Read Hittin' the Bricks: An Urban Erotic Tale Online
Authors: Noire
Hittin' the Bricks: An Urban Erotic Tale (27 page)
But right now all Mello could feel was the pain. Speedy rolled him over to the casket and he gazed at the smiling picture of Eva that had been blown up and placed on a large metal stand. He had taken this picture himself, the first time he'd ever seen her, and Eva's bright smile had been just for him.
Fiyah came over and looked up at the picture too. His face was a conflicted mask of grief and remorse. Then he looked down at the tears in Mello's eyes. The last time they'd spoken Mello had been laying on the floor outside his apartment with Eva's cold body clutched in his arms.
“Yo, man,” Fiyah said, his voice low and deep. “I'm sorry.”
Mello igged the shit outta him, and then Fiyah said it louder. Much louder, because he wanted to make sure Mello really heard him. “Yo, I said I'm sorry, Mello. I took Evita away from both of us, and it's nobody's fault but mine.”
Mello turned toward him then. He looked up at Fiyah with a tearful gaze that was colder than the most bitter winter. “You got that shit right, you bitch- niggah. You got that shit right.”
Four Months Later
M
ello took his time walking down the streets of Harlem. It was a fall day, but kids were playing stickball in abandoned lots and it was hot enough to pass for summer. He walked past a group of young girls who were laughing and jumping double dutch. He caught a glimpse of Eva in a smiling brown face, and for the first time in a while he grinned inside.
Mello paused near a tenement stoop. A little kid who looked about five years old was sitting on the steps, coloring in a jumbo- sized coloring book.
The little boy looked up with a curious expression on his face. He pointed at the sling Mello still wore on his arm.
“What happened to your arm, Mister?”
Mello stared down at the kid.
His hip and his shoulder were both healing, but his one-handed jumper would forever be shot.
“I had an accident, lil man. I got hurt.”
The kid looked doubtful. Like he didn't believe him.
“Did you get shot or something? All five of my brothers been shot before. My brother Dame got shot in his throat. He can't talk no more but he can still draw. Can you draw, Mister?”
Mello shook his head.
“Nah, little man. I never could draw.”
Mello moved on for a few blocks, then stopped outside of a storefront shop. The sign on the door said BOTTOM HALF BOYZ, and after taking a deep breath, he walked inside.
Inside, Mello spotted Reem. He was spittin’ in a booth while the sound engineer and a few of his boyz did their thing on the console.
“‘Sup.” Mello nodded.
Reem peeped him and signaled the engineer, then came out of the booth with a grin on his face. He dapped Mello out, then gave him a hug, being careful not to get too close to his bad arm.
“You aiight?” Reem asked, stepping back and checking his boy out.
Mello nodded. “I'm straight, man. I'm straight.”
Reem nodded back. “Good. ‘Cause she woulda wanted that, you know. For you to be aiight.” Reem looked over Mello's shoulder just as Fiyah came out of a back room.
“Just like she wanted y'all to get down on this track. We talked all the time, me and Eva. She was excited about this shit, man. So y'all cats be cool. Aiight? Put all that bullshit beef in a box and let's get this one in for Eva.”
Fiyah walked into the room and Mello stared him down. Harlem was small, yet they hadn't run into each other on the streets since Eva and Rosa's funeral. Mello's eyes told Fiyah that he hadn't missed his ass neither.
Reem busted the vibe crossing the room and held up his hands. “Aiight now. Be easy my nigs. This my muhfuckin spot and I don't want no shit outta y'all. Ya feel me?”
Reem turned to walk into the booth, but checked himself when he saw that neither Mello nor Fiyah had moved an inch.
“What the fuck? Y'all still standing around bumping eyeballs? Man, get y'all asses in that fuckin’ booth. Time is money, gentlemen. Let's get it in!”
Mello turned around and followed Reem into the booth. When he got to the glass door he paused and looked back, then held the door open for Fiyah.
“You coming?”
