URBAN: Chosen By A Kingpin (47 page)

***

The next day, I came home and watched as one of the druggies left my house and was immediately stopped by the police a few blocks down the road. I pull into the garage and hurried inside the house. That was the last straw. I was putting Orlando out of my house for real this time. The police were getting closer and closer to kicking my door in, and with it filled with drugs and other drug related paraphernalia, there was no way that Orlando wasn’t going to jail; and if he went down, I was going down with him. I walked in the house surprised to see no body sitting on the sofa. All residue from the drugs were cleaned up, and the house surprisingly didn’t smell like weed. Orlando was sitting on the sofa watching TV. When I shut the door, he turned it off and stood up to greet me.

“Hey baby girl,” he said and came over to hug me. He kissed me on my forehead and asked how my day was. I was taken by surprise.

“My day was fine…” I trailed off. “What’s going on here?”

“What you mean?

“Well the house is clean, your boys ain’t here eating our food and smoking up the place and for once, it doesn’t smell like two hundred pounds of weed in here.”

“I been listening to what you said T and you right. I been taking advantage of you love. I rented out another place, an apartment on the other side of town. Majority of my weed is now stashed there and that will be where I will handle my business from now on. My boys are prohibited to come here. This place is just for me and my lady.”

I was stunned and amazed at the same time. Its things like this that keep me from putting Orlando out of my house. He actually listens to what I say and he acts upon it. For a second, I forgot what I had come in here for, and then it hit me.

“Orlando, the cops have been watching the house for weeks now! They pulled over a guy that left the house not too long ago. I just know that their going to kick the door in.” I said worriedly.

“Don’t worry love. That was just Tory. He’s not a druggie, just a friend of mine. He didn’t have anything on him that would make the cops suspicious of the house, but if it makes you feel any better, I plan on getting us a new house as well. I know I tainted this one. If we move, it will get the cops off of our backs and keep you safe.”

I nodded in approval. I knew there was a reason why I kept Orlando around.

Things have been great between us since Orlando and I had our little conversation a few days back. We have gone looking for houses and everything. Today, I was preparing a special dinner for him because I had a surprise for him. I got off of work as usual and walked to my car. As soon as I got into the car I got a phone call.

“You have a prepaid call from ‘Orlando Johnson’. This call may be monitored or recorded. To accept charges press one.” The automatic voice said.

I instantly got heated but pressed one anyway. “How the hell did you end up in jail?!”

“Stop asking questions and come get me! My bond is a thousand dollars. You got it. I put it in your account. Come get me and I’ll explain on our way home.” He told me and hung up. I started my car and headed towards the police station. This was it. There was no way he could get around this one. It was either change his lifestyle or get out of my fucking house!

Once I got to the police station I was hesitant on getting out of the car. I should just leave his ass in there and make him spend the night in jail. I got out of the car and walked up the steps to the courthouse. I paid bail and waited for them to release him. They brought him out of the cell and released his handcuffs. He refused to look me in the eyes as he walked out the door. He still opened the passenger seat for me though and got in the driver’s seat. Before I could even say anything he started talking.

“Look I know what you’re going to say,” he said, “but first let me explain. Before we get to the house, I want you to know that they kicked the door down. The house itself was clean but they got me and a couple of my homies because we had something slight on us. I got caught with ten grams of weed. We had only stopped by the house so I could grab some money from our closet stash. We weren’t in the house five seconds before they kicked it down. I let them know that you had nothing to do with it. You didn’t even know what was going on in the house while you were gone. I didn’t want you to go down for what I did.”

He looked hurt as he was talking. Like he knew he failed me. I turned his face towards me and looked him in the eyes. I felt like he was finally ready to give the street life up. “Orlando, I think it’s time for you to rethink your business. You don’t want to keep going to jail.”

He nodded. “You’re right. I don’t. I want to be here for you.”

“So what do you think you should do about it?”

