Authors: Clever Black
“Because I care about her, Walee!”
“If you cared you’d let this go down, already.”
Walee snapped, silencing AquaNina for the moment.
Back outside in front of Ponderosa, Bay had just popped the trunk on
her ride. “I got two bumper jacks and one of Spoonie and Tyke’s
aluminum baseball bats back here,” she said as she rummaged
through the rear of the vehicle.
“I want the bat!” Kimi and Koko said in unison.
“Nahhh, I got the bat,” Dawk said. “Tiva take this
tire rod. Here go the other one, Bay. Let’s ride.”
Walee ran to front door and saw Bay peeling out with his siblings in
Bay’s ride and he threw his hands up. He’d missed his
opportunity, so he went back into the home and searched for AquaNina.
Bay had gotten her grandfather’s DeeDee car for her eighteenth
birthday and had just gotten it out of a detail shop in Oklahoma City
a day after she’d arrived back on the ranch. The 1972 four dour
Lincoln Continental was repainted light-grey like DeeDee had when he
drove it, and Bay had gotten a Crutchfield sound system and four 7”
TV monitors with two in the headrest and two in the visor.
The interior was white plush leather and Bay had placed 26”
chrome Assassinator rims on the car. She had also placed suicide
doors on the car. When all four doors were open the car looked as if
it had wings, but what everybody loved most about Bay’s car was
the rims. The rims on the old Lincoln made the long, sleek,
dark-tinted gangster whip look as if it was being pulled on a
conveyor belt when it rode down the highway because the rims never
moved.
Bay’s car skated smoothly across the fresh asphalt leading off
the property, Tiva in the front seat next to her and Dawk on the
passenger side. Kimi, Koko, Spoonie and Tyke were bunched up in the
back seat as the clan sped off the land where Bay made a right turn
onto the road leading back into to town.
“For all the lies they told I’m gone be sure to get me
some licks in today!” Koko yelled from the back seat as Bay
sped back to town.
“I never liked them punks anyway,” Dawk said as he
flipped though Bena’s CD collection in search of some music.
“They been messing with Bay and ‘Nina for a while now.
They got it comin’,” Tyke snapped.
“What y’all small behinds gonna do?” Kimi asked.
“If Tiva give us the bat we’ll show you.” Spoonie
answered.
“Y’all just stay out the way, Spoonie and Tyke. We got
this here,” Tiva snapped as Bay made a right turn onto Highway
60 and headed west towards town.
When the bass from Project Pat’s song
Gorilla Pimp
came
across the speakers, the entire clan went into a frenzy.
“I’m gone split a bitch head to the white meat!”
Tiva yelled over the music.
Mary was at her produce stand with Dimples. Her business was filled
with customers when she saw and heard Bay’s car barreling down
the highway with Dawk hanging out the passenger side window holding
onto a baseball bat and Kimi leaning out the back passenger side
window yelling aloud. The engine on the car was revved up high with
its dual exhaust pipes wide open and it was cutting into the wind
like a hot knife through butter.
“Marrryyyyyy!” Kimi sang aloud. “Be right back for
some Granny Smith apples, Auntie!”
“Here the part! Here the good part come!” Koko yelled as
the group prepared themselves for the upcoming chorus they were
waiting to sing all but two words…
“…
I’m gorilla on a hoe…”
“Dig that,” all seven siblings yelled aloud as the car
cruised down the highway.
“
I’m a pimp nigga you ain’t know…”
“Dig that,” they all screamed in unison.
“
I’m a mack man onna stroll…”
“Dig that!”
“
I’m out here out tryna break a hoe…”
“Dig that,” the siblings all yelled as Bay’s car
bounced onto Kaw Lake Bridge with the music steadily thumping.
Siloam was out on the park with Jane Dow, the band she was now
managing and she, too, had seen and heard Bay’s car glide by at
a high rate of speed headed into town with loud music playing. “
What
are they up to,”
Siloam wondered as she grabbed her cell
phone.
Bay’s cell phone soon began vibrating. She looked and saw
Mary’s number and sent it to voice mail. Dawk did the same
thing to Siloam as the clan approached the intersections of Highway
60 and Highway77, a major intersection therein town.
