Damaged (11 page)
“I don’t care. Do it if you want to.”
“Yes!” she said, excited. “How you want it? I already got some human hair. You want it straight or curly?”
I shrugged my shoulders and played a game on my phone.
“Damn, Camille. Get yourself together. What’s wrong with you? Tell me something or I’ma call Chu up in here. Maybe he can
come dick you down real quick,” she said, laughing.
I smiled and tossed my phone on the couch. “Okay, give me something long and straight. Maybe like a bang. That would be cute,
right?”
“Yeah, that sounds hot!” Peaches said. “I’ll hook you up.”
H
ours later, Chu showed up with long-stem pink roses in his hand at the same time Nut showed up with the crabs.
“Aww, baby, you’re so sweet,” I said, kissing him and taking the flowers.
“I like your hair. Peaches did it?” he asked, touching the long strands.
I nodded.
“Damn, Nut. Where the hell my flowers at?” Peaches asked playfully.
“I got your flowers right here,” he said holding his nuts. “Come and get ’em.”
Peaches sucked her teeth, and Nut laughed before opening a beer he took out the refrigerator. He turned around and winked
at me. I just knew she saw him, but I wasn’t so sure.
“It’s for our anniversary,” Chu said, grabbing me and turning so my back was pressed against his chest in front of him.
I frowned. “Anniversary?”
“Yep. We met one year ago today.”
I smiled and turned around. “You really remembered the day?”
He nodded but smiled. “Well, something like that. I just remember it was at the end of May.”
“Aww… see, you messed it up,” I said, teasing him. “Thanks anyway. They so pretty.”
He laughed and turned around to get a beer, too.
Peaches was busy making her special crab dipping sauce, though it was nothing but mayonnaise, ketchup, Old Bay seasoning,
hot sauce, a little bit of mustard, and a drop of vinegar. It was real special, all right—that’s how just about everybody
made it, minus or plus a couple things. But it didn’t matter, since it was always good.
I spread out old newspaper on the dining room table and then opened all the windows that had screens on them. Nut turned the
TV to ESPN, so we could watch an NBA playoff game while we ate. My cell rang twice, but my hands was too messy from cracking
open shells, dipping crabmeat in sauce, and sucking it off my fingers to stop and answer it. Plus I was in a crab-eating mood,
and everybody knows you don’t just stop eating crabs to talk on no phone. I don’t care who it is—you ate until the brown paper
bag was empty.
After the crabs was all gone, I cleaned up and then I checked the new messages Jayson left on my phone.
“Camille, I really need to talk. We all at the house, Jamal and Ja’qui, too. Call me.”
“Who was that?” Chu asked.
“Jayson.”
“What he say this time?”
“He called earlier, before you came home. He said Mr. Brinkley dead.”
Chu’s jaw clenched. “You believe him?”
“I think he might be telling the truth, cuz he calmed down a lot from the other calls.”
“You gonna call him back?”
“Should I?”
Chu paced the bedroom and then lit a Black & Mild. “I don’t know. Why should you care that he’s dead after what he did to
you? I mean… however he died, he probably deserved it.”
I bit my lip since I was thinking the same thing, but Jayson was my friend way before any of this craziness. Maybe if he just
knew what really happened he wouldn’t be so pissed. But then again, it
was
his father, just like it
was
his mama I attacked. He’d never believe me, and now that Mr. Big was dead, he couldn’t defend himself.
“Let Jayson deal with that shit by hisself. If he was really your friend, a lot of stuff would be different. That lady wasn’t
the only one acting like she ain’t see what was going on in that house!”
Chu was right. Jayson, Jamal, and Ja’qui had to sense something not being right sometimes.
“I’m changing your phone number today! So all that shit he doing can be squashed,” Chu said angrily.
“Y’all niggas ate crabs without me,” Rob said, standing in the doorway. “Damn. See how y’all do a nigga?”
I smiled and watched him give Chu a duffle bag.
“That’s everything?” Chu asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Smurf said we should go down there the day after tomorrow.”
“Oh, all right. That’s what’s up,” Chu said, putting the bag in the closet.
I raised my eyebrows. I guess they was going back to Greensboro soon.
“Guess who the fuck I saw the other day, Camille.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Your girl KiKi.”
