Daddy Dearest (6 page)

are flying. Just stay busy, think positive, you will be home before you know it. Guarantee it.

Love,

Mom

P.S. I went by LeLe’s house like you asked me to, but it appears as if she moved. I’m so sorry.

Hammer made a beeline to the phone, ignoring the questions of concern by a few guys that he dealt with regularly.

Ron accepted the call as fast as the system would allow him.

“Hello?”

“Hey, man.”

“Happy Birthday, Partner!”

“’Preciate it. Check this out. You know that certain person moved, right?”

“No!”

“My ole’ girl told me.”

“That’s so fucked up!”

“I warned them not to.” He retorted in codes. “Now I have to get the lights cut off.”

“You know how we do I, just let me know. I’ll help you with that bill if you want.’

“That’ll be so helpful, because my ole’ girl don’t need to be worrying about nothing.”

“Say no more.”

As soon as Hammer slammed down the receiver, someone kicked his door, awaking him from the dream.

“You know the drill, Bobbit! Bring everything that you need to shower. You got two minutes to masturbate and wash your ass.”

Hammer jumped up from the cot, thinking about the day that he had made that call to Ron. It was as if LeLe’s soul was haunting him because the dream was a re-occurring one. He had done a lot of terrible things in his life, and if some of them could be undone, he would undo the pressure that he had put on LeLe.

He turned his back to the door and stuck his hands through the tray slot so he could get cuffed. Once that was done, the guards opened the door and led him pass the showers.

“Hold on!” He stopped in his tracks. “Where are we going? The showers are back there.”

“You have a visitor.”

“Visitation ain’t today. And even if they were, we’re going the wrong way.”

One of the guards poked Hammer in the back with a baton.

“Keep it moving.”

“Just be straight up and tell me where y’all are taking me.”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” he laughed.

Hammer was led to a room where disciplinary hearings were held for inmates. He got the biggest shock of his life when he saw Warden Felts and Sergeant Goines holding batons of their own.

* * *

“Granny, I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but I’m about to go away for a little while. There’s no way that I can live with Ron knowing what I know. There’s no way! Please don’t worry about me, I’ll be okay.” Cataya looked back at Ching, who was watching out for Ron at the door. She knew that her time was limited, so she turned back to her grandmother to wrap things up. “I love you, Granny. I promise to call you and tell you where I’m at as soon as you wake up.” She kissed her on the cheek before walking away.

“You okay?” Ching asked.

“Yeah. I pray that me running away won’t affect her recovery.”

“It won’t. I come sit every day.”

They stopped at the elevators and she pressed the button. “You’ll do that for me?”

“Yes. You best friend.”

She closed the gap between them to hug Ching. “I don’t know where I’ll be without you.”

The sound of the bell went off, letting them know that the elevator car had arrived. They didn’t let each other go until they heard a familiar voice.

“What the fuck is this?! I’m going to kill you!”

The sight of Ron made them momentarily freeze with fear. They quickly got over this when Ron took a step at them!

* * *

“Well, well, well,” Felts said, smacking the baton in his hand, “what do we have here?”

Hammer knew that he didn’t stand a chance with his hands cuffed behind his back. It was a well known fact that guards beat inmates while they were handcuffed. He found himself in a situation that was out of his control. The only defense that he had right now was the delusion to act unconcerned and calm.

“What’s happening? I’m glad to be out of that cell for a minute.”

The warden turned to the guards that had escorted Hammer. “That’ll be all. I’ll call y’all when we’re done.”

“Yes, sir,” they responded, simultaneously. One of them gave Hammer a knowing look before leaving.

When the door shut, both Felts and Goines pushed of the wall and advanced towards Hammer.

* * *

“Go!” Cataya urged Ching as she took off running.

Ching didn’t need any encouragement. He followed her down the hall and almost trampled a nurse in the process.

“Sorry!”

Cataya knew exactly which route she wanted to take. “Come on, Ching! The stairs.”

They descended down them at a pace that would have made a dare devil reconsider. However, the fear of sustaining a serious injury didn’t outweigh the prospect of getting caught by Ron.

He maintained a respectable distance the whole time, screaming obscenities.

“I’m going to break your fucking necks if you don’t stop!”

When Cataya and Ching reached the ground floor they heard a tumble, and knew that Ron had lost his footing. They still weren’t encouraged to slow their pace.

It took Ching longer than usual to get his keys out of this pocket. “Crazy bastard! Second time he chase me!”

Cataya didn’t respond. She was too busy looking over her shoulder, expecting to see Ron rush them at any moment. It wasn’t until she was inside of the car that she found her voice.

“Just go before he comes!”

The sounds of Fifty Cent’s
Many Men
calmed Ching down as he pulled up behind a car at the ticket booth. It was amazing to him how accurate 50 Cent’s words were. “You want to chance getting clothes from house?”

“Uhhh, do you think we can make it if he happens to come?”

“Got to be fast.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

“He went ape sit! You see his eyes? Shit!”

“I told you he was cra-“

Their front view was suddenly blocked when Ron dived on the windshield. “I’mma kill y’all muthafuckers! I swear ‘fore God!”

“Go, Ching! Go!”

“Geezz!” Ching maneuvered across the grass and stole a peep in the rearview mirror. “Mad man!”

“I told you.”

“You still go to house?”

Cataya thought about the two close calls that she had and calculated the odds of escaping a third time. “I don’t think so.”

