Against the Grain (8 page)

Kay was already walking up the steps. He noticed that the walls had been freshly painted. He was proud of his best friend for looking out for his family while he was gone. Once Kay reached the top of the stairs, he tiptoed to the door of his sister’s old bedroom. He wanted to surprise his little brother while he was sleeping. Kay eased the door open and stepped inside the room, shutting the door behind him. He couldn’t see Caleek because of the thick comforter that was over his head. Kay dove on top of him and disguised his voice to make it deeper. “I’m gonna kill you, nigga!” Caleek jumped and tried to fight back. “Hold on, nigga, it’s just me,” Kay said in his normal voice.

Caleek jumped up butt-ass naked, trying to get his vision together. When he recognized his big brother he tried to hug him. Kay stopped him. “You ain’t touching me with all that hangin’.”

Caleek froze and looked down at himself. He had forgotten that he was naked. “Oh, my bad.” Caleek reached down and grabbed his boxers from the floor and put them on.

Caleek hugged his brother. “How long you been home, Kay?”

“I just got in town about two hours ago.”

“So you just got out today then?”

“Yeah.”

Caleek smiled, “I’ve got something for you, Big Bro.”

“What?”

Caleek grabbed the comforter on the bed and slowly pulled it to the floor. Kay’s eyes lit up. It had been years since he had the pleasure of seeing a naked woman in the flesh. She was beautiful. His eyes started taking her in from her toes and slowly traveled up her naked body. She had a short Halle Berry haircut and beautiful brown skin without a mark or blemish on her body. Kay could tell she was short but she had a nice phat ass that had him mesmerized. He could feel his dick getting hard. Caleek put his hand on his brother’s shoulder bringing him out of his gaze.

“I told you I was the man. I worked her so hard she fell asleep in the wet spot. She was supposed to be home hours ago. Look at her. She ain’t even woke up yet with all the noise we’re making,” Caleek said and they both laughed.

“Yo, Bernette! Bernette!” Caleek yelled. She turned over on her back and looked up at Caleek and Kay staring down at her. She was more beautiful than he first thought, and she wasn’t ashamed of her naked body.

Bernette looked at her Rolex and smiled at them. “What’s up?”

“This is my oldest brother, Kay. He just came home from prison today. The nigga ain’t had no pussy in like eight or nine years, so I want you to show him a good time while I go get me a bowl of cereal.”

Bernette looked at Kay, who had a glow about him. She could see that he was in shape and he was fine as shit. “Aiiight, I’m wit it,” she said.

“Damn baby, as good as it looks, I’m gonna have to take a rain check. I’ve got something to do,” Kay told her with a smile.

“You sure?” she asked Kay as she lifted her legs in the air to show him her hairless pussy.

Kay’s mouth got watery. He swallowed, licked his lips, and said, “I’ll find you later, shorty.”

Caleek looked at Kay, “Ah, nigga, you scared of pussy now?” He walked over to the bed. “You know what daddy wants, don’t you?”

“Yes, daddy,” Bernette responded as she sat up on the edge of the bed with her feet on the floor, directly in front of Caleek. All Kay could see was Caleek’s naked ass and her pretty manicured hands holding it as his boxers dropped to his ankles. Kay saw Caleek thrusting his hips back and forth and he knew shorty was pleasing him well. “Yo, you sure you don’t want none of this?” Caleek asked.

“Nah, man, I’m gone. Handle your biz.”

“I’ll be downstairs in a minute. She’s the best at what she does so this won’t take long. Don’t tell Mommy that she’s up here.”

“Aiight, I’ll be downstairs.” Before Kay shut the door, he looked back at Caleek and heard him moaning in pure delight. Kay just closed the door and went back downstairs.

Mama was talking on the phone when Kay walked in the kitchen. “I told you my dad was here, T-Kie,” Lil ‘C’ said to the little girl sitting next to him at the kitchen table. Kay looked at his pretty little niece.

“T-Kie, is that you?”

“Yeeessss.”

“Girl, come over here and give me a kiss. I haven’t seen you since you were a baby.”

She got up and gave her uncle a big hug and kiss. “You a pretty little woman, ain’t you. It’s a good thing you don’t look like your mom,” Kay said with a smile. Mama hung up the phone.

“That was Sonia, she wants ‘C’ to stay here tonight. Said she was going out,” Mama said.

Kay didn’t say a word. Lil ‘C’ jumped up and yelled, “Yeah!”

“Boy, if you don’t stop all that yelling in my house, I’m going to whup yo ass!”

T-Kie laughed at him.

“Shut up, girl,” ‘C’ snapped at her.

“Come here, ‘C’,” Mama said. Lil ‘C’ got up and walked over to his grandmother. “Don’t try to show off just cause your daddy is here,” she warned. “I’ll still put my belt on your mannish behind. Do you hear me?”

