14
JASMINE
“Stop,” I said to the driver of the black Town Car. “Stop right here.”
I noticed my little brother playing in the front yard of the Eichelberger’s house. I was so excited to see him that I almost jumped out of the vehicle before the driver had come to a complete stop.
“Hey, buddy,” I said as I ran around the back of the car and up to the gate.
Mrs. Eichelberger was sitting on the front porch dipping a little plastic stem into a purple bottle. She pulled the stem out and blew some bubbles. Devin chased them and popped them. When he saw me he turned and ran to the gate. Mrs. Eichelberger stood and walked over to open the gate.
“Wow,” she said, looking at me like I was a foreigner. “You look totally different, Jasmine. I didn’t even know who you were.”
“How you doing, Mrs. Eichelberger?”
“I’m great. A little tired. This little guy had me running around the entire city today.”
“Oh yeah,” I said, and leaned down to give my little brother a hug. It felt like ages since I had seen him. “What are you doing, buddy?”
“Catching bubbles,” he said with a smile. “You look funny.”
“I look funny? You look funny,” I said and tickled his stomach. I walked over and sat on the front steps.
“Oh no,” Mrs. Eichelberger said. “You’ll mess up your pants. Let me get you a chair.”
“I’m good,” I said, fanning her off as Devin came and stood between my legs. He was smiling at me and I was smiling right back.
“I was about to go inside and get dinner started. You wanna join us?”
“Nah,” I said. “I just wanted to come over here and see Devin. Have you seen DeMarco?”
“Not since last night when he dropped Devin off. I saw on the caller ID where he called, but he didn’t leave a message.”
“I’ll find him,” I said. “I need to go by my house and get my things.”
“So what are you doing with yourself these days? You look like a million bucks.”
“I’m doing a little modeling,” I said, and the words felt like a lie leaving my mouth. And by the look on Mrs. Eichelberger’s face, she didn’t believe me.
“I see,” she said. “Well, I was going to get Devin started at this school tomorrow.”
I looked at my little brother, who smiled when he heard the word school. I wanted to take him with me, but I knew I couldn’t. I hated my mom for putting him in this position. We looked like trifling people for pawning our little brother off on these white people.
“I’m not sure how long he’ll be over here, but that’s cool. He needs to be in school. I’m working on some things and I may be able to come get him out of your hair in the next week or so.”
“It’s truly no rush. We are really enjoying his company,” she said.
“Yeah, but he’s my brother and we don’t freeload off of people,” I said.
“Oh, we look at this as nothing of the sort. We’re friends, and that’s what friends do.”
“Yeah, and I appreciate that, Mrs. E, but that’s how I feel. I like paying my own way.”
“I understand,” Mrs. Eichelberger said, dropping her head and wringing her hands. She looked sad.
“I’m going with you, Jaz?” Devin asked.
“Not today, but soon,” I said. “Okay?”
“Okay,” he said and walked away to play with his car.
“How much money do we owe you, Mrs. E?” I asked. “This little guy will eat you out of house and home.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” she said. “We have more than enough.”
I stood up and then leaned down and gave my little brother a big hug. “I missed you, man.”
“I missed you too.” Devin smiled, showing off his cavity-filled smile.
“You need to go to the dentist, boy,” I said, then turned to Mrs. E. “No candy for him, okay?”
“Okay.” She turned to Devin. “You heard that, Devin. No more candy for you, buddy. I can take him to the dentist if you like.”
“That’s fine, but we will pay for whatever it costs,” I said. “I need to run. Give me another hug, buddy.”
Devin and I hugged and said our good-byes. I walked over and hugged Mrs. Eichelberger too. She was a nice lady and I wanted her to know that I appreciated her.
I walked out the gate and over to the Town Car. The driver jumped up and grabbed my door for me. I sat inside and was glad that Lola had decided not to come. My eyes were filled with tears. Something didn’t seem right about leaving my little brother with a stranger. I felt like I was leaving him at foster care or someplace.
The driver drove the fifty or so yards down to our apartment and stopped. I jumped out without waiting on him to get the door. I used my key to open the front door and was stopped dead in my tracks by the stench of the place.
