Promise Broken, page 2
“Y’all should’ve thought about that before you came in here stealing!” the guard laughed before stepping out of the room.
“This is all my fault, Promise. I’m sorry,” Mouse said with tears welling in her eyes.
“It is, but I didn’t have to go along with it. You didn’t make me steal that stuff,” Promise told her.
“But you did it for me,” Mouse reminded her.
What Mouse had said was true. The reason that Promise was in the store boosting was because Mouse needed a dress. The deadline for their high school senior pictures was coming up soon, and all the girls in the school were getting ready. Promise had managed to hustle up enough money to cover the things she needed and help Mouse pay for her picture packet, but the girl still didn’t have an outfit. Everything Mouse owned had either been handed down or purchased from a thrift store. She was always busted and the kids often made fun of her because of it.
Mouse had a junkie for a mother and no clue who her father was, so she would find no help there in getting the things that she needed. Mouse was just going to skip senior pictures, but Promise wouldn’t hear it. She and Mouse had overcome a great many adversities over the years. Most of their friends had folded under the pressure and dropped out of high school long ago, but the two girls had made a pact that they wouldn’t quit. They would receive their diplomas or die trying. Their senior pictures were to be a token of their struggles. Something that they could look back on years later and be proud of. There was no way Promise was going to let her friend be left out.
With this in mind, Promise dressed in one of her aunt Dell’s dresses and painted her face with makeup to look older. She borrowed an overcoat from Cheeky, a known booster in the neighborhood. There were special pockets sewn into the lining that were made for stealing. Once she was geared up, Promise and Mouse jumped on the bus and headed to Garden State Plaza Mall. Promise looked like an older white woman, so she doubted security would even give her a second look. Just in case they did, she had Mouse float around the store to draw their attention. She wasn’t supposed to take anything, just keep them occupied while Promise boosted an outfit.
Mouse was a good friend, but the girl wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. When she showed up to meet Promise, she was as high as a kite off weed. Promise should’ve known from there to call the whole thing off, but she didn’t. All Mouse had to do was be a decoy and there was no way she could fuck that up, high or not. At least that’s what Promise had thought. As Promise was stuffing the last piece of the outfit into her overcoat she spotted Mouse across the store at the perfume counter. She gave a goofy look around to make sure nobody was watching before snatching a bottle that had been left out for samples. Nobody but Promise had actually seen Mouse take the perfume, but in her high-ass mind she thought that someone had. Things got worse when she found the Black guard staring at her. He was probably just checking her out, but Mouse thought she was busted. Instead of playing it cool, she took off running and he was in hot pursuit. He caught her near the entrance, tackling her like he was auditioning for a spot on the New York Giants’ roster. Promise watched in horror as the guard, who outweighed Mouse by nearly one hundred pounds, manhandled her while trying to get her cuffed. At one point, he bent her arm back so far that Promise feared he would break it. It would’ve been easy for Promise to keep walking and slip from the store with the stolen goods, but she couldn’t leave Mouse hanging like that. Promise lowered her shoulder and threw her weight into the guard, knocking him off Mouse. She helped her friend to her feet and they bolted for the door. They would’ve gotten away had it not been for a new security feature implemented by the store that neither of the girls knew about. Security was able to remotely lock the automatic doors from their office in the back. Over a twenty-dollar bottle of perfume, Mouse had fucked them both, and that’s how they ended up sitting in the back room awaiting their fates.
It had only been a half-hour, but it felt like a lifetime. Mouse had managed to nod off while sitting in the plastic chair, but Promise was still on high alert, watching and waiting. Finally, the moment of truth had arrived. The Black guard was back and he wasn’t alone. Trailing him was the other guard. He was speaking over his shoulder to someone who hadn’t come into view yet. But when the mysterious person did, a ball of fear formed in Promise’s gut.
