by Yoshe
Sean cut her off. “Whoa, girl! Spare me the details until later. What do you need?” he asked.
Yadi began to cry. “Can I please stay with you tonight, Sean?” she pleaded. “Me and Jada have nowhere to go and I just can’t go to my family’s house. Not like this. Vanita is outta town and I will be in jail tonight if I go back home.”
“Yadi, you can come stay with me. I have an open-door policy.”
“I’m so sorry to bother you, Sean, but—”
“You a’ight, baby girl. Meet me at my crib. 225 Hancock Street between Stuyvesant and Malcolm X Bloue-vard. I’ll be home in like, twenty minutes.”
“Thanks, Sean. You are a lifesaver!”
“Are y’all hungry?” Sean asked with genuine concern in voice. “Do you need anything?”
Yadi’s heart fluttered at the kind gesture. “Oh, no, Sean we’re fine, just tired. Jada is asleep in the back seat.”
“Don’t worry. I’m on my way home now.” Sean sighed and stepped on the gas.
As he headed toward the BQE, Yadi’s sexy-ass kept running through his mind. He felt bad about her ordeal but the little devil on his shoulder was telling him something different. First, his chance meeting with Brandi, and now Yadi was going to actually be staying in his house. What was a man supposed to do?
Twenty minutes later, Sean pulled his truck in behind Yadi’s steel grey Maxima, which was parked in front of his house. He walked up to the car and Yadi jumped out of the driver’s seat to hug him. She gathered her things and Sean unlocked his front door, carrying the sleeping Jada upstairs to his spare bedroom. Once Sean placed the little girl in the bed, Yadi entered the room and dumped her large bag on the floor. He looked at the bag and frowned.
Yadi saw Sean’s facial expression and looked down at her bag. “Oh, yeah, I was only stayin’ until tomorrow, Sean. Is that okay?” she asked.
“Nah, it ain’t your bags. I was just buggin’ out because I never thought you would be leavin’ Devin.”
Yadi sat on Sean’s bed. “Yeah, I know, but it’s over. Devin doesn’t love me or respect me. And tonight he didn’t have one problem with puttin’ his hands on me.” Yadi was distracted by her vibrating cell phone. It was Devin calling her again.
Sean stared at Yadi. He figured that it was Devin. He was happy that she didn’t answer it because he didn’t want to hear her argue with him all night. He just needed to get in his bed and get a few hours of restful sleep.
“I’m proud of you, Yadi. Once a nigga put his hands on you the first time, it only gets worse after that.”
Yadi held her head down and pulled her long hair out of her face. “I know. I didn’t think he would hit me after all these years but that goes to show how dumb I was.”
Sean changed the subject. He didn’t want her to be down in the dumps about her decision to leave.
“Get comfortable,” he suggested. While pulling back the comforter on the bed, Yadi walked over and tenderly embraced Sean.
“Thanks, Sean. Thanks so much,” she said. “You’re a good friend.”
She kissed Sean on the cheek and he kissed her back. Unexpectedly, they began to kiss each other passionately and after what seemed like an eternity, they stopped and looked at each other.
“Yadi, I can’t do this,” he said. “You know that I’ve liked you for a while now. But this is not the time to have sex with you. You just had a fight with your man and you’re vulnerable right now. I don’t need to start messin’ things up by bein’ intimate with you.”
Sean stepped back and took a good look at Yadi. Her face looked swollen and she had a black-and-blue bruise on her right cheek. Her hair was unkempt and one of her eyes was bloodshot red.
Yadi began to feel uncomfortable with her appearance. She attempted to push her thick mane into a ponytail .
Yadi blinked her bedroom eyes. “Sean, I know you like me and I like you too, but I need you right now. I’ve been waitin’ for an opportunity to get with you.”
Sean shook his head. “Yeah, but this is not the time. Get yourself together first, Yadi. You’re in a relationship with Devin and this isn’t gonna be the last of your problems with him. I’m goin’ to keep it real, I don’t wanna get caught up in your shit. You are my friend but no woman is worth me havin’ to kill a nigga unless it’s my mama. I don’t wanna go through no bullshit with Devin, and you and him haven’t really broken up with each other.”
