CHAPTER SIX
Regina had been going through a rough couple of weeks since Sasha’s incarceration. She couldn’t believe that she and her little sister could no longer go shopping. There would be no one to watch her small children. No one she could just pick up the phone to gossip with. That was a wrap. The only small glimmer of hope in this entire rotten situation was that she would be able to care for Sasha’s baby when it was born. She knew Mario wasn’t worth the skin God had blessed him with. The chances of him actually stepping up to the plate and doing the right thing were slim to none. Just as Mario turned his back on Sasha, Regina knew the dirty bastard would do the same to his child.
She and her little sister’s best friend Kat had heard about Mario and his recent “financial windfall.” The word was also out in the streets about all the different women he was running with. Mario was so reckless when it came to the jump-offs he was caking with that some had even posted pictures of him with them in hot tubs, at Cedar Point and, most disrespectfully chilling, at what seemed to be Sasha’s living room.
Kat’s uncle shot dice with Mario on the regular and kept her updated on the major hits in the pockets he’d suffer. Kat was surprised that Mario was even still alive let alone still gambling. Rumor had it he was still over $3,100 in the hole to Big Dae Dae. Everyone in the city knew Big Dae Dae didn’t play when it came to his money and niggas had to come correct. And even though Mario had lost and paid the six feet five, 285-pound goon well over $9,000 in the past two weeks or so, he was still no exception to the rule. Mario had to leave him Sasha’s SUV keys an entire seventy-two hours until he could get all the cash gathered he owed. He’d withdrawn all of the funds he could from the ATM daily and had even pawned his wife’s wedding ring.
Kat was also told by her uncle that by the time Big Dae Dae returned Sasha’s vehicle, it had been sideswiped on the passenger side door. The interior had a few huge blunt holes burned on the seats and it smelled like stale arm funk and Hennessy. Mario was no fool. He knew better than to bug out on Big Dae Dae about the returned condition. It wasn’t worth the possible physical beat down let alone the possibility of being blackballed from all the high stakes traveling dice and card games that popped off throughout various locations in Detroit. Mario’s gambling and bad luck was at fault, so he cowardly reasoned.
Without question or delay, Kat went straight to her best friend’s sister with the 411. “My uncle said that ho-ass bitch-made nigga been over the way dogging Sasha’s name. Dragging her through the mud saying that he got her trained better than any ho he ever fucked with. Saying she was on her hands and knees begging his ugly ass to do the time for him so he wouldn’t go back.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Regina reached for the television remote and pressed the mute button. After hushing her small children and sending them into the other room, she started going. “You mean to tell me this nickel-slick punk not only got my little sister sitting in jail for his dumb ass, he out here in the free world bragging about it? Where they do that bullshit at?”
“That’s what I said,” Kat agreed, equally heated.
“But that’s all right though. It’s all good, because when that visiting form bullshit go through, I’m gonna go see Sasha. I’ma be all on her head to divorce that lame. I told her not to marry his jailbird ass in the first place, but she wouldn’t listen. Now she gonna bless that fool with a baby.”
Kat interjected, “Please don’t remind me about that situation before I throw up in my damn mouth. Every time I hear shit about what he out here doing with Sasha’s money and with these hood rats I wanna just run up and sock him dead in the jaw myself. I know he looked out for me back in the day out at the park, but shit, that was then, this is now.”
Regina couldn’t wait until daybreak. No sooner than she dropped her kids off at daycare, she was on a mission. The angry sibling made it her business to go seek Mario out. After several drive-bys, the front blinds were finally open, indicating the late-night hood hustler was finally awake. Regina had caught him at the house, and now she wanted answers.
Irate, she questioned her brother-in-law about what she knew to be true. No doubt he lied and lied and lied. He claimed he’d been dropped off the night before and left Sasha’s SUV parked at his boy’s crib because he had been drinking and didn’t want to drive. Regina knew her brother-in-law was full of it, but she had no concrete face-to-face facts to stand on, just Kat’s secondhand info.
After warning Mario that she’d be checking in on her sister’s house from time to time, she stormed onto the porch. Still exhausted from shooting dice until almost five in the morning, he shrugged his shoulders as Sasha’s sister drove off.
Always in beast mode when it came to females only, Mario’s first thought was to tell Regina, Kat, and whoever the fuck else to stay out of his damn business. He was grown and did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. However, he knew the nosey pair of women had the direct pipeline to his wife. If they were to go back running off at the mouth to Sasha, the inmate, already irritated with him, could easily arrange for her sister or aged parents to take over her business affairs. That would definitely include her bank savings accounts that received the monthly deposit from the lawsuit settlement. If Mario was to lose that, he’d not be able to maintain the bullshit lifestyle he’d grown accustomed to.
In the days to come, he managed to keep the SUV out of Regina’s sight until the damage to the door was fixed and the vehicle was detailed. As for the holes, Sasha knew he smoked weed so he would say he’d done it by mistake if it was to ever come up. Nevertheless, Mario was chill knowing he had at least a year to cross that bridge before his loyal wife saw the SUV or freedom again.
* * *
“You have a call from Sasha, an inmate at the Michigan Department of Corrections. If you feel that this call is harassing in nature or unwanted, please press one. In order to accept calls from an inmate at the Michigan Department of Corrections, press two.”
