Nine Lives: For the Love of Money (2 page)

I'd usually laugh when he said this by answering, "Nah Playa that's too much and totally not needed,”

I sometimes gave him false hope by stating, “Maybe in another space and time it would and could have been different.”

This would make him dreamy eyed and he’d say, “Well shit let me get this time capsule built then,”

I didn't allow myself to get a swelled head even if it was the truth. In all actuality, I did possess qualities for a young female that were considered rare in our days although I knew they really weren’t. I actually finished high school not just obtained a general equivalency diploma, went straight to college where I was on the debate team and received my master's degree in communications. I was a quadruple threat having grown up with a mother who loved music and a sibling who was into sports, I could sing, rap, dance and was very athletic. I could play basketball as well as football.  I was what you would call an ‘all American girl’ even if they thought I was the wrong skin tone, this term applied to me.

I thought of entertaining D.J. Infinity’s advances a time or two but tonight I was not up to grinning in his face. I didn't care how much he complimented me, tonight was simply not his night for me to be flirting with him.

For the first time in a long time I snapped at him leaving him a bit confused because of my earlier smile plastered on my face during our conversation.

“I'm not your baby. I don't care if you consider me a lion or a lamb, I'm not fucking with you on more than a professional level," I reprimanded him, then added, "Got me?"

He answered barely above a whisper, "Yea, I got it."

With that being said, I grabbed the mic and shouted as loud as possible, "Last song."

Looking perplexed D.J. Infinity didn't know if he should go against my decision to shut down the annual jam an hour early or not. Yet, he did the smart thing since we stopped admitting people into the venue due to being at capacity.

Infinity shrugged off my reprimand, took the mic from me and co-signed by saying, "Last call for alcohol. You all don't have to go home but you have to get the fuck out of here."

He gave me a wink to which I rolled my eyes totally disgusted. I could tell his feelings were hurt especially by my last action. Despite knowing this, I just didn’t care at this moment.

What Infinity didn't know, was the reason I was so riled up.

That reason being I had a visitor earlier today. One who did not come bearing gifts or good news. Seemed the club we rented for our annual parties was located on a prime drug block.

The heads of the operation were known as
The Overseers
and
their message to us was very clear. They wanted us to not only pay to hold parties to them and owners of the lounge but have our parties weekly. We weren't necessarily in agreement with this because it would limit our reach to various clientele by making us locals. My brother wanted to be a big time party promoter to the point that he was in high demand as a celebrity event planner.

One of the major reasons I was taking my frustrations out on D.J. Infinity, was because this area was Infinity's neck of the woods. As Boogie reminded me, Infinity's character was less than savory although he was trying to be a legitimate entity. My brother also reminded me these were only yearly events. It would be kind of hard to be on anyone’s radar especially a drug dealer who was busy running a block than to know everyone who came through once a year.

Trying to put two plus two together, we recalled Infinity used to run with a crew of hot headed, murdering drug dealers. And although, he told my brother he had broken ties with his old crew, my brother wasn't too sure. We both felt when a former criminal needed money they’d revert back to their old ways of hustling.

While Boogie also wasn't too sure of the name of Infinity's old crew and if it was
The Overseers
, he wouldn't put it past him. Plus, the name sounded familiar.

The one thing Boogie was sure of was that Infinity was too pussy and just plain not smart enough to plan a major extortion plot like this on his own; he had to have someone with a backbone in on this plot. That thought pattern was the one thing I disagreed with my brother on. I felt Infinity had to be smart to some extent and crazy like a fox in another. I mean how else did he get to leave a crazy ass crew without being killed, placed in jail or having his limbs broken or severed?

My brother and I put our heads together when trying to exclude Infinity from the spoiler of the day. We both wondered who it could be and why were they targeting us? Why in the world would anyone want to extort us? We weren’t that major of a team.

As far as we knew we didn’t have any known enemies, at least not the kind who were smart enough to extort us under the premise of holding weekly parties.
The Overseers
would be able to sell drugs to the party go-ers.

I guess our ability to fill every jam to capacity might have brought attention to ourselves. I guess they figured out what we already knew; they could take in a pretty penny from just one of our events now imagine four events monthly.

