Boogie Down Bronx, page 11
“I want you to listen to me carefully, Diamond,” he said quietly. “Handgun Goody is a dead man walking. You hear me? That nigga is a dead man walking! And so is every muthafuckin body left in his shitty-ass family! Everybody!”
Slick had the look of a serial killer about him as he stepped up on Jewelz and let the blood-soaked towel fall from his hand. He stared at her with such murderous intentions that it sent chills running down her spine.
“I swear on my mother’s grave, Jewelz…word is bond on my muthafuckin momma’s grave! I’ma kill Handgun Goody. I’m gonna cook his ass! And if you get in my way tryna live out some bullshit fairytale fantasy I will fuckin cook you too!”
$$$$$
Honore was sitting in her car looking up at the tall project building. Even though some time had passed, that fist-fight between her and Cucci had been weighing heavily on her conscience.
Honore had violated the family rules when she ran off at the mouth and aired dirty laundry in front of everybody at her aunt’s birthday barbeque. But not only did she show out and beat the brakes off her cousin, she had also disrespected her beloved Aunt Frita in a real foul type of way. Honore was an orphan. She only had a few good people in this world that she could count on, and her Aunt Frita had always been one of them. It was time for her to be a woman about the situation and apologize for all the nasty things she had said.
On the real, she had no problem being humble when it came to her auntie, but she could give a fuck less about Cucci’s conniving ass. Honore felt like Cucci had been acting real shitty towards her lately anyway. She had deserved to get checked. But Frita was an elder, and she damn sure didn’t deserve the tongue-lashing that Honore had put down on her.
Fuck it. For once I’ma just go ahead and do the right damn thing!
Honore hopped outta her car and entered the project building, then she made her way upstairs to her aunt’s apartment and rang the bell.
“The fuck you want?” Frita demanded with a raised eyebrow as she opened the door and grilled her niece with the stank face. She was holding an icy can of Olde English in her hand with a napkin wrapped around it to soak up the cold sweat. “Is there something this old crackhead on the corner can help you with?”
“Auntie just let me come inside so we can talk,” Honore pleaded. She could tell Frita had been drinking for a minute so she wasn’t surprised by the attitude she was getting from her. “I know you mad, but I’m still your niece and we need to put all of this petty mess behind us.”
“Oh, it’s behind me!” the older lady snapped. She ran her hand down her hourglass figure. “Do I look like I got any worries? It’s way behind me!”
“Well it’s not behind me because I owe you an apology,” Honore said humbly. “You raised me for practically as long as I can remember and I didn’t have no right to open my mouth and say all that nasty stuff to you, Aunt Frita. And I’m sorry for that. I didn’t mean none of it, and I don’t even know nothing about all that crap that went on between you and my mother anyway. I was just repeating some of the stupid rumors I heard over the years because Cucci started some shit with me and my feelings got hurt so I wanted to hurt y’all back. But I didn’t mean none of it, Auntie. I swear I didn’t. I appreciate everything you ever did for me, and I love you just like you my real mother. Because in my heart you are, and that’s the truth.” Honore leaned forward and planted a big kiss on her auntie’s cheek. “Do you forgive me?”
“Mmm-hmm,” Frita rolled her eyes and then stepped back reluctantly and let her inside.
The apartment was filled with the delicious smells of sweet potato pie, and Honore could tell her aunt was burning it down in the kitchen. The sweet aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg brought back good memories of Honore’s childhood growing up with Frita and Cucci, and she couldn’t help but smile.
“Bring yo ass in here and sit down,” Frita said as she opened up the oven and took a peek inside. “You looking mighty peaked girl, but you right on time for this good shit I just baked up.”
“Yeah, I been real stressed out lately, Auntie,” Honore admitted as she plopped down in a kitchen chair. She watched her aunt spread a dishrag out on the counter then set the pies on it so they could cool. “There’s been so much stuff going on all at once. From my boss breathing down my neck at work, to people on my back saying I owe them this and owe them that…” she shook her head and frowned. “I’m just out here trying to keep my head up, that’s all.”
