CHAPTER 3

DANE

 

The sky is dark, and I’m sitting on the hood of our car with my two-year old nephew Logan. It’s 10:00 o’clock at night, and he out here as usual with no shoes or clothes on. That ain’t even the half. The real blower is that Ray-Ray, his mother, is in the middle of the street, trying to fight my brother.

Why Tex fucks with that dumb bitch is beyond me. She crashed our driver’s side window just now, over some bitch he supposedly fuck. I was about to choke her out myself since the car was half mine, but I left him to handle the shit on his own.

“You good little, man?” I ask my nephew.

“Yes,” he nods, before pushing his index finger into his diaper. I guess he needs changing.

“You got a lot going on in there don’t you?”

Yes. It’s heavy.” Logan scratches his wild curly black hair with one hand, while he rubs the puffiness of his diaper with the other.

I’m still looking at my nephew when shit gets wilder in the middle of the street. “Why the fuck you calling my friend, Bird on the phone, Tex,” Ray-Ray says to him. “What the fuck is up with you?”

She’s wearing a pair of tight blue jean shorts that showcases one of her lopsided ass cheeks. She claimed she didn’t get no botched ass job, but I think she too embarrassed to tell the truth.

“You sound stupid as shit,” Tex yells. Both of them move out of the way of a passing car, before going back into the middle of the street.

“It ain’t stupid, Tex. You know how fucking embarrassing it is to have your friend call you, and tell you your man trying to fuck her?”

Tex wipes his hands down his face. “Ray, I can’t believe you out here in the middle of the street trying to fight me over this shit. And then you had the nerve to crash my car window. Don’t you realize nigga’s get killed for less?”

“Fuck that dumb ass car ya’ll driving around in. I don’t’ give a fuck about it or you!”

“Why you gonna make me crack you in your jaw in front of my son? Why you gonna make me do that, huh?”

Ray-Ray stands on guard like a man, raises her hands in the air, and swings in his direction. She catches Tex with a firm blow to the cheek, which she follows up with a punch to his chin. Tex, grabs both of her wrists, and tosses her against a broken down ice cream truck. Her head slams against the hubcap of the wheel, and she rubs the back of her natural bush.

“I’m gonna kick your ass now,” Ray-Ray promises hopping up. “I’m gonna beat your ass like you a bitch. It’s gonna be so good my son gonna start calling me daddy.”

Tex ain’t the best nigga in the world, he ain’t even nice, but when it comes to his son he loves him the best way he knows how, and he doesn’t like comments about his fatherhood being questioned by anyone…including his mother.

My brother takes one look at me, and I grab Logan off of the hood of the car, and carry him toward the corner store. I don’t know what he is about to do to Ray-Ray, but the look in his eyes told me he didn’t want his son watching.

“You want some ice cream, little man?”

“Yes”— he opens the palm of his hand— “I want this much.”

“You got that.”

“I love you uncle, Dane,” he says grabbing my face with his gritty little hands, and kissing me on the nose. “You love me too?”

“You know I do, Logan.” I open the corner store’s door, and a blast of cool air rolls over my face. It’s freezing in here. I hope he doesn’t catch a cold since his mother is too trifling to put a shirt on him. “You the coolest nephew in the whole world. I told you that.”

I don’t know where Logan came from, but despite his evil mother, he is always giving love. Hugs, kisses, smiles, he does all he can to show the people he likes that he cares about them. Just a kid with a lot of charisma, but wild ass parents. A charming type nigga.

I buy him a red push pop, which is a bad idea because already he got sticky shit on the collar of my shirt, and a Pepsi for me with a bag of Doritos stuffed with cheese and meat sauce…my favorite. When we make it back to the car, Ray-Ray is leaning up against the side of it, with Tex in front of her slobbing her down. These mothafuckas kill me.

“I don’t care if ya’ll back together or not, Ray, you gonna pay for our window,” I tell her, handing her Logan, who is dripping ice cream all over her shorts.

“Shut up, boy.” She places Logan on her hips and he doesn’t move. “I already gave Tex the two hundred dollars he told me it may cost. So don’t even come at me like that.”

“What got into you?”

“Your brother that’s what.” She sighs. “But for real, I was wrong for fucking your car up and I’m sorry. I don’t want you looking at me all funny and shit when I come back to your house.”

“How come you do ghetto shit like that, and then apologize for it later,” I ask, sitting on the hood. “You know you mothafuckas can’t stay away from each other for long. And now you out two hundred dollars. It was a waste of time.”

She shrugs. “Fuck all that. I went off because Tex gonna make me kill one of these bitches out here. At first I thought Bird was lying when she said he called her, and was trying to get at her like that. Now I don’t know.”

“She was lying,” my brother says, taking Logan off of her hip. He sits him on the hood of the car next to me. “I’m not trying to fuck that girl.”

“Then what you called her about?”

“Wasn’t nobody fucking that bitch. I was calling that girl to see if you was at her spot, and to find out where my son at. Why would I want her, when I got you? Ain’t nobody thinking ‘bout that fat bitch.”

“Then how come whenever you high, you be asking me for a three way with her? If she fat that should be the last thing you should be thinking about.”

“When I’m high I want a lot of shit, Ray. Plus I asked you because I really wanted to see if you loved me enough to do whatever I ask.” He licks Logan’s ice cream, because he keeps trying to share it with him. “I guess I was wrong.”

“You nigga’s is crazy.” I say. “But look, you got another bar on you?“

“I’m out, bro. As a matter of fact I need to get a pack right now.” He looks up the street and flags down Wico, a Spanish chick with a bop harder than any dude I’ve ever met.