Yadi plopped down on Sean’s bed. They looked at each other for a moment and paused until Sean finally broke the silence.
“I’m gonna go sleep now, Yadi. You can sleep in here with the baby. If you need anything, feel free to let me know.” He paused for a moment and held out his hand for Yadi to shake. “Friends?”
She put on a fake smile and shook Sean’s hand. “Yeah, friends.”
Sean walked out of the bedroom and closed the door behind him. Yadi sat on the bed. She slid out of clothes and crawled under the goose down comforter. Yadi reached over and kissed Jada then turned off the lights.
She heard her cell phone vibrate in her bag again and sucked her teeth, while she fumbled around in the dark looking for it. When she retrieved her phone, she smiled when she saw Devin’s cell phone number on her caller ID. Maybe he really does love me she thought. Not bothering listening to his messages, Yadi turned her phone off, slid in the bed, and fell into a deep slumber.
Meanwhile, it was past midnight as Brandi lay in her bed, alone and thinking about Sean. She was up late reading one of her Iyanla Vanzant books. Not accustomed to hanging out, Brandi did not mirror the woman she used to be. She was comfortable with just going to work and coming home every day rather than going out with every Tom, Dick, and Harry. She had to keep her mind positive because Lord knows, she didn’t know if she could keep her sanity while Shamari was going through his drama on Rikers Island.
After pondering for a moment, something made Brandi get up and walk into her son’s empty bedroom, which was looking exactly how he had left it before his arrest. The room was warm and she could almost smell the Allure cologne that Shamari wore as if he had just sprayed it yesterday.
She looked around the male-themed room and shook her head at the posters of Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z. Shamari owned almost every rap CD known to man and kept them stacked up neatly in CD racks that were nailed to the wall. She opened his closet and observed the abundance of sneakers and clothing that he had acquired over the years.
Brandi knew she was partly to blame for Shamari’s sudden incarceration because not only did she lavish him with material things but she also spoiled him with love and nurturing. What happened to him and where did things go wrong?
Brandi walked out of the bedroom, feeling like there was a huge void in her life. Having done most of the things she wanted to accomplish, she couldn’t help but wonder if she had selfishly put her needs before Shamari’s. Needing some reassurance, she almost picked up her phone to call Sean, wanting to continue their conversation to take her mind off some of the turmoil in her life. Instead, Brandi climbed back into her bed and fell asleep.
Chapter 8
Shamari was awakened by what sounded like a search team of correction officers coming into his housing area. He glimpsed out of the cell window to see that the housing area was filled with COs, quickly hopping up to brush his teeth and wash his face. He wouldn’t want the officers searching his cell to be subjected to his morning breath.
While Shamari looked in the mirror over his sink, he couldn’t understand why people wanted to keep coming to jail over and over again. Just the regular routine shit had him about to lose his mind. Shamari had many regrets and ending up in there was one of them. His uncles had been through it and they had told him that it was somewhere he didn’t need to be. Now that he was in the situation, Shamari finally understood everything they’d talked about. Unfortunately, he had no other choice but to man up and hold it down.
The search team came through Five North like a tornado. They tossed around the inmates�
� belongings and left without incident. Most of the inmates, including Shamari, were pissed about having to put their things back the way they had them arranged in the cell. After a while, everything returned to normal and Shamari decided to take a shower before he started his day.
As Shamari walked back to his cell from the shower, he hoped that Officer Daniels didn’t work Five North again. He couldn’t help but dislike the CO, although Sean had insisted on helping him with his transition. Shamari just hoped his mother didn’t decide to fall for his bullshit. To step in his house after getting out of jail and seeing Sean’s face would be a nightmare. He knew that Brandi had been alone and without a man for a while, immersing herself in school, work, and him. His mother did deserve to have a good man take care of her needs, although Shamari didn’t want to even imagine his mother needing anything from a man. But why Daniels?
