Welfare Wifeys (30 page)

Animal cringed, but didn’t move away when she began exploring the lines of his face. Tears sprang to the corners of her eyes and traced thin lines down her cheeks. “Oh, my Tayshawn.” She wrapped her withered arms around him and squeezed as tight as she could. “Dear God, how long has it been?”

“Too long,” Animal said, fighting back tears of his own.

“Well, I’m gonna leave you two alone so you can catch up. I think there’s some lemonade in the kitchen if anybody is thirsty,” Mrs. Brown offered, but neither Animal nor Hanna gave any indication that they heard her so she quietly left the room.

“It’s been so long since I’ve had a visitor,” Hanna said.

“Sorry I haven’t come by in a while. I’ve been pretty busy,” Animal said.

“I know how it is with you young people, always on the go. My grandson was the same way.” When Hanna made the statement Animal was glad that she was blind so she couldn’t see the change in his facial expression. “Lionel was always running like he had the devil on his heels, and it’s a shame that death was the only thing to make him slow down. He was all that I had left, you know, and now I’m just a lonely old lady.” Hanna began to weep.

“Don’t cry, Hanna.” Animal put his arm around her. “As long as I’m here you’ll never be alone.”

Hanna wiped her eyes with the back of her robe. “My Tayshawn is always there for his Hanna. I’m glad that you were my grandson’s friend and I just wished some of your goodness would’ve rubbed off on him while he was alive.”

The statement hit Animal in the chest like a fist and it took all of his will to keep him from breaking down. “Lionel was a good kid. He just had a lot of demons riding him.”

“Demons.” She laughed. “There’s something about Lionel and
demons in the same sentence that seems to just fit. But let’s not speak ill of the dead, Tayshawn. Come and sit with me.” She motioned for Animal to help her back to her chair by the window. Still holding her tiny hands in his Animal took the chair opposite hers and studied the old woman. The worry lines around her eyes were deeper than he remembered, and her hair had begun to thin on the top, but she still carried herself with the same nobility as she had when she was twenty-something.

“So, tell me all about it,” Hanna said, snapping Animal out of his daze.

“About what?”

“Come on now. You think that I haven’t heard about your newfound success? You’ve been the talk of everyone here for the last few months. And might I add how popular you’ve become with the young nurses.” She winked.

“It’s okay, I guess,” he said modestly.

“Tayshawn, becoming a star is more than just okay. I can remember back when I was still touring the circuit. When I took the stage and looked out at all those people in the audience it was like I was being transported to another world.” She closed her eyes and reflected. “And all the boys followed me around like I was the Pied Piper. Hand me that picture.” She pointed to her nightstand where she kept a five-by-eight photo. It was a black-and-white picture of a much younger Hanna and a jovial-looking black woman. “That picture was taken in 1951 at the Blue Room in Detroit.”

“Wow, you were sexy, Hanna,” Animal said playfully.

“You bet your ass I was.”

“Who’s the pretty brown-skinned girl?” Animal asked, wondering why her features were so familiar to him.

“Ms. Willie Mae Thornton.”

Animal’s eyes widened. “Big Mama Thornton?”

“The one and only.” Hanna smiled. “It was the first time that the Blue Room had ever allowed a black and a white singer to share the
same stage. It didn’t go on to make much noise in the way of the news, but it was a great boon for colored singers. She and I went on to become great friends, but we lost contact when my second husband and I moved to Paris for a few years. I was so sad when I found out that she’d died in ’eighty-four.”

Animal shook his head. “I would’ve given anything to see her perform; she was one of my favorites.”

“Then take the picture.”

“Hanna, I couldn’t . . .”

“Nonsense.” She cut him off. “I’m blind so I don’t need it. Besides, I knew her in life and though my memory is a little hazy these days, I still have clearer pictures of her in my head than any old photo could produce. You take that picture and put it in a pretty frame for me.” She patted his hand.

Animal’s phone vibrated. He looked at the screen and saw the word
Kismet
flash across the screen and knew it was Gucci, but he hit the ignore button.

“Take your call if you have to,” Hanna said, having heard the vibration.

“Nah, it can wait. Catching up with you is more important right now. So have you been getting the money I’ve been sending to Mrs. Brown for you?” he asked.

“Yes, thank you. Not that I have much need for it in here.” She tried to laugh but it came out as a raspy cough.

