Welfare Wifeys (37 page)

“Animal, you know if somebody is at you that means they’re at us. We’re family,” Mimi said.

“I know, baby girl, but not with this. I’m just going across the street to get a cab so I can go get my hammer. I’ll be back in a minute, I promise.”

“Pinky-swear?” Mimi held up her pinky.

“Pinky-swear.” He lopped his pinky around hers to seal the deal. Animal hugged Mimi close to him.

“A’ight, so I’ll be waiting for you to—”

Without warning Mimi broke the embrace and pushed Animal to the floor.

“It’s a hit!” she cried and drew her gun.

Mud and Dirt took cover behind a parked car just as Mimi’s bullets ripped through the ground where they had been standing. Dirt tried to pop up to get a lock on Animal, but a bullet bounced off the car hood hitting him in the eye with shrapnel. Animal called to Mimi to take cover but she was already moving in on her targets hidden on the other side of the car.

“Don’t hide, pussies. Come get some of these hot ones.” Mimi closed in on her targets. No sooner than Mimi rounded the car, Mud caught her with a bullet to the chest. Mimi’s small body flew over the car and landed on the ground a few feet away from Animal.

“Mimi!” Abandoning his own safety he crawled to Mimi, who was lying on the ground with blood running from her mouth.

“Damn this shit burns,” Mimi rasped. Tears streamed down her face and mingled with the blood.

“Don’t try to talk, baby. I’m gonna get you outta here.” Animal cradled her.

“I’m already out of here, big homey. Just tell me that I got them niggaz too,” she wheezed, sending more blood spilling from her mouth.

“Yeah, baby. You got them niggaz,” Animal lied.

“Good,” Mimi said with her last breath and went limp in his arms. In her stillness Mimi looked more like the little girl he had known than the killer he had raised her to be and it broke his heart. Mimi had had a hard life of empty dreams and broken promises, but now no one could touch her. She was at peace.

“Muthafuckas!” Animal took up Mimi’s gun and went after Mud and Dirt. Mud had just poked his head over the car when he saw Animal sliding across the hood like an action movie. Animal landed a kick to Dirt’s jaw, stunning him, before he put Mimi’s gun to his
head and pulled the trigger. Without his partner Mud lost his heart and tried to run but he wasn’t faster than a bullet. Animal dropped him with one to the head, then gave him two more to his back to make sure he was done.

With a heavy heart Animal walked back around the car to where Mimi’s body lay. He felt bad for having to leave her on the streets like that, but he could hear the police sirens closing and there was no way he could avenge her death if he was locked up. Animal reached down and closed the girl’s eyes before crossing himself. He whispered a promise to Mimi that he would settle up for her and disappeared into the night.

When Malika got to the twenty-fourth precinct she was notified that due to overcrowding Solomon had been moved. She ended up visiting two precincts in the Bronx before finally tracking him down at the Thirtieth in Harlem. After filling out the necessary paperwork the woman behind the desk wearing the sergeant’s stripes allowed her a five-minute visit with Solomon. He looked so pitiful sitting in the dirty cell that Malika broke down and cried.

“Baby, are you okay?” Malika held his hands through the bars.

“Yeah, Ma, I’m good,” he said, trying to play tough but she could tell he was scared. He was also sporting some fresh cuts and bruises meaning that he had been roughed up at some point.

“What happened? They said you were shooting at somebody but I know there has to be some kind of mistake,” Malika said.

“No, it wasn’t a mistake, Ma. Some guys had come over to our side of the projects beefing and a big fight broke out. I was scared so I got the gun out of the grass and started shooting, but you gotta believe me, I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody.” Solomon’s eyes began to water.

“Don’t you worry. I’m gonna get you outta here tonight,” Malika assured him.

“I wouldn’t bet on that,” a cop who had been ear hustling interjected. “We’ve got him at the scene of the crime with the gun laying at his feet. Furthermore your boy is a part of that little drug ring they’ve got going on in the projects.”

“That’s impossible, my son doesn’t sell drugs,” Malika said indignantly.

The officer looked at her like she was crazy. “Hey, Bart, come here for a minute, will ya?” He stopped a plainclothed officer that was walking by.

