Authors: Clever Black
Kimi, Koko, Spoonie and Tyke’s hearts melted and their eyes
grew wet. Kimi reached out and rubbed Bay’s hand before
stepping aside and she and her sisters timidly followed the group
inside the home, their hearts pounding with joy. Bena was wheeled
into one of the downstairs bedrooms, which had been transformed into
a recovery unit set up with medicines, gauzes, movable mattress, and
a wall-mounted TV.
This was by far one of the happiest days the family had had in a long
while. They were six months removed from losing Doss and the wounds
were still fresh, but they were healing. Bena’s arrival only
served to uplift their spirits further. A dinner was prepared to
celebrate Bay’s return. Jane Dow was out on the patio playing
and singing, but at a lower level than normal, and the family was in
and out of the room taking turns sitting with Bay. It was a very
exciting time for the family.
The next morning, Naomi, Martha, Dawk and Tiva were holding a meeting
in Naomi’s office. Naomi had wanted an update on the streets in
Saint Louis.
“Me and Tiva keeping an eye on the club. Malik got it working,
but it’ll be at least another year and a half before we open
up,” Dawk said as he stood before his mother’s desk.
“What about that other thing over in Fox Park?” Naomi
asked, in reference to Toodie.
Tiva spoke up at that moment. “Malik say she been hiding out
since Q-man and them boys been looked up in Cook County Jail. They
gone resurface sooner or later, and when they do we’ll get back
at ‘em.”
Naomi sat behind her desk, crossed her legs and said, “The
Asians were able to head down to Venezuela and talk to our supplier.
They said he’s willing to wait until we’re back online.”
“That’s good,” Dawk remarked. “It’ll
give us time to tie up some loose ends and establish new routes of
revenue once we back in the business. Bay won’t be well for
another year or so, so we’ll have time to find new markets.”
“And I’m going to open an office in Oklahoma City and buy
five more trucks. By the time Bena’s well we’ll have our
own transportation from Laredo established is the plan.”
“We can tap into more markets that way and be our own supplier
here,” Dawk said in a sure tone of voice. “I’m
thinking Kansas City, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. And if we get rid
of those Somalis, we can take the twin cities too. We set up business
in those cities and we’ll have more than enough buyers for our
product.”
“Good,” Naomi replied as she wrote in her ledger, “we
are all on the same page here so let’s let sleeping dogs lie
for now, recoup and get back at it.”
“What if other clicks won’t stand down?” Martha
asked anxiously.
Dawk looked to the floor beneath his feet and thought deeply for a
second. “They won’t even see us coming, Auntie,” he
said. “If we’re going to make this last run and I’m
the one that’s runnin’ it? We goin’ at it full
force. We gone be on the offense this time.”
“Dawk,” Martha said as she placed her hands onto the desk
and stared her nephew in the eyes, “you talking about taking
over other people’s businesses and moving in?”
“You have a problem with that, Martha?” Tiva asked. “We
in this thing to be the ones on top and don’t have room for
anybody that’s in our way. We gone own the Midwest.”
“I’m gone be forty-eight years old this month, y’all.
I said I’ll help, but I’m not warring with these
youngsters of the day.”
“We’ll be doing things much differently, Martha,”
Naomi chimed in. “I want you to take Finland’s position
in the family. Just set up a route, a couple of warehouses in Saint
Louis, and me and the big three will handle the rest.”
“You sure?”
“If I thought this move would get any of us locked up or hurt I
wouldn’t do it, Martha. Once we’re back online, we will
be the strongest organization west of the Mississippi. Just let us
navigate the course. We have plenty of time to think it out, have
powerful friends on our side, and the hiatus will do us all some
good. We’ll let those responsible for killing Doss cool off and
we’ll take care of them all.” Naomi said.
“If you in, then I’m in, Naomi. I can do Finland’s
job without a doubt.”
“Okay. And our crew on the street will handle the jobs that
need doing when and if the time arises.” Naomi ended as she
stood up and escorted her family back downstairs.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
LOVE ME WHILE I’M HERE
It was now May of 2007, two months after Bena’s arrival and she
was getting better and better by the day. So much so, that with a
little assistance, she was able to walk the first floor of Ponderosa
and even sit a spell. She and Tiva were up early this day and they
were in the downstairs kitchen. Tiva was feeding Bay as she still
would lose control of her movements at awkward moments. She scooped
up some oatmeal and placed it to Bay’s lips and she ate slowly,
staring her twin in the eyes as she swallowed.