Kay stood there, remembering those days.

“Now tell her you’re sorry, and I better not hear you tell nobody else to shut up. If anything, you just say, ‘Be quiet.’ And T-Kie, what do you find so funny?”

“Nothing,” the little girl whined.

“Now go put your shoes on so that we can go for a walk.” T-Kie ran upstairs and Kay walked over and kissed his mama on the cheek.

“I’m about to go get something to eat, Mama. My friends are waiting for me outside but I promise we’ll spend the whole day together tomorrow,” Kay told his mother.

“Alright, son. Have fun and don’t get into any trouble, you hear me?” she said as she put her arm around his waist and walked him to the door. “C’mon, ‘C’,” Kay told his son. Lil ‘C’ jumped down the steps and caught up with his dad.

Mama looked at everyone outside standing around and said, “The next time ya’ll come by my house and don’t come in to speak to me, I’m going to beat all ya’ll asses!” They all knew that she meant it.

“Aiight, Mama Frost. You got that. We’re sorry. We don’t want no trouble. We love you, too,” they all said simultaneously while getting back in their cars. Mama watched as they drove off, then shook her head and smiled as she went in the house. They were all still her babies.

10

The crew took Kay to the Mondawmin Mall and treated him to a massive shopping spree. The first thing they did was to buy him an outfit to wear out the store. Mike and his crew were regulars in the mall but today all the attention was on Kay. A few of the young women that worked in the mall had already heard about the welcome-home party that night. Quchelle was good. The way the buzz was going around, the women knew Kay had to be somebody important and were dying to see what he looked like. Every store that they went into, the women flirted with Kay. It seemed like they had been in the mall all day. Kay had so many bags that he just said, “Fuck it, I’m through.” When Kay left the mall he had to make multiple trips to the car, and this was with the help from the entire crew. This was his first day out and he already had bundles of the flyest gear that the city of Baltimore had to offer. He also bought a pair of half-carat diamond studs, a thirty-five-inch fourteen-carat solid gold figaro link chain with a fourteen-carat solid gold four-inch-wide medallion with the Virgin Mary that had a red ruby in it, a matching figaro link bracelet, and a two-carat diamond pinkie ring, as well as a nice Cartier watch. Then he spent about a grand on Lil ‘C’. Kay felt the need to do something for his son since he had been gone so long.

About twenty-five minutes later, everyone was seated inside Phillips Seafood Restaurant downtown at the Harbor having drinks and talking while they waited for the food. They asked Kay a million and one questions about his time in prison. Lil ‘C’ sat next to Kay.

Kay asked, “So what happened after I got bagged?”

There was a brief moment of silence, then Gee spoke up in his Jamaican accent, “Tings get ott fi us, mi bredren.”

Tank continued, “We all had to split up. Once we divided the money, Gee went to New York, I went to North Carolina, Dre went to New Orleans, and Mike went to Miami. While Mike was in Miami, his peoples put him onto the coke game.” Everyone’s eyes went to Lil ‘C’.

“It’s aiight,” Kay said to them.

Mike spoke up, “I got a sick connect with these Colombians willing to front me whatever I wanted as long as I came back to Baltimore with it. After being gone about two years, I said ‘fuck it,’ and came back. You had already been sentenced, so I figured shit had died down. I knew that I was going to need a crew to help me get rid of all this coke, so I reached out to the only niggaz that I could ever trust. Dre was already back. I just tracked the rest of them down and it was on. Now everyone is rich.”

“So what happened to my and Apache’s cut?” Kay asked.

“I gave Apache’s cut to his girl, Kahdijah. And we gave her dough for the funeral before we left town. I heard she let her crackhead sister get up under her and she started getting high. She fucked up all the money. I kept your cut to invest it for you,” Mike said with a smile on his face, obviously pleased with himself. For a second that didn’t register too well with Kay. Why didn’t he give his cut to his girl, Sonia? Then he thought about how she did him and he was glad that Mike didn’t give her any money. “I bought the club and I own a few other businesses. We all own different shit around here. Plus, niggaz got houses out in the country, and I even got a pool in my backyard. Can you believe that? A fucking swimming pool. No more Druid Hill Park,” Mike said, referring to the neighborhood where they grew up. They all laughed. “I tried to move your mom to the country but you know how stubborn she can be. She loves it around the old neighborhood.” Mike was proud of his accomplishments. “I’ve got a Land Cruiser at the house—it’s yours. Anything else you need, I got you. What did you do with all the money we were giving Mama to send to you? I know you should still have a couple grand left.”

Kay reached into his pocket and pulled out a check that the prison had given him before he left. “Yeah, I’ve got a little left. I sent a few grand to help pay for Mrs. Collier’s funeral.”

