CHAPTER 1

(Ten Years Later)

 

Shanti got the prettiest titties I’ve ever seen in my life. Not too big, not too small, just right. The way she pressing ‘em on this counter, while she fills out the paperwork to leave her dog, Rose to be boarded with us, makes ‘em look like a sexy ass.

“What you looking at, Dane,” she says looking up at me. “Don’t eye ‘em if you not gonna bite ‘em. I’m sick of your fine ass teasing me.”

I chuckle. “You going hard now aren’t you?”

“No harder than what I normally do. I figure if I keep trying my hand, you’ll take the bait.”

“That nigga might not be with it, but I am,” my brother says. “He can’t handle a woman like you. It’s too much for him.”

He’s to my left, and is kissing her dog in the mouth, a gray boxer. Sometimes my little brother goes too far when it comes to the animals. When we were younger he brought in strays on a constant basis…from dogs to rats, no animal was off limits. I think he likes ‘em more than he does people.

We work for Doggy Style Kennel, in Northwest DC, which is owned by an older man named John Boy who’s never here. Me and Tex been working here for about a year, and it’s the longest job we ever kept. Mainly because Tex loves animals so he wants to come to work, and since the boss is never here, it gives us space. With a job like this it doesn’t feel like work, especially considering we have another hustle that keeps dough in our pockets.

When she’s done filling out the emergency contact form, she slides it over to me, and licks her lips. “Ya’ll gonna take care of my baby right?” She grabs her dog from Tex, and kisses him in the mouth. What a lucky ass dog. “I don’t want to come back and see him all skinny and shit. Make sure you feed ‘em, Tex.”

“Shanti, don’t try and play us,” Tex says. “You know ain’t nobody in DC takes better care of dogs more than me. I make sure they eat, get they play time in and love. I don’t play that bamma shit. That’s why the animals don’t be wanting to leave when the customers come back to get ‘em. I do ‘em right.” He took Rose from her, and scratched the dog’s head.

“You know I’m just talking. If I even thought you would do my Rose wrong, I’d be on your shit, and she wouldn’t be here.”

“Yeah whatever…we’ll see you in a week.”

When he walks into the back she asks, “Dane, where you get them sexy green eyes from? Every time I see you and your brother I be thrown off. It ain’t too often you see black men with that eye color. What you wear contacts or something?”

My eyes are a sore topic for me, so I want to skate by them every chance I get. They are the only things tying me to my biological father.

“I wear contacts but they’re not for color. I’m blind as a bat without ‘em.”

“I knew your eyes were fake.”

“There you go with that dumb shit. My eyes ain’t fake, Shanti. I was born with them.” I put her form in Rose’s file under the counter. “Anyway, what you getting into this week? Why you dropping Rose off?”

Her eyes hang low and she seems mad. “My job sending me to some whack ass sales convention in New York. Like I’m gonna sell more eye shadow than I already do now. I’m getting real tired of that job. It’s so stupid.”

“What you tripping for? The way I see it you got an expense paid trip. If anything you should go, do the work thing for an hour, leave early and enjoy the city. When you leaving?”

She looks at the gold Bulova on her arm. “I’m going to Regan airport now, and I’m mad about that shit too. Out of all of the airports in the DMV (DC, Maryland and Virginia), they would send me through that one.” She sighs. “Anyway, I know what would make my trip real nice, if you packed a bag and came with me.” She rubs my hands. “You wouldn’t have to pay for shit, Dane, I swear to god.”

“I wish I could, ma. But I’m stuck out here, I got something to do later.”

She frowns, and takes her hand back. “Let me guess, it’s because of your little girlfriend Asia isn’t it?” she rolls her eyes. “I wish you dump that chick and get with a real bitch, Dane. She can’t be fucking you right.” She runs her hand through my short curly hair. “With your sexy ass self.”

“Asia does me just right in the bedroom, Shanti. And anything I do decide to do on the side with you, won’t concern her.”

“Why are you so serious about her? Whenever I ask about her you get mad. You’re in love ain’t you?”

“Didn’t I say that’s my personal business?”

