Scandalous Heroes Box Set (51 page)

“God…are you serious? Do you know
anything
?”

“I
don’t
know anything about it, Scotty!” She glared at the boy. “Do you think I’d allow something like that to happen to my own child?”

Scotty frowned and Ginger wrapped her pudgy arms around him, upset but not quite sure why—only that someone had taken Beady away because of something called molestation. He placed a calming hand on her red curls and then reached down and picked her up even though she was far from little. Ginger was special and went to a special school for children with learning disabilities. She had just turned seven and now Scotty was worried about her--worried about them all.

He thrust his sister into his mother’s arms, forcing her to accept the child.

“Once you explain what child molestation is to your daughter, you need to find out who did it!”

He stormed out of the room and Phonso followed him.

“I’m going with you Scotty!” The older boy grabbed the bike and Phonso slammed the door behind them. “I hate her!” He muttered bitterly, his eyes shining with either unshed tears or rage. Scotty didn’t reply. He climbed on the bike and waited for his brother to climb on behind him. Then he pedaled quickly while Phonso clutched him as the older boy tried his best to make the bike fly.

~***~

It was after midnight when Scotty heard Tino return home. The older boy stumbled through the bedroom that he was supposed to share with his brothers but which he generally commandeered for himself. Scotty turned on the light and Tino grimaced and shielded his eyes.

“Fuck. Turn that off.”

Instead of complying Scotty tossed a shirt over the lamp, muting the light and Tino flopped down on his mattress and kicked off his shoes.

“Beady’s gone.”

Tino gave him a sharp look. “Gone?”

“CPS  came. They took her.”

The older boy’s posture stiffened while his face grew angry. “Who else did they take?”

“That’s it…for now.”

“What the fuck-?”

“They said she was molested.”

“-the fuck you say?! Who?” Tino was on his feet now.

“Don’t know.”

After a moment Tino sat back down on his bed. “Well fuck that. I ain’t going nowhere.”

Scotty cocked his head at his older brother. “We need to figure out who did this so that we can bust a cap in their ass!”

Tino ran his hand through his Afro before roughly scratching his shaggy head. He looked at Scotty. “She probably wasn’t molested. Probably just said that shit because her old grandma probably caught her ass doing something.” He lay back on his mattress and yawned. Scotty was shocked at the way he’d just blown off the information. He watched Tino in confusion, waiting for him to ‘get it’, to be outraged, to be as haunted as he himself had been for the last several hours.

He opened his mouth but it took a moment for him to find his words. “Are you saying you don’t care?”

Tino moved his arm from his eyes. “If somebody’s been fucking around with her than it was probably one of those black mutha fuckers at her grandmother’s house. But in any case she’s better off with them.” He rolled over. “Turn off the light.”

Scotty just blinked in disbelief at his brother’s back. He quickly turned off the light and then left the room before he exploded.

~***~

Scotty was still sorting through his emotions when he returned home from school the next day. It had basically been a waste of a day. He couldn’t retain any information taught by his teachers because his mind was so haunted by the images of Beady and what had been done to her. He didn’t even ride the bus up the hill to study with Anthony even though he had long ago figured out that the younger boy wasn’t as much interested in tutoring him as he was in just being around someone with whom he could just be himself.

As if that wasn’t enough, he half expected to see someone from CPS popping up in his classroom in order to drag him off. Once he left school, he then worried about what he would find once he got home. But when he entered the apartment he was surprised and relieved to see Tino plopped down on the couch watching T.V. with all of the other kids.

“Where is she at?” He asked, referring to their mother.

“Sleep.” Tino said while gesturing upstairs with his head. “Even hoes gotta sleep it off,” he chuckled mirthlessly to himself. Scotty hated when he talked about Tina like that. He knew that his brother only did it out of anger but he shouldn’t say those things around the younger kids—especially Ginger who had no idea what their mother was. Even the nine-year old twins, Elijah and Erica knew about their mother but they didn’t need to have the information thrown at them.

Scotty headed for the kitchen, annoyed at Tino at Tina at CPS, at everything.

