“You look scared,” I said, sliding into the booth across from Kyle. We were at the Landmark Diner on Northern Boulevard, one of our old late-night haunts.
“Shit, I am scared, and you should be too,” Kyle replied, scanning the room like some cop was going to pop up out of nowhere at any moment to bust us.
He’d been acting that way since the second he realized it was me in that parking lot and not a deranged transvestite carjacker. You should have seen him pull out of that parking lot like a bat out of hell, driving all crazy, looking in his rearview mirror every five seconds. He must have circled the block ten times before getting on the Grand Central Parkway, only to get off at the next exit and circle the block ten more times. It literally took us forty-five minutes to go eight miles because he took so many damn detours.
“Do you know that a few hours ago a U.S. deputy marshal was at my club warning me not to do exactly what I’m doing now?” He sighed loud and long between gritted teeth. I swear he looked like he was about to shit a pickle. “I shouldn’t even be here right now. Lisa is going to kill me.” He placed both hands on the table like he was about to get up.
“Hey, just calm down a sec, okay,” I told him in a low and even voice. “Nobody followed us, and if we were going to be busted, we would have never made it into this diner.”
He stared across the table, looking me up and down with contempt. “How the fuck am I supposed to be calm when I’m sitting across from the most wanted man in New York?”
“Can I take your order?” A cute waitress, probably in her early twenties, placed two glasses of water in front of us. She glanced at me but looked away quickly. I’d learned that in this day and age, people in New York didn’t like to stare at transgender people, because it was rude and politically incorrect. For me it was almost as if I was hiding in plain sight, but then I noticed that she looked more surprised to see Kyle. The way she gawked at him made me wonder if he had screwed her or something. I’d never known Kyle to cheat, but I had been gone a long time, so maybe things had changed.
“Uh, hi, Mr. Richmond,” she said, and then I knew he hadn’t had sex with her. Nobody you fuck calls you Mister.
Kyle tried to maintain his composure, but I could tell it was a struggle. Can’t say I blamed him, considering he would have to figure out how to introduce me now.
“Uh, hi, Tiffany. I didn’t know you worked here.” He waved weakly.
“Yeah, three days a week. How’s Kiki?” Kiki was a nickname for Kyle’s daughter Kim.
“She’s, uh… good. She’s at St. John’s, plugging away to finish her senior year. How about you?”
“I’m a senior at C.W. Post.” Now she was openly stealing glances at me, and Kyle couldn’t avoid introducing us.
“Uh, this is my colleague, uh—”
“I’m Jada,” I cut in, using the most feminine voice I could muster. “I’m the wig buyer for his company.” I flipped my hair for effect.
“Hi, I’m Tiffany.” She offered her hand, looking totally comfortable with my presence. I guess kids nowadays weren’t shocked by much.
“Nice to meet you, Tiffany. You think we can get two steaks, medium well, with all the trimmings? And a couple of Cokes?” If I was going to get Kyle to truly calm down so we could talk, I needed her to go away.
Tiffany took the hint and cut short the small talk. “Sure. I’ll be right back with your drinks.”
She walked away, but Kyle and I just sat there staring at each other. I’m sure he was about as embarrassed as he’d ever been. There we were, in one of our old haunts, sitting across from each other like the good old days—except I was in a dress and full makeup. Aside from worrying that our waitress might somehow recognize me as the fugitive from the TV, I knew that I had less to worry about than Kyle at the moment. Imagine what it would be like as a married man to be sitting across from a cross-dresser and have your daughter’s friend roll up on you.
“Is this what ten years in prison does to a man? Turns you into… Jada?” Kyle asked, finally breaking our silence.
I frowned. “It’s a disguise, a’ight?”
“Well, you look real comfortable in your disguise.” He rolled his eyes, looking like he wanted to throw up.
“Hey, I know this isn’t easy, but I needed to see you.” I reached over to pat his hand, but he pulled it back abruptly, just as Tiffany brought over our drinks and some coleslaw. I was sure she heard what I’d said, and God only knows how she’d interpret it, but she at least played it cool, setting down our things and walking away without a word.
“Man, as bad as I want to know why Madea is sitting across from me, I’m going to ask you something even more important,” he said sternly. He was no longer paranoid or embarrassed; he was starting to look upset. “Why the hell did you break out of prison?”