Animal sprang to his feet and moved to attend to Hanna. “Are you okay? Should I go get Mrs. Brown?”

“No, just get me some water.” She waved at the pitcher on her nightstand. Animal filled a glass and helped Hanna take a few sips through the straw. When she handed the cup back to Animal the straw was stained with what looked like blood.

“Hanna, are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine. It’s these damn dust bunnies that are doing it. I’ve
complained about the lazy cleaning girls forgetting to dust in here thoroughly, but it keeps falling on deaf ears.”

Animal wasn’t convinced. “Hanna, you know we don’t keep things from each other. Please don’t lie to me.”

Hanna’s face saddened. “It’s nothing more than what they’ve been saying for years. There’s a problem with this, that’s blocked, those are wearing down. If I had a dollar for every time the doctors told me I was gonna die I’d be a rich woman.”

“Hanna, if there’s anything I can do . . .”

“Tayshawn, it’s in God’s hands. I don’t worry about it so neither should you. Now, tell me about this new life you’ve created for yourself.”

Gucci sat in her truck with Sade’s “Soldier of Love” playing, hoping that it would help to assuage the throbbing in her temples. She was supposed to be enjoying her time back in Harlem, but instead she was refereeing a battle between her heart and her instincts. It had taken everything she had not to call Animal and give him the third degree about the scent in his clothes, but she grudgingly held her insecurities in check. Her mind told her that it was probably nothing, but her gut told her it was
something
. The mystery of the scent in his clothes was driving her crazy and she knew she’d only end up frustrating herself if she stayed in the house trying to solve it, so she decided to hit the streets. She didn’t really have a destination when she set out but she eventually ended up back down in the projects waiting for Jada, who at last check was twenty minutes late.

“Gucci, Gucci!” a voice snapped her out of the daze she was in. She looked up expecting to see her cousin Jada, but it was Boots.

“Oh, shit, what’s popping?” Gucci got out of the truck and gave Boots a hug. Boots smelled like sex masked by perfume, but Gucci didn’t complain. She was happy to see a familiar face.

“Damn, I ain’t seen you in a minute, Gucci. What’s good?”

“You know me, ma, just trying to live like everybody else,” Gucci said modestly.

Boots looked Gucci up and down taking in every stitch of clothing and a piece of jewelry. “If this is trying to get by then I’d be damn happy to struggle. Gucci, you look fabulous! I guess the life of a star’s wife is really paying off for you.”

“I have no complaints. Animal takes good care of me, but I take better care of myself.”

“And speaking of Animal, how is he? I hear he don’t come to NY much anymore,” Boots asked innocently, but Gucci knew she was fishing for information. Outside of Tionna none of Gucci’s friends knew the real reason Animal fled New York.

“Animal is good. He spends so much time working that he doesn’t have a lot of free time these days. You know how these niggaz get when they’re chasing a dollar,” Gucci said.

“I wish. All Bernie does is get drunk, smoke weed, and play video games with his friends all day, what kinda fucking man is that?”

“Well, you’re the one who decided to lay up and have all those kids with him.”

“Only two of them are Bernie’s and the reason I went through with the first one was because he was actually about something back then. Just think I could’ve been a ballplayer’s wife and this clumsy fucker blows his knee out and there goes
our
dream.”

“Boots, if I recall correctly he messed his knee up chasing you!” Gucci laughed.

“Yeah, Bernie wanted to beat my ass that day, but you know I’ve always been the fastest chick in the projects.” Boots ran in place jokingly. “Man, those were the good old days, what happened to them?”

“We grew up and the realities of life set in,” Gucci said seriously.

“Cuzo, what the deal?” Jada walked up. She looked Boots up and down and reluctantly greeted her too. “Hey.”

“You think you had me waiting long enough?” Gucci asked, looking at her watch.

“You know you can’t rush perfection.” Jada tugged at the waistline of the tight jeans she was wearing.

“And it’s a little early for those.” Gucci nodded to the fuchsia pumps she was wearing.

Jada gave her a disbelieving look. “Baby girl, the streets are always watching, so a top-notch bitch like me can never be caught at less than her best. Anything else is not only beneath me, but will most likely become the next topic for discussion on the bench.” She looked over at Boots who was wearing a pair of faded jeans and scuffed shoes. “So you ready to roll?” she asked Gucci.