“All of them,” Bay mumbled after swallowing her food.
“Hmm?” Tiva asked.
“Of them,” Bay whispered.
“Say again, Bay?”
“All—all of—them. All of them!” Bay finally
screamed.
Tiva needed no explanation. Although incapacitated and barely able to
speak, she knew Bay was the same person on the inside. “We’ll
get ‘em,” Tiva said as she nodded her head up and down.
“We gone get ‘em back for what they did to you and
daddy.”
“Okay,” Bena said lowly. “’Nina?”
Tiva sat the spoon down and grabbed Bena’s hands. “AquaNina
is fine, Bay. Kimi and Koko ‘nem talked to her right after New
Year’s, but that was on the phone. She back working at Pizza
Hut in town, but she not answering nobody calls now. We, we just been
here looking after you, Bay. ‘Nina will come around, don’t
worry.”
“Ugly,” Bay said as she pointed at her bald head that was
wrapped in a gauze.
“No, no,” Tiva sang as she tightened her grip on Bena’s
hands. “Look at me, Bay. You still look like,” tears
filled Tiva’s eyes. All of a sudden she could feel Bena’s
emotional pain. She broke down and had to stand up and back away.
“You look like me, Bena,” she said through her tears.
“You’re not an ugly person, and it’s what’s
on the inside that matters anyway, sister.”
Bay covered her lower face and just cried. She was heartbroken that
AquaNina had never come to see her. Never bothered to send a card or
relay a message. How could it just end was a question she was asking
herself repeatedly. “Sleepy,” Bay whispered as she
pointed towards the hall that led to her bedroom.
Tiva walked Bay down the hall and sat with her sister the entire
morning as she slept with tears flowing from her eyes. She helped Bay
to the restroom, basically giving the medical staff the day off once
they changed her head bandages. She fed her sister lunch and the two
sat and talked. Later that night, after all the family had visited
and gone to bed, Tiva sat before Bay and shaved her head entirely.
Bay watched in amazement as her sister cleared her crown of hair
completely.
“Now I look like you,” Tiva said lowly as she got up and
hugged her sister.
When Kimi and Koko returned home from college the following weekend,
they were surprised to see that Tiva, Spoonie and Tyke, their mother,
Mary, Siloam and Martha, had all shaved their heads in support of
Bay, who’d come under the belief that AquaNina had left her
because of her appearance. Kimi and Koko were sitting in the Great
Room helping Spoonie and Tyke figure out who to work a newly
purchased digital camera when Tiva walked in and nonchalantly handed
the middle twins the shredders.
“What’s this,” eighteen year-old Kimi asked as she
tucked in her chin and eyed the clippers.
“Clippers so y’all can shave y’all heads in support
of Bay.” Tiva said matter-of-factly.
“Ohhh,” Koko sighed as she fumbled with the camera. “We
talked about that and we don’t think that would be a good look
for us.”
“A good look?” Tiva asked as she placed one hand on her
hip, shifted and stared down at Kimi and Koko. “This isn’t
about you two, it’s about supporting Bay.”
“We are supporting Bay. We feeding her and help her bathe. Come
on, Tiva why you asking us to do that?” Koko snapped.
“Okay,” Tiva said. “I’m on my way to tell Bay
how y’all really feel.”
“Wait,” Kimi and Koko said in unison. “How, how
long we gone have to this?”
Tiva smiled, clicked on the clippers and said, “Just once to
show support.”
Kimi and Koko looked at one another. “Classes be over in two
weeks. We be straight by summer I guess.” Kimi reasoned.
Tiva was already in Koko’s head before receiving an answer.
“Dang, T-top at least put a sheet down!”
“Nahh, you good. Kimi sit with your back to Koko while I do the
damn thing.”
When Tiva was done, she stepped back and looked at her sisters and
burst into laughter. She’d made sure they didn’t see one
another until she was done. Kimi and Koko looked at one another and
they—were—devastated. Tiva had sliced off all of their
hair and their ears stuck out tremendously.
“What the hell did you do to us?” Koko screamed as she
jumped up and charged at Tiva, who took off running while laughing
aloud.
Spoonie and Tyke were rolling on the floor laughing. None of the
family had anywhere to go no time soon, and Twiggy had refused to cut
her hair completely because she knew her head was not made to be
bald. Tiva merely wanted to shave her twins’ hair for her and
Bay’s pleasure.
