Christmas in the Hood (25 page)

Fats lay down and took a nap to try to forget about his problem and the pressure that was closing in on him.

That night at the game the homies advanced to the semifinals. It was all good for the D.C. mob. Country was really standoffish toward Fats, but he was happy the homies won since he was the coach. He didn’t really talk to Fats during the game except to pass on game instructions. After the game he called Fats over while all their other homies were running around the gym, crazy with energy and mad hyped because they’d won.

“Fats, you gotta make that happen or face the consequences,” Country told him. Fats didn’t know what he was gonna do, but he didn’t tell his big homie that. “I got you, big homie. I got it all smoothed out, it’s in the works for this weekend,” he lied. “My bad, moe. It won’t happen again.” Country looked at Fats like he wanted to believe him, like he wanted to trust him, but he didn’t say anything. He just gritted on Fats and turned to celebrate with his other homeboys.

Chapter Ten

F
ats was really in a jam. He was fucked up, and he only had one person to turn to. Laquesha. He called her up.

“What’s up, boo?” Laquesha said.

“What’s up, La.” Fats decided that he might as well break it down to her straight. “Look La, I’m in a serious bind, and if I don’t get straight some drama might be jumping off, and it ain’t looking good for me.”

“Tell me what’s up,” Laquesha said with concern in her voice.

“Well, it’s that thing with Kim. Since it didn’t happen, it looks like I’m the fall guy, and dudes are getting ready to fuck me up if I don’t come up with the demonstration or the paper.”

“Oh, Fats, I told you so. I told you that shit was nothing but trouble.”

“I know, La, but I really need your help. We gotta make this work, or shit’s gonna jump off.”

Laquesha was upset at Fats but she also recognized the severity of this situation. She knew when push came to shove she would hold her man down however and whatever way she could. But she didn’t just want to come out and say it; she wanted to make Fats sweat a little.
Serves the nigga right
, she thought. Fats was waiting for her to respond to his predicament, but Laquesha went another route.

“Fats, you know the church contacted me about the presents. I told them Maurice and Demitrius wanted bikes and that Yvette wanted a dollhouse. They said it would be no problem and told me to bring the kids to pick up the presents on Christmas Eve. Isn’t that great?”

“La, didn’t you hear anything I just said?” Fats screamed into the phone, clearly desperate and at the end of his rope. Laquesha realized that the situation was more serious than she’d thought and worked quickly to defuse it.

“I’ll handle it, boo. I’ll come this weekend. Who got the demonstration, Kim?” Relief flooded Fats. He felt the weight of the world lift from his shoulders. Laquesha would make everything all right, just like she always did. Thank God.

“Thanks, La! Yeah, Kim got that so get it from her, and I’ll see you on Saturday,” Fats said. “And La?”

“What, boo?”

“I’m sorry for yelling at you. You’re the greatest, La, and I mean that.”

As Fats hung up the phone, Laquesha thought to herself,
Yeah, I know, but what the hell have I just gotten myself into?

Later that day Laquesha went over to Kim’s house. Kim had been expecting her so she wasn’t surprised to find Laquesha at the door.

“What’s up?” Kim said. “You came to get that?”

“Yeah, girl, I came to get that. Since you couldn’t handle yours, now I gotta handle mines.”

Kim couldn’t believe the nerve of the bitch. “You the one who convinced me not to do it, Laquesha, so why you coming at me like that. What happened to all that don’t fuck it up for me and my kids shit?” Kim said.

Laquesha wanted to lash out but didn’t. It would only make matters worse. The situation was already complex, and Laquesha knew if she let Kim get her in her feelings then they would all end up losing.

“I don’t want to do it, Kim, but Fats said if I don’t then something might happen to him. I can’t let him go out like that.”

Kim looked up at Laquesha and realized she was right. She started crying, and Laquesha consoled her, hoping that she was doing the right thing and that everything would turn out all right.

