Two Tears in a Bucket (2 page)

Three steps away from her stepfather, Simone stopped and waited for him to move.

“
Umm… excuse me,” she said. It killed her to be polite to him. She hated Ricardo just as much as he hated her.

With a cynical smirk, Ricardo turned his body toward the stairwell wall. “Go ‘head.”

“
Why couldn’t you just go down the steps?” Simone mumbled through tight lips as she squeezed past him. Before her foot could grace the next step, she felt the roughness from Ricardo’s dry hand reaching under her nightshirt. Shocked by his touch, Simone missed the step and stumbled. She caught her balance and threw the empty hamper at Ricardo as he marched down the steps, chuckling.

He touched me!
Simone screamed inside as she slammed the door and secured the lock. Her heart thumped she rushed into her room across the hall from the basement door.

“
He touched me. He fucking touched me,” Simone repeated out loud as she threw on a pair of jeans from the remaining pile of dirty clothes on the floor.

The basement stairs creaked. She froze as footsteps echoed from the stairwell. Ricardo was on his way up. All hell would break loose when he realized Simone had locked the door. She ran a trembling hand through her hair, pacing back and forth. The door knob turned.

“
Simone!” Ricardo screamed. The house began to shake as Ricardo threw his 280-pound frame violently against the door. “Simone!” he roared.

Petrified, Simone bolted from her room. She had to leave.
I’ll go to the neighbor’s house.

The sound of splitting wood echoed through the tiny rambler as Ricardo burst through the basement door, ripping it from the frame. Inches away from the front door, Ricardo snatched Simone’s 125-pound body back like a rag doll.

“
Don’t you
ever
lock another fucking door in my house! You hear me!” he yelled as he threw Simone into the wall.

She tried to flee his wrath but he yanked her up by the collar of her nightshirt, choking her. Unable to scream, she clawed at Ricardo’s hands, trying to pry them from her neck, but he tightened his grip.

On top of the entertainment center, next to Simone’s senior class picture, sat Ricardo’s crystal ashtray, loaded with ashes and cigarette butts. Scared of his drunken rage, Simone reached for the heavy glass and busted open the back of Ricardo’s head.

“
What the fuck?” he mumbled, releasing his grip as blood oozed down the back of his neck. He reached behind his head and dabbed at the fresh wound. His face turned red as the devil, shocked by the blood on his fingertips. His chest inflated as he inhaled strength. With the back of his hand, he slapped Simone across her face and knocked her to the floor.

Angela and Alicia entered the house. Their grocery bags crashed to the floor.

“
Oh my God, Ricardo!” Angela cried.

Ricardo pointed his stubby finger at his stepdaughter and snarled at his wife through gritted teeth, “I want this piece of shit outta my got damn house tonight!”

Chapter Two

“
It don’t make no sense for one person to be that damn fine,” Gwen shared with her girlfriend, Tammy, as they stood in front of the apartment building watching Kevin, the handsome lova-lova thug, pimp down the sidewalk.

“
Girl, stop drooling over that damn boy and ask him to come help. I’m not standing out here with you all night,” Tammy said. The three-inch pumps she’d worn all day had her feet throbbing. “It’s damn near nine o’clock, and my feet hurt,” she said, stepping from her patent leather heels.

Gwen cleared her throat. “Excuse me,” she hollered out, waving her hand to get Kevin’s attention. He glanced Gwen’s way.

“
I’m sorry.” She twisted her shoulder-length hair around her finger like a bashful school-girl. “Can you come here for a second, please?”

Agitated, Kevin turned and headed in Gwen’s direction.

“
Mmm, mmm, mmm. That boy is fine. Look at them hazel eyes,” Gwen mumbled under her breath, not caring that Kevin was young enough to be her son.

“
How you doing, sweetheart? I’m Tuffy’s mother, Gwen, and this is my girlfriend Tammy,” she introduced.

“
Okay,” Kevin said with a shrug.

“
You know my son, right?”

“
We know of each other. Why, what’s up?”

