Payback Ain't Enough (9 page)

“Yo’ daddy just hung up. Y’all just missed him. He said he ain’t gonna be able to relax until he’s sure that y’all are out. He said he was gonna call back in fifteen minutes. Y’all hungry? Yeah, y’all hungry.”

“I sure am,” Crystal said.

“I can’t wait to see Marquis,” I gushed. I needed to see my son who was now seven years old.

“He’s with Ida. They won’t be home until later on. He ain’t going nowhere,” Boomer assured me. We loaded into Boomer’s extended Escalade SUV, just like old times, and drove off. I looked out the window as we drove around the city. It was amazing to me how shit can change but yet remain the same in just two short years. I saw a few familiar faces that were sitting in the exact same spot the last time I saw them.

“Take me by the house,” I instructed, wanting to see something comforting and familiar.

“You ain’t got that house no more, Nay. Y’all gotta start over.” I could hear the regret in my uncle’s voice.

“I know, Boom. But I still want to ride past it. Is someone living in it?”

“No,” he replied.

“Well, we can get it back then, Boomer. That’s our house.”
I was feeling hopeful. Shit, I was out of prison, so I knew that anything was possible.

“Nay, once the Feds took the house and had it all boarded up, you know how the feens do. They broke in, started using it as a crackhouse and then ended up burning it down to the ground,” Boomer told me.

“What?” Crystal and I shrieked.

“They burned down yours and the Middeltons, right next door to it,” he said. “The Middletons lost their house to foreclosure.”

“So where are we going to live?” Crystal always asked the dumbest questions.

“Now what kind of question is that? Y’all comin’ to Detroit.”

“Detroit!” we said at the same time.

“That’s where the family is now. You know yo’ daddy already made arrangements for y’all. What? You thought me and yo’ daddy was gonna just let you roam around homeless?” he joked.

Detroit?
“So, Ida don’t mind you living in Detroit?” I asked him.

“I goes back and forth. Hell, all these Memphis niggas done set up shop out there. It’s a hell of a lot of money out there. Niggas have been gettin’ filthy rich for years. But since they are so divided out there we were able to step right on in and set up shop and now we basically run shit. You’ll see.”

Just then we were coming up on a Burger King and Crystal lost it. “Oh my God! I’ve been dying to have a Whopper with everything on it! Please, can we pull over? I wanna go to this
Burger King.” Crystal begged Boomer, sounding just as she did when we were kids.

“Are you sure? After two years of eating prison food, that’s all you can think about is a Whopper?” he joked halfheartedly.

“That’s the first thing, Boomer. Every time I think about a Whopper with cheese, my mouth starts to water.” Crystal grinned from ear to ear.

Boomer pulled over and parked in the Burger King parking lot. He went into the glove compartment and pulled out two envelopes. He handed Crystal one and me the other. I sat mine in my lap. Crystal ripped hers open, took out a fifty and jumped out of the car.

“I’ll be right back,” she called out, jogging toward Burger King.

“You want something outta here?” he asked me.

“Nah. I need a home cooked meal. Especially your chicken and dumplings or Ida’s meatloaf and gravy. Hint, hint,” I responded, knowing he never could deny my meal requests. I lay my head back onto the headrest and folded my hands.

Boomer laughed that big, hearty laugh of his and it was so good to hear it. And then it got silent.

“Boom, tell me something. Is my dad okay? Is the cancer spreading faster? Does he have a certain amount of time to live? Why has he lost so much weight?” I asked, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.

Boomer looked at me through the rearview mirror. “You’ll have to ask him that when you talk to him again.”

I thought about what he said and understood that to mean that my pop’s health was taking a turn for the worse.

