Passion for the Heist, page 12
Passion walked over and turned the water off. “Is that what you’re telling yourself so you don’t feel no guilt behind letting a grown-ass man run up in a child? Last time I checked, the state pays you to protect us!”
The whole kitchen got quiet. Even the pots cooking on the stove seemed to go quiet. No one was naïve enough where they didn’t know what kind of operation Uncle Joe was running, but none would dare say it out loud. Especially in front of someone who wasn’t a part of Uncle Joe’s family. Passion had just thrown down a gauntlet that not even Zeta’s defiant ass would’ve had the balls to.
Bo took her time drying her hands with the dishcloth before folding it neatly and hanging it over the faucet. She turned to Passion and gave her a look that could’ve only been described as cautionary. “I understand that you might be feeling in a way right now and I can’t blame you for that, but you might dull that sharp tongue of yours a bit when speaking to me. This is Joe’s house, but never forget who’s running it.”
“I know Bo, and I’d never disrespect, but even you gotta see the wrong in what went down,” Passion said.
“That was some bullshit, to be sure,” Bo agreed. “Birdie ain’t built for what the rest of us signed up for, but ain’t none of you naïve about how the bills get paid around here.”
“I don’t even know why you’re all bent out of shape about Birdie having sex,” Zeta chimed in between bites.
“Because she’s a kid and don’t need to be fucking on no grown-ass men!” Passion barked.
Zeta rolled her eyes. “Girl, bye! Birdie ain’t hardly no virgin. She ain’t do nothing in here with Ted this morning than she was doing to support her junkie mama’s habits. Or did you forget how our little bird came to occupy this cage?”
Birdie had come to Uncle Joe’s about a year or so after Passion had moved in. She was a familiar face in their neighborhood because her mother, Betty, often dragged the child with her when she came to buy her drugs. Betty wasn’t one of those functional crackheads. She was the vicious type that had no boundaries on what she was willing to do to get high. Passion had once heard a story about Betty letting five or six of the dudes from the next building gangbang her for three ten-dollar rocks. One of them had even gassed her to let him shove his pet snake into her pussy. It was all fun and games until the damn snake bit Betty and she ended up in the hospital. Thankfully, it wasn’t poisonous and she would live to smoke again.
Uncle Joe knew Betty from back in the day and had somewhat of a soft spot for her, or so he always claimed. Because of their relationship he would sometimes allow her to get drugs from his workers on credit. Betty ended up playing on his kindness and running up a tab that she had no hopes of paying. Of course, Uncle Joe wasn’t happy, and no one wanted to be on the wrong end of him. Since he and Betty had history, Uncle Joe decided that instead of harming Betty he would let her work off the debt. As a part of the deal her daughter, Birdie, would have to move into the house with the other girls. This was not only to keep Betty honest, but because Betty wouldn’t have to worry about a babysitter. Uncle Joe could work Betty twenty-four seven selling drug and pussy. Bo told him that he was crazy for putting drugs into a junkie’s hands and expecting them to come back with straight money, but Uncle Joe insisted. Betty lasted for less than two weeks before temptation got the best of her. She ran off with two thousand dollars’ worth of drugs and some cash. They crazy part was that when he found out, he didn’t even seem mad. When Passion got older and became more familiar with the beast that she was dealing with, she realized that his interests had never truly been in Betty in the first place.
“That still don’t make it right,” Passion addressed Zeta.
“I’ll tell you what, if you feel that strongly about it, why don’t you march into the bedroom and wake Uncle Joe up so you can tell him about himself,” Zeta challenged.
Passion grew quiet. Nothing she could say or do short of taking Birdie and fleeing would help either of them. Even if she did go that route, there would be no place they could hide where Uncle Joe couldn’t find them. He had contacts everywhere. “I’m going out.” Passion turned on her heels.
“Where you going? Dinner will be ready in an hour so,” Bo told her.
“I’m good. I don’t have much of an appetite right now.” Passion left the kitchen and the apartment.
