La Familia 2 (18 page)

McCall's Bronxwood Funeral Home on Bronxwood Avenue was jam-packed with people coming to Crystal's home-going service. It seemed like every resident in Edenwald came out to say good-bye to Crystal. She was definitely loved and was going to be missed. It started to rain, so a lot of folks crammed themselves under the green awning trying not to get soaking wet from the rain. The street was lined with parked cars; passing traffic and the hustlers came out in droves to give their respect to Dodo's girlfriend. It was mostly YGC niggas in attendance. They were very saddened about Dodo's untimely and violent demise. They wore his gangster image on black T-shirts with RIP D
ODO
, YGC
4LIFE
embroidered on the front at Crystal's funeral. Dodo's home-going had been the previous day and a mob of people also came out to show their respect.

I came alone. Tango volunteered to watch Eliza for me while I attended the home going to say my good-byes. At first I was reluctant to attend, but if it was me, Crystal would have come to my funeral and I couldn't do my friend dirty like that.

Before I walked into the funeral home, I talked to everyone outside: Dandy, Erica, Nico, Sophia, Quinn, and a dozen other people from my old building. Everyone was saddened about what happened. We were talking. I found myself zoning out, thinking about old times. It was good to see old faces again, but it was hard to say good-bye.

I spent a half hour lingering outside feeling hesitant about going inside. I took a deep breath and entered the funeral home. The large foyer was flooded with people, family and friends. There was a mixture of folks clad in black and some in everyday attire, some faces I knew, and some I didn't. Some people were crying and other people were having a normal conversation about anything and everything. I moved toward the room where Crystal was lying in the casket. I could smell the flowers; they were all over. I signed the register book to show I attended the funeral. I then walked inside the main room. The rose room was able to accommodate 400 people. There wasn't an empty chair in the place. I slowly walked down the aisle with the white and gold casket at the end of it. I could see Crystal's body slightly protruding from the casket. The closer I came to it, the more tears I let go.

Her family was seated in the first two pews; they were weeping heavily, hugging and consoling each other. I saw her brothers and sister, but didn't acknowledge them. I couldn't. I was barely holding myself together. I was able to stand over the casket and gazed down at my departed friend. I was choking up, but maintaining. The mortician did an excellent job with her. She didn't look like plastic like so many others people I done seen. Of course her expression was deadpan and she was nicely wearing a beautiful white lace sleeveless gown. It looked expensive and it made her looked like an angel.

“Good-bye, Crystal,” I whispered to her.

I leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. I said my piece to her and pivoted on my heels and hurried away, feeling the anguish overcoming me. I hurried up the aisle, wiping away tears and wanted to leave the building. It was just too much to deal with.

I went back outside. It had stopped raining, but the sky was gray and the area too gloomy for my taste. People loitered around everywhere, looking casual. I needed a fuckin' cigarette. I asked a friend of mine for a Newport. I placed the smoke into my mouth and she lit it for me. I took a few needed pulls and exhaled. I closed my eyes for a moment and heaved a sigh and tried to free my mind from the awareness that one day, someday, we were all going to meet that same fate. I just hoped my day wasn't coming anytime soon. I wanted to see my daughter grow up. I wanted to live my life normally.

I took a few drags from the cancer stick and noticed the black-on-black Bentley parking across the street from the funeral home. Both doors opened and my eyes became transfixed on this burly, dark, and tall guy who anyone couldn't miss. And then I saw her exiting the Bentley: Sammy. She looked good. She was dressed to the nines and he looked dapper down in a black three-piece suit. They both crossed the street arm in arm and Sammy looked like she was the first lady of the United States.

I stood there and gawked at her, feeling some trepidation inside of me. I hadn't seen or spoken to Sammy in months, and there she unexpectedly was, coming my way with this mammoth of a man towering over her. But I figured she would come to show her respects at Crystal's funeral.

We both were friends with her, but no longer friends with each other.

I stepped out of Power's Bentley in my black lace sheath dress with the round neck and short sleeves and my legs showing like I was a supermodel. The dress was expensive, but money wasn't an issue to Power. He was spoiling me and I loved it.

I still couldn't believe Crystal and Power's cousin Dodo had been killed. Yesterday I accompanied Power to his cousin's funeral; now he was coming with me to my friend's funeral. It was only right. They both died savagely and it became a heinous crime in the hood. Who shoots a man five times in the back of the head at close range, and then my friend three times? It was a straight-up contract hit and overkill, and Power was ready to go to war with everyone. But word on the streets was that BMB was responsible for Dodo's death and it was an OG who killed him. I could smell it in the air: more carnage and mayhem to come. I wanted Power to play it safe and stay out of the streets for a while, but he was too hardheaded and too stubborn to believe he was also a marked man. He was determined to find the people who murdered Dodo and he wasn't gonna hide like some coward.

