Crazy Summer (4 page)

Summer left them there and walked into the kitchen dressed in only panties and a t-shirt underneath her open robe. She tied it as she approached the kitchen because she didn’t want to hear any more drama from her mother. Mrs. Diane stood over the stove, where the aroma of beef sausages, scrambled eggs, and cheese grits rose into the air. There was no question she knew exactly what she was doing.

Noticing Summer had come up behind her, she softly asked, “Them babies up yet?” 

“Yes, ma’am,” Summer replied, while removing a container of orange juice from the fridge.

She sat it on the table just as the twins were marching around the corner, one behind the other. Besides wearing their underwear, they were naked. As Summer placed them in their highchairs, Mrs. Diane cut up their meat and prepared their plates. They wouldn’t eat until it was cool, though.

Before they could all sit down to eat, the doorbell rang. Summer looked up awkwardly for a second and then headed to the door, practicing her grown and sexy walk as she went. Once at the door, she closed one eye and looked through the peephole with the other.

Who the fuck is this?
she asked herself while staring at a young, striking, well-dressed female. She slid the bolt lock and opened the door, staring at the light-skinned female that stood on the front porch. The glass storm door separated them.

“Hello,” the female said.

Summer shot back with a simple, “Hey.”

The female gave a beautiful smile. “I came for your brother Rodney.” 

This time, Summer flashed a beautiful smile of her own. “Oh! Erica, right?” she said, hoping she’d gotten the name correct.

“Yeah,” the woman replied. “He sent me to come see you.”

Summer flipped the lock on the storm door and stepped out onto the front porch in her robe. Someone in a Delta 88 passed by and blew the horn. She waved and said to herself,
Bitch-ass nigga.

  Erica cleared her throat and nervously played with the strap of her leather purse. “I’m supposed to be taking him some weed,” she said in a whisper.

By now, Mrs. Diane had come to the door. “Who is it, Summa?” she asked, her eyes examining the stranger who stood before her.

Summer turned toward her mother. “It’s Rodney’s girlfriend.” 

“Well, y’all come in. Don’t talk on the porch.” She held the storm door open for them.

Summer and the female stepped inside the living room. She introduced herself as Erica and explained to Mrs. Diane how she and Rodney had met. The two women sat down, while Summer went toward the bedroom. She came back five minutes later dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt.

“I’ll be right back,” she told Erica and her mother.

Then she walked out the door into the muggy summer heat. Four houses down on the other side of the street, she walked up an uphill driveway where two Cadillacs were parked. Two guys, who were about the same age as she but a little younger, were sitting on the front porch.

“Fine ass, Summa!” one of them shouted, while standing up with a Michelob gripped in his hand and a Newport hanging from his mouth. “Whazzup?” he asked, grabbing his crotch as she reached the porch.

“You talked to my brotha?” she asked, ignoring his inappropriate gesture.

The guy’s facial expression changed. He toned down and became more serious.

“You come to pick dat up for him?” he asked, then took a draw from his cigarette and turned up his Michelob to take a gulp.

“Yeah, the girl’s waitin’ at my house now.”

“Wait right here,” the guy said before jogging around the side of the house.

Summer sat down in one of the metal chairs facing the other guy on the porch.

“Oh, you don’t know nobody now?” she said to him.

He glanced at her briefly before turning his attention back toward the streets. Cars were moving along Amsterdam, one of the busiest streets in Barton Village.

Looking back at Summer, the guy asked, “When does Rodney get out?”

“He got three mo’ years, I guess.”

The other guy came from around the side of the house. In his hand, he held a small, compressed block of marijuana in a sandwich bag.

“Tell him it’s two O’s compressed together,” he told her. 

He handed it over, and as she was about to leave, he grabbed her arm. “When you gonna let me get in?”

“I’ll be back tonight,” she simply replied and walked down the driveway.

Her walk was so seductive, and with every step, everything on her from the waist down shook uncontrollably. She turned around to make sure all eyes were on her, and they were. She grinned because she knew she had what it took.

By the time she got back to the house, she noticed Erica had one of her boys on her right thigh. Summer had the weed tucked inside her front pocket because she didn’t want her mother to know what was going on. It wasn’t long before Mrs. Diane had faded into the kitchen, and that’s when Summer slipped her the package. Erica quickly hid it inside her leather purse. After kissing the twins on the cheek, Erica stood up and headed to where she had to go.

Thirty minutes later, Summer had dressed the kids, placed them in the double twin stroller, and took them for a walk through the neighborhood. The sun was at its peak, or if it wasn’t, it damn sure felt like it. The neighborhood was lined with red brick houses on every street; they were mostly one level, with a few two levels spread here and there.

