Still Candy Shopping (25 page)

That same night Ben was put to yet another test. Before he left the block to go home, Deezo had asked him to stash drugs in his house. He had been reluctant at first, but Deezo had convinced him that it was the only way he could gain enough trust to move up to the next level.

Ben was lured by the money.

He was making enough money now that he was able to stash some and buy clothes with the rest. He had continued to hit Celeste off with a few dollars too, but he couldn’t give her too much, because then she would figure out that it wasn’t coming from a newspaper route.

“Yo Ben, I’m tryna move you up in this here game. But you gotta pass a coupla test,” Deezo told Ben as Deezo sat behind the wheel of his brand new Porche Cayenne. Deezo had been changing cars more often now.

“Yeah wassup, Deezo?” Ben had asked eagerly.

“I need you to stash some bundles in ya crib for me,” Deezo told him.

Ben’s heartbeat immediately dropped when the words had finished leaving Deezo’s mouth. That was the one thing he was afraid to do. Celeste had always warned him that if she ever found out that he was using or selling drugs she would beat his ass and then call the police on him herself. She had implicitly warned him against bringing any drugs anywhere near her house. But Ben wanted to be down so badly he’d do just about anything for Deezo. He also wanted to keep making money to feed and clothe himself.

“A’ight Deezo, I’m down. You know I’ma do what it takes to be a soldier . . . I’ma rider,” Ben had replied enthusiastically.

Deezo starting laughing. He was clearly pleased. “You muthafuckin’ right. Nigga, you been riding since I put your little ass on,” Deezo replied. Then he reached his fist out and gave Ben a pound. Ben returned the gesture.

He felt good getting a compliment from Deezo, but Ben’s mind was racing with how he was going to pull off stashing the drugs. The apartment he shared with his mother wasn’t but so big and when Celeste got ready to search Ben’s shit for money she would go through all his belongings with a fine-toothed comb. When Ben agreed to stash the drugs for Deezo he had stepped over an invisible boundary that his mother had put up. Still, Ben didn’t go back on his word with Deezo.

That night, Ben slid into the house as quietly as he could. He was hoping his mother would be sleep or fucking—her favorite pastimes. As he tipped into the darkened apartment, he held onto his fat pockets, which were loaded down with five bundles of crack.

“Fuck you, Drake, you piece of shit!” Celeste’s voice boomed.

Ben was startled. His mother’s screams stopped him dead in his tracks. His heart starting racing like crazy.

“You ain’t never got shit. No money, no time. Barely giving me any dick! What the fuck I need you for,” Celeste continued her tirade.

Ben listened for a few minutes and was relieved that his mother was preoccupied with her usual argument with Drake. He knew that would give him a few minutes of free time to get the bundles hidden. He was breathing hard but he was concentrating. When he rushed through his bedroom door, he was caught a little off guard when he noticed that baby Keon was in his bed.

“What the fuck she put the baby in here for?” Ben said under his breath. He looked over at his baby brother, who was surrounded by pillows on the bed just in case he rolled over. Ben shook his head. He kind of felt sorry for baby Keon because he had to be stuck inside the house with their crazy mother all day long.

Ben eased down onto his knees. He stopped and listened again. Celeste and Drake were still at it. “Good. These assholes just don’t know how stupid they sound,” Ben mumbled to himself. He pulled his nightstand drawer out of the base of the nightstand and set the heavy drawer down. He slipped the drugs in the slot where the drawer was supposed to be, and then he spread the packages out so that the drawer could fit back in the slot. He carefully fit the nightstand drawer back into its place. The drawer wouldn’t close all the way, but it was good enough.

Ben figured at least if Celeste came searching while he was sleeping, he would be able to hear her since the nightstand was right next to his bed. Ben took his clothes off and moved some of the pillows. He sucked his teeth when he looked at his baby brother taking up most of the bed. He was scared to move Keon. He didn’t want to risk waking him up and having to deal with him while Celeste dealt with Drake. Ben folded his body around his brother’s and when he did, the baby nuzzled in closer to him. He hugged his baby brother back. As thugged out as Ben thought he was, this was the most affection he had had in a very long time. He started to think he could get close to baby Keon and maybe even love him.