“For real?” I hadn’t really had much to say to her since that incident at Smurf’s cookout. I saw her around the way every
now and then, but we ain’t even speak to each other. “Where you see her at?”
“She was at the Tradewinds, when I went to see Back last Wednesday. And she looked like a straight-up hooker.”
“Ugh, for real?” I asked. That hooker did love her some Go Gos, and Backyard was her favorite band.
“Yeah, and you know she was trying to holla at me again, right? But I wouldn’t fuck that bitch with three condoms on, even
if she douched with bleach.”
Chu and I cracked up laughing.
“Hey, you gonna miss me when I go to college?”
“Nope,” I said, smiling, but I would miss him. He was pretty funny and kept us rolling whenever he was around. I saw him play
basketball once, and he wasn’t too bad, either. He could dunk and everything.
The house phone rang and Peaches came in the room to pass it to Chu. “It’s your brother.”
“Oh, all right,” he said.
Rob walked out the room behind Peaches, and I listened to Chu talk in codes while I played with my new hairstyle in the mirror.
“Tell Tep, I said hi, baby.”
Chu told him and then passed the message that Tep said hi to me. “He said he liked that picture I sent of us and that care
package you helped me put together.”
“Oh, for real? Good,” I said.
Peaches knocked on the door. “Hey, Camille, you want to run to the mall with me real quick?”
“Hell yeah. Give me a second,” I said, walking over to Chu. He reached in his pocket and passed me a wad of bills without
even looking up or skipping a beat on the phone with Tep. I kissed him and put the money in my pocket.
“Thank you, baby.”
P
eaches drove to City Place in Silver Spring cuz her favorite nail salon was in there and she wanted to go to a couple of stores.
I’d rather we went to Pentagon City instead, but I wasn’t driving. We both got our nails done and then she saw something in
the window at Rave she wanted to check out. I rolled my eyes. The stuff in that store was so not my taste, but whatever. I
followed Peaches around the store, since I knew it wasn’t nothing I was gonna want in there, but she was taking too long,
so we went our separate ways.
“Hey, Camille,” someone said. I turned around and was surprised when I saw Nissa.
“Hey, how you doing?” I asked, not really caring.
“I heard about what happened to your father. That’s terrible. I hope they catch whoever did that shit to him.”
I frowned and mumbled, “Thanks.” I guess Jayson had been telling the truth.
What happened to him?
I ain’t want her to know I ain’t even know what was going on. That would look fucked up. I tried to change the subject. “So,
how long you been working here?”
“Like since I was sixteen.” I had forgot she was a couple years older than me.
“Oh, okay.”
“You know I graduate this year, right?”
I was shocked. How could that be if we was both in the tenth grade? Well, I would be in the tenth if I was still going. “No,
I ain’t know that.”
“Yeah, girl, I been busting my ass going to night school all year so I could catch up to graduate with my class. I gotta go
to summer school, but after that I’m done. And then I’m going to FIT in New York.”
Damn.
I had no idea. “Oh, good for you.”
“Well, let me get back to work. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I saw Danica like a month ago. Her son is so cute.”
I lit up. “You did? Where?”
“I was out Potomac Mills with my mother.”
“Oh, damn. I’ve been trying to catch up with that girl for a while.”
“For real? You should try MySpace, see if she on it.”
“I might,” I said. Ain’t nobody I know have no damn computer. “All right, well I guess I’ll see you around. Take care.”
Ms. Trinissa Drummond had it going on, I guess.
Peaches bought two wide belts, a sparkly gold tank top, and a pair of leggings. I wanted to call Jayson to see what happened,
but I ain’t want to do it while we was out shopping.
“You all right?” Peaches asked. “You been zoning out all day.”
“Just a few things on my mind. Don’t worry about it.”
“All right, if you say so,” she said. “Let me get a pretzel or a Cinnabon or something. Shit, I’m hungry.”
When we got back to the house, Chu was standing outside in front of the building talking to Rob, Nut, and some other guys
from the neighborhood.
“What you get me?” he asked, smiling.
“Um, well,” I said, and I smiled, too. “I got you something, but you gotta come in the house to get it.”
“For real?” Chu said. He plucked his Black to the ground and followed me in the house.
As soon as we got in the bedroom, I told him about what Nissa told me about Mr. Big.
“Damn. You goin’ call Jayson to find out what happened?”
“You think I should?”
