Chapter Twenty-five
It was well past eleven when Nolan finally called it. Today had been one of the best days out of the week. About his paper, the young, determined hustler stayed until every customer had been served. It was like back at the spot on Ferry. He’d be the first one up and the last one to close his eyes. Nolan had spent the few previous nights with Snoopy, treating her like a queen, something she wasn’t used to. But it was Popcorn’s birthday weekend, so now the tables would turn. Now, she would have the pleasure of Nolan’s company and receive the royal treatment for the next few days. He was slightly exhausted but pushed through. He promised Popcorn he would be over at her house when he closed shop. So it was what it was. He wished like hell he could just be with Kapri and cut all this bullshit out with random females, but he was a man, a young one with needs and eager to fuck.
As Nolan White would try to be a man of his word, the hardworking hustler took a hot shower to try to shake off his weariness and wake up. While he allowed the hot water to flow out of the showerhead covering his body with wetness, he thought about the last few weeks and what Fiona had done for him. As much as Nolan hated to admit it, she had come through once more when needed. Although she could never truly be his main girl or even a side chick, Fiona played her position well when given guidance. O. P. had given Nolan a blow-by-blow account so vividly that it was as if he were there on the block.
O. P. got in touch with Fiona. He joked with Nolan that she answered on half of a ring. Without having to ask twice, she was with the shit. Without hesitation, she got a ride over to the East Side of Detroit. Once there, she met her crush’s homeboy at Coney Island off I-94 on Mt. Elliot. Fiona thought he looked all right, but he was no way as fine as Nolan was, at least in her eyes. After small chitchat about who she claimed she knew and whatever else, they headed to his car. Smoking him over once more, Fiona mumbled under her breath that O. P. had nothing on her man Nolan, especially the way he was dragging his left leg like some creature in a low-budget horror film.
After pulling off from the restaurant parking lot, the awkward pair then set out to do the huge favor asked of them both. And that was first to locate his mother and report back not only where she was living, but also how she was living as well. After that, Nolan wanted to know if his little brothers looked like the woman who had given birth to all of them, was doing right by them. He knew how his moms practically allowed him to raise himself in the unsafe streets and get off into all sorts of mischief but prayed the twins, young as they were, wouldn’t suffer that same fate.
Thankfully, it didn’t take too long for the word on the street to get back to O. P. on the woman’s whereabouts. Sure, Nolan could have just as easily had his manz ride down on his old girl, but she would take one look at O. P.’s face and bolt. Fiona was a female and could approach her in a more casual, nonthreatening manner. When O. P. pointed the woman out standing in front of a Chase Bank begging for spare change, Fiona got out of the car. While vainly hoping O. P. was looking at her ass as she walked, she casually went toward Nolan’s mother. The closer she got, it was hard to fathom that this weather-beaten-faced lady had spit out a nigga as fine as Fiona believed Nolan to be.
“Hello, miss, how are you today?” Fiona questioned with a calm persona and a smile smugly plastered on her face.
“I’m okay. Do you have some spare change? Or maybe a dollar or two?” Nolan’s mother upped her standard begging ante seeing that her prospective sponsor was dressed to impress and could probably afford it.
Fiona paused. She was thrown off her square. For weeks on end, she’d imagined coming face-to-face with the woman she wanted to be her mother-in-law. Yet, this part of her fantasy never played out like this . . . some deranged lady up on Gratiot panhandling folks for pennies, nickels, and dimes when they went in or came out of the bank, or in her case, dollar bills. But for Nolan, Fiona would do just about anything short of committing murder. And maybe that as well if he asked her in the right way. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Fiona finally answered the question that had now been repeated several times. “Umm, sorry, I don’t. But I’m Nolan’s girlfriend.” She lied, but at this point, neither Nolan nor O. P. was in ear’s range to verify or deny her claims. “Nolan is your son, right?”
Nolan’s mother took a few steps back, and a strange expression came across her face. It was as if her eyes drifted off into a place of darkness. Fiona waited a few seconds, then asked again, “Is Nolan White your son or not? I’m his girlfriend, Fiona. He sent me to check on you.”
It took some time, but the woman came out of her impromptu trance. She then had a few questions of her own that Fiona did her best to answer. Outside of telling Nolan’s mother that her oldest son was in some part of Ohio, she thankfully got her to put her guard down. The two then walked to a nearby Dollar Store and purchased some items she felt the woman needed. O. P. was still out of sight but close by, watching what transpired. Soon after, Fiona returned to the car, telling O. P. to pull off. With an address memorized in her head and a sketchy description, she told O. P. to hurry up and get over to the house where the twins were supposedly living at before Nolan’s mother showed up and found out her oldest son was plotting. Parking on the corner of the block, in less than ten minutes, she showed up. O. P. and Fiona reclined their seats and waited to see if there were any signs of the twins.
