by Yoshe
“Hey, cutie. I didn’t know that you were comin’ up today,” Sean said.
“Listen, Sean, I don’t fucking appreciate motherfuckers walking up to my son and threatening him because of you! I can’t see you getting somebody to try to cause bodily harm to my child while he’s in here!” she whispered loudly.
Sean bent down to see if he had heard her right. “Whaaat in the hell are you talkin’ about, miss? I wouldn’t dare get anybody to threaten your son, let alone hurt him. What kind of man do you think I am?”
“Well, my son called me this morning and told me that some asshole named Born threatened him, talking about the next time that Shamari disrespects you, he’s going to hurt him. Who the fuck is this Born character anyway?”
Sean gulped, just happening to observe Born sitting with his wife a few tables away from where Brandi was seated. He heard the metal doors opening and saw Shamari walking toward the table. Shit, thought Sean. He knew it was about to be on for real. He watched while Born talked to his wife and began kissing her. Shamari had made his way over to his mother with that infamous smug look of his on his face. Sean had an uncanny desire to wipe it off.
“Ma, are you still talkin’ to this dude?” Shamari announced, talking about Sean like he wasn’t standing there.
Sean’s muscular chest began to heave because he was beginning to see right through Shamari’s game. “Yo’, Wallace, did you tell your mother that I had Born threatenin’ you for me?” Sean asked.
Shamari rolled his eyes at Sean and pointed at him. “Ma, who is this dude talkin’ to? I know he ain’t talkin’ to me!” Shamari stated.
Brandi was becoming annoyed with the both of them. “Where is Born, Shamari? Is he in this visiting room?”
Shamari looked around and made eye contact with Born who was staring in their direction. Born gave Shamari the evil eye, as if he knew exactly what was being said about him. Shamari froze up and decided not to say anything to his mother.
“Nah, he’s not in here. I’ll be a’ight, but tell this dude to stay away from me and you, Ma!” Shamari replied, referring to Sean.
Brandi looked at Sean. He knew when he was being dismissed and walked away from the table. He was seething with anger and personally wanted to beat Shamari’s ass for lying to his mother. He knew that Born called himself having good intentions but at what cost? Now, Sean’s mood had changed instantly and he began walking around the visit area and making everyone with one minute over an hour get up immediately. His coworkers watched Sean with bewildered looks on their faces as if to say, “What happened?” He went from being pleasant to becoming a total jerk within a few minutes. Brandi tried not to make any more eye contact with Sean and felt bad about the accusations but she didn’t know what was going on. Sean casually made his way over to Born’s table. Born tried to give him a pound but Sean would have none of that. Sean greeted Born’s wife instead.
“Yo’, son, I gotta talk to you after your visit,” Sean suggested.
Born knew what Sean wanted to talk about. “Yeah, a’ight.”
An hour had passed and Shamari’s visit was over. When Brandi walked out, Sean followed her through the metal doors. Not wanting everyone in their business, he grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side for a talk.
“Brandi, how could you accuse me of tryin’ to get your son hurt in here? That’s not anything I would do to anybody!”
“Sean, I don’t know what’s going on but if one hair on Shamari’s head is touched, I’m personally holding you responsible. You said that you were going to look out for him, not get him killed in here!” Brandi replied, looking as if she was about to cry. She was seething with anger.
Sean sighed in frustration. “What? Brandi, don’t believe Shamari! I wouldn’t do that to him or anyone in here!”
“Don’t you dare tell me not to believe my child! He wouldn’t lie to me about no shit like this!”
Sean looked at Brandi and saw what the problem with Shamari was. His mother felt that he could do no wrong. It wasn’t as if the young man was trustworthy. There was no honor among thieves and Shamari was locked up on a robbery charge. If he could steal, he could cheat, lie, and possibly kill. She was almost acting like she owed him something; like she was trying to make up for the loss of his father.
“You’re right, Miss Wallace. You are so right. I’m gonna leave this alone and tell my man, Born, to fall back off your son. That’s the least I can do since you don’t believe me. I just hope you realize that Shamari is on his own now and I ain’t gonna be his personal caretaker! And as for you, take care of yourself!”
