Two Tears in a Bucket (17 page)

“
Simone!” Lavon growled, appearing from out of nowhere.

“
Damn, girl. You scared me. Where the hell you come from?” Simone asked. “I was on my way to your house.”

“
Girl,” Lavon whispered in excitement as she nearly dragged Simone down the sidewalk, “one of them Jamaicans threw their bag of shit on the ground when the police rolled up.”

“
And?”

“
And I found it!”

Simone stopped dead in her tracks.

“
Yeah, c’mon,” Lavon said, tugging on Simone’s arm as she led the way to her apartment.

Inside, Lavon closed her bedroom door and dumped the contents of the brown paper bag on her bed.

“
Look at this shit!” Lavon tossed the tiny crack-filled baggies in the air. “I know this gotta be more than three thousand dollars’ worth of crack! Here,” she said, tossing half of the baggies to Simone.

“
What the hell I’m supposed to do with this?”

“
Girl, we fuckin’ partners, you know that. This is fifteen hundred dollars apiece!”

“
Yeah, but who the hell gon’ sell it?” Simone picked up the tiny baggie and examined the hard white substance. She’d never seen the infamous drug before. “It looks like pieces of soap.”

“
We can get Big Bob to sell it. Matter fact,” Lavon said, picking up her phone, “I’ma page him.”

“
I hope he calls back,” Simone said. “The police were searching him a minute ago.”

“
That ain’t nothing new. He don’t walk around wit’ his stuff on him. Watch, he’ll be knocking on my door in a few minutes.”

Lavon and Simone sat outside on Lavon’s patio in the plastic lawn chairs, fantasizing about their big plans for the fast money.

“
What’s up, ladies?” Big Bob stepped onto the patio. “Which one of y’all paged me?”

“
I did,” Lavon whispered, anxiously waving her hand for Big Bob to come closer.

“
What?” He frowned as he squatted down next to her chair.

“
You know the police was looking for them Jamaicans,” she whispered.

“
Yeah, them hot-ass muthafuckas. One of them threw their shit down. I hope somebody find that shit.”

“
Somebody did.” Lavon smiled a toothy grin.

“
Who? You? Y’all found that shit?”

“
Yeah! It’s like three thousand dollars’ worth of halves, too.”

“
Hey, hold up,” Big Bob said seriously. “Don’t y’all tell nobody else that shit.”

“
Come on now. We look stupid to you?” Simone asked. “The only reason we telling you is ’cause we need you to sell it.”

“
Oh yeah?” Big Bob chuckled. “And what I get?” He winked at Simone.

“
What, you want us to pay you?” Simone asked, ignoring the suggestion in his wink.

“
Naw, I tell you what, Simone. Go to the movies with me, and you ain’t gotta pay me nothing,” Big Bob offered. “It might take me a minute to get rid of it, since the strip is blazing. I’d have to nickel-and-dime it to you, but I’ll get rid of it.”

“
Okay, but if I go to the movies with you, you gotta sell mine and Lavon’s.”

“
A’ight, but we going today.”

“
Okay, and Lavon’s going, too.”

“
Ah, see,” Big Bob stood. “You messin’ it up.”

“
Come on, Bob, please,” Simone begged. “And if we going today, we need to go soon, ’cause I gotta pick Jordan up from her grandmother’s.”

“
Okay, let me see if my man Donté wanna roll so Lavon don’t feel like the third wheel. I’ll be back in ’bout five minutes.”

After the movie, rain poured from the skies, drenching Simone, Lavon, Big Bob, and Donté as they ran from the theater to Donte’s black Audi.

“
Hey, Simone, I know you gotta pick up your lil’ shorty. You want Donté to swing you past there?” Big Bob asked as he climbed in the front seat.

“
Yeah, if he don’t mind. It’s not that far from here,” Simone said from the back seat.

“
Naw, I got you.” Backing from the parking space, Donté cracked his window and pulled a joint from his sun visor. He heated up his car lighter and asked, “Y’all want a hit?”

