“Yo, this is DeeDee, the out-of-town jump-off I was telling you about,” Reemo whispered.
Deidre couldn’t hear what he was saying. She shifted her weight so that her leg hit up against the weapon she concealed in her boot; reassurance.
“DeeDee, this is my bro, R.J. Bro, this is DeeDee,” Reemo said, introducing them.
Deidre couldn’t look R.J. in the face. His eyes made her uncomfortable. The chestnut brown cat eyes dug a hole right into her. He was very attractive, with a full beard that connected to a slim trimmed mustache. She referred to that type of beard as the “Ice Cube”. R.J.’s soft hair was cut low, but not so low that Deidre wasn’t able to see the soft texture of the small curls that hugged his scalp. He extended his hand for a handshake with well-manicured nails and unusually soft hands. Don’t look like he has ever been to prison, Deidre thought to herself.
“It’s nice meeting you, DeeDee. I hear you the one that got my bro on the come up, moving real weight for the team,” R.J. said with his low, Barry White voice.
Deidre thought only her daddy could ever sound that sexy. Stay focused, she scolded herself. “It’s nice to meet you too,” she said shyly.
“Yeah, yeah. I just wanted her to meet you n’ shit,” Reemo said nervously.
Why the fuck is he acting so nervous? Deidre screamed inside her head, slightly panicked but playing it cool.
“So, ya’ll found any hot chicks for tonight yet?” Reemo asked, changing the subject.
“Nah yo, same ol’ sorry ass stripper chicks. You seen one, you seem ‘em all,” R.J. commented.
Chastity approached the three of them. “You are so fucking rude!” she screamed at Reemo as she stared Deidre down.
“Nah, lil’ sis, I was making my way over to you. Bro got up to holla at me, but you stayed sitting there,” Reemo replied. “Chazz, this is DeeDee. DeeDee, this is Chazz,” Reemo introduced, not wanting to be accused of being even more impolite.
“W’sup,” Deidre said, smiling.
“W’sup,” Chastity said in an almost inaudible whisper. She had noticed Deidre as soon as she walked in, and apparently so had R.J.
“Nice to meet you,” Deidre said. Chastity ignored her and walked back to her seat behind her Centurion desk. A hard ass, huh? Deidre thought. She had never had good experiences with other women, so she didn’t have girlfriends. Deidre knew nothing about all-girl shopping sprees, slumber parties, or what it was like to have a best friend to confide in. Chastity’s snub was not unusual to her.
“R.J., let’s finish this shit. The party is tonight, and Loca deserves some hot bitches at her shit,” Chastity said, still eyeing Deidre.
“Yo, Reemo, why don’t you and your partner chill for a minute. Let me finish up here and we can go throw some back at the bar,” R.J. suggested with a wide smile. He loved Reemo like a brother, but he was more interested in the girl.
“A’ight, cool,” Reemo agreed, looking at Deidre for approval.
“What time is the party tonight?” Deidre asked.
“Who invited her?” Chastity asked right back.
“I did,” Reemo answered.
Chastity looked at her brother for an explanation. She was very private and didn’t take kindly to Reemo inviting any unwelcome outsiders to their private party. She also wasn’t feeling Deidre being in her office. Besides Tori and Leticia, Chastity generally hated other females and didn’t trust them much at all.
R.J. gave his sister a telling glance that said, just chill. “The party starts at eleven.”
“Thanks. Reemo, I’ll see you tonight,” Deidre said, trying not to sound over-eager. She glanced quickly at Chastity before she turned on her heels and headed for the exit.
“You in the middle, turn around!” Deidre heard Reemo yell at the line of half-naked women patiently waiting to audition. Fucking clown! she thought.
Rushing up the street, Deidre spotted an FTD Flowers van and instinctively knew her surveillance team was inside. Heart racing, she climbed into her car and pulled off with her tail close behind.
VOLUME 7 : THE DEMONS WITHIN
Leticia examined herself in the long store mirror inside of Burberry. “I don’t like it,” she griped, making faces at the mirror.
“Huuuhhh!” Tori sighed, frustrated. “We’ve been to nearly every store in Short Hills Mall. You betta find something,” she warned, looking at her watch.