That Saturday Laquesha took the bus up. She didn’t bring the
kids. If anything went wrong she didn’t want them around to experience it. She was a chick on a mission, and she was flying solo. It was her and Fats against the world, or at least that was Laquesha’s attitude. She would ride or die for her man. Fuck the consequences. She couldn’t bear the thought of something bad happening to Fats, the father of her children. When she got on the bus she was surprised because Shanice, Country’s girl, was taking the trip, too. It struck Laquesha as kind of funny because Fats hadn’t said nothing about her coming up to see Country, and it seemed to her that on the trip Shanice was mad-dogging her like she’d done something wrong. Laquesha tried to holler at the girl, but Shanice brushed Laquesha off and acted like she was all up in her feelings for some reason.
What is up with that?
Laquesha thought.

As they got closer Laquesha was thinking about something Melissa had said about Shanice one time. It was something that Shanice had said to Melissa that struck her as kind of odd. Shanice had told Melissa when she gave her the balloons that if Melissa and Rock fucked up the move then she would have to start making the trips again. But she was trying not to make the trips because of something that happened before. A close call or something like that had taken place when Country was in USP Lewisburg. Supposedly she told Melissa they had got hemmed up, but Country had gotten them out of it someway. Now as she was thinking about it Laquesha wondered how it was that they got out of it.
If Shanice is on this trip at the same time as me, could she be doing the same thing I’m doing?
Laquesha thought.
Is that why she’s mad at me, because she feels it’s Fats’s fault that she has to make this trip?
Laquesha couldn’t shake the feeling that something
was definitely up, and whatever it was it wouldn’t be good news for her or Fats.

At the prison Shanice was first off the bus to be processed. Funny thing was that she kept looking back to Laquesha like she was making sure that Laquesha was coming in, for some reason. While Laquesha was waiting to go in, she got a sudden premonition that she was about to be set up. She was spooked, and she didn’t pass it off as being paranoid. She panicked right before going in the visit and decided to ditch the drugs. She went into the ladies’ room, took the balloons out, and flushed them down the toilet. She hoped that she was doing the right thing, because if her premonition was wrong, then Fats could end up getting hurt really bad because of her being spooked. Laquesha trusted her instincts, though.

When Fats entered the visiting room, she could tell he was nervous and kind of tense. But he was determined to make the move. When he saw Country and Shanice in the visiting room, his eyes lit up. He nodded to his big homie, who nodded back. Fats walked over and gave his girl a kiss, expecting her to push some balloons into his mouth, but again, like the ordeal with Kim, it didn’t happen. Fats disengaged from the kiss and looked inquisitively at Laquesha.

“I couldn’t do it,” Laquesha said. Fats looked at her. Mad at first, but then resigned to his fate.
Fuck it
, he thought.
I’ll do what I gotta do. Come what may.

“It’s awright, La. I’ll make do,” Fats said, as a thousand possibilities ran through his head.

Laquesha looked up to see Country and Shanice staring at them intently.
What are they up to?
And as she looked away, she
noticed that some COs were rolling in and coming right toward her and Fats. It looked like a repeat of what had happened to Rock and Melissa.

Laquesha was so happy she’d trusted her instincts and hadn’t brought in the drugs. She knew their visit was over and that they’d put Fats in a dry cell, but she knew that Fats wouldn’t pass anything. As the COs escorted Fats away and got ready to take her out of the jail, Laquesha glared at Country and Shanice. She couldn’t prove it, but she knew in her heart that her and Fats had been set up by them.

Chapter Eleven

L
aquesha didn’t have any drugs on her, so even though she was searched and detained by the local police for a minute, they didn’t have anything to hold her on. She waited on the bus the rest of the day with the driver in the parking lot, and when all the people came out for the return trip to D.C., Laquesha wanted to bust Shanice in her face, but she restrained herself and decided to play stupid and feel Shanice out. She was pretty sure the whole thing was a setup, but it was better to play it cool. Maybe Shanice would let something slip. But on the bus trip back Shanice ignored her like she didn’t even exist. Every time Laquesha tried to make eye contact Shanice would look away.

All right, then that’s how it’s gonna be then, bitch
, Laquesha thought. With Shanice’s avoidance Laquesha was sure that she and Fats had been set up to take the fall. Some of the other girls
on the bus asked Laquesha if she was okay, and she told them it was all good, but she still worried about Fats’s being subjected to those white people’s wrath in the hole when they found out he didn’t have any drugs. She also worried about how Fats would react when he hit the compound. She knew her baby’s daddy wasn’t no killer, but Fats was known to handle his own.