By the time she reached her friend’s house on London, she felt her back sweating through her t-shirt. On the lawn, there was a pearl-white old model Chevy Caprice with hammer rims, a black ragtop, and matching crush interior. She had never seen this car before and was anxious to find out who owned it. She got to the porch and lifted her sons up the step. She politely pressed the illuminated doorbell and then wiped the sweat from the boys’ faces with a burgundy hand towel. When the door opened, she was still bending over attending to the kids.

“Damn,” someone said in a low tone.

Summer quickly stood straight up and spun around to face the door. She was surprised not to see her friend Toni; instead, she was addressed by some guy who she had never seen before. The guy carefully scanned her up and down. As a matter of fact, he stared at her so hard that she felt a sense of nervousness flow through her.

She was just about to ask a question, when the guy beat her to it.

“You lookin’ fo’ Red Bone?”

Red Bone was Toni’s nickname.

“Yeah, tell her Summer’s out here,” she said, trying to avoid eye contact with the guy who had her skin crawling.

“She ain’t here right now,” the guy responded, while opening the screen door. “Come on in. She’ll be right back.”

She thought for a few seconds about this situation she was faced with. First, she didn’t know who the guy was, even though he was very attractive to her. Then again, she knew how Red Bone could get when it came to a man. She was always tripping when she was high, thinking a bitch wanted her man.

Fuck it,
she thought.

She gripped the handle of the stroller and pressed down on it, making the front wheels pop up over the doorstep.

The guy held the door open for her. “These lil’ niggas are twins, huh?” He couldn’t keep his eyes off her excellent shaped body.

As she made her way into the living room, the smell of marijuana was light in the air, and she started to wonder if it was strong enough to affect her kids. She sat down on a plaid loveseat and pulled her boys close to her, while the guy closed the door and locked it just as quickly, for security purposes only. Summer cut eyes at him. He stood five-nine, which made him two inches taller than her. He wasn’t a handsome guy she realized. He was brown skin with bad acne; his nose was fat and his nostrils flared. He didn’t wear any jewelry, and he was dressed like he hadn’t had one red cent to his name.

  She took in all of this as he walked to the back toward one of the bedrooms or the bathroom. He came back, his eyes watching her again. This time, her eyes followed his.

“Why you keep staring at me?” She flashed a half smile, hoping she didn’t strike a nerve with him.

“Jus’ checkin’ you out,” he said, then added, “You must be Red Bone’s cousin or something.” He moved swiftly to the window and parted the curtain about an inch to look out into the street.

“We best friends. How long she gonna take, you know?”

“They should be on the way back now. They jus’ went to da sto’.”

“Who she wit’?”

“My patna.”

“Who Ca?” Summer asked.

He turned and faced her. “You da police or something?” He smiled to let her know he was just joking, and then he added, “I’m jus’ bullshittin’.”

She sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. The guy came toward her, pretending to be interested in the twins.

“These lil’ niggas got some long-ass hair,” he said, looking at them. “You gonna let it grow?”

He asked one of them to grab his finger, and then he lifted Jeremy from his seat. He held him up toward the ceiling and smiled. He brought him down to his face and smiled. He extended him toward the ceiling again. This caused Jeremy to laugh.

Summer smiled and then pulled Jermaine from his seat, standing him up between her legs. That’s when they heard a car pull into the driveway.

The guy marched toward the door with Jeremy in his arm. He opened the door just as Red Bone and his friend were stepping out of the car. They were carrying McDonald’s bags and a few grocery bags. When they finally made it to the door, they both had a bewildered look on their faces.

“We ain’t been gone but thirty minutes and you a daddy already,” the guy said jokingly.

Once inside the house, Red Bone saw Summer. “Girl, how long you been here?” she asked.

“‘Bout twenty minutes, I guess,” she responded. After noticing both of the guys had gone into the kitchen, she nodded her head in that direction. “Whassup?” she whispered.

Red Bone sat down on the loveseat next to her. “They cool,” she whispered back. “I’m getting paid three hundred dollars to let them cook in my house.”

“Cook what?” Summer asked.

“Dope,” she replied hesitantly.

“What’s their names?”

“The one I came in wit’, his name is Chris. The other one is Fred. You wanna get wit’ ‘em?”

“Where yo’ mama at?”  Summer inquired.

“Somewhere ‘round here. You know how she is when she get on that dope.”

“I’ma take da twins ‘round da corner to my mama,” she said and stood up to fix the kids back into their stroller.

Just then, Chris and Fred came back into the living room.

“Where you goin’?” Fred asked. He had a look on his face as if he was about to lose a precious jewel.

Summer looked at him with a flirtatious smile. “I’m takin’ my boys home.”

“You walking?”

She nodded.

“I’ma walk you ‘round there,” he said.