To see Promise’s aunt, you couldn’t tell that they were related, by blood no less. Where Promise was pale, Adelle was coal-black—as her mother had been. Their dark skin was a family trait, one that hadn’t been inherited by Promise. Adelle, Dell to her friends and family, was a heavy-set woman with a double chin and beady black eyes that were covered by violet rimmed glasses. She was dressed in her nurse’s scrubs beneath a dark overcoat with a fur-lined collar. With her blue pillbox hat and warm smile, she looked every bit the harmless church mother she impersonated every Sunday, but Promise knew better.
“Right this way, Mrs. Mohammed,” the Hispanic guard held the door for the older Black woman.
“Thank you, sir, and Ms. is fine. I’m a widow. My husband died some years back,” she corrected.
“My sympathies,” he said sincerely. “Now, onto the unfortunate reason I had to drag you down here. As I explained on the telephone, we caught your niece and her little friend shoplifting.”
Dell gave Promise a disbelieving look and covered her mouth in shock. “Promise Elaine Mohammed, I’m surprised at you! I know you were raised better than that.” Promise lowered her head in shame. There wasn’t much she could say, considering that she had been caught red-handed. Even if she hadn’t, her aunt would’ve twisted it to make it about her anyway. “I don’t know what could’ve gotten into you, but I have an idea,” she cast a glare at Mouse, who was shifting uncomfortably in her seat. “And what is that God-awful smell?”
“The little one,” the Black guard nodded at Mouse. “The bottle of perfume she was trying to boost broke when I was . . . apprehending her.”
“More like trying to break her arm,” Promise said beneath her breath.
“If I were you, I’d be quiet, little miss,” Adelle warned Promise. “Officers,” she addressed the guards, “I’m sorry that this happened. Things have been hard on us since Promise’s mother passed on, but I’ve been doing my best to make sure that she’s raised with good Christian values. This is out of character for my Promise. Nothing but the devil trying to have his way with her young soul.” Again she glanced at Mouse. “I can assure you that if you can find it in your heart to release her into my custody, I’ll happily pay for the items,” she dug into her shoulder bag and pulled out a change purse. She dumped a few crumbled dollars onto the table and began sorting through them.
“That won’t be necessary, ma’am. Just take her home and make sure she doesn’t come back into this store and we’ll call it good.” He didn’t have it in his heart to take what few dollars the obviously struggling old woman had.
Tears welled in the corners of Adelle’s eyes and her lip quivered. “Bless you.” She scraped the money back into her purse. “Bless both your hearts for taking pity on this old woman.”
“No problem, Ms. Mohammed. Just remember what I said about her not being allowed back in this store. If we catch either of them here again it’ll be out of my hands.”
“Oh, you won’t have to worry about them here coming back to this store or anywhere else for that matter. The only time she’ll be allowed to leave the house for a good while is to go to school or attend church,” Dell assured him. “Let’s go, Promise,” she said, taking her niece by the arm.
“And what about this one?” the Black guard asked. He was speaking of Mouse, who was still sitting in the chair.
“What about her?” Dell asked.
“Well, we were able to contact you thanks to the school, but when we called her family the phone was disconnected. If we can’t find an adult to claim her, then I’m afraid we’ll have to get the authorities involved,” the guard explained.
“Don’t leave her here. Please, Aunt Dell.” Promise pleaded.
Dell thought on it for a while. She really didn’t want to be bothered, but leaving Mouse at the mercy of the police wouldn’t have been the Christian thing to do. “I guess I’ll take her too.”
“Thank you, Ms. Adelle. Thank you!” Mouse jumped from the chair, happy not to have been left for the cops. She was no stranger to the system and knew that’s exactly where she would’ve ended up if it had been left to her mother to come get her. There was no telling where she was or when she would resurface.
The Hispanic guard watched as Adelle collected the teenage girls and ushered them out. Something about her reminded him of his abuela. He too had been a rebellious teen who had been raised without the benefit of parents, so he understood the difficulties that came with situations like those. “Such a sweet old bird,” he said as they left the store.