Chu sat on the bed and then said, “I guess.”
“All right,” I said, taking my phone from my purse. I sat on the bed beside Chu and dialed up Jayson.
“Camille? Somebody killed Daddy!” he said before I could even say hello.
“Huh?” I asked, confused.
“At a gas station in Capitol Heights. Somebody shot him right after he came out the store.”
“Oh, my God. When this happen?”
“Last night, on his way home from work.”
“Damn.”
“You should come around here. Everybody’s here.”
I looked down. There was no way I was stepping foot back up in that house. “Jayson, I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Mama not gonna care right now. She’s too… too depressed.”
“Still… not after what happened. I can’t come over there,” I said and then sighed. “I’ll have to catch you later. Maybe I’ll
come by your house tomorrow. Will you be there?”
“Yeah, for a minute. But I gotta help Mama plan the funeral and everything. A lot of family coming up from South Carolina.
I can’t believe you not gonna come,” he said. I could hear the disappointment in his voice.
“We’ll talk tomorrow. I promise.”
Chu squeezed my thigh and rubbed my knee.
T
he next afternoon, Chu asked if I wanted him to go with me over Jayson’s, but I told him no. I ain’t think Jayson was gonna
try to hurt me, not with his father dead and him grieving. Kicking my ass for trying to stomp the dog shit out of his mama
was probably the last thing on his mind. I knew I’d be okay. Chu dropped me off and then gave me money to call a cab so I
could get back home.
When Jayson opened the door, he looked like he had been crying for days.
“How you doing?” I asked.
“I feel like shit. Come in,” he said, opening the door.
“So do they know anything about who did it?” I asked, sitting on the couch.
“No, the cameras was too fucked up. But they said it wasn’t a robbery, cuz all his money was still on him.”
“Damn.” I shook my head, then I said, “How
she
doing?” not sure if he would be offended if I called her Mrs. Brinkley instead of Mama.
“She’s been crying off and on, but she’s okay. Her sister came up yesterday.”
I had never met any of their other family the whole time I was there. One summer the Brinkleys sent the boys down South to
spend the break with relatives in South Carolina. Danica and me was in the house together that whole summer. It was one of
the best and worse times ever. It was the best cuz the boys wasn’t around teasing us. We got spoiled with desserts “just because”
and we went to Six Flags three times. But it was the worst, cuz Mr. Big had plenty of time to make his way on down to our
room without the boys’ usual distractions.
I sat with Jayson for a while, listening to him talk about memories he had of his father and why he hoped they caught the
person that did it.
“People don’t just get shot in the head by accident,” Jayson said after he blew his nose.
“In the head? Jesus.”
“Why would somebody just kill him like that?” Jayson asked before crying all over again.
But I had no answer for him. I listened to Jayson go on reminiscing about the good and the bad. He remembered how Mr. Big
once tricked Jamal into letting Jayson beat him in a race down their street.
“Jamal was talking so much trash that Daddy told him to race me in his Timbs. Jamal was stupid enough to do it, too. All that
mouth he had. Man, I smoked that boy something terrible!” Jayson smiled as he spoke. “It felt so good to finally beat him
at something. You know, even though me and Daddy had our problems and our issues, I loved him. He ain’t deserve that shit.”
I rubbed his leg, not sure what to say since I definitely ain’t have no love for him. I stayed with Jayson for a while longer
and then I told him I had to go. He told me the funeral was gonna be in two days, at the same church we all used to go to
every Sunday before Jayson moved and before I left. But I already knew I wasn’t going, and I had already decided not to tell
Jayson what Mr. Big did to me. Wasn’t no use in me trying to change how he felt about his father. For now, the past was going
to stay in the past. I couldn’t change it anyway. When I left out the door, I knew me and Jayson would never be as close as
we used to be, ever again.
AUGUST 2005
A
frican accents bounced off the dingy walls of the hair-braiding shop at the corner of Eighth and H Streets. I was getting
Senegalese twists, but I hated when they spoke that stuff couldn’t nobody understand but them. I tried thinking about Chu’s
mother and what she said about Africans, but I just thought what they was doing was rude. I looked around at the five other
girls leaning to the left and then the right, as the African ladies tugged and stitched fake hair extensions tightly on their
heads. The braiders’ dark, rough fingertips was cracked and peeling like they had been scrubbing floors with their bare hands.