See that’s the shit I hate ‘bout bitches sometimes. Instead of enjoying whatever we got going on, they like to bring my girlfriend’s name up. I don’t care how bad a bitch is, or how good she fucks, they will never make me leave Asia.

While Shanti is a cutie on the outside, Asia’s a total package. She’s sexy, smart, and proves over and over again that she’s down for me. If I ever do settle down, which I’m not even thinking about right now, she gonna be the one.

“One of these days I’m gonna get some of that dick, and you gonna fall in love with me too.”

“Maybe I’ll take you up on that offer,” I wink. “One day.”

After she paid her bill and left, I turn on the TV. In an hour we will be closing. I lock the door, even though we’re not supposed to shut down until forty-five minutes to eight o’clock. John Boy doesn’t know it, but nobody comes in at this hour so it’s cool. When the show Jeopardy comes on, I position myself in front of the counter ready to go.

“I’ll take populous nation for $400.00,” the contestant says.

Alex says, “Israel, Lebanon, Syria.”

“What is Syria,” I say before the woman can answer.

“What is Israel,” the contestant says and gets it wrong.

When the next person says my answer, and is correct, I slap the counter. “I knew that shit! That was so fucking easy! How did you get that wrong?” I yell to the TV.

“Populous Nation for $600.00,” the winner says.

“Switzerland, Sweden, Swaziland,” Alex says.

“What is Sweden,” I say before he can.

When the contestant says my answer and is correct I cheer. “They need to get me on that show. I’ll fucking kill them.”

While I’m looking at the show my brother comes out the back wearing his red Chicago Bulls cap to the back. Although we got the same father, he’s 5’5 with a baldhead, and I’m 6 feet even, with curly black hair, and I always wondered how that happened. The only thing that’s the same on us are our green eyes, and since my mother don’t have them, I figure they must’ve come from our father.

“Fuck you out here making so much noise for?” He bounces and catches a small red ball that he always played with wherever he goes. I don’t know where he gets them, but they look like the ones that come out of a box of jacks. “You gonna excite the dogs, and get ‘em all riled up before we leave.”

“Ain’t nobody riling up no fucking dogs. Did you feed them,” I ask, still looking at the TV. “We about to leave in a minute.”

“You know I got them dogs, and what’s up with you and that Jeopardy shit?” He looks at the TV. “Knowing that kind of shit don’t get niggas paid, I thought you knew that already.”

“Do you realize how dumb you sound? No seriously, don’t say no more ignorant shit like that around me, unless you want to get punched in the face.” I pause. “Anyway, you ready?”

“Yeah, I got a bag of blaze from Derrick out southwest in the back,” he says to me. “You trying to fire up in the bathroom before we leave?”

“Naw, let’s wait until we get out in the car. Samantha said something to Wayne the last time we did that shit, and we almost lost our jobs. You remember when he kept trying to convince us that the dogs caught a contact, and were acting different when their owners came to get ‘em?”

“Yeah, aight. Samantha a hating ass bitch anyway, but I’ll wait if you can.”

When Samantha gets there, I walk out back towards the car we share, a money green 1965 Mustang Fastback, with a Cammer engine. Painted on the side is a weed plant, outlined in gold, which was Tex’s idea. We call it the Weed Mobile. I admit, we could’ve been a little more original on the name but whatever.

When I slide inside the car, and rest on the butter cream seats, I pull out my after work blunt and fire up. The moment I take my first pull, and hold it in my lungs, I can feel the muscles in my face and body loosen up. When I can’t hold it anymore, I release the smoke into the car, and breathe it back in through my nose.

Five minutes later, Tex bops toward the car and slides into the driver’s seat. “Damn, nigga, what took you so long?” I ask him.

“You know I had to make sure Samantha knows what’s going on for the night. Plus Rose was sneezing a lot a minute ago, and she’s gonna need her meds in about an hour.”

“Let me find out you an old Nurse Betty type nigga when it comes to dogs,” I laugh. “Now that you done with the dumb shit, are you ready to get down to business?”

He pulls out his after work blunt and fires up. “Yeah, when she say she heading to New York?”

“Now, so let’s head over there, and clean that bitch out.”