Crackhead (17 page)

“Uncle Sonny—”

“No, no, girl. Let me talk.” Sonny paused for a moment. “I know I ain't been in your life enough to be telling you a damn thang. But I'm gonna tell you anyway.” Sonny shook his head and tightened his lips to control his emotions. “Don't do it, Laci,” he said, moving his hand up and down with each syllable while Laci's was still cupped inside it. “Don't become like your Uncle Sonny here. You'll have nothing. You'll
be
nothing. You're far too pretty and smart. I know my brother ain't raised no fool. He was a strong man, and proud. That's how I know you're strong, too, Laci. You're strong enough to get out now.”

“But, Uncle Sonny, I don't know what you're talking a—”

“Look at me, Laci. I'm an old man. You think you can outslick a slicker? Battin' them pretty little eyes might work on ya mama, but not on me. I know these streets, and the streets don't lie.”

Laci put her head down and pulled her hand away from Sonny's.

“Unh-uh,” he said, lifting Laci's head by her chin. “Don't go puttin' your head down now. It ain't too late to beat this thing. Go to your momma. She loves you, Laci.” Sonny paused. “Your daddy loved you too; you were his heart. Ain't no man gon' love you like yo' daddy. And see, when a man loves you, he's got to appreciate you at your worst in order to appreciate you at your best. Remember that with any man, Laci. But you also need to
remember who don't love you, and that's the streets. They mean. And so are those who belong to the streets.”

Laci had heard enough. She knew her uncle meant well, but getting high meant better. “I hear you, Uncle Sonny, but it ain't even like that with me. Look, I gotta get going.” Laci gave her uncle a quick peck on the cheek and ran off.

“Laci!” he shouted. “Laci!” Laci disappeared into the darkness.

Being an addict himself, Sonny knew all of the early signs of addiction. And he didn't like what he was seeing right now. It was bad enough that he had fucked his life up with drugs, but he couldn't bear to watch his niece go through the same thing. He had failed his mother and his brother, but the least he could do was save Laci.

“HELLO,”
MARGARET ANSWERED.

“Hi, it's me, Sonny.”

“Hey now.” Margaret sounded chipper, but Sonny knew that was a front.

“Well, I got to get back to work soon. I'm on a break, but I need to talk to you about—”

“Laci?” Margaret said, her voice trembling.

“I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but something's not right. I ran into her the other night in Harlem.” Sonny took the phone from his ear and put it on his chest. Nothing sounded worse to his ears than a mother's cry. This was the cry he had constantly tried to avoid hearing many years earlier, and now here it was again.

“Sonny, you still there?” Margaret asked after he hadn't responded for a few moments. Sonny put the phone back to his ear. “Sonny?” Margaret repeated.

“Yeah, sis. I'm here,” he said, sniffling. “She didn't look right. I mean, she still looked like my beautiful niece, but there was something in her eyes, Margaret. It was a look I've seen before.”

“Where?” Margaret feared the answer.

Sonny sighed. “She was in a place she didn't need to be.”

“No, I mean where had you seen the look before?”

Sonny paused. It killed him to say the words that were about to roll off his tongue, but he knew he had to. “In the mirror.”

Margaret began to whimper even harder. Her cries cut like a knife. They were digging old wounds in Sonny—very deep wounds. It seemed as if they were bleeding and would never stop. Sonny felt as though he were hemorrhaging.

“Oh, my God, Sonny,” Margaret cried. “Oh, my God.”

“Hey, hey,” Sonny said, trying to soothe her. “C'mon now, sis. I'll take care of it. In fact, I'm already on it.”

“Thank you, Sonny,” Margaret said, regaining her composure. “But in your condition, I don't want you in the streets either. Leave this to me.”

“No problem. She's my family, too. You and Laci are all I have left. If I hear anything I'll let you know.”

“I appreciate it. You know she's supposed to go away to school this fall. I'm just so afraid that she's going to mess everything up for herself.”

“Don't worry, Margaret,” Sonny assured her. “We won't let her end up like me.”

“I'd die before I let that happen.”

