Authors: Kevin Bullock
“Not so good, even though I know that God doesn’t put anymore on us that we can handle.”
“Amen. Chaplin Stephens always speaks highly of you.”
“Speaking of him, is he in today?”
“Unfortunately, no. He had a family emergency. He left a note instructing me to give you this box of books that he ordered. He wants you to put the institutional stamp on them.” He then gestured to the books on the floor. “As you can see, I knocked both the books, and Chaplin Stephens’ things over.”
“That’s okay. Let me give you a hand.”
Once the men replaced the books and Chaplin Stephens’ things back in the correct boxes, they conversed for another five minutes before Hammer headed back to the dorm.
He couldn’t help but to be more aggravated than he was prior to his visit to the Chapel. His dependency on his friend has become worse than a drug habit. It almost felt reckless to him to resolve a dilemma without consulting with the Chaplin first.
The dorm was empty for the most part when he entered it, so he set up in the dayroom to stamp the books. He began taking the books out of the box when he came across a leather bound book with hands in a praying gesture engraved on the front. It was a book that he had occasionally seen the Chaplin writing in over the years.
He set it aside so he could start his work, but he couldn’t take his mind off the book. He finally gave in to his curiosity and opened it.
Guilt immediately washed over him for invading h privacy of a man that had been more than a friend to him for the past fourteen years. This reality strengthened his will and dimmed his curiosity. But all of that went out the window when he saw his name.
* * *
Ching stared at this friend and tried to think of some words that would comfort her. It was obvious to him that she was distraught.
“You okay?”
“I need some air,” she said, going outside to sit on the porch.
“You really told him off.”
“I didn’t want to let him know I knew; I lost my temper.”
“What you do now? He no be tricked in confessing now.”
She shook her head sadly. “I know. It’s only one thing left to do.”
“What?”
“Kill him.”
“
Kill him?!”
“What other choice do I have?”
“You…be nice to him.-“
“Won’t work.” She said, cutting him off. “He’ll know I’m up to something.”
“You say he talk on phone that’s being recorded.”
“Yeah. Now that I think about it, he didn’t incriminate his self.”
“Oh.”
“I have to kill him; it’s the only way.”
“Yeah, right,” Dehila said, coming out the front door. “You don’t got the heart to kill heart burn. You’re a daddy’s girl.”
Cataya jumped to her feet. “I’m telling you, Dee. You better get out of my face!”
“You caught me off guard the first time, but it ain’t ever going down like that…Oh, Shit!”
Both Cataya and Ching looked to see what had caught Dehila’s attention, and gasped!
* * *
Everybody on the bus was cutting their eyes at Rafeal as he conversated out loud with EL The One DeBarge. Several of the kids that had been sitting near him had gotten as far away as possible. They wanted to be near the exit if he just so happened to flip out.
Man, fuck her. She wasn’t your kinfolk when she told the detective all that bullshit It’s like she was trying to get you committed definitely.
“Still. She has a lot of growing up to do?”
I don’t know why we are having this discussion. I thought we were on the same page now.
“We are-“
Who told you that bitch was up to something before anything popped off?
“You.
Who coached you on what to tell Dr. Yessuh so he would discharge you?
“You.”
I’m always on point, so what the fuck is the problem
“I always find myself in a fucked up situation when I listen to you.”
No! You always find yourself in a sucker-free zone when you listen to me.
Rafeal thought about that before he responded. “Maybe you’re right. But that shit about Gwen is bogus.”
Look at you. She done let you hit it raw for telling her all of your business, and now you’re pussy whipped.
“I doubt that.” He got off the bus. “You seen how she couldn’t get enough of me. If anything, I got her sprung. My whole back is scratched up.”
She just want you to put the light bill in your name. Anyway, what are you going to do?
“About what?”
About my nuts, nigga! You know what the fuck I’m talking about. The bitch that got you committed.
“I guess I don’t got no choice but to take care of her.”
Good. Now practice what you preach. Look who’s on the porch looking like a high Curious George.
Rafeal’s fast pace turned into a gallop when he seen Dehila. He could tell by her sudden change in posture that EL the One DeBarge had been telling the truth about her. He really didn’t have a choice in the matter now.
“Uncle Ra-Ra. How…I mean, when did you get out?’ asked Dehila.
Do it now, my nigga!
“Let me ask you something. Why in the fuck did you tell the detective all of that bullshit for?”
Don’t lie, bitch. Keep it G!
“Don’t try to lie, he told me everything.”
Her eyes shifted to the ground. “I was only trying to get you some help before you hurt somebody else.”
Help this bitch to the ground.
“Who was the first person I hurt, Dee? And you better not say Ron, because I found him dead.”
“It’s alright, Uncle Ra-Ra. Hammer probably sent him over here to do the same thing that he did to Aunt LeLe and her boyfriend.”
Tears sprung to Cataya’s eyes. “I’m glad that you killed him. I don’t care if he came over here just to talk. He deserved to die.”
“Cataya!” He grabbed her by the arms. “I didn’t kill that man. He was dead when I found him.”
Ching grabbed Rafeal to free Cataya, but Rafeal slung him to the ground. “Get off me!”
Oh, shit! You just earthed Bruce Lee’s grandson! No, no! That’s that kid off the ‘Goonies’.
“Taya,” Rafeal continued, “I know you think I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I’m telling the truth. It’s a lot of things that you don’t…”
Break her ass up!