“I hear that,” Frita said sweetly. “I know it’s rough out there but don’t stress yourself out too much over them sons-of-bitches at yo job, baby. Fuck ’em! When you clock outta there you gotta learn to leave that shit where it’s at and live your life.
“And as for whatever people you owe,” Frita laughed. “You ain’t gotta pay ’em shit! As long as you owe ’em they’ll never go broke!” Frita laughed again, then said seriously, “Listen, baby. I know Sly be looking out for you and all, but you always need to be maneuvering the best way you know how out there. Ain’t nobody got you like you got you.”
Honore knew exactly what her aunt was saying. Self had to look out for self. Right now she was in a bind, but deep down inside she was confident that she could finesse her way out of it. It was all about timing and attitude. She loved talking to Frita because she could always come up with some good advice without even knowing all the details of a situation. Frita had been a Queen bitch back in her day, and Honore loved and respected her mind and her gangsta.
“Yeah, well I can’t stay too long, Auntie,” Honore said with her mouth watering. Them damn sweet potato pies were invading her nostrils. “Me and Cucci still have us some issues we need to take care of, but you were never the problem. I was trippin out and being extra, and again, I apologize.”
“Baby, don’t even worry about it,” Frita said gently. “We all have our moments. I was in my liquor that day and I said some things I shouldn’t have said either. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, and if I did I’m sorry too. You know how my mouth gets sometimes, and I guess Cucci got it honest from me. This is what families go through every now and then, but at the end of the day we still family and I’m always gonna love you.”
“Thank you, Auntie,” Honore said with a smile. “I’m always gonna love you more.”
“Huh—take this,” Frita said as she cut a big slice of pie for Honore. She set it on a piece of foil then pinched off the corner piece and stuck it in Honore’s mouth. “Eat that and then tell me how it tastes.” She peered at Honore as she chewed and frowned. “Hot damn! You look like you need some dick in ya life girl! You better go get you summa that get-right!”
Honore almost spit out her damn pie she was laughing so hard. Her aunt Frita was crazy as hell, and just like that things were back to normal between the two of them again.
CHAPTER 11
Break Ups to Make Ups
Slick had just got finished watering the plants in his grandmother’s apartment and he stood looking out the tiny kitchen window at the city streets below.
Taking care of the houseplants was something he used to do for his grandmother every day growing up, and even though she was long gone it was still like second nature to him.
Being raised by his father’s mother was one of the few childhood memories that brought a smile to Slick’s face. For all the bad shit that had gone on in his life, home was sweet because she had made it that way. The spirit of his grandmother was still alive and well inside the apartment and Slick kept paying the rent every month because the place was like a sanctuary for him.
As he thought about the past and looked out over the projects, his mind slipped back to Jewelz. The last time he had seen her shit had gotten real rocky between them. Slick felt like she was falling in too deep with Goody. She was talking crazy shit about going away on some kinda tropical vacation with that nigga, and just the thought of it had made Slick lose all his cool.
He had popped off at the mouth and said some pretty foul shit to her, but the more he thought about it the more he realized how wrong he was. How could he blame Jewelz for falling for some knucklehead nigga who treated her right? How could he blame her for wanting the same thing out of a man that every other woman wanted? True love and affection, and the knowledge that everything about you was wanted and desired?
Slick was well aware of how hard Jewelz was feeling him. He knew exactly what it was that she needed and wanted outta him, and deep down inside he had always wanted that same thing from her too, from the time he was a kid.
But it was the small voice of that seven-year-old kid in him that said he wasn’t good enough for her. It was that nagging voice that told him that Jewelz deserved better than him. It was that helpless, stabbed-up little boy in him that continued to fuck with his head and his heart.
That little boy just kept reminding Slick that he’d been too young, too weak, and too incomplete to protect his fam from the Crazy Haz’s and the Dirty Mikes of this world. It reminded him that he had lain right there next to Jewelz while she was being violated and hurt, and there hadn’t been a damn thing he could do to help her.
