Two ladies who appeared to be nurses came over to the stretcher. As soon as one of them felt his pulse and saw the blood,
she yelled, “C’mon, guys, we don’t want to lose him!” As they rolled him through the double doors,
Michelle turned around and began jogging up the street looking for Nina. She ran right past her. Nina beeped the horn, causing
her to almost jump out of her skin.
“Why the fuck are you parked?” a startled Michelle barked as she jumped into the car.
“I was trying to see what was happening, plus two squad cars rolled right past me.”
“Let’s get the fuck away from here. Let’s go to my mom’s. We gotta change cars. And we both got blood on our clothes. This
is fucked up!”
“What did they say?” Nina wanted to know.
“The nurse’s last words were we don’t want to lose him.”
“That’s what she said?” Nina looked at Michelle in bewilderment. Michelle nodded her head yes. “This is all my fault.”
“Naw. It’s your crackhead brother’s fault. He shouldn’t have stole your money and when you told him don’t jack Canada’s mom,
he insisted. You didn’t make him do it. Or did you?” She looked at Nina, daring her to say yes.
“No. I didn’t make him. I’m the one who told you he was gonna fuck up. But I didn’t anticipate it being this bad.”
“Well then. So why the fuck you talking about it like it’s your fault?”
“I don’t know.” She started crying. “I just don’t want him to die. Especially over something involving me. I hate him for
stealing my money but I don’t want him to die.”
“He’ll be all right. You know crack fiends don’t die, they multiply.”
“Why the fuck you want me to clean a stolen car?” Peedie cursed as he grabbed a bucket of water and other stuff with plans
to clean the stolen Escalade.
“Because of blood, DNA, fingerprints. How was I supposed to know he was gonna get shot?”
Beep. Beep
. Michelle was outside beeping the horn. They had changed clothes, washed up and gotten Michelle’s Rover. Now they were ready
to go back over to Ms. Della’s.
“I gotta run, Peedie.”
“Tell Supreme if he don’t send my niece home, I’ma do something to get arrested and come where he at and fuck him up my damn
self. Ya heard?” Peedie hollered at her.
Nina ran outside and jumped in the car. She grabbed her celly and dialed Ms. Della’s. After four rings the answering machine
kicked in. “No, this old lady don’t have the machine on! I don’t disrespect old people but I swear, she’s itching for me to
tap that old ass!” Nina was forcefully redialing Ms. Della again. This time on the fourth ring she answered. “Ms. Della, I’m
on my way to pick up Jatana.”
“She’s not here yet, baby.”
“Ms. Della…”
Click
. All Nina had was some dial tone ringing in her ears.
“No, this bitch didn’t hang up on me!” Nina screamed.
“What the fuck is the matter with her?” She dialed Peedie.
“Yo!” he answered on the first ring.
“I’ma need you to come over to Ms. Della’s, ASAP. Call Mommy and tell her to go to Ms. Ruthie’s and get the kids. I am not
going to be responsible for my actions tonight.”
“Nina, don’t do shit until I get there! Do you hear me?” he warned.
“Fuck that! How they gonna take my child?” she screamed. “That’s my baby, Peedie! And you telling me to don’t do shit!”
“I said wait for me, Nina! You gonna need somebody thinking with a level head to have your back.”
She clicked Peedie off, rested her head back onto the headrest and let the tears fall. “I can’t believe this shit! I really
don’t believe it.”
Michelle remained silent as she squeezed her ride into a parking space. After she cut the engine off she looked up at Ms.
Della’s house and all of the lights were out.
Nina hopped out and ran up to the front door. She began knocking and ringing the doorbell at the same time. When Ms. Della
didn’t come to the door, Nina began yelling threats about her calling the police and getting her arrested for kidnapping.
Ms. Della still didn’t respond. Nina dialed 911 on her cell phone and told the operator what was going on. The operator told
her to stay where she was and a squad car would be there shortly.
* * *
Two and a half hours later, Peedie was hugging a defeated Nina. “We’ll get her back. Trust and believe that,” he assured her.
“I know Supreme don’t want his moms to go to jail. So he’ll have her brought back.” As his cell phone rang he motioned for
Michelle to come get a sobbing Nina.
