“So, what’s on the agenda for today, kinfolk?” Infa asked, while leaning in the window of Chino’s Land Cruiser.
“Yo, you know what dude looks like fo sho?” Chino asked.
“What dude?”
“This Erik cat,” Chino told him. “I know what he looks like, but not for sure. You know what I’m saying?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Infa nodded. “I know what cat daddy looks like for sure.”
“I need to roll up on dude and see what he’s talking about,” Chino said.
“Why you checking for dude?” Infa asked.
“I need some information.”
“About Pam?” Infa asked, lifting an eyebrow.
Chino nodded. “I want to pull up on fool and see what he’s talking about.”
“Like what?” Infa asked. “What can dude tell you? He can be shitty and say he knocked boots, or he can be slick and claim that he didn’t. Either way, you really won’t know the truth.”
“I need to see this cat,” Chino told him. “I can tell what he’s about once I look into his eyes. You rolling or what?”
Infa nodded, walked around the SUV, and climbed inside. “Man, I hope you know what you doing.”
“What?” Chino grabbed his pistol. “You think that nigga wanna trip?”
“He might.” Infa shrugged. “The nigga ain’t no punk.”
“Man, fuck that nigga!” Chino said.
“You right,” Infa agreed. “But do you really want to go on campus and get into it with that fool? The campus police be tripping, and neither one of us belong on campus.”
Chino turned onto the Ohio campus. “I’ma roll by the student center and see if I see that fool. Keep ya eyes out.”
Infa nodded. “Damn, this shit must really be important.”
Chino nodded. “It is. Nigga, you would do the same thing if it was your girl.”
“If it was my main girl?” Infa shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe I’d just let her go, or get over it. I don’t know if I would go and check the nigga. He can’t do no more than she let him. Pimp rule 101. Don’t check the nigga, check the muthafucking ho. Not that I’m calling your girl a ho, but you know the rules.”
Chino nodded. Infa was right. Maybe he was out of order for checking to see if Pam had gotten out of line. Checking for this nigga was one thing, but checking this nigga was something completely different. He really didn’t want to get arrested on campus, but he had to see this fool. He had to let this fool know that he was around and that he could find him and get at him. If he wanted to get at Pam, then he would play head games back with the nigga. I see you, nigga, is the message he wanted to convey. Plus he had to know if Pooh crept. He couldn’t bring himself to admit it to Infa, but not knowing was killing him inside. He couldn’t touch Pooh until he knew something.
“I got to find this nigga, Infa,” Chino said softly. “I’ve got to find him.”
“Let it go, bro,” Infa told him. “You hold on to this, and it will eat you up inside.”
Chino knew that Infa was on point. He turned the Land Cruiser around and headed off campus. He had to let it go.
Chino, Chris J, and Infa rolled to City Center Mall to pick up some suits for Young Mike’s funeral. They were going to hit Foley’s and Dillard’s and do some more shopping. Chino was even going to buy a suit for Young Mike to be buried in and take it to the funeral home for his grandmother.
The first store the crew hit up was Dillard’s. It was there where Chino ran into Tracey.
“Hi, how are you doing?” Tracey asked.
“I’m good, ma,” Chino told her, returning her smile. She cute, Chino thought. She was a yellow bone, with long hair that she wore in a ponytail. She had full red lips and pretty light brown eyes. Her figure was on the slim side, but she had a nice curve on her backside and two nice little humps up top. The form-fitting knit overall suit that she was wearing accented her figure perfectly. It was black and white plaid, and she wore black shoes and sheer black stockings to complement her outfit. She also wore a white blouse and had a black tie holding her ponytail in place. She was dressed conservative and cute. More than likely, she was a college girl from the university.
“Is there anything I can help you with today?” Tracey asked.
Chris answered, “Yeah, how about your phone number?”
“Don’t you go with my friend Debra?” Tracey asked.
“I was asking for it for my man here!” Chris J said, putting his hands on Chino’s shoulders.
“Uh-huh.” She nodded. “Sure you were.”
Chino and Infa laughed. She was sexy and sophisticated. Unlike anything he had met before, Chino thought. Most girls he could easily charm, but this one was different. You could tell that she was smart and a spoiled little rich girl. She was working in the department store and she had a gold name tag on, which meant she was a department manager. She looked young, too young to be a department head. Unless she had just graduated from college, or she had worked for the store all four years that she had been in college and had worked her way up the ladder. Either way, she was smart, and ambitious, and classy. At least that’s what her clothes and perfume said about her. Chino recognized the Chanel No. 5 she was wearing. It was his favorite.