But even still, there was no doubt in his mind that Jewelz was a rider for him. Through thick and thin, she was down for Slick no matter what. When the Zip ’em up Crew had voted against the hit on the Goode Brothers Gang, it was Jewelz who had stood by his side with her ratchet in her hand. Just like Slick woulda laid down his life for her, Jewelz was ready to die for him too.
And that’s why he had to make things right between them. Slick knew he had to make amends and show Jewelz how stupid he felt over the way he had acted. The only reason he had amped out like that in the first place is because he cared about her so much and he didn’t want nothing to happen to her.
The type of fear and protectiveness that Slick felt for Jewelz held mad power over him. It dictated all his moves and clouded his decisions. That shit actually scared him. And the closer she tried to get to him, the scareder he got. It was a fucked up feeling because after the type of childhood terror Slick had lived through he wasn’t tryna be scared of nothing else ever again.
Which is why he knew for sure that it was time to stop living in the past like he had accused Jewelz of doing. Slick knew he needed to take the chains off his heart and make a clean start. He needed to forgive himself for failing Jewelz in their childhood, and then reclaim that love and the soul-deep connection that they had once shared. The truth was, he was in love with her. He always had been, and he always would be. He had just been too damn traumatized and scared to admit it, especially to himself. Yeah. It was time for him to stop fighting his reality and embrace that shit. Life was too short. It was time for both of them to start really living.
So he picked up his celly and called her.
“Hello?” Jewelz answered on the second ring.
“Hey sweet chocolate,” Slick said smoothly. “What you up to?”
“None of ya damn business,” Jewelz snapped with a big-time attitude. “Why are you calling me?”
“A’ight, listen,” Slick started off calmly, “I know you probably still mad and everything, but I just wanna apologize for the way I came up in ya crib acting the other day, nah’m sayin? You know I got mad love for you, girl. My brain just be everywhere sometimes. You the last person I would ever wanna flip out on, Jewelz. I’m sorry. I was way outta bounds. My fault yo.”
“You daggone right it was your fault,” Jewelz spit. “How you gonna come up in my house and insult me, break my damn furniture up, and then threaten me too? That shit is a no-go! You must be crazy!”
“Yeah,” Slick said quietly. “I do be crazy sometimes. When you said you was thinking about going off to some fuckin island with Dirty Mike I felt real crazy.”
“Why?” Jewelz exploded. “Why can’t I go with him? Are you the only one who can floss and fuck and have all the fun? I’m a grown woman, son! I have grown woman needs!”
“I got scared for you,” Slick admitted in a whisper. “Yo, on the real, I got mad regrets about sending you after Goody in the first place. I shoulda never even told you about that nigga, Jewelz. I put you in danger and I’m pissed off at myself for that. Not at you. So can we just rewind and x-out all the extra shit that I said? Please? Can we be tight again? You all the family I got in the world and I would never hurt you. I’d fuck myself up before I ever let anything happen to you, Jewelz. You feel me?”
On the other end of the line, Jewelz took a deep drag off her blunt and was silent for a long, long moment.
“Jewelz,” Slick finally said. “Talk to me. Please.”
“I hate yo ass, Samir,” Jewelz whispered as she exhaled the smoke. She set her blunt down in the ashtray and closed her eyes. “Your smoove ass knows exactly how to make me give in to you. But you ain’t getting off that easy. Food on you, muh’fucka.”
Slick let out a big sigh and then he laughed. “A’ight that’s cool. Food’s on me. But do me a favor. Cut that Samir shit out, a’ight? Ain’t nobody called me that name since never. And forget about slappin me up in another restaurant. How about you swing by my grandmother’s crib tomorrow for lunch and I’ll cook us up something real nice. We’ll eat some old school shit like fried baloney and cheese sandwiches or maybe some Spam and scrambled eggs or corn-beef hash with Ritz crackers. Just like we used to do back in the day.”