Juju stood there for a time longer, giving Bo and Zeta a look that bordered on disgust. Zeta rolled her eyes, clearly not giving a fuck one way or another, but not Bo. She had managed to keep her game face in Passion’s presence, but once she was gone the mask slipped and Juju saw what was hidden beneath: helplessness.
* * *
Juju came outside to find Passion in front of the building pacing back and forth. She hadn’t waited for Juju to come out of the apartment before jumping on the elevator and taking off because she didn’t trust herself not to do something stupid, like lay hands on Bo. It was likely that she would get her ass kicked for her troubles, but it would feel better than just standing around doing nothing.
They didn’t speak. They didn’t have to in order to convey what Passion was feeling. Juju started walking and Passion fell in step behind her. They ended up across the street from their building and sitting on one of the benches that ran along Morningside Park. Passion continued to sit there and brood while Juju rolled the weed into a Backwoods. She let Passion do the honor of sparking it as she obviously needed it more.
“Breathe, girl … just breathe.” Juju rubbed Passion’s back while Passion hit the weed. She knew her friend well enough to know that she was about to slip into a very dark place.
“This is so fucked up, Ju.” Passion expelled the weed through her nose. She immediately felt the tickle and her eyelids gained weight. Juju definitely had some bomb shit, but it only worked to dull Passion’s pain instead of taking it away.
“Tell me about it. That shit is low, even for Joe. I mean I ain’t trying to knock nobody’s hustle. We gotta get it how we live, but Birdie?” Juju shook her head for lack of anything else that would properly convey her disappointment. She had lost respect for Uncle Joe. She had known for years that he sold pussy, but she had always figured that he at least had some type of boundaries, but apparently he didn’t. A thought entered Juju’s mind. It was one that she’d had before, but this would be the first time she ever gave voice to it. “You and Uncle Joe … he’s never…”
“God no! He’s a depraved muthafucka, but he’s still my uncle. He wouldn’t go there,” Passion assured her.
“After hearing about him tossing lil Birdie up, I don’t put shit past him. Your uncle is a foul dude,” Juju said seriously.
Passion didn’t disagree. He was her mother’s brother, but he didn’t possess any of the qualities she had come to recognize when it came to the maternal side of her family. Her mother didn’t have much family, but the few cousins and great aunts twice removed that she had met here and there over the years were decent, hardworking people. Not saints, but not Uncle Joe either. He was a straight-up gangster, and you didn’t have to look very deep to find the wickedness in him. It was as if he had been cut from a totally different cloth. She reasoned that Uncle Joe being so corrupt was why he and her mother had been estranged. She could only remember meeting him once prior to her parents’ deaths, and that meeting had been a brief one: a few words passed between siblings when they had run into each other on the street one day. Outside of that, her mother never really talked about her brother. Passion had only ended up in Uncle Joe’s care because he was the last living relative that either of her parents had who was willing to take her in. It was either move in with him, or go into the system until she turned eighteen. He was a stranger to her, but also the lesser of two evils, or so she had thought until after living with him for a while. In hindsight, the foster care system might’ve been the better choice when measured against what was going on at Uncle Joe’s.
This took her back to the remark that Zeta had made that morning, in response to Passion saying that since she was Joe’s sister’s kid the same rules of the house didn’t apply. He’d never try her. Zeta had called her stupid, but why? Was she trying to suggest that Uncle Joe would try and sleep with his own niece? Uncle Joe had proven to be a man who was morally bankrupt, but not even he would attempt something so disgusting as to force himself on his sister’s daughter. Then Passion thought about little Birdie. Joe used to treat her like family too, but now she was laid up half drunk, and broken by two grown men. All for a few dollars and a cheap thrill. The more she thought about it, the more uncertain she became of what Joe was or wasn’t capable of.
“What do you make of the stuff Birdie was saying about Joe having a stash nobody knows about?” Juju asked.