“Yeah, let’s bounce. Boots, what you about to get into?” Gucci asked.

Boots shrugged. “Nothing, just trying to see what’s going on out here.”

“You wanna roll with us?”

Boots looked over at Jada who was giving her a disgusted look. “Nah, y’all go ahead. I think I’m gonna play the block until later. I’m waiting on the mailman anyhow.”

Gucci could tell the girl was lying. “You sure?”

“Gucci, didn’t you hear her say she was good. Come on already?” Jada said rudely.

Boots looked like she wanted to say something, but she let it ride. “Nah, I’m good, Gucci. But if you come back through the hood holla at me.”

“That’s a bet. Give me your new number because I don’t have it in this phone.” Gucci raised her rhinestone-decorated BlackBerry.

“Why don’t you give me yours? I don’t have any minutes on my phone right now, but I’m going to buy a card in a few,” Boots lied. While Gucci rattled off her number Boots’s eyes kept going to the shiny truck and she felt herself getting sicker and sicker by the second. Her friend was doing it big, but instead of being happy for Gucci she was secretly resentful.

“Make sure you get up with me soon, okay?” Gucci hugged Boots.

“I got you, Gucci.” Boots gave her a fake smile and walked off.

“Dusty bitch,” Jada said when Boots was out of earshot.

“Jada, you need to stop being so damn bitter all the time,” Gucci said.

“I ain’t bitter, cuzo, I just can’t stand that bitch right there. She’s sneaky and she’s trifling.”

“And this coming from a woman who looted twenty-stacks from her man’s bank account?”

“
Appropriated,
I keep telling you bitches.” Jada laughed.

A car came speeding down Columbus and slowed as it approached Gucci’s truck. Both girls watched the car curiously as the back window rolled down slowly. “You bum ass bitches!” someone screamed before tossing a bottle at them. The glass bottle broke on the ground a few feet away from them and they immediately recognized the smell of urine.

“Fuck you!” Jada shouted after the car as it sped away.

“Damn who the fuck was that?” Gucci checked her Louboutin flats to make sure pee hadn’t splashed them.

“Just another hater in a world of many. Let’s get off this dead-ass block and go have some fun.” Jada climbed in the passenger’s side while Gucci climbed behind the wheel. “Gucci, I can’t think of the last time we hung out two days in a row, this has gotta be some kid of record.”

“Why can’t I just wanna kick it with my little cousin?” Gucci asked innocently.

“I’m only six months behind you! But seriously, when you called to tell me you were coming down you sounded like something was wrong.”

“Ain’t nothing, I just wanted to get out of the house for a while and Tionna is at work so I figured I’d come scoop you,” Gucci told her, but it was only half true.

“Wow, so I’m coming off the bench, huh?” Jada looked at her.

“I’m sorry, cousin. I didn’t mean it like that. You know you’re my ride or die chick too.”

“I’ll ride with you, but I ain’t dying with you! So what’re you doing with so much free time on your hands? I thought sure you were gonna be laid up with your man today since you ran the streets all day yesterday?”

“He had some
business
to handle,” Gucci said sarcastically.

Jada shook her head. “Niggaz kill me with that shit. They rip and run all day, but get mad when we try to step out.”

“Nah, me and Animal got a pretty good understanding. We’re both free to hang out as long as the sun doesn’t catch us coming in.”

“One of the many drawbacks of being locked down.”

“Sup Jada?” Scar rolled up on the truck and startled the girls as neither of them had seen him approaching.

“Boy, didn’t anybody ever tell you it’s dangerous to roll up on people’s rides like that?” Gucci asked with attitude.

From where Scar was standing he couldn’t see the .22 she had popped out from the secret compartment. Had he not called Jada by name she would’ve probably shot him.

“My fault, ma.” Scar drank Gucci in with his eyes. “Damn, you don’t hang with nothing but bad chicks, huh, Jada?”

“You know we move in packs, Scar,” Jada told him.

“So what’s your name, shorty?” Scar asked Gucci.

“My name is
taken
,” she replied.

“Scar, if I were you I would back up off my cousin, because her man gets major psycho when it comes to his,” Jada warned him.

“I ain’t no sucka.”

“Ain’t about you being no sucka, Scar. I just don’t want your blood on my hands if Animal catches you sniffing around,” Jada said.