CHAPTER 2
The ride from Paramus back to Newark was a tense one. Dell whipped her 2011 Mercedes through traffic, cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth. The truck was nearly a decade old, but the brand made Adelle feel accomplished. And besides, she was able to strike a better-than-good deal for it from Dalvin’s Used Lot. Mouse and Promise sat quietly in the back seat, trying their best to be invisible. Every so often they would look up and see Adelle’s cold eyes on them through the rearview mirror. The girls were scared. It wasn’t because Adelle had yelled at them, though they both knew it was coming. It was the eerie silence that frightened them. They both knew that this ride was the calm before the storm.
“So, you two gonna sit there looking dumb, or is somebody going to tell me what the hell that was all about?” Dell asked, exhaling a cloud of cigarette smoke. The girls remained silent. Adelle turned, only enough for them to see her profile. She looked like a dragon with smoke coming out of her nose. “I ain’t in the business of repeating myself!”
“Aunt Dell—” Promise began, but Mouse cut her off.
“It was my fault, Ms. Adelle,” Mouse confessed.
“Oh, I knew that the minute I walked in that back office and saw your scrawny ass sitting there.” Adelle chuckled. “You always in some shit, just like your junkie mama. She was always pulling my sister into some foolishness. I don’t know why I’m surprised to see that you two idiots are picking up right where they left off.”
Promise’s mother, Fatima, and Mouse’s mom, Maxine, had been running buddies when they were younger. This was around the time Fatima first came to the States from Nigeria. Adelle, who is the eldest, had already been living in the States for a few years with her parents when her baby sister arrived. Their parents were way more relaxed with Fatima than they had been with Adelle, and the older sister hated that. She had to be home doing chores, while Fatima was free to do whatever she liked. They treated her like a princess. Their loose hold on Fatima was the reason why it was so easy for Max to introduce her to the streets. At fifteen, Fatima was already built like a grown woman. Guys took one look at the tall, Nubian goddess with her blue-black skin; long, natural black hair; and curves that looked like they had been sculpted from onyx and it was game over. There was nothing that Fatima couldn’t have. She was the perfect draw for the types of men Max liked to keep company with. It only took Max a few weeks to take that quiet, bookish West African girl out of her comfort zone and introduce her to her world. Fatima took to the fast track like a fish to water. It wasn’t long before Fatima became more interested in getting high and chasing boys than studying. Thankfully, Fatima’s father saw what was unfolding and got out ahead of it. Or so he thought. He shipped Fatima off to stay with relatives in San Diego so that she could finish high school. Two years later, she came back home with a high school diploma and a baby.
“It wasn’t all on her,” Promise finally spoke up.
“Of course, it wasn’t. Mouse ain’t got the good sense to convince your bullheaded ass to do nothing you don’t want to,” Adelle said. “You ain’t even gotta tell me the story for me to know the setup, Promise. I doubt the shit you stole was even for you. This was just another case of you throwing on that cape of yours and trying to save a soul who ain’t gonna do shit but damn your own in the process.”
“You ain’t gotta talk about her like she ain’t sitting right here,” Promise said with an attitude. She hated when people picked on Mouse, it didn’t matter who it was.
“It’s okay, Promise,” Mouse said, trying to defuse the situation.
“No, the hell it ain’t! What’s okay about me having to leave my job to come see about you two space cadets? For something as petty as boosting, no less . . . like two common crackheads!” Adelle fumed.
Promise sucked her teeth and busied herself looking out the window. She wasn’t up for another one of her aunt’s speeches.
“Suck ‘em again and I guarantee you’ll lose ‘em,” Adelle warned. “You got the nerve to be sitting there with an attitude and I’m the one doing you a favor. Do y’all realize what would’ve happened if the police had picked you up instead of me? Both y’all would’ve taken a stroll through the system. Mouse, it wouldn’t have been a big deal to you. You’re used to it. Your mother would’ve eventually crawled out from whatever man she was laying under and tracked you down by the time she had to recertify for her food stamps. What about you, Promise? What do you think would’ve happened if they sent your white ass through?”
