The Banks Sisters (18 page)

As the church imploded with what seemed like the entire congregation coming to pay their respects to Me-Ma Banks, Simone forced herself to put on a brave face and take charge of everything. She kept herself together and helped her siblings deal with loosing their Me-Ma. She stepped up and made all of the immediate funeral and burial arrangements. Luckily Me-Ma had a life insurance policy that covered all the funeral arrangements. Finally, when she could no longer avoid it she phoned her mother to inform her about Me-Ma's death. With Deidra's pockets still full of the money she stole from her own mother Simone knew her mother was too busy spending it to answer or return anyone's calls. After many failed attempts, Simone decided to leave the message she thought that Deidra deserved, “By the way since you won't call me back you should know that your mother is dead.”

Simone had been so busy making the arrangements and keeping it together that she felt guilty that she hadn't taken care of her sisters. Thank God the elders of the church stepped forward to comfort them, but Simone almost burst out laughing when she glanced up to see Ginger being comforted by none other than the speaker for the Lord, Pastor Cassius Street. Simone loved her baby sis to the sky, but the way that child could use any tragedy to slip into a straight man's arms should have been taught in a ‘how to get a man' class.

“Honey, you all right?” Pastor Street had somehow managed to detach himself from Ginger and was standing next to Simone, as she worked her phone trying to handle all the remaining details concerning her grandmother's funeral. In response to the flashy man of God hovering nearby she nodded, motioned to the phone and took off.
Ginger, that is all you
, she thought as she tried once more to reach Bunny who had been MIA the past few days.
Where are you?
She thought to herself. She was beginning to worry because it wasn't like Bunny to disappear for so many days without telling anyone at least where she was going. Simone decided as soon as she had a chance she was going to go to Bunny and Spoe's place in hopes of catching her there.

 

 

When Ghostman finally freed Bunny and allowed her to leave, she drove around in a fog not sure where she should go or what she should do. As badly as she wanted to leave with the body of the man she loved as a brother, Ghostman did not give her the option. She thought about calling Simone, but she would probably freak out and call the cops causing a level of trouble Bunny couldn't escape. She couldn't go back home to Me-Ma and pretend like nothing had happened. That woman had some kind of psychic power or a sixth sense that explained why none of her girls had ever been able to hide anything from her since they were little children. It was as if she could sense when one of them was in trouble. Bunny knew that she could not hide this from Me-Ma and there was no way she wanted to put her grandmother's life in danger by telling her what happened. Her grandmother had been through so much, but when it came to Mrs. Banks's family, Bunny knew nothing could keep her from protecting them or helping them, which was why she couldn't go home.

The truth was that there was nothing anyone could do for her. Being alive while Tariq had been killed in front of her felt cruel. Bunny had been raised in the church with her sisters and had listened to what happens to the eternal souls of people who commit suicide and as badly as she wanted to end her life she couldn't do it.

For three days Bunny lay in bed clutching the T-shirt Spoe had worn before he left to pull of the biggest single heist of his career. He had no idea when he walked out of the door that it would finish him for good. She kept drifting in and out of consciousness only to be reminded when she awoke that the man she loved with every fiber of her being would never come back to her. But she hadn't eaten in days, hell she could barely think straight and the idea of eating made her feel sick. She held the dirty T-shirt up to her nose sniffing for Spoe's scent as she imagined him walking through that door. The bleakness she felt startled her, it went deeper than just pain or despair. It felt like it would go on forever.

“Bunny! Bunny!” she heard someone calling out her name but it felt foggy like it was happening in a dream. “Bunny!” Simone yelled through the door. She knew her sister was home. She'd parked badly in front of her apartment building instead of the garage where she normally left her car. Bunny treated that car like it was her baby and no way would she risk anything happening to it. Meanwhile all the noise of banging and the doorbell ringing started hurting Bunny's head until finally she got up and opened the door.

“Shit! What happened to you?” Simone stared at her sister. She had come there to tell her about their grandmother, but one look at Bunny and now she was so worried about her that she didn't know what to do. She closed the door behind her and led her sister into the living room and sat her on the fancy white couch, the one she picked out of InStyle magazine because one of her favorite celebrities owned one just like it. Her hair was matted up, eyes were swollen and puffy and she smelled like she hadn't showered in days.

“Bunny, what is going on?” a concerned Simone asked her. “Where have you been?”

