Riding Dirty on I-95 (27 page)

A few days after she made the comment about Mercy's weight, Tallya sent her a check for $3,000. Mercy was so grateful for the money, she decided to forgive Tallya for her unkind comments. She had that money spent on bills before she even walked into the bank to cash it. But when the clerk pointed out to Mercy that the check was postdated, Mercy could have cried. She had to hold on to it for two more weeks before she could deposit it, which meant two more weeks of being broke. Two weeks later Mercy was back at the bank depositing the check into her account. She wrote checks to pay off her overdue bills. Who'dda thought the person the media was starting to call the Urban Princess was behind on her bills? A few days later Mercy started getting notices from her bank that checks were being returned because her account had insufficient funds. In the midst of the notices was the one informing Mercy that Tallya's check had bounced. Tallya's bank had returned the check for $3,000 like a broke chick returns an outfit the day after she done sweated it out at the club. To top it all off, this was the third check Tallya had written Mercy that had bounced. Mercy was starting to think that she was stuck in a game of dodgeball. The freaking checks were the rubber balls, and Tallya was dodging the fuck out of making good on them.

After reading the notices, Mercy had to come down off of her damn-near anxiety attack before calling Tallya to find out what the deal was.

“Hey, girl,” Mercy said, trying to make general conversation.

“What's up?” Tallya said, acting like she didn't know why the hell Mercy was calling.

“Nothing, sitting here going through my mail. I just got a notice that the check you wrote me for $3,000 wasn't any good.” Mercy paused, then continued, “I got all kinds of checks out there for bills. I don't know what could have happened, but I was wondering if you could just send me another one.”

“Okay, I will,” Tallya said, not adding any further explanation as to why the checked had bounced. Mercy didn't really care as long as she was going to make good on the sucker.

“I'd prefer a money order so that I don't have to wait for it to clear. You think you can overnight it to me?”

Tallya sighed as if Mercy was asking to borrow money instead of trying to collect what was legitimately owed to her. “Damn, I'm going to send it when I get around to it.”

“Well, Tallya, keep it real now,” Mercy said, trippin off the fact that Tallya was snappin' on her about a check she had bounced. “You bounced me a check, and this is the third one. Just play fair. I've been working with you on the money thing, and it's, like, I got bills and need my money.”

Tallya completely went off. Something about the talk of money just put her on edge. It was all good if the talk was about her getting money, but when it was about her giving it, she went crazy. “Look, we just sent you a thousand dollars last month. What are you doing with all your money? Are you going to be like Mike Tyson and be broke?”

“No, but what is one thousand dollars when you owe several thousand? Shit, that ain't even ten percent.”

“I'm just trying to look out for you and do you a favor,” Tallya shouted at the top of her lungs.

Mercy remained calm. She wasn't trying to get into no shouting match. She just wanted her money. “Honestly speaking, it
doesn't matter if I want to smoke crack all day and jerk off all my money. It's mine, so if I am broke then so be it. I don't need nobody to hold mines.”

“Whatever,” Tallya said, sucking her teeth. “Look, I'm going to be frank with you. So what, we bounced you a couple of checks.
So the fuck what!”
Tallya's tone suddenly changed into a raging scream. “So what, the money be fucked up. Your shit is moving, ain't it? Selling like crazy? So what? But guess what? You can't get shit until I give it to you. So the more you worry me for
your money
, the longer I am going to drag my fucking feet to give it to you. See Bermuda Triangle Productions, I own this shit. This ain't yours. Not you. You ain't no CEO or president. You ain't even a shareholder. I run this shit, not you. I write checks and make final decisions. If you don't like it, carry
y
o' ass on.” After getting slick out of the mouth Tallya hung up the phone.

See, this bitch don't know who the fuck she dealing with
, Mercy thought as she hung up the phone in disbelief. And the reality of it was that Tallya really didn't know who she was dealing with. Mercy had just been excited and grateful that she had a relationship with her sister and that someone had given her first project a chance, so she'd never complained about much of anything. Because of Mercy's grateful demeanor, Tallya thought Mercy was weak. Tallya looked at herself as the strong, authoritative one. Like she was God and Mercy was a peasant at her feet—only Tallya had no intention of using Mercy for good. Tallya couldn't care less about benefiting man. All she cared about was herself.

The day after Tallya displayed her nasty temperament and greedy nature, Mercy received a phone call from an agent named Davey Donk in LA, who promised to negotiate huge deals on her behalf. He wasn't the first one to call her, but up till now her loyalty had been to Bermuda Triangle. Now that Tallya had made it clear that Mercy wasn't nothing more than a 1099 for her company,
Mercy had to start looking out for herself. Mercy asked the agent to let her think about it. As soon as she hung up with him, her phone rang.

“Hey, girl,” she heard Tallya say as if they were not just sisters, but best friends, too. Mercy couldn't believe her ears.

