CHAPTER 9

As always, Kenny called ahead and had one of his lady friends circle 23^rd and Market on foot, in search of marked and unmarked cars before he came strolling in. He parked his Lincoln a block away, on Tatnall Street, and slowly paced around the corner.

“Heyyy, Kasi,” Kenny greeted him. “Walk with me.”

Kasi’s heart dropped to the bottom of his stomach when Kenny came out of nowhere and put his arm around him. The bag of heroin in his right hand smoothly slid down his side and found its way beneath his feet. Fuck! Kasi thought. “Ah-ight, cool,” he agreed as calmly as he could. “Let me hide my pack somewhere first, D.T.s is out early.”

Looking oddly at his scruffy friend, Kenny said, “Yeah, do that.”

Kasi went through the motions of finding an old paper bag on the side of O.K. Discount for his crack and another for his dope while Kenny patiently watched his clumsy movements from across the street. They walked three blocks without saying a word until they reached a fast food restaurant called Fried Corner.

An old Chinese woman in a hairnet put the majority of Kenny’s order on the counter. “Your shrimp will be a few more minutes, sir,” she said.

“Miss, can I get a grape soda, too?”

“Yes, sir. Can or bottle?”

“Bottle,” he then turned to Kasi to see if he wanted something.

“So, what’s up, Kenny?” Kasi quickly asked out of guilt.

Okay, Kenny thought. “Please help me understand why you got a CD coming out in a couple of weeks, but you can’t seem to stay out of the projects long enough to get a distribution contract signed?”

Kasi was at a loss for words. He just stood still with a dumb look on his face.

“I thought you told me that you weren’t gonna get high no more, Kasi. Do you even know that you missed another conference yesterday?”

Kasi went on the defensive, as if he had just been wronged. “Why in the fuck do I gotta be getting high just because I like to hang in the projects? What, you forgot that that’s where I’m from?”

Although it’s half condemned, the riverside projects are the heroin capital of Wilmington.

“Things aren’t adding up the way they should, Kasi. You missed another meeting. Not to mention, Shaheed hit you off twice without me knowing, and you got right back at him. But I hit you off and mines come back in dribbles. What’s really good?” Kenny asked, feeling offended.

“Come on, now, I know you ain’t acting crazy over a couple of dollars. We suppose to be better than that.”

“Nah, man, I don’t know which one it is, but either you think I’m soft or you fucking up. And I’m telling you now, either way we about to have problems.”

The lady returned with his platters and soda. While Kenny checked his order and paid for everything, Kasi was gazing out of the window at the old gas station lot.

“Look, dawg, you don’t have to come at my neck like this over a couple of dollars. As soon as I finish this pack, I’ll hit you off,” Kasi said as they began to walk back up the block.

“Kasi, I’m washing my hands with the game soon. I’ma stick to promoting shows and artists after I collect from everybody this go around. So don’t think it’s just you because it ain’t.”

“I’ma pay you, dawg. You don’t have to worry about my end.”

“See, you missing the whole principle of what I’m saying. I’m investing my money in you. You’re a big part of my plans. A big part. But you can’t be hiding in smokehouses, getting high on me.”

“Kenny, I swear I ain’t getting high no more. It’s just that my bills are fucked up right now, and I’m trying not to get caught up, that’s all.”

“Ah-ight, well, I was concerned it was something else, but I guess I was wrong. So I’ma let you do you.”

They shook hands and hugged. Kenny knew that Kasi was lying to him, but he just hoped that he would pull himself together before he took both of them under, financially.

“What you about to do?” Kasi asked, retrieving his stash.

“I’m about to go and see Deshonne.”

“Tell him I said, what’s up and to stop hanging down the bottom with Pee-Wee on that hot-ass block.”

“Ah-ight, I will.” Down the bottom, huh? I wonder, Kenny thought as he started to dial up his friend.

The two toddlers ran around the house like Tazmanian devils. One was stark naked, leaving a trail of urine with each step. And the other was snot-nosed and heavy pampered.

“I—I can’t take this shit! Sit the fuck down before I hurt both of y’all!” Zenda told them as she snatched them both up and threw them on the sour-smelling couch. “Don’t be running around here, crying like no fucking sissies. And don’t get up,” she warned.