When he was a little boy, Brandi told him that some cro-oked cops in Virginia had killed his father. After that, Shamari secretly feared and hated any type of law enforcement officers because he felt they had the legal right to kill a nigga and get away with it. He knew how his father got the money he had, even though he ended up dying trying to keep it.
Shamari wanted to be smarter than his father and do it the right way, not knowing there was no such thing as a right way to make illegal money. Shamari was already disappointed in himself for not being everything his mother wanted him to be. He had hurt her dearly but he was always fascinated with making fast money. He was going to need some start-up dough, and ended up robbing trying to get it.
Shamari hooked up with Peeto, one of his father’s old running buddies. On the strength of Shamari being Maleek’s son, Shamari was going to pay for one half of a kilo in cash. Peeto was going to front the other half to the eager wanna-be hustler. Shamari succeeded in getting some of the money that was needed for the drugs he wanted to purchase, but couldn’t come up with the rest of it.
He tried to get Peeto to give him the kilo on consignment and Peeto practically laughed in his face. Anyone who hustles knows that was a big no-no, if they were an amateur in the game. What Shamari didn’t know was that if Brandi found out that he had a deal going with one of Maleek’s boys, she would have tried to kill not only him, but Peeto too. Shamari was clueless about his mother’s other side.
As Shamari exited his cell, he accidentally bumped into Born. Shamari made it his business to stay as far away from Born as he could, suspecting that the man, who was almost twenty years his senior, didn’t like him that much. He knew that Born’s reputation exceeded itself and although many in the jail feared him, he was loved just the same. Born stopped in front of the young Shamari and wouldn’t let him by. Shamari’s normally broad shoulders slumped.
“What’s poppin’, young one?” Born inquired. “Where do you think you goin’?”
Shamari swallowed and tried not to appear nervous. “Umm, I was goin’ to check out my man, Ant.”
Born smirked. “You ain’t got no mans in here, little nigga. Remember that.”
Shamari looked confused. “Huh?”
Born got in Shamari’s face. “You heard me. You ain’t got no mans in here. So don’t you ever let me here you say that homo shit again, you hear me?”
Shamari stared at Born to see if he was serious. When he observed the veins protruding from the older man’s bald head, he knew that it wasn’t a joke.
“Yeah, man, I mean, a’ight, cool,” Shamari stated. He didn’t want to sound like he was being defiant.
“Good. And another thing, motherfucker, if I ever see you or hear about you violatin’ my nigga, Daniels, I’ll knock your fuckin’ block off your shoulders, you hear me?”
Shamari felt his eyes water. So that is what this is all about, Shamari thought. He then nodded his head in agreement with the professional thug. Born looked at the teen and finally let him pass. Shamari looked back at Born, who was still staring at him from down the tier. Suddenly, he wasn’t in the mood to check for Ant and decided to go back into his cell to sleep.
Later on that morning, Brandi sat on her king-sized bed, sipping coffee and reading the Saturday newspaper when the phone on the nightstand rang. She anxiously picked it up, knowing that it was Shamari. He would usually call her early in the morning on Saturdays, knowing that she would be awake. The operator on the phone announced, “Please hold,” and when Shamari said something, the operator said, “Go ahead” Hearing her son’s voice, Brandi smiled from ear to ear. She definitely missed her baby.
“Hi, sweetie!” she said loudly. “Are you okay? Do you need anything?” she asked, going into concerned mother mode.
“I’m straight, Ma. How are you?” Shamari asked. He didn’t sound too happy and Brandi picked up on it.
“What’s wrong, Shaki?” asked Brandi, referring to him by the shortened version of his middle name.
“I dunno, Ma, I just, I just regret even gettin’ myself caught up the way I did. Word.”
Brandi swung her legs on the side of the bed and sat up-right. She didn’t want her son to lose focus and do something stupid to get into more trouble.
“Listen, Shaki, hold your head up! I know it’s hard, baby, but it’s a lesson learned. I’m not trying to make you feel bad, but Shaki, you might have to do some time for what you did. I mean, I hired a great lawyer but you have to be strong, if you know what I mean.”
