“How much is that?” I asked.
“You got just under four.”
“Four? Four what? Ounces? Oh, hell no motherfucker! You must think I’m crazy!” My temper started to rise as I stared across at the nigga sitting across from me. I didn’t really know much about cocaine, but the coke we’d discovered, wrapped up beneath the tree in the KFC bucket, I knew felt heavy enough to be at least eight ounces. At least! I was eager to get this transaction over with. I already had some dough, and even more pressing plans that I needed to carry out. I was yet to come to grips with the killing of a man. Taking a life. Playing God. But it was over now, and I was only left with two choices. Get up and live, or lay down and die. Just like him. Fuck that! I’m a survivor. He deserved to die. We stashed the money, as we waited a few days to see what might happen. No sense in going bananas with the money if we were gonna need it for our jail commissary. We hadn’t heard shit. There was a very small write up in the Durham Herald, where they’d actually talked more about his extensive criminal past, than his untimely death. They’d chalked it up as a drug deal gone bad. Another dead nigga. No big deal. Good riddance. Now, after a week and three days, we were here trying to sell this coke off cheap, and this nigga was yet still trying to play us! Niggas and flies. One eats shit the other tells lies. “So you trying to tell me, that ain’t but four ounces right there?” I tried to look and sound confident although I could sense that he knew I was desperate. Shell reached under his shirt, where I knew his pistol lay hidden. I hoped like hell he didn’t start shooting! He had a different look in his eye since murdering Fletch. At times, I felt like I didn’t know who he was anymore. But it was him. Just out there on a natural high since blowing a motherfuckers’ brains out!
“Man hell no that ain’t four ounces! That’s four bricks! Four kilos my niggas.” He reiterated as I thought for a second I’d heard him wrong. The nigga I was talking to was named Hood. I was thinking maybe he’d seen Shell’s pistol and was lying to try and ease the tension of the situation. “The blow just compressed bru. I can probably call my man and get y’all fifteen thousand a piece. That’s sixty thousand.”
“What!” I was excited and scared at the same time. Excited by the mention of all that money, and scared about the fact of knowing that if Hood tried to snake me, he’d be the next one murdered. We already had the twenty - five thousand stashed in the woods beside the graveyard on Miami Blvd. If what dude was spitting was true, that would be ninety thousand dollars! What the hell was we gonna do with all that money! “How long will it take you to get back wit us after you see your man?” I asked Hood.
“Meet me at Miami Subs on Hillsborough Rd. tomorrow at nine o’clock. I should have the bread then.”
I was hoping like hell we could trust this cat. Hood was one of Shell’s sister Latonya’s boyfriends, and Shell felt like the nigga was solid. I knew Latonya was a slut. Everybody did. But I trusted Shell. So that’s why we were trusting this nigga. “We’ll be there. But don’t bring nobody with you. We don’t wanna meet nobody.” Shell nodded in agreement. Immediately after, we stood and went our separate ways, waiting to see what story the next day would tell. Later that night we went and dug up the twenty-five thousand. Like I’d said, to the police Fletch was just another dead nigger drug dealer. The coast was clear. We split the money twelve five a piece, before dapping each other up and agreeing to meet up the next night. I knew Shell had something on his mind but he still wouldn’t talk about it. He would when he was ready I guessed. After stopping by my house to let my moms know I was alive, I showered, changed clothes, then hopped in a cab over to Tika’s. Right before I’d left the crib, my moms had said something about Tika’s mothers’ boyfriend getting killed. I brushed it off like I hadn’t heard, and hit the door running! Everybody knows, that if anybody can tell when you’re lying like a motherfucker, it’s your mom dukes. Mama was all I had. I hadn’t seen my pops since I was three. To me, he didn’t exist. Mama worked two jobs, so I was at home alone a lot. She tried her best to keep track of me but it was damn near impossible. I don’t know if she had a boyfriend or not. On some rare occasions, she’d stay out all night. Always informing me that she was going out with her girlfriends and to behave myself. One thing for sure, she never brought no niggas up in our crib. And for that, I respected her to the utmost. Shell’s mama Ms. Tina was the exact opposite. She kept some bum running in and out of their crib. One day it was one nigga; the next day it was another. And the beat goes on and on. When I got to Tika’s crib, Ms. Samantha answered the door. I could tell she’d been crying. The only thing she said to me was, “Tika’s upstairs in her room,” before walking away leaving the door standing wide open. I came in, closed the door behind me, and headed upstairs. As soon as I stepped into the room, Tika rushed up to me throwing her arms around my neck, before ecstatically raining kisses, all over my face with glee! You’d think that she hadn’t seen me in years, by her excited and clingy behavior!
“I’m sorry Teddy! Please don’t hate me!” She begged as tears ran down her cheeks. I hadn’t told her shit, but I knew she had to suspect that I was behind Fletches death. Strangely she felt like everything that’d happened was somehow all her fault.
“I ain’t mad at you Tika. I don’t hate you neither, so quit talking that crazy shit, come over here and sit down.” I reassured her as I pulled her down next to me on the bed. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out one hundred, one hundred dollar bills. Almost half the money we’d taken from Fletches freezer. Tika’s eyes almost popped outta her head! “Here, I want you to take this. It’s for you and your moms to move outta these projects.”
“Oh my god Teddy! How much is it?” Tika beamed as she’d accepted the money from my -outstretched hand.
“It’s ten thousand. Tell your mama I won it gambling. Tell her I’ll have some more but I probably won’t make it back over here till tomorrow.
“Thank you Teddy! Oh, my god, thank you!” Again, Tika threw her arms around my neck and cried. I actually had to pry her arms from around my neck as I got up to leave.
“I love you Tika.” It was the first time I’d ever said that to a woman, or girl for that matter. It felt weird, but I knew it was true.
“I love you too Teddy. Hurry up back.” Tika smiled wiping angry tears.
“I will baby. I will.”