“Keep a closer eye on the ones I hang around with and be more careful. Next time they won’t have a reason to take me in. I won’t have anything on me.”

I looked at him confused. “Are you serious? There shouldn’t be a next time!”

“You’re right because they won’t even get that close next time.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Instead of changing his lifestyle. He decided that it’s not his lifestyle but the people he surrounded himself with. I was amazed. This man couldn’t be serious right now.

“Orlando. Are you serious?”

“What? You thought I was going to give it all up just like that? If everything goes right, I could easily make ten thousand dollars this month. Ten thousand dollars. That’s all we need to get the house you want and you know that. You wanna give that up for a profession where I won’t even make a third of that in two months?” he asked.

“That’s not the point Orlando! You want to risk losing me and going to jail for some money? Fuck the house! I just need you at home with me.” I yelled.

“I hear you and I’m almost to the point where I can give that up but right now I just can’t do that. I thought you understood that.”

“I do but things have changed now.”

“Changed. How have they changed? The only thing that has changed is me getting arrested and that’s not gonna happen again. I promise you that.”

“I just can’t do it anymore Orlando. I need you to choose. It’s me or the streets.”

“Where is this coming from? You really gonna make me choose? You knew where I stood before we got together so why it gotta change now? Why can’t you just be okay with me making money?”

“Because Orlando…” I started and paused. A tear was falling down my cheek. I hated fighting with Orlando but I just couldn’t deal with this anymore. Not now.

“Terielle what is it?” he asked as he wiped the tear off of my face.

“I’m pregnant.” I breathed and looked away. He sighed and looked out the window. We sat like that for a while. Neither one of us had anything to say. I wondered if having a baby would finally take him away from the streets. He started the car and started driving. I could tell he was tense. A million thoughts were going through his head right now and it made me wonder exactly what he was thinking. His hand tightened on the steering wheel and I felt the car speeding up. I wanted to warn him but I was afraid he would blow up at me. He kept speeding up so I knew I had to say something and just as I was about to he breathed out heavily and slowed down.

Once we got to the house he didn’t move. He just sat there and stared out the windshield. I unbuckled my seatbelt and started to get out the car.

“I can’t let it go right now. There’s too much money to be made. The choice is yours accept me as I am or I’m out.” He said

I was pissed. He picked the streets over me and our child! He wouldn’t even leave his lifestyle to help me raise his own. I got out of the car and slammed the door to the car. Tears were rolling down my face and he drove off. I couldn’t believe him. I went inside of the house and slammed the door behind me.

I got up the next morning and threw all off Orlando’s stuff out of the house. I didn’t even bother packing it up for him. All of his clothes, shoes, personal items, jewelry, everything was on the ground in front of the house when I left the house for work. I also had the locks changed and any money he had stashed in the house was now sitting pretty in my bank account. I couldn’t believe he left me to raise his child by myself because he wants to continue living his street life.

At work, I could hardly focus. I had a million thoughts running through my head. What was I going to do with this baby on my own? Did I move too fast? What made me think I could change him? Did I make the wrong decision?

My phone rang and I looked at the caller id to see who it was. It was Orlando. I ignored the call and put my phone on silent. He called two more times and then left me a voicemail. I was tempted to listen to it but then I decided not to. He sent a text message to my phone and I out of curiosity I opened it.

Are you serious?! You took it too far! You gon' pay for this shit for real. Most of my clothes were stolen! You know how much money I spent on my clothes, my shoes. My game. You threw my game out the window? And where the fuck is my money. You took it huh? You a bitch for real!

I closed the message. I knew I messed up but at this point I didn’t care. I turned off my phone and tried to enjoy the rest of my day. Around two o’clock my boss came rushing into my office.

“Terielle, you need to go home,” she said. I looked at her confused.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Your house is on fire.”