I hated to admit it but the money would be a good look just not at the risk of stunting the growth of Boogie's dreams. Damn sure not at the percentage they wanted us to pay out to them.

No matter how much we crunched them, the numbers didn't work out in our favor. Therefore, we were totally dead set against going along with their request.

*****************************************************************************

I became a little worried as the party thinned out. I had informed Boogie via Skype messaging hours ago about our seemingly haunting predicament. His reply after about an hour of weighing our options, was simple, "Nah that ain't going to fly."

I smiled inwardly. If I knew anything about my brother, he was a cheap skate. In that respect we were just alike, we were more than just alike; we were twins in spirit.

The Overseers
must have thought we were boo-boo the fools, which only showed us they really didn't know who they were dealing with. There just wasn't any way in hell we were going to pay one lump sum to hold our annual party to them, the club and still run the risk of being busted for drugs; liable to do time. If we took that risk it might as well had been for our own financial gain, not anyone else's.

We had limited time to make a decision whether to comply or stonewall them. Boogie and I came up with the perfect plan to stonewall them. Too bad it turned into the fight for our lives.

******************************************************************************

Chapter 2

I cried like a baby when word of Boogie's sentencing came down. He was sentenced to fifteen years with no chance of parole. He was caught up in a murder for hire sting he swore he had nothing to do with. The would be victim was none other than Infinity himself.

"Don't worry lil bit, we'll win this one in appeals," he screamed to me over his shoulder as the bailiff cuffed him.

"I know Boogie. Remember I love you. We're all we got," I screamed back.

Momma chimed in, “W.A.W.G. (we all we got) for Life.”

"Ms. Hunt, Mrs. Hunt, order in the court; order in the court " the judge yelled out as he banged his gavel on the desk.

I rolled my eyes and sucked my teeth. Running over to the partition which divided Boogie, his defense team, the prosecutors, judge, bailiff and stenographer from the audience in the court, in order to reiterate the love, I held for my brother, I screamed a few more times, "We're all we got,” with momma chiming in “W.A.W.G.”

We were somewhat of a chaotic mess but felt it imperative to let Boogie know we loved him.

The judge being frustrated with our displays of affection and pain toward my brother's ordeal banged his gavel once again as this time he yelled, "Bailiff, remove the Hunt’s from the courtroom."

Not giving a fuck about appearances anymore since I saw they were removing Boogie from the courtroom as well, snarled at the judge and vehemently stated, "Court's over anyway, you fucking peckerwood."

Shocked and stone-faced the judge stated, " You're in contempt of court. 5-days in county lock up".

"Fuck you and your county," I screamed while momma tried to shut me up.

“Lil Bit, hush child. Your brother’s already on lockdown. I need one of my children safe at home.”

“Nah, fuck that momma, fuck this bullshit ass system with their racist, peckerwood judges. Fuck that, fuck him, fuck the county and fuck anyone who disagrees with me,” I yelled while onlookers seemed to be mixed in their reactions. Some were holding their fist in their air while nodding their heads in agreement while some fanned themselves and shook their heads whispering. I could tell they were asking the person sitting next to them what’s wrong with me? Truthfully I didn’t care until I heard a familiar voice say, “Well somebody needed to say it.”

Well I be damned it was my ex best friend at one point in time, Misty. We didn’t have any beef but our friendship faded after she realized fucking Boogie was a mistake. He was a dog who didn’t show her too much respect as he did his main chick. I guess it hurt her heart having to visit me and see him. Sometimes his girl Tanesha would be coming out the room none the wiser.

I didn’t fight to keep Misty’s friendship. Truth be known I didn’t blame her but I did blame Boogie for passing his place and fucking my friend. We both knew if roles were reversed he’d put a hole in his friend’s back for fucking with me.

******************************************************************************

The judge droned on as I continued screaming fuck him and trying to finagle my way out of the bailiff’s grasp. Misty yelled some more, “I got your back Dee.” She then started yelling fuck the system and those in support of my frustration with the system started chanting with her. My mouth was the strongest and loudest though and the judge seemed to want to stick it to me.

"Ten days," the stone faced judge stated.

We went on a few more times with the audience chanting along with me and Misty. When it was over and done, I had forty days in county lock up and a year of psychological outpatient treatment ordered for me for the contempt charge and twenty days for attempting to incite a riot due to the audience in the courtroom taking my side and chanting with me.

