Authors: Brenda Woods
Emako Blue (9 page)
“My mama keeps telling me that God’s gonna answer her prayers, but her hair is turnin’ white from worryin’,” Emako said. “Now he might get an early release. You know, time served. That’s all we need, Dante back up in the house, bringin’ us down.”
I reached for Emako’s hand. She took my hand and held it. Tears began to well up in her eyes, but she held them back and let go of my hand.
“Ain’t nuthin’,” she said.
“Yeah,” I replied. She was strong like me. “It’s gonna be good, for me and you. In two years you’ll have your recording contract and be outta here too.”
“A lot can happen in two years, Eddie.”
Monterey sat down beside me. “What’s up, y’all?”
“Nuthin’, ’cept Mr. Eddie got accepted to Arizona State,” Emako replied.
“I know,” Monterey said, and looked up at me.
“I called her yesterday as soon as I got the letter,” I added.
“Why do you look so sad?” Monterey asked.
“Emako’s brother got stabbed,” I told Monterey.
“I know,” Monterey said. “But he’s gonna be okay.”
“Every time I turn around, it’s more DD,” Emako said.
“DD?” I asked.
“Dante’s Drama,” she replied. We all laughed.
“One more summer and I’m outta here. L.A. will be history. Nuthin’ about this city that I’m gonna miss,” I said.
Monterey and Emako looked at each other.
“Except you guys,” I added.
Monterey moved closer to me. “I was about to say.”
“You two make a good couple,” Emako said.
“We do?” I asked.
“We do,” Monterey answered.
Savannah
When I saw Jamal’s face on Monday and found out about the trip to Disneyland, I figured he was doing Emako. I mean, why else would he be so nice to her? So, I put the word out. Besides, if it hadn’t been for Emako, Jamal and Gina would still be cool and I wouldn’t have to listen to all of her pitiful nonsense almost every night.
Two days later, I was waiting for my mother after school and Jamal walks up to me like he’s my best friend or something. I knew I was in trouble.
“Hey, Savannah,” he said.
I wondered if I should run, but I remembered my first rule: When you find yourself in a bad situation, there is only one thing to do, lie.
“Hey, Jamal,” I replied.
“How you been?”
“Everything’s cool, waitin’ on my mom. She’s late.”
He stared at me for a minute and then he spoke. “Did I ever tell you that you have a pretty mouth?”
It wasn’t the kind of question that I expected. “No,” I replied.
“Well, you do, and I was just wonderin’.”
I thought to myself, I know he is not gonna get nasty with me. “Wonderin’ what?”
“Wonderin’ why you gotta use it to spread lies.”
“Excuse me? I do not spread lies.”
“Let me explain something to you, Savannah. Number one, I’m not doin’ Emako, but that’s really not your bizness, is it?”
“No,” I said.
“Number two, next time you see Emako, I want you to tell her that you’re sorry becuz she ain’t about that, okay? Number three, stop callin’ Gina with your nonsense.”
“Why you think it’s me? Like I’m the only one with a tongue,” I said.
He shook his head and turned to walk away, still talking, “Y ’all see a brother bein’ nice to someone, and the first thing y’all wanna say is he’s doin’ her. And Savannah, one other thing.”
“What?”
“Stay outta my face.”
I looked around to see if anyone was watching, but there was no one. Two minutes later my mother drove up. I slithered into the front seat like the snake that I was.
“You can’t speak when you get in the car?” she said.
“I said hi,” I lied.
We drove in silence. This thing with Jamal and Emako, I thought, I’m never going to win, so I might as well give it up. If you ask me why I cause trouble, I would answer, I don’t know. It used to be fun.
She dropped me off in front of the house and headed back to her travel agency. People were making their plans for the summer and it was busy.
I walked into the house and looked at my reflection in the mirror in the entryway. I was getting fat and I was too mean. No wonder no one loves me.
Monterey
The day Dante came home, my daddy dropped me off at Emako’s house at about two o’clock in the afternoon. I knocked and Verna opened the door. She went out onto the porch in her robe and waved at my daddy while I snuck into the house.
Dante was asleep on the sofa. Emako had told me that they had given him an early release. He groaned and I saw him open one eye and then close it. His hair was corn-rowed, his skin dark brown. He pulled the covers over his head.
