Crackhead II: A Novel (17 page)

“A’ight, baby,” he told her as he grabbed his leather jacket. “I won’t be too long.” He tugged at Laci gently by her waist and pulled her toward him. “You go ahead and get ready for tonight. I’ll be back at a decent time.”

D
INK COULDN’T MAKE
it to the car quick enough before Laci picked up the phone and called her mother.

“Hi, Mommy,” she said into the receiver as she plopped down on the couch and tucked her feet up under her.

“Hey, sweetheart, how are you?” Margaret loved hearing from Laci. Even though they talked every day, it wasn’t the same as being able to see her daughter face to face.

“I’m fine. I miss you, but I’m fine.” There was a pause on the phone. “Mommy, can I talk to you about something?”

“Yes, sweetheart, you can talk to me about anything.” Margaret’s heart dropped. Laci had been through a lot. She couldn’t imagine what else she had to tell her, but she would take it in stride, whatever it was.

“Mom, something is going on with me and Dink.”

“Something going on like what, honey?”

“I really don’t think he wants to be here.”

“What do you mean ‘here’? You mean in school, or with you?”

“With me. Actually, he’s doing great in school. I was surprised at first. You know, you never think someone like Dink would
know anything outside of the streets, but I was shocked. But he’s been trippin’ off of me having my own friends. Whenever they want to do something, he’ll come up with something for us to do, but he’s cool when I hang around him and his friends.”

“Tell me about these girls, Laci.”

“I found a group of girls that I like, that’s it.”

Margaret’s heart began racing. “They’re not like those—”

“No, Mom, totally opposite. Randi, Gabby, Sam, and I have a lot in common.”

“Like what?” Margaret asked.

“Private school background, travel during the summer, good grades, and shopping.”

Margaret and Laci laughed. “But Mom, Dink has a so-called friend named Simone, who I can’t stand. He says she’s not a threat. He even told me that I should move forward with my life, but how do you know if someone is with you because they want to be or they feel they have to be?”

Margaret understood Laci’s concern.

“Baby, I can understand how you feel but remember, Daryl wouldn’t be there if he didn’t want to be there. He gave up a lot to be with you and I’m sure he wouldn’t jeopardize that. But with this Simone girl, if he tells you that there’s nothing to worry about, trust him, sweetheart. Daryl doesn’t strike me as a man who would say something and not mean it.”

“But Mom, what I didn’t tell you is that she looks a lot like Crystal, his ex.”

Margaret became quiet, but after a few seconds, she spoke again. “Honey, I agree with Dink and think you should move forward. Don’t be afraid to face the future because of your past.” She got quiet for a minute. “Maybe you should get to know her. Even
if you two don’t become friends, remember the old saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

Margaret knew this was a tall order; she knew that forgiving wasn’t easy and this was something they both had to work on.

“Remember, sweetheart, he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t want to be there, and try to be nice to Simone. She’s not his ex.”

“Okay, Mom. Thanks.”

Laci got off the phone with her mother and thought back to an earlier conversation with Dink. She realized that he was telling her something indirectly without saying too much.
Things I do are for you, because I love you.
Laci never thought Dink would resort to violence, because she had never seen that side of him; however, she realized that no matter what environment Dink was in, violence was not beneath him.

FORTY-FIVE MINUTES HAD
passed and Laci just wanted to clear her mind, get in her bath, relax, and get herself ready for her night with Dink. She went into her bedroom, undressed, and put on her thick white terry-cloth robe and matching slippers, then pinned her hair up. She went back into the bathroom to add more hot water to her now cold bath. After she added Vaseline Intensive Care Moisturizing Bath Beads, she submerged her hand in the warm water and swirled it around. Laci inhaled the fresh scent, wiped her hand on her robe, then walked into the living room and turned on the radio. Flipping through the stations, tired of the rap that Dink listened to, she found some pop music. Laci flopped into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of Boone’s Farm and came out, humming along to Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon.”

Taking a sip of the wine, Laci fired up the joint she’d had earlier.
Her uncle had put a lot on her mind, and she was curious about what could have happened with Crystal. Her mind went a mile a minute, so she needed something to slow it down. Taking a hit off the joint, Laci walked back toward the bathroom, then stopped when she heard a knock on the front door.