Wico rocks up the street with her oversized jeans scratching against the city’s ground. She daps me up and then my brother.

“What up, Ray?”

“Wico,” she responds rolling her eyes.

The streets have it that one time Ray-Ray was crushing on Wico. But when Wico cracked on her shape, she took to slamming her about being gay every time she saw her.

“What you need,” Wico asks Tex. She tugs at the crotch of her jeans like something is there.

“What you working with tonight?”

“Shit…you know all I do is the blacks, so my shit stay potent. I got Black Ganja, Black Bart, Black Gold and my partner up the street just got a hold of some Black Grunion. But if you want that I gotta flag him down here, because I don’t have none on me.”

“Naw you good. Let me see the Black Bart, I think that’s what I had last time. It’s dark over here though.” He looks back at me. “Aye, Dane, let me see your phone.”

I walk over to him and turn on the flashlight. Wico digs into her pocket and pulls out a nickel bag. It’s so common to make drug transactions out here that nobody’s scared of getting locked up. I shine my light on it, and Tex opens the bag and smells it. When I see him frown I already know something is off. He places his fingers inside of it, and I can see from here that the weed crumbles.

“Wico, why the fuck you trying to play me, son? You know this pack some bullshit.”

“What you mean, Tex?”

“Nigga, for starters it’s dry…I mean what the fuck I’ma do with this? Plus what’s up with all the sticks and seeds? Get the fuck out of here with that shit before I crack you.”

“My bad, Tex, that pack was for somebody else.” She sticks it back into her pocket.

“You shouldn’t be giving that shit to nobody, son. Now let me see what I asked for, before I fuck you up out here.”

“No need to get hostile, my nigga,” she says raising her hands. “I got you.” She dips into her other pocket and pulls out another bag. “What you think ‘bout this? This ain’t no bullshit.”

“Let me check it, Tex. You hold the phone.” When he shines the light on the pack, I open the bag and the odor is so strong my mouth waters. I grab some between my fingers, and can see that it has little hairs on it. It’s also extra sticky, just like we love it. I even see crystals. This is grade ‘A’ shit I know it!

“We good with this”— I hand Wico the pack back— “how much you got on you?”

She grins. “How much you need?”

“Give me a ‘O’.”

“Cool, for that amount, I’ll throw in some blunts too.”

“Throw in that nickel too, and we sweet.”

“Bet,” she says rolling her eyes.

She runs up the street and then comes back with the pack.

After we give her the one hundred dollars, Tex says, “Hey, before you leave, we got some Christian Lou’s them bitches be wearing in the trunk. They red and only been worn once. You trying to buy ‘em?”

Wico looks at her sneaks “Fuck outta here with that dumb shit. You know I don’t wear no female shoes. I’ll holla at you later, unless you insult me again.”

Tex laughs. “Real quick, let me wrap to you ‘bout something before you slide off.” He looks back at me and they go out of earshot. I wonder what they’re talking about, but I don’t sweat it.

“What was that about?” I ask when Wico leaves and Tex comes back.

“Nothing for you to worry ‘bout.”

I shake my head. “Anyway, you’s a silly ass nigga for asking that girl if she wanted to buy some high heels.”

“She still a bitch.” He shrugs. “How I know she wouldn’t throw them joints on?”

Tex snapped a picture holding the weed by the car. I took one with him too, but made him put the ‘O’ down.

We roll up a blunt, and when I see Ray-Ray puckering her lips like she’s ready to share it with us, I roll up another one for myself. I don’t smoke behind her, she too nasty for me.

We leaning on the car, talking shit and playing with Logan. I’m about to grab something to eat until I see my brother about to pass my nephew the bar to smoke. I punched Tex dead in his chest. “Don’t do that shit, son. He a kid.”

“Why…he ain’t a fetus. His lungs already built,” he says to me.

I frown. “You been letting him blaze? Is you crazy, nigga? Fuck wrong with you? You can kill him like that. What you want him to be fucked up like us? To the point where he’ll always be needing it?”

“Dad, use to do it to us, and we fine,” he shrugs. “What’s the problem?”

“Well that mothafucka wasn’t our pops, so he ain’t give a fuck about us. Remember he rolled out on us on Christmas day. But this little nigga right here is our blood”— I point at Tex— “and we can’t do him like that. Aight?”

“Man, ain’t nobody—”

“Nigga, you hear what the fuck I’m saying,” I yell. “Be a better dad than that nigga was. This ain’t some fucking doll, he’s your son, and my nephew. And if I ever find out you doing this shit again”— I look at Ray-Ray— “either one of you, you gonna have me to deal with.”

“Aight, man, whatever,” he says under his breath. “Chill the fuck out, you killing my vibe and my high.”

Tex looks over at Ray-Ray, I guess to see if she’s looking or not. I didn’t mean to play him like that in front of his girl, but we already fucked up due to the damage Marvin caused us from smoking at an early age.

We can’t start our day without smoking. We can’t fuck without smoking. If we about to get something to eat, we gotta smoke first. And don’t let us go for more than four hours without getting high, we be on some evil type shit all day. This habit is serious. This shit has impacted us more than I wanted it to, and I don’t want that for my nephew.

I’m just about to eat my soggy Doritos when my phone gets a text message. When I look down I see it’s from my girlfriend Asia. Fuck! I forgot she was supposed to be coming over my crib later on. I hit the button to read her message.

 

U need 2 come home now. I’ve been waiting on U all day at your house. Stop fucking around, Dane. It’s important!