “But why? She’s not in your house anymore.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Because see, after they find her, they gon’ knock on every door ’round here to see if anybody got some information for ’em. So, if you ain’t trying to be one of those people, then it’ll be wise for you to get out of here now,” he insisted and walked away.

  Seeing how serious this man was about this whole situation, I came to my senses and followed him right out the front door. And when we got outside, he locked the door and proceeded down the stairs. But, before he went about his way, he turned to me and said, “I want cha to take it easy, a’ight?”

  I looked at him with a puzzled expression and said, “I will.”

  “And if you need anything, I want you to come by here and holler at me too.”

  “Okay, I will,” I assured him.

  “A’ight. Now, gon’ get outta here,” he told me once more and started stepping in the opposite direction.

  Back at the Home Front

  Just when I thought I was all cried out, I broke down like a baby when I walked into Teresa’s apartment. I couldn’t tell you if I was coming or going. All I could do was lie back on her living room sofa and think about all the good times we had, and there were many. Especially the time when we went on a double date with two other guys and we ended up skipping out on them after they paid for us to go out on an expensive dinner with them. I would’ve paid a ton of money to see their faces when the waiter told them we weren’t coming back to the table to join them. Boy, those were the days!

  After about four to five hours of crying and reminiscing, I pulled myself together enough to straighten up the place a little. I couldn’t do much, like wash the dishes or clean up the bathroom, because the water was still turned off. However, I was able to clean up her bedroom and the living room and sweep the rugs, since the vacuum cleaner was broken. And after that was completed, I just sat there with my stomach growling out of control and wondered how in the hell I was going to get me so
mething to eat. And then it came to me, that I could go to a pawn shop and pawn my fucking wedding band set. I mean, what use did I have for it? My marriage was on the verge of falling apart anyway. And since there was nothing for me to hold on to, I grabbed Teresa’s car keys and headed back out into the world.

  I went to three pawn shops before I decided to let my diamonds go. I mean, it was crazy how crooked the pawn shop owners operated. The first place I went to tried to offer me only two hundred dollars for my wedding set that cost my husband nearly seven grand. So, I told them to burn in hell and went off to the next place, who in turn tried to offer me fifty dollars more, so you know where I told them to go. But, the last place did me a little more justice by offering me four hundred. And even though it was more than what the other two gentlemen were trying to hand over, I was still somewhat hesitant. But, when this man explained to me that this was the best offer I was going to get from anywhere, that’s when I decided to make the trade with him.

  Immediately after I left the last pawn shop I stopped at a nearby gas station and filled Teresa’s car up with gas. The next place I stopped was at this Chinese restaurant. I got me a takeout order of shrimp egg foo young, two spring rolls, and two cold orange sodas. I ate both spring rolls on the way back to the apartment and they hit my stomach in the right way. I was honestly feeling like I had some energy in my body. So, I was okay.

  Now once I arrived back at the apartment, I grabbed my food and hopped out of the car. And when I turned around to walk in the direction of the apartment building, two black police officers came out of nowhere and nearly scared the hell out of me.

  “Excuse me,” one officer said, “is this Teresa Daniels’ car you’re driving?”

  My heart jumped straight out of my chest when this man approached me with that question. But, what was really scary was the fact that I knew he already knew the answer, even if I elected not to answer him. So, what was the point? And since I knew he had his reasons why he wanted to come at me with that particular question, I answered him by saying, “Yes, it is. Why?”

  “And what is your name?” his questions continued.