A Sticky Situation (18 page)

“Yeah, I understand, but it’s not my fault you’re fucking with someone who is insecure!” she replied sarcastically and stormed back out of the kitchen.

“You would know something about that, wouldn’t you?” I yelled, but she didn’t respond. I was glad because I had a headache and I wasn’t trying to add any more pressure to it.

As the day went on, Melody stayed out of my way. She acted like she had an attitude, but I didn’t give a damn. I preferred her to be this way so she could keep her ass out of my face. I could handle my business better that way, which was always a good thing.

At the end of the day, me and my street team raked in eighteen grand. It was a little less than normal, but it was only because the police kept riding through and scaring the fiends off. I had to end up taking the rest of the dope with me. I normally wouldn’t ride home dirty, but I figured since heroin mixed with baby laxative goes bad after a day or two, it would be a waste of time for me to give the shit back to Mike. I could just get up early in the morning and come back out and get rid of it then. Mike agreed with me when I met him and gave him his dough, so it was a done deal.

SAMANTHA

Sideline Chick

I walked straight to my room after I got off the phone with Seth. And even though we didn’t end our conversation on a bad note, I was still a bit ticked off. My intuition was fucking with me , and I needed somebody to vent to so I was glad my roommate Ms. Blair was in the room when I got there.

“Girl, that nigga is about to drive me fucking crazy!” I screamed.

“Who?” she wanted to know.

“Seth.”

Ms. Blair sat up on her bunk and sighed. “What did he do now?”

See Ms. Blair was not only my roommate, but also my homegirl. And even though she was West Indian and ten years older than I was, she knew what time it was when it came to men. She was full of wisdom, so I always looked to her for advice. “Besides talking me into taking his gun charge, I think he’s cheating on me again.”

Ms. Blair cracked a smile. “What gave you that impression, honey?”

“Because when I was just on the phone with him, I heard a woman’s voice come out of nowhere. And do you know she questioned him and asked him if he was talking to some guy named Mike? But, I’m not stupid. I knew she did that so I could hear her voice and then start questioning him about who she was. And guess what? It worked.”

“What did he say about it?”

“He told her to chill and sent her on her way. But he said it in a way like he was trying to hide something.”

“Well, did you ask him who she was?”

“Yeah. But, he lied and told me she was his homeboy’s girlfriend. So, my thing was why is she there with you and not with him? And that’s when he told me that he was at her house waiting on the guy Mike to get there.”

“Did you believe him?”

“Not really.”

“Well, let me say this,” Ms. Blair began, “because you are here you have no way of finding out whether or not he’s telling you the truth. So, take his word for it until you find out otherwise.”

“But, what if he is cheating on me with her?”

“Sweetheart, he’s a man. And men cheat all the time. So, that’s why it’s important for a woman to get everything she possibly can from them while you have ’em. Because as soon as they think they’ve found someone else better, they will leave you at the drop of a dime. So, take my advice and live for today and save for tomorrow.”

“All that sounds good, Ms. Blair, but what I really want to do is kill him sometimes.”

“Nah, love! The best way to get a man back is by taking him for everything he’s got. I mean, take him for all he’s worth. And if you feel like that’s still not enough, then go ahead and kill ’em! But, just make sure you don’t leave any witnesses around or any evidence that would lead the police back to you.” She smiled. But, deep down inside I knew she was serious as hell.

See, Ms. Blair was there for attempted murder on her husband. She got a twenty-year sentence. She said her husband was a big time drug dealer from Trinidad and they had a beautiful home in south Florida but the feds confiscated it along with their construction business and all their possessions. Her husband got twenty-five years because he got caught with several kilos of cocaine in his possession while he was entertaining his mistress in an expensive hotel suite thirty miles from their home. Ms. Blair said she had no idea the feds had his hotel room under surveillance because if she did, she would not have went there to kill him. She said she wished she would’ve gotten someone else to do it because she wouldn’t be in this predicament. I told her to stop crying over spilt milk because her time was almost up. With only two years left, she could start over and find herself a new man. She laughed at me and said, “Samantha, I am fifty-three years old. Who in their right mind is going to want me?” I smiled back at her and told her that there are plenty of men looking for a beautiful woman such as herself. Too bad for her though, Immigration was sending her back home to Trinidad, so she was gonna have to go back there with nothing but the clothes on her back. Hopefully when I got out and got on my feet I’d be able to give her a nice piece of change to go back home with because she was a good woman and she didn’t deserve that.

