Crackhead II: A Novel (25 page)

Dirty was around more often, schooling young Smurf. They began to forge a father-and-son type of relationship in just a short amount of time. Dirty took Smurf under his wing and taught him the business side of street dealings—from weight to cake. A man in Smurf’s position always needed to know everything he could about running a fine-tuned operation and just like the economy, it changed often.

One particular day, Dirty holla’d at Smurf seriously.

“Yo, Smurf,” he called out. “I need ta holla at cha for a minute.” Dirty sounded serious. There was obviously something on his mind.

“What’s up, man?”

Dirty sat down on Smurf’s couch while Smurf walked into the kitchen and grabbed two beers. Handing Dirty one, he sat down on the armchair directly across from his mentor.

“I think it’s time to get you off the streets.” Smurf remained quiet, listening to Dirty.

“I think you’d be more useful in travel.”

“You know I’ll do what I can to help you out, but man, you know I ain’t no damn runner,” Smurf said forcefully.

“You wouldn’t be running, son,” Dirty said seriously. “You’d be working with me to get weight in.” He leaned forward and pointed at Smurf. “You already see what’s on the street. We need
to make sure we keep getting top-notch shit. You need to look at your areas and see where your slowest spots are and shut them down.”

“Shut ’em down? Why?”

“That’s too much unproductive time, man.” Dirty took a swig of his beer. “We can get more business in areas where it’s already high volume. You already got the shit on lock, you just need to tighten it up now.”

Smurf sat back and stroked his imaginary chin hair and sighed. “A’ight, man. I gotcha. I’ma call a meeting with my crew.”

“Oh, also, you need to switch up yo’ houses. Shut down a couple, then open ’em up again.” Smurf gave him a confused look. “You always wanna switch up because you never know who’s watching you. Remember what I told you before. Never be predictable. You fall into a routine and then boom,” he motioned his finger like he was shooting, “that’s when you get popped.”

SMURF CALLED A
meeting with his top execs at the corner store and told them of the plan. Dirty watched as Smurf handled his business.

“Yo, there’s been a change in operations here.”

“What’s up, boss,” Drake, Chunky, and Lil’ Rob asked.

“We need to shut down and move our operations.” The three of them listened intently to Smurf, who continued. He was surprised that he wasn’t met with resistance. “We’re getting rid of the empty buildings and we’re going to start occupying tenement buildings in Southview. Do y’all know someone who could use a lil’ cake?”

They nodded their heads in unison.

“Good, so this won’t be hard. Make whatever deal you have to with them, and those will be the spots from now on.”

“When we doin’ this?” Drake asked.

“Yesterday,” Smurf confirmed.

Before they left the corner store, Lil’ Rob asked, “Hey Smurf, what you wanna do about Tonette?”

“What about her?”

“You shuttin’ down buildings. You know she posted by one all the time.”

Smurf knew that Lil’ Rob wanted a piece of the young meat, so he didn’t answer like Lil’ Rob wanted. “I’ll deal with her. Just leave her there for the time being.”

L
ATER THAT AFTERNOON,
as promised, Laci showed up at Tonette’s apartment. She was glad that Tonette had agreed to see her.

Nervously, Laci stood outside the apartment in a pair of skin-tight black l.e.i. jeans, a purple turtleneck, and a pair of black riding boots. She also had on a necklace with her name spelled out and a fierce leather jacket. Laci’s trademark diamond earrings were replaced by gold hoops and her Movado watch was replaced by ghetto-girl gold bangles.

Butterflies fluttered in Laci’s stomach as she knocked on the door and waited for it to open. She smiled when she saw Tonette standing before her very eyes.

“Look at this shit right here!” Tonette slipped, saying what she was thinking when she saw Laci. She was itching to kick Laci square in her proper ass but she’d promised her girls she’d behave, though she didn’t tell them for how long.

“SBBs!” Laci said excitedly. Monique, Shaunna, and Tonette couldn’t believe their eyes. “What up, tricks?” Laci was getting into true form, and fast.

The three girls looked at each other and then back at Laci. Laci didn’t know what took over her, but she hugged each of the girls.

“Hey, y’all want something to eat?” Shaunna said, breaking the obvious tension in the air by cooing at her newborn baby and trying to get her two-year-old to stay still.

