The Banks Sisters (7 page)

“Get to the point, Tiff!” Tariq sat up and looked into her eyes.

“Well, one day I was with him and he was talkin' all this big money shit. I'm like whatever nigga,” she said to Tariq, 'cause you know, working in the club, niggas always trying to impress you. So, you know I heard it all before though.”

“Ummm-ha.”

“So, I'm like bye boy! And was like I'm not fronting. Then he got up and walked out the room and came back seconds later with two big duffle bags. He dumped them out onto his bed.”

Tariq didn't blink or utter a word. He just listened and she had his attention.

“Reek, my eyes got big as shit. I ain't never seen that much money in my life. Ole boy, looked at me and laughed, then he had the nerve to say. I bet you ain't never seen two million in cash before did you?”

“Had you?”

“I'd seen a lot of money. But I was lost for words because I wasn't expecting him to have two million. I thought he was all flash.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes,” she said making complete eye contact with him.

“He put the money back into the bags and took them back out the room, then came back like a minute later. I'm telling' you Reek, it's a sweet lick,” she said with excitement.

“So he showed you two million in cash, huh? How you know it was two million?”

“Reek, listen to me Boo, it was definitely a couple of million, trust me . . .”

“Damn, a couple of mill, huh?”

“Yeah, it'll be like taking a bottle from a baby. I got everything mapped out, too.”

“Who is this nigga?”

“His name is Marky, I think he's originally from New York somewhere though.”

“So, this shit that sweet, huh,” he said with a raised eyebrow.

“Hell yeah it's definitely sweet! I wouldn't bullshit Tariq. He got it like that! He probably has more than that where that comes from. I'ma be with him tonight, we suppose to be going to dinner then go somewhere else . . .”

“So, you got his address and everything?”

“Yes! He lives by himself, too. I'm telling you it'll be the sweetest lick you ever had!”

“How you know the bread still there, if it was in duffle bags. It's probably was being bagged up to go somewhere.”

“No, he always got a bag of money laying around. Plus he had it in the car and was bringing it into the house. And I'm meeting up with him at the house tonight before we go out. I will lurk and see if the bag is still there.”

“You say he going be wit you tonight, huh?”

“Yeah! Y'all could go take the money and meet me later with my cut . . . You know I'm about my money, too,” she said jokingly, but was dead serious.

“So how much is ya cut suppose to be?”

“Two hundred and fifty thousand, that's all I want.”

He smiled.

She quickly said, “You could always give me more if you want.”

“A'ight, let me holla at my man. I'ma get back wit' you and let you know if we wit' it. Make sure you answer yo' phone when I call. This shit better be just how you said it was, don't waste my fucking time . . .”

“Cut it out Reek, its all good boo!” she said then straddled his lap. She kissed his neck deeply and moved her center in a circular motion. He pulled back and looked up in her eyes.

“Where is the money?”

She hesitated, “Now that I don't know for sure. I'm going to try to roam and see if it's in eyesight. If not, y'all are going to have to find it. I do know that it have to be upstairs somewhere judging by how fast he went and got it, then when he took it back.”

“A'ight get dressed, I gotta go.”

Tiffany climbed off his lap and picked her dress and six inch Chanel heels up off the floor. She slipped into her bodycon painted on dress then buckled the heels around her ankles. Tiffany picked up her Chanel bag, and headed for the door, tossing her red lace panties to him.

Tariq caught them and then placed them in her purse. He trailed a little behind her and watched her bottom bounce underneath the dress. Shaking his head, she had one of the sexiest walks he had ever seen. He got up and walked out the room behind her gripping two handfuls of her butt in the process.

Outside the sun greeted them with a warm kiss on her cheek. The smell of the fresh cut grass and clean air was pleasing to their nostrils. Tariq opened and closed the door to Tiffany's red coupe.

Tariq walked over to his four door Massareti and got inside. He pushed the button and started the engine, and watched as Tiffany drove away.

Biggie Smalls, “Ready to Die,” blared through the speakers. Tariq bobbed his head and rapped along with the legend then drove away. The night with Tiffany was definitely memorable but it was now time for him to get back to his money. He turned the music down, leaned over and checked his phone. There were a few missed calls from Spoe. He and Spoe were supposed to be meeting, which was on point because he had an earful for him anyway.

“What it do my nigga?” Spoe answered. No hello. No hi. Just simply to the point.

“Mannnnn. . . . Got some shit for you.”

“Where you at?” Spoe asked.

“We still meeting?”

“For sure. Just meet me at ya place now bro, I got some heavy, heavy news to drop on you my man!”

“Okay, that's cool. Be there in fifteen.”

“I'm like a good forty-five minutes away, we need to really vibe on some real get money shit.”

“Say no more . . .”

Tariq turned the music up and rolled down his windows down, allowing the morning air to rush in. Tariq smiled like a snagged tooth child inside as he thought about the information that Tiff had given him.