“Don’t worry about that. You’re back home now where you belong. Back with your family,” Mike said as he raised his drink in the air. Everyone else raised their drinks and said, “Family!”

After going shopping and having a huge seafood feast, Kay was ready for the world now. It was getting late and everyone had to go home to get dressed for Kay’s big party tonight, so Kay got Mike to drop him off at his mom’s house.

“Yo, it’s nine thirty. Go ahead and get dressed and spend time with your family. I’ll scoop you around midnight,” Mike said as they were unloading all of Kay’s bags.

“Why so late, Mike?” Kay asked.

“ ’Cause we want to make a grand entrance. You’re a star tonight. Everyone in town wants to see you. Especially the bitches. I hope you’re ready, cause all them bitches is gonna want to give you some pussy tonight. They know you just came home and they want to get chose. It gives them prestige over other bitches to be fucking one of us cause our crew is the shit. Simple as that. So if I was you, I wouldn’t choose right away. I would just fuck everything that I could, then when you get tired of fucking so much, pick one to make wifey. That’s what I did. Either way it’s your call. You the man, nigga.”

“I’m the man. I like the sound of that,” Kay said. “Aiight, I’ll see you later.” They gave each other pounds and he shut the door.

Kay was used to doing things fast in prison so it only took him twenty minutes to take a shower, put on a mixture of cocoa butter and baby oil all over his body, and get dressed.

As he stood in his room looking at himself in the mirror, he felt like a new man. Kay looked at his watch. It was 10:00 p.m. He thought to himself that back in prison he would be going to bed right now. He still had a few hours to kill so he went to talk to his moms. When he got to her room she was sitting in her recliner looking at TV while talking on the phone. T-Kie and ‘C’ were already asleep in her bed. “Peaches, let me go, girl. My big baby just walked in looking just like his daddy. Chile, you should see him. My phone has been ringing all day. Yeah, girl, I had to take the phone off the hook so that I could fix me and the kids something to eat,” his mama laughed. “Bye.” She hung up the phone. Then she looked at it and took it off the hook. “Hi, baby,” she smiled at her son.

“What’s up, Mama? How was your day? Are you feeling okay?” Kay asked as he sat on the arm of her recliner and kissed his mother. Kay knew that Mike had paid for her to have twenty lymph nodes removed from her breast. All of them were clean and she never needed chemotherapy, but he was still concerned about her.

“Yeah, I’m okay, baby.” She reached for the remote.

“So, who’s been calling you all day?”

“Not me! They’ve been calling here for you. Every five minutes, it’s Sonia, Lyniece, Tramaine, Caleek, or some girl named Bernette,” she told him.

“Bernette?” Kay had already forgotten about the gorgeous young girl from earlier today.

“I don’t know. She said that she’ll see you at the party tonight.”

“Well, what did Lyniece and Tramaine say?”

“After I said stop calling my house, they all said that they would meet you at the party.”

“Here’s my pager number, Mama. If any of them call back, except for Sonia and that girl Bernette, just give them this number.” Just as Kay said that, he remembered Bernette’s naked body earlier that day in Caleek’s room. He smiled. “Go ahead and give it to Bernette.”

“I’m not going to get into it, but Sonia is your son’s mother and she may need to contact you about your son. It might be an emergency. You never know.”

“If it’s anything pertaining to my son, she can contact you and you can page me.”

“I know you’re bitter, baby, but don’t be mean to her. ‘C’ is at the age where he picks up on stuff like that, and you don’t want him to feel like he’s got to choose between you and Sonia. She is all that he’s had while you were locked up. So if it come down to him making a choice, even though he loves you to death, you will lose, baby.”

“You’re right, Mama. I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”

“Now get on out of here and have yourself a good time tonight. There’s an extra set of keys right there on the dresser,” Mama said as she kissed Kay and climbed in the bed with her grandkids.

“I’ll see you later, Mama.”

“Alright, turn my light off and lock both locks when you leave.” Kay grabbed the keys, turned the lights off, and went outside on the front steps. He looked around and saw how much the hood had changed. It was dirty and reeked of urine and garbage. The days of everyone living comfortable had long gone. He could tell that some of his old neighbors still lived on his block. Miss Pricilla, next door, still had the same beat-up car she owned when he left. Kay loved his block. Everyone looked out for each other. Everyone was like family. At least that’s how it used to be. Kay got up and locked the door like Mama told him. Then he walked to the corner, checking out everything. Before he knew it, he was standing in front of Scatter’s and Lady’s house. Someone was home, because he could see movement through the living room window. Kay took a deep breath and walked up to the door. He missed Scatter and Lady so much while he was gone. Especially Scatter. Kay loved them both. He banged on the door. BANG! BANG! BANG! He could hear the high heels of a woman coming to the door real fast, probably Lady. “Who is it?”

