“I’m here. Where else would I be?” He sounded so cold and unsympathetic it was horrible. In the past he could never face her crying and would work overtime to make her feel better. In this situation, he didn’t apply himself at all.
“Did I do something wrong? If I did, is it something I can do to make things better?”
“You checking on stuff?” he asked referring to the business in code words.
“Yes…I am…of course,” she responded as she rolled herself into a ball on the edge of the bed.
In one phone call, Rasim had undone all of Mute Candy’s work.
“You know I wouldn’t let you down like that.” She looked at a space on the wall, between the door and her dresser.
“I can’t tell. Lately you been weak. I thought you would hold me down, Snow? I thought you would ride for me while I was in here. You lying to me now?”
“I thought I was. If I’m not, I’m so sorry. Rasim, please tell me what I’m doing wrong and I will correct it instantly. I’m begging you.”
“You gonna come next weekend?”
Snow wanted to but she was horrified. She could tell by Mindy’s vibe that she didn’t fuck with her and getting rejected in front of an entire prison was humiliating. What if she attempted another visit and she couldn’t get in? Would Rasim take that out on her too? “I’ll try hard, Rasim. I promise. But I don’t think the C.O. likes me.”
“Try harder,” he said before hanging up.
True to her word, Snow got herself dressed in the baggiest clothing she owned when it was visit time. Although Snow didn’t have much of an ass she did make up for it in the boob department and worked overtime to hide her titty blessings.
Since her clothing was horrible because they didn’t expose any of her curves, she fixed up her hair and makeup really pretty. And it worked too. She was gorgeous despite her gear and she hoped she would look good enough for Rasim.
When she felt presentable, she dragged herself out of the house and to the car. As she steered down the highway, she quivered the closer she got to the prison. To an outsider, it would appear that Snow was making too much of the matter. But Rasim was her everything and she hated when they quarreled. If she couldn’t see him this time, she knew it wouldn’t be good for her marriage.
So she thought it was time to call for reinforcements.
This time it wouldn’t be Mute Candy.
She needed God.
“God, I know lately our conversations are few and far between. And I know that I haven’t been one of Your favorite people. But I know You are a forgiving God. And I know You know that everything I do is out of love for my husband. Whether good or bad, I am honoring Your word. Colossians 3:18 says, ‘Wives, submit to your husbands, as it is fitting to the Lord’. So please, God, please let me see my husband today if it be Your will. And only if it be Your will. Amen.”
When she made it to the prison, she was the first one inside and her heart rejoiced when she saw Courtney, the nicer C.O., standing behind the counter. But what she didn’t realize was that the devil had a full time job. While Snow was approaching the sign in sheet, Ole’ Hating Ass Mindy was preparing a fake calamity as she wrote.
Mindy grabbed the intercom, pressed it against her dry lips and said, “Officer Doughty, you’re needed in Cell Block 4! Officer Doughty, you’re needed in Cell Block 4!”
When Courtney ignored the call to assist Snow with her visit, as quickly as possible, the hater grew desperate. “Officer Doughty, I’ll help the visitor,” she said with an attitude over the speakers. “Go now and see what they want! I will help the visitor!” She was doing a little more than what needed to be done on the intercom but haters were always extra.
Not trying to ignore a call, thereby losing her job, Courtney stopped the sign in process and looked at Snow with sad eyes. “I’m sorry. I really am. I tried, sweetheart.”
Courtney knew what was about to go down. Snow would not be seeing her husband today or any other day if Mindy had anything to do with it. Reluctantly Courtney proceeded to Cell Block 4 with her head hung low in recognition of Snow’s pain.
True to her hating game, Mindy crawled from the back and looked Snow up and down. She was shaking her head so hard she was getting dizzy but this time she would not sit down. She wanted to remain planted for this bitch.
Truthfully it didn’t matter what piece of clothing Snow wore. Both of them knew it. So Mindy stabbed her dark fists into her hips and said, “You not getting in with that on.” She pointed at her body.
“With what on?” Snow asked in a low voice knowing the war was already lost.
“With everything on. I can’t have all of that up in my prison! No, sir-ree! Now get out of here. Visit denied.”
“Please, Officer, all I want to do is—”
“Excuse me,” she yelled throwing her hand up in Snow’s face. Her fingers were so close to her nose that she could smell the chocolate cookie she gulped down seconds earlier. “I said I’m not having all of that up in here. You’re dismissed! Please and thank you.”
Snow’s head lowered as she examined the clothes that covered her body. She could not have found a looser outfit if she wore a plastic bag. Defeated, she turned around with her beating heart in her hands. Snow Nami didn’t like that feeling. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t like the shit at all.
It was a full moon later that night when Mindy was getting off of work. And a few wolves from southeast DC were waiting in the parking lot, eager to tear her apart. Hard hitting bitches with zero love in their hearts for officers of the law, they whipped Mindy so bad her uniform tore off. All in the name of Snow.
Because Mindy was a career hater since birth and had wronged so many, she was clueless on whom to blame. But she would have three weeks in a hospital room while nursing a cracked forehead, a fractured collarbone and two broken legs to consider possible motives.
When Snow made it home after the attempted visit, she waited for Rasim’s call. She felt like a student waiting on her parents after receiving all D’s on her report card. For some reason she figured it wouldn’t end well.
In the past he blew up her phone immediately pending a failed visit but this time was different. Why? Rasim didn’t hit his beautiful wife until 7pm that evening and every second, every single minute, was pure torture.
“So you don’t know how to dress now, huh?”
Snow couldn’t believe her ears. As if he didn’t know what he meant to her, he chose to berate her on the phone like some bum bitch.