Q
UITA WAS HARDLY
surprised the first time Laci called her. Word was getting around about the new fine-ass crackhead hitting the block. Quita knew only one person who fit the description. After Quita and Tonette went to blows, she had lain low for a while putting in work for Dame.

Laci didn't really know Quita that well. She'd met her a couple of times when she first started hanging out with the S.B.B. and remembered that Quita was always smiling and nice to her. Not fully a part of the crew, Laci never really found out the truth about Quita and why she'd left, but whenever she saw her around she made sure to say hello.

Laci made small talk, but Quita knew there was more to her call. Tired of going back and forth, Laci finally asked Quita if she wanted to hang out. She was all too pleased when Quita
accepted. She told herself that she just needed someone to talk to and nothing more.

Quita gave Laci a sisterly hug when she arrived at her house. Laci had never gotten a hug from any one of her so-called homegirls. She thought that she might have finally found a friend.

“Girl, I was so surprised when you called me,” Quita lied. “It's been ages.”

Laci smiled. “I know. I figured I'd see what you were up to. I felt like a change of pace.”

“I know that's right,” Quita said, pulling out a bag of weed. “You know I ain't the judgmental type, but I don't know what you see in them low-life bitches you run with. Why you think I left?”

“They're all right,” Laci said with a shrug.

“Bullshit. Them some jealous hoes and you know it. Come on, now, Laci. Look at how them bitches treat you. They act all funny 'cause they're jealous. Tell me I'm wrong,” Quita said, waiting on a response that she never got.

Laci knew that Quita was right and that everything all boiled down to jealousy. Why else would they always try to tear her down? She had always shown them so much love and they tried to flip the script on her at every turn. Quita was right. Fuck them bitches.

Quita continued to roll the blunt while Laci silently listened to her bash Tonette and the rest of the crew. Seeing the weed increased Laci's urge to get high, but she was able to maintain her cool. It was when Quita pulled out the cocaine that almost made her lose it. Being the virgin she was, she would have hated for her first orgasm ever to be right there on Quita's couch, but the sight of the cocaine made her want to nut all over herself.

Quita opened the tinfoil and began to slowly sprinkle the powder over the weed. Laci's mouth literally started to water. Quita finished rolling the joint and lit it. The smell wasn't quite the same as Laci remembered it, but still very similar. Quita saw the weakness in Laci's eyes and decided to play on it.

“I would offer,” Quita said, slowly blowing out the smoke, “but I know you don't get down.”

“I'll hit it,” Laci blurted out.

“What?” Quita said, pulling her head back to get a good look at Laci.

“I've tried some weed once or twice,” Laci said.

“Sister girl, this ain't just weed. This is a woo. I don't know if you're ready to get this high.”

“I'll try it, just this once,” Laci said with greed in her eyes.

“Okay,” Quita said, passing the blunt. She made it a point to hold it just out of Laci's reach so that she'd have to stretch to get it.

Laci could already taste it. Her hands were shaking as she brought it to her mouth and inhaled deeply. Her hands stopped shaking when the smoke entered her system. She didn't hear “Cloud Nine” this time, but she felt normal again.

Quita sat across from Laci, who was now enjoying her high with her eyes closed. She could tell when she first saw Laci that she needed a fix; whether she knew it or not, she had gone past the point of chipping and was developing a full-blown habit.

Quickly, Quita turned Laci on to the fast track. She taught her that a crack high was cheap, but a coke high was better. Laci alternated whenever the mood struck her.

She and Quita continued to get higher than high for a whole week straight (even on the day of her high school graduation)—
snorting and smoking up anything they could get their hands on. It was to the point where Laci wasn't even mixing the shit anymore. She was straight-up basing.

TONETTE AND HER
crew were inside Crown Fried Chicken, watching the day go by. Shaunna was sitting on a milk crate complaining about stomach cramps, Crystal was on a pay phone arguing with Dink, and Monique stared out the window. She had been unusually quiet the entire day. Tonette peeped it and wondered what the hell was going on.

“Anybody seen Laci lately?” Tonette asked, pouring hot sauce on her chicken wings and french fries.