“You’d stop getting a check for me,” Promise mumbled.
Adelle jerked the wheel of the car, sending both girls in back sliding to one side. The tires screeched as the Benz jumped across three lanes of traffic, nearly clipping a car behind them in the process. Mouse surely thought they were going to die. Finally, the car pulled over on the shoulder of the road, where Adelle put it in park—and then gave her niece her undivided attention.
“You ungrateful cow! How dare you fix your mouth to talk slick like that little bit of money the state gives me for you every month is making or breaking something? Them funky few dollars, including the food stamps, don’t even cover all the food you eat up, Miss Piggy. The only reason I even let your troublesome ass stay with me is because I promised my sister that if anything ever happened to her, I’d take you in. It’s a promise that I’m finding harder and harder to keep, so if I were you I’d keep my mouth shut before you find yourself homeless.”
Promise was silent for the rest of the ride back to Newark. Her aunt had hurt her by the things she said, but she wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing how deep her words had cut her. That was exactly what Adelle wanted. To hurt Promise. It was one of her favorite things to do. For the most part, Promise had become immune to Adelle’s attacks, but every so often she could still get to her. It took everything she had not to reach over the seat and choke the bitch.
* * *
The sun was just starting to set when Adelle pulled up in front of their house. It was a three-family number that sat on a tree-lined street, not far from Newark’s downtown area. From the looks of the neighborhood with its painted houses, trimmed grass, and working-class neighbors, you’d never know that if you ventured three blocks in any direction, you’d find yourself in the middle of a war zone.
Adelle bought the property with money her parents left her when they died. She kept the top floor for her family but rented out the other two floors. She mostly liked to rent to immigrants, mostly Africans, who hadn’t been in the country very long. They didn’t know any better, so Adelle was able to charge them way above market value on the rent. It disgusted Promise to see the way Adelle did their own people, but that’s the type of person that her aunt was.
Not all of Adelle’s tenants were from other countries. Some were born and raised right there in the Bricks. Such was the case with Michael Jackson’s family. He was named after the iconic singer, but everyone called him Keys. Michael had the potential to be cute, had it not been for the acne that he couldn’t seem to get under control and the thick black glasses he wore. Keys was the first guy that Promise ever met who knew how to play a musical instrument. He played several, to be precise, but he was especially gifted on the piano.
The truck had barely stopped moving before Promise and Mouse jumped from the back seat. Keys’s eyes lit up when he saw Promise, and he stood, as he had been taught to when a lady entered a room. Or in this case, a driveway.
“Hi, Promise,” he greeted her in a voice that was somewhere between stuck in adolescence and trying to find its way to manhood.
“Hey, Keys. What you doing sittin’ out here?” Promise asked.
“Nothing,” he said, but his face darkened. “My mom and stepdad are at it again and I just don’t feel like hearing all the noise.”
“I know the feeling,” Promise cast a glance over her shoulder at her aunt Dell who was hauling herself from the truck.
“Where y’all just coming from and what is that God-awful smell?” Keys asked, looking at Mouse.
“Long story.” Promise chuckled. Before she could get into the story, Adelle walked up. She looked at all three of the teenagers as if they had just crawled out of a sewer.
“Hello, Ms. Adelle. How are you today?” Keys greeted her pleasantly.
“I’ve been better,” Adelle rolled her eyes at Promise. “What you doing blocking my stoop? I told you about that.”
“Sorry, Ms. Adelle. The central air went out in our apartment, so I was just sitting out here trying to catch a breeze.” Keys half lied. The central air really had gone out in his apartment, but he didn’t want to tell Adelle the part about his parents arguing. She had already threatened to toss them out once before because of it.
“Well, breeze your ass off my stoop.” Adelle made a shooing motion and stepped past him.
“Ms. Adelle, do you think you can have someone come out and fix the central air?” Keys asked.