“What’s up?” the plainclothed officer asked.

“This lady here says her son doesn’t sell drugs.”

The plainclothed officer looked inside the cell and laughed. “Are you kidding me? I’ve been watching this little dude push shit for Scar for the last week. He’s so good at it we nicknamed him Charlie Hustle.” The two officers laughed and left Malika standing there dumbfounded.

“Solomon, is what they’re saying true?” she asked but he remained silent. “Boy, you better tell me something before I reach in that cell and choke the shit outta you.”

He sucked his teeth. “Yeah, it’s true.”

Malika wanted to faint. “Solomon, for as many talks as we’ve had about the streets what would make you jump out the window and do something so stupid?”

“You!” he snapped. “Ma, day in and day out I watch you scrape and borrow to get through to the next day and it was killing me. Every guy you get with leaves you suffering and you gotta pick the pieces up and start all over again all by yourself. I just wanted to prove to you that I was a man and that I could do more for you than them suckas you keep falling for.”

Solomon’s words hit her like bricks. With all that was going on Malika had only thought about herself and how hard things were on her. She never once stopped to think of what it was doing to Solomon and hearing it from the horse’s mouth cut her deeply.

“Time is up, Ms.” a uniformed officer notified Malika.

“I’m gonna get you out of this I promise,” Malika told Solomon as she was escorted away. Malika was blinded by tears as she rushed through the precinct lobby toward the exit. Some of the officers who had overheard what was going on looked at her and shook their heads, but the desk sergeant felt sorry for her.

“I’m going on a break,” the sergeant said and came from behind the desk. When she got outside Malika was sitting on the precinct stairs sobbing. “Here you go.” The sergeant handed her a tissue.

“Thank you,” Malika said, dabbing her eyes. “I don’t know how this happened. I’ve done everything I could to be a good mother and it just seems like I’m not doing enough.”

“No matter how much we do it never does,” the sergeant told her. “We work our fingers to the bone to make sure our kids have the things we need and they still can’t get over not having the things they want. Some can fly straight on their own and others need a little coaxing.”

“Do you have kids too?”

“Yup, three boys, one girl, and a husband who is in his second childhood.” The sergeant laughed. “There are times when I wanna beat myself up for the things everybody else does, but I have to remind myself that it’s not me doing dumb shit it’s them. You can’t get nobody right until you get yourself right, and the first step is learning to love and appreciate you even when no one else does.”

“Those are some wise words,” Malika said.

“I’ve been around long enough to learn from trial and error, Malika.”

Malika’s head snapped up in surprise. “How did you know my name?”

“I know your name from when you showed me your ID, but I know your voice from my husband’s voice mail. I’m Dorian, Teddy’s wife.”

“Oh, my God.” Malika covered her mouth in embarrassment. “Dorian, let me explain. I never knew that Teddy was married. We—”

“No need to explain, Malika, because I am so past getting upset with Teddy and his wandering dick. While he’s out doing him you can believe that I’m out doing me. When you came in here and I made the connection I started to lose your son’s paperwork, but as I listened to what y’all were going through I felt bad.”

“Even though I had sex with your husband?”

Dorian nodded. “Malika, it’d be easy for me to be out here trying to put the beats on you for what you’ve done, but at the end of the day I didn’t take those vows with you, I took them with Teddy. You’re just a casualty of the sick little games he’s been playing for years. If you’re smart, you’ll leave him alone for good, but if you’re dumb you’ll keep getting roped into his apologies like I’ve been doing for the last few years.”

“If you know what kind of dude he is then why are you still with him?”

“Out of convenience, of course. Teddy is a low-down dog, but he’s got a healthy bank account and owns a few properties. One day I’ll wake up and leave him but for now I’m content to let him wonder while I slowly bleed his bank account dry. When he’s broke and on his last legs then I’ll kick his ass to the curb with the rest of the trash.” This got Malika to laugh. “Listen, clean yourself up and go get something to eat. By the time you come back I’ll have pulled some strings to have your son released to you with a date for y’all to go to family court. I probably can’t do anything about the charges he’s facing, but at least he can fight the case from the streets. Be strong because y’all are gonna need each other,” Dorian told her and started back up the stairs into the precinct.

