From that night on, Demetrius brought one or two of his friends home with him for dinner. Angel didn’t mind though. While Demetrius and his friends ate dinner, she would play with DeMarcus or wash clothes. She kept the house together and they stayed out of each other’s way. But one night, after a long day of cleaning, washing and folding clothes, Angel fell asleep on the sofa.
She didn’t know how long she had been out, but when she woke up, a pillow was under her head and a blanket was thrown across her body. She was rubbing her eyes, trying to get her bearings, when she heard DeMarcus say, “Dadda, Dadda.”
DeMarcus had been sound asleep in their bedroom when she sat down to fold a load of clothes, but now it sounded as if he was in this very room with her. He was sixteen months, so he was in that scrawl-walk phase. Angel tried her best to keep an eye on him, because it only took one wrong move for a baby to get hurt. Her mother had experienced that with Ronny. The boy had always been curious, always getting into things. One day he decided to climb the wooden fence in the back yard. If she hadn’t found him when she did, Ronny would have discovered that the fence had been erected to keep children from falling into the steep, rocky creek below.
As if coming out of a nightmare, Angel’s eyes darted around the room. That’s when she saw DeMarcus climbing all over Demetrius as he sat on the love seat. “I must have fallen asleep,” she said as she leaned over and grabbed DeMarcus.
“Daddy,” DeMarcus said again as he reached for Demetrius.
“Sorry about that, he’s just confused,” she said of DeMarcus calling him daddy.
“No worries,” Demetrius told her. “Oh, and I gave him a bottle when he woke up.”
She looked around the room. “What happened to the clothes I folded?”
“I figured you needed a rest, so I put them in my dresser. Then DeMarcus and I sat down and started watching the game.”
She thought it was odd that Demetrius would be doing her job when that was supposed to be her way of paying back the money she owed him. She was just about to tell him that, when a baseball player slid into home base. Demetrius jumped out of his seat and started whooping and hollering, as if he was seated in the stands rather than watching the game on the television in his living room. “What’s the deal with you and baseball anyway?”
“I love the sport,” he answered as he sat back down.
“Plenty of folks love the sport, but that don’t mean they gon’ put life size pictures of people playing baseball in their bedroom.” Angel didn’t get it. Could a person really be that much of a fan?
“Those people you’re referring to are Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays; only the best ever players to come out of the Negro leagues.” When she gave him a look that showed she still didn’t get it, he said, “These Cats were fearless. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier when he became the first black man to sign with a national baseball team.
“He practically led the way for Hank Aaron to break Babe Ruth’s home run record. And Willie Mays is just Mr. MVP as far as I’m concerned.”
Angel shook her head as she laughed at him. “Look how excited you get talking about baseball. It’s a wonder you didn’t play yourself.”
That’s when the laughter stopped, because as soon as the words were out of her mouth, Angel saw the look of sadness creep up his face. He looked so wounded that she wanted to put DeMarcus down and go to him. But she didn’t want things to get weird or to have Demetrius thinking that she was offering anything more than her sympathy. So, she remained seated as she asked, “What’s wrong? What did I say?”
He got up and turned off the television. “I’m going back out for a while. I’ll see you and DeMarcus tomorrow.”
“You’re going to be gone all night?” Angel sounded outraged, as if she had a right to question Demetrius concerning his comings and goings.
“What’s it to you? You’ve made it clear that I need to keep my distance. You don’t even want me to touch your son.”
“I never said I had a problem with you holding DeMarcus.”
“Then why did you snatch him away from me the moment you woke up? Acting like I’m going to harm him or something, when I’m the one who gave y’all a place to stay. Where’s his daddy anyway? Why didn’t he come to your rescue?”
“You already know DeMarcus’s daddy.” She was embarrassed to have to admit that she had been with a man who didn’t care about her, so she lowered her head as she added, “And that low-life wanted me to come to his rescue. He never once thought about doing anything to help me or his son, that didn’t first help him.”
Demetrius’ eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean, I already know him? Who is this guy? Does he know that you were stripping in order to make ends meet?”
“I can’t believe you haven’t figured this out already.” She stood up, with DeMarcus on her hip and walked over to him. “Why do you think Frankie’s sister was babysitting DeMarcus for me? Do you really think Frankie is providing babysitting services for all of his strippers?”
