Lyfe Changing (11 page)

“
Now your Grandmother tells
me that you pretty good with your hands “Yeah I can fix a few
things.”

“
That’s good to know, I
figured you wouldn’t mind helping out with the church…during your
time of probation.”

He said looking away from
me throwing a little shade my way. I just shook it off ready to go
ahead and get to work. “So where is the crew?” I asked looking
around. “Oh they are all out back… come on and let me introduce
you.” I followed him past the kitchen into the back yard. I saw an
assembly of young guys armed with work gloves and boards. They all
looked so young; I didn’t know whether this was a work crew or a
nursery.

“
What’s going on Pastor?”
one of them asked glancing at me. Pastor Wallace put a hand on my
shoulder and smiled. “Everybody this is Brother Derrick and he’s
going to be joining the team on rebuilding the church…so come on
over and welcome him.” They all rose to their feet and came to
greet me. “What’s up man I’m Clay.” He said shaking my hand. He
stood about 6’2, strongly built with dark skin…I noticed a gang
sign tattooed on his right forearm but decided against asking about
it. He pointed out the other guys to me…some more young cats who
looked fresh out the joint and were trying to avoid going back.
“Brother Derrick, Brother Clay here will give you the low down
about what you’ll be doing from now on… I’m going to be getting on
out ya’ll way cause Pastor can’t fix a piece of paper with tape or
super glue…don’t work too hard ya hear?” They all laughed as he
exited the back but I glanced around the building seeing everything
that needed to be done. I saw some old wood on the roof that looked
like it could fall in at any moment, the paint around the outside
of the building was thinning, and a much needed floor plan would be
necessary to expand the church ground along with some costly
material.

It wasn’t as bad as the
Pastor was making it sound but it did need some work. Clay noticed
me scoping out the area and chuckled. “Yeah man it’s pretty rough
looking…but we got plenty of helping hands.” I nodded and glanced
at all of them. They all looked like babies that weren’t even out
of high school yet, but found themselves in the legal system and
didn’t know where to go from here. “Well no time like the present,
so what are the plans for today?” I asked not caring to waste any
more time conversing about nothing.

Clay motioned for me to
follow him making his way to the nearby picnic table covered in
papers. “Pastor Wallace gave us a list of what we needed to do
concerning the church.” He picked up some sheets and handed them to
me. “Now concerning expanding the back area none of us have a clue,
so we figured we get some advice from contractor or something.” I
looked over the maintenance papers and down at the floor plans.
“Well we need to take out that back wall first, get some ply wood
to get the shape of the expanded area modeled, and then we just go
from there.” He looked at me in disbelief like I was speaking a
foreign language or something. “You know how to do all this stuff?”
He asked in shock. I shook my head and smiled, I guess I did have
an advantage over the group being that I was older and was taught
to fix a little something here and there.

“
Keep living boy you’ll
pick up a few things yourself…now I need about five of y’all to
start painting the church walls…the other five can start working on
the inside fixing the pews, the door handles, and
bathrooms…everybody else can help me with the roof for today.” They
looked at me as if they were lost. Then it dawned on me that I was
the rookie on the field trying to give orders…but then again I am
the old head here in on this block. If anything these little jokers
needed to be listening to me. “What’s the problem? Ya’ll hard of
hearing? Are your legs broke?” I asked them sternly. Clay finally
spoke up.

“
Naw everything good but
um…”

“
What?”

“
We aint got no paint or
equipment and stuff like that?”

He admitted looking at me
like a deer in headlights. I stepped back and looked at them like
they were crazy. “So were y’all planning on super gluing everything
together?” I chuckled. Clay smiled in embarrassment. “No…Pastor
gave us some money from the building fund but we didn’t know what
to get specifically. We have been trying to come up with a
legitimate plan or something.” I shook my head; I figured they
would be a little lost as to how to properly go about doing
something like this especially at their age. I guess it was time I
took things into my own hands. “Well… everybody follow me?” They
looked at each other confusingly…Clay finally spoke up. “Where we
going?”

