by RM Johnson
“What you lookin’ for?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know.”
“I don’t.”
“You just tryin’ to get out of it, ’cause you scared. You was always too slow.”
And then it came back to Rafe, just as Smoke said, “Here it is. Right here.”
Rafe walked over to him, saw a long, narrow crack in the pavement.
“Startin’ mark, baby,” Smoke said, smiling slyly, nodding his head. “From here to the monkey bars and back, nigga. You ain’t that old that you forgot.”
“Naw, Smoke,” Rafe said, turning Smoke’s invitation to an old-fashioned footrace down.
“Chicken, hunh.”
“Naw, it’s just that, last time I checked, I used to always whup that ass, and I was leading.”
“Then you need to check again, ’cause last time I checked, we was tied. That was like fifteen years ago, but I’m sure my memory is servin’ me correctly. So what you say, boy?” Smoke bent to one knee and tied his shoes in double knots like they did when they were kids. “Got it in you?”
“Fuck it. Let’s roll.”
They lined up, both crouching low, in starting stance. Then Smoke called out, “On your mark … get set … go!”
Both men shot off the mark, hammering down the pavement toward the monkey bars. Smoke had gotten the best of Rafe from the jump, and it seemed as if he would pull ahead, but around the turn and just past the monkey bars, Rafe caught up to him. As they sped toward the finish, they were virtually even. Rafe looked out the corner of his eye, saw Smoke looking back at him. He couldn’t shake him, nor could Smoke pass Rafe. But then with just another twenty feet to go, Rafe saw Smoke dropping back just inches. This was when Rafe gave it all he had. Smoke bumped him, briefly trying to find any way he could to beat Rafe to the finish, but Rafe was too strong and blew over the line fractions of a second before Smoke did.
Afterward, they hunched forward, breathing hard, their hands gripping their knees.
“It’s them polishes, man. If it wasn’t for them … ,” Smoke said, huffing, “… I woulda had your ass.”
“Whatever … man,” Rafe said, slowly walking over to the swings and sitting himself down in one.
Smoke did the same, both men sitting quietly.
“I ain’t lying, man. The business is really doin’ well, and I want you in on it, Rafe. Want you to be my right-hand man, just like it used to be,” Smoke said, not looking at Rafe, but wistfully out at the school grounds in front of him.
“You said it’s all on the up and up?” Rafe asked.
“I told you that. What I got to do to make you believe that?”
Rafe didn’t answer, just thought about the possibility that Smoke was telling the truth. If he was, almost instantly Rafe could have a better life: no more living in the rented room, no more taking buses, no more feeling like he was a loser.
“Damn, man. I just offered you a partnership, and you ain’t sayin’ nothing,” Smoke said, twisting his swing to face Rafe.
“Yeah … I mean … I guess I’ll take it,” Rafe said, knowing he could always back out if the arrangement wasn’t truly as Smoke described it. “What am I supposed to be doin’?”
“Shit. Whatever you want. You like working on the cars. Be chief mechanic. You want to sit behind a desk? Do that. You want to put on a suit, shoot some game, and try to sell? Do that. I don’t care, man. I just want my brother back. Don’t want to lose you again. Cool?” Smoke said, standing from his swing, opening his arms for a hug.
Rafe stood, walked into the man’s embrace. Hugged him back.
“All right, cool. We’ll see what happens.”
“Good. Good!” Rafe could hear the happiness in his voice. “You made the right decision, man,” Smoke said, still hugging him. “Because I’d die before I’d let anyone break us up again.”
TWENTY-TWO
OVER THE past couple of days, Ally had been doing some serious thinking. Her mother was going to put her ass out in little to no time at all, because she sure as hell wasn’t sleepin’ on nobody’s damn couch. Ally knew she had to make some money in a hurry.
She thought about the possibilities that were available to her and could come up with nothing beyond the average, work-your-ass-off-for-minimum-wage gigs. She wasn’t about to call fools up at dinnertime, trying to sell them cable or cheap long distance. She wasn’t going to stand around in a mall, smiling ear to ear and spraying folks with a funky-smelling perfume tester either. And she sure as hell wasn’t ringing up nobody’s groceries at the local grocery store.
