Get It Girls (28 page)

Chubby said in a low tone, “Tell your people to go around the corner and buy some food from M&G’s.”

M&G’s was a soul food restaurant that was part of the community for years.

“Tell her to buy enough for tomorrow too and to also buy some milk.”

He quickly followed Chubby’s orders and almost ran to Katie and explained to her what to do. She obeyed, put on a sweater, and was out the door.

When Chubby was sure she was gone, without warning, he slapped Sweets viciously across the room and he fell hard to the floor. The man cowered on the floor as Chubby approached him.

“Motherfucka, what kind of nigga are you to let your girl still smoke that shit while she pregnant with your baby?”

Sweets pleaded with his eyes for forgiveness. Chubby only looked down at the man with disgust and told him to stand up. Sweets rose to his feet with caution, and he once again stood before Chubby’s fierce and no nonsense eye’s.

“Here’s what you going to do,” said Chubby, in the most chilling tone, “By tomorrow, that li’l girl is going to be in some kind of hospital or one of those drug program so y’all can give that baby chance to live. You understand me?”

Sweets nodded his head rapidly to let Chubby know he got his point.

Chubby continued, “And, Sweets, if I find out she didn’t go in and you are playing me, I swear to God, you will never get a chance to see if you had a boy or a girl.”

Sweets nearly lost control of his bowels because he knew Chubby’s reputation and that it wasn’t an idle threat but a guaranteed promise that he would kill him.

“You ain’t gonna have to worry; we wanted to do that anyway for the baby’s sake. But first thing tomorrow when I get off in the morning, I’m gonna take her straight to Harlem Hospital. I promise you, Chubby. I promise!”

Chubby seemed convinced, so he changed the subject. “Ok, now me and my man here,” Chubby gestured behind him with his head, “we got some business to talk to you about. You remember the job we were going to do a while back?”

Sweets nodded his head and Chubby continued. “Well, it’s on again. Are you still down to be part of it?”

Again, the man nodded his head quickly.

Chubby knew he would say yes because he had no choice but to do so. “You still got all that information you gave me last time about the location of them explosives them niggas got hidden in the building?”

Sweets finally smiled and ran to the kitchen and removed a folded brown shopping bag and handed it to Chubby. “It’s right here, Chubby, and I got everything. I even know what kind of explosives they have set up, I know the best time to hit the place, how many people gonna be there on a given day, and what they will be packin’.”

Chubby handed the bag to Johnson and said, “What you gonna do now is sit down and answer any question my man ask you.”

Sweets nodded.

**********

Jessica’s head was still spinning after the events that transpired over the last 48 hours. She hadn’t slept or eaten the entire time she was there and still couldn’t believe that one of her best friends was really dead. Now that reality had set in, she knew she’d have to go home and face her mother and eventually Kenny. She hadn’t called or spoken to either in the past two days, and she knew both would be worried sick about her. The last thing in the world Jessica wanted was to have to explain to her mother where she had been. She wanted so badly to simply take a hot shower to wash away the shame and guilt she was experiencing at that moment and go to sleep.

Jessica finally made it home and hadn’t even made it halfway up the stairs to her building when the door flew open and there her mother and fiancée stood.

“Jessica,” her mother scolded, “where in the world were you?”

Jessica closed her eyes and put her head down, wondering what lie she could possibly tell them. She felt horrible as Kenny stood silent with a discerning look on his face. Ms. Jones continued to inquire the reason she hadn’t bothered to call, and Jessica knew that it wasn’t the time or the place to tell them what had gone on and simply walked right past them and up to her room. Over her shoulder, Jessica heard her mother yell more bad news, “Your parole officer was here yesterday. He said you haven’t reported into him in two months. He said that if you don’t report in today you will be arrested again.”

Jessica sat at the side of her bed pondering how much more could she actually take. The last 48 hours had physically and mentally drained her and pushed her to her limits. She suddenly broke down from all the stress and fell to her knees and asked God to help her.

“God, please help me through this. Please, God, help me by giving me the strength to overcome this. If not for me, just let me survive long enough to ensure the safety of my baby.”

Jessica took a deep breath and stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes. She gathered her thoughts and realized that she’d totally forgotten about reporting to her parole officer. With so much going on over the last few months it totally slipped her mind. She decided she would go see her parole officer first thing tomorrow morning, because she knew he could remand her back to prison for six months if she didn’t. Jessica was in dire need of a shower and sleep, so she began to get undressed to do both.

Moments later, and just as she expected, there was a knock on the door and it was Kenny. There was a brief silence until Kenny broke the ice.

“So, are you ok, Jessica?”

Jessica shook her head and continued to undress out of the stale clothes she had worn for the past two days. Kenny was growing angrier by the minute as she continued without so much as an explanation to why she was gone for so long.