“Hey!” Tino called out. “You haven’t been bringing in any money, little man.”

Scotty turned and looked at Tino in confusion. Tino was a dope man but because he was a dope man that meant that Scotty was one too. He helped his brother with dropping off packages and sometimes selling when Tino’s regular customer were unable to get hold of him. Initially he had no plans to deal drugs, but his brother would hand him something and tell him where to take it and the other person would give him money which he would then return to his brother. Even selling to some people in school only happened because Tino had dropped out and he still had customers that found it easier to access him than tracking down Tino.

“How am I supposed to bring in money? I don’t even get home until late and I don’t have time for anything but school work.”

“Scotty, you aren’t thinking about the big picture. You should be selling at that smart school of yours. Think about all those rich kids with money burning holes in their pockets just waiting for someone like you to take it from them.”

Scotty’s mouth went dry. No way was Tino expecting him to deal drugs at his new school. This was a new start for him. If he was just going to just push drugs then he could just stay at his old school. At least his clients knew him.

“Tino…that school is my chance to get away from all this.” Phonso gave him a worried look and Scotty could tell that he was silently willing him to shut up. Only he couldn’t. He couldn’t shut up and he couldn’t—no he
wouldn’t
sell drugs at his new school! Tino didn’t respond. After a moment Scotty continued to the kitchen. He was silently cursing his brother as he searched the refrigerator for something to eat. With a start he saw Tino standing on the other side of the refrigerator door, staring at him.

“Did you say no?”

Scotty nearly relented, not trusting the dark glint in Tino’s eyes, but he stood his ground. He was pissed and bad things happened when Tino got mad. He kept his response casual, not showing his fear because that was like adding fuel to a fire.

“If I get into any trouble they’ll ship my ass back to Winton-”

“Scotty,” his brother spoke calmly. “You think you are going to fly up out of here by going to that school? You’re just going to be an educated poor man. If you want out of this place you have to make money. It takes money to get out of the projects.”

Scotty swallowed back his fear for his brother. “Maybe. Maybe not. But I’m going to try it my way-“

Tino firmly pushed the refrigerator door closed, blocking Scotty’s movement. “Little brother, who takes care of you? It’s me that takes care of us all. I have carved out a nitch for you. Scotty, everything I do is so that we can have more than just the shit that the welfare gives us. If not for what I do then you wouldn’t have lunch money. You wouldn’t have clothes other than ones that come from Goodwill.
I’m
the one that busted out our competition. I’m the one that break fingers and bust heads to keep what we have! Scotty, when you sale and make drops you don’t have to worry about getting shot in the back by rivals. It’s my reputation that has done that. Scotty, I didn’t do this just for myself—I did this for all of us.”

Scotty didn’t take his eyes from his brother. “I understand that,” he pointed to his chest. “But that’s not
my
life.”

Tino gave his brother a sad look. “Are you sure about this?” When Scotty didn’t respond, Tino pushed up the sleeves to his sweatshirt and flexed the muscles in his forearms. Scotty glanced out of the kitchen in time to see Phonso as he ushered the younger kids up the stairs.

Scotty lunged at his brother hoping that by throwing the first blow the results would be different.

Chapter 8

There was an early snow that November, but that didn’t mean the children of Winton Terrace were huddled inside of warm houses. No, the courtyards, parking lots and playgrounds were filled with children who scraped together the sparse snow and played rambunctiously, burning off energy after another day of school.

Vanessa knew a few new things, which routed the course for her and Jalissa’s after school activities. She knew where Scotty Tremont lived! He lived in the same court that her mother had told her was where they used to live. Of course she was barely four years old when she had moved so she only had a shadow of a memory of the old apartment.

It had been weeks since she’d seen the teen. Someone had said that 2-4-1-KIDS had come to get them but that wasn’t true because she had seen the little red-haired girl getting off the short bus, plus she saw Phonso in school. But where was Scotty? She knew the class that he should be leaving when her class entered the main building for lunch, and she knew which door he exited from after school.

