For the Love of Money (8 page)

“Tracy, did you ever see this
Rush Hour
movie?” my mother asked me. “That damn Chris Tucker is a
fool!
”

“Yeah, I saw it. He's a big man in Tinseltown. They tried to hold him back but couldn't.”

“Why,because they had Will Smith out there already?” my father asked me with a grin. Black men were always suspecting racism. It was as if they had a built-in radar for it. Even my brother Jason was hip to it.

I smiled back at my dad and said, “You know the game, but right now there are just too many black stars out there for Hollywood to continue working from those strict quotas anymore. And if they did, then
I
could have never broken out, because Halle Berry, Regina King, and Lela Rochon were just snatching up
everything
for a while,” I joked.

I looked at my parents all snuggled up on the sofa again, and decided that
I
wanted a piece of that. I took my behind right over to the sofa and tried to force my way in between them.

My mom said, “;Tracy, what are you doing? You go get your own man. You're not a little girl anymore to squeeze in between us. What's wrong with you?”

I ignored her and said, “Mom, stop blocking the love.”

My father just laughed at us.

“I got two girls fighting over my attention again,” he teased.

Mom gave him the evil eye. “Well,
she's
going back out to California in two weeks.”

I looked at her and said, “Are you trying to get rid of me, Mom. What do you think I came home for? I need some love too. I had a rough day,” I pouted. I was slightly offended by it.

She said, “Girl, I was just playing with you. You know I love you. I just didn't expect for you to run up in here and jump in between us.”

My mother was close to fifty herself and still looked like a thirty-something
honey chaser. She had all of the honey that she needed with my father though. He was aging the way that only black men could, like fine, dark wine. After a minute or two, I decided to step out of the way and return to my old room. I guess I had a long face when I did it.

“Tracy, you can stay here if you want,” my mother compromised. “I heard that you Hollywood types are spoiled, but God!” she joked to rub it in.

I shook my head and grinned. “I was spoiled
long
before I went to Hollywood.”

My father laughed out loud. “Tell us something we
didn't
know.”

I made my way up the steps and into my old room. I fell to the small, twin-size bed and thought of all of the memories I had there: Mom and Dad arguing in the hallways at night, sleepovers with Raheema, Bruce hiding inside of my closet for dear life, Timmy sneaking up to my room after school, late-night phone calls on the cordless, and many fantasies about Victor spending the night in my bed with me. I even pulled out my pen and notepad and wrote a poem about it: “My Old Room.”

Before long, all of my worries that night had slipped away, replaced by soothing flashbacks of the past, as I crashed into a much needed sleep.

$   $   $

“Tracy! You have that interview on Power 99 this morning, don't you?”

My mother was standing at my door. I looked up at the alarm clock. It was six thirty-seven in the morning. I forgot to set it.

I mumbled, “Yeah, I know,” and didn't budge.

“Well, that Wendy Williams is very popular here. A lot of people listen to her. I listen to WDAS myself. I like the older music.

“Are you doing Mary Mason while you're here, on WHAT?” she asked me.

“On Thursday,” I told her. “I do NBC that same morning.” I was showing everyone love. It was all a part of my homecoming celebration.

“NBC? With Steve Levy? Well, what are you gonna wear?” my mother asked me.

I smiled and said, “Why, you want to pick something out for me, Mom?”

“No, you do okay with that, because I would
tell you
if you didn't. I just figured I'd ask.”

My father stuck his head in the door and said, “I'll see you later on, Ms. Grant.”

My mother grinned at it.

“I'll need to explain that today,” I told her. “I hear a lot of people are assuming things about it.”

My mother shrugged her shoulders. “Do what you have to do. I have to get ready for work myself,” she said, walking back out.

I climbed out of bed to pick out my clothes for the day. I didn't plan to look all spiffy for a radio show. It wasn't as if anyone could see me. However, if I
did
look fabulous, maybe Wendy Williams would say something about that over the air. Nevertheless, I went with some loose-fitting blue jeans and a lime green cotton shirt, like an ordinary Josette.

