Tales from da Hood (28 page)

“Dumb bitch,” Crystal repeated as she shut off her phone. She had heard enough. At first when Danny Man's phone called her back, she had happily answered it, thinking it was him calling back to say he was coming over. When she heard his voice talking to someone, she had instinctively listened instead of hanging up. The contents of the conversation she'd overheard shocked her to the core of her being.

“If this punk-ass nigga think I'm gone help him kill my brother, he must be losing his damn mind!” she raged. “Dodo was right, he is a punk! I got him! I don't believe this shit! He killed Laquan! I been fucking with this nigga and he killed my man! All the shit I put up with from this nigga! I got him!”

Crystal stormed over to her bedroom closet and threw open the door. She was crying as she struggled to drag a large packing trunk into the middle of the bedroom floor. She flipped open the trunk and looked at the countless stacks of money in it. On her dresser was a bottle of fingernail polish remover. She grabbed the bottle, unscrewed the cap, and emptied it on the money.

“Dumb bitch, huh?” she snapped as she rifled through her purse for something to ignite the money. “Well, this dumb bitch about to show you that you ain't so mutherfucking smart!”

When she couldn't find matches or a lighter in her purse, Crystal slung the purse on the bed in frustration. The purse hit Mulan on her back; she had been napping on the bed. Mulan awoke and
began howling, bringing Crystal back to reality. Horrified, she realized that she was about to start a fire in her bedroom with her baby a few feet away on the bed. Mortified at her own behavior, Crystal raced over to the bed and picked up Mulan to comfort her. She rocked her crying baby in her arms and cooed to her. While she was doing this, Crystal's thoughts became clear and concise.

Eventually Mulan went back to sleep and Crystal laid her back on the bed. For several hours she sat and looked at the chest of money. The shame and humiliation she'd felt after Danny Man had said those terrible things was gone—replaced by scorn and a thirst for revenge.

Crystal was still wide awake when Mulan woke up for her late-night feeding. She fed her baby and put her back to sleep. Finally she undressed, pushed the trunk back into the closet, and lay down beside her baby on the bed, but she didn't fall asleep.

The sun had begun to rise and she was still awake, but in her mind she had the formation of a plan—a plan to pay Danny Man back for his transgressions. She heard her kids stir in their room as the alarm clock went off. Crystal pulled on her bathrobe and got up to help her kids get ready for school. She decided to make breakfast for the kids, and by the time Laheem and Latrice took their places at the table, the aroma of pancakes, eggs, and sausage hung heavy in the air. As she served each of the children their food, she kissed them on the forehead.

“What was that for, Mommy?” asked Laheem as he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.

“That's just to show you both that I love you and blood is thicker than mud.”

Crystal didn't see the bewildered look on her children's faces as she opened the fridge to get them some orange juice. “Y'all make sure that y'all come straight home from school. I'm taking y'all out
to y'all uncle Johnny's house for the weekend. And, yes, y'all going to church.”

BAM-BAM
WAS DRUNK
as she got up off Crystal's couch and slightly weaved her way to the living room window and raised it. She turned back around, fanning herself.

“Damn Crystal, it's hot as hell in here,” said Bam-Bam.

Trina giggled. “Bam-Bam, bitch, it ain't nowhere near hot in here. You just drunk and that Smirnoff got you hot.”

“You ain't lying,” Bam-Bam said, rubbing her stomach suggestively. “But it ain't like I'm gon’ be able to get me some the way I want it. I got to go home to Gilly stalking little dick ass. When he do finally get around to changing my oil, he got to get into that loveydovey shit. Licking my back and my knees and shit. He got to light candles and play soft music and all that bullshit. Then he go downtown for like thirty or forty minutes. When he finally do come up for air, he want to get on top of me and be going all slow and shit, trying to look into my eyes.” Bam-Bam shuddered.

Trina was looking slightly flushed as she said, “Bitch, I don't know what's wrong with you, but that shit sound good! I wish I had a mutherfucker that would treat me like that! Hell, he wouldn't have to do that shit for me but a coupla times a year if he wanted to. Special occasions and holidays.”