EL The One DeBarge chanted.
Rafeal clamped his hands over his ears. “Shut up! I’m talking to my niece.” He focused back on her. “Cataya, there’s a lot of things that you don’t know. Fannie has been filling your head up with a bunch of lies because she has always been in love with Hammer.”
“What a bunch of shit!” Dehila retorted. “I’m about to call the cops back on your ass so you can go back to the hospital.”
Ow! I told you! I told you! She said it out of her won mouth, my nigga!
Rafeal snatched the phone from Dehila’s hand and slammed it on the concrete. “You ain’t about to call nobody! For real, for real, you’re skating on thin ice.”
On thin ice? This bitch is skating on your fucking forehead! I would’ve been pushed her shit back to the white meat.
Dehila backed up submissively, while he focused back on Cataya. “Your dad loved y’all to death. He’s in prison now for protecting y’all.”
“Uncle Ra-Ra, you’re talking out the side of your neck now. He went to prison for-“
“Killing a man he caught about to rape your mom.”
She shook her head in denial. “That’s not true!”
“It is, though. It’s the honest to God truth.”
“I was told that he killed a man because he wouldn’t let my daddy control him.”
“Who told you that? Fannie?”
She nodded.
“That’s a goddamn shame.”
Dirt-tee bitch there.
Cataya studied her uncle’s face and knew in her heart that he was telling the truth. “Tell me what really happened.”
He told her the quick version of what happened.
“But why would Aunt Fannie lie? What could she gain from going that?”
Goddamn, Steve Wilko! Fuck all that behind the veil shit; let’s get to the killing!
“My best guess is that she’s still bitter with him, and wants him to suffer by driving y’all apart. And so far, it has been working, because you hate him.”
“We both got the right to be to bitter with him. He ordered Ron to kill my momma.”
“No, he didn’t! That’s probably another lie that Fannie planted in your head.”
“No. He told me that out of his own mouth. Sort of.”
Fuck that shit, my nigga. Let her believe what she wants. It ain’t no skin off your nose.
“You know what, Uncle Ra-Ra?” She broke free from his grip.
“Maybe you should check yourself back in the hospital, after all.”
“Maybe I should. I should just let them lock me in one of those padded rooms and throw away the key. Because this whole situation is driving me crazy. Trust me when I tell you this; your dad did not, I repeat,
did not
have your mom killed. Even if he didn’t tell Ron to do it, Ron didn’t get the chance to.”
Suddenly, something that her father said came back to her. The conviction in her uncle’s voice began to cast doubt in her belief surrounding her mother’s death.
“What makes you so sure that he didn’t do it?”
If I had a foot of my own, it would’ve been lost in her ass! I swear to God!
“Because, I was there.”
“You…You was there?”
“Impossible,” Dehila said, weakly.
“I swear I was.”
So, the fuck what! Your scared ass didn’t do shit. I’d be ashamed to tell somebody that shit.
“If that’s true, how come you didn’t help my mom? You said that y’all were close.”
Oh, shit! She heard me! Oh, shit! I’m about to go global! Cataya, baby. Can you hear me now?
Rafeal made her sit back down so he could tell her the story that he had never repeated. But this time, he started form the top, and ended at the bottom.
–—Chapter Twenty–—
“Who are you calling?” Andre asked, LeLe.
“I’m calling the police.”
“Woman, if you don’t hang up that phone, I know something.”
“But-“
“But, my ass. I wasn’t raised like that. I don’t be putting no honkies in my business, I handle my own.”
“That’s what Ron wants you to do. He thrives on hurting people.”
“He’s a man just like I am. Now, hang that goddamn phone up!”
LeLe reluctantly did what she was told and peeped out the window at the Cadillac. Its dark tint was impenetrable, but she knew that Ron was staring directly at her. She could feel his hatred vibrating through the seemingly thin surfaces that separated them.
“I don’t feel right about this. I know he’s going to try something.”
“LeLe, you’re getting on my freaking nerves,” he said, grabbing the baseball bat that sat propped behind the door. “I’m about to go settle this shit once and for all.”
She immediately wrapped her arms around him. “Please! Don’t go out there! I promise I won’t say nothing else about him!”
Yes you are. You can’t help it. Get off me!”
“Please, Andre!”
“Nope. Ever since we moved here you’ve been neglecting your duties. You haven’t even fed them kids yet.”
“Rafeal made Tata a sandwich.”
“That boy is twelve years old. He ain’t really got no business watching that baby; that’s your job.”
“Okay, okay. Just come sit down so we can talk. I’m about to fix dinner in a few.”
Andre stared at this finance. Secretly, he didn’t have any intentions on going outside to confront the man that he had heard so many horrific tales about. It wasn’t that he was scared of him, it was just that they weren’t cut from the same cloth.
He was a Golden Glove fighter that could have boxed professionally if he hadn’t developed a taste for powder cocaine, and lost his passion. A gun was something that he had never owned, shot, or given much thought to.
But Ron, so Andre had heard, was known to distribute large quantities of cocaine, and was notoriously known for brutal gunplay. It was rumored that he had committed his first murder at the age of fourteen.
Andre was bothered greatly that Ron sat outside of his home. He didn’t have the guts to confront him, and his pride wouldn’t allow him to call the police. His dilemma was heavy on his mind when Rafeal came into the living room, trailed by five-year-old Cataya.
“LeLe, Taya says she’s hungry. Do you want me to fix her another sandwich?”