“Jessica, can you at least stop and look at me?” Kenny finally asked.

She stopped and turned around to face him, but remained silent.

“What’s going on with you, Jessica? You disappeared for days without so much as a phone call and then you finally show up and don’t have anything to say?”

Jessica smoothed her hair out of her face, unsure how to answer him and only whispered, “I’m sorry.”

Her cavalier response only aggravated him more. “Is that all you have to say, Jessica? I’m sorry?”

“What do you want me to tell you, Kenny? Me, Vonda, and the rest of us had to take care of some business and we got caught up and lost track of time.”

“Jessica, you were gone for over two days! What’s so important that you couldn’t take time out and contact me or your mother to let us know you were ok?”

Jessica didn’t know how to answer. She knew she could not under any circumstance tell him the truth because it would cause a whole lot more problems for the both of them. She knew she was already knee-deep in conspiracy to commit robbery and murder and didn’t want him in involved in any way if something should go wrong.

Her silence constituted an admission of guilt to him because he painstakingly asked, “Jessica, are you seeing someone else?”

Jessica never expected that question and gave him a smile. “No, Kenny, it’s nothing like that. It’s just that we got caught up into something and we just lost track of time.”

“Jessica, please tell me the truth. I don’t know what I’m going to do if I lose you and the baby.”

For the first time she looked into his eyes and saw that he was actually hurt and concerned about possibly losing her. She approached him and took him by the hand and said softly, “Kenny, you are the first and only man I have ever been with and ever will want. You and the baby mean the world to me, and I would never do anything to put that in jeopardy. Right now I got something very, very, important that I have to take care of, but give me a few days and it will be all over with, I promise you. I can’t tell you everything, but I just need you to trust me on this, Kenny.”

Jessica could see through his eyes that he had a million questions to ask her and was fighting asking her.

“Jessica, it’s not about you or your friends anymore. You have your child in you—our child—and whatever you’re doing you’ll be jeopardizing its safety, and I can’t have that.”

His words stung because she knew that he was right, but she had no other choice and had come too far to turn back.

Jessica forced herself to smile then lied, “No, Kenny, it’s nothing like that. I wouldn’t do anything to put our baby in jeopardy.”

Kenny stared at her with conjecture, unsure, yet wanting to believe her.

Jessica said with forced excitement, “I tell you what, remember when you said you wanted to go away the Poconos Mountains and stay there, just the two of us, for the weekend?”

Kenny nodded.

“Well, after this is over I’m taking you there and I’m treating.” Jessica seductively wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a passionate kiss. When they pulled away Jessica mimed with her lips, “I love you.”

He blushed and repeated, “I love you too.”

Just like that, all was forgiven. She wrapped her arms around him to squeeze him closer and felt something bulky in his jacket pocket and asked, “What is that, Kenny?”

He pulled away and pulled the item in question out of his jacket pocket. “Oh, this, I wanted to surprise you. This is what they call a mobile phone.”

He held it up to show her. It was huge with a long antenna protruding from it.

Jessica looked at it oddly and chuckled. “What you need with a walkie-talkie, Kenny?”

Kenny smiled and said, “It’s not a walkie-talkie, it’s a real live phone. These are new on the market, only those rich Wall Street dudes have one of these. Since you having the baby and I be working outside all the time, I decided to get one of these so if you do go into labor and I’m not there you can call me wherever I’m at so I won’t miss the baby being born.”

Jessica was smitten by that fact that he was so concerned in the birth of his unborn child’s life at that moment and grew to love him even more. He handed it to her and it weighed a ton, she thought.

“You carry this around with you all day? It’s so heavy.”

“I usually keep it charging in the car, but I was waiting for a call from my uncle; he’s coming into New York up from Miami today and I have to pick him up from the airport.”

Jessica smiled and then thought for a moment and asked, “Kenny, is that the same uncle you told me sold drugs?”

Kenny tilted his head. “How did you know that?”

Jessica chuckled and reminded him, “You told me that years ago when we first met at Stevo’s party that you used to stay with him. Don’t you remember?”

Kenny thought about it for a moment and shrugged it off. “Yeah, that’s him, but he gave that shit up years ago and moved to Florida.” Kenny’s smile grew wider and said, “Damn, you got a good memory, I didn’t remember telling you that about him. He moved to Florida and got rich by buying condos and undeveloped land down there.”

Jessica nodded and said, “So, you going to introduce me to him? Because he would be the first person in your family I ever met.”

**********

Jessica was awakened by her mother and was told that she had a phone call and that it was Vonda. She adjusted her weary eyes and looked over at her alarm clock and saw that it was only 7:36 in the evening. “