“What you are will show in what you do.” Thomas Edison
Hezekiah and Detria exchanged light conversation while Benny drove them to the Federal Correctional Institute in Millington, Tennessee where George was serving his time. It was about a thirty-minute or so drive outside of Memphis. Detria didn’t want to go but like he always did, Hezekiah had insisted.
Why did she continue to allow him to manipulate her like she was his woman when clearly she wasn’t. She was glad the stroke rendered him unable to perform, well unable to perform fully. The less he made advances toward her, the more relaxed she could be in that sense. However, he still made her uncomfortable because he knew about her love for white powder and he fed into that constantly. It was George’s dealer, the same guy who was driving them to Millington, that was her dealer…and Hezekiah’s too, except Hezekiah wasn’t gung-ho over indulging as much as she was. He preferred to lace his weed with the powder whereas she loved to snort it as much and as often as she could. It was one of the things she kept from Khalil. If he found out she was a cokehead, she believed her mission to become his wife would go down the drain. She couldn’t have that.
The other thing Hezekiah and George held over her head was her involvement in stealing from the church. She started helping Hezekiah soon after he took on the role of senior pastor at Holy Rock. She told him about the bank accounts the church had, who was privy to them, and how he could gain total access to the millions of dollars that filtered through the church. The three of them laundered their dealer’s money through Holy Rock, or they used to until Hezekiah’s stroke and Khalil assumed the role as pastor. It was enough to put her behind bars if she didn’t do what Hezekiah and George told her.
“When are you going to tell me where you moved, Hezekiah?”
“When I get good and ready. Right now, I don’t see the need for you to know where I lay my head just as long as I know where you lay yours. Speaking of a place to lay my head, I thought I’d lay over at your place this weekend.”
Detria looked at him suddenly. Her eyes surely revealed her surprise and so did her mouth as it gaped open.
“Be careful, you don’t want a bug to fly into your mouth,” he said, laughing as he looked back at her from his front seat view. “You got a problem with that?”
“I do have a life, you know.”
“If you’re talking about a life with my son, then you’re fooling yourself, sweetie. Anyway, I don’t care what life you have, this weekend your life is going to be centered around me, so tell Miss Prissy Priscilla what’s up. Get her to make me her classic, soulful meal of turnip greens, cornbread, fried chicken and sweet potatoes. That woman knows she can burn,” he said, licking his lips. “Oh, and for my sweet tooth, get her to make one of those scrumpdelicious butter pound cakes.”
“Hezekiah, please. I told you, this weekend is not good,” Detria insisted. She had plans to get Khalil in her bed and now Hezekiah wanted to throw a wrench into that.
“I guess you think I stutter,” he said, looking at her and giving her the evil eye while the dealer driver looked through the rear-view mirror, smiled, and shook his head.
Don’t she know yet not to cross Hezekiah McCoy, Benny thought.
“Hezekiah, no, I don’t think that at all, but I already have plans. Why can’t you come stay a couple days during the week? That’ll be better. I promise I’ll make it up to you if you just let me have this weekend for myself.”
“And I just told you to make sure Priscilla makes my favorite meal. Whatever you got going on this weekend can wait. Benny,” he said to the driver. “You got a little something that’ll make her feel better? Something that’ll calm her anxious behind down.”
Benny reached for the small pouch inside his pocket, removed a vial, and passed it to the backseat where Detria was seated.
“Try this,” Benny said. “Man, this is some powerful stuff. Just got it in last night. Uncut, too.”
“Shoot, I want some of that myself,” Hezekiah said, “but ladies first.”
He didn’t have to say it twice because Detria had quickly reached toward the front seat, took the pouch out of Benny’s hand and opened it. She removed the vial, turned the top on it, and quickly used the tiny spoon that was built into the vial to snort as much of the powdery substance as she could. She leaned her head back against the soft back seat, closed her eyes, and allowed the drug to do its thang.
“Hold up, don’t hog the stuff. Give it here,” Hezekiah said. Detria took another deep snort and then passed it up to Hezekiah.
“What you gone do with this?” Hezekiah asked. “You can’t have this in the car when we get there.”
“Yeah, I know. I thought you two would have been done with it before we got there.”
Hezekiah laughed as he began feeling the drug’s powerful effects. “You hear that Dee? Looks like we have our job cut out for us.”
Detria, didn’t open her eyes. Her head remained against the back seat. “Let’s do it.” She plugged one end of her earbuds into her phone and the buds into her ears. She turned on the music in her phone’s playlist. She snorted more of the white powder when Hezekiah passed it back to her.
Before they arrived at the federal prison, Benny pulled over into the driveway of a wooden bungalow style house. “This is my partner’s crib, the one I told you about,” he said to Hezekiah.
“Yea, I know dude. George introduced me to him a few times.”
“We can hang here for a minute. Give you two some time to get yourself together before we hit the prison. I have to drop off a package and I’ll leave that pouch here, too, that is if y’all don’t finish it all.”
“It’s a little much for me,” Hezekiah admitted. “You know how I prefer mine. But sweetpea back there might feel differently.”
Feeling good and high, Detria laughed. “A couple more hits and I’ll be good,” she said, then opened the door and climbed out of the back seat.
Benny popped the trunk, got out of the car, and retrieved Hezekiah’s wheelchair.
The three of them went inside the house and hung out until it was close to the prison camp’s visiting hours. They were less than fifteen minutes away.
Detria went to the bathroom before they left, rinsed her face with cold water using her good hand, made sure her waterproof makeup was still flawless, and then came out and told the guys she was ready whenever they were.
“Game on. Time to go see how old George is turning up,” Hezekiah said, chuckling.