“Y’all know what’s up,” Tonette said and retreated to the kitchen. Shaunna followed behind her with her wobbly toddler. Monique and Laci looked at each other.

“Just be cool and don’t overdo it,” Monique whispered and walked into the kitchen.

“Y’all want any?” Shaunna asked as she fried up some bologna sandwiches.

“Not right now,” Tonette said, grabbing a bowl and a box of Cap’n Crunch cereal.

“Me neither,” Monique said as she made a cheese and Miracle Whip sandwich.

“I’ll make the Kool-Aid,” Laci volunteered, opening Tonette’s silverware drawer and looking for the packets. “What kind y’all want?”

“Um . . . purple,” Monique said.

“That cool?” Laci asked everyone else.

“Yeah, it’s cool,” Shaunna and Tonette responded.

Shaunna kept her son in the kitchen and turned on a
Garbage Pail Kids
video to keep him occupied. The rest of the girls retreated to the living room and waited for the Kool-Aid.

Laci made the drink with extra sugar, just the way the girls liked it. She grabbed four colored plastic cups out of dish drainer and went in the freezer to get ice. Laci pulled out an ice tray and pulled the silver handle back.

Crack.

She heard it separate the cubes. Not enough ice was available for four cups, so she went to the next tray. It looked funny. She looked closely at the ice and saw that there were little packages of something in the cubes.
Oh shit, did I find where she keeps her shit?
Laci looked at the other cubes and sure enough, there were little packages of something frozen in each ice cube. Quickly, she put the tray back in the freezer and dumped the ice out that was already in their cups and ran hot water on the cubes to melt them. She didn’t want Tonette to know she’d found anything.

She returned with the pitcher of warm Kool-Aid and four cups. They all sat around not knowing what to say next. Laci looked like she had changed, but none of the girls really knew how much.

Shaunna reached over and handed Laci her plate of fried bologna sandwiches. Instantly, Laci removed the bread to see if anything was sprinkled on it.

“What the fuck you doing?” Shaunna said sharply, watching Laci inspect her food.

“Looking for the mustard,” Laci said quickly. “What you think I’m doing?” She looked at Shaunna as if she should know, then hopped up and went into the kitchen to retrieve the yellow bottle of mustard in the fridge. Laci came back and squirted a nice-sized dollop of mustard in the center of her sandwich. She eagerly picked it up and bit into it. Laci hated mustard, but she wasn’t about to fall for that bullshit again.

“So Laci,” Tonette said, cutting to the chase, digging into her bowl of cereal, “what happened to you?” She shoveled two spoonfuls into her mouth and milk trickled down her chin. “I looked all over for you. It seemed like you were a ghost.”

Laci took a nice-sized bite out of her sandwich, chewed and swallowed it, then she drank out of her cup. “My momma was trippin’ and kicked my ass out.”

“What?” Tonette couldn’t believe her ears. “Miss Prissy got kicked out? What the fuck you do?” She shoveled more cereal in her mouth, but this time, chased it down with Kool-Aid.

Ignoring the “Miss Prissy” remark, Laci continued. “She accused me of stealing something.” She took another bite of her sandwich. “You know, bullshit like that,” Laci continued with her mouth full of food. She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes as if she were irritated. “Wasn’t nothing but a thing. I had to go down to Jackson. That’s where the corner store was.”

“Stole something?” Tonette said. All of the girls looked at Laci in shock because she was true to the junkie form with theft. “You?”

Tonette looked at Laci and noticed she didn’t have on her Movado watch, nor her diamond earrings. “Where your watch, your earrings, and shit like that?” she asked.

“Pawnshop,” Laci told them without batting an eye. “Then I tried to get hers.” All of the girls broke out in laughter. “When the police came to—”

“Police?” the girls exclaimed, interrupting her. “Hell naw! The po-pos came to your crib?”

“Yeah, she called them on me, talking about she can’t control me anymore and she wanted me out of the house.” Laci mocked her mother’s tone in a sarcastic way, twisting her head back and forth, and reached for another sandwich. “Can you believe that?”

“Damn!” the girls sang, giving each other high-fives.

“Girl, you know you be making the shit outta Kool-Aid,”
Shaunna said to Laci, drinking the rest of hers. “Re-up girl, re-up.” She held her cup out. Laci gave her a refill.

“Monique, you want more?” Laci asked.

“Hell yeah!” she handed her empty cup to Laci, who poured, happily.