“Fuck that, I need a nigga that's gon’ thug me!” Bam-Bam shouted. “I want a nigga with a big dick that tear my panties off, bend me over, pull my hair, and bang my back out. A nigga like …”

Bam-Bam fell silent and snuck a glance at Crystal, who was sitting quietly nursing her drink.

Trina wouldn't let Bam-Bam off the hook. “A nigga like who, bitch?”

“You don't know him,” said Bam-Bam quickly. “He ain't from around here, Trina, so mind yo business, bitch.”

“Don't let that nigga fuck around and pull that weave out yo hair. If you come up in the crib with bald spots in yo hair, Gilly gone fuck around and hire a forensics team to find out what happened.”

“Yeah, whatever, bitch. Don't be mad at me 'cause you ain't got no comeback.”

Trina fell all over herself laughing. “Bitch, that ain't comeback between yo legs—that's stay back.”

Slightly angered, Bam-Bam looked at Crystal again. “What's wrong with you, Crystal? Bitch, you been too damn quiet tonight.”

“I'm cool, just got something on my mind,” said Crystal through a weak smile. “I'm wondering if I got the heart to do some shit that I know needed to be done for a long time.”

Trina looked at Crystal after she made such a sobering statement. “Bitch, whatever's wrong with you, keep it to yourself, you blowing my high.”

“Yeah, Crystal,” said Bam-Bam. “Bitch, yo kids gone. You should be partying. You need to get you some. Get some of that starch out yo back.”

“I'm gon’ get some, whatever that means, when my guy comes over later,” Crystal told them. She got up and went to the bathroom. She closed the door and pulled a cell phone from her pocket. Quickly she went through the phone's directory. She pulled her own cell phone from the holster on her belt and using the first cellular phone for a reference, Crystal locked a number into her phone and returned it to her waist. In the cell phone still in her hand, she chose another number from the directory and text messaged, i need sum! your place 2morrow @ 6. After sending it, she
erased the message from the outbox and waited. Minutes later the cell phone beeped to alert her of an incoming text message. It was from Danny Man and read, WEAR
A THONG
,
I
'MA
BLOW
YO
BAK OUT
!
Crystal erased Danny Man's reply and cuffed the cell phone in the palm of her hand. She flushed the toilet and went back to the living room, where Trina and Bam-Bam were still trading insults.

“Y'all, I'm tired,” Crystal announced. “Why don't y'all bounce so I can get me some rest before my guy get here.”

Trina hoisted herself off the couch. “Bitch, I know you ain't trying to put us out. That's all right. I been put out of better places. C'mon, Bam-Bam, you drunk bitch, we getting evicted.”

“Hold up,” said Bam-Bam. “I got to call my stalker and let him know I'm on the way. That nigga got to know where I'm at every minute. Anybody seen my phone? I had it when I came in, didn't I? Don't tell me that I done lost it. Gilly gone act a damn fool if he can't reach me!”

Crystal extended her hand with Bam-Bam's cellular phone.

“Here go yo phone. You dropped it when you went to the kitchen a while ago. I picked it up but forgot to give it to you.”

“Thanks, Crystal. You just saved my life. I already got to go home and get interrogated anyway. Long as I got this phone, he just might smell my panties and let me alone.”

Trina and Bam-Bam grabbed their purses and jackets and left out the door.

“Call me,” Trina said. “C'mon, Bam-Bam, you drunken whore.”

Crystal closed and locked her door and took her seat on the couch again. She watched television for an hour until her phone rang.

She answered the phone and paused, then she said, “Ain't nobody up here. C'mon up.”

She got up and unlocked the door locks and sat back down. There was a double knock at the door.

“It's open,” Crystal called out.

Danny Man stepped inside the apartment. He walked straight through to the kitchen and returned drinking from a carton of orange juice. He plopped down on the couch beside Crystal and picked up the remote control and began flicking through the channels.

They watched television in silence for a few moments.

“The kids here?” asked Danny Man without taking his eyes off the television.

“Why? What, you want to see Mulan?”

“Girl, is the kids here or not?”

“Nall, they ain't here.”

A few more minutes passed and Danny Man dropped his hand between Crystal's legs. With the heel of his hand he started massaging her there. He removed his hand and slipped it under her shirt to rub on Crystal's braless breasts. He kicked off his shoes and stood up.

“C'mon,” Danny Man said as he led the way to her bedroom.