Sean walked away and did not look back. As Brandi stood there waiting for the bus, she was beginning to think that she may have made a mistake.
Moments later, Sean decided to walk to the visit search area and approach Shamari. The COs who worked there saw the expression on Sean’s face. The other COs noticed the peeved expression on his face. They knew what was about to happen. They conveniently walked out so that Sean could be alone with Shamari.
Shamari saw Sean and instantly began trash talking. “Yeah, motherfucker, you thought that you could get somebody to get at me, huh? Well, my moms done cut your bird-ass off so the joke’s on you, you fuckin’ lame-ass police!” Shamari announced.
Sean pushed the teen against the brick wall and Shamari winced with pain.
“Keep my damn name out your mouth, Shorty, ’cause I don’t need none of these fuckin’ crooks in here to do my dirty work, you hear me? If I wanted to whip ya ass, I’m a team by myself, nigga, and nobody is gonna stop me. You can call your mother, I.G., or God Himself and I will still lay your ass out. You ain’t nothin’ but a young fuckin’ punk who can fool his mama but I don’t care nothin’ about you! Like you said, I ain’t your fuckin’ daddy, nigga!”
Shamari tried to bring some phlegm up and into his mouth, as if he wanted to spit in Sean’s face.
Sean grabbed Shamari’s face and held it very tight. “Oh, you wanna try spit on me? Huh? I’ll bust your damn teeth out your mouth if you do!”
Shamari tried to squirm out of Sean’s grasp but to no avail. Sean mushed his face and Shamari fell back onto the floor.
“I was gonna look out for you in here, and to tell you the truth, my man, Born was tryin’ to show you some tough love. He wasn’t gonna do shit but make you not wanna come back and forth to jail like he did when he was your age but since you don’t appreciate shit, from now on, you little bastard, you on your own in here. Anything that goes down from now on is on you, big man!”
Shamari stayed on the floor and waited until Sean walked out of the visit area to get up. He brushed himself off and walked down the long corridor toward Five North. When he arrived back inside, an unidentified inmate who looked to be around Shamari’s age punched him square in the face, knocking him on the floor. As Shamari lay out on the floor, temporarily unconscious, Born stepped over him and slashed him on the neck.
Chapter 9
When Brandi arrived home, she was still upset from Sean’s comments. Was Shamari really playing her against the handsome correction officer? Maybe she was in denial and didn’t want to believe that’s what it was. Brandi knew that her son was a little selfish but she would be highly disappointed in him if she found out that he was wicked enough to accuse Sean of such an injustice. Brandi didn’t want that false information to get back to the wrong person, especially if it would mean putting Sean in a bad position with his job.
Brandi thought back to when a person like Born would have been dead for fucking with her family. Her loyalty to her loved ones was never to be questioned and she would kill a nigga for violating anyone that was near and dear to her heart.
It was 1989. Brandi and Maleek were sitting in her Land Rover waiting for one of their connects, a guy named Justice. They were on the corner of Rockaway and Fulton Street. Brandi was uncomfortable with the surroundings. Even thought she was from the hood herself, she felt uneasy as she watched the dope fiends and crackheads move ar
ound the poorly lit corner. Ironically, she couldn’t help but wonder why everyone was looking like Night of the Living Dead with their zombie-like appearances. Maleek seemed extremely comfortable. as he continued to rap along with Kool G. Rap on “Roads to The Riches.” Brandi shook her head, removed her gun from her Gucci shopping bag, and lay it on her lap. Maleek gave her a strange look.
“What are you gonna do with that?” he asked.
Brandi looked over her shoulder and sucked her teeth. “What you think ,nigga? I’m gonna put a cap in somebody’s ass if I have to,” she replied sarcastically. Maleek could be so naïve sometimes.
Maleek laughed sofly and kissed Brandi on the cheek. “My boo is so cute! She’s gonna shoot somebody with her wittle gun?” he teased.
Brandi frowned. “No, see, Maleek! I’m dead-ass serious! You don’t think somethin’ is a little funny?”