“
I’m sorry. I don’t mean to bother you. I’m locked out of my apartment. I know Tuffy’s in there. I’ve been banging on the door for I don’t know how long, and I can’t get him to answer it.”

Kevin stood silent, having no idea why any of that pertained to him.

“
Umm… I was wondering if I could get you to climb through my window and maybe open the door for me.”

Kevin thought he saw Gwen pass him a seductive glance. He hoped not. She was old… too bold… the mother of a fellow thug… and not at all his type.

“
Naw,” Kevin said, irritated. Although he’d never had an altercation with Tuffy, Kevin didn’t know him or his mother well enough to climb through their window, especially at night. “What you tryna do, set me up for your son or something?” he asked, suspicious of anything out of the norm.

“
No, Kevin!” Gwen frowned, insulted. “I don’t play games like that, baby. I’m a grown-ass woman.”

“
She’s telling the truth,” Tammy spoke. “Her dumb butt really is locked out.” But her words meant nothing to Kevin. Neither woman had any credibility with him.

Kevin studied them both. They appeared clean-cut, dressed in their casual work attire.
Shit,
thought, as his mind screamed
hell no
. But his heart took him back to the days when he was barely five, watching his father beat the mess out of his mother, Beatrice, while she lay helpless on the floor. From that day forth, every damsel in distress tugged on his heartstrings and transformed into his mother.

“
Please,” Gwen pleaded. “I would do it myself, but I ain’t never climbed through a window a day in my life.”

Kevin sighed. “Look,” he threatened as he cut through the grass and headed toward Gwen’s window, both ladies following behind him, “don’t make me regret this.”

Kevin surveyed the distance to the window. He knew he could do it. He’d climbed through his second-floor window many days.

In one leap, Kevin grabbed the ledge of the open window with his lengthy arms. Using his upper body strength, he snatched the window screen out and pulled himself into the darkness of the unfamiliar room. His leg bumped a lamp and sent it crashing to the floor.
Shit!
thought as he stepped on the sharp pieces, hoping they wouldn’t puncture the soles of his shoes.

CLICK, CLICK, CLICK.

What the fuck is that?
Kevin thought, although deep inside, he recognized the sound of the gun. He stood frozen in the dark room.

The bedroom light came on. Tuffy appeared, shaken and caught off guard, with his gun drawn and pointed at Kevin. Sean, Tuffy’s occasional sidekick, stood at his side armed with a wooden baseball bat, his eyes darting from Tuffy to Kevin.

What the fuck is this shit?
Kevin said to himself as his heart raced.

“
What’s up, Kevin, man!” Tuffy yelled, bouncing around nervously. “Why you tryna rob me, man? Ain’t never had no drama with you!”

“
Hold up, Tuffy,” Kevin said easily. “It ain’t even like that, man. Your moms was locked out, and she asked me to climb through y’all window and open the door.”

I knew I shouldna did this shit,
Kevin said to himself as he stood in the middle of the floor, staring down Tuffy’s pistol.

Knocks rang out from the front door. Tuffy and Sean didn’t budge. The knocks rang out again.

“
Look, Tuffy,” Kevin said. “You can come check me. I ain’t even packin’. How I’ma rob you if I ain’t gotta gun? Go answer your door, man. That’s your moms. Just ask her. She asked me to climb through your window.”

“
Go check the door, Sean!” Tuffy ordered.

Sean backed out of the room, heading down the hall to the front door.

Kevin stood there, regretting his decision to help. He kept his eyes off of Tuffy, knowing his angered expression would probably piss him off and tempt him to pull the trigger. Seconds later, Gwen and Tammy’s heels click-clacked along the parquet wood floor.

Gwen screamed hysterically, shaken at the sight of Tuffy standing with his gun pointed at Kevin. “I asked Kevin to climb through the window.”

“
Yeah, man.” Sean stood off to the side, nodding his head in approval. “She was knockin’, like Kevin said. I told her he was tryna break in this muthafucka and they ran right past me.”

Sean and Tuffy both spoke at a snail’s pace, obviously high, which explained why neither had opened the door when Gwen knocked originally.

