A Project Chick (3 page)

There was no other way out and she knew it. The house was built like a fortress to withstand the toughest storm. In Khalil's eyes, the toughest storm wouldn't be a hurricane or tornado, it would be the DEA, feds, vice or the narcotics kick-in squad. The bottom of the house was made of concrete and reinforced steel. The front and back doors were also made of steel, but trimmed in wood, all of which was camouflaged and intelligently disguised with decorations. No intruder would ever be aware of the physical strength of the house, making it so there was no way to break in or break out.

"SHIT!!!!!!" She screamed, and then just broke down crying. This was the cry that had been waiting to explode all night long.

Tressa did not know what to do. What would or should her next move be? She wished her brother, Taj, who had always bailed her out of every other jam she had in her life, was here to rescue her. But, that was impossible, because Taj was in prison doing a twenty-year bid. There would be no time cuts, sentence reductions or anything.

See, Taj was true to the game. He wasn't anybody's rat, coward or snitch. He was a conscious player in the game, and was fully aware of all the consequences of the game, 11

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and was prepared to sleep in the bed he made when the heat came. It hurts Tressa to her heart that her brother has to be away from her for so long. She fully respects the rules and principles of the game that he molded into her.

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-2-

A Sister's Love

Tressa wondered to herself how did she ever let the situation get this out of control. It only seemed like yesterday that it was her eighteenth birthday. Instead of having a slamming birthday party, Tressa stood on the other side of the glass at the Richmond City Jail listening to her brother, Taj, over the phone, trying to be strong for him as he had always been for her. This was the first time she had ever seen the look of defeat all over her brother's face.

Taj had caught his case and got locked up only a month before. He desperately needed money for his lawyer, because the police had confiscated all of his as evidence during the raids on all four of his houses. Everyone had seen the news report, and all of the footage of the special task force getting special badges of recognition for bringing down the "Pow-Wow Squad." Taj's crew was named the Pow-Wow Squad because of the banging rush that their cocaine gave the fiends back in the early 90's, was unlike any other cocaine sold in the town of Richmond. So, the rock cocaine was nicknamed Pow-Wow.

Taj instructed Tressa to make the necessary calls to go collect his money. However, all the people who owed Taj money gave Tressa the run around. The workers knew that Taj would be locked away for a long time and wouldn't have any means of revenge to assure he got his money. Of course, when Tressa called them on three-way call and Taj 13

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spoke directly to them demanding his money, they all played the humble role. They simply stated. "Man I gotcha.

You want me to pay the lawyer or give it to who, your lil'

sister or your girl?"

"Hell no! Don't give that bitch Wiggles shit of mine, I'm gonna send my lil' sister to get that."

"A'ight." The workers would respond, in a tone like they intended to give Tressa every cent.

When Tressa would call the workers to say she was on the way, they'd tell her it was OK. But when she showed up, they were nowhere to be found. A couple of times as soon as she bent the corner, she would see a dude run and hide in someone's house and when she knocked on the door, she'd hear a dude say. "Tell her I ain't here." In the past month or so, a couple of situations heavily impacted on the ultimate decision Tressa made.

Although, to this very day, she has never completely figured out which reason had more influence on her decision. Was it that she got tired of hearing her brother complain about how he was going to kill his girlfriend, Wiggles, for taking his money and not holding him down like she should? She knew her brother meant every word of his threat. Or was it that her big brother who was so strong and manly, who always seemed to have everything figured out down to the last detail, appeared so weak at this given moment.

He was the only person who loved her when nobody else did. Though he was only five years older than she was, he took on the role as brother and father. Then, when it came time that Tressa needed a woman around, he saw to it that there were plenty of women in his life to nurture his sister, mainly his girlfriend, Wiggles, at the time. This was the brother who threw away his own college dreams to throw bricks at the penitentiary to keep food in her mouth and clothes on her back. This was the brother who had always made a way out of no way for her when their mother was stripped away from them.

Tressa continued to ponder that she may have been moved into action when the other workers told Taj that his girlfriend, Wiggles, already been through to collect and obviously kept the money? Or was it the look of hurt that she saw written all over Taj's face on visiting days when Wiggles never showed up to visit him? The straw that broke 14

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the camel's back, was when Taj called Tressa with the sound of defeat in his warrior voice, when he said the court appointed lawyer was trying to make him take a plea bargain for sixty years. After receiving this phone call and hearing the phrase "plea bargain", all she could think of was, this was the same expression that caused her mother to be removed from her life when she was only fourteen.

Taj and Tressa's mother, Cyn, was hauled off to prison for killing her stepfather, who had been beating her over the course of ten years. Their mother always put up with it, because this was the man that moved them out of the projects when their dope-sniffing father left them with nothing. Cyn was a schoolteacher, who loved her children more than life itself, so she tolerated the endless whippings from her husband in exchange for the better life he provided for her and her children. Taj and Tressa had no idea that their stepfather was abusive to their mother, until the day he gave her a bruise that stared them right in the face. He gave their mother two black eyes, which she promptly lied and said she received from falling. Then, the next time he fought her, he beat her with an extension cord. With intentions of only scaring him, she loaded the gun with the bullets that took him to his grave. She was facing forty years when she accepted a "plea bargain", which meant she had to plead guilty in order to receive a lesser sentence.