“Yo, for real though, you shoulda took me downtown Brooklyn. All this upper-class shopping ain’t for me. I want some Roca-Wear, Sean John and Timbs. Forget Burberry, Gucci, and Christian Dior. These shits is for ya’ll girlie girls,” Leticia complained.
“Whatever!” Tori laughed. She found Leticia’s desire to be a man funny.
“But I’m saying, I do need to hit Gucci again for those chocolate monogram sneakers,” Leticia said, chuckling along with her friend.
Tori looked down at her watch for the fiftieth time, anxious to get their shopping trip over with. She had been given specific instructions from Chastity to take Leticia shopping for a hot, high-end outfit for the surprise party planned for Leticia tonight. Tori had no desire to be at the mall, as she was scheduled for a visit with her baby girl in a few hours. Her daughter, Akayla, had been removed from her care after she was arrested for possession of a stolen credit card and grand larceny. She beat the charges, thanks to the high-priced lawyer Chastity hired, but her battle in Family Court had just begun. She was no stranger to hard knocks or the system. Even though she had a black metal box filled with cash in the bottom of her closet, she fully understood that the New York City foster care system could not be bought.
Tori was the seventh child of ten, and often overlooked at home. Her mother ignored a lot of things while she was growing up, including the excessive corporal punishment her father used. Rollow Banks, pastor of the Good Hope Baptist Church, was a man of the cloth that believed that sparing the rod spoiled the child. Pastor Banks was a hero to his storefront church followers, especially the women.
“Sit up straight and don’t dirty your clothes before service,” Ellsie Banks warned her nine eldest children, who ranged in age from sixteen to seven years old, while they ate breakfast. In the Banks’ home, cleanliness was considered next to Godliness. Shortly after breakfast, they all loaded into the family’s green 1975 Pontiac station wagon, with its ugly brown oak wood grain doors, to spend the day at church. Pulling up on Pitkin Avenue, all of the children, with the exception of LuLu, the baby who was always on her mother’s hip, exited the station wagon in clown car fashion. Tori was last, as usual, which earned her a swat on the back of the head from Pastor Banks.
“. . . Sign me up for the Christian jubilee,
Just write my name, write my name on the rolls.
I’ve been changed; I’ve been changed, since the Lord has lifted me. I wanna be ready when Jesus comes ...”
The loud music assailed the children’s young ears as they entered the storefront church. Tori immediately raised her hands over her ears in a rude display of disapproval. Tambourines, drums and the old-fashioned organ were thumping with gospel music. Some of the older members had already begun the morning praise portion of the service. Sister Oralie was running up and down the aisle with the Holy Ghost already.
Ellsie marched her children to the front row—the first family row to be exact—and they all slid onto the hard, birch wood bench.
Coral, Tori’s oldest sister, removed her dark blue pea coat to reveal her starched white usher’s uniform, and quickly took her place at the back of the tiny church to perform her duties. Tori turned around to watch her sister in action. Coral was so pretty in Tori’s eyes. Her sister had skin like silk, large round dark brown eyes, the most perfect button nose and straight white teeth. Her hair was down her back, and at sixteen, she possessed the shape of a grown woman. Tori wanted to be an usher. She often wished she were just like Coral. Coral got lots of attention, greeting people with her blinding white gloves and beautiful smile. She was clearly Pastor
Banks’ favorite child. Tori’s father watched Coral with pride. At home, she got whatever she wanted, including her father’s undivided attention.
“Psst! Turn around and mind the Lord!” Ellsie whispered harshly at Tori.
The service began as it usually did, with what seemed like a lifetime of standing. Pastor Banks took his place at the pulpit and motioned for everyone to sit down. Tori stared at her father. He was a very handsome man, standing at six-foot three-inches tall, with a broad chest and prominent square shoulders. His skin was similar to Coral’s, smooth and creamy and the color of Caribbean sand. His eyes were deep set and dark like coal. When he spoke, he held the entire room captive with his words, all except for his younger children.
Shortly after the service began, Tori started the never-ending fight with her neck to keep her head up, nodding in and out of sleep. At nine years old, she was not interested in redeeming her soul. Nor did she have ten percent to bring into God’s storehouse, which her mother and father often used for groceries right after service.