“I’m looking for a suit,” Chino told her.
Tracey turned and ran her hands across Chino’s shoulders and chest. “I know just the right suit for your type of build. It’s a Geoffrey Beene suit. It would fit you like a glove.”
“I’m following you,” Chino told her. He peered down at her firm, round behind. So did Infa and Chris. They gave each other dap.
“Like a muthafuckin onion!” Infa said. He, Chris J, and Chino laughed.
Tracey stopped, spun around, and faced them. “So, you like what you see, huh?” She spun back around and continued walking until she arrived at the men’s suits section, where she led them to a mannequin dressed in a fine dark gray suit. “So, what do you think?”
Chino nodded. “I like it.”
Tracey pulled a suit from a nearby rack. “This is your size.”
“How do you know?” Chino asked. “Your boyfriend about the same size as me?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend, and I’m a seamstress. I’ve been making my own clothes since I was fifteen. I can look at you and tell what size you wear.” She handed Chino the suit. “I can ring you up over here.”
Chino and the fellas followed Tracey to a nearby register, where she rang up his suit. Chino pulled out a wad of money and paid in cash.
“Are you getting married?” Tracey asked.
“Are you asking me?” Chino asked.
“Yeah,” Tracey told him.
“Well, we just met,” Chino smiled, “but I guess that I’ll take a chance and marry you.”
Tracey laughed. “Oh, a sense of humor! Silly! You wouldn’t want to marry me.”
“Why not?” Chino asked.
“Because I’m bossy. I don’t think you could handle me.”
“Wheeeew!” Infa ran his eyes up and down her body, and he and Chris J gave each other dap again.
Chino looked her up and down and nodded. “I can handle you.”
“You think so?” Tracey smiled. “A few have tried, but none have managed to tame me yet.”
“Hey, I’m an expert tamer,” Chino said, biting his bottom lip.
“I’ll bet you are,” she told him. “What have you tamed so far?” She looked at Chino and her brown eyes sparkled, awaiting an answer from him.
Chino shrugged. “Whatever has come my way that needed taming.”
“I have a really wild and mean cat named Pussy. You think you could tame my precious Pussy?”
“Hot damn!” Chris J shouted.
Infa bit his lip.
“I think that I could,” Chino told her.
She wrote her telephone number down on the back of his receipt. “Here’s my number. Call me and we’ll see if you can tame that wild cat of mine.”
Chino tucked her number away. “Bet.”
Chino, Infa, and Chris J headed out of Dillard’s through the mall toward Foley’s. They were halfway through the mall when they ran across a group of GI Boys.
“There them niggas go right there!” Infa said.
They spotted one another at the same time. The GI Boys went for their guns, and so did Infa, Chino, and Chris. Chris fired first, putting a bullet through the chest of one of the Gary Indiana Boys.
Gunfire erupted like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Mall shoppers dove for cover and others began to flee. Screaming, shouting mall patrons ran from the scene, some getting caught in the crossfire. Infa tapped Chino on his shoulder and nodded toward Dillard’s.
“Let’s go back through the store and get the hell outta here!” Infa shouted.
Chino nodded. “Chris, we outta here!”
Chris took aim and popped another GI Boy in the back. “I’m Audi five thousand!”
The three of them fled through Dillard’s, out the door, and into the parking lot. They passed the police on the way in but blended in with the other fleeing mallgoers.
“We served them hoes!” Infa shouted once they reached the Land Cruiser.
“Punk-ass hoes!” Chris J said, still hype. “They’ll take their ass back to Gary now!”
“Showed ’em they fucking with the wrong niggas!” Infa added.
Chino climbed behind the wheel and thought about what had just taken place. The shootouts were coming too close now. He was supposed to have gotten out of the game and be long gone from Columbus by now, but all of a sudden, things in his life had taken a turn for the worse. Pam had went left with this nigga Erik. Young Mike killed himself. Things were way off from where he thought they would be. He had to get things right again. He had to. Maybe Tracey would bring him some good luck. Maybe that’s what he needed, a complete change: a change of crew, a change of scenery, and a change in women. One thing was for certain, his life needed to change.