Crystal, who had just hung up the phone on Dink, replied, “I ain't seen her since the other day. I was shopping on 145th and I saw her walk past the window. Bitch is probably somewhere getting high,” she said, laughing.

“You need to quit,” Tonette told her.

“Stop acting like you wasn't wit' it, bitch,” Shaunna said, rolling her eyes at Tonette. “You were the one who set off the whole shit.”

“Yeah, well, we was all wit' it the first time,” Tonette said.

“But you kept the shit up,” Crystal added. “That girl could be really twisted behind that.”

“Fuck that bitch,” Monique cut in, angry at the whole world right now. “Serves her right for wanting to be so down.”

“I still don't think it was cool,” Shaunna said.

Crystal sighed, taking in Shaunna's words. “I don't know. Maybe you're right.”

“But you didn't seem to feel like that when she was all up in Dink's face,” Tonette reminded Crystal.

“That called for an ass-whipping, not a fucking addiction,” Crystal snapped.

“Whatever,” Tonette replied. “What we doin' tonight?”

“Shit, this lil' muthafucka is kicking my ass,” Shaunna said, rubbing her stomach.

“Ain't nobody include yo' ass in the equation,” Tonette teased her.

“Fuck you,” Shaunna shot back. “When I drop my load, it's on again.”

Their exchange was interrupted when Dink and Marco entered the chicken joint. Dink was his usual dapper self, wearing a pair of black Guess jeans and some white and green Fila sneakers. He spotted the girls, walked over, and kissed Crystal on the cheek.

“What up, ma?” he said with a smile, as if they hadn't just finished arguing on the phone.

“Don't try to be sweet now,” she snapped. “You wasn't sweet a minute ago on the phone.” Crystal had hung up on Dink because of his stink attitude. He acted as if he had better things to do than to talk to her.

“Stop acting like that,” Dink said, hugging her. “You know how you like to call when I'm handling business.”

“Well, since you're handling business, can I get some money?” Crystal stuck out her hand.

He sucked his teeth. “Damn.” Dink wasn't used to Crystal just coming straight out like that and asking for ends. “I ain't even been in this muthafucka for two minutes and you're begging.”

“Don't try to play me, Dink,” she barked. “I hardly see you anymore, and when I do, you're distracted.”

“Look, I ain't got time for this shit, Crystal. Take this,” he
huffed, handing her a fifty. “Holla at me later.” Dink walked away and joined Marco at the counter to place his order.

“What the fuck I'ma do with this?” she asked loudly enough for Dink to hear her, but he didn't even bother to turn around. “That's aiight,” she mumbled. “You ain't the only nigga handling business.”

D
INK HAD BEEN
lenient in how he allowed Dame to run his business. He let him operate independently and wasn't constantly looking over his shoulder. He trusted Dame with a lot, and he wasn't handling his shit. It was high time that he put his affairs in order.

Driving around the turf for hours looking for his soldier turned out to be a bust, but it did produce Laci, and Dink wasn't mad at that at all. He ran into her in almost the exact same place as before, but this time it was clear to him why she was in the area.

Dink pulled up beside her, and this time she acknowledged him immediately.

“What's the deal, baby? You following me?” Laci asked with a beautiful smile.

“Maybe,” he said in a flirtatious tone. “Would it be a problem if I was?”

“Depends on what you're following me for,” she replied with a wink.

“I'll make a note of that, ma. Say, how come I don't see you over at the house anymore? Fuck you been up to?”

Laci opened Dink's car door. She hopped in, wearing a big smile, and said, “Aren't you the inquisitive one?” Dink would sit there counting her teeth all day if he could. Her smile was just magnetizing. But aside from the smile, Laci was starting to let herself go. The beautiful curly locks that he remembered were no more. She pretty much repped the lazy-do—a pulled-back ponytail that hadn't even been taken out to be redone in a minute. It was obvious that it had gotten the slick-down hand job by the pieces that were out of place. Laci still wore the classy little name-brand hook-ups, but it looked like she had been to a dozen sleepovers in them.

Dink scanned Laci, and his face clearly showed his uneasiness with her condition.