“
Damn.” Tuffy lowered his gun and stuck it in the waistband of his jeans.

“
I want that gun outta my house,” Gwen cried. She stormed over to her son and showered him with a windmill of smacks.

Tuffy threw his arms up to block his mother’s blows. “Ma, I thought he was tryna break in.”

“
Just imagine had you shot him,” she cried, delivering the final smack to the back of Tuffy’s head.

The same thought ran rapid through Kevin’s mind as he headed out the room, leaving Tuffy to his beating.

“
Yo! Hold up, Kevin,” Tuffy hollered. “I thought you was tryna break in,” he said as he and Sean chased after him. “Listen, man,” Tuffy said as they entered the hallway, where their voices bounced off the concrete walls. “We cool, right?”

“
Yeah, man, we cool,” Kevin replied as he trotted down the steps. In his eyes, Tuffy’s actions were justified. He’d seen another thug he barely knew crashing through his apartment. Tuffy had followed the gangster’s code of conduct by pulling his gun.

“
But hold up, Kevin. Hold up,” Tuffy said once they were outside. Kevin stopped in his tracks. “I bought this piece of shit gun from a dude on the strip yesterday. Man,” he chuckled nervously, “I shot at you like nine times… nine times, Kevin, and this bitch didn’t do nothin’.”

“
Let me see it.”

Tuffy handed Kevin the gun. Walking around to the side of the building, Kevin examined the gun and pointed it in the air. He pulled the trigger. A bullet exploded in the sky without hesitation. Kevin handed the gun back and walked off, leaving Tuffy and Sean in awe.

Something inside Kevin’s gut told him his evening would be better spent on the couch in front of the television. He contemplated listening to his instincts, but as he approached the little section of the drug strip that had become his corner, he spotted a few of his regulars, scratching and twitching. Guaranteed money.

“
Ah!” James, Kevin’s best friend, yelled out as he jogged across the parking lot. “I just ran into Tuffy. He told me what happened, man.”

Kevin passed the last addict a tiny plastic baggie that contained the blessing to his hell and shoved the money in his pocket.

“
Now get the fuck outta here, man,” James threatened through tight lips. He stomped his foot, lunging at the addict. Kevin shook his head while James held his stomach in laughter as the addict tumbled over his feet and sprinted toward the darkness of the strip.

“
Hey, look, man. I’ma run up here to the liquor store and get us somethin’ nice. We need to celebrate. You ’pose to be in a body bag.”

“
Yeah, that ain’t a bad idea. I could use a drink,” Kevin agreed as another loyal junkie approached.

James took off through the dirt trail that connected the drug strip to the liquor store and the greasy spoon that Kevin and his friends nibbled from nearly every day as the addicts continued to come, searching for their Friday-night high, one behind the other.

Damn, where the hell James go?
Kevin thought. He glanced at this watch. James had been gone for over an hour.
Let me go put this shit up,
thought, tapping the wad of bills in his front pocket. The stickup boys worked overtime on the weekends.
Then I can go to the store my damn self.

As he turned to head down the walkway that led to the apartment he shared with his mother and older brother, LeCount, Kevin felt the barrel of a shotgun poke him in the back.

Get the fuck outta here. This cannot be happening,
he screamed to himself. He couldn’t believe his luck.

“
Yeah.” The gunman chuckled. “What’s up, muthafucka! Where your boy at?”

“
Don’t know who you talking ’bout,” Kevin responded carefully.

“
You know who the fuck I’m talking about! That bitch-ass James! Where that muthafucka at?” the gunman yelled.

“
I don’t know,” Kevin responded.

The gunman pumped the chamber and punched the barrel of the shotgun into Kevin’s jaw. Kevin’s heart thumped as his mouth filled with the salty taste of blood. Lady Luck had already saved him once by defecting Tuffy’s gun. The possibility of her showing up again was slim to none.

“
Oh you don’t know, huh? Well tell’em that Lil’ Bits looking for his ass,” the gunman shouted. “You heard me, muthafucka?”