Hammer was so relieved when the men stopped short of him and sat down at the conference table. It was obvious that they were here for something other than bashing his head in.

Warden Felts motioned him to the chair across from him. “Have a seat, Bobbit. I have a proposition for you.”

Hammer complied. “What kind of proposition?’

“It was brought to my attention this morning that an employee of this person filed a complaint to the Grievance Commission on your behalf. He…or she claimed that I’ve been treating you unjustly. I have a good idea of who this person may be, although I can’t be a hundred percent sure. Now, I know that we haven’t been on the greatest terms for the past thirteen years or so, and I’m not hesitant to say that I actually hate you. I hate everything you stand for. I hate your skin color, and I hate your daughter’s momma. But if there’s anything that I hate worse, it’s an inmate loving, back stabbing, correction officer who goes against the grain.”

“How can I help you, Felts?” Hammer asked, trying his best not to show Felts how the feeling was mutual.

“Being the businessman that I am, I’m willing to set my differences with you aside and grant any request you may have. All you have to is name the officer who filed that grievance.”

Felts didn’t give Hammer a chance to answer. “You’re a real convict, Bobbit. I know that you could care less about a correctional officer.”

Hammer noticed how Goines was studying him again. He was almost convinced that the man fancied himself a mind reader.

“Come, Bobbit. I know that you want to go to a minimum custody spot. I could send you to Camp Green; that’s right around your way.”

Hammer thought about how gratifying it would be to go there. It was a prison that he had been longing to go to his whole bid. But what Felts was asking of him was something that he could never picture himself doing.

Chaplin Stephens was the only person on the compound, including his friends from the streets, that he felt had his true interest in mind. There was no way that he could ever turn on him.

A whole minute passed with everybody watching each other like they were having a staring contest. Hammer suddenly recognized dangers, and began to choose his words carefully.

“I would love to go to Camp Green; that the next best thing to being home. But I don’t have the slightest clue who filed that grievance to Raleigh.”

“Don’t play with me, Bobbit!”

The sound of Felts slamming the baton on the table startled Hammer.

“I’ll keep you back so long on bread and water, you’ll look like one of them sick ass Haitians when I let you out!”

“I’m serious, Felts. I really don’t know.”

Goines tried his hand. “C’mon, Bobbit! We already know that it’s the Chaplin; we only need you to confirm it. Just cough or something if it’ him, that wouldn’t be considered as snitching.”

Hammer remained silent. If necessary, he knew that he wouldn’t cough even if the room filled with black smoke.

 –—Chapter Six–—

Though Rafeal Johnson was born many years after slavery had been abolished, he had a side of him that felt every slash of the whip, and humiliation that the actual slaves had felt.

While a lot of blacks had gotten over that horrific and degrading era, Rafeal’s other side just couldn’t let go of the anger. His other side was hostile and anti-white as the West African farmers that the slave masters had so much trouble controlling.

Rafeal had a hard time controlling this side. And as of late, that same particular side had been becoming more and more like a ticking time bomb. It didn’t only dislike whites now; it disliked anybody for any reason.

This same side caused Rafeal to lose every job that he had ever held. And if it wasn’t for the fact that he was a registered as a paranoid schizophrenic, he would have been in prison a long time ago Ffor the slew of crimes that had been reported on him. Rafeal stood at his thirty-four job, in the warehouse section of Target, as his other side set his sights on Rafeal’s co-worker.

That cracker must be deaf or hardcore.
The voice in Rafeal’s head stated.
Look at the floor. You must’ve mumbled that shit because I just can’t believe that cracker deliberately never minded you. Go see what he talking about.

Rafeal was compelled to do was he was told. He approached Steve urgently. “Hey! I thought I asked you to sweep the floor.”

“Come on, Raf. I have my own work to do,” Steve whines.
And?

“And?”

Steve sighed. “I feel that you are taking advantage of my kindness. I swept the floor for you yesterday as a favor. I only did that because I finished my work early. Now, if you think that I’m going to start doing your work every day, you have another thing coming, bro.”

Oh, no the fuck that cracker ain’t just threaten you like that! I’m telling you, if you let that shit ride, I swear to God I ain’t fucking with you no more. Make an example out of his ass! Rodney King his ass!

Rafeal stroked the side of his nose with his thumb and chuckled. “Who the fuck you talking to like that?”

Cracker!

“I’m talking to you, Raf. Enough is enough! I’m tired of you giving me orders like you’re my supervisor.”

“Cracker, I’ll break the whole front part of your head,” Rafeal said, making a circular motion around his face. “Y’all had y’all way with us for over four hundred years and I can’t get four minutes of your time? Sheittt, something has to give.”

Too much talking
the voice informed Rafeal.
Entirely too much.
Steve frowned. “If you’re referring to what my ancestors did, then you’re taking your anger out on the wrong person. I happen to like blacks.”

That’s some bullshit if I ever heard it! Make him like a couple of black eyes! Do it now!

“I hope you
like
black eyes,” Rafeal threaten, “because I’m about to give you a couple if you don’t sweep this floor.”

Steve was flabbergasted. Being that both of his parents were Sunday school teachers, they had always encouraged him to respect thy neighbor. Those types of teachings and the environment that he grew up in made him very alienated when it came to current situations like the one he found himself in now.

But it was the same foreign threat that activated his survival instincts, and made him do what any cornered man would have done.