“
We need tools and stuff to
work right…we can ride into town and get what we can.” Clay nodded
but still looked confused. “But how do we know what to buy.” I
looked at him pityingly and sighed. “I will tell what to buy, you
guys just follow my lead then we will go from there ok?” “Ok…well I
got my pops truck so I’ll follow you” He said digging in pockets
for his keys. “Good…lets head out.” I said leading the way. Like a
little line of ducks they followed me out of the church.

It was a good thing my
grandmother still kept Grandpa Jacob’s truck, she let me ride in it
being that I was out of a vehicle. It still hurt my heart today
knowing that them damn feds took my Lamborghini…shit. You just
don’t know how badly having my expensive and beautiful whip taken
away from me wounded soul, hell it damn near felt like losing a
child…well almost. For now I would have to do with old blue, he
wasn’t much but he was reliable. I carried half the crew to the
hard ware store while Clay followed behind me with the other half.
We parked in a nearby vacant lot and met up at the corner. “All
right boys….five of y’all go get the paint….other five go get the
patches for the roof and everybody else come with me to get the
tools.”

As I sent everybody off to
their destination, I took my crew to the hardware store. We made
our way inside and were greeted by an older white man with a floral
shirt and John Deer hat. “Hello there sir, how may I help you?” I
nodded at him and looked around. “Yeah, I need some good quality
tools to help me and my friends out.” I said slapping some money
down on the counter.

The store owner dang near
jumped for joy when he saw the hundred dollar bills and snatched
them right up. “Oh yes sir, let’s see what I can do for you…” He
scurried off to the back while some of the boys browsed around.
Little Luther managed to stay close to me; he had been talking my
ear ever since I walked in to the church yard.

“
So how much money did you
rack up before the feds gotcha?” He asked nonchalantly about my
personal business. I looked down at the small framed brown skinned
boy and shook my head. He was no older than fourteen, not much
older than Danton, but from what I heard he couldn’t stay out of
trouble. “Why you all in my business young in?” I asked him,
slightly punching him in the chest. He fell back a bit, even from
the soft punch I gave him. “I want to know where a smooth criminal
like yourself went wrong so I won’t get caught.” He laughed.
Kids these days,
I
thought. “Look little boy the last thing you need to be worrying
about is not getting caught, you need to be worrying about school,
getting an education and since you asking me all this questions why
don’t I ask you one?” “Shoot.” Luther nodded. “When the last time
you little ass read a book?” “I read all the time…” He protested.
“The Source, Vibe, Playboy.” I couldn’t help the smile that spread
on my face laughing at this little joker. “I rest my case.” While
the cashier rounded up all our stuff, I felt a large hand touch my
shoulder. I jumped back to see De and Ray standing in front of
me.

“
Damn boy…what’s good?” De
asked. I looked at both of them like they were crazy.

“
Well… you tell
me?”

“
Nothing on this side? What
about you? How have you been?”

“
Half dead.” I answered
sternly. Ray stepped back not understanding my anger but De nodded.
“Look I know what you thinking and I can explain…in private.” He
said glancing at little Luther and the other kids behind me. I
motioned for them to follow me to the back of the store while the
boys stayed up front. “So what’s up?” I asked looking for a reason
as to why these muthafuckas had been MIA for the past weeks. De and
Ray looked around for prying ears before speaking. “We heard about
the accident and we wanted to come see about you, we did but….” I
cut him off. “But you decided to be incog-negro for past month.”
“No Julio was getting suspicious…” De explained. “He knows all
about your accident…that it was on the same night he got jacked and
started putting two and two together.”
Damn
, I thought.
I forgot all about that fool. I didn’t think to realize I may
have been all over the local news and shit.
I shook my head. “Did he say anything?” “He didn’t have too…”
Ray jumped in. “He has been watching the news on your accident
consistently, he knows his security cams were shut down and knows
you had the codes to all of his shit…which you left
behind.”

Shit...Now this fool might
be coming after me, what a great predicament I done found myself
in
. I smoothed my hair back and looked at
them. “Does he suspect you two?” They looked at each other then
looked away. “I know the thought has ran across his mind but he
aint said nothing yet…that’s why we have been laying low for a
while.” De revealed. I nodded. “It’s cool I understand.” I said
giving them pounds. Ray leaned in near me. “Look I don’t know what
this fool planning but I need you to keep your eyes open.” Ray said
looking at me dead ass serious. “Also I heard the feds gotcha?” I
nodded. “Yeah they ripped me…” I shamelessly admitted. “Well if you
need anything you know we’ll take care of you.”