“What he did want you to know is, he don’t want you out
of the game. And, Nay, you know I ain’t gonna bullshit you. You know your father needs you back out here. He won’t let nobody else take his throne but you. Crystal… well, she’s sweet, bless her heart, but she has shown us that she ain’t that bright. You have what it takes. Besides, he said he made this city and he wants you to carry on his legacy, not Crystal. She weak. Always has been. He said that’s why he made the sacrifice. He made the sacrifice for his name and the game.” Boom unloaded that on me.

I sat there, staring at the back of Boomer’s bald head. What Boomer just said was a hard pill to swallow. What uncle would tell their niece that her father said to be the best drug dealer she can be? Odd to some but this didn’t come as a surprise. My family was full of murderers, drug dealers, pimps—you name it, and we have one.

But, sitting in that cell for the last twenty-two months had me looking at the game with a different eye. Especially knowing and realizing that there’s only two ways out: a cell or a coffin. I composed myself enough to ask him, “Boomer, what do you have to say about all this?”

“Your daddy wants you back in, and the streets need some new blood out here. You have to carry out your father’s wishes. Everybody is depending on you. Plus, he told you he sacrificed so we all could be out here. I’m here for you, at your disposal. Just like I was there for yo’ daddy. The real question is, how do you feel about all this? If your heart and mind ain’t in the right place, I have my own instructions to follow.”

“What are those? To kill me?” I squeaked out. I said it as a joke, but one could never know with my father.

“Of course not! However, I have my own opinion which
ain’t important. But I practically raised you. I know you, Nay. Even though you a girl and all, yo’ daddy built you like a fine car; mean, clean, made of steel, sharp, sleek and dangerous.” He rattled off those adjectives as if he was the brand-new owner of a car just like the one he just described.

So there it was. Boomer had laid it all out for me. I was only freed because my daddy wanted me to rule the streets in his name. I wasn’t given the option to choose. The choice had been made for me. And it’s just like my daddy to choose the game over his family.

“We get started tonight. I gotta introduce you to some people and reintroduce you to the old heads. Just about all of them left Memphis and set up shop in Detroit. Them niggas up there so divided that we were able to slide right on in,” he said, sounding just like my dad. Neither one of them taking no for an answer. Our motto was:
Money never sleeps.

I waited around for two days, hoping that Briggen would get out on bond or at the very least send for me. When he didn’t, I dropped Anthony off at Keeta’s and marched my ass right down to the Federal Detention Center where they were holding him. Those corny bastards processed me, and I sat in the visitation room only to be informed that he was no longer being housed there. He was being extradited to Miami on some old state charges he had neglected to address.

As soon as I got to my locker to pick up my handbag and phone, I called Rudy.

When he picked up I asked, “Rudy, this is Shan, why didn’t you tell me they moved him?”

“They moved Calvin?” he asked, sounding surprised.

“Uh, yeah. They moved him today. I think he’s on his way to Miami,” I regretted to inform him.

“Shit! How do you know?”

“I’m down here at the jail. They just told me.”

“Hell, they obviously packed him up and wouldn’t allow him to use the phone. I’ll call you later with an update.”

“That would be nice, Rudy,” I said sarcastically before hitting the end button on my cell.

As soon as I got in the house, I fed Anthony and laid him down so he could take a nap. I went and got both of Briggen’s cell phones, took my time and went through them. I took a deep breath before I dialed Nick’s number. No one answered. I hit send and tried him again.

“Brig, what’s up?”

“It’s not Briggen, Nick. It’s me, Shan,” I told him.

“Li’l sis, you alright? What’s up?” he asked, concerned.

“I need to see you. Briggen is locked up. Can you come by?”

“When?”

“Now! It’s important.”

“No problem. I’ll be there in a few hours.”

Those few hours felt like a few days. I paced nervously back and forth and kept looking out the window. I redusted the furniture and wiped down the already spotless kitchen counter. Finally, I saw a black Hummer whip into the driveway and park. I watched Nick as he got out and rushed up the driveway and onto the porch. I opened the door. When he stepped inside the house, I looked at him and started crying.