That work was far beneath her, and her image would be torn to shreds if she was ever spotted doing some shit like that. It took her all night lying in bed, her mind wavering between just what she would do for money and the fact that she was still horny as all get out. Ally’s hand moved down under her blanket, snaking down the center of her belly and in between her legs. She touched herself, let out a long, cleansing sigh, and thought back to the other night when she was riding Rick. If only he hadn’t passed out, not lettin’ her get hers, she wouldn’t have to be … and then she stopped. She had it! It came to her like that. She shot up in bed, feeling as though not only did a light bulb appear above her head, but it glowed brightly, then exploded with the brilliant idea she had. She knew exactly what she was going to do.
The next day, she called her girls. “We got to have an emergency meeting,” she said to JJ.
“A meeting? What, are we in a club now?”
“Just be home around four.”
Ally called Lisa, told her to meet her at JJ’s too, and then she had to run a little errand.
Ally walked up the rickety stairs of a worn-down building on the rough side of town. She passed a few people standing on the stairs on the way up. Painfully skinny guys huddled around a single glass pipe, as if they were worshiping it, praying for the next hit of crack. Then she came upon a woman, her dirty blonde hair matted down across her head, dark circles around her eyes. She held one end of a belt in her teeth, tightening the thing around her arm, a syringe and a tiny vial at her side. Ally had to step over her, because she was stretched out across one of the stairs and didn’t seem as though she was going to move, didn’t seem as if she was able.
When Ally made it to the third floor, she walked down a long hallway to a single door with a small, narrow, sliding door peephole at eye level.
She knocked three times, a pause between the first and second knock, and an even longer pause between the second and third. Moments later, the tiny sliding door opened to expose two wide brown eyes. They darted around, then settled on Ally.
“What you want?” the muffled voice said.
“T-mac,” Ally said.
“Who are you?”
“Tell him, Alizé wants to see him.”
The narrow door slid shut. Ally heard movement, and then it faded out of earshot. A minute after that, the door slid open again, familiar eyes looking out this time, and then it slid shut once more.
Ally could hear the locks on the other side of the door being undone. Then it opened to reveal a bony, brown-skinned, buck-tooth brotha, wearing thick eyeglasses, a T-shirt, underpants, and an open bathrobe.
“Alizé, Alizé,” he said, opening his arms for a hug. “You finally decide to come visit the candy man for some sweets?”
“Yeah, but not for me.”
“For who then?” T-mac said, gazing at Ally’s body through the thick lenses.
“Can’t say, but so you know up front, I can’t pay you now.”
“Aw, baby,” T-mac said, lowering and shaking his head, as if he had just heard news of someone passing away. “I’m sorry. So sorry. No pay, no play.”
“I’m good for it. I promise,” Ally begged.
“When?”
“No longer than a week. Ten days tops.”
T-mac looked as though he was giving it thought, then smiled and said, “All right. This one time. But if you can’t get the money up, you know what I w
ant instead.”
“What?”
“Pussy!” T-mac grinned.
“I’ll have your money, T.”
“C’mon in,” he said, stepping aside. “And tell me what you need.”
AT 4:30 P.M., all the girls were assembled and again they were drinking. Since Ally called the meeting, she had to bring the liquor: two bottles of strawberry Arbor Mist. She poured the glasses and brought them out to the girls. Ally stood in front of JJ, Sasha, and Lisa and told them how her mother was going to put her out on the street.
“You know, this place is big enough for you to stay here,” JJ said.
“Thanks,” Ally said. “But the idea of waking up with your face in between my legs just doesn’t sit right with me.”
“Forget you, ungrateful ho,” JJ said.
She told them how she needed to make some money fast and that she wasn’t going to take the normal route.
“Then how?” Lisa said. “You ain’t talkin’ about sellin’ your ass still, are you? Because if you are, I’m out of here.”
“No, no,” Ally said. “But close. Remember the date I was supposed to have wit’ that so-called bailer?”