Kimi and Koko were furious with Tiva, but they didn’t run after
her. They finished helping Spoonie and Tyke and soon got the camera
working and Spoonie and Tyke followed them around the house all day,
recording reactions.
Walee was in the theater room playing the PlayStation game with his
best friend, a young man named Kahlil Jamison, when Kimi and Koko
walked in.
“Walee you saw Tiva?” Kimi asked aloud.
“Nahh. She might be over to the guest—” Walee
paused when he caught sight of Kimi and Koko’s bald heads. “She
might be at the guest house,” he finished.
“Aww, man,” Kahlil said lowly.
“What?” Koko asked anxiously as she rubbed her head.
“It’s bad, Kahlil?”
“Nahhh. I was just caught off guard. Y’all straight.”
Kahlil responded kindly.
“Thank you,” Koko said as she and Kimi left the theater
room.
“Okay what y’all really think?” Spoonie asked as
Tyke held the camera on Walee and Kahlil.
“They look like Dumbo the elephant with them big ass ears,”
Walee said as he dapped Kahlil. “Fuck they do that for?”
he laughed aloud.
Kimi and Koko walked out onto the patio where DeeDee, Dawk and Naomi
were sitting. “I got some designs on the bar for the club,
momma,” Dawk said as he slid his mother some blue prints.
Naomi picked the pictures up and eyed them. “These aren’t
bad, son. What kind of furniture—oh my!” she then said.
Dawk and DeeDee turned and eyed Kimi and Koko.
“What the hell happened to those two,” DeeDee asked with
a dropped jaw.
“Why they look like big-earred aliens?” Dawk chuckled.
“Shh. Don’t, don’t mention it.” Naomi said
lowly.
“Momma, you saw T-top?” Kimi asked.
Looking her daughters in the face was the hardest thing for Naomi to
do without losing it. She put on a cough and patted her chest, her
way of releasing the barrel of laughs she was suppressing in her gut.
“I haven’t seen her, baby,” Naomi said as tears
filled her eyes. She had to bend down and pretend she was picking
something up off the ground to conceal her laughter.
Kimi and Koko eyed their grandfather and Dawk for a moment, wondering
what they thought of their heads, but they didn’t ask. Dawk had
his hand over his mouth, heaving slightly and DeeDee was biting his
lower lip, an obvious smile on his face as Spoonie and Tyke recorded
the moment.
“Forget all three of y’all!” Kimi yelled as she and
Koko walked off.
When Kimi and Koko left the patio, Naomi, Dawk and DeeDee cut loose
before the camera. “Tiva said she was gone do it, DeeDee!”
Naomi yelled through tears.
These were some happy times for the family. Tears that once derived
from pain and sorrow, were now tears of joy and laughter. They were
healing.
Bay was sitting up in her bed watching TV with Tiva, who’d been
in the room the entire time Kimi and Koko were searching for her. The
twins walked in with Spoonie and Tyke following and were about to
confront Tiva when Bay gasped and spread her arms. Kimi and Koko
iffed at Tiva as they strolled pass her and went and hugged Bay.
Bay patted their heads, raised her mattress completely and said, “Why
you two shave your heads? Y’all got some meat heads.”
Instead of getting mad or laughing, however, Kimi, Koko, Spoonie,
Tyke, and Tiva grew wide-eyed and their hearts warmed. Today was the
first day Bena had completed a sentence since the day she’d
been shot. She was healing as well.
The sisters where all talking for a few minutes when a soft voice was
heard out in the hall crooning. Spoonie and Tyke rushed to the door
and yelled happily. Spoonie raised the camera and stood in the hall
as Tyke ran back into the room.
“Watch this, Bay!” Tyke said happily as the voice was
heard by all again, this time singing.
“…
I know you’ve
got a little life in you left…I know you’ve got a lotta
strength left…I know you’ve got a little life in you
left…I know you’ve got a lotta strength…I should
be crying but I just can’t let it show…”
Bay’s favorite song, sung by a voice she knew all-too-well
brought tears to her eyes. It was the sweetest voice she’d ever
heard and she hoped that she would never have to go another day
without it. Her baby, her love, was near. And she was making her
presence known and professing her love to Bay before her family
through song to let her know—she hadn’t stopped loving
her, she was there all along.