“That girl was drunk. If Joe did have a stash that Bo didn’t find out about, he sure as hell wouldn’t trust Ted’s larcenous ass to keep it safe. He’d rob Joe blind the first chance he got. It would serve him right, though. After the bullshit today, I could give a fuck what happens to Uncle Joe or anybody else in that house except Birdie. Shit, it might be a blessing in disguise if something happened to Joe. At least me and Birdie would finally be free.”
“Maybe we should kill him?” Juju joked, while looking off into space.
“That might not be such a bad idea.”
Juju looked at Passion, who was wearing a serious expression. “You know I was only fucking around, right?”
Passion didn’t respond.
“Check it, baby girl.” Juju got serious. “I won’t even sit here and try to pretend that I can imagine what it’s like to live in that house of horrors. That shit needs to be saged and then burned to the fucking ground. I know you tried to emancipate yourself before, but Uncle Joe blocked it, but you’ll be eighteen soon. Once you cross that finish line you can get the fuck out of there and not Uncle Joe or anyone else will be able to stop you! You can finally go back west and watch that sunrise on the Pacific Coast like you’ve been dreaming about.” Juju was one of the few people Passion had shared her dream of getting back to the West Coast with. She wanted it more than anything. “Who knows? Maybe I can come out too, and me and you can run through Cali on some Thelma and Louise shit.”
“Wouldn’t that be something?” Passion laughed. She could see them now: her and Juju cruising up the Pacific Coast Highway in a drop-top, hair blowing in the warm breeze and good weed in their lungs. It would be amazing. Just the thought of it made Passion smile, and then reality set in. “I can’t. If I leave, who will look after Birdie?” She had thought of running away from Uncle Joe’s house of horrors on more than one occasion, but the thought of leaving Birdie behind always stopped her. Being in the house she was able to provide Birdie with at least some small measure of protection, but if she left there was no one to stop Birdie from being victimized by Joe’s other girls, or worse, Joe himself. He had now tasted her goodies and Passion feared that he might develop an appetite for the teenage girl.
“Passion, you know I’m the only one besides you who loves that girl, so I can understand how you feel about having to leave her behind, but you can’t save the next person if your shit ain’t together. Get on your feet first then reach back for your people. Did you start saving up money like I told you to?”
“I’ve got a few dollars tucked away. I picked up some extra shifts at the diner, but you know they don’t hardly pay shit. I mostly depend on tips to get me through. I got an income tax check coming too, but for the little bit of money they pay me it ain’t gonna be more than fifteen hundred, if that,” Passion told her. Between what she had saved over the last couple of months and the tax return she guesstimated she’d be sitting on just a little under three grand. It was a decent sum, but hardly enough for a fresh start.
“I got some bread put away that you can have. It ain’t but a few grand, but it’s yours,” Juju offered.
“Ju, I can’t take your money. You’re out here every day risking your freedom for that bread. I can’t,” Passion refused.
“Stop that. I still live with my parents, I don’t have any kids, and the only habits I have are weed and the occasional drink. I basically don’t have any real bills, so most of what I make off hustling is profit. As far as the weed, it’s legal now so I think my freedom will remain intact.”
Passion wasn’t used to people paying kindnesses on her without wanting something in return, so she wasn’t quite sure how to receive what Juju was willing to do for her. Her eyes misted, but she didn’t cry. “I love you, Juju.” She hugged her best friend warmly.
“I love you, too.” Juju rubbed her back. “Now cut it out before you have me out here crying. It took me an hour to do this makeup.”
The two went back to their smoking and people watching on the side of Morningside Park. They had smoked a whole blunt and were half through the next one. Neither of the girls was feeling any pain. The problems that would be awaiting Passion when she got back home were still lingering in her mind, but they were no longer at the forefront. The good weed and the comfort of a great friend eased some of the hurt she had spent the whole day carrying.
“I got an idea.” Juju suddenly perked up.
“What’s up?” Passion asked curiously.
“What if I told you that I had a way to turn that fifteen-hundred-dollar income tax check into a few thousand?” Juju asked. She was just recalling a conversation that she had overheard her brother having that could be just the thing to solve Passion’s problems and put a few dollars in her pocket at the same time.