Michelle led Nina to her car. She didn’t know what to say. She had no children of her own so she could only imagine what Nina
was feeling. All the police had done was tell Nina that she had to wait twenty-four hours to file a missing person’s report,
since she had dropped the baby off at a relative’s. Michelle hugged her sobbing friend. They both turned toward Peedie when
they heard him getting loud.
“Calm down, Mommy. What are you talking about?” He waved Nina over to him.
Nina’s heart was beating at a pace of one hundred ninety miles per hour. Her intuition had already told her what her mom was
all frantic about.
“Here, talk to Mommy.” Peedie shoved the phone into her face as he turned his back and knelt down on one knee as if he was
about to pray.
“Ma, what’s the matter?” Nina’s voice was trembling.
“What are you into?” she screamed. “What are you into, Nina, that could get my son killed?” She was hysterical. “You the devil,
girl! I raised you better! You are the devil!”
“No, Moooom!” Nina screamed.
“I didn’t raise you to do like you doing,” she continued. “Now you got your brother’s blood on your hands! Nina, you got these
kids to raise. Do right by ’em. Lead by example. Do right. Live right.”
Click.
“Mommy,” she mumbled into the phone. “Mommy,” she said again. “I’m sorry,” she kept repeating as she dialed her mother back.
All she got was the answering machine. Nina sat on the curb and cried like a baby.
Michelle was still in silent mode as she watched Nina and Peedie mourn his death.
She was an only child so again she couldn’t relate one hundred percent. But everyone knew that however she could help she
would be down for whatever. After about a half hour five-o cruised up the block.
“What’s going on? Is everything all right?” the officer on the passenger side inquired as his partner looked on.
Since Peedie and Nina didn’t respond Michelle said, “We just found out a few minutes ago that we had a death in the family,
sir.”
“Well, it’s late and I suggest you people take it inside.”
“Whatever,” Michelle mumbled as they cruised off. “C’mon, y’all. You know them clowns will be back.”
Peedie came over to where they were, pulled Nina up and gave her a hug. “We gonna bounce back,” he whispered to her. “You
aiight?” He felt her shaking her head no.
“Well, you gotta remain focused. Stay on your mission and get the fuck outta New Jersey. Ain’t shit here. Plus Canada’s mom
was announced DOA.”
“What?” Nina and Michelle both gasped at the same time.
“Yeah. So shit’s gonna be hot for a minute,” he told them. “You gonna be all right?”
“What you think, Peedie? My baby has been kidnapped, my brother is dead, and my own mother just disowned me for the second
time. Mommy has put all the blame on me. She even said I’m a bad mother in her own little way. Shit, that’s why I’m out here
struggling. Because I’m trying to be a good mother. I’m trying to give my children the best so that they can grow up to be
good adults. She never gives me any credit.”
“You know how Mommy is. Don’t take that shit personal. You need to stay on point and get the fuck outta Dodge. You understand?”
She nodded her head yes. “Michelle, you gotta make sure she stay focused. You hear me?”
“I hear you.”
“Y’all both gonna end up in prison if y’all don’t. Plus y’all don’t know who Canada’s mom is connected with.”
“Jatana…”
Peedie cut her off. “Let her stay with Supreme’s folks for now. I’ll stay on top of that. You need to be getting the fuck
outta Jersey, Nina! This ain’t no game.”
“I’m not leaving my baby,” Nina cried. “I can’t, Peedie. How do you expect me to do that?”
“Well you might as well be prepared to not see none of your children, ’cause your ass is going to prison. Call Ms. Della,
tell her to keep Jatana until you get situated. You need to leave, Ni. You in a lot of trouble.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“What the fuck is two bodies?” When she didn’t respond he said, “Aiight. Play stupid if you want. When you ready to act like
you ain’t stuck on stupid holla at me.” He walked away.
Four days later…
N
ina had been staying at or rather hiding out at Darlene’s, Peedie’s chick on the side. She had a four-bedroom house out in
Ewing Township. For the last two days she and Michelle had been back and forth at Nina’s packing up everything Nina wanted
to take with her down South. Michelle had a big truck in front of Darlene’s almost full with everything that she would be
driving. Nina and the kids would be flying down. Because she had to leave town so soon, she had never had the chance to go
looking for a place to move into.
In the evenings she and Michelle had been out writing checks for furniture, appliances and all the other household items she
would need for the move to her new house down South. Plus all the shopping helped to keep Derrick’s death off Nina’s mind.