He looked puzzled for another moment, then blurted out. “You mean to tell me that this is Frankie’s kid?”
“I wish I didn’t have to admit to that. But it’s true. The love of my life was trying to prostitute me, even though he knew that our son was at his sister’s waiting on me.”
Demetrius shook his head. “I knew Frankie Day was a piece of garbage, but I never would have pegged him like that.” He grabbed Angel’s free hand, walked her back towards the sofa and then sat down with her.
After a long moment of staring into her eyes, as if he was trying to read all of her secrets, he finally said, “I just don’t get it.”
Angel was confused. She had no clue where this was going. “Get what?”
“You seem like a smart girl, you sure don’t have a problem letting a brother know what’s on your mind... and you are really beautiful. I just don’t understand how you could get hooked up with Frankie... were you already stripping when you met him, or what?”
She was slightly insulted by the question. But since Demetrius was responsible for the roof that was currently over her son’s head, she felt that she owed him the truth, as painful as it was. “No, I didn’t know anything about this sort of life when I met Frankie. I was as green as green could be.”
“I left home at sixteen because I couldn’t deal with all the drama my parents were going through. My cousin, Ramona, convinced me that she was living the high life out here, so I hopped on a Greyhound and met up with her. But I was only here a little over a month when Ramona got herself arrested for holding drugs for her low-life boyfriend.”
DeMarcus climbed off the sofa and used a jar of lotion as a ball as he rolled it around on the floor.
Angel continued. “Before Ramona got arrested, she’d introduced me to Frankie... told me he was a nice guy who owned a gentlemen’s club downtown.” Angel laughed at the memory. “I had pictured well-dressed men going to a private club to smoke cigars and drink brandy. I honestly had no clue what she was talking about.”
“And of course Frankie didn’t explain it to you,” Demetrius said, knowing full well how the game was played.
“When I first met Frankie, he kept promising to take care of me and to give me some so-called good life. I fell for his whole line, because I really had no choice once Ramona left. But after a while, I started catching on. I caught him cheating on me, and demanded that he stop. But that’s when he had a surprise for me. He said that since I wasn’t happy being his number one woman, that I would have to earn my keep like all the rest of ‘em..”
“Why didn’t you just go back home? I’m sure your parents would have let you come back. Wouldn’t they?”
“My parents are divorced. They were too busy fighting and blaming each other to care about what happened to me and my brother.” She shook her head as she added, “And they messed me up more than Frankie ever could. Because when I was young, my parents had me believing that life was this wonderful thing, and God was good all the time, and then they just snatched all of that away from me. I couldn’t see any more goodness in our lives after they divorced.” And even after being away from home for three years now, tears still floated around her eyes as she thought about what used to be.
“Sounds like things are bad for you no matter which way you turn.”
Angel agreed.
“Well, I can promise you this, Angel,” Demetrius stood up. “I ain’t no wolf in sheep’s clothing. I’m not going to make you do nothing around here but what we’ve already agreed on. And you and DeMarcus can stay as long as you need to.” After those words he grabbed his keys and left.
~~~~
Don Shepherd called a meeting that night. Demetrius was still smarting over the way he had been treated, so he originally planned to skip it. But after sitting there staring into Angel’s eyes, Demetrius knew he had to get out of the house. He wanted to kiss that girl so bad that he ached. But he would never let Angel know how he was feeling. He didn’t want to scare her off. It was obvious that she needed someone in her corner who wasn’t out to take something from her.
“Demetrius, do you want to join us over here?” Don asked his son.
No, he didn’t want to join them anywhere, he wanted to be out on a baseball field hitting homers and hearing the crowd go wild as he made his way to home base. But even after all these years, his ankle still wasn’t flexible enough for him to run on the baseball field without it kinking up on him. So, here he was at another one of his father’s meetings and still doing nothing about the promise he made to his mother.
“It’s some real serious stuff going down,” Don told the group of five, who were all considered his lieutenants. “Leo Wilson and his boys have just been indicted. They wouldn’t even set a bail for Leo. So he won’t be running numbers or taking bets on the fights. Business has to keep rolling though, so Leo has asked for our help.”