This was the second week and still no Scotty. So whenever they had the chance, Vanessa made sure to orchestrate her and Jalissa’s playtime in sight of the apartment. She often saw a skinny white woman that must be the mother, as well as a bunch of other kids—ones that she had seen around school but hadn’t known were related to Scotty and Tino. And this is the reason that she knew that a black kid named Phonso was also Scotty and Tino’s brother. Scotty was white and he had one brother that was Puerto Rican and another that was black. That was one strange family.

Some of the kids made bad comments about Scotty’s mother being a ho or a whore. The two had different meanings. A whore sold it to men but a ho gave it away. Scotty and Tino’s mother did both—which is why they said she had so many kids.

Jalissa protested sticking around so close to the apartments in the ‘bad’ section of the complex—especially since the two would have the apartment to themselves. Aunt Callista and Mr. Johnny went out drinking every time she got her welfare check and they didn’t come home until late at night.

Vanessa grew so tired of her cousin’s whining that she finally told her to go and do whatever she wanted but she planned to stay right here. No she didn’t say it was because she wanted to catch sight of Scotty and maybe try to work up enough courage to talk to him. She was still curious how he knew her name, but more importantly she just wanted to look into his light eyes and know that they were looking back into her brown ones.

Jalissa grudgingly stayed with her. Although she would never admit it, hanging with Vanessa was much better than playing with the tougher kids that might one minute start a fight for absolutely no reason and then the next second proclaim to be your best friend again. Jalissa had to learn to be like them but it left her confused and angry. Only Vanessa kept things on a level that felt normal and right.

“Let’s go inside. It’s cold.” Jalissa said for what felt like the hundredth time.

“No…” Vanessa strained to see if she would catch sight of the teen rounding the corner with his head ducked and the collar of his army fatigue jacket up over his ears.

“I know you’re waiting for Scotty.”

“Shut-up. I’m not.”

“It’s cold!” Jalissa stomped her feet in fur-lined boots. Vanessa’s nose was running but she glared at her cousin.

“It’s not that cold.”

She saw Tino walking up the sidewalk and both ducked out of the way until he disappeared inside of his apartment building. Jalissa stomped her feet again and then placed her hands on her hips.

“You are crazy! I’m going inside,” she turned to leave.

Vanessa thought quickly. She didn’t want to stay out here by herself. Though she enjoyed playing with the kids over by Jalissa’s complex, with the exception of Kaneeja and Cherrelle she wasn’t very familiar with these girls on this side of Winton Terrace. Though they played with her whenever they paid a visit to Cherrelle’s house she didn’t feel very comfortable with them. They stared at her as if she was a curiosity and Vanessa felt like they really hadn’t completely decided to like her and were only treating her like a guest that had stayed past their welcome. “Let’s make a snow fort.”

Jalissa turned with an interested look. “Okay.”

Once they had a decent foundation, several kids came up to help them and then Jalissa began to have fun. However Vanessa had very little interest in the fort. She kept waiting for Scotty to get home.

“Hey. You, white girl!” Vanessa looked up at a girl that was much older than them. A few of the other girls began to snicker and Vanessa’s eyes flitted to them. She knew then that these girls had decided that they didn’t like her after all. The older girl gestured angrily to the edge of the fort. “Your side is too thin! Put some more snow on it.”

“I’m not white.” Vanessa looked at her side of the fort feeling annoyed that some other girl was trying to take over her and Jalissa’s project and that she was acting ugly about it. The older and much larger girl stormed over to her which surprised Vanessa, but instead of jumping back—as the girl seemed to think she would do, Vanessa just blinked in confusion. The bigger girl quickly reached out and roughly yanked the end of one of Vanessa’s ponytails.

Vanessa opened her mouth to say oww but clamped it shut defiantly.

“You’re lucky that’s all I called you!”

Jalissa suddenly appeared at her side, puffing out her chest. “We don’t need you coming around here, Marcella, starting some shit. If you want to help with the fort than stop talking about my cousin!”

Marcella threw her head back and laughed. “I ain’t going nowhere! You don’t own the snow that built this fort and I helped so it’s just as much mine as it is yours!”