I sat back in my seat. “Because they denied my parole.”
“Bullshit. I’m not Allen or Wil, and you can’t fool me. Did you forget I’m the one paying for your lawyer? They would’ve granted you parole if you just showed remorse and took responsibility for your crime. Why didn’t you?”
I shook my head. “Why should I have to admit to something I didn’t do?”
“Because those motherfuckers were going to let you out, that’s fucking why!” He slammed his hand down on the table, then remembered where we were and lowered his voice so as not to attract any more attention. “Sometimes standing up for principles is overrated when it comes to your freedom. This ain’t apartheid or the Civil Rights Movement, and you’re not Martin or Mandela. What the fuck is wrong with you, man?” He was really getting worked up now.
“I have to stand for something. If I admitted to raping her, I would have to sign up as a sex offender. I’m no sex offender, Kyle.” I sighed. “I got daughters.”
“Yeah, you got daughters who haven’t seen you in ten years.”
Wasn’t much I could say to that. I hung my head and listened to him continue his rant.
“You fucked up, bro. Did it ever occur to you that you’re a convicted rapist? It doesn’t matter if you admit it or not. You were going to have to sign up as a sex offender no matter what.”
Once again he was right, but when you’ve been done wrong by the system, those little wake-up calls never occur to you until it’s too late.
“That’s why I have to clear my name,” I said.
“What I don’t understand is, if your principles are so damn high, why the fuck did you escape? You could have just rode out your sentence. Now you’re not only a convicted felon, but you’re also an escapee.”
“Jordan,” I said flatly.
“What about him?”
“I did it for him. I did it for my son.” My jaw tightened as my mind went somewhere else—a dark somewhere else. I balled my hands into fists. “I can’t let that crazy bitch do this to my son. I’ll kill her before I let that happen.”
My voice must have been a little too loud, because Kyle looked around nervously and said, “Whoa, you need to relax.”
I unclenched my fists and took a few deep breaths to try to calm down.
“Who’s trying to do something to Jordan?” he questioned. Kyle loved all three of my kids, but he especially loved Jordan, his godson. “Just slow down and tell me what’s going on.”
I didn’t even know where to start. Talking about this was going to be harder than I thought. I dug down into my bra, pulled out a folded piece of paper, and extended it to him.
“Really, Jay.” He took the paper with two fingers, looking at it with disgust on his face.
“What?” I said to him. “You’d rather I pulled it out my Victoria’s Secret drawers?”
He shuddered like the thought frightened him. “All right, you have a point there.” He unfolded the paper and read what was on it. “I don’t understand. Who sent this to you?” he asked when he looked up at me.
“It had to be that bitch Ashlee. She’s the only one I know who would sign a letter Love, A. Plus, the postmark was from Dallas.”
“Damn, you sure know how to pick them, don’t you? That girl was in love with you. What the fuck did you do to make her hate you so much?”
I gave him a devilish smile. “I put it on her like she’d never had it put on her before. Drove her ass crazy—literally,” I joked.
Kyle wasn’t laughing, “Or maybe Ashlee was cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs when you met her crazy ass, but you was so enthralled with how fine she was and how good the pussy was that you overlooked all the obvious signs of fatal attraction.”
I wasn’t laughing now, because he had hit the nail on the head. Ashlee was crazy and it wasn’t just because I broke her heart. There was something wrong with her way before I met her. “You’re right,” I finally said. “I should have seen it coming.”
“Hell, I met her a few times. I should have seen it coming too,” he said sympathetically. He lifted the letter. “What does this mean? It says the same thing that happened to you is going to happen to your child.”
“She’s going after my son,” I said, feeling the rage, which was constantly bubbling below the surface, threatening to boil over. That happened to me every time I thought of Ashlee. “I won’t let that happen. I don’t care if I have to spend the rest of my life locked up.”
I was fighting back tears now at the thought of my child having to ever go through even one day of what I’d endured for the last ten years. “I know you’re mad at me, Kyle, but I need your help. My son needs your help,” I said, my voice cracking.
I was able to regain my composure when he reached out and took my hand. “Don’t worry, bro. She ain’t doing nothing to Jordan, ’cause I got your back.”