As we crossed the street, I saw her, standing there gazing at me like she had seen a ghost. She stood alone with a cigarette between her fingers. She looked good and was still shapely in the right areas. I saw that giving birth didn't make her fat or homely. Mouse was still Mouse. It was becoming an awkward moment, though, us running into each other like this after the way we left things. I didn't smile or frown, but stared at Mouse like she was a stranger to me for a moment.

I walked right by her and didn't say a word. I knew she was stunned, but I didn't know what to say or do. It was unexpected and I felt like a deer caught up in bright headlights on the fast freeway. I froze. Besides, I had to pay my respects to Crystal and her family and get my mind right. Mouse didn't say anything to me. She continued smoking her cigarette and looked the other way.

I walked into the funeral home and was greeted by a wave of people and they were giving me their condolences like I was family to her. I mean, we definitely were family, but we weren't blood related. Power was by my side and he was armed with a Glock 17 underneath his suit jacket. It was holstered and he was ready for anything that came his way. He scowled and stood like a giant in the room. People were shocked to see me with him. I just wanted to get everything over with.

I slowly walked into the next room where my friend's body was placed in this beautiful eighteen-gauge white and gold casket and it was inundated with flowers and pictures of Crystal from young to recent. There was mourning among the silence in the room. I approached slowly and took a deep breath. I stood over my friend's well-dressed body and said my good-byes. The tears fell from my eyes like a leaky pipe. I took another deep breath trying to control my outcry. I was stronger than that. I wasn't going to burst out into tears. I wiped them away, spun on my sandals, and addressed her family to my left. I hugged her mother and siblings and then walked away with puffy eyes.

Power was talking to some of his soldiers who came to the funeral. They were in some deep conversation nestled in the corner away from prying ears, discussing something privately. He was so engaged in talk with his cronies he didn't even notice me come out and exit the building.

I thought Mouse would have left already, but she was still lingering out front near the corner, alone. I stared her way. She noticed me watching her and didn't avert her eyes from me. Once ago, we were so inseparable and dangerous together; now I didn't know if I should stay or go—say fuck her and distance myself from that bitch, or go over and see how she was doing. We both said and did some terrible things to each other. We both got pregnant by Rico and we both went through hell.

Mouse gawked at me. I did the same. I wanted to fight it, turn around and leave, but I couldn't. It felt like something magnetic was making me stay and making me want to go over and talk to her. Why was it so hard for me to take the first step? She could take the first step too. I was letting my pride interfere with going over to her. I mean, I was the one who fucked Rico long after she was dating him. I did fuck her man behind her back and got pregnant by him. But she came at me on the corner, cursing and attacking me and she disrespected me. Was it becoming too hard to forgive and forget, especially after we had so many years of friendship and being sisters to one another?

Fuck it, just go over and speak to her,
my inner voice screamed at me.

I swallowed the feeling called pride and decided to take the first step. I walked her way. We both were fixated on each other. There was still some tension between us. The last time we spoke it was on a sour accord. I took what felt like my umpteenth deep breath and coolly said to Mouse, “How you been?”

“Look, if you came over to gloat 'cause you got some nigga pushin' you in a Bentley, then don't,” she snapped at me.

“First of all, I didn't come over for that. That's ya fuckin' problem, Mouse, you always jump to conclusions. I just fuckin' came over to say hi,” I retorted.

We both scowled. It was already starting off rocky and fucked up. I was ready to walk away and say fuck this shit, but I didn't. My sandals stayed rooted to the ground in front of her. It felt like some invisible force was keeping me there. I said to myself,
let's try this again.
At first, it wasn't going too good. We both had a lot on our minds and frustration that we yearned to release.

“You know you a foul bitch, Sammy. I trusted you and you fuck my man behind my back?” she exclaimed.

I countered with, “I warned you ‘bout that grimy nigga in the first fuckin' place, Mouse. You don't ever fuckin' listen!”

“So you ain't had to fuck him! You were my friend, my sister!”

“And I said I was sorry.”

“
Eso fue asqueroso. Has estado una perra
,” Mouse hollered.

“Mouse,
no he venido a discutir,
” I shouted back, saying I didn't come to argue with her.

Our words were harsh at each other. We yelled and pointed fingers at each other. We started to draw attention to ourselves. We cursed each other out in English and in Spanish. It got to the point where we started drawing a larger crowd near us and then we both felt we were disrespecting Crystal's family and Crystal at her funeral. We took our conversation a block away to talk privately.

Alone and away from everybody, we both seemed to cool down. We had allowed our emotions to get the better of us.