Fiyah hesitated. So much had happened. The guilt still lived on his face.
He nodded and pulled out his little notepad.
“Yeah,” he said, moving forward and following Mello into the booth. “Yeah.”
I
nside the booth, Mello and Fiyah got busy laying down the track. The beat was sick, and both men were prepared to ride it.
Fiyah glanced at Mello, and put his shit out there.
“I ain't doing this for you.”
Mello stared at him. Hard. “And I sure as fuck ain't doing it for you.”
“I know.”
Mello nodded. “Cool. Then let's lay this shit all the way down and let's do it right.”
Fiyah nodded, then muttered under his breath, “This is for Evita.”
“Yeah,” Mello said out loud. “For Eva.”
Mello led off as they got it in right there in the booth, busting the track up.
You hear my
warrior-cry!
Picture ya vision through a
warrior's
eyes!
It's hard to see past the pain to more glorious times!
Eva said to channel my aggression, put it all in a rhyme
And on the day it manifested they caught on to the vibe!
I'm the last of my kind, the rebel called
Ice Mello
Instincts and quick reach was forged in the ghetto!
Where the blocks is hot, but the nights they could get very cold …
I'm focused, but on my shoulders lies a heavy load …
And on my road to success I paid a heavy toll
Feels like I'm battling myself for my very soul
You hear it in the songs …
You see it at the shows …
Now it's time for this chapter to come and close
So now I start anew I'm tryna walk it through
Taking steps, bridging gaps, so we can mend the wounds!
It's like
Fiyah
and
Ice!
Glory
and
pain,
inspired my life!
I know its trife, but we live by the roll of the dice!
Decisions were made, consequences were paid
How much would you sacrifice?
Flipping pages in his notepad, Fiyah broke in with the second verse.
Everybody knows
Fuego
spits flame!
Best with the pen game and that shit can't change
My destiny's to shine, Eva gave me the recipe,
Although sometimes I let the hood get the best of me
Flow so ferocious I give it to ‘em in doses
Known to spit fire on whoever comes the closest
Better take notice to what's happening ‘round here
Talent, young, hungry and passionate ‘round here
Yeah, too many end up in coffins over the money
It's a new day and I choose
my fam
over money!
And through the tribulations
Hard times and hatred
I put it all in the song and found my salvation
And I can wrestle with the demons and the dark
Long as I got Evita in my heart!
And deeply seated in my thoughts
I keep it
caliente,
you know I got the spark!
We're coming full circle now, we headed for the charts!
It's like
Fiyah
and
Ice!
Glory
and
pain,
inspired my life!
I know its trife, but we live by the roll of the dice!
Decisions were made, consequences were paid
How much would you sacrifice?
T
here was face- painting and party clowns, and a big red bounce house with mad little shoes scattered around outside. Mello stood watching as Reem stood on a picnic table wearing a T- shirt with Cameron's picture on it and spitting into a cordless mic.
We gotta celebrate!
It's ya birthday, son!
Uncle Reem's on the mic, gonna show ya how it's done!
We got cake and ice cream, we feeling alive,
We partying for Cameron ‘cause my man is five!
So when I say happy, y'all say birthday …
“Happy Birthday!” all the little kids screamed as Cameron released a bundle of multicolored balloons and blew out the sizzling candles on his fifth- birthday cake.
They were celebrating on a grassy field in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, and Mello grinned and snapped endless pictures as mad lil shorties crowded around Cameron trying to get up on that first piece of cake.
“All right now!” Alex yelled out as she laughed her ass off and tried to calm the kids down. “Everybody's gonna get a big piece, I promise. Gone!” She shooed the kids back a safe distance, then picked up a large knife and guided Cameron's hand as she helped him cut his birthday cake. “Back up, babies! Back your little butts up,” she giggled. “‘Cause we ‘bout to eat some
cake!”
Mello snapped a few more random shots, including some of Miss Threet hugging Reem as she laughed in the midst of all her foster kids. Then he zoomed his lens on the birthday cake and focused on the colorful image that had been carefully emblazoned there.