Shamari was silent for a moment. His mother wasn’t telling him what he wanted to hear. He wanted her to tell him that everything was going to be all right and that he would be home soon.
“Ma, I don’t wanna hear nothin’ about no lawyer right now. I just wanna get outta here ’cause I’m gonna end up hurtin’ a motherfucker in here!”
Brandi moved the phone from her ear and cussed. She came back on the phone and tried to comfort her only child.
“Shamari Tashaki Wallace, you’re a trooper so don’t go out like a sucker! You’re in there with murderers, rapists, child molestors, so do what you have to do to make sure you get back here in one piece. You must be strong, baby, because I can’t be there to hold your hand on this one, I’m sorry. You’re a man now and this is the path you chose to live so—”
Shamari cut her off. “So, what, Ma? What are you sayin’?” he screamed into the phone. “I ain’t used to this shit! I came from somethin’, I shouldn’t have to live like this!”
Brandi smiled. “Exactly. You just said it yourself, but if you don’t stop with this robbing, stealing, and hustling, your next stop is the graveyard!”
“Ma, some nigga in here is threatenin’ me, talkin’ about if I disrespect his peeps, Daniels, he gonna do me dirty! See what kinda niggas you tryin’ to deal with? This dude got niggas in here threatenin’ me!”
Brandi held the phone in complete shock. “What? Shaki, what in the hell are you talking about?”
“Me and CO Daniels had some words the other day and now some cat named Born wanna come up to me, talkin’ about if I disrespect Daniels again, he’s gonna fuck me up. This is the type of shit I gotta deal with, Ma. That’s why I told you it was something about that dude that I didn’t like from jump!”
Brandi felt herself get dizzy with anger. Sean reassured her that he was going to look out for her son, not get him killed. She thought back to the visit when Shamari was being disrespectful toward him. Was Sean trying to set Shamari up in retaliation for that day in visits?
Brandi looked at the time. It was 9 A.M. “Shaki, calm down, okay? I’m gonna get to the bottom of this. Is this a visit day for you?” she asked.
“Yeah, Ma,” Shamari replied. “It’s A through Z visits today.”
“Good! I’m on my way up there to see you!”
Brandi hung up the phone and prepared to go to Rikers Island. She wanted to find the underlying cause of this before she made any false accusations. In the meantime, Shamari hung up the telephone with a sinister smile on his face. He was going to have the last laugh after all.
Meanwhile, downstairs in visits, Sean wa
lked the floor and chatted with random visitors and inmates. He was in a jovial mood and his joyful banter made the atmosphere in the area very positive. There were no arguments or fights that day and the children laughed happily. Even the COs fell back from harassing anyone.
Yadi was still at Sean’s house, and apparently, was not in the mood to come to work that morning. She called off sick for the next two days, giving herself more than enough time to heal her emotional and physical wounds. Plus, her right eye had swollen up and her left was black and blue. She didn’t need anyone at work seeing her in that condition.
Sean suggested she stay at his house until she got herself together and he quietly made a promise to himself to try not to touch her. He knew that it would only complicate everything and Yadi had too much emotional baggage to have casual sex with him or any man for that matter. Sean did have a lot of respect for Yadi, whom he thought was a very beautiful woman on the inside as well but Yadira’s self-esteem and codependency were major issues for him. He was able to see the bullshit from a mile away.
Not wanting to deal with those problems, Sean made up his mind to concentrate on trying to get with Brandi. She seemed like a woman who had it all together. Sean just hoped that Shamari was no reflection of her parenting skills, or her as a woman in general.
Brandi arrived in the visit area and walked straight to the desk to get her registration card time stamped. She felt self-conscious as she noticed the dirty looks she got from the other inmates and their jealous girlfriends or wives. When Shamari called her, she had thrown on whatever, making her way up to the jail to get to the bottom of the alleged bullshit that was going on.
As soon as she sat in her assigned seat, she turned around and saw Sean, whose back was turned to her. She stared a hole in his back until he finally turned around and caught her eye. Sean was pleasantly surprised when he saw her sitting there with her arms folded. He didn’t realize that she was angry until he walked over to her table.