Zenda always fought with the kids when she didn’t get to go out or have sex with a strange man the previous night. Everyone knew that she had problems, except her. The hotter it got outside, the hotter she got inside. her lay-around wardrobe was now limited to a scarf to keep up the fresh, homemade hairdo and tube socks so her feet wouldn’t get cold as she walked around the house.

“Kelia!” she hollered at the top of her lungs from the front room.

“Huh!” Kelia answered from the bathroom.

“Can you please come and get these two stupid motherfuckers before I fuck them up!”

Kelia came out of the bathroom with a wet rag, trying to wipe a stain out of her jeans. “Okay, Zenda, don’t worry, I got’em,” Kelia assured her nude roommate.

“I gotta go and get dressed for my friend tonight, Kelia. I don’t got time for no kids right now.” holding her breath, Kelia laid the youngest boy down to remove his heavy diaper. “I’ll watch them until my mother comes back from Family Dollar, okay?”

Zenda stopped short of the bedroom and turned around with her hands on her round hips. “I thought you was watching them for the night. I need you to babysit while I spend time with my friend.”

“I can’t because I’m about to go down to my grandparent’s house for the weekend.”

“I don’t think that y’all going this weekend because I already gave your mother 20 dollars for you to watch them. And she said it was okay.”

“Didn’t she give you the money?” Zenda asked.

Obviously crushed by another one of her mother’s lies, she said, “no, she just told me that she had something for me. This is crazy. First I’m on punishment for nothing and now I can’t even go down Pop Pop’s,” she mumbled to herself.

“Well, before she walked out, she told me to tell you to call her later and to fix yourself something to eat because she wasn’t coming back until late.”

“Late, huh.” Kelia knew all too well what that meant. She was definitely stuck for the night. “She been left, so why is you just telling me now?”

“Because I ain’t know you didn’t know. And, plus, you was in the shower when she called back for you,” Zenda explained.

“Did she say when we was going down my grandparent’s house?”

“No, but she’s over y’alls aunt’s house, so you can call her and ask if you want,” Zenda suggested before she disappearing into her sty of a room.

Marie banged on the discolored wooden door like a mad woman while the neighbors went on about their business.

“Here I come. Stop banging!” Shane yelled as he took the squeaky steps two at a time. “Oh, hey, little cousin. What’s up!” Shane said.

“Shit,” Marie replied simply. Shane turned to walk up the steps and Marie followed. “I just stopped by to see what y’all was doing.”

“My daughter and her friends are up here playing cards, as usual. And my mom’s in the basement,” Shane replied.

Shane’s mother rarely came out of the basement. At 67 she was a hermit, lost to the world of drug addiction. Marie was her favorite niece, but only because of what she could do for her that others wouldn’t. Marie walked up to the card table, seeking out the person with the biggest money pile. They normally played Pitty-Pat every weekend for 50 cents a hand, but this week was pay week.

“Hey, Marie! Where you been at?” a dark-skinned female with bulging eyes asked.

“You late,” one of her younger cousins stated after exhaling the blunt’s smoke.

“It was nice outside, so I walked,” Marie said with a smile.

“Bitch, stop lying,” another cousin said jokingly while dealing the cards.

“Y’all ask a stupid question, so I gave y’all a stupid answer,” Marie stated in her usually conceited manner.

“Your daughter called here a little while ago,” Shane stated from the couch while channel surfing. “She said she was calling you on the cell phone, but you wouldn’t answer.”

Marie looked over as if he said something wrong. “What did she want?”

“She was mad because y’all didn’t go down Uncle D’s.”

“Oh, well, that little bitch better get a grip. And just be happy that I haven’t punched her in her face, yet.”

“Why, what happened?” the poppy-eyed cousin asked as she turned down the radio.

“Because her hot ass is failing every class this year.”

“Aw, I thought that Lil-K was doing good this year,” Shane said.

Every time she thought about her daughter’s progress notes from school it brought on rage. “Hell no. and that little bitch is gonna be on punishment for the whole summer, too. No new clothes, no phone, no radio, no nothing. She can’t even walk to the corner store by herself,” Marie told them.

“Well you know you did the same stuff when you were 14,” Shane reminded Marie as he got up to get the blunt from one of his daughters.

“And that’s why I’m trying to teach her what’s important in life. But the bitch is just so damn hardheaded. At the rate she’s going, I’m looking for her to end up like her bum-ass sperm donor,” Marie announced.

Everyone in the room laughed except her. She just got up and went down to the basement to call Kelia back.