CHAPTER 27
The weather had started to change, with the cool days of fall giving way to first snowfalls of winter. It had been three weeks since Persia had ran away to shack up with Chucky, and one day shy of her eighteenth birthday. Running away had been an impulsive and emotionally fueled decision, but in her mind she felt like it was the right one. Persia had always felt like a prisoner in her own house . . . the house that her father had built for her.
Persia loved her mother, but couldn’t take how she tried to control her life, overreacting to everything Persia said or did. She went out of her way to keep up the image of the upwardly mobile black family to their affluent neighborhood, as if their house hadn’t been built by drug money, and demanded the same from Persia, but that wasn’t who Persia was. She was a young girl coming into her womanhood and trying to find an identity, not have one forced on her. What Michelle didn’t realize was that the more she tried to reel Persia in, the more she rebelled. The night that Richard had said those hurtful things to her was the knife that cut the reins and sent Persia off into the wild.
She could have only imagined how she’d looked when she showed up on Chucky’s doorstep, still wearing the cocktail dress and dragging a hastily packed duffle bag. She was a mess, but he welcomed her with open arms. She’d thought they were going to stay at his apartment in Harlem, but Chucky had other ideas. After that first night he took her to a motel up in the Bronx. Persia didn’t understand why they couldn’t just stay in Harlem, but Chucky explained that her parents were sure to be out looking for her and Harlem was the first place they would check. With her being a minor, if she was caught in his apartment, he would go to prison. He needed to keep her tucked away at least until her eighteenth birthday and then they could expose their relationship to the world.
The motel was on an out-of-the-way block deep in the heart of the Bronx. The rooms were small, barely clean, and smelled of old beer. It was hardly what Persia was used to, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, and it had been she who came to Chucky for help. He promised her that they would move to better lodgings the next day and as soon as things died down in the streets he would start looking for a place for them. Just the thought of them moving in together and building a life made Persia giddy. She had had boyfriends in her life, but never a man . . . someone who would take care of her and who she could take care of. She dreamed of the life they would build together, with him being the king of New York and her being his queen.
That first night, Persia and Chucky made love and smoked weed, laced with the crack Chucky had given her when he dropped Persia off. He was glad that she still had it because he was fresh out and needed a hit. This time when Persia smoked the Woo it didn’t hit her ass hard. She still heard the cannons, but the not the whistling of birds. Blasted out of their minds, Persia and Chucky had wild animal sex well until sun up, before crashing in each other’s arms and sleeping until late that afternoon. For Persia, waking up next to Chucky was something she could definitely get used to. After making love twice more, they checked out of the motel room and hit the streets.
Chucky had to make a quick stop through Harlem before they made moves. Persia was surprised when he pulled up in front of Karen’s building. He told her to stay there and he would be right back, before jumping out of the car and going inside the building. Persia immediately caught an attitude, thinking that he was going to see Karen, but then she checked herself. There were dozens of apartments and Chucky hustled on that block, so he could’ve been going to see anybody. Still she kept her eyes glued to the window of Karen’s apartment, trying to catch a glimpse of anything that looked suspicious. Less than five minutes later, Chucky was coming back out of the building and from the look on his face, she could tell that something was wrong.
“Everything okay, baby?” Persia asked.
“I was going to check somebody who was holding some money for me and they weren’t home, that’s all,” Chucky lied.
“Who did you have to see?” Persia asked suspiciously. There was something in Chucky’s voice that raised her antennas.
Chucky turned to look at her, his eyes cold and hard. “Persia, don’t think that because I’m fucking with you that you can start playing twenty questions when it comes to what the fuck I’m doing. If you feel like that I can always drop you back off at your mama’s house.”
“No, I wasn’t saying all that, Chucky. I just see you’re upset and I wanted to know who did it. You know if they upset you then they upset me,” Persia told him.
“Don’t worry, I got it under control,” Chucky told her. “In the meantime, tuck this in your purse for me.” He handed her several neatly wrapped packages of crack.
“Where did you get this?” Persia’s eyes got wide. It was like just holding it in her hand made her want fire up right there in the car.
“There you got with the damn questions again. Just put the shit up until we get where we’re going,” Chucky told her and turned his attention to the road, and tried to figure out a solution to yet another problem. He had gone upstairs in search of Karen, but Sissy said she wasn’t home and she didn’t know where she was or when she was coming back. Chucky knew that Sissy was lying, but there was nothing he could do about it right then and there, short of forcing his way into the apartment. He would have to try to catch Karen on the streets, and if that didn’t work he was going to pay Sissy another visit. This time he would have a gun in his hand.
From Harlem, Chucky took her to the place they would call home for the next few weeks until he got his affairs in order: a run-down house that his aunt and uncle owned, located on the wrong side of Mount Vernon, New York. It was on an isolated block that was neighbored by a church. Like clockwork the bells would ring every night at midnight, waking the whole neighborhood up. Persia was skeptical about staying with strangers at first, but Chucky’s Aunt Letti made her feel right at home.
Letti was an older chick, about the same age as Persia’s mother, but hardly as uptight. She listened to nothing but rap music, wore clothes that were clearly too small for her robust frame, and could drink and smoke most men under the table. Letti didn’t treat Persia like a kid, more like one of her homegirls. Letti was what Richard would’ve referred to as a woman living in her second childhood. For all her flaws, she was a bundle of fun and Persia had grown quite fond of her.
Chucky’s Uncle Malcolm was a different story. He wasn’t Chucky’s biological uncle, but a man Letti had been dealing with for years. From the time Persia had met him, he gave her the creeps. He was always skulking around and looking at Persia funny, and was always looking for a handout. Chucky had broken him off a nice piece of crack the first night they arrived, as payment for letting them stay there, but by the next morning he was back trying to beg for more. Persia reminded him of the addicts she would see wandering Harlem, zoned out and looking for a hit, and he made her terribly uncomfortable.
The first few nights at Letti’s house were like a nonstop party. There were always people coming and going, either to buy drugs from Chucky or share drugs with Letti and Malcolm. Persia would stay up until all times of the night, drinking, smoking, and playing cards or listening to music. But like with all good things, the goods times came to an end when Chucky had to take it back to the streets.
Persia would sometimes ask if she could ride with him when she went into the city, but Chucky would tell her that things were too hot with her parents still looking for her and she should stay in the house. It was okay at first, but Chucky started being gone more and more frequently, sometimes not returning for days at a time. When Persia would ask about his whereabouts, he would give her a sloppy excuse and feed her more drugs.
It seemed like all Persia did was get high and stress over Chucky and it was starting to show. She was losing weight and her hair hadn’t been done in weeks. Being that the next day she would turn eighteen, Persia decided that she wanted to look presentable. With any luck, Chucky would take her out to celebrate. Taking some of the weekly allowance Chucky had been giving her, Persia decided to take the bus to the strip mall to get her hair and nails done. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Chucky’s face when she came back and saw how pretty she looked. He would be breaking his neck to take her out and show her off.