I had to decide whether I would take the Infiniti for the day or catch a taxi. I guess I should have thought about that once I decided to wait an extra day to surprise my father with his birthday gift. The original plan was to take my father's Buick after I gave him the Infiniti. Maybe he could sell the Buick, store it in a garage, or use it just to drive to work at the hospital. That way he could cut down on unnecessary mileage on his new SUV.

Despite the carjack attempt from the night before, I figured I
had
to take the Infiniti. I didn't feel like jumping in and out of taxis all day, and I wanted to make a run to King of Prussia Mall for a big-time sale that they were advertising.

So I took the Infiniti that morning and arrived at Power 99's studio in the Roxborough area around fifteen minutes of eight. I couldn't even get inside of the place. I walked from the front door to the back, and back to the front again, only to have to walk a second time to the back to get in.

“Office hours start at nine o'clock?” I asked the quiet brother who finally let me in.

He grinned and said, “Yeah.”

It was a good thing I was determined to do the interview. Otherwise, had I been an egotistical star, I would have walked off and driven back home for more sleep. My parents only lived fifteen minutes away from the station.

I walked in the studio and met Wendy Williams, a tall, big-eyed, busty sister. She had the natural energy of five cups of coffee with plenty of cream and sugar added.

“Tracy Ellison Grant! I'm so glad to finally meet you! Here, have a seat,” she said, tossing the belongings of Dee Lee (one of her two male cohosts from the Dream Team Morning Show) to the floor.

“Yeah, just
throw
my stuff on the floor. I don't mind,” the light, bright brother cracked at her.

“It shouldn't have been there. You know that's my guest chair.”

“Well, just
maybe
I had it set up so I could politely move it for the lovely sister to sit down.”

“So, in other words, I busted your groove.”

“Yes, you did. Like always.”

“Well, Dee Lee, learn to stop
harassing
my guests then.”

“Oh, now Wendy, don't you
dare
go there, because I have
nada
to say to you when you invite the entire Philadelphia
Eagles
backfield up in here so you can foam at the mouth.”

She broke into a laugh and said, “;Oh my God! Just don't tell my husband.”

“Treat me with some respect then,” Dee Lee told her. “I'm not a punk named Robin to your Batman. I'm like Bruce Lee playing Kato, and I'll kick your ass up in here. Then it'll be me and your husband fighting.”

Wendy actually jumped out of her rotating chair and threw a couple of karate moves on him. They were acting as if it was lunchtime or something. They were having
big
fun! Eight o'clock in the morning!

“Excuse us, Tracy, because we
are
adults in here. At least
some
of us are,” Wendy joked again.

I grinned and said, “This is your house. I'm just a visitor.”

I wish Hollywood was that fun. After you've been on the set for a few days, doing useless repetitions of the same small scenes, the fun just leaps out of it. Until, of course, you wrap and get ready for editing. That's when it begins to be fun again, waiting for your show to air on television or your film to premiere in the theaters. At least for the people who make the final cuts with standout lines and scenes.

When the red light flashed to go back on air at Power 99 FM, Wendy and Dee Lee took their silliness from the break and went right on air with it.

Wendy pushed her chair up to the microphone and said, “Our guest for the day is Philadelphia's own movie star, Tracy Ellison Grant, of the Hollywood film
Led Astray,
who many of you also know from
Flyy Girl,
a book written about her life growing up right here in the Germantown area of Philadelphia, and the fast life of the 1980s. Well, Tracy is here in our Power 99 FM studios everyone, and Dee Lee, my infamous cohost, has already tried to hit on her, but I busted his groove. So now he's all upset with me and he's
threatening
to tell my husband about all of the Philadelphia Eagles that I bring on the show just to flirt with. But it will
never
work,because my husband loves me, trusts me, and he
knows
that everything I do at Power 99 FM is only a business thing, and a business thing alone.”