“Shan, what’s going on? Did he hurt you?” he asked, sounding like a worried father.

I shook my head no.

“Then what’s the matter?”

“I’m trippin’, that’s all. And seeing you reminds me a lot of my brother and Brianna, reminds me too much of the past that I miss so much. Sorry about that,” I said and left to go get some tissue.

When I came back into the living room Nick grabbed me in a bear hug. “I’m glad I found you,” he exhaled.

“Where have you been, Nick? My brother—” I wanted to tell him what I had been thinking, but he stopped me.

“Shan, I know. You don’t have—” he paused. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about how I wasn’t there for you and Peanut.”

“Where were you, Nick? I mean, you just up and disappeared.”

“Trinidad. My father lost his sight. He went blind. He refused to come over here and let me care for him. He suffered for almost a year before he died of natural causes. I have to believe it when they say, ‘death comes in threes.’ First Brianna, then Peanut and then my dad. I’m sorry Shan. You know if I could have been there I would have been,” he explained.

Even though I didn’t know his father, I was sorry to hear that he had passed away. That didn’t stop me, however, from being angry at him for not being there for my brother who was the only person in the world, other than my son and Briggen that mattered to me. Before I knew it, tears were once again streaming down my cheeks.

“I miss him so much, Nick. You don’t understand.” My stomach knotted up at the thought.

“Shan, I know. I miss him too, and he made me promise that if anything happened to him I would look after you. I’m sorry. Once I found out where you were, I came to check on you. I’m kicking myself because I feel like I came too late, and the worst part is, you were right here under my nose all of this time.”

“But how did you find me?”

“That’s a long story, and it doesn’t matter now,” Nick said. “All that matters is, I found you.”

“So now what?” I asked, smiling through my tears. “You are going to pick me up and take me away? Did you even know that I had a baby?”

“Yeah I heard. And looks just like Peanut. I had to contain myself when I saw it was you in the backyard. They said you was all wifed up with Brig. I said they had the wrong Shan.”

“I know. So now what? We gotta lot of catching up to do.” I whispered as if Briggen were in the next room and Nick was going to sneak me out of the house. I was trippin’.

“When do you want to do that? You have to let me know when you are ready,” he replied.

“What makes you think I ain’t ready now?”

“Because you’re just calling me. I came by here a couple of weeks ago. Did Briggen tell you to call me?” he asked me.

I shook my head no. “I told you he’s locked up. I called you because I need to show you something.” And with those words a bit of weight seemed to lift up off me. I grabbed his hand and led him to the garage. I flipped on the light, and he followed down the steps. I lifted the drop cloth off the two duffel bags. “Open them up,” I directed.

Nick knelt down and unzipped the first bag and saw the cash. He let out a whistle as he thumbed through the stacks of dough. He zipped the money bag back up and unzipped the other one. He whistled again. He saw the keys of dope, took them out and separated them.

He stood up, looked at me and shook his head in disgust. “Why would that nigga, Briggen, try his hand with you? And you’re pregnant with his seed! That is fucked up. I expected more from him. I’m all for ride-or-die broads, but this is on some other shit,” he spat.

“Nick, no. Calm down. For starters, I am not a little girl anymore. I’m a grown-ass woman. And Briggen doesn’t even know anything about these two bags. That’s why I called you. I stumbled across them a couple of days ago,” I explained.

“Whoa. Come again?” he asked confused.

“See, look at the side of my car. Some niggas in a pickup hit me. I jumped out ready to curse out whoever it was and call 911, but instead, I stumbled across this shit.” I pointed at the bags.

“Awww, fuck, Shan! You know somebody is looking for this, right? Whoever shit this is, is going to want it! Who all was with you? What did the nigga look like? How did you just take their shit? Who saw you?” He rambled off so many questions I didn’t know where to start. “And they fucked up your car. Your tag. Where’s your tag? Please don’t tell me you lost your damn tag. You got the tag, right?”