“That’ll be dope,” Jewelz said, getting excited despite herself. “I got this new Biggie mix I just copped from the bootleg spot. We can get our grub on and rock out with some sounds like we did at your mother’s crib when we were little.”
“I’m down with that,” Slick smiled as he thought about those good old-jam sessions his parents used to throw when they were alive.
“Okay, cool!” Jewelz’s bad attitude was gone and she was sounding real lighthearted now. “I’ll be over there tomorrow around noon,” she said sweetly.
“Bye, baby,” Slick said softly.
“Bye,” Jewelz giggled, and then she hung up.
CHAPTER 12
The Real Make the Fake Niggas Kneel
“A’ight, so let me run this shit by you one more time just so I know I got it right,” Wild Man said to Honore as he shot Sly McFly a look of distrust. The pair of crooks sitting in front of him had agreed to put him on with their diamond-snatching scheme but neither one of them looked happy about that shit.
To his surprise, Honore had answered the phone when he called and they had agreed to hook up and discuss his share of the cut. Wild Man had met them at a table way in the back of a rundown KFC and he was anxious to hear all the details. That wrinkled-dick bitch Sly McFly was sitting there eyeing him like a snake on a mouse, but Wild Man was still hyped as shit.
“So, you saying the Pink Lady diamond is being flown into a commuter airport on Staten Island and it’s getting picked up by an armed courier service, right?” he said, running Honore’s words back to her.
Honore nodded, twisting her lips like she was bored.
“But instead of jumping on the diamond right there at the airport,” Wild Man said, “we’re gonna let the couriers bring that shit to the Sotheby museum and drop it off there?”
Honore nodded again. “Yeah. How many times I gotta say the same doggone thing? We gonna be chilling in the basement of the museum waiting for ’em. Laying low in the cut. All you gotta do is meet us there,” she said, then thought to herself, so Sly can roll up behind you and stick the blade of his cane right through your sucka-ass heart!
Wild Man shook his head like he still wasn’t getting it.
“So when the diamond gets sold at the auction then we move in on whoever buys it and we snatch it? Is that the big plan? Y’all sure about that shit?”
“That’s right,” Honore lied, rolling her eyes like she was tired of explaining the same damn thing over and over again. “I already told you it’s safer to wait and hit the buyer when they’re leaving the museum than it is to pull a heist on the airfield. Planes is expensive! You know how many cops and cameras they got out there on them bitches? Not to mention all them electrified wire fences and shit. So for the last freakin time get it through your head, asshole! As soon as the couriers roll up at the museum and they transfer custody of the diamond to them rich cats at the Sotheby, then we make our move. We’re gonna wait till the jewel gets sold, and then come up outta the basement and hit it, and hit it hard. Now, you jumped your greedy ass all up in the picture and said you wanted to be down with the program, right?”
The hungry look in Wild Man’s eyes was answer enough and Honore turned her top lip up and smirked.
“Yeah, well, that’s the fuckin program, nigga,” she spit coldly as she stood up from the table and grabbed her purse. “Be down with it or be gone.”
CHAPTER 13
We Goode Brothas in the Hood Brothas!
While Sly McFly was scheming on some murderous thoughts about Wild Man, and Slick was busy contemplating murderous methods of planting Handgun Goody, Mister Handgun Goody was contemplating a few murderous moves of his own.
Goody had been mourning his dead brothers and sending mega members of his squad out into the streets to scope shit out. But something still kept telling him that the old folks building held the answers to his questions. Some of his best men had been smoked in that building, and he just couldn’t shake the feeling that his soldiers were out there sleeping on something real important. Their instructions were to find out who the fuck was dropping his men like they were flies, but no matter who he sent out, every one of them had come back empty-handed or dead as fuck.
“Mama always said if you want something done right you gotta do that shit yourself,” he muttered under his breath as he stepped outta his whip flanked by a small entourage of triggermen who were strapped to the max and ready to bang.