“Mouse, I'm so sorry about everything that happened. If I could change time, you know I would and take away the hurt that I caused you. But I can't. I miss you. You were my best friend and the one person I could always talk to,” I confessed. “And look at us; we fought over Rico. Are we serious? He's an asshole.”

Mouse chuckled slightly. “Yeah, he is an asshole,” she agreed with me with a minor smile.

With everything that was going on, my emotions started to get the best of me and my eyes started leaking like a faucet.

“I'm sorry too, Sammy. I just got caught up in everything and I wanted to have true love, but it was all a lie. I missed you too,” Mouse proclaimed genially.

We had been away from each other for too long. It felt like we were falling apart without each other. I was the glue; she was the stitch. We hugged each other and reconciled right there at Crystal's funeral. It felt like her death was bringing our friendship back together again. We realized life was too short and we couldn't take the little things for granted. We needed each other to survive in this ugly and forever changing world.

Mouse needed my friendship again and I needed someone to deeply confide to.

It was still a little rocky between us, but we were patching things up and trying to make us solid again. I didn't want argue anymore and I didn't want to lose her again. Mouse and I had history; she was as much a part of me as I was of her.

When I left the funeral home I had all the contact information I needed to reach Mouse. She had moved back into Edenwald, but she was about to move soon and she wasn't staying too far from me. We promised to link up with each other the following day and catch up on lost time. With our reconciliation, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

I couldn't wait to talk to her. I had so many things to tell her about and I was sure she felt the same way.

Chapter Twenty
-
three

Tango played with Eliza in the living, pretending to be the boogie man, but with a large smile and goofy attitude. The one-year-old laughed and giggled loudly as Tango tickled her and swung her around the room like she was a bird. He was great with her. It was obvious Eliza was very comfortable around him. He didn't mind babysitting while Mouse went to her friend's funeral. He made snacks, they watched cartoons, and he was being a father to her. It was his family now, and he didn't care about Rico. Rico was incarcerated and missing out on a good thing: family.

It was getting late and Tango put Eliza to bed. He read her a bedtime story and tucked her in, and then he kissed her on her forehead and smiled. She was an angel in his eyes and he wanted to be in her life. Tango slowly shut the door and went into the living room. His mother was in her bedroom sleeping. He was alone for now. He went to the window and gazed outside. It was dark out and Mouse hadn't come home yet. He wasn't too worried about her. She was a big girl who could handle herself and he trusted her.

He didn't feel remorseful about murdering her friend, Crystal. It was just a job he had to perform. Crystal was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. She had seen his face. He had to protect himself and his family. But it did hurt him to see Mouse cry in his arms for hours. He consoled her. He felt he had no choice. He was responsible, but she would never find out because Tango planned on taking it to his grave. If the truth ever came out, there was no doubt in his mind that she would leave him for good. He could never lose her. Mouse thought he was working an honest job doing construction; she had no idea that he became a killer for hire.

Tango remained still by the living room window, watching the activity below his apartment. He lit a cigarette and observed the local hustlers hugging the block and the fiends continuously back and forth lurking for their next fix. With the weather becoming warmer it brought out everyone, from the hardworking residents to the despicable who swamped the neighborhood with their bad habits and transgressions.

Tango puffed and exhaled. Killing Dodo and Crystal didn't bother him as much as he thought it would. He was five grand richer and able to do for his family. That's the only thing that mattered to him: providing.

Mike wanted him to do another hit. This time it was brothers: double the pay, five grand for them both. That was $10,000 in his pocket and he could do a lot with ten grand. He knew Tango was able to handle it, pull it off smoothly and be ghost. Mike was content with the Dodo hit. Tango accepted the job; now it was a matter of timing.

From the window, Tango saw Mouse on her way home. She had walked from the funeral home to the projects. He smiled. He missed her. He doused his cigarette and planned to greet her as she stepped into the apartment.

Moments later, he heard her fidgeting with the lock and she entered. The minute Mouse walked into the apartment, Tango snatched his woman into his arms and hugged and kissed her passionately. It was an unexpected greeting for Mouse, but she was thrilled to have a man miss her the way he did.

“I missed you, baby,” said Tango amicably.

“Where's Eliza?”

“She's 'sleep. I put her to bed an hour ago.”

“How was she? She wasn't too much trouble?”

“She was fine. We had a good time. We played, watched cartoons, ate junk food, and she wore me out,” said Tango.

Mouse smiled broadly.

Tango squeezed his woman gently in his arms and said, “Now it's your turn to wear me out.”

“Is that so?”

“Yup.”

The two kissed. Tango didn't ask her how the funeral was because he didn't care. Mouse seemed to be okay, being in a good mood. He just wanted some pussy. It seemed like they both were in a good mood. Mouse was happy to see Sammy again and having their much-needed talk. Tango wanted to love his woman down. He guided her toward the couch and pulled her down on top of him, where she straddled him. They kissed again and his hand was up her shirt, squeezing her tit. But before anything got started, Mouse said, “Let me go check on Eliza.”