I rushed home. Since my phone was turned off I didn’t receive any calls. Once I turned it back on a million messages came to my phone and I had at least fifty missed calls. I pulled up to the house just to see it burned to a crisp. The firefighters were just leaving the scene. A police officer came up to me and asked if I was the owner of the house and if I had any idea who could’ve done this. I nodded but was too speechless to speak. My friends were standing behind the caution tape and when they saw me they begged an officer to let them pass. The officer asked me if I knew them. I nodded once again. They ran up to me and surrounded me in a group hug. We all cried together. My house was burned down and I had nothing. Everything was gone. All I had was a little money saved up and the five thousand I took from Orlando. I knew he did it and I knew I brought it upon myself.

***

Later that day my friends took me out to get me something to eat. It had been awhile since we had all met up. I was still kind of mad at them for taking me to that party that night so I kind of kept my distance.

“So was this the guy you met at the party?” Taylor asked.

I nodded. “It’s my fault. He was a sweetheart and treated me better than any man I have ever been with, but I thought I could change him. He was married to the streets and I tried to take him from that.”

“Yea it’s hard to change a street nigga.” Shae said understandingly. “Trust me we all have tried.”

“But what made him burn your house down?” Nia asked.

I sighed. “Not too long ago I found out that I was pregnant. I’m three weeks along right now. He ended up going to jail. After bailing him out, I told him that I was pregnant and that he needed to make a choice. Either the streets or me. He told me he wasn’t leaving the street life and either I accepted him for who he was or he was gone. I left and this morning I threw all of his shit out of the house before I went to work. Most of it was stolen by the time he got to it.”

They all stared at me. They knew that kind of behavior was not in me and now that I look back at it I regret it. I was just upset at how things turned out and I wanted him to pay. I really did love Orlando. I made the mistake of trying to force him to change and I pushed him away. Now I had to suffer the consequences.

“You can stay at my house until everything blows over,” Shae said. “We’ll get through this together

“Wake up Darnell, it’s your first day of school.” I said shaking my son. My son was so handsome and looked just like his father. He had his beautiful light brown eyes and brown skin. I had kept his hair in a curly fro though and was almost tempted to let it grow out and get long. I never knew Orlando had such a good grade of hair. I knew for sure he didn’t get it from me.

“Baby boy, come on it’s time to get up.” I began to shake him lightly and he moved. He wiped his eyes and looked at me. My little man was too handsome and I loved him with every bit of me. He was a momma’s boy. Not that he had a choice not to be, and he never wanted to leave my side.

“Good morning mommy.” He said.

“Good morning son. Now go get ready. It’s almost time to go.” I told him. He hopped up.

“Oh my god, it’s my first day of school,” he said. He threw the covers off of him and jumped out of bed. I couldn’t help but laugh. He ran into the bathroom, picked up his toothbrush and struggled to put tooth paste on it. I walked in to try to help and he waved me off. He wanted to do it by himself. I let him and stood back and watched. It took him a little bit but he got his desired amount onto the toothbrush and then he looked at me and smiled. “I told you I got it.”

“Good, now brush them teeth. You want your teeth to be nice and clean on your first day of school.” I said.

“Ma, do you think I’ll make lots of friends?” he asked with a mouthful of toothpaste.

“I think you’ll make a ton a friends.” I told him. “Now spit.”

After we brushed his teeth, we went into his bedroom to get him dressed for school. I had taken him shopping a couple weeks ago and allowed him to pick out some clothes. I wasn’t surprised to see he had his father’s taste. He would be the cutest little boy in pre-school that’s for sure. He had on a purple Ralph Lauren polo shirt and purple, black, and white plaid shorts. He wore some black boat shoes on his feet. After putting on his clothes, he ran into my room to use my full body mirror. I followed him into my room and stood in the doorway. I watched him as he stood in a number of different poses, obviously feeling himself a little too much.

“Mommy take a picture. I want everyone to see my first day of school outfit,” he said.

I pulled out my phone and snapped a couple pictures of my handsome boy and his outfit. Just when I was about to take one more he told me to wait and ran into his room. He came back with a bowtie.