Everyone nodded.
“Well, he took me out like I wanted, showed me a good time, and so I decided I would give him some. We got naked, I was ridin’ it, and the shit was good. I mean I was feelin’ it, until his ass came, passed out, leaving me empty.”
“Damn!” JJ said. “I can remember from my dick days that there wasn’t no thin’ worse than that.”
“Tell me about it,” Ally said. “But like I said, dude had loot. He had taken it all out, laid it across the nightstand before we got undressed. It just kinda slapped me in the face after I got dressed and was about to leave. Jewelry, credit cards, and his clip. He had to have about a grand in it. So I reached over—”
“Giiiiiiirrrrrrrrrlllllllllllll! No you didn’t,” Sasha gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. “Let me see it! Let me count it.”
“Good fa you, Ally!” JJ said, shooting up from the sofa, stabbing a finger at her. “Now niggas know they got to pay when they come weak. Literally!”
“Oh, my god,” Lisa said. “You robbed a balla’.”
“No. I didn’t, but I could’ve. He was out cold, and I was standing right over all his loot,” Ally said, crouching over JJ’s coffee table, extending a hand as if she was still in the moment. “I coulda grabbed all of it, and he woulda never seen me again. One night’s work, and I would’ve been a grand richer. See what I’m sayin’?”
The girls all looked at each other. Huge, sly smiles spread across Sasha’s and JJ’s lips, but by the time Lisa caught on, she said, “Ohhhhh, no. If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking. Oh, no. Hell no. That’s crazy.”
“Sounds like fun to me,” JJ said.
“And profitable,” Sasha said.
“How about suicidal?” Lisa asked, giving them all questioning looks. “How we going to do that without them knowing who we are? What if we rob them, then see them again? We’re dead.”
“She got a point, Ally,” JJ said.
“Not a problem. We wear wigs, colored contacts, glasses, and stuff.”
“Ooh, we get to dress up. That might be fun,” Sasha said.
Lisa just gave Sasha a sideways look and shook her head. “Well, how are we supposed to get them unconscious? Knock them over the heads with pillows, or sit there and wait ’til they drink themselves silly? And won’t they expect the same from us?”
“She got another point,” JJ said.
“I already thought of that,” Ally said, confidently. “While they’re not watching, we slip something in their drinks. In about ten to twelve minutes, they’ll be out for the count, and they won’t wake up for at least an hour. And by that time, we’ll be long gone.”
“And what is this stuff, and how do you know it’ll work?” Lisa said, skepticism thick in her voice.
“Because someone I trust told me it will. And anyway, I’m gonna find out for sure very soon,” Ally said, glancing over at Sasha.
“When?” Lisa said.
And Alize knew she couldn’t have planned it any better when she saw Sasha’s eyes roll to the back of her head, saw the cup jump from her hand, and watched as the petite woman dropped to the floor, a drunken smile on her face.
“Now,” Ally said.
JJ and Lisa were still facing Ally when they heard the thud behind them. JJ spun around, saw Sasha sprawled out across the floor, and screamed at the top of her lungs, racing over to her. It was the first time Ally had heard JJ sound like a woman.
Lisa turned from Sasha back to Ally. “You didn’t slip some of that to her?” Lisa asked, looking like she knew full well that she had.
“Yup,” Ally said, looking down at her watch. “Eleven minutes, exactly. Told you it would work. Try wakin’ her up.”
JJ was down on her knees, smacking Sasha lightly, but she didn’t respond, made no movement at all. JJ turned to Ally, murder in her eyes. “I’m gonna kill you!”
Ally ran behind the sofa, and Lisa got in front of JJ, holding her off, or at least trying to.
“What you doin’ using my baby as a guinea pig?” JJ said, clawing and fighting to get at Ally.
“I just gave her a little. She’s only gonna be out for like five or ten minutes,” Ally said, dodging and weaving around behind the sofa. “I wanted to prove to ya’ll that it’ll work. Just watch and see. I’m tellin’ you.”