After our conversation, we headed down to the TV room to play a few games of bid wiz. We stayed down there until it was time to go to the dining room for chow.

MAXINE

He’s Sticking It To Me Hard

Another week had passed, and I had yet to salvage my relationship with Seth. He still refused to accept my calls or return any of my text messages. I even made a couple of trips to his mother’s house early in the morning, like around six
AM
, but I could never seem to catch him there. The only thing that came to mind was that he’d spent the night out and that thought turned my stomach upside down. Who could he be staying out all night with? I knew Samantha hadn’t come out of prison yet, because November 21 was eight days away. Who could it be other than that chick Melody? I mean, he did spend an awful lot time selling drugs out of her house. I knew it had been a lot because he was practically there from sunup to sundown, and I knew they had fucked each other. What kind of role she played in his life was another issue, and I intended on getting the answer to that as well. I needed to see if Seth’s car was parked outside her apartment and I would be able to make that happen as soon as I got this slow-ass car from in front of me.

Beep, beep!
“Could you please move the hell out of my way?” I screamed, right after I honked my car horn.

The driver in front of me finally got the message and pulled his 1995 Toyota Corolla to the side of the road so I could get by. When I passed the car, I noticed it was an old man behind the wheel and he looked terrified. I graciously smiled at him with an apologetic expression and kept it moving. I knew he probably thought I was crazy but I also thought the same damn thing about him, especially at the speed he was moving. Once he was out of my way, I proceeded with my mission; which was less than a mile away.

As I drove, I thought of what I was going to do when I arrived in Dales Homes. I also wondered about whether or not it would be feasible for me to go up to Melody’s front door if I saw Seth’s car parked outside. I mean, would that be a smart thing on my part, or would it be very foolish? I wondered how Seth would react. Would he go off on me? Or would he just simply brush me off and close the door in my face, like he did at his mother’s house? In this situation, it would be very hard to tell but at this point, but it really didn’t matter because I didn’t care how he reacted. I wanted to see her reaction. With that attitude, I parked my car about a half a block before her apartment building and started walking in that direction.

Now, it was still kind of dark outside and the fact that it was cloudy wasn’t gonna bring the sunlight into the sky any sooner. However, the streetlights gave me a little something to work with as I navigated down the narrow street. Dressed in my hooded sweatsuit and sneakers, I pulled my hood farther down over the top of my face and walked with my head down as I made my way toward Melody’s apartment. I found myself walking over dozens of syringes and broken needles. The sight of it was scary. I wondered how in the hell the children played out there. It was too dangerous, if you asked me. Someone definitely needed to clean up these streets.

“Got them yellow bags,” I heard a guy’s voice yell, but I didn’t look up to see if he was talking to me. I figured whatever it was he was trying to sell wouldn’t do me any good. First of all, I didn’t have a habit, and second, it wasn’t gonna get me closer to my man so I kept it moving. I took a few more steps and ran into two women who were standing in the walkway. To keep from moving out of their comfort zone, so to speak, I walked around them. When I passed them I noticed one of the chicks pushing a needle into the other woman’s neck. The shit terrified the hell out of me, so I jumped.

“Yeah, yeah, push all that shit up in me.” The woman smiled as she instructed the chick with the syringe. Then in the blink of an eye, her smile wasted away and was replaced with an expression of fury. “Bitch, you tricked me up again!” I heard her yell. She snatched the syringe out of the other chick’s hand. “This shit ain’t nothing but cold-ass tap water!”