Maleek looked around. “Man, fuck these motherfuckers! I don’t see nothin’ but crackheads and—”
Suddenly, one of the fiends put a gun to Maleek’s head through the half-cracked window.
“Run yo’ shit, nigga!” the fiend ordered. Brandi’s eyes widened and her hand went for the .38 special sitting in her lap. The fiend never saw her make a move.
Maleek held his hands up and fear was written all over his handsome face. “Yo’, son, look. Take the gun away from my head and I’ll give you what you want!”
“I want your jewels and your bitch’s jewels, too. And I know that you waitin’ for that dude, Just, so I want Just’s fuckin’ money, too! Gimme your shit! Now!” The desperate criminal pushed the barrel of the gun deeper into Maleek’s temple. Maleek grimaced in pain.
As Brandi reached for the small duffel bag filled with money, Maleek distracted the thief by taking off his jewelry. All of a sudden, Brandi reached across Maleek’s face and pointed the gun in the perp’s face. She pulled the trigger and hit the ornery rogue right through his eye. As the man fell backward into the street, his .45 caliber pistol went off in the air. He fell into the street, cracking his skull against the curb, with blood gushing from the gaping hole where his left eye used to be. Maleek stretched his head out of the window, and from the looks of it, the man was definitely a goner. The few people who were outside began scattering all over the place to escape the onslaught of gunfire.
Maleek started the truck and pulled off. “Oh, shit!” he yelled. “We gotta get the fuck outta here!”
He skidded off and headed down Rockaway toward Broadway. Maleek made a right turn onto Chauncey Street, not knowing where they were going to end up. After riding for fifteen minutes, they finally managed to pull over on Brandi’s block on Quincy Street.
Maleek attempted to catch his breath. He looked over at Brandi in the passenger seat, who looked calm as hell.
“Yo’! You killed that motherfucker you know that, right?”
Brandi shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah, I know. So?” Maleek shook his head in amazement. “That nigga tried to kill us!”
Maleek caught his breath and smiled. He knew right then that Brandi was his rider chick, his gangster bitch for life.
Brandi was about to get out of the truck so that she could go upstairs and tend to their sleeping baby. Maleek was going home.
“Where you goin’, Brandi?”
“I’m goin’ upstairs to my house to see about Shamari. Why?” she asked, getting her Gucci bag out of the car. She threw the murder weapon in the sewer. Brandi thought that Maleek was going to get into his Benz and go to his own apartment.
“We’re gonna park your truck. Let’s get in my car and go home,” he replied.
“Home?”she repeated, with a confused look on her face.
“Yeah, home. Tomorrow, we could come back and get Shamari. Y’all movin’ in with me.”
Brandi climbed back in the truck and wrapped her arms around Maleek’s neck. She’d finally proved her loyalty to Maleek that night and she got her man. But at what cost?
Brandi stared at the large clock on her living room wall and was tempted to call Sean to apologize. He was right when he said that he wasn’t Shamari’s babysitter and she felt that because of her snap judgment, Shamari could be in even more danger. Brandi had to remember that it was jail and at any given time, anything could happen to Shamari. It wasn’t fair to put that type of responsibility on Sean. She took a deep breath and picked up her cell phone to call him.
“What do you want, Brandi?” Sean answered on the third ring.
“Sean, wait, I wanted to apologize about today. I do, um, can you forgive me?” she asked.
“Nah, I’m not fuckin’ with you,” Sean replied flatly.
Brandi was shocked. “Why?”
“Brandi, I take my job seriously and you and your demon seed is playin’ a real serious game. Personally, I regret the day I lay eyes on you and your fuckin’ son! So do me a favor and just leave me alone!”
Brandi began to plead with him. “Sean, listen to me, don’t hang up. Can we still go out tonight? My treat.”
Sean was silent. He knew he had opened an assortment of problems by dealing with this woman, but he couldn’t deny his attraction to Brandi. Though the situation with her son was a big turn-off, he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and take her up on her offer to hang out.