“Open this motherfuckin’ door, right now,” Kay said in a disguised voice while turning the doorknob real fast.

Lady snatched the door open. “Who the fuck—” She stopped mid-sentence, not believing her eyes.

“I see you still have a dirty mouth, old woman,” Kay said as he looked at Lady. She didn’t look as if she had gotten a day older since the last time he saw her. In fact, she looked better. She looked younger, livelier. She looked tighter, she was in shape. And she was still beautiful, Kay thought to himself. Lady leaped from where she was standing and into Kay’s arms. “Who you calling
old,
boy? I can still beat your ass,” she said as she kissed him. Kay held her in his arms as he walked through the door and kicked it shut. Lady let him go, stepped back, and looked at him.

“When did you get home?”

“This morning.”

“Boy, you is still fine as hell. You better be glad that I’m married,” Lady joked. Kay laughed because he had heard that same line from her since he was a young boy.

“Did ya’ll miss me?”

“Hell yeah, why didn’t you write us back? You know Scatter was hurt by that. He felt like he had done something wrong to you. We thought you had turned your back on us until we got the picture you sent with no letter. You are the only child that we’ve ever had in our lives. Let someone try to tell him that you ain’t his son, Lord have mercy. They would have to fight all night and half the next day.” Lady stuck her arm through his, escorting him into the living room. Besides Scatter, Kay was the only other male that she let into her heart. He had been a little boy when she met him. She helped raise him. So she considered herself his
other
mother. Kay thought of her as his mother also.

“Where’s the old man?”

“He’s at work. As a matter of fact, he should be coming home any minute now. He’s usually walking through the door by eleven fifteen.”

Kay was surprised. “Work?”

“Hell yeah, work. Shiiit, my baby got a good job. He’s been working for five years now. Ever since he almost died from that shit, he’s a changed man. He don’t get high no more or nothing. You wait till my old man comes in. He’s all big and shit since he gained his weight back. We even turned the third-floor apartment into a little exercise room with all kinds of workout equipment and shit. We work out about three times a week.”

“Well, what kind of work does he do?” Kay asked.

“He’s the manager of this clothing store on Howard Street called Jean City.” Kay noticed how Lady’s face lit up as she talked about her man. She had always been that way. She was a little older than Scatter when they first met. It was just something about Scatter that drove her crazy. She was the one that turned him into a pimp by becoming his first ho, and teaching him the ways of controlling a woman’s mind. There’s one unwritten rule in the life of pimps, playaz, and hustlers: that the best bitch for them is an old ho because of her experience, trials, and tribulations.

“How’s my grandbaby doing? I haven’t seen him since that last time you bought him over more than nine years ago. I know he’s big as hell now.”

“You should see him, Lady. He’s a little me. I almost cried today when I saw him for the first time.” Kay smiled at the thought. Then they heard a key in the lock. They both looked at each other and got quiet. When Scatter walked into the living room, he looked right at Lady. Her eyes went to Kay and Scatter’s followed.

“Boy, I should beat your ass for not writing us back. You could have called or something,” Scatter told Kay as the two men hugged. Scatter stepped back and looked at Kay. “Damn, nigga, you done got big as hell, lifting all them weights and shit. I might have to get my pistol for yo ass.” They all laughed. Scatter walked over and sat next to Lady and gave her a kiss. Kay noticed that Scatter was dressed like the young guys that Kay had seen earlier at the mall: big jeans, Tims, and a Polo sweater. Lady kicked her shoes off and swung her legs around so her feet would be in Scatter’s lap.

“How was your day, baby?” she asked her man.

“It was alright. We got a little busy this afternoon when people heard about this big party tonight to welcome this cat home. Thought I didn’t know, didn’t you, boy?” he said as he massaged Lady’s feet. “So what’s up? Why didn’t you keep in touch?”

“Don’t take it personal. I cut everyone off except for my moms. I knew I had a lot of time to do, so I didn’t need to be distracted by the outside world. C’mon, ya’ll ain’t got to second-guess how I feel about you. Ya’ll didn’t raise me like that. So please understand that this was how I chose to do my time. Now that I’m home, I plan on being around you two as much as I can. Just like old times.” They both smiled at the thought of Kay spending a lot of time with them. They would be a family again.

“And I’ll bring Lil ‘C’ with me. You should see him, Scatter. He’s already a little leader, and he’s sharp, too,” Kay said.

“Yeah, he could liven this place up around here. I could help him with his homework and bake cookies and shit for him,” Lady said. Kay and Scatter looked at each other then they both looked at Lady and said with a smile, “Watch your mouth!”