She removed herself from his lap and went into the bedroom. The door was ajar; she peered inside to see her daughter sleeping soundly. It was so angelic. Mouse smiled. She went into the bedroom and kissed her daughter on her soft, rosy cheeks.

“Things are definitely getting better, Eliza,” Mouse whispered in the room. “Yes, they are. I have a good man in my life and he seems to be a keeper, and tomorrow, you gonna meet my best friend. We came a long way, baby girl, and Mommy is always gonna be around to protect you. I love you.”

Once again, she kissed her daughter on the cheek and went back into the living to join Tango. He was seated on the couch buck-naked with his cock out, rock hard and ready for her to ride it.

“Tango!” Mouse shrieked lightly. “Oh my God.”

“What? I told you that I missed you.”

“I see you did.” Mouse smiled provocatively.

Tango definitely knew how to make a bad day good.

 

The life he was now leading, it was natural to lie to his significant other. When Tango called Mouse to say he was going to be home late from work, Mouse asked why. “Some of my coworkers wanna take me out for a few drinks tonight, to celebrate my first month on the job,” he lied. It came easily, one lie after another. But Tango felt he was protecting his woman from the truth. He was out stalking the Broughton brothers, Penn and Reason. They were also YGC and heavy in the streets and definitely no stranger to guns, drugs, and some murders.

Tango got an address for them, learned their habits, and knew about their location, their favorite places to be. He moved around them like their own shadow. He was ready to strike. He was ready to get paid.

The brothers stayed in a three-story tenement off of Jerome Avenue. Security was weak and the neighborhood was high with crime. Tango easily fit right in. He took the stairway to their third-floor apartment and effortlessly broke into their apartment using a pick and tension wrench. He already knew the Broughton brothers weren't home. They were at the local bar drinking. It's what they did: drink and have a reckless lifestyle with women. And he also knew they lived alone. Tango carefully went through the untidy apartment with dirty dishes in the sink, scattered clothes everywhere, remnants of drug use on the table, the trashcan overflowing with rubbish and a few guns being out in the open. It was the typical gangster pad. It was sloppy and Tango winced from the smell.

He took his position in the place. In one hand was a wooden baseball bat; in the next was a 9 mm. Now all he had to do was sit and wait and let his victims come to him.

Two hours later the front door opened and there was loud talking. The brothers had arrived home unaware that they had unwanted company. Penn was talking and cursing. Reason followed his older brother with the alcohol making him move sluggishly. They moved their way around the dark apartment and turned on the lights.

Reason plopped down on the couch and was ready to pass out. Penn removed the pistol from his waistband and placed it on the table along with his other collections of guns. He was ready to roll up some weed and relax with his brother. However, the minute Reason closed his eyes to rest and Penn settled in being unarmed and kicking off his shoes Tango emerged from his hiding place and attacked. He moved like lightning and struck like thunder. The baseball bat smashed against Reason's head, mashing his skull, and he toppled out of the chair and fell to the ground. He was fucked up. Penn went to reach for his gun but Tango was all over him, pistol whipping him with the butt of the gun and knocking him down to the floor.

Reason was knocked out cold from the blow, but Penn was conscious, bleeding from his head and scowling at Tango. He gazed up at the pistol aimed at him and cursed, “What the fuck, muthafucka!”

Tango had no reason to explain himself. He was there to execute a job. With no hesitation, he gripped the bat like Derek Jeter on the baseball field about to hit a homerun and swung at Reason; it almost took his head off. The Louisville Slugger smashed against his face spewing blood and immediately breaking his nose and then his jaw. Tango continually hit him with the bat so many times his body became unrecognizable. His face looked like ground meat. He broke every bone in the man's face and a pool of blood expanded underneath the body. To add insult to injury, Tango shot him multiple times.

Reason suffered the same fate. The baseball bat destroyed his slim body, almost breaking him into two pieces. Tango went ham on the little brother, knocking out teeth, crushing skull, breaking his nose, shattering his eye socket; and shot him multiple times in the face too. It was a nasty and appalling message, both bodies mangled with sick brutality.

Tango left the place coolly. It was back home to his woman. He needed to lie in her arms and take his mind away from work. When he arrived at his apartment, Mouse was sleeping with Eliza cuddled in her arms in his bed. Tango removed his clothing knowing it was contaminated with DNA evidence. The first thing tomorrow morning he planned on burning everything like he did before. He put everything in a trash bag, got comfortable in some basketball shorts and a wife beater, and joined Mouse and Eliza in bed. He nestled behind his woman and held her tight and whispered, “I love you,” in her ear.