Normally, after service, the Banks children were charged with cleaning up the church. Today, however, Pastor Banks said he was going to drop the children and Ellsie off at home, because he and sister Addie had to visit the sick and shut-in church members at various local hospitals. Ellsie obeyed her husband and loaded the children into the car. She took her place in the front passenger seat to wait on Pastor Banks to drive them home. Sister Addie remained inside the church with Pastor Banks.
“Ma! Ma!” Tori called out from the back of the station wagon.
“What is it?” Ellsie answered, trying to get a glimpse of her husband inside the church, but not daring enough to go back inside.
“I gotta pee-pee!” Tori whined.
“Can’t it wait? Your father will be mad if you get out of this car,” Ellsie warned.
“No, I really gotta go!” Tori screamed, afraid she would have an accident.
“Go ahead then, and hurry up back!” Ellsie yelled. She didn’t care if Tori interrupted anything inside the church anyway. She hated Addie and her Jackée-looking self.
Tori climbed over the other children and exited the car in a hurry. Bursting through the doors, she ran straight down the center aisle toward the small bathroom adjacent to the tiny pulpit. Before she could push the bathroom door open, she heard loud moans coming from behind the pulpit curtain that covered the baptismal pool. Then she heard her father groan like a dying bear. Tori thought her father might be sick or hurt. She rushed to the curtain and yanked it back. “Daddy! Sister Addie!” Tori screamed, shocked at what she found. Her father was standing in front of Sister Addie, who was on her knees with his penis in her mouth. Tori peed all over herself as both scrambled to adjust their clothing.
Her father rushed towards her and grabbed her forcefully by the arm. “If you tell your mother, I will kill you!” he growled with his hot breath blowing on her face.
Tori had seen the devil himself, she was sure of it. When she got back into the car, she was panting and as pale as Casper the Ghost, except she didn’t look so friendly.
Coral could see that something was wrong. She leaned over to Tori and whispered, “You better not tell on Daddy!”
That night, the family sat around the dinner table and ate in silence. Tori could hardly eat her food under her father’s menacing glares. Her nerves caused her hands to shake and her fork to drop on the floor. Bending over discretely to pick up her utensil, her hand hit the edge of her plate and sent her entire dinner crashing to the floor.
Pastor Banks jumped to his feet in one swift motion. Everything stopped and everyone stared, not knowing what to expect. Tori’s father took this opportunity to show Tori what he would do to her if she ever told her mother what she had witnessed. “The Lord doesn’t tolerate disobedience and wastefulness! You didn’t want that food!” he boomed, yanking Tori out of her chair.
Terrified, the entire family looked on in shock. Ellsie furrowed her eyebrows with worry, knowing firsthand what her husband was capable of. Pastor Banks dragged Tori to the bedroom she shared with her sisters.
“Take off your dress!” he demanded.
“Please, Daddy! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to drop it!” Tori pleaded as she watched her father pull out the short black cow whip.
Pastor Banks lifted his arm in fury and the cow whip crashed against Tori’s hand and forearm, which she had raised in self-defense. The bone in her pinky finger made a loud crunch as it shattered under her skin.
“Aggghhhhhh!” Tori released a blood-curdling scream, which did not seem to dissuade her father from his assault. Pastor Banks was a man possessed. Up and down he went with the cow whip, its small beaded leather ripping into Tori’s delicate skin until she bled.
At first Ellsie tried to tune out the sound of her child screaming for dear life. When she stopped making noises, Ellsie became worried. With LuLu in her arms, she rushed into the girls’ room. Tori lay perfectly still, stiff with shock as her father continued whipping. “Rollow, that’s enough!” Ellsie screamed out of fear for her child’s life.
Pastor Banks turned around swiftly, dripping with sweat and eyes squinting with pure menace. He looked like the devil himself. “Shut your mouth, woman! The Lord said the wife is her husband’s servant!” he misquoted the Bible as he lashed Ellsie across her face.