“
Thanks good looking
out.”

“
Well we better head
back…but we will keep in touch aight.”

“
Aight.”

We began to walk back to
the front when Ray abruptly stopped. “Quick question…what’s with
these little muthfuckas?” He said pointing to the boys who were
eying them suspiciously ready to jump off at any moment. I laughed.
“Community service…I’m mentoring.”

They chuckled. “Well they
got the wrong damn mentor.” I watched them head outside and throwed
up a deuce. “Who was them clowns D…?” Little Luther spoke up like
Mr. Get Bad. “Nobody yo lil ass can handle…” I laughed at the
simple thought of his little small ass trying to fight somebody. He
nodded. “Just checking…don’t want to have to hurt one of them
fools.” I smiled shaking my head knowing this little youngster
couldn’t hurt a grape in Welch’s backyard. “Ok.”

In the midst of all this
confusion I glanced out the window and something tasty caught my
eye taking me all out of the element of what I was talking about.
“Listen…Uh why don’t y’all go get a snack or something?” I said
handing them a few dollars to get them out the way for a while.
“Ok…you don’t have to tell me twice.” Little Luther quickly took
the bills out of my hand. “What you gonna get?” “Oh I’m going to go
get a different type of treat.” I said looking at the pretty lady
in the gallery window across the street.

Destiny

“Yes, Mrs. McCray…I have the
painting ready to go right now…would you like to come in and be
sure….that’s fine…ok I’ll see you soon…have a nice day.” I hung my
office phone up and rested back in my chair. Today was a busy day
and getting busier. I had been working like crazy all week, getting
orders ready, making shipments, and hosting galas. It was starting
to feel like an actually job. I took a deep breath and began
putting in my files for this morning. I was a little chipper than
usual today, maybe it was from the morning coffee, or the business
profit, or because I saw Derrick at the supermarket earlier this
week. I couldn’t believe how fast my heart was beating just
thinking about that day. I saw him in the gardening aisle of the
super center and debated going up to him.

He looked even better than
I remembered with his long dark hair pulled back away from his
handsome face. I knew I had to say something to him although I was
nervous due to our last encounter. Never the less my feet still
moved in his direction causing my cart to bump into him. He smiled
at me like he had been waiting for me all his life. He was very
charming and sweet and I could feel myself getting more carried
away in my conversation with him. I felt uneasy in my chair still
feeling his eyes roaming my body.

I could totally tell what
he was doing but I didn’t seem to mind….in fact I seemed to enjoy
him looking at me because I was looking at him. I tried to shake
these thoughts away but I couldn’t help it. It felt good, seeing
him again, talking with him, it was enjoyable and the thoughts of
it kept a smile on my face. I looked up when I heard a familiar
knock on my door. “Hey Marisol what’s up?” I asked. Marisol stood
in the middle of the doorway and had a weird look on her face. Like
she was excited and nervous at the same time causing me to wonder
what was going on.

“
Umm…Destiny, there is a
gentleman outside asking to see you.” I eyed her suspiciously as I
rose from my seat. “Who James?” I asked. James Ryan instantly came
to my mind, we had talked here and there but had never gotten
around to second date, so I figured that maybe he came to surprise
me. Marisol shook her head to my question leaving me clueless. “Who
is it a costumer?” “Oh he is interested in getting something.” She
said walking out. I followed her to the front area and stopped dead
in my tracks.
Oh my God,
I thought. Derrick was standing right in front of
me looking just as good as usual. I stared at him helplessly in a
thin white tank top with his large muscular arms showing as clear
as day. His jeans were barely restraining those thick thighs of his
while his work boots managed to cover those boats for feet he had.
He reminded me of a construction themed porn film…or maybe that’s
just how I saw him in my own little dirty mind. I fought off my
nervousness and dirty thoughts and finally spoke. “Hey…how are
you?”