Damn, a million dollars.... Two major licks in one month? Damn, life good. Shit, I hope that shits there. I'm glad I started stickin' dick to Tiff. Who'd knew it would turn into a million dollar lick in the morning, damn,
he thought.

The thought alone of the two million dollar lick- had him on cloud nine as he pushed the medal to the pedal of his German Engineering to get to his destination to map out the plan. For the next forty minutes, all he could think of was his million-dollar cut and how Tiffany may have turned out to be an asset after all. She brought his two favorite things to his table; pussy and money. There was no doubt she was slowly becoming the woman of his dreams.

“Oh, Lord Jesus,” Me-Ma screamed, “say it ain't so.” Me-Ma sat at the kitchen table stunned. “This can't be right,” she said, while reading the newspaper as she always did every single morning.

“What is it, Me-Ma?” Tallhya asked as she came running into the kitchen.

“Now, baby,” she looked up. Giving Tallhya one eye and The Richmond Times Dispatch her other. “Walter don't have no kids do he, baby?”

“No,” Tallhya said. “But in about two years we are planning on to have one.

“You sure about that?” Me-Ma asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes.”

“Why you ask Me-Ma? And you got that look on your face, like something smells fishy.”

Me-Ma didn't respond, instead she started reading, from the newspaper aloud.

Tallhya was silent for a long minute. Then she said, “Read it again, please,” and Me-Ma did.

“It has got to be another, Walter Walker. This person can't be him, Walter Walker is such a common name,” was her only explanation. “I mean surely if he had a child, he would've told me.”

“You think so?”

“For sure, Me-Ma! I'm sure we would've been so deeply involved in that child's life. I know this isn't him,” she confidently said.

“I would like to believe that but I don't put nothing pass these men folks,” Me-Ma said. “They will have a double life and not think nothing of it. They will act like it's no big deal. Trust me that's what Joe did to me.”

“That was Grandpa, but that's not Walter!”

“That's what I thought. But that no-good-butt Joe, was a good husband to me and a greater father to your mother, but still tipped off with the woman,” she shook her head and continued, “with the woman down the street. Them son's of witches don't have no self control when it come to their Peters.” Me-Ma rolled her eyes and this whole thing was bringing back flashbacks of what happened with her husband. “Lord up and heaven, Jesus fix this. Just say it ain't so. I swear I don't want this for you. I want it to be a perfect explanation for this.”

“Let me just call and get to the bottom of this.”

Me-Ma took her reading glasses off.

“What can make my soul whole,” she sung, because in the pit of her stomach, she knew that shit was about to hit the fan, “nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Tallhya reached for her phone and dialed, Walter's number.

“Oh, Precious . . . is the flow. That can make me white as snow,” Me-Ma sung. “No other fount I know… nothing, but the blood of Jeeeesus!”

“Hey,” he answered in a voice over a whisper. No, hey you. No, hey baby. No, hey boo. No, hey beautiful. Just simple, hey . . . and before she could address him, he quickly shut her down, “I'm in this place handling some important arrangements. I will call you back in a few,” before she could agree to anything, she heard the dial tone.

No, baby, are you all right? No, nothing.
Tears came to her eyes.

“What happened, baby?” Me-Ma asked.

“Nothing,” she took a deep breath. “He just said, he was about to make some arrangements, and he was going to call me back.”

“I pray that there has to be a perfectly good explanation,” Me-Ma said, shaking her head.

Tallhya was at a lost for words. She knew that there had to be a logical explanation, but then the,
what ifs
started to run through her mind.
What if it was true?

Just when the tears started to form in her eyes, that's when she heard the door open and a loud voice call out. “Tallhya . . .Tallllhya. Tallllhhhh . . .”

It was Bunny. She took in another deep breath, and she got herself together before answering her sister, “Yesssss. I'm in the kitchen.”

“Chile, do you have to be so loud.”

An energetic Bunny walked into the kitchen and gave Me-Ma a kiss on the cheek. “You look pretty as always Me-Ma.”

“Thank you baby, and where you going looking like you about to work on Second Street?” she questioned, Bunny's thigh high tall Tom Ford boots.

“Me-Ma these boots the style.” It was the same answer she always gave to her grandmother. Me-Ma never approved of anything that Bunny wore.

“Says who?” Me-Ma asked.

Bunny didn't take her grandmother's comments to heart, it was her normal for her to disapprove of the way she dressed. “All the fashion magazines, Me-Ma,” she said with an easy smile.

“Well, they going to hell and you need to stop looking at those books getting ideas how you should dress. Didn't I teach all you girls to be individuals and be yourself. You don't have to follow the trends, baby.”

“I know. I know, Me-Ma. I just look at them to give me some ideas.”

“Lord have Mercy on you and those people,” Me-Ma summed it all up.