Don Shepherd was notorious in these parts and didn’t nobody even think about messing with him. Because everybody on these streets knew that Don wasn’t just the meanest hustler out there, he also had a little bit of crazy in him.
Even with all Don’s crazy, Leo Wilson had remained the Head Negro in Charge. Don hadn’t contested that fact, because Leo had been running the streets of Dayton, ten years before Don Shepherd came on the scene. Don respected the man; but that didn’t mean that Don wasn't biding his time until he could take over, and once and for all, take his rightful place. So, it surprised Demetrius that Leo had turned to his father for help in his time of need.
“Joe Frazier’s and Ali’s fights both take place in December. With Leo gone, we have no competition and if we play are cards right, we can make a killing.” Don clasped his hands together as if feeling the money as he continued, “Leo is handing over his contacts, so we need to get busy. As we all know, the government is running us out of the number running business. They’re even proposing that the lottery proceeds help fund education. Now how can we compete with that?”
“I seriously doubt that any of them educational funds will make their way to our community. But this meeting isn’t about them lottery jokers, so I’ll just say this... if we make the right moves and don’t make no mistakes, we just might be able to retire when it’s all said and done.”
“Why’s Leo being so generous?” Stan Michael, Don’s second in command asked.
“He wants us to break him off half of the proceeds,” Don answered.
“Even though we getting ready to do all the leg work, and risk our necks on a hot contact list that the Feds are probably watching to see who bites first?” said Al Gamer, the lieutenant who all other lieutenants feared because he could smile at you, say good morning, put a bullet in your skull and then sit down and eat your breakfast.
Don loved Al’s ruthlessness, and often put him to work against his enemies. Smiling as he answered his enforcer, Don said, “Oh my friend, you know me so well. I already told Leo that we were assuming too much risk for a fifty-fifty cut. So, he has agreed to take forty percent. At this point, Leo just wants to make sure that his family will be well provided for while he does his time.”
His father sounded so benevolent with his talk about providing for another man’s family and giving another hustler his cut. Demetrius just couldn’t believe it. “So, you’re going to help Leo out?”
Don glanced over at his son. The smile he had for Al was gone. “Why wouldn’t I? Leo would do the same for me if I got jammed up like that.”
“That’s all good and everything,” Stan said, “but when are we going to put aside this penny ante money we raking in and get in the dope game? You already said that the government has taken over the numbers business. So, let’s just give it to them, and start raking in the real bread.”
“Stan has a point,” Al agreed, “Crack is blowing folks mind. I never seen people get strung out on something so fast.”
Don looked at his son. “What do you think?”
“It’s risky,” Demetrius answered. His father had always told him that dealing heroin was out of the question because he feared becoming an addict himself. Crack was different because they weren’t using a needle and putting that stuff in their veins. But it was just as lethal.
“No risk, no reward,” Stan said.
Don thought about that a moment. He nodded. “We need to become distributors to these little corner dope men out on these streets. If we sit at the top, we get most of the reward and fewer risks.”
Demetrius liked the sound of that. If he was making more money, then he would be able to stock pile enough loot to get out of this town. “I’m in.”
“Without a doubt,” Don said as he looked at his son as if Demetrius had no choice in the matter. “We are going to own this city. But we’ve got to earn enough money on these two fights before we can even think about elevating our business.”
“If we get too many winners there’s no way that we’ll have enough money to pay them all and still be able to come up the way you talking about coming up,” Joe-Joe said.
“Let’s cross that bridge when we get there. For right now all we need to do is collect the bets. Make sure to talk up Frazier and Ali,” Don told them.
Al laughed. “You gone crazy or something, Don? Everybody knows those two are way past their prime. They must be punch drunk to even think about getting back in the ring.”
“They know what we tell them. And if you say you’re putting your money on Ali or Frazier, most of them will too.” Don rubbed his hands together while licking his lips in anticipation. “I’m telling you, we’re gon’ make a killing.”
“Ali used to be like a super hero to me. But after that beating he took from Larry Holmes last year, I never thought he would get back in the ring.” Al shrugged as if it was no water off his back. “If he’s going to be stupid like that, I can’t think of any other group of people I’d like to see get rich from it.”