When she got back to the city the first person she called was Melissa. “What’s up, girl?” Laquesha spoke into the phone.

“What’s up? How was your visit?”

“You’ll never believe what happened, girl.”

“Tell me then, girl.”

“Fats is in the dry cell.”

“Is he clean or dirty?” Melissa asked.

“He’s clean. I flushed the balloons down the toilet before I went in. I just had a funny feeling, and I was right. And guess what the worst of it is?”

“What?” Melissa said.

“I think that Country set Fats up.” There was silence on the phone for a minute. “Damn, girl, say something.”

“That’s funny,” Melissa said. “I just got a letter from Rock today, and he said the same thing. He thinks that Country set him up, too.”

“Is that so?” Laquesha said. “Is that so.”

*  *  *

Fats was in the dry cell tripping. They had him stripped to his underwear in a cell with no toilet, no sink, and a metal bed with no mattress and only a sheet to sleep with. There was a CO sitting and watching Fats through a big window and videotaping his
every move. The lights were glaring, and Fats couldn’t turn them off. They fed him and let him drink water but they wouldn’t even give him a toothbrush, a facecloth, or anything. It was the next day and Fats was ready to shit. He knew he was clean, so he didn’t have anything to worry about. The lieutenant had told him he needed to shit like five to eight times and if he didn’t pass anything they would let him out. The lieutenant told him it could take anywhere from two to five days. Fats was like, fuck that, I’m gonna get my shit on. He banged on the window.

“Hey, CO, I gotta shit, slim. Let’s do this.” The CO got a look on his face like, what the fuck. “Hey buddy, I’m almost off. Why don’t you wait for the next shift,” he told Fats.

“Naw, slim, I gotta shit now, no bullshit.” The CO looked resigned and got up to enter the dry cell with Fats. He had a little plastic bedpan, some plastic gloves, and a wooden tongue suppressor. The CO called the lieutenant and two others. They all entered the room with Fats and held the video camera on him while he squatted down and shit in the little plastic bedpan.

“I need some toilet paper, slim,” Fats said. There was a scramble because the COs had forgotten to bring some. Fats watched as the one CO used the tongue suppressor to mash through his shit looking for balloons.

“It’s clean, Lieutenant,” the CO said, and they all exited the cell and disposed of the shit. Fats had four or five more shits to go.

Later that same day, Fats saw his homie, Rock, who was an orderly in the hole. Fats motioned him over, but Rock shook his head and looked around. He continued doing his orderly duties and slowly made his way over by the dry cell.

“CO, I’m gonna clean up right here,” he said, motioning to some debris in the corner.

“All right,” the CO said. “But no communication with the guy in the dry cell.” Rock nodded and started cleaning up, waiting for his opportunity to talk to Fats, which came a minute later when one of the other COs called over the CO who was watching Fats.

Rock crept over, keeping a constant watch for the CO, who would return in a minute.

“Damn, homie,” Rock said. “We in here for Christmas.”

Fats shook his head. “I’m not dirty,” he said. “They got me fucked up, moe.”

“Oh yeah,” Rock said. “You didn’t talk to Country about doing something, did you?”

Fats nodded.

“Damn, slim, that’s fucked up. I think I’m in here because of that nigga.”

Fats looked at Rock quizzically, making sure he’d heard him right.

Rock nodded. “Yeah, slim, it’s true, Country set me up and probably tried to set you up, too.”

Fats could only shake his head as the CO came back over glaring at Rock, and Rock made a quick retreat from the dry cell.

Three days later Fats was back on the pound. He knew he had some business to take care of, but he wasn’t sure as to how to go about it. One of the first people he bumped into when he came out of the hole carrying his bag was Country. Country looked surprised as hell to see Fats.

“What’s up, little homie,” Country said to Fats, trying to hide his surprise.

“What’s up, Country.” Fats said, thinking,
This nigga got a lot of nerve.
Fats didn’t know whether to jump on the dude right then or to wait and think things through. He wasn’t 100 percent sure in what he thought, but what Rock had told him had a lot of merit.
I gotta rock this nigga to sleep
, Fats concluded.

“I’m glad you made it back out. You know we got a game tonight. The final, slim,” Country said, and Fats nodded. “We’ll talk about that other shit later. You gotta let me know what the fuck is up.”