“She was straight buggin’,” Laci continued with her story, “so she called herself kicking me out and I just kept on steppin’.”

“Damn, girl, I know she ain’t kick yo’ ass out just for some earrings. Come on, Laci, fess up . . . what you take that had her so pissed off?” Tonette finished her drink and poured more for herself.

“Shit, I don’t remember,” Laci said, trying to find something good to tell her. It seemed like the girls were letting their guards down with her, but she continued to make sure. “Money, clothes, jewelry,” Laci said nonchalantly. “When it’s stuff at your crib, you ain’t stealing. It’s yours, right?” The girls nodded their approval. “But she didn’t think so.” She laughed.

“So how she find you?” Monique questioned because when she went to Margaret’s house the first time, Laci wasn’t there, but when she went yesterday, she was.

“Well, she looked in the best places she could in the hood and she eventually found me. It took her a while, though. When I saw her, she didn’t see me.” Laci did the bob and weave, like she was hiding from someone. All the girls cracked up.

“How long you been back at the crib?” Tonette asked. She thought it was strange that Laci said she was in the hood, because she’d searched high and low for her there but never once did she come across her.

“Girl, on Thursday,” she told her truthfully. “She couldn’t have me gone too long because she wouldn’t keep getting that money
my daddy left her when he died. You know they cut off dependent Social Security benefits if a kid ain’t home, right?” They didn’t know because none of them knew their fathers, or even knew if they were dead or alive, but they nodded their heads.

Tonette grinned. “I heard that, girl. So you was in the hood, huh? You still fuckin’ ’round with Dink?” Tonette was trying to find out exactly what happened with him. When Laci became a ghost, he did too.

“Yeah girl, I was just in the hood,” Laci answered Tonette’s first question. “I wanted to come to y’all to tell y’all what was happening, but I couldn’t do that.”

“Why?” Tonette asked. She would have loved to have seen Laci out there. On crack was one thing, but on crack
and
homeless? She would have killed for that.

“Because y’all hated me,” Laci said softly with tears in her eyes as she looked among Tonette, Monique, and Shaunna. “I didn’t think I could come to y’all.” Everyone got quiet. Laci willed the tears back before she spoke again. “You know that was some fucked-up shit y’all did, because I really did consider us to be friends.”

“And what exactly did
we
do, Laci?” Tonette asked, getting defensive.

“Giving me that laced weed,” Laci told her. “That wasn’t cool.” Laci scratched her arms thinking of the memory. “What did I do to y’all anyway?”

The air finally became thick.

“Where should I start?” Tonette barked. “Yo’ ass was stuck up. Acting like you was better than us.” She didn’t hold back.

“I just wish y’all would have said something about how y’all felt instead of tricking me the way you did.”

“We did say something to you,” Tonette said, the other girls nodded in agreement. “You just didn’t listen.”

“No, you didn’t say anything,” Laci barked. “Y’all picked on everything I said. Everything I said was wrong and y’all just turned that shit back around on me.”

“Well you were still stuck up,” Tonette said, with her lips pursed.

“That was not my intention,” Laci said truthfully. “I didn’t have any real friends here until I met y’all, so I guess I didn’t know how to act.”

“What about that bougie school you went to?”

“Girl, you really trippin’,” Laci laughed along with the girls. “Those spoiled-ass kids at my school . . . nah, I couldn’t deal wit’em. I was on the lower end of things there. Just because you have a little more or less than the average person, you would be judged. Just like y’all judged me without getting to know me.” She looked at the girls, one by one. “I wanted to go to another school, but my mother felt like she was giving me what she thought was best.” Laci reached for her cup, but it was empty by now. Monique quickly got up and refilled it and the other girls’ glasses as well. “Actually, I can’t blame her for what she did, I just wish she would have allowed me to experience life a little more. That’s why I was glad I was with y’all. You all were real and I appreciated that.”

Laci looked around and saw that the girls were finished with their food, so she started gathering empty dishes. “Y’all, I’m really sorry if I made you feel like I thought I was better than you.” She looked at each of the girls. Laci noticed that Monique had tears in her eyes. Shaunna looked away, and Tonette made herself look busy by brushing imaginary lint off her jeans. “I know it
wasn’t personal,” she told them, “and I forgive you.” She paused to give the girls the chance to say something. They didn’t.