The bailiff whispered to me, "Sheesh you got off easy compared to the last brother who went back and forth with Judge Middleton. They received nine months on Riker's Island, two years’ parole supervision and two years’ psychiatric treatment upon release with no chance of getting out early for good behavior.

Hearing that I shook my head but was grateful I wasn't the brother the bailiff was talking about.

After being escorted out the courtroom by the bailiff, I was taken to bookings in the courthouse while waiting for transport to Riker's. Thank goodness my cousin Clarissa had Dorah or she'd definitely would have been in foster care. It would have been a fight to get her out from the system. Due to the fact momma suffered deeply from bipolar disorder, I didn’t feel she was equipped to handle a child at Dorah’s age for too long. No matter how much she reminded me she was our sole caregiver at one time, I still didn’t budge from this mind frame. Also because there were a few times she experienced hallucinations.

The counselor we went to had a family session with Boogie, myself and momma just to let us in on her treatment plan. He wanted us to inform him if we thought it would be too much for us to handle.

Boogie and I were in agreement, she was our mother and we’d ride out whatever she was going through as long as she was here on earth with us. When addressing the hallucinations, he changed her medicine to Olanzapine telling us momma wasn’t schizophrenic but suffered from bipolar with hallucinations. He said Olanzapine worked well for his clients with similar issues. His final instructions were he wanted to see momma back in three weeks to double check if the prescribed medications were working with her in conjunction with her talk therapy.

So you see leaving Dorah with momma was somewhat out of the question plus momma was either busy when she was experiencing mania or depressed from crying her eyes out over the past and things she couldn’t possibly change.

That’s also the reason I didn’t leave Dorah with momma for too long even when she seemed to be on a normal plateau.

In an attempt to help me because of guilt he experienced, Boogie sent word to his lawyer to fight my riot charge. The lawyer filed a motion and somehow the judge, although I thought he was racist, dropped the riot charge.

Boy I was grateful to say the least. I don’t care how tough I was, Riker’s was just off the hook. It was entirely too much to stomach, even for me.

In the short time I was there, I saw faces get split wide open with jail house made shanks, feces and urine thrown at inmates and correction officers alike, along with pregnant inmates being stomped out.

Good thing I had just a bit more confidence in my boxing skills in case it came down to a one on one battle but the other stuff I could truly live without.

I did, however, mingle with a few other female inmates. I even made one invaluable friend. She would prove herself to be loyal and worthy of my time and attention. It was not sexual but based on the female need to have a sister to confide in. Her name was Hazel. She was Latina, possessed an olive cream like complexion and a body to kill for.

She told me her name was Hazel because of her eye color but her birth name is Jelani Martinez. Hazel became everything to me. What is so different about this friendship is she didn't have to lick the kitty to be considered special. She just was attentive to the basic necessities I needed to survive. For one she gave me my own homemade shank, made sure I had commissary like my snacks and things, toothbrushes and soap. These things may not have seemed like much to some but to me, especially when locked up, it meant everything. I tried to return the favor when my mother put a hundred dollars on my books. That’s why when I got out of lockdown and made it safely to the world again, I would put little twenty dollars here and there on her books.

You know although I had a hard rock persona, I reciprocated the love that was shown to me. It was with respect and genuine well wishes in which I saw it my duty to do this. Had it not been for Hazel, I might have lost my mind from paranoia. The shank helped me feel secure that I could handle even the worst part of being on Riker’s island if I had to. Luckily I didn’t have to even though a bitch tried to phone check me when I was talking to my momma getting the rundown about Boogie and my daughter. When a deep baritone like voice said, “Phone check homie,”

I simply turned around and asked her, “Who me?”

“Yea you puta,” she replied while grinning and nodding her head putting on a show for everybody. That was the last time she would make me a star in one of her flicks because I took the phone and clocked her a few times on top of her head which knocked her unconscious. Suffice it to say, no one wanted to mess with me afterwards. They knew there would be consequences and ass whoopings’ handed out. I could see Hazel smile and nod her head as confirmation I did the right thing. At that time, that was the only thing that mattered to me. Well Dorah did too but I’m sure you get the picture I’ve painted. ******************************************************************************

Chapter 3