While Sasha was out cold, the girls stood over her, her head in JJ’s lap, JJ looking like a worried mother, wondering if her child would pull through her serious battle with a deadly disease. They talked over whether they would pursue Ally’s idea.
“I was game before you pulled this shit,” JJ said, smoothing her hand over Sasha’s wavy hair. “But now I don’t know.”
“C’mon, JJ. This shouldn’t change anything. It’s a good plan. Fast money, and you can get back at all the men in the world for turning you into the evil bitch you are. Just think of these fools as your mama’s boyfriend.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind that,” JJ said, still looking worried. “But I’m only down if Sasha is.”
“Fair enough,” Ally said, turning to Lisa. “You?”
“Ain’t no way,” Lisa said, shaking her head. “I’d have to be in a serious pinch to participate in some craziness like this.”
“C’mon, Lisa. You my girl,” Ally cajoled, wrapping her arm around Lisa’s shoulder. “It wouldn’t be the same without you. I told you. It’s fast money and practically foolproof. Just roll one night.”
“No way,” Lisa said, pushing Ally’s hand from off her shoulder. “I’m strapped. I need money just like everybody else, but I don’t need it that damn bad. Ya’ll roll without me.”
“Suit yaself,” Ally said, and just then, Sasha started to come to. She batted her eyes a number of times, then looked up in JJ’s face.
“Baby, you okay?” JJ said, caressing her face.
“Yeah,” Sasha said, her voice groggy, wiping her eyes. “When do we start? I got a perfect wig for the first night.”
Ally smiled, and JJ started laughing out loud, bent down, kissed Sasha on the lips, and said, “Well, I guess it’s on!”
The three girls hugged each other, leaving Lisa just outside of their embrace, shaking her head.
TWENTY-THREE
THINGS WERE going good with Wade, Livvy thought, stepping in from shopping. She had been speaking to him for the past three days over the phone, and they had gotten a lot closer in a much shorter time than she ever imagined.
Their last two conversations had started late at night, after 11 P.M., and ran into the morning hours, Livvy lying in bed, cuddling her pillow, a candle lit on her nightstand. Those talks reminded her of when she was in high school, before she got pregnant. They were playful conversations, “What are you wearing?” conversations, and they spoke of what turned each of them on, how old they were when they lost their virginity, and what
they each considered romance.
“Have you ever been in love?” Wade asked her.
“Yeah. Twice.”
“With whom?”
“The father of my children, and …” Livvy stopped herself, about to tell him that she had also loved a man named Carlos, but the fact was, she was still in love with him. And yes, because of Wade, that feeling was slowly fading, but she didn’t want to risk his possibly hearing in her voice how much she still cared for Carlos when she said his name.
“You were saying,” Wade prompted.
“And someone else,” Livvy finished, “but it didn’t work out. It was a bad situation.”
“Oh, I see,” Wade said, sounding as though he knew there was more than what she was telling him.
The subject all of a sudden turned to sex. Wade told her how physically attracted he was to her. He told her that he had struggled on their dates not to touch her soft body, not to wrap his arms around her, yank her in, and give her a big fat kiss each time he picked her up.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want to seem frantic. I didn’t want to move too soon.”
“Well, next time, if you feel that way, you can do those things.”
“Really,” Wade said. “What else can I do?”
“I don’t know. What do you think you’d want to do?” Livvy said, giggling shyly.
“As much as you would allow,” Wade chuckled.
“So I guess it would really depend on the mood, how we both feel. If we think it’s right. But I’m sure we’ll both know when that is. And just so you know, I feel the same way you do.”
They made plans for the following night—tonight—and Livvy had a sneaking suspicion about how the night would end. That was the reason that she was just walking in from Victoria’s Secret.
She was running a little late. Wade said he would call to let her know what the plans would be, so as soon as she walked in the door, she went to the phone without setting her bags down. Livvy picked it up, ready to call him, but she heard no dial tone.
She pressed the talk button a number of times, but still nothing. She checked the cord in the back of the base of the phone, then followed it to the wall, where it was plugged in. She took out the plug and clicked it back into the wall, then tried the phone again. Nothing.