As Nina put Michelle’s Land Rover in park she told Michelle, “Just one more night of shopping and one more bank job and that
should do it. Don’t you think?”
“Shit! One more night? Anything from here on out is gravy, why you bullshittin’.”
“Whatever. So you gonna be here first thing in the morning?”
“Yeah. Don’t try to get rid of me. I need to come up and get my shoes and those earrings we got last night. You tryna steal
my shit on the sly?” Michelle teased.
“Girl, please.”
They unloaded the car and proceeded to take the bags in the house.
“What up, Darlene?” Nina and Michelle simultaneously said as they walked past a half-asleep Darlene. She was curled up on
the couch watching TV.
“Hey,” she drily responded.
“What’s her problem?” Michelle whispered to Nina.
“Who gives a fuck? In three more days, I’m outta here and she can be miserable all by her damn self. I got enough shit to
deal with.”
“I know that’s right.”
After they made the last trip from the car, they settled into the bedroom that Nina was claiming and opened up all the shopping
bags. They had three piles. One for the household goods, another for clothes and the last for the stuff Michelle had gotten
for herself.
“You gonna help me put this stuff in the truck?” asked Nina.
“Yeah, but first give me my Jimmy Choos from last night and my platinum earrings. Let me find out you tryna be slick with
my shit. I’ve had to ask for my shit too many times.”
“Girl, let me get your little fake platinum earrings so you can leave me the hell alone. You obviously forgot that I got my
own shit!” Nina headed for the closet where she stashed all the stuff she didn’t feel safe storing outside in the truck.
“Be right back, Ni. Let me take some of this stuff down to the truck.” She skipped down the stairs, and walking past Darlene
she said, “Your hair looks good. I like that color on you.”
“Thank you, girl.”
Siiiiiike
, Michelle laughed to herself. On her way back past her, Michelle eyed her as she tried to figure out why was it that she
had never liked Darlene.
“What the fuck?” she heard Nina yell among a bunch of commotion. When Michelle went back into the bedroom, Nina was pulling
everything out of the closet.
“What’s the matter with you?”
“My shit is gone! That what’s the matter!” Nina yelled.
Michelle ran over to the closet. “What’s gone?”
“All of my jewelry, my Gucci bags, four pair of shoes including your Jimmy Choos and my leather coat. This bitch got me fucked
up! I put my freedom on the line for this shit. I’ll be damned if I’ma let some lazy, broke-ass ho take it from me! I’ma beat
that ass right about now!” Nina was running toward the bedroom door.
Michelle dived for it first, blocking it, and had her hand on the knob. “Hold up, Ni. What are you doing?”
She grabbed Michelle’s shoulder and yanked her off the door. “Move, bitch!” Nina ran out the door with
Michelle right on her heels, but not before she grabbed her Smith & Wesson out of her purse.
When they got downstairs, Darlene was still chillin’ on the couch as if she hadn’t heard all the commotion upstairs. “Bitch,
where is my shit?”
She looked at Nina as if she was crazy, then lazily yawned, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Nina turned around and ran upstairs to Darlene’s bedroom. Michelle came behind her, closed the door and locked it. They both
began ransacking the bedroom. Nina in the closets, Michelle in the dressers.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Darlene was banging on her bedroom door. “If you don’t come the fuck out of my motherfuckin’ bedroom, I’m calling the police,”
she warned. “You in my fuckin’ house, remember?”
When she said that, Nina snapped. She ran to the door, snatched it open and punched Darlene in the face, again and again.
“Bitch… don’t… you… ever… threaten… me… with… the police again! I’ll call my brother and tell his wife where you live and
I’ll… tell… him… about… that… nigga… you fuck with named… Dre.”
“Nina! Save some of that ass for me!” Michelle grabbed Darlene by her collar and stuck her gun in her face. “Where is our
shit, bitch?” Darlene began screaming as if she were getting raped. “Shut that fuckin’ noise up!” Michelle smacked her in
the face with the gun. “I’m not going to ask you again,” she warned while placing the barrel over Darlene’s already swollen
eye.
“Okay. Okay,” she cried. “Don’t shoot me. I’ll give you your stolen shit back.”
“Where is it?” Nina yelled.
“In the basement in a trunk.”