Bay was in the right lane preparing to make a right turn when she
spotted the boys’ dark green pickup truck making a left turn
off of Highway 77 onto Highway 60 headed east towards Kaw Lake Park.
“They tryna get away!” Bay yelled as she hit the gas.
“Whoa!” Dawk yelled as he sat up in his seat.
“This here ain’t legal. We ain’t legal right now.
Watch out for the police. Where the, where the police?” Tiva
asked cautiously as she held onto the dash, watching for oncoming
traffic.
“They gettin’ away!” Kimi yelled.
“I see ‘em! They going towards Kaw Lake!” Tyke
yelled.
“Back it up! Back it up,” Dawk said calmly as he eyed the
traffic. “She just learnin’ how to drive, y’all!”
he yelled aloud to onlookers. “Be cool, we workin’ it
out!”
Bay had ignored all the traffic signals, and from the right lane,
she’d made a wide U-Turn, crossing three lanes of traffic on
her left side in an attempt to turn the car around in order to head
east. Cars that were approaching from the north and south, cars whose
drivers actually had the right of way, had to slam on their brakes to
avoid a wreck as they blew their horns frantically. People headed
east watched as the long Lincoln held up traffic in all directions,
Bay trying to right the car to give chase.
Dawk was hanging out the window, bat still in his hands, eyeing the
oncoming traffic as if they had a problem with what his sister was
doing as they blew their horns impatiently. “We be done here in
a minute! Chill the hell out!” he yelled aloud as Bay went from
reverse to forward repeatedly, jerking the car violently while trying
to straighten out the elongated vehicle. Even with all the room
allotted, Bay still had to back the long Lincoln up several times
before she was able to peel out after her intended victims.
By now the five boys knew what they were up against. One of the three
boys sitting in the back of the pickup began yelling aloud, “Here
they come! It’s all of ‘em!”
The driver of the pickup sped up as he headed towards Kaw Lake
Bridge, but by now Bay was hot on his tail. Scared of retribution,
the driver pulled into Mary’s produce stand to alert Mary of
her family’s intent, but that did little to stop what was about
to go down.
Bay wheeled in right behind the boys and all seven siblings hopped
out the car and ran towards the boys, who were running towards Mary.
“Miss Mary we was just playin’!”
“Playin’ what? What’s going on here?” Mary
questioned as she stepped from behind one of her wooden bins.
None of the boys answered when they saw Dawk, Tiva and Bay running
their way, Bay and T-top gripping tire rods. Customers began
scattering through the parking lot headed for their cars as the five
boys broke out running in different directions.
Dawk jumped on the back of the oldest boy, a nineteen year-old black
guy named Tonto Jamison, who’d been Tiva’s first
boyfriend, and took him down. He punched Tonto in the back of the
head and stood up and began stomping his back. “My sister
something to play with, boy?” he yelled aloud as he continued
stomping Tonto’s back.
Bay and Tiva had cornered another one of the boys in the gravel
parking lot near the open road and both were going in something
fierce. Bay had the seventeen year-old in the headlock, preventing
him from moving as Tiva pounded his body with her fists.
“You—don’t—fuck—with the—Holland
family—like that bitch!” T-top said as she punched the
boy in his rib cage repeatedly.
Kimi and Koko, meanwhile, were getting the best of one of the other
boys. Together, Naomi’s middle daughters couldn’t be
beat. They were more than enough with their heavy hands. They were
slapping the fifteen year-old around like he was their own child.
“You wanna tell people you slept with me, boy?” Kimi
asked. “Say you lyin’!” she added as she grabbed
the boy’s braids and yanked him forward while Koko beat his
back.
“Say it!” Koko yelled as her heavy hands landed on the
boys back, producing hollowed sounds that knocked wind from the
teenager. “Say you was lyin’!”
They youngster was trying to speak, but Kimi began kneeing him in the
stomach, sending him down to the gravel. He was calling out for help
as best he could as customers soon began gaining control of the melee
along with Mary.
“Why you runnin’? Get back here!” Tyke yelled as
she and Spoonie chased another fifteen year-old boy through the
shaded aisles of their aunt’s produce stand, Tyke gripping her
aluminum baseball bat.