A Sucker 4 Candy Amaleka McCall

Chapter 4

It was Ben’s sixteenth birthday and he was surrounded by his new family—his street crew. Deezo raised a glass in preparation to make a toast.

“Ya’ll niggas pipe the fuck down! I got something to say!” Deezo screamed over his underlings’ chatter. Everybody lowered their voice in response to the boss’s command. He had that kind power over his younger posse. They all turned to look at Deezo. “Let’s make a toast to this little nigga, Big Ben, right here. This nigga graduated from delivery boy to weed spot to crack spot, now this nigga slanging that girl to those rich white muthafuckas,” Deezo sang out lifting his glass high over his head.

Ben was smiling from ear to ear. Deezo had summarized his story perfectly. Quan and a bunch of other dudes all made cheering sounds and took their drinks to the head. Ben couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. He took a swig of the Hennessey Deezo had given him. Ben was feeling good. Deezo and his dudes had treated Ben better than his own mother, Celeste, had. He was feeling like shit was all gravy. He was sitting on top of the world. He was back making good money and since he had been stashing drugs in his crib on a regular for Deezo, he had made his way to the top of Deezo’s “good guy” list.

When Deezo had first told Ben he wanted him to stash and bag heroin for him, Ben was a bit reluctant. Ben had become comfortable doing hand-to-hand on his corner. But Deezo had convinced him that standing out on the street for years wasn’t the way to get to the top. It didn’t take much convincing. Ben had been taking home baggies filled with heroin for a month now. He would put the high grade heroin into smaller baggies, which Deezo referred to as nicks and dimes, and Ben would distribute packages to other dealers that got their weight from Deezo. It was a much better arrangement for Ben, because he was able to be home and spend more time with Keon.

Ben had grown closer to his baby brother, especially since Ben had started buying all of Keon’s clothes, sneakers and necessities. Ben regarded his mother and her baby father as a waste of sperm. He had stopped giving Celeste any money. He was tired of supporting her lazy ass. She just didn’t want to get out there and find a job, and Ben wasn’t a little kid anymore. The first time he had refused to give her any money out of his so-called “pay check,” Celeste had went nuts, screaming and trying to hit him. Ben had grabbed her wrists and pushed her back. It didn’t take long for Celeste to realize her son was growing up and he wasn’t about to let her take all or any of his money anymore. Celeste was on her own. Of course, she turned her sights to Drake for money, which was a lost cause. Ben was the man now and he was making more money than he could’ve ever dreamed of when he first started hustling for Deezo.

“Yo Ben, tell us about the first piece of pussy you got last year from that bitch down on Halsey,” Deezo said, laughing. Deezo had noticed that Ben had zoned out. He didn’t want the party to end just yet. He knew how to keep his little soldiers loyal to him. The little birthday party he was throwing Ben was just a part of Deezo’s plan. “C’mon Big Ben, tell us about that tight ass pussy you got from that ho,” Deezo said again, his words slurring.

Ben smiled, just thinking about it now. He had been a virgin before Deezo made an older woman give him some pussy. Ben was blushing as Deezo started telling the story. Everybody started laughing. They partied all night in celebration of Ben. He hadn’t gone into the house until after five o’clock in the morning. Celeste didn’t care. She had been too wrapped up in her own life chasing after Drake to even remember that it was Ben’s birthday. He took note of his mother’s blatant disregard for his birthday.

Two weeks after the party, Ben was doing his usual—stashing, bagging and selling weight for Deezo. Ben was in a routine. He had walked into the dark, quiet apartment. He listened closely when he first went into the apartment, but he didn’t hear anybody screaming and cursing. He was relieved. He wasn’t in the mood to hear Celeste and that bum ass nigga, Drake, argue. He went into his room and unloaded some of the new stuff he had purchased. He pulled out three different colored fitted caps, three pairs of high-end jeans, and then he walked over and added two new shoe boxes to his collection. His sneaker collection was off the chain now. He had three stacks of boxes that towered almost to the ceiling.