“
Fool, what the hell you doing?” Irritation flooded Big Bob’s voice. “Ain’t you taking Simone to pick up her daughter?”

“
Yeah, man. I said I was.” Donté fired up the joint and took a long drag. He blew the smoke toward his open window, but the bulk of the cloud floated to the back.

“
Donté, you blowin’ that funky shit all over the place, and her baby gotta get up in here!”

“
Ah, nigga, stop fuckin’ trippin’. This that good shit. It don’t smell like that bullshit y’all pushin’ on the corner. Y’all don’t wanna hit this muthafucka?”

“
Simone,” Big Bob called out, rolling down his window, “we can swing past the way and jump in my truck. I’ll take you to pick up your lil’ shorty.”

“
Stop cryin’ like an ol’ bitch…damn.” Donté took another drag and tapped the joint out in the ashtray. “Y’all fuckin’ happy now?”

“
Who the hell told you that shit don’t stink?” Lavon asked. She couldn’t roll down her window because the rain was coming down in buckets.

“
Ah, now there you go.” Donté shot Lavon a look of annoyance in the rearview mirror. “Gimme the five dollars I spent on your damn movie ticket!”

“
You ain’t said shit.” Lavon crumpled up a ten-dollar bill from her purse and bounced it off of Donté’s head. “Buy some air freshener with the change.”

A bolt of lightning cracked the sky as Donté pulled in front of Ms. Kennard’s building. Simone and Lavon leaped from the car and sprinted to her apartment.

“
Dang, is she home?” Lavon asked as Simone knocked on the door over and over.

“
I guess not,” Simone said, stomping down the steps. “Miss Kennard knew I was coming to get her.”

“
Hey, Simone!” One of her old neighbors stood at the top of the steps.

“
Hey,” Simone said. She recognized her old neighbor, but for the life of her she couldn’t recall her name.

“
I seen your little girl. You and Kevin made a pretty little baby.”

“
Thank you.” Simone smiled.
Damn, what the hell is her name?
“Have you seen Ms. Kennard by chance?”

“
No, not today. Why, something wrong?”

“
No, I’m just here to get Jordan, and she’s not home. Can I use your phone?”

“
Sure,” she said, leading the way to her apartment. “C’mon up.”

Inside the apartment, Simone picked up the phone and called Angela, while Lavon waited by the door.

“
Hey,” Simone said, “have you spoken with Ms. Kennard? I’m here to pick up Jordan, but nobody’s home,” Simone smiled as her old neighbor headed into the kitchen.

“
Yeah, Jordan’s here with me. Ms. Kennard said she’d been calling you since five o’clock. They called her in to work. Where were you?”

“
I went to the movies.”

“
Why would you go to the movies knowing you had to pick Jordan up?”

“
I’m here to get her now.”

“
It’s thundering and lighting outside and you shoulda..”

“
Ma,” Simone said, cutting her off. She didn’t have time to go back and forth with her. “I’m on somebody else’s phone, so I can’t fuss with you. I’m on my way.”

“
Simone, you may as well wait until tomorrow. It’s raining and—”

“
All right, bye,” Simone said, hanging up the phone. “Thank you,” she hollered toward the kitchen.

Her old neighbor came out of the kitchen with a can of air freshener. “No problem,” she said, filling the air with aerosol. “Take care, Simone.”

● ● ●

Beatrice pulled herself from her car, exhausted after working all night. She could barely keep her eyes open. Her body craved the warmth of her bed, and in a matter of minutes, she’d satisfy the yearning.

“
Hey, Ms. Kennard!” her neighbor chanted as she headed over to her car. “You coming from work and I’m going.”

“
Girl, I’m so tired I could fall out in the middle of this parking lot. How you doing this morning?”

“
I’m fine. I saw Simone last night,” she said, approaching Beatrice’s car. “She was looking for you. I let her use my phone. Her and her girlfriend lit my apartment up.” She chuckled. “I don’t know what the hell they were smoking, but whoa. I was spraying my apartment all night.”