“Good Lord,” I said, covering my nose. “What in the heck died in here?”
Our apartment has always been a mess, but I saw that the sofa was flipped over, and the television was on the floor, broken into a bunch of pieces. Sophia and her sorry man must’ve had a heck of a fight.
I walked into the apartment but didn’t close the door behind me. The place had a putrid odor as if some rodent had found a corner and died. I stepped over the debris and noticed a spattering of blood on the floor and wall. I stared at the damage my mother had done to that sorry man and was happy for it. I walked to my bedroom and opened the door. I stopped and sighed. My room was tossed about as well. The bed was turned over and the mattress and box spring were up against the wall. My dresser was pushed onto its side and the mirror was broken. I looked down and tried not to step on any glass as I wondered what had happened in this house. All of my clothes were piled on the floor inside of the bed frame and they were soaking wet. I could feel myself losing control of my emotions and I wanted to scream.
“Welcome home, trick,” a voice said from behind me.
I turned and stared into the face of Tiny. Standing behind the short girl was Shemika.
“Don’t you look nice? You didn’t look like that before you jumped your lil tail in my truck. Now did you?”
I stood there staring at the girl. Here I was, standing in the middle of everything I had that was now ruined, and she was talking crazy.
“You know what you look like, Jasmine? You look like you’ve been running around with a rich man. A rich man I hooked you up with. So now I have a question. Where’s my money?” Tiny said.
All of a sudden things started clicking in my head.
“Did you do this?” I said, motioning to the mess in my room.
“Aww yeah,” she said with a smile. “I tried to help decorate the place a little bit. It was such a mess.”
I reached back and punched her in her eye so hard I thought that my hand was broken. Tiny yelled and fell back into the wall.
“Get her,” Tiny said, holding her eye. “Oh my God, get that trick.”
Shemika did as she was told and rushed me. I swung at her and hit her in the side of the head, but as I backed up to get a little space I tripped over the bed rail and my four-inch heels wouldn’t allow me to catch my balance. I fell back into the pile of wet clothes. The big girl landed on top of me with a thud. She was fat and I wasn’t moving under her weight, but I swung my arms to try to get some punches into her face. We were twisting and turning with both of us trying to get some leverage on each other, but I was losing this battle. I dug my nails into her neck, but she didn’t move. The big girl pushed her chin down into my chest, and that hurt. I punched some more, but she seemed to be trying to open up a hole in my chest with her chin. She was strong and I wasn’t doing much to get her fat butt off of me. She pulled off of the chin attack long enough to place her fat hands around my neck. She applied pressure. I reached up and scratched at her neck, but she had all the leverage. I stopped trying to choke her and started swinging at her neck and face. I was trying to make contact with anything that would force her to release my neck, but nothing was working.
I reached down and took off my shoe and hit her in the side of her head with the heel and she made a moaning sound. I noticed that her grip had loosened up. Since that seemed to work, I hit her again and this time she fell over. I pushed the big girl off me and rolled over onto her. I straddled her and had a punching fest on her face. I grabbed her neck, lifted her head, and slammed it down as hard as I could onto the hard tile floor. Just as I lifted her head for another pounding, I felt something sharp hit my side. I immediately grabbed my side and felt the blood rushing down my hand. I turned around and noticed that Tiny had a bloody knife in her hand. I felt myself getting weaker, but I stood and went after the girl. She backed away into the hallway. I reached out to grab her, but I lost my ability to walk, stumbled, and fell face-first onto the bloody floor. I rolled over onto my back and stared into the ugly face of Tiny.
“That was for messing with my money,” she said as she stood over me with a sinister-looking smile on her face. “And make sure you tell your brother that he has the same thing coming. And I still want my money.”
I was gasping for air and holding my side, which felt like it was on fire. I felt myself getting dizzy. The blood was oozing through my fingers and mixing with the blood that was already on the floor. The next thing I knew I was blacking out. I felt something hit my face, but it didn’t really hurt. I closed my eyes and everything went blank.