Eva.
Her smiling face stared at him from the center of her son's rectangular sheet cake. She looked sexy and vibrant, exactly the way she had in life. Mello gazed down at the image of his baby. For the past nine months he had struggled with her death and fought to remember her in the light of beauty, and not as he'd seen her last, in the rigors of her horrific death.
It was still hard for him to block out all those memories, but hanging out with Cameron was slowly helping him to do just that. Playing with the young'un, talking to him about his mother, just loving on the little kid and sharing all of his memories of Eva so that one day they would be Cameron's memories too, really, really helped a lot.
“Okay!” loudmouthed Alex yelled again, “Cake is cut! Who gets the first slice, Cam?”
People always talked about how Mello had stepped up and taken responsibility for Eva's son, but Eva's girl Alex had really stepped up too. She'd come back to Harlem after wrapping up her singing gig, and had opened up a small studio above a barbershop where she was giving voice lessons to neighborhood kids.
Mello had been surprised as hell when Alex called him screaming and laughing one Saturday morning urging him to listen as Cameron sang his ABCs. It had been live. Lil man had put some funk on that everyday children's tune, jazzing up his ABCs with a little urban flair, and in a voice that was way too dope to be coming from such a little kid.
Looking around the huge park at all the playing children and strolling families, Mello couldn't help but yearn for Eva. She was missing out on so fuckin much. Alex and Fiyah had decorated the party area, stringing colorful balloons and cut- out clowns and party streamers everywhere they could. Miss Threet had brought all her foster kids out with her and a whole crew of other kids who lived in her building were there too. Some of the kids had spent the morning running across the grass flying kites, while others played kick ball and freeze tag, and even more ran around flinging bright yellow Frisbees up in the air.
Fiyah's mother, Milena, was sitting on a blanket watching the happenings from sad and guilty, but also happy eyes. Mello had heard her tell Alex that she wished Rosa could be out here playing with all these kids, and just hearing the little girl's name had sent Mello's grief slamming back to the surface. He'd been forced to go crouch behind a tree until he could stop the tears from falling from his eyes as he relived that fateful car ride and the last time he had seen Rosa and Eva alive.
He'd gotten his shit together in time to take pictures of Cameron before he cut his cake, but grief could still do him like that. Charge up on him and batter him out of nowhere. It might start with just a familiar word or phrase. Or a song might come on the radio that Eva used to like. Sometimes he'd get hit with a big dose of her when he ate one of their favorite foods, and there were other times when he woke up in the middle of the night and could swear to God that he smelled her scent.
To help get past his pain, Mello spent most of his free time focusing on Cameron. Between him, Reem, and Alex, the little boy had almost every book and every toy you could think of. They took turns picking him up from Brooklyn on the weekends, and Mello looked forward to chilling with his shorty and schooling him on all the things Eva would have wanted him to learn.
Eva's soul was all tangled up in his memories when Mello felt a tug on his pants leg.
“Here,” Cameron said, holding out a party plate with a thick hunk of cake sitting on it. “It's the biggest piece, Mello. I cut it for you.”
Mello was touched. He looked down at the cake. It was a huge center slice and it held the image of Eva's bright smile. He sighed deeply, then looked down into the eyes of the small boy who was offering it.
“Yo, man, c'mere,” he said, closing his camera lens as he took the plate and sat down with his legs folded under him. He glanced up at the sunny sky and sent his baby girl a silent message that he knew, even way up there in Heaven, she really needed to hear.
I got him, Eva. Cam's gone be straight, baby girl. I got him.
It damn near blew Mello's mind when he heard Eva respond
in his ear, clear as day, like she was sitting right there beside him.
Thank you, baby. Thank you.
Mello swallowed hard. One day, he knew, life was gonna get better. It could only hurt until it started feeling good. Grinning at his lil shorty, Mello pulled Cameron down beside him, and together they sat in the green grass and shared a sweet piece of Eva's beautiful smile.