Cartier Cartel (21 page)

"Good," Trina said and smiled.

Cartier looked around again searching for Monya. When she initially
came out, she figured Monya was in the bathroom. Trina noticed what she
was doing.

"Monya ain't come with us," Trina added.

Cartier didn't sweat it. Sure she was disappointed, but she was used to
it now. This was the third month in a row Monya hadn't come to see her.
"Really? What reason did she give this time?"

"She stopped giving reasons," Trina said. "She just said she didn't feel
like coming."

"Well, what is Janet saying?" Cartier asked.

"Janet ain't saying too much. She said she tried talking to Monya, but
her daughter don't listen to her no more. Monya think she grown and can't
nobody tell her shit-"

"Ma, watch your mouth!" Cartier interrupted.

Trina rolled her eyes. She always cursed around Cartier and didn't have
anyone tell her she couldn't. Now all Cartier did was repeatedly scold her on
how she was raising Prada. Trina wanted to tell Cartier that Prada was her
child and she could raise her any way she wanted. If that meant cursing like a
sailor, then so be it. But she didn't want to upset Cartier since she was locked
down.

"You right, my bad," Trina apologized. "But if it weren't for Janet, I would
catch Monya and beat her little bony ass down." Trina paused for a second, having used profanity yet again and then she continued. "She walking around
the neighborhood like she some big time dealer."

Cartier moved closer to her mother to fully hear what she was saying.
Suddenly, her interest was piqued.

"Monya is hugging the block?" Cartier asked inquisitively. After all we've
been through? I mean, after all I'm going through?"

"I know. And it ain't just her. She got the members of the Cartel back
together again and from what I hear, they're doing pretty well for themselves.
I hear that Monya is now the head of the Cartel. They're all riding dirty up
and down I-95 from what I'm told. They've upgraded from selling hand-tohand. I hear they're moving keys."

Cartier shook her head. She was disappointed with the news.

Trina continued. "Well, all them are back slinging except Bam. She's the
only one who's doing the right thing. I guess that boy knocked some sense
into her head, because she's working a part-time job at the public library and
also went back to high school to get her diploma. She said she's going to walk
down the aisle this June."

Cartier was happy about the news regarding Bam, but she and Bam
weren't best friends. They weren't as close as she and Monya. Cartier figured
she should have heard the news about Monya from Monya. Although it
wasn't Monya's idea for her to cop out to the crime, the fact of the matter
was she did. And if it wasn't for Cartier, Monya wouldn't have a life to throw
away. She'd be sitting in jail counting down the days until her release instead
of vice-versa.

"That's all good about Bam," Cartier half-heartedly replied.

"I ran into her two weeks ago and she gave me her information to put on
your visiting list. I told her you would like that very much."

"Yeah, you did right," Cartier faintly replied. "It would be nice to see her
again.... again.... "

Cartier returned to her cell feeling down. So many things went through
her mind. She was fearful for her scary friend and wondered how Monya
would handle being head of the Cartel. What if someone like a Donnie
threatened the Cartel again? What would Monya do? Would she be able to
handle those type of situations? Cartier knew she had to do something. She
picked up a pen and paper and began to write in hopes of getting answers.

Whaddup Monya,

Long time no talk. I would be lying if I said I didn't miss you. I do. I
hear you got a lot going on out there and I'm concerned. Come holler atya
girl.

Friends forever,

Cartier

Cartier dropped her letter into the prison's mailbox and waited. She
continued to wait for a reply that never came. After six months, she'd given
up writing letters to Monya or expecting her to ever visit again.

They say the only constant in prison is time. For some, time travels fast.
For others, it moves at the speed of a snail. For Cartier, she took it as it came.
One year turned into three and when she thought she only had six months
left, those months came and went. She had been in prison for five years now
and was meeting the parole board for the second year in a row.