The frightened youngster was knocking over racks of produce as he
made a hasty retreat. He really had nothing to fear because Spoonie
and Tyke were paper thin, but he knew they played softball and could
swing a bat so he wasn’t willing to challenge the youngest of
the group. Tired and out of breath, the youngster fell up against a
bin off bananas and fell onto the concrete under the wooden canopy.
Spoonie and Tyke went stood over the boy and eyed one another as he
lay on his back screaming out for help.
“What now?” Tyke asked.
“We should hit ‘em one time with the bat.” Spoonie
said.
“Okay,” Tyke responded as she raised the bat into the
air.
Just then, Dimples ran up and grabbed Tyke’s arm. “You
tryna kill somebody, Sinopa? What the hell done got into y’all
today?” she yelled.
By then, the entire family back over to Ponderosa had made it over to
Mary’s produce stand as AquaNina had ignored Walee and reported
the matter to Doss. A couple of state troopers and eight Kay County
Deputies were on hand to sort out the incident. Fights were common in
the city, and the parties involved always knew one another, such as
was the case on this hit summer day in August of 2003.
The authorities all knew and respected the Holland-Dawkins family,
and upon hearing the entire story, no citations were issued, namely
because Bay had filed a sexual harassment complaint against Tonto,
the oldest of the five boys. She’d used the law to her
advantage, advice given to her by her mother that had earned her a
reprieve on this day.
Doss would later counsel his oldest three and remind them of the
business they were involved in and incidents like this one was not to
be tolerated and had to be avoided at all cost. The big three had to
understand that the people in Ponca City weren’t of their
caliber and they shouldn’t stoop down to their level. It was an
experience that was to never be repeated again was the understanding,
but the adults understood the kids’ frustration and willingness
to go to bat for Bay so-to-speak. No punishments were issued, but the
remainder of the weekend, Dawk, Bay and T-top had to undergo counsel
from their father, grandfather and Mendoza and they would all take
heed.
With that aside, the siblings had all earned their respect; and after
what was deemed the Produce Stand Powwow—it was understood by
all around town that if you messed with one Holland-Dawkins
sibling—you messed with them all. And if people around town
didn’t understand that fact, they’d best be prepared to
face the repercussions of their actions.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
JUST ANOTHER EXECUTION
It was now September of 2003, a month after the melee in Ponca City.
Things had returned to normal for the Holland-Dawkins family, but six
hundred miles to the west, trouble was brewing.
Smoldering ash billowing up from the right side of
The Royal Flush
in downtown Denver left little to Asa Spade’s imagination as to
what’d happened to his night club. It took three firefighter
units to extinguish the flames, but not before half the club was
destroyed. Preliminary investigations were pointing to arson, and all
roads, for Asa, were leading back to Desiree Abbadando. She’d
been off the scene for a while, avoiding
Glitz
, but she’d
struck with a vengeance that left Asa without a base of operations.
On top of that, traffic in Shorter Arms was at a snail’s pace
because of the numerous shootouts and buyers were beginning to pull
away from Asa Spade and his crew. This faction of the organization
was up to its neck on the losing end of a battle that was taking a
toll on profits and the problem had to be rectified before Asa Spade
found himself shutdown completely. Without much by way of muscle, Asa
decided it was time to put his pride aside and make a phone call.
*******
Carmella sat inside her home in Cherry Creek with Desiree and Q-man,
the three of them laughing over the fact that they’d burned
Asa’s club the night before. Carmella knew exactly what she was
doing in Colorado. Her home may have been hit once, but she knew Asa
Spade and his crew were under the impression that it was Desiree who
was running things in the city and that’s the way she wanted
things to go so she could remain behind the scenes, doing just as her
mother had suggested. She may have been on the losing end of the
battle in Saint Louis by early September of 2003, but she was kicking
ass in Denver, Colorado and forcing the competition off the scene.
Satisfied that she couldn’t be touched, Carmella began planning
a birthday party next month for Desiree that was to be held inside of
Glitz
.
“Everybody will be at your party, Desiree. My girl Toodie from
Saint Louis will join us too. Q-man? You and your boys coming back
for the celebration?” Carmella asked before she downed a shot
of Jose Cuervo.