In the meantime, Fiona called Nolan telling him her version of what had transpired. She had done just what he asked: gave his mother a Green Dot Card with seventy dollars loaded on it, and told her that Nolan promised to put seventy dollars every week on the card for her to buy his brothers some groceries or fast food. As long as they ate, that was all that mattered to him. Nolan had gone to bed hungry on more than a few occasions under his mother’s care.
Within an hour or so, Nolan’s mother emerged from the house with the two boys in tow. Although they didn’t look too bad, they didn’t appear to be picture-day ready either. Making sure they were out of sight, O. P. got out of his car. It was then that Fiona paid attention to the noticeable limp he had. She sat on the edge of her seat as he ran up to the small bungalow. Once on the porch, he looked through the front window, not surprised that the inside of the dwelling appeared pretty much empty. Making his way around to the side of the house as well as the rear, O. P. repeated the process of being Inspector Gadget. From what he could tell, there was nothing but a few mattresses on the floor and two wooden chairs and a table. Shaking his head, O. P. headed back to his vehicle. Fiona’s and his job were complete. Nolan would get what he was looking for and have the satisfaction of blessing his twin brothers, hopefully, with food.
Hitting the freeway heading west, O. P. soon dropped off Fiona. Anxious to get some privacy, she barely shut the door of his vehicle before running up her walkway. Thirsty, she couldn’t wait to get into the house and talk Nolan’s ear off. “Hey, baby. So, yeah, like you already know, I met up with your mother. And—”
“Yeah, and she was looking crazy, I know, but what about my brothers? They was good, right?” Nolan quizzed, getting right down to what he wanted to know.
“Yeah, the kids, they looked okay to me from where I was sitting in the car. But like I was saying, when I first met up with your mother, she seemed to like me right off the bat. I told her how tight you and me was, and you was like my man and shit.” Fiona steered the narrative of the conversation back to focus on her. “And she was all happy and whatnot and even told me that I looked cute. And you know I was. Let me tell you what I had on.”
Already, he was over hearing the tone of Fiona’s annoying voice, coupled along with the fact that she’d skipped right over the main reason he’d sent the bitch on a mission off rip—the twins’ well-being. Enraged at her nerve, it took everything in Nolan’s power to keep his composure down to a decent level. “Look, girl, you got me all the way fucked up. First, don’t nobody give a shit if my mother liked your punk ass or what in the fuck you had on. That shit don’t matter to me,” he barked out while shaking his head in disgust. “And why you lied to her saying I was your man is another issue altogether!”
“But wait!” Fiona tried to interject and was quickly shut down.
“But wait, my black ass. You need to stop being a bug and play your position where you and me is concerned. I already told you I kinda got a main girl. But on another note, did my ole girl look pregnant or have a new baby with her?”
“Naw, she ain’t look pregnant or ain’t had no baby. But back to what you said first, who you mean, your main girl?”
“Come on now, Fiona, stop playing yourself.” Nolan laughed at the fact this nothing-ass bitch he occasionally dealt with when need be had the nerve to try to stunt on him.
“You talking about that fake bitch named Kapri you be bragging about so damn much? Like she some helluva type of smart female? She from the hood just like you and me,” Fiona smartly replied, sucking her teeth.
“Look, I be trying to be cool with you just on the strength you looked out for a nigga, but don’t jeopardize your half-assed friendship with me. Matter of fact, I got shit to do. So, yeah, go do whatever it is you do. I’m out.”
Unfortunately for Fiona, the best she could get the remainder of the evening was a few text messages of gratitude from Nolan. And then her fantasy boyfriend stopped responding. Hell-bent on one day being his one and only, she still wasn’t deterred by that disrespect. Fiona would get some rest and just start back calling. Nolan White would need her again one day. And when he did, she’d be Johnny-on-the-spot.
* * *
Nolan was in the shower so long, the hot water was turning lukewarm at best. He snapped back from thinking about his mother and her awful parenting skills that had his mental still messed up and the lengths he was going through to help his siblings. Nolan knew that he’d come a long way from growing up in the gutter and vowed never to return to living as he once had. He had grinded out all summer long and had multiple stacks of money saved. The once young boy with no more than one change of clothes had clothes in the closet and lying around with tags still on them. If all continued to go as planned, he would be able to get the new truck he’d been eyeballing every week. And maybe one day, he’d buy a crib of his very own, right out. But for now, Nolan had a date with Popcorn.
Exhausted, he had to make tracks before he got sleepy again. Getting dressed, Nolan tucked his pistol in the rear of his waistband, threw on a baseball cap, and was out the door. Once on the porch, he took a deep breath of the crisp night air. Moments later, his cab pulled up, flashing the spotlight upon the house, searching for the address. Nolan waved at him to kill that light. He jumped in the rear of the cab and tossed twenty to the driver in advance of him even asking for a deposit payment.
“What up, doe? Yeah, run me up the way to the store on the corner, then I’ll tell you where to next.” Nolan’s game plan was to stop by the store, grab something to drink, and then some grub. He’d be on Popcorn’s doorstep shortly after midnight by his calculations.