Instead of losing it again, Snow went back in her mind to the prayer she made before going to the prison. She asked if it be God’s will to let her see him. Perhaps it wasn’t, because she didn’t get in.
Without a word more, Snow slammed the phone down in his ear. Angry about everything she experienced, she decided it was time to clean up her house and her life. She’d deal with her husband tomorrow.
In the past, a thorough cleaning always got her mind off of her troubles and it was time to return to the basics. So Snow spun around the living room, kitchen and bathroom so well that you could eat or fuck on the floors.
Rasim called like he was crazy but she refused to answer the phone.
When she was done in the house, she went outside to sweep the porch. One house over on the left, Old Lady Bridget was sitting in her chair rocking and frowning as usual. She still didn’t like the young couple, believing they were terrorists, and nothing would change but her wigs. In fact her brown skin earned a new wrinkle every time she came outside and saw one of their faces.
Snow ignored the bitch. Besides, she had gripes of her own. She continued to busy herself with her chores until a truck with the words KING AMONGST KINGS Auto Body Shop strolled up in front of her house. A pretty fat chick with rosy cheeks rolled the window down and said, “’Scuse me, but is Rasim in there?”
Snow thought she was hearing things. She stopped sweeping and tried to see if she recognized the black woman’s face. She didn’t. Frowning, she asked, “What you doing calling on my husband?”
The girl grinned and said, “Never mind, forget I even came by.” She turned the radio up and pulled off.
Snow started to consider the possible reasons the girl would pull up to her house. She figured it must’ve been a bitch with a soft crush because over the last six months Rasim received a lot of bodywork for his truck.
Now that she thought about it, every time she turned around his truck was in the shop and she didn’t understand why. Rasim always took great care of his vehicles and maintained maintenances from the time they crawled off of the showroom floor to the moment he sold them and bought another. So he shouldn’t have needed that much work.
But the girl, although pretty, was not his body type. So she shrugged and walked back in the house to wash clothes. The whites were in the wash and she was preparing the pile of dark clothes when she dipped into pocket after pocket until she felt something folded in a pair Rasim’s jeans.
Slowly she pulled it out and saw the words KING AMONGST KINGS Auto Body Shop scrawled on the front. The contact person’s name was Queen Dower.
Snow’s jaw dropped in disbelief.
Well she never saw that bitch coming.
****
Queen hustled about her auto body shop after a very profitable weekend. The tight black jeans she wore along with the red low-cut top presented the perfect amount of whore necessary to lure some of the more profitable hustlers to purchase expensive tires and rims.
After seeing Rasim two days back to back, for two weekends in a row, thanks to Mindy running interference, Queen was certain that when he was released he would leap into her arms like a pitbull puppy fresh out the cage.
Queen flung her long brown hair over her shoulder and was all smiles and giggles until the bell rang indicating another customer entered her place of business. Within a moment’s time, she was staring into the beautiful big brown eyes of Mrs. Rasim Nami.
Queen had pushed Snow into a corner and now she was ready to attack.
Queen’s eyelids fluttered rapidly in several attempts to change the view but to no avail. Fifty flaps later, Snow was still staring calmly in her direction.
She raised the creased business card Queen left in her husband’s pocket and said, “You rang?”
Queen knew the card would cause trouble but she wasn’t prepared for the aftermath. Had she considered the possibility that Snow had transformed into a bold bitch, she would’ve created a plan. Instead of dealing with the matter at hand, Queen shuffled papers around on the counter as if she were trying to locate her lines. When all seemed lost, she sighed and said, “You can sit over there.” She pointed to the left. “I have to help my customers first and then I’ll be right with you.”
Snow swaggered to one of the large king’s thrones as if she were wearing a cloak, took a seat, crossed her legs and patiently waited.
Hoping to test her patience and force Snow to leave, Queen did all she could to stall. At first she helped people who she already assisted, then she took to doing her cashier’s job by taking phone calls and order requests. And then it got extra weird when she completed the janitor’s duties and took to cleaning the break room.
But when all of the antics were over, when the performance was done, Mrs. Rasim Nami was still waiting, wearing a smile as cool as an afternoon Jamaican breeze.
It was time.
Queen knew it.
So she had better muscle up.
Slowly Queen strutted around the counter and toward the throne next to Snow and said, “Long time no see.”
Snow nodded but preferred to get straight down to business. “So you’re fucking my husband?”
Queen’s tongue flitted around like a butterfly before landing safely at the bottom of her mouth. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Snow sat back in the chair and ran her hands down the sides of her thighs before clasping them in her lap. The diamond ring she wore was larger than a bag of convict knuckles and shined so brightly Queen titled her head slightly to remove the shine out of her eyes.
Snow was angry, hurt and embarrassed but that’s not the impression Queen received. Snow smiled as if she could care-the-fuck-less what the tart did with her husband. In fact, a few of her employees, who huddled in front of the store as if everything that needed to be done existed out front, assumed the two of them were best good girlfriends Snow was grinning so wide.
“You left me a message, Queen,” Snow said wiggling her foot. “You even sent your truck to my home. Now if you are fucking Rasim, and I assume that you are, what the fuck do you want with me?” She smiled brighter. “Be a woman, shawty. I’m here.”
Snow was tougher than the heels of a barefoot islander. And there was no use in lying and Queen knew it. “You are correct. I am fucking Rasim.”
Snow was gut punched. Although she already knew it was true, hearing it was a whole ‘nother animal. She smelled a woman on him a long time ago but in her haste she assumed it was Selena. In all of those torturous days she never thought that Rasim would return to the sea to pick another fish. “So if you’re fucking Rasim, what do you hope to gain by contacting me? Why not just do you, boo-boo?”