“Whatchu talking about?” the other woman asked.

“You know what the fuck I’m talking about! Don’t just stand there and act like you didn’t switch the shit up.”

“I didn’t!” the woman fired back. “I put every last bit of dope I had left in there, so the dope must’ve been bad.”

“Come on, now. What kind of game you playing? That heroin came from the nigga that be in Melody’s house and his shit is always good, so you got one over on me this time. But that’s all right ’cause I’m gonna get your trifling ass back!” She threw the syringe on the ground and stormed off in the direction I was walking.

“Yeah, whatever,” the other chick said and walked off in the opposite direction.

I continued to walk forward, leaving them behind, but somehow one of them managed to catch up with me. “You got to watch out for these conniving-ass bitches out here. They will steal from you in a heartbeat, and the fucked-up shit about it is that they’ll do it right in your face and make you think they’re doing something else.”

Instead of responding to her comment, I ignored her and started walking faster. She noticed me trying to be evasive and said, “Hey, what’s up? You holding?”

With my head down, I said, “Nope.”

“Whatchu trying to score?” she pressed.

“Nothing,” I sighed.

“What, you the police or something?” she asked, then stopped in her tracks.

“No, I am not,” I replied, aggravated and disgusted.

“Well, if you ain’t, then you better pull off that hood ’cause if you don’t, niggas around here are going to think that you’re either the police or a stick-up kid, and they’ll start shooting at you.”

Alarmed by what this woman had just said, I stopped in my tracks and immediately pulled my hood off my head. At that very moment, we recognized each other.

“Wait a minute, you’re that same lady I seen out here about two weeks ago, aren’t cha?”

I nodded.

She walked a little closer to me. “But I thought you said you didn’t get high?”

“I don’t.”

“Then what are you doing out here this time of the morning?”

I sighed. “It’s a long story.”

“Well, whatever kind of story it is, it couldn’t be worth you running behind it.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Listen honey, these streets aren’t no joke. They will swallow your ass right up if you let them, and then you’re gonna be walking around here looking just like me. And I’m sure you don’t want that.”

“Look, ma’am,” I said, but was abruptly cut off.

“My name is Faith.”

“Well, Faith, like I was saying, I am not out here looking for drugs. I am out here looking for my man.”

“What’s your man’s name?”

“His name is Seth and he drives a green Magnum.”

“Oh, I know who you’re talking about. That’s the guy who hustles out of Melody’s spot.”

“Yeah, that’s him,” I replied eagerly, hoping that she would take the bait.

“Well, he’s sitting down in her house as we speak.”

“Do you know if he’s been down there all night?”

“Oh nah, he never stays out here all night. He always closes down shop like about nine or ten o’clock, and then he turns right back around and comes back around this time.”

“I wonder why he comes back out here so early?”

“Shit, you don’t know?” Faith chuckled.

“Know what?”

“That’s when you make the most money. Dopefiends like me wander all over the city this time of the morning, looking for a pill of good dope. To us, it’s like waking up and going out for breakfast. We have to have at least one or two pills of some good heroin to get our day started. As soon as we run across some dope that’ll knock your socks off, we’ll tell everybody we know. Believe me, word of mouth around here will either kill ya or make you rich.”

“Well, let me ask you this.” I pulled her to the side when I saw a guy walking in our direction. After he passed us, I said, “Have you dealt with him directly?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Have you bought heroin directly from him?”

“A couple of times. Why?”

“Have you ever been into the house?”

“Oh nah, he won’t let anybody in the house except for his little street crew.”

“So, how do y’all make the trade off?”

“Early in the morning, we got to go to the back door and hand our money through the window. But during the day time, we got to go through one of the little watch-out boys he has standing outside of the apartment.”

“How well do you know Melody?”

“Well enough. Why?”

“Would you know if they were fucking around with each other?”

“If they are, no one knows about it because she supposed to be messing with the big guy, Mike.”