Mario was good and high off of half a blunt he’d smoked. A huge, goofy smile graced his face while he held the phone close to his ear. In spite of all of the reckless things he’d done since his wife had been locked up, he was still overjoyed to hear her voice. The last few times they’d spoken, Sasha was not giving him a break. Rightfully so, inmate 998797 made him feel guilty and like the piece of rotten shit human being he was for letting her take the fall. Quickly pressing the number two on his keypad, the pair was finally connected.
“Hello.”
“Yeah, hello, Sasha? Is that you? What up, doe?”
“Yeah, it’s me. What’s going on?”
“Nothing much, girl. Just been lying back in the crib, that’s all.” Mario paused, trying to see if he could sense any strange vibe in her voice that indicated she knew he was lying. “I was just thinking about you and my seed. Are y’all okay up there? I called down to the county and they said you’d been transferred. How was the ride out? Are you still pissed with a nigga or what?”
“Naw, I’m not angry anymore. I made the decision to do what I did; so be it. But, umm, umm, well, I need to talk to you and I know I don’t have long. The operator said fifteen minutes so I guess that’s what it is.”
Mario had been leaning back on the couch, but now he sat straight up. He had done enough time behind bars to know how fast those minutes would fly by. So he gave Sasha her time to get off her chest whatever it was she wanted before the call was terminated. “Go ahead, baby. Tell me what’s going on. I’m listening.”
Sasha was still weak. Her mindset felt out of sorts. The penitentiary aspirin she’d taken had zero affect on the pain and discomfort she was feeling. Wanting nothing more than to return to her cell and get some rest, Sasha, swiftly becoming depressed, fought back the tears. Having just decided that she had to develop a thicker skin to survive her two-year hiatus in hell, she heard Mario’s voice and, just like that, her game plan was done. She began to fall completely apart. “Listen, Mario, I don’t know what happened. Maybe I was stressed out. Maybe I was worried and didn’t get enough rest. I don’t know. The doctors said—”
“The doctors? What you mean doctors? What the fuck you talking about, Sasha?” Mario cut her off midsentence with a barrage of questions.
It didn’t take Sasha long to break all the way down. “Mario”—her voice cracked as she spoke—“I lost the baby.”
“Hold up. What you just say?” He stood, thinking he must have heard his wife wrong. Pacing back and forth from the living room to the dining room, the dining room to the kitchen, and the kitchen out onto the front porch, Mario grew agitated.
Sasha lowered her head. She prayed none of the other inmates would notice her dropping tears. It was bad enough she had passed out, but now she was determined to go hard. “I know you hurt, I guess. But God knows best. Maybe He didn’t want my child being born behind bars like some caged animal. Maybe He felt like we wouldn’t make good parents.”
“Naw, bitch. Don’t run that God bullshit on me. God ain’t do that shit. Your janky ass probably did,” Mario taunted, searching his pocket for a lighter. “The last time your dumb ass talked to me you was blowing that crazy shit out your dental, acting like I got you locked up.”
“What?” Sasha paused, getting just as heated as her husband had become. “I know I didn’t just tell you I lost our baby and you blaming me.”
“And what? Who the fuck else I’m gonna blame?” Mario lit a Newport, taking a long pull. “You supposed to be the damn vessel for my seed and you done messed around and fucked that up. Thanks a lot, bitch.”
At this point in the once private conversation, Sasha came totally out of her bag. Her voice grew louder with each passing word. The other inmates, as well as the guards, were now ear hustling whether they wanted to or not. The incarcerated, once pregnant female had lost the one thing that was giving her any small amount of hope the day before, and she definitely was not in the mood for Mario’s judgments.
“Listen, you ho-ass piece of shit motherfucker. You got this game and me all the way twisted. I’m posted up in here doing this time because of your no-good black ass. I stood up tall because you was too weak to be a man. If you would’ve had any type of balls it wouldn’t be no way in hell you’d let your pregnant wife be up in this stanking place.”
“Yo, Sasha, who in the fuck you talking to like that? You must have lost a lot of blood in your brain or something.”
Sasha didn’t care who was listening, looking, or concerned. She heard the “one minute left” warning speech on the phone and she went all the way in for the kill. “What you mean who the fuck I’m talking to like that? You, nigga, that’s who. Remember you out there in them streets living because of me. Did you forget? That’s my house, my SUV, my jewelry, and my money you spending. And you better put some money on my books before you be homeless and hungry. I pay them bills and put food in the house whether you nickel hustling or not. I swear on everything that . . . Hello? Hello? Hello?”
The inmates and the guards knew the new inmate had run out of time on her call, but they watched her still say hello several more times before she angrily slammed the receiver down.
“Hey, Eubanks, take it easy over there. That’s prison property you trying to destroy.” The second-shift guard would have written any other prisoners up, but he knew 998797 had just suffered a huge blow and was not thinking clearly. “Why don’t you just go back to your bunk for a little while and get it together?”
Sasha gladly took his suggestion and did just that. Falling back onto the thin mattress, she locked her fingers behind her head. Staring up at the bright fluorescent lights, she closed her eyes, wishing she were anywhere but prison. In a matter of minutes, a few of the females who had been in the dayroom listening to her conversation interrupted, introducing themselves.