Emako yelled from her room, “I just got home from church! I gotta change my clothes!”
Dante groaned again and turned over.
I stood at the door and watched my daddy’s car as it drove away.
Verna came back in the house. “I was making hot links and scrambled eggs. Have some?”
“No, thank you, Mrs. Blue. I already ate.”
“What’d I tell you ’bout callin’ me Mrs. Blue?”
“Verna.”
“That’s better.”
Emako came into the living room. She was dressed in low-rider jeans and a white shirt. “C’mon,” she said to me.
“Where y’all goin’?” Verna asked.
“Burger King. I gotta pick up my check. We’ll be right back. C’mon, Monterey.”
I followed her outside. The old man who lived next door was cutting his lawn with a push mower, and clumps of green grass lay on the sidewalk.
“You saw Dante,” she said.
“Yeah, I saw him.”
“His wound’s infected, so my mama’s been waitin’ on him hand and foot like he’s some kinda invalid, which he’s not. I’ll be glad when he gets well so he can get up outta my mama’s house.”
“Where’s he gonna go?”
“I dunno, away . . . before he brings more trouble.”
We walked to the corner and crossed the street.
“I got a tattoo.” I rolled up my sleeve and showed her the vine of ivy that circled my upper arm.
“When?”
“Last Saturday. I took the bus to Venice, by myself.”
“By yourself?” Emako paused. “Your mama’s gonna kick your butt.”
“It wears off in three weeks,” I said.
“Henna?”
“Yeah.”
“Your mama’s still gonna kick your butt.”
“Not like she needs to see me naked,” I said.
“Monterey?”
“That’s my name,” I replied.
“I know you are not tryin’ to get funky with me.”
“I can and I did.”
“So it’s like that. One tattoo and a trip to Venice Beach and you grown?”
“I’m grown.”
“A’ight then,” she said, and smiled as we entered Burger King.
Emako headed toward the small office while I waited in front. I looked at the tattoo again and thought, I am grown. Almost.
She returned with her check, waving it like it was a hundred-dollar bill.
“C’mon.” She motioned and we headed back out onto the streets. The sun was shining. The sky was blue.
We turned the corner toward her house. Dante was on the porch with three brothers.
“See what I mean?”
I did. “Yeah.”
“But you can’t tell my mama nuthin’. ‘He’s still my child,’ is what she says. ‘He’s still my child,’ over and over again.”
We walked up the path to the front door.
“Baby sis,” Dante said, and smiled. He was fine, but one of his front teeth was missing, looking like a black hole in his mouth.
The skin on the back of my neck stood up.
“Miz Emako . . . all grown up . . . ain’t you fine,” one of the brothers said, looking us both over from head to foot. “And who’s your cute little friend?” All four of them laughed.
“Get out my way, J.T.,” Emako snarled.
“Oh, it’s like that?” J.T. snarled back.
“Yeah, it’s like that,” Emako replied.
Finally, Dante spoke up. “Leave the superstar and her little friend alone.”
“Superstar!” they said in unison.
Emako pushed the door open and we went inside. “Mama, I thought he was supposed to be laying low. I mean, if he’s well enough to walk outside and kick it with his gangstas, then he’s well enough to get up outta here.”
“He’s still my child,” was her mother’s reply. “Y ’all hungry?”
“No, we’re not hungry. C’mon, Monterey.”
We went into her room and she closed the door. “Can’t even have a normal life with him around. I gotta get outta here.”
“You will.”
“Yeah”—she took a deep breath—“I will.” After a while she said, “Me and Jamal spozed to go to City Walk tonight. You wanna come? Maybe Eddie can come too.”
“Yeah, but I gotta call my daddy,” I replied.
She grinned at me. “Oh . . . but you grown.”
She got up and I followed her into the living room. “Mama, where’s the phone?”
“I dunno, ask Dante.”
Emako went to the front door.
“Dante!”
“What?” Dante was standing on the sidewalk with J.T. The other two brothers were nowhere in sight.
“You got the phone?”
Dante held up the cordless black phone for her to see.
“Could I use it?”