“Well, I stopped by because we got a family crisis.”

“You right about that.” Me-Ma had to agree with Bunny and said, “My Lord, up in Heaven sure be on time.”

“Me-Ma what you talking about?” Bunny put her hand on her hip waiting for the dig her grandmother was about to say.

“Bunny, Lord knows I'm glad to see you, and I know Tallhya is, too.” She threw her hands up, “You know God navigated that hundred-thousand-dollar big car over here because He knew that your sister needed you.”

“I know,” she agreed. “That's why I came over here, because I wanted to give Tallhya this money,” she went into her Louie bag, and pulled out a stack of cash wrapped in a rubber band, “to give to Simone. She's going to need it, but you know she's not going to take it from me.”

“I'm not talking about that sister . . . I'm talking about this sister.”

Bunny eyes shifted to Tallhya and asked, “T, what's going on?”

“Nothing . . .”

“Hog-mogg and bull crap! You a lie,” Me-Ma put her two cents in it, and looked in the refrigerator and got a bottle of water out and handed it to her. “Chile, if I wasn't a saved a woman, I would tell you go ahead and pull that bottle of liquor out of your purse, because your sister need a drink.”

“Me-Ma what you talking about?” Bunny asked trying to conceal her grin.

“Chile, you know I know everything. I don't miss anything. But right now, you need to carry your sister up there to that Mimms Funeral Home and get to the bottom of this bull crap that's going on.”

“Mimms? Who died?”

“I don't need to go up there,” Tallhya said.

“And yes the heck you do,” Me-Ma said as firm as she knew how.

“Can somebody tell me who died?” Bunny asked again wanting to know what's going on.

“Your brother-in-law baby died.”

“Huh?” Bunny turned up her face, confused.

“Walter got a baby, I saw it in the obituaries and it said devoted father.”

“Oh hell, naw!”

“Watch yo' mouth,” Me-Ma pointed to Bunny and then filled her in, “this chile don't believe do-do stink, even when it's in the middle of the floor.”

“Girl, get your shoes, let's go up there and get down to the bottom of it.”

“No, I'm going to wait until, he get here. I know it's a perfectly good explanation, right?”

“Get your shoes now, and I'm not going to tell you no more,” Bunny demanded. “If it's nothing to it, then it's nothing, but we going to see what's up,” Bunny walked out of the kitchen.

“Baby, I know sometimes the truth hurts. Now we hope Walter would not have had a baby and didn't share that bundle of joy with us, but at the same time, if he did. You need to know.”

“You are right Me-Ma. I do need to know. And even so, I need to pay my respects. Because any part of him, is a part of me.”

Me-Ma thought how big of Tallhya that was, “You right, baby.”

Tallhya got up and went and got her shoes and jacket.

Just then Bunny returned with a small Gucci overnight bag from the trunk of her car. She went into the bathroom and returned quickly transformed. She was wearing a Pink sweat suit and some Air Jordans to match. She put her Indique straight long hair into a tight neat ponytail and went into the front room. “Come on, I'm ready.”

“We not going to start no trouble.”

“No, we are going to get to the bottom of it.”

“Then why you had to change?”

“Because I stay ready so I don't have to get ready. And no we not going to start nothing, but make no mistake about it, if a ho get out of pocket. I'm going to handle it.”

“Come on Bunny, we not going for that,” Tallhya said knowing how her sister, will fight at the drop of a dime.

“Look Bunny, give him time to explain, let Tallhya deal with it, don't you go over there turning up. You hear me?”

“I'm not,” Bunny said as innocent as she knew how. “We are good as long as they don't cause no static . . . it won't be none if they don't start none.”

“Chile, Lord Mercy,” Me-Ma said as she was reaching for the phone.

“Who are you calling?” Tallhya asked.

“Your brother, you need to carry him over there with y'all, too.” Even though the sisters had all accepted Ginger's lifestyle, Me-Ma refused to acknowledge it and after all these years, still referred to Ginger as a boy. She loved him no matter what, but she prayed every day that God would “fix” her grandson.

“Me-Ma, please, don't call Ginger, I don't want her in my business.”

“Chile please,” Me-Ma looked Tallhya in the face. “If this man, has lied to us, it's all of our business.”

“No, we good. I got it handled. Remember we not going over there to start no commotion.” Then as Tallhya walked out the door to head for the car. Bunny double backed to the kitchen and handed Me-Ma a stack of money. “In case you gotta bail us out,” she said. Then burst out into laughter, even though she was dead serious, and headed out the door.

Another ring, Ginger answered.

“Hello, Gene. Meet yo' sisters over at the Mimms Funeral Home. It's a little situation that they are going to get to the bottom of. And baby”—she paused—“don't wear none of them stilettos over there neither. If you catch my drift.”

Me-Ma grabbed her Bible, and started to pray. Lord knows all parties involved was going to surely need it.