Shocked, Ellsie stumbled backwards, fighting to get her balance. Enraged, he hit her again. By now, all of the children were standing in the doorway crying for their daddy to stop. Pastor Banks cracked his whip against his wife’s frame, but this time the whip tragically caught baby LuLu around her neck. Blood gushed from the baby’s soft, sienna-colored skin. Ellsie’s baby began to convulse in her arms. “Noooo!” she screamed as the baby flopped from her grasp and hit the hard tiled floor.
Time stood still. Tori’s body lay bloodied and in shock just feet away from her lifeless baby sister. Cries of pain and anguish echoed throughout the house. Everyone was screaming and jumping up and down, except for Tori and Lulu.
Ellsie dropped to her knees. “Lord what have I done?” she screamed in agony.
Tori closed her eyes, breathing in snot and blood, the sight of her dead sister forever etched in her brain. She never saw her father again after that, and her mother had to be committed to a psychiatric ward. The remaining nine children were separated and placed in foster care.
“Tori! T-baby!” Leticia called out, confused as her friend ran through a red light without even blinking.
“Yeah girl, I’m a’ight,” Tori assured. Any time she thought about that fateful Sunday and the days, months, and years that followed, she got the chills. Her father’s violence and the scars, both emotional and physical, could not be erased. That’s why she hated to be around fighting, violence, and bloodshed. Witnessing death was something she never wanted to do again.
“I got my sneakers. Are you getting the bag you looked at?” Leticia asked.
“No, I just want to get out of here. I gotta go see KayKay. If I’m late, that bitch of a foster care worker will surely tell Judge Henly on my next court date,” Tori explained.
“Damn, man! They still bugging off that? Can’t they see you are a good mother? Shit, everybody makes mistakes!” Leticia spat. She despised the foster care system.
“My bitch of a sister, Coral don’t make it no better. She always got something to tell the court. Yo, it’s like she got somebody telling her all of my business,” Tori complained.
“She just wanna keep your baby because she can’t have none,” Leticia said.
“I know, but I can’t help wondering how this bitch be finding out information,” Tori said, concerned.
“Yo, the streets is always talking,” Leticia replied.
The ride back to Brooklyn in Tori’s 2004 Mercedes Benz ML55 truck was quiet, aside from the Game CD that bumped.
“. . . Hate it or love it, the underdog’s on top,
And I’m gone shine, homie, until my heart stop.
So envy me, I’m rap’s MVP . . .”
Leticia and Tori had a lot on their minds as they bopped to the music in silence.
“Ms. Banks, you’re late again,” Ms. Dudley, the foster care worker said pointedly.
“I’m sorry, I got stuck in traffic,” Tori explained, huffing and puffing from running up the block.
Coral was sitting in the family visit area at the Little Flower Foster Care Agency, with Akayla in her lap. Tori’s heart raced as she wiped snot from her nose and approached the two. “Hey, baby girl!” Tori sang, extending her arms towards her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. The baby was dressed in a yellow Roca Wear baby sweat suit, with her thick hair pulled into two Afro-puffs.
“No!” the little girl said, grabbing Coral around her neck.
“What’s the matter? It’s your mommy!” Tori said, the glee in her voice fading.
“No-o-o-o-o!” the little girl screamed and squirmed as Tori tried to grab her. “Mommy!” Akayla screamed with tears running down her honey-colored chubby cheeks as she looked to Coral for help.
Tori’s heart was broken and tears immediately poured from her eyes.
“C’mon, baby, visit with your Mommy,” Coral said, trying to persuade her niece to go to her biological mother.
“You Mommy!” the baby said, still holding onto her aunt.
“Are you teaching her to call you Mommy now?” Tori asked angrily.
“She chooses to call me Mommy, and if you . . .” Coral began, but was cut off.
“She is a fucking baby! She can’t choose to call you shit! You are trying to steal my baby, that’s why you keep telling the court that I’m a drug dealer!” Tori yelled, her tears mixing with her makeup.
“I don’t have to listen to this!” Coral grumbled, holding onto the baby while she reached for the baby’s coat.
“Fuck you, Coral! You always had it out for me since the thing with Daddy! Why don’t you and your pastor husband have a fucking baby of your own! You can’t judge me. Only God can judge me!” Tori screamed and cried at the same time. She was aching inside.
Hush Page 8