She was sentenced to serve a ten-year sentence at the Virginia State Prison System. The judge never even considered self-defense, although she had been taking the beatings for years.

Ironically, Cyn had endured the countless years of whippings from her husband. But being thrown in prison, and separated from her two children, put a beating on her that she couldn't bare. On July 3, 1987, when Tressa was only fifteen years old, Cyn was found dead in her cell. An autopsy was never performed, the prison officials ruled it a suicide, but everybody else knew that Cyn was poisoned.

With the weight of the world on her back, Tressa had to take matters into her own hands. By no means was she going to let her brother fall victim to another "plea bargain", She could not understand how a person could get so much time for selling drugs. There are murderers, child 15

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molesters and rapists who get less jail time, and they are taking lives that can't be brought back.

Then she thought about how ironic the judicial system is set up. The "white man's candy" or "drug of choice" is usually powder cocaine, and the sentencing guidelines are set up to give less prison time than a person caught with crack. Obviously, more minorities sell and use crack. If a person gets caught with the same amount, or less, of crack cocaine than powder cocaine, the book is thrown at them. Tressa's feelings were strong that the whole system was just a conspiracy against minorities. She knew that there was really no escape for her brother, but she wasn't letting him go down without a fight. And to fight the war, her brother needed a damn good attorney to brawl through the legal system with and for him.

At that moment, she made a life changing decision.

Since Tressa graduated a year early from high school, and with one year of Virginia Commonwealth College (VCU) already under her belt, she decided to sit out two semesters from college to work full time to help pay for her brother's lawyer. She didn't care if she had to work two jobs on the weekdays and pick up a part time job on the weekend. One thing she was certain of was, that she wasn't going to beg or depend on anybody to give her money that was owed to her brother.

Every Saturday, Tressa worked at the Rite Aid Pharmacy, as a pharmacy technician. Sundays was her free day, and she went to visit her brother. She found a part-time clerical job at a pediatrician's office in the morning. Then she took on a job in the afternoons as a cashier at the University of Richmond, in the cafeteria.

Tressa felt like a member of the Caribbean family, the Hedley's, from the hilarious show, "In Living Color".

Everytime she went to a different job, she'd say to herself.

"Hey mon, got to go to work!" Her cashier job was the longest and hardest hours she had to work. It was here that she met, Calvin.

Calvin was a student at the University of Richmond, from the lower east side of New York City. He was nerdy and didn't fit in with the other students at all. So, he spent the majority of his spare time either in the library or in the cafeteria talking to Tressa. So, many times, he may have 16

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thought he was yapping on and on and Tressa was just being polite listening, but Tressa was soaking in every last word. Calvin spent so much time chatting with Tressa.

Calvin thought Tressa favored this beautiful Dominican sister he saw on the subway in NYC. The doors closed behind her and he was too late to stop and ask her for her number.

Tressa and Calvin went out on a couple of dates, but Calvin wasn't really interested in her because his mind was bent on getting money. He was certain that once his bank account was right, it would bring any female he liked.

Tressa would never admit it, but minus the nerdy looking glasses and the super shinny penny loafers, the intellectual man that Calvin would grow to be, would be the man she longed to enter her dull life.

Tressa knew that Calvin adored her, but he would never admit it to her or anyone else. Since she couldn't go to her classes, she'd make it her personal goal to absorb five words a day from her conversations with Calvin. Tressa could at least broaden her vocabulary, mannerism and social status outside of work. In addition to spending all of her time looking in Vogue and Elle magazines for the latest fashions and labels, she would read magazines that had interviews with important people over and over again, gradually picking up savvy and intellectual phrases. So overall, she may have been out of college for the time being, but she tried to educate herself.

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-3-

Make Your Word Your Bond

While at the city jail, Taj became good friends with a guy named Khalil Foster AKA Lucky Luck. Now, Luck was a live wire, that got his name from being extraordinarily lucky with the dice and never catching any other charges other than misdemeanors. He would always have some kind of beef going on while in jail and on the streets. He wouldn't have any problems doing his time.

Now, although Lucky was a major player in the drug trade, he would always get locked up for petty crimes.

Drunk in public, driving with a suspended operator's license, jaywalking, disorderly conduct, urinating in public and simple assault. These were the crimes that were listed on his wrap sheet. Not one of the monstrous, multiple murders or the keys of heroine he conspired to sell on a daily basis, ever surfaced to get him indicted on a murder or a continuing criminal enterprise (CCE) charge. After taking those things into consideration, who would disagree that he owned up to the name Lucky? Khalil hated to be called Lucky because he felt he'd jinx himself, so instead, most people called him Lucky Luck or just plain Luck.

Taj took Lucky Luck under his wing. Luck had heard a lot about the gangsta rep that Taj had acquired over the years. He respected Taj and knew that if Taj's man hadn't snitched on him, he would have never fallen.

Luck was getting money like crazy, it was out of control. But he also knew if he had the right drug 19

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connection, his financial status would turn into multi-billionaire in no time. He had heard rumors of Taj's interactions with foreigners in the underworld. He was also aware of his financial situation and how much he loved his sister. He sympathized with Taj and his plight. Taj wasn't sure, but he knew that Luck had his own ulterior motives for befriending him, but he didn't care. All he was concerned with was if they coincided with his own agenda.