When he was done situating his new clothes and shoes, he took out the clothes and sneakers he had purchased for Keon. Ben smiled at how cute some of the miniature high-end items were. He took Keon’s stuff out of the shopping bags and folded them up. The baby was asleep in Ben’s bed, which told Ben that Drake was in his mother’s bed. He had gotten kind of used to sleeping with the baby in his bed now.

Ben finished putting the stuff away. Then it was down to business for him. He pulled out the half-gallon size baggie that Deezo had given him that night. He examined the heroin inside. He couldn’t really understand how something that looked like an off-white version of cooking flour could be so powerful and so expensive.

“Shit, I ain’t complaining that shit keeping my pockets laced,” Ben said to himself, giving the baggie a squeeze. He pulled his nightstand drawer out and then laid everything he needed to bag up on top of the nightstand. He pulled the drawer out to keep from having any accidents on the floor. If he spilled any bit of the drugs it would fall into the drawer, which he would be able to clean up later. Ben spent his entire night bagging up. He was exhausted afterwards and all he wanted to do was go to sleep.

Ben pulled the rubber gloves that Deezo had given him off and dropped them into the emptied big baggie that had previously contained the heroin. He balled the plastic items up and put them into his old newspaper bag. He would discard the empty plastic and gloves later he told himself. He usually took the newspaper bag out with him whenever he left the apartment and threw the drug paraphernalia down into the sewer grates a block up from his house. Ben had a system and he followed it to the letter. He couldn’t take a chance with Celeste finding any baggies with residue sitting in them.

“Ben . . . Ben!” Celeste called out, shaking Ben’s shoulder. He moaned and shrugged her off. “Ben! Get the fuck up!” Celeste hollered.

“Well, too fuckin’ bad. That job don’t benefit me no more. I don’t see a dime of ya money, so I gotta go to the welfare office and let them lecture my ass on getting a job,” Celeste spat indignantly with her arms folded across her chest.

“C’mon man! I gotta go to work,” Ben complained.

“Like I said . . . you gotta watch the baby while I go get humiliated by these fuckin’ uppity ass white people. So here he go,” Celeste growled, pushing baby Keon down onto Ben’s chest.

“Dayum!” Ben belted out.

“Oh yeah, he just took a shit so change him,” Celeste said with an evil chuckled. She sashayed out of Ben’s room and out of the apartment. Ben put Keon down on the bed and sat up. “What the fuck I’m supposed to tell Deezo now?” he said to himself.

Baby Keon was laughing, he thought Ben was talking to him. “Don’t laugh lil nigga! I gotta sell these fuckin’ packages or else Deezo gon’ kill my ass and you gon’ be left here with ya trifling ass mother and father,” Ben spoke to the baby like Keon could understand him. Keon just smiled.

“Yo, to be a poor ass lil nigga you a happy baby,” Ben said, slumping down on his bed putting his head in his hand. He thought for a minute, he lifted up his head like a light bulb had gone off inside. There was no way he was going to let Deezo down again, not after all Deezo had been doing for him lately. He snatched baby Keon off the bed.

“Your hater ass mother can’t stop me from making my paper. I’ma just have to take you with me,” he said to Keon.

Ben changed and dressed the baby as quickly as he could. Then he dressed himself. He grabbed his packages and threw them into Keon’s baby bag, which worked out perfectly for Ben. When he got to his first sale, he got strange looks from some of the hustling dudes.

“What the fuck is this, daddy daycare and shit,” a dude they called Beast joked with Ben.

“Yo, my moms be wilding out. She left my brother and just bounced on a nigga,” Ben explained.

“It’s all good . . . as long as daddy daycare keep supplying that straight white girl, I wouldn’t give a fuck if the baby brought it here by himself,” Beast said. Ben got a good laugh out of that one. He got the same type of comments at every one of his spots. Word traveled fast and before long, Ben saw Deezo waiting for him at the corner of his block.

Ben immediately wiped the smile off his face. “I . . . I . . . I had to babysit so I couldn’t leave him so I just took him with me to drop off the weight,” Ben stammered. He knew Deezo wasn’t happy.

“Muthafucka, you must be smoking that shit you dropping off! You gon’ take a fuckin’ baby around with you? Don’t you know that shit would bring attention to your dumb ass!” Deezo screamed at Ben.