“Come and get it, superstar.”
Emako whispered something under her breath and stormed toward Dante and J.T. I trailed behind her.
Just then a car drove by. It was the same caramel-colored brother in the Regal that I’d seen before. The one who’d come into Emako’s line at Burger King, looking for Dante. He stared at Dante. Dante nodded at him as he handed the phone to Emako.
The car rolled to the end of the block. Suddenly, the brother in the Regal made a fast U-turn and drove back toward us. “Dante!” he yelled.
Dante looked up.
I froze when I saw the gun.
“Mama!” Emako screamed as the bullet hit her.
Dante and J.T. hit the ground and five more shots rang out. When they ended, I was still frozen, watching the Regal as it sped out of sight.
Dante and J.T. stood up, examining their bodies for wounds. Emako’s was on the sidewalk, lying in a small pool of blood. Her eyes were wide open.
Verna raced out the door toward Emako, screaming.
She got down on her hands and knees and tried to pick her up. She couldn’t. “Call 911! Call 911!” she yelled, and started to breathe air into Emako’s mouth.
She reached up and grabbed me by the hand. “Push on her chest.”
I kneeled on the ground and pressed on Emako’s chest. Blood was all over my hands. “Wake up,” I said softly.
Verna ran to a neighbor’s house, still screaming, “Call 911!” She banged on the door until somebody opened it.
Dante and J.T. took off down the street. Marcel and Latrice ran out of the house and stood over Emako’s body.
“Wake up,” I said again, but I knew she was dead.
The neighbors began to come out of their houses. I heard sirens. The paramedics got there first. They formed a shield around Emako, working fast. “It’s too late. She’s gone,” one of them said.
The police got there next. Most of the people from the block disappeared into their houses. The yellow tape went up. The paramedics put a blanket over the body. Verna looked crazy. Latrice was crying.
Marcel yelled, “It’s all Dante’s fault!”
I went into the house and called Daddy. I kept staring at my bloody hands.
I watched the blood as I washed it off my hands down the drain. It looked like red wine.
Then, my mama and daddy were there. I talked to the police and Mama and Daddy put me in the car and took me home. Mama stood outside my bathroom while I took a shower. Daddy threw my bloody clothes away.
I felt like I was in a dream.
Jamal
Emako and I were supposed to go to City Walk. I called her house at 5:30, but there was no answer and I figured that she was out somewhere. The answering machine was off, so I couldn’t leave a message.
I called back again at 6:30 and let it ring twenty times before I hung up.
At 7:00 I called a third time. It rang ten times and I was about to hang up when Marcel picked up the phone.
“Hello?” he said.
“Hey, little dude, let me talk to Emako.”
“She ain’t here.”
“Tell her to call me when she gets home, okay?”
“She can’t,” he said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Cuz she got shot and now she’s dead.”
“Stop playin’, Marcel.”
“I’m not playin’. It’s even on the TV. They came to shoot Dante, but he ain’t dead or nuthin’. Then the ambulance came and tried to make her get better, but they couldn’t.”
“Where’s your moms?”
“She can’t come to the phone cuz the doctor gave her some medicine and she’s sleepin’, but my auntie’s here if you wanna talk to someone.”
“I’m comin’ over.”
“You can’t cuz they got that yellow tape everywhere.”
“Marcel?”
“What?”
“Where’s Dante?”
“Gone. He was gone b’fore the police came.”
“Marcel? You okay, little dude?”
“Yeah, but Latrice and my mama ain’t. I gotta go now becuz my auntie gotta use the phone. Bye.”
“Bye, little dude,” I said.
I threw the phone across the room. It broke into pieces. My moms knocked on my door.
“Jamal?”
I couldn’t answer.
She turned the doorknob and came in.
“What’s goin’ on?” she said.
I stared at the wall.
She sat down beside me. “Jamal?”
I hung my head and cried.
Eddie
My father had put my graduation portrait up in his market.
Muy bonito,
all the women told him.
Muy bonito.
He was full of pride and my mother seemed happy again. I felt like everything was going to be okay.
Muy bonito,
all the women told him.
Muy bonito.
He was full of pride and my mother seemed happy again. I felt like everything was going to be okay.
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