“Juju, you know I ain’t about to be out here selling drugs with you. I’m too pretty for jail,” Passion said seriously.
“Nah, nothing that extreme. Look, I got some place that I need to be in a little while. Why don’t you change your clothes and come with me and I can fill you in along the way?”
“What kind of spot?” Passion was suspicious. Juju was her girl, but sometimes she found herself hanging out in questionable places.
“Stop being so damn scary. Just some place to let our hair down. My brother and some of his partners are getting together for drinks. Somebody they know is just getting out of jail and you know every time somebody comes home from a bid these fools find a reason to celebrate. I hear there’s going to be plenty of bottle popping, and a few free drinks are just what you and me need tonight.”
“Na, Ju, I don’t know about spending my night hanging around a bunch of drunk gangsters. I could stay home for all that,” Passion joked.
“Since when?” Juju gave her a challenging look. “Passion, save that goodie-goodie shit for Professor Higgins, or those other muthafuckas who don’t know how you can get when you let your hair down. All you attract is gangsters. As a matter of fact, didn’t that one dude you were running around with last summer recently get locked up for shooting a bitch?”
“Allegedly,” Passion corrected her. Passion had briefly dated a young dude named Jason who was up-and-coming in the streets. Jason was rough around the edges, with no home training to speak of, and wasn’t very smart, but the sex was amazing. She had fucked with him off and on over the course of a summer. Things were good until he started showing signs of being clingy. He always wanted to be up under her and was obsessed with knowing her comings and goings. They weren’t exclusive, and she knew Jason did his thing, but whenever she tried to do hers he started clowning. When she tried to break things off, Jason acted like he wanted to get physical. She didn’t think that he was dumb enough to put his hands on one of Uncle Joe’s girls, but why tempt fate? When it became obvious that he wasn’t going to leave her alone willingly, she decided to get creative.
Two weeks following her breakup with Jason, Passion learned that he had been arrested for attempted murder. The way the streets told the story, the mother of his child had busted him cheating and they ended up getting into a fight. During the fight she stabbed him several times, and in response he shot at her. No one was sure if he was actually trying to hit her, but in a twist of dumb luck the bullet ricocheted off a pipe and hit her in the face. She lived, and Jason went to prison. It was a tragic tale, but Passion didn’t lose any sleep over it.
Passion couldn’t help but to chuckle at how well her friend knew her. It was true, she did attract bad boys. Thug wasn’t a part of her regular diet, just something she indulged in when she had a taste for it. This was usually during periods when the darkness was on her heavily. When she was smothered by feelings of inadequacy and could find no relief in cutting herself. She wouldn’t admit it, but there was a part of her that got a thrill from dealing with dangerous men. Sure, she attracted more than her fair share of young men on the right track, but there was just something about flirting with danger that turned her on.
Since she was a child, Passion had always known that there was power in pussy. Her father allowing her mother to dog was proof of that. That had been her first glimpse at the power, but it wouldn’t be until she was a little older that she would get her first taste of it. Sometimes when men who did business with Uncle Joe came around, Passion would flirt. Never anything too heavy; a suggestive look here, a passing touch there. It was never an outright invitation, only enough to make sure they noticed her. Sometimes a second look was all it took to cause a man to get beside himself. Passion didn’t do this because she was actually attracted to any of the men. She just wanted to see how far she could push the envelope. One boy, in his adolescent eagerness, had tried to steal a kiss from Passion when they thought that no one was watching. Unfortunately for him, Uncle Joe had eyes everywhere. He beat that boy so bad that he ended up in the hospital. It was after that incident that Passion realized what her mother had known all along, and her father found out the hard way: Pussy wasn’t just power, it was a weapon!
“You know my brother’s crowd ain’t really my crowd either,” Juju picked up. “Half those guys are killers and the other half thieves, but they all spend money. I’m trying to see if I can get a few ounces of this weed off and put that money toward our trip out west.” She gave Passion a wink.