“Yeah, a’ight, a’ight. On one condition,” Sean said.
“Sure.”
“We forget about what happened today and just move on. From now on, your business with your son is your business, I’m stayin’ out of it. And two, don’t ever think I’m conspirin’ with that nigga, Born, again, okay? What I’m tryin’ to say is that I’m feelin’ that you wanna protect Shamari but you can’t protect him all the time and neither can I. Just because you think he’s special and you love him, everyone don’t have to feel the same way about him. He is in jail for a reason.”
Brandi leaned back into her couch. She always devoted her time to raising her son and now it was time to get her life ready for some happiness.
“Sean, I apologize once again and I’ll be ready to pick you up at nine o’clock. Is dat all right with you?”
Sean looked at Yadira and Jada, who were lay out on his couch watching television.
“How about I pick you up instead?” he replied.
At Sean’s house, Yadi sang along with BET videos that were showing on the forty-two inch plasma television in Sean’s living room, while she cleaned up. Jada was busy playing with some toys that Sean had stored away for his nieces and nephews. Yadi looked around at the spotless house and was more than happy that she could do something to repay her friend for his generosity.
She was pleased that he told her that she could stay there as long as it took her to get on her feet, which was going to be in no time. She just needed to stay away from Devin, whom she didn’t seem to miss at all. She plopped on the couch, touching the knot on her head and hissed, as the pain from the knot sent a shock wave through her body. She was bruised up and limping but was happy that she was able to get away. Some women never made it out of domestic violence situations alive.
“Mommy, is this our new house?” Jada asked, while coloring in a Snow White coloring book.
“For a little while, baby. For a little while,” Yadi replied, while playing with Jada’s shoulder-length ponytails.
“Daddy can’t come here, right?”
Yadi smiled. Her daughter was no one’s dummy. “No, he sure can’t.”
Jada looked at her mother with her doe eyes and inch-long eyelashes. “That’s right, ’cause Mr. Sean gonna beat him up if he do, right, Mommy?”
Yadi tried not to laugh. “Yeah, Jada, somethin’ like that.”
“Mommy?”
“Yes, baby?”
“I don’t like Daddy no more.”
Yadi reached for her daughter and sat her on her lap. “No, Jay-Jay, don’t say that. You supposed to love your daddy. Me and him had a fight but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love you or you can’t love him back.”
“I don’t like him ’cause he was mean to you. I want Mr. Sean to be my new daddy. He nice ’cause he let us have this new house.”
Jada climbed off Yadi’s lap and began coloring again. Yadi looked at her daughter and silently shed some tears. She would just have to work on getting Devin out of her life for good.
Yadi walked upstairs as Sean was getting dressed. She quickly put Jada to bed in the spare room, only to return to the doorway of Sean’s bedroom, which smelled like the Hugo Boss he had just sprayed all over himself. She was secretly envious of the lucky woman who was going out with him tonight.
“So, who is this female you’re hangin’ out with tonight?” she asked, without cracking a smile.
“Oh, a friend of mine. You don’t know her,” Sean replied while putting on his Kenneth Cole shoes. Yadi felt a sexual urge creeping throughout her body, as Sean checked himself out in the mirror.
“How do I look, Yadi?” he asked.
“You look really good. You must really be tryin’ to impress this woman,” she added.
“It ain’t that, ma, I just like to look good, whether I’m goin’ out on a date or not.”
Yadi inspected Sean from head to toe. “Well, I can see that you’re gettin’ your grown-man on.”
Sean smiled at himself, while still standing in the mirror. He started to sing “How Does It Feel?” Everyone said he was a dead ringer for the singer D’Angelo, and he didn’t believe that until that moment.
“I think I’m gonna cut my braids off. I am thirty years old now so it’s about that time.”
Yadi shook her head. Why was she feeling so jealous? Was it because she wanted Sean for herself or was it because she resented the freedom of the woman he was going out with? Yadi figured whoever she was, she probably had it all together. All she knew was that she was going to be in the house another night, alone. All the years she had spent with Devin were mainly spent in the house. They rarely went anywhere together.