Later when Crystal was sure Danny Man was sound asleep she slipped out of bed. From his pants on the floor, she removed his cell phone from its pouch on his belt. She tiptoed out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. Seated on the side of the bathtub, Crystal checked the inbox of Danny Man's text messages and found the text she'd sent him from Bam-Bam's cell phone. In his outbox, she saw his reply, too.

She selected Bam-Bam's number and text messaged, BLOW
YO
BAK OUT
!
MY CRIB
@ 6.
WEAR
A THONG
. She didn't have to wait long for Bam-Bam's reply. It read, I
'M THERE
.
I
NEED SUM
2.

Crystal erased the text messages she'd sent and received. She slipped out of the bathroom and returned Danny Man's cell phone. She slid back into bed, taking care to make sure that no part of Danny Man touched her.

GILLY
WAS STANDING
in the lottery line at the gas station when his cell phone buzzed on his side. Pulling it loose from the clip he looked at the number and saw private displayed. He answered it anyway.

“Who is this?”

“Don't worry about that,” said an obviously disguised voice. “Just shut up and listen. If you want to know who Bam-Bam been fucking go over to yo boy DM's apartment right now. The key is over the door on the ledge. Hurry up.”

“Who the fuck is this?” Gilly repeated. “Quit playing with me. I don't play that kid shit.”

“I ain't lying. Nigga, shut up and go see.”

The line went dead.

“Hello, hello,” Gilly said, but whoever it was, was gone.

Gilly looked at his watch; it read 6:06. He got out of the lottery line and ran outside to his Escalade. Driving at breakneck speed, Gilly made it to Danny Man's apartment in nine minutes flat. Gilly pulled his pistol from under the seat and jumped out the truck. He pelted up the steps to the second floor and snatched the key down from the ledge over the door. He held his breath as he unlocked the door and entered the apartment. Stealthily he stole upon the bedroom.

In the bedroom, Bam-Bam was naked sitting on the corner of the bed performing an obviously expert act of fellatio on a completely nude Danny Man.

Without a word, Gilly started shooting and had emptied the clip before he knew it. He dropped the smoking gun and staggered to the couch and sat down.

CRYSTAL AWAKENED
to loud banging on her apartment door. She sat up on the couch. “Who is it?”

“Open the door! It's Trina, girl! Crystal, come to the door!”

Crystal unlocked the door and opened it. Trina burst into the apartment.

“Girl, why you ain't been answering yo phone?” asked Trina breathlessly. “I been trying to call you for an hour!”

Crystal picked up the cup she'd been drinking out of and started toward the kitchen. “I was sleep. What was you calling me for?”

Trina ran in front of Crystal and put her hands on Crystal's shoulders.

“What's wrong with you, girl?” Crystal asked.

“DM is dead.”

“What?”

“Crystal, DM is dead. Gilly killed him.”

Crystal's hand flew up to her mouth. “What happened?”

“Gilly killed him 'cause …”

“What happened? Trina, what the fuck happened?”

“Gilly caught him and Bam-Bam together and shot them up. Bam-Bam gon’ make it though. Danny Man got the worst of it. The police got Gilly. He didn't even try to run. He just waited until they got there and gave himself up. Get yo jacket, girl. C'mon!”

Crystal shrugged Trina's hands off her shoulders and went on to the kitchen. Not quite sure what was going on, Trina followed her. She watched in utter disbelief as Crystal filled her cup with vodka and took a sip.

“Crystal, I said c'mon, girl. We need to get over there.”

“Why I got to go over there?”

“Because that was yo dude! That's Mulan's daddy!”

“That nigga fathered more than his fair share of children, but that don't make him no daddy. Did he come to the hospital when
she was born? You was there, did you see him? Has he ever picked up his baby and just spent a couple of hours with her? Not once. Why the hell should I run my ass over there? Ain't his fat-ass wife over there?”

Trina was furious. “Fuck that bitch! DM was yo man! If she say something greasy, we'll whup her ass out there!”

“That was DM's wife and the mother of three of his kids. I was just his little dumb bitch. So no thanks, you gon’ 'head without me. I'll play the crib on this one. Just let me know what happened. And find out what hospital that bitch Bam-Bam gon’ be in so I can send her some flowers. I'll see you later.”