Dee Lee said, “Yeah, right. I'll tell him a few things that were entirely
not
business.”

“Yeah, Dee Lee, like what?” she called him out. “What exactly are you gonna tell my loving and
secure
—which is a very big word in working marriages, by the way, for all of you new couples out there—husband?”

“Oh, now, Wendy, don't let me get started on the time you took home-boy in the back and ah—”

“Anyway,” she said, cutting him off with a laugh.

“He won't be so
secure
after that,” Dee Lee continued.

“Yes he will, because I haven't done anything, and I'll just tell him, ‘Honey, these are all lies because I busted Dee Lee's groove with our guest, Tracy Ellison Grant, and now he's trying desperately to get back at me.'

“So, anyway we have Tracy Ellison Grant here in our Power 99 FM studios, and we're going to come right back to her after a break, and before Dee Lee starts making up any lies to get me in trouble with my sweet, dear, and loving husband. Kiss, kiss.”

“Oh,
now
she's trying to butter him up,” Dee Lee said. “We
all
know what
that
means.”

“It means what?”

“It means that you're
guilty.
”

“Yeah, whatever. So, we'll be back everyone, with Tracy Ellison Grant.”

As soon as we were off of the air for more music, or
they
were off of the air, because I didn't have a chance to even
breathe
in the microphone, Wendy asked me about the name thing.

“Okay, now I have to ask you about this Grant name thing, because my sources in Hollywood say that you have a husband back here in Philly, and my Philadelphia sources say that you have a man back out in LA. And
I
don't know
what
to think, so I just have to ask you that.”

I smiled. “I just spoke to my mother about the name thing this morning, and it's a real simple explanation to it.”

“Okay, well, let's save that for the Power 99 FM audience out there, because everyone is like, so confused about this whole name thing. I mean, some people were even saying that you had added the Grant name on to hide that you had turned into a lesbian. And I said, wait a minute. After reading about your early life in your book
Flyy Girl,
I just couldn't see how you could go from
that,
with all of the cute guys and everything, to wanting just...
girls.
You know what I mean? That just didn't add up to me.”

Dee Lee looked at me and broke out laughing. “That's Wendy,” he told me. “She
will
go there.”

“Well, I'm just giving Tracy a chance to clear all of this up, you know,
because that
is
what I'm hearing, and before I just jump to any conclusions.” She gave Dee Lee a mischievous smile.

He said, “Oh, you've
never
done that before. That's not even your style.”

Wendy laughed it off and turned back to me. “Anyway, before I jump to any conclusions, I just wanted to give you the opportunity, in your hometown and all, to set the record straight.”

“Or crooked, if the case may be,” Dee Lee added jokingly.

“Well, I'll straighten that all out immediately,” I told them. I was not the
least
bit amused by it. Can you
believe
that?! A
lesbian?!
Was Wendy just making that shit up for effect or did she really hear that?

We went back on air and got right into it.

“Okay, we're back with our guest for the day, movie star, slash screen-writer, slash author, Tracy Ellison Grant, and the first thing we want to do is have her clear up the whole Grant name thing, because some people, and I'm not going to say any names, but you know who you are out there, have been saying some cruel things about the homegirl. So we, at Power 99 FM, are going to give Tracy a chance to defend herself.”

“That's right. We got your back, Tracy,” Dee Lee added.

“Well, I should have had more coffee this morning for this,” I began. “So this is how you guys have taken over Philadelphia and killed the Carter and Sanborn show?” I cracked for general purposes. I had to let them know that I was
not
a damn plaything
or
a pushover!

“Oh-kay,” Wendy responded.

Frankly, I didn't give a fuck! I said, “The Grant at the end of my name was added because once I went from sitcom writing to screenwriting and then to acting, I found there was a Tracy Ellis and also a Tracy Ells already in the books. So instead of being caught up between those two, I just decided to add Grant. Plain and simple.”