“
Huh?”

Damn, her mother said she was doing something she ain’t had no business doing,
Beatrice thought.

“
Hey, now don’t get me wrong. I take a little hit on occasion, too,” she whispered. “But it don’t smell like that. See you later,” the neighbor said as she climbed inside her car.

● ● ●

Kevin sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the pictures of Jordan that Angela had sent him.

Dang, look at you,
Kevin said to himself. Lining the pictures across his mattress, he read the few lines Angela had scribbled.

Hi Kevin,

Hope all is well. I figured you might enjoy these pictures. Give me a call when you can. There are some things that I really need to discuss with you.

Take care,

Angela.

What she gotta discuss with me?
Kevin wondered. He’d only seen Angela a few times, and their exchanges had been polite but minimal.

One of the five wall phones was free. Kevin made his way to it and called Beatrice.

“
Hey, Ma,” he greeted after the operator announced his call. “I got a letter from Angela today. She wants me to call her. You know why?”

“
I don’t know, but I gave her your address. Did she send you some pictures?”

“
Yeah, I got ’em. Jordan and Simone okay?”

“
Well, Jordan’s okay, but like I told you already, something’s not right with Simone.”

“
What you mean? She okay, right?”

“
I don’t know. You ever known her to get high?”

“
Well, the gal upstairs ran into Simone, and she said Simone was high.”

“
Naw, don’t believe that.”

“
I don’t know. I’m starting to wonder. Angela’s been hinting around, saying the same thing.”

“
I’m telling you, Ma, that’s not Simone. She wouldn’t mess around.”

“
Yeah, well, I don’t have any reason to make it up, and why would her mother?”

“
I don’t know,” Kevin said, confused. “Just talk to Simone and make sure she’s okay.”

“
Why don’t you call her?” Beatrice suggested.

“
I’ve tried calling. They never accept the calls.”

“
Then write her a letter or something.”

“
Naw, I tried and I can’t get my words together. Besides, you out there, Ma. You can do more than I can. Just make sure she okay. I know she ain’t doing drugs, so if that’s what Angela wants to talk about, there’s no need for me to call her.”

Chapter Sixteen

Late October, 1989

The light up ahead turned yellow. Simone slowed down and prepared to shift the van into neutral the way Thomas had instructed. However, before she could brake to a complete stop, the van trembled like a small quake.

“
No, no, no,” Simone pleaded, but the van ignored her cry and rattled off.

“
Aww, come the hell on!” she moaned, slapping the steering wheel with her hand.

All week the van had given her problems, stalling before starting and cutting off when she least expected it. Thomas had finally tracked down his back-alley mechanic and made arrangements for him to work his magic. While the lack of a shop made the repair less expensive, the wait time was longer. Simone thought Angela was going to go into convulsions when she told her Jordan wouldn’t be there for a week.

The light changed. Horns tooted and cars whipped around Simone as drivers tossed up the “fuck you” finger. Simone ignored them all.

“
Please, please, start up,” she mumbled.

Jordan was strapped in her car seat, sucking loudly on her pacifier. The last thing Simone needed was to be stranded with her baby.

She tapped the gas pedal a few times and turned the key in the ignition. The van hesitated a bit, but roared to a smoky start, sending a white cloud of funky fumes from the exhaust. Simone threw the van in drive and shot through the fresh red light. Silently, she prayed the entire drive home. She didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until she was settled in a parking space.

“
Hey, Simone!” Big Bob called, jogging in her direction. “Hey, Cutie Pie,” he panted, grinning at Jordan. “Damn, you and that punk did something right.” He chuckled.

“
Here,” he said, passing Simone a wad of bills and a handful of crack-filled baggies. “That’s some more money for you and Lavon. Five-O and the fuckin’ feds just pulled up on the other side of the complex. Hold that for me. You know they ain’t gon’ check you.”