Over the past several years, she and Bam had become the best of friends.
Miraculously, Bam was a new person. She went through almost three years
of rehabilitation, and only had minor scratches from the beat-down from
Donnie. Her speech and writing skills had improved tremendously. She
wrote Cartier all the time trying to keep her spirits up.

Things had changed for Cartier. She and Jason finally developed a
relationship, although she was in prison. He visited her twice per week, kept money in her commissary account, and kept the packages flowing. If
she needed anything, he took care of it. Additionally, he helped out Trina
and Prada, and declared to Cartier that he would always be there for them.
Ryan was a thing of her past. He'd left Cartier the first night she got locked
up and never came back around. Cartier had long ago stopped asking about
his whereabouts. She didn't want to hate Ryan for doing her dirty, but she
certainly didn't have any love for him.

When she met the parole board again, Jason, Trina, and Bam were right
there for her. When the board once again denied her, she didn't understand.
She began to wonder if the state would make her do the full fifteen years
for killing Donnie. She was a model inmate. She had never been in trouble
or even disciplined. She had managed to get her associate's degree and the
prison guards were always complimenting her. She just didn't get it. She
assumed she would be home, living a normal life three years ago. This letter
read the same as the others, they felt she wasn't rehabilitated. As much as she
tried to keep her head up, she felt the bottom was dropping out from beneath
her.

"Keep your head up, baby girl," Jason said as he wiped her tears away in
the visiting room.

"I hate to cry, but all I want to do is come home to you," Cartier stated.

Jason hated seeing Cartier like this and he felt especially bad today since
he didn't have good news.

_ "Yo, baby," he began. "I went by your moms' crib last night and had to
pound a nigga's head in."

"What? Who?" Cartier was distraught enough and couldn't believe this
shit.

"Some young nigga too!" Jason began explaining. "As I'm walking up the
stairs, all I hear is yelling and screaming. I knock on the door and it's taking
like forever for Trina to open it. When she comes to the door, Prada is in the
background screaming her lungs out and your mom's face is all fucked up. I look up and this little young nigga is trying to push past me trying to get
through. I didn't even ask any questions before I hit that nigga with a twopiece combination. One hard left to the jaw and a quick right in the rib cage."

Jason demonstrated the hand and facial movements to Cartier. He was so
animated. That was one thing Cartier loved about him, his protective nature.

He continued, "So I'm pounding on this dude and Trina is cheering me
on. She's like, `Yeah, fuck his punk ass up!' After I stomp him out and drag
him out the building, I go by there today to see if she wants to come up here
with me and guess who's sitting in there with his feet up on the coffee table?
He gave me a look like he'd won some sort of victory. I started to pound on
that nigga again, but I just let him have his moment"

Cartier shook her head. "I know exactly who you talking about. His
name is Reggie and he's only three years older than me. When I was little, he
always tried to get with me and now he's sleeping with my moms. Like how
embarrassing."

"Yeah, that's wack. I told Trina she on her own from here on out. I can't
catch a case behind that bullshit"

"You right. Both of us can't be locked down. Besides, you're my rock. I
don't know what I'd do without you."

Jason and Cartier looked deeply into each other's eyes. Softly, he rubbed
her hands as they rested in his. As nerves began to take over, he whispered,
"I've been thinking .. "

"Thinking what?" Cartier asked.

"About you and me"

Cartier closed her eyes. She kept having a reoccurring dream that Jason
would also stop visiting her. That he too would give up on her.

"Say it! Spit it out. I can handle it," Cartier said and snatched her hands
from his.

"What are you getting upset about?"Jason asked, with shock and surprise
on his face.

"I'm not upset," Cartier said with tears forming in her eyes.

"Then give me back your hands," Jason commanded.

Reluctantly, Cartier placed both hands back into Jason's.

"I was thinking that we should get married," he said matter-of-factly.
Cartier was now the one to be surprised and shocked. She didn't know
what to say. This was the last thing she was expecting. Her heart filled with
insurmountable emotions. The proposal was unsuspecting like an avalanche.

"You really wanna marry me?"