“Why are you doing this for me?” Malika called after her.

Dorian thought long and hard on the answer. “Because I feel sorry for you, Malika. You think you’re a woman and you’re just
another baby with a baby trying to make it in the world. Come back in a little while to pick up your son and don’t let me see either one of you again, because you’ve used up your last free pass.”

As promised Solomon was processed and ready to go by the time Malika made it back to the precinct. She was so happy to see him that all she could do was hug him and cry. She looked for Dorian to thank her, but she had gone for the night. The new desk sergeant said something about a family emergency that she had to deal with. Malika and Solomon had a long talk about life and his upcoming court case. They had a hard road ahead of them and they had to be on the same page to face it. Solomon seemed like his stay in a cell had possibly scared some sense into him but only time would tell.

When they got to their building there was a crowd of people gathered in front of it. The police had the whole area taped off and wouldn’t let anybody inside. On the ground there was a body covered in a bloody white sheet. Malika couldn’t see the face, but the corpse was wearing a familiar-looking sneaker. Near the front of the crowd she spotted Jada’s uncle Mookie and his partner Fish, whispering among each other.

“What happened?” Malika asked Mookie.

“The chickens have finally come home to roost.” Mookie nodded at the lobby. The police were bringing Scar and Lloyd out in handcuffs. Scar was still smirking like it was a game while Lloyd looked ready to cry. “Them boys they was shooting at earlier came back with some guns of their own and their aim was just a little bit better.”

“Where’s Jay?” Solomon asked frantically.

Mookie removed his do-rag and placed it over his heart. “I tried to tell him to find another game”—he looked down sadly at the bloody sheet—“but the young ones never listen.”

“NO!” Solomon collapsed into his mother’s arms and screamed over and over into her chest.

Malika tried to console him as best she could, but there was nothing she could do to soothe his grief. She was both saddened and relieved by the sight of Jay lying under that sheet. She was sad because he was a young man with so much potential who just happened to get caught up in Scar’s little game, but relieved because she knew that if the wind had blown the other way it would’ve been her kid under that sheet.

Animal was numb when he finally made it back to his apartment. Chip had been blowing up his phone, but he didn’t feel like talking. All he wanted to do was crawl into Gucci’s waiting arms and grieve. When he opened the apartment door and saw all of his clothes shredded on the floor and Gucci’s bags by the door he knew his grieving would have to wait.

“What the fuck?” He looked around in shock. “Gucci, get your ass out here!”

“Fuck you, adulterer!” she screamed through the bathroom door.

“What the hell are you talking about? Open this damn door!” He banged on the bathroom door.

“I ain’t opening shit because I don’t wanna see your cheating ass face. My shit is packed and I’m going to stay with my mother.” From the rawness of her voice he knew she had been crying.

“Gucci, I don’t know what you’re talking about so why don’t you come out here so we can talk? I’ve had a bad night and I really ain’t up to arguing with you.”

“Looked like you were having a good night to me the way you had them chicken heads all up on you at Code Red. Which one did
you fuck, the big booty Spanish chick or the young-looking one that was dressed like a stripper? I seen it all!”

“You went to Code Red after I asked you not to?” He was surprised. Now her anger was starting to make sense. “Gucci, that shit ain’t what it looked like. I can explain it.”

“Explain it to your little bitch on 106th since that’s where you’ve been spending most of your time.”

Animal was confused. “Gucci, I don’t know any bitches on 106th.”

“You’re a liar because your car has been parked over there every day this week and don’t try to deny it because I had Jada watching ya dumb ass. Animal, I told you not to play with my heart and now you’re gonna see what it gets you.”

Animal felt his frustration mounting. He had gone through too much that night to have to come home and deal with some domestic shit. “Gucci, I’m tired of talking to you through the door.”

“Then stop talking and get the fuck away from me, nigga!”

“Gucci, baby . . .”

“Don’t baby me, Animal, because we’re past that shit. If you wanna go play with these tramp bitches then do that because I’m damn sure gonna find me a tramp nigga and let him play all in my mouth.”

Gucci’s threat pushed Animal over the edge and he started kicking the door. “Gucci, if you get out there and try to play me I’ll kill ya monkey ass!”