“What?” Mercy said as she rolled her eyes.

“Look, you know I love you, right? But this company just got me stressed. There's all the orders that are coming in that I can't fill because I'm waiting to be paid by these distributors. When I do do a print run, the orders are gone before the DVDs even get here. Since my company is doing so well, Benjamin been acting funny. I think he thought that my company wasn't going to be hitting on jackshit, that it was just a little hobby for me. He took me for a joke.”

“So what that got to do with me, Tallya?” Mercy was quick to say.

“I mean, you understand how it goes, and I know I hurt your feelings and I'm sorry.” Tallya tried to sound sincere, but Mercy knew what was up so she just listened. “I'm so sorry that I take you for granted. It's like you are always there for me. You believe in my company like it's your own.”

Mercy knew all these things, but she knew that she couldn't do this anymore; she had to look out for her own best interests because Tallya was only looking out for
numero uno.
It was funny how Tallya never said one thing about sending Mercy another check or any money at all for that matter.

The only way Mercy was able to make ends meet while she waited for her checks was by buying DVDs from the distributor and selling them out of the trunk of her car.

Tallya changed the subject. “Are you writing?”

“Yup,” Mercy said nonchalantly.

“You know, you need to let me see your script so we can come up with a plan to get it into motion,” Tallya said.

Mercy took in Tallya's words, paused for a minute, and then said, “Look, Tallya, I ain't ever been no fake chick. I try to keep it real. At one time I looked at you as my long-lost sister. We've both been there before. Now understand that I am a hustler in every aspect of the word. So, when you came to me and was like ‘Let's Thelma and Louise this shit,’ I thought about what Biggie said about keeping friends and family and business completely separated. However, I am never a hater and I love you. I would rather for you to do my DVD than somebody I don't know to make money off of it.” Tallya listened as Mercy continued. “I played fair with you from the gate, and you shitted on me time and time again with my money, which is cool. I'm not mad at you, because I understand who you really are. You're a selfish bitch, and you'll never be a team player.”

“What?” Tallya said in surprise.

“I don't understand how you want a company, but it's all about you. It should be about the team, because you can only be as good as your team.”

“Listen, Mercy, you are probably right. But understand I ain't never had nobody to play fair with me, so if I do stuff you have to pull my coat for me,” Tallya said, whining. “ 'Cause if you remember, I didn't have a daddy who loved me the way he loved you.”

“That was a long time ago, Tallya. So, look, this is how it's going to go down. I am a writer, and I need to be focused on writing.”

“You're right, you are a writer and we want you to focus.”

“My point exactly,” Mercy said. “I can't be preoccupied, focusing on money, and since the only thing we seem to fight about is
money, I'm going to get an agent to handle the money-aspect part of our relationship.”

“Oh, that's some real snake shit,” Tallya immediately huffed. “What the fuck do you need an agent for? You know an agent will take you away from me to a much larger company.”

“Look, I'm not interested in going to another company,” Mercy assured her. “I'm only interested in making sure you pay me. I have no intentions of going to another company just because they are bigger.”

“How about can't a motherfucker on God's green Earth make sure I pay you,” Tallya retaliated with a slight chuckle. “I pays a motherfucker when the fuck I—that's right, when I—get ready. And just for the record, and just so that you know—hoes come and go in this pimp game. So you may be the first to leave, but you won't be the last. What you need to understand is I, Tallya, AKA Bermuda Triangle Productions—that's me, me Natallya— that's right, I own
y
o' shit. I can do whatever I want to do because your DVD is mine. Understand? As a matter fact, since you want to bring in another motherfucker to try to be a mediator, shit rolls downhill from here, boo. Because I ain't paying you shit!” Tallya screamed at the top of her lungs. “Have your attorney contact mine,” she yelled as she slammed the phone down.

Mercy stood there with her mouth open, holding the phone.

“No, this bitch just didn't …,” she said, shaking her head.

Although Mercy wanted to break down and cry, she could only laugh. She thought about all of the checks she had written that were bouncing from one end of Richmond to the next. She wondered how she was going to pay the bills this month, next month, and the month after that and she wanted to cry, but instead she laughed. She wasn't about to give Tallya the satisfaction of bringing her to tears.

Mercy had overcome adversity since she was seven years old.
Just for a minute there she'd finally thought God was shining a little light on her. Now suddenly Tallya had cut off the electricity, leaving her in darkness. It didn't seem fair, but maybe God had no choice but to show her Tallya's hand, so that she would quit eating from it. Now she wondered where in the hell her next meal was going to come from. But one thing for sure two things for certain, God always provided.

“M
aillllll calllll!!!
” The loudmouthed guard called out. “Fargo!”

He called Cleezy's name a few times. Paula made sure he had plenty of mail. Cleezy put his magazines to the side to read another time. He looked at all of his cards that Paula had sent him and then opened the lastest letter from her.