Not looking out the peephole, Laci flung the door open.

T
ONETTE WAS STILL
obsessed with finding Laci. Over the last three weeks, she hadn’t had shit else to do, so she drove through the streets of the South Bronx. She even made Monique go into various tenements and crack houses looking for the girl.

At Tonette’s bark, Monique even followed Angel, a known crackhead that Laci used to base with, but she came up empty-handed.

To avoid getting her regular beat-down by Tonette for by not doing what she was told, Monique promised her that she would find Laci.

It was the first Saturday in October and nobody had seen or heard from Laci since the end of July. Tonette began to wonder if she was dead, even though she could have sworn she saw her weeks ago in the red Benz. It was as if Laci had disappeared, and she didn’t like that.

When Tonette arrived back at her apartment after being on the streets all night, she immediately went to Monique, who was on the couch asleep.

“Wake yo’ ass up!” She shook Monique hard, then nudged her in the forehead, repeatedly.

Monique immediately sat up and looked at Tonette. Now trained, she was quiet. Tonette hadn’t allowed her to talk yet.

“I been try’na find this ho for weeks now,” Tonette said, needing to talk, pacing the floor back and forth in front of Monique, “and I can’t find her anywhere.” Tonette continued to pace. “I’m really beginning to think she’s dead. What do you think?”

Monique remembered Tonette mentioning that about a week ago, but she let her talk and remained quiet. Tonette noticed that it looked like Monique had something to say. “Go ’head and talk,” she demanded. “Damn!”

“Remember this is the South Bronx. The streets don’t care about a bitch getting blazed, but as soon as a muthafucka dies from an overdose or someone kicks they ass for some blow, then there’s heat. If there ain’t no heat, she ain’t dead.” Monique knew she was always good on her feet, but Tonette never let her or the other South Bronx Bitches have any say-so in anything. Because of that, most of them kept their opinions to themselves. Even if they were right, if Tonette didn’t think of it first, it wouldn’t be dealt with.

“You’re right,” she told Monique. “Damn, I didn’t think about it that way.” She softened her demeanor, then looked at Monique. “So you think she up and burned out?”

“With the habit she had, I don’t think she could have just burned out, but you could be right, Nette.” Monique had to correct the wrong she’d just made. To tell Tonette she was wrong, even if her thinking wasn’t logical, could have dire consequences, so she had to flip the shit and quick. “Girl, she could have tweaked her lil’ ass all the way to Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island and back. Just make one big circle,”
Monique confirmed. “Wouldn’t it be something if she had different mattresses all over?” she laughed.

“Or if she dragged the one she had all over.” Tonette’s eyes began to sparkle with laughter at the visual.

Monique chuckled, “Girl, stop it. Well you know, crackheads need love too,” Monique sang in true Klymaxx fashion. She and Tonette laughed together like nothing had ever happened between them. “We’ll find her, Nette. I promise. We da SBBs, baby. Ain’t nothin’ we can’t do.”

“That’s right,” Tonette confirmed. “We da baddest bitches out here.” She looked at the clock on her wall. It was close to seven in the morning and she had had a rough night. It was time to get some sleep.

“Tonette?” Monique called meekly. She wasn’t certain if she was still able to talk, but she tried her luck.

“Yes?”

“I’m gonna get ready to go to the post office and I’ll hit the streets when I get back home, okay?”

Monique was thankful she had a job when she arrived at Tonette’s door. She couldn’t imagine being under Tonette’s thumb 24/7. She didn’t tell her about the job the night she arrived at her house. After the severe beating, Monique just wanted to go to sleep. The next day when she got up to go to work, she ran into Tonette, who was coming in from a hard night’s work. After Tonette questioned her about where she was going, fearing an early morning beating, Monique admitted that she had a job. She had to, because she had to get to work and she knew that Tonette would deter her. After a couple of weeks of beatings, Tonette’s daily attacks began to cease.