“I . . . I . . . he . . .” Bunny who could talk shit in a variety of different attitudes barely strung a comprehensible sentence as she collapsed into her sister's arms sobbing uncontrollably. Simone couldn't remember the last time her sister had broken down in tears, not in years.

“What is it Bunny? You can tell me?”

“It's Spoe and Tariq. They're dead. Sisi, he killed them.” Bunny went mute her body rising and falling in quiet agony.

“No!” Simone started to cry too and hugged Bunny tightly against her. She couldn't believe all the death surrounded them. For so long they'd been lucky and lately it seemed as if they didn't have bad luck they wouldn't have any luck at all. The two sisters lay together for so long the sun set and the apartment was now covered in darkness. Bunny and Simone never talked about what Spoe did for a living that provided them with Foreign cars, designer clothes, extravagant trips and a place that cost nearly ten grand a month. Simone knew it was illegal which was the reason she never took any money from them. Bunny assumed that the worst thing that could ever happen would be Spoe getting arrested and going to jail and then she would wait for him, but she was wrong. Spoe dying was definitely the worst thing that could.

“I don't know how I'm going to live without him Sisi,” Bunny's voice sounded defeated, fragile even. A few months earlier Simone had said the exact same thing but about her father and that's how she knew that her sister would learn to survive without the man she loved.

“I need you to come with me,” Simone said, pulling Bunny up from the couch. The last thing that Bunny wanted was to leave this house. It was the one place where she felt connected to Spoe. This was their home and she couldn't leave it.

“I can't. I just want to die.” Bunny cried.

“Please bun-bun, we need to go. It's about Me-Ma.” Just the mention of their grandmother's name brought a hint of a spark back into her. It hadn't crossed Bunny's mind that anything could be wrong, but the concern in Simone's voice did not go unnoticed.

“Me-Ma?”

“Yes, she was at church on Sunday and . . . ” A look of horror covered Simone's face jarring her from continuing.

“What?” Now Bunny was sitting up on her own, staring into her sister's eyes waiting for something bad.

“She had a heart attack.”

“No, no, no! This can't be. It can't.”

“Bunny,” Simone hesitated, “she's gone. Our Me-Ma is gone.”

Bunny, who had not eaten or even had water in at least three days simply passed out from the stress and emotional strain.

Like a bad penny Deidra always managed to turn up at the wrong time in the wrong way. Two days after Me-Ma's death a friend of a friend managed to track her down in Atlantic City where she and her dick de jour had gone on a five-day bender drinking, partying, and gambling. As soon as they were broke Deidra decided to turn on her phone, that had not been on in days and found out her mother had died. To quote the old folks, Deidra got on the first thing smoking and hurried back to Richmond and her mother's house.

“Don't you make any arrangements until I get there. That is my job,” she screamed into the phone as that big girl, Tallhya tried to explain to her everything had already been handled by Simone. She went on to tell her that the final service and burial would happen the next day.

“They just tryin'a get away with something. I don't trust none of them,” Deidra complained to her man Len.

“So you gonna get some inheritance, baby?” That was where Len's mind went.

“Hell yeah, I'm the only child so I get everything, the insurance, the house, all those stocks my father left, shit I'm probably going to be paid.”

“Baby, that sounds good. Real good.” He immediately began counting all the opportunities he would have to help her run through that money before he moved on to his next woman. Len was not what you would call a long term option, hell he must have been getting old because he had been with Deidra a good four months which had to be about ten times that in dog years, or Len years as he liked to refer to time. Deidra jumped out of the car before it could be properly parked and rushed inside the house where she had grown up.

“My mother died and none of you could find a way to get in touch with me?” she hollered as soon as she entered and saw her three and a half daughters, that's how she thought of Ginger—a half.

“Well, we couldn't exactly wait until you needed to steal more money from your mother for you to show up now could we?” Simone who was usually the sweetest of the four got all salty with Deidra, which really pissed her off.

“You did this shit on purpose!” She glared at this disrespectful little bitch. When she got the deed to this property all these freeloading bitches would be sent packing and she didn't give a shit where they wound up.

“Ma, calm down, we did try to find you,” Tallhya always the motherfuckin peacemaker tried to insert herself into their conversation.

“Nobody was talking to you. It's little Miss Prissy, I was addressing.” Deidra pointed her finger at Simone who had the goddamn nerve to be mugging like she could take her. “Don't get it twisted Miss Thing I am still your mother and I can beat your ass just like I did when you were little.”