"I just asked you, didn't I? I didn't hear you asking me to marry you?"

Cartier laughed, "So when I get out we're-"

"Nah, baby, I don't want to wait until you get out. Let's do it now."

In here?"

"Why are you making this difficult?" Jason facetiously complained.
"You're fucking up my moment. I practiced this proposal all morning. I
thought I'd ask you and you'd say, `Of course I'll marry you. I love you. Why
wouldn't I want to have your last name?'" Jason tried to emulate her voice to
no avail.

"Baby, of course I'll marry you!" Cartier said excitedly. "You mean the
world to me. I couldn't do this without you. I want to be your wife, but I don't
want to be selfish. What if I have to do the full fifteen?"

"Then as your husband, we doing fifteen."

"I love you.

"I know you do."

"No, I really love you."

"And I said, I know."

They kissed briefly before the guard came over and told them they had
to stop.

Jason continued, "You know we've been together for almost five years
now and I tell you everything 'cause you my best friend, but I'm not the most
faithful nigga around. You know I got needs and I started fucking with this chick from Albany-"

"Sabrina," Cartier surprised him. "Yeah, I know."

"How you hear about her? I thought I kept that on the low-low."

"You know ain't shit done in the dark"

"OK, true. But check it. I started to catch feelings for her-"

"Why are you telling me this? Do you think I want to hear that my man
is loving another bitch?"

"Cartier, let me finish. Sabrina was doing everything in her power to
make a nigga fall in love. I told her from the jump, like I tell all those bitches,
that you my girl and when you come home that it's a wrap. And that bitch
said something that made sense. She said that until I put a ring on your finger,
then I won't know for sure who I'm gonna end up with."

Cartier listened intently, but internally, she wanted to bash all of Sabrina's
teeth out her mouth. Sabrina was a pretty, educated girl from the Albany
projects. She was a good girl who went to school every day and had enrolled
in college with aspirations of becoming a lawyer. Cartier knew her whole
resume. Cartier wouldn't say Sabrina was the sole reason she went to school
to better herself, but at times when she wanted to give up, Sabrina fucking her
man was the reason she forged ahead.

"So what are you saying?" Cartier asked.

"I'm saying I want to get off the market, because these chicks out here are
like vultures, and since I know that it's you and only you that I love, I wanna
make it official. Just say yes and make me the happiest man on this earth."

Cartier was always fulfilled when she left her visits with Jason. She was
one of the very few women who still got visits from their boyfriends. With
most inmates, the visits usually ceased within the first month or two of their
incarceration. Jason rode with Cartier for years, and now he wanted to make
it official. She shared with him that she had begun to dream of their marriage
not long after she was locked up. What she loved most was that she and Jason
could talk and tell each other everything.

She was on cloud nine. She was hyped. she went back to her cell and
wrote out three letters: to her mother, Monya, and a love letter to Jason.

Cartier wore an all-white, silk wedding dress. Jason had on a black tuxedo.
In attendance was Trina, Prada, Wonderful, Jason's best man, and Bam, who
served as maid of honor. It hurt Cartier that Monya didn't attend, but she
didn't let her absence temper the mood. As the young couple stood before
the prison's justice of the peace and said their vows, the small room erupted
into laughter and tears.

The prison allowed the family to bring a small portion of food and a
wedding cake. They all sat around talking about the couple's future. Finally,
Cartier and Jason sat in a small, private corner and began discussing their
wedding night.

"It's going to take the prison at least three months to approve our trailer
visits," Cartier began.

"I know. I can't wait for that-"

"You better wait! We're married now, so even though I'm in here you
can't be out in those streets behaving like you're single."

"You don't have to tell me that. I took an oath before God to love and
cherish you. Cartier, I would never do anything to hurt you, let alone break
our vows."

Jason stared deeply into his bride's eyes and realized he'd done it. All his
life he wanted Cartier and now she was his forever. He didn't plan on ever
messing that up.