Truth be told, Tonette was getting bored and needed a challenge. She thought about her crew and became angry. She
was on the streets hustling, Shaunna was a career baby mama, fucking anything with a dick to get hers, and Crystal was now pushing up daisies. Monique was the only one of the crew doing something legal that could amount to anything. Although jealous, she decided to use it to her advantage. Monique was the only one who didn’t have a record, so Tonette made sure that Monique was building her credit, too. She knew that with good credit, and being legal, if things got hot, Monique would be the one to have her back if something were to go down.

Not having heard from Shaunna, Tonette wondered if she was playing her to the left.

“Okay,” Tonette yawned. She walked to her bedroom. “Oh, and Monique?”

“Yes?”

“Thanks.”

Monique felt relieved. This was the first time in weeks that Tonette had been remotely nice to her, and she would do what she had to do to keep it that way.

A
FTER TAKING A
much-needed rest, Tonette awoke fresh and ready to go. She checked her stash and saw that she was low. Too low for her to go back out on the streets without re-upping. “Shit!” she said as she checked her pager, which had been blowin’ up since she laid her head down.

Tonette realized that she’d had it easy for a minute, hitting the streets with Dame’s stash that he kept at the other apartment, but now it was almost gone and she had to get back on a serious grind. In the past, if she’d needed some quick cash, she would skim some blow off Dame, then sex him down real good. But shit, his bitch ass was history, so she had to go through Dink until she found another trick she could cop from. Hustling was cool with her, though, because it gave her something to do to keep her mind off of Laci, but she was still angry and demanded to be in control. Control, anger, and an evil bitch was a deadly combination, and everyone who encountered Tonette knew it.

It was seven o’clock on Saturday night and Tonette was waiting on the corner at her usual spot for Smurf. She knew something
was up because she had paged Dink earlier that day, but it was Smurf who called her back.

“Someone page a pager?” Smurf spoke into the nearest pay-phone receiver.

“Who dis?” she questioned.

“Who dis? You paged me.” Smurf was beginning to get pissed. He didn’t have time to play games.

“Dis Tonette. Where Dink?”

“Oh.”

“Oh what?” Tonette snapped, recognizing the voice.

“Girl, you need to check dat attitude.”

“Anyway,” she huffed, “where Dink?”

“Takin’ care of business,” Smurf retorted quickly. “I’m returning his pages, so wassup?”

“I need my normal stuff.”

“I’m tied up right now,” he told her, “but meet me at the spot later on tonight. Around ten.” He hung up the phone before she could reply.

He would have sought her out sooner, but his first priority was to get shit on the streets right, getting his troops in place to keep the operation moving.

But when Dink asked that he keep an eye on the girls, and then Laci asked the same thing, Smurf knew something was up. He knew Dink was on top of his business and after what Laci told him, they both had a good reason for keeping tabs on them.

Smurf knew Tonette by her reputation and knew that her crew didn’t operate without her. She was a slippery little bitch and he didn’t want to get caught slippin’ with her.

O
H!” LACI GASPED,
“it’s you.”

“Well damn, don’t sound so happy to see me.”

“What do you want, T.J.?”

“I wanted to rap to ya for a minute.” He pushed his way inside the apartment. “How was your little, uh . . . outing?” T.J. said sarcastically.

“It was really nice,” Laci told him, ignoring the sarcasm in his voice. “We enjoyed it.” Laci noticed a strange look on T.J.’s face, which made her really uncomfortable. “Um . . . look, T.J., I know you didn’t come all the way over here to ask me about sightseeing. Daryl isn’t here, but—”

“I know he isn’t,” he responded, and closed the door behind him.

Laci watched him closely.

“Don’t worry,” T.J. told her when he saw the worry in her face. “I ain’t gonna hurt you.”

Laci stood in front of him, waiting for him to speak. She wished that she wasn’t completely naked under her robe, so she
pulled the neck closed in an attempt to conceal herself. “Okay, can you make it quick? I have something I have to do.”

“Oh yeah,” he remarked slyly, “like get that surprise ready?” T.J. sneered at her. “You know, you’re very beautiful.” He reached out and touched one of her black curly tendrils of hair and watched as it bounced on her shoulder. “I told you that when I saw you for the first time.” He lightly grazed her cheek with his finger.

“You buggin’,” Laci said and gently moved his hand away. “You got a girl, remember?”