“Wow, well I'm surprised you were around long enough to give me a beating,” Simone snapped back rolling her eyes. The grey eyes that she had the good fortune of inheriting from the mother who she had the nerve to come here just to argue at a time like this. Ginger picked up a program off of a stack on the table and handed it to her mother.

“What the hell you handing me this for?” she perused the paper that had all the information about the funeral written on it. Bunny, normally the loudmouth had been sitting quietly, but now it was her turn to put her mouth into it.

“In case you want to show up to her funeral. Just know that none of us are expecting you to be there. I mean, you didn't have time for Me-Ma when she was alive so why should we expect you to have time now?” Bunny quipped rolling her eyes at Deidra. Well, that didn't sit well with Deidra so she got right up in Bunny's personal space.

“I'ma tell all you bitches one thing. When I inherit all this shit you are going to have to find someplace else to live. I want all of you disrespectful hookers to get the hell out of my house. So if I were you I would get to packing and don't you take none of my mother's things 'cause all this shit you see here, it's mine.”

“You can't do that? Me-Ma wouldn't want you to kick us out,” Tallhya said from behind her sister Ginger.

“Me-Ma wouldn't want you to kick us out,” Deidra mimicked her daughter adding a whiny tone just to make that shit sound more pitiful.

“It's true. She loved that we all lived together,” Tallhya replied in a hurt tone.

“Well, I ain't my mother now am I?” Deidra snapped as she stormed passed them and went up the stairs to root through her mother's things.

“Shit,” Tallhya started immediately after she left the room. “It hadn't crossed my mind that mama might end up with Me-Ma's house. What the hell are we going to do? Where are we going to live?”

“This is just so fucked up.” Ginger looked at her sisters who had always taken care of her. They were about to be homeless which meant so was she.

“She ain't never been no mother so why would we expect it now?” Bunny asked her voice sounding so far distant even though she sat right there with them.

Simone, as the eldest had always felt that it was her job to take care of her sisters, but even she didn't know what to do. They'd all been hit on so many levels this past week culminating on their biggest loss, the rock who had kept them grounded, rooted to this spot together no matter what.

“I'm broke as a joke,” Tallhya added. “Walter done took all my money,” she said whining.

“Girl, you gave that man everything. Didn't you learn nothing that Me-Ma taught you about keeping shit for a rainy day? As the youngest y'all should be taking care of my ass. Least Bunny got that money train still rolling fo sure,” Ginger laughed bumping her sister and tryin'a make her join in except all it did was cause her to burst into tears.

“Maybe we should just rob a bank or something,” Simone joked trying to make light of things.

All Me-Ma's granddaughter's knew that she would have been proud of the way her service turned out particularly if one didn't include the part where Deidra, no doubt feeling the sting of her perpetual cheerleader now being gone went nuts. They all knew that as soon as Deidra's dramatic-ass got to the church, shit was going to be crazy. And sure enough no sooner had their mother shown up then shit started going sideways. If she had just cried that would have seriously been enough, but she had to go and make sure that everybody in that place knew exactly who she was and that Me-Ma may have acted like the mother to each and every one of them, but she was in fact her only daughter. One of the women in the church stood up and testified to the amazing being that was Me-Ma Banks.

“Me-Ma treated me like family. Like I was her own child,” Patricia Hampton who happened to be a peer of Deidra's, cried after the pastor asked if anyone wanted to say a few words about the dearly departed. Well that line snaked all the way down the aisle and out the back door filled with people wanting to share their experiences of grace delivered by the late Mrs. Banks. Sitting in the front row watching all these shows of heavy emotion for ‘her' mother got on Deidra's damn nerves. Before anybody could calm her down and stop her she was on the stage shoving the latest speaker to the side.

“Y'all think you knew my mother? You think she wanted to mother all of you? Only reason my mother helped so many of you was 'cause she couldn't save me. I am Deidra Renee Banks. I am her only child. Do you hear me? And since this is my mother's funeral I shouldn't have to hear your lame-ass stories of how you didn't have your shit together and it was my mother that helped you out. You got that? I'm not interested in hearing about how you all took advantage of my poor big-hearted mother, so get the hell off this line and go straight to hell all of you!” She started mean mugging the people in line to the point where they went running back to their seats. Some of them more traumatized by Deidra's accusations darted out of the building.

“Now, now, Ms. Banks I know that you are grieving for your mother, but this is not the way. Your mother would not have appreciated it.” The pastor hurried over to Deidra hoping to restore order, but if he knew what her daughters, all sitting in the front row watching this debacle knew, he would have stayed minding his business.

“Motherfucker . . .” Deidra started and her daughters expected and were not surprised with what came out of her mouth next. “You need to go back into whatever gay for pay motherfucking closet you done crawled your shyster-ass up out of—”

“Now wait a minute . . .” Pastor Street began, but he had come up against a professional shit talker and no amount of sermonizing for a living would make him a match against the only child of Me-Ma Banks. Well Deidra lapsed into motherfucker this and motherfucking cock sucker that to the point that Ginger felt so sorry for the pastor she jumped up and dragged her mother off the stage and out of the building. And just so we're clear, that woman put up a hell of a fight. Most of the people were equally shocked that Ginger was strong enough to take on her mother in six inch heels no less.

Of course nobody expected Pastor Street to show up at the repast especially after the cussing out he got from Deidra and sure enough even though he committed to officiating the event he was ghost to it. No one blamed the man for refusing to be anywhere near the person that had publicly delivered the verbal ass kicking that would take months for him to live down no matter how many sermons he continued to deliver on turning the other cheek. By the third such sermon people were snickering and referring to the cheek as his butt cheek. Lord people can be cruel.

The guest of honor would have been pleased had she seen how many of the ladies of the church went to town on the delicious meals they had donated for the occasion. Me-Ma, had reigned supreme as the best cook in Richmond and at least five or six other counties so her repast served as the first chance for the runners up to compete for her now vacant title. There were roast, hams, turkey legs, fried chicken, chitterlings, and every single vegetable you could think of. These ladies had put their foot in the preparation and still everybody remarked on how much they would miss Me-Ma's cooking.

“Everybody all right?” Simone as the oldest, most organized and best mannered grandchild remembered all of her etiquette lessons and made sure everybody had what they needed. Now I'm not going to paint her as some kind of martyr, that girl liked to keep busy so that she could avoid the sadness lurking underneath all those niceties.

“I wish to hell these people would just carry they asses on home,” Deidra, nursing her third drink sneered to herself. The only reason she didn't act out again was because she didn't want to break anything in this house that would soon be hers now that her momma was dead. But this would be the last damn time any of these stuck-up freeloaders would enter Me-Ma's house which was another reason she choose not to get out of pocket again. Let 'em have their good time she thought as she strolled around making a mental catalogue of all the valuables, the picture frames, clock collection, and especially the fine china. Deidra had to make sure none of those things went missing with all these sticky fingered guests.

“Mama you all right?” Tallhya the only one of those girls who bothered to check on her asked probably trying to make sure she didn't get thrown out with the rest of them.

“Uh-hum, I'm fine.”
Well, she could be as nice as she wanted
, Deidra thought,
but soon as the will was read she would be kicked to the curb just like the rest. Do her good to get out there and fend for herself
. Hell, Deidra had done it and so could the rest of them. She wasn't planning on running no charity, she had raised these girls and now they were grown. Now that her mother was no longer around Deidra chose the opportunity to rewrite history and in her new version she had been a good mother. Three white men entered the living room and Deidra turned to Tallhya who had been hovering near her since they got back to the house.

“Who are those men?” she asked Tallhya. Her mother sure did know a lot of different kinds of people.

“I don't know?” she wandered over to the men dressed in slacks and leather jackets, not like they were planning this visit. “Can I help you gentlemen?” The one standing in the front of the other two asked.

“We're here to pay our respects.”

“Oh, are you friends of my grandmother?” she asked as they begin to make their way into the room, all eyes turned to them. Before he answered Bunny who must have seen them enter came hurrying across the room.

“No, we're friends of hers.” The man took Bunny's arm and led her outside.

“What are you doing here?” she snatched her arm away from Ghostman, keeping an eye on his thugs.

“We have a problem,” he talked to her like a disobedient child who had disrespected her parent. “That money you gave me was sixty thousand dollars short.”

“I gave you everything. What do you expect me to do?”

“I don't care,” he leaned in close to her and whispered, “But if you don't want to wind up like your friend you will get me my money. Seeing how you're experiencing a family issue I will give you ten days. And don't try and run because it wouldn't help your family.”

By the time Ghostman and his thugs pulled away in his Range, Bunny had hit the wall of emotions she was upset and confused, she had never felt so damn alone. He might as well have told her one million dollars because she had no idea how she could get her hands on that kind of money. Bunny had long ago left the sanctity of the church, but that was long after Me-Ma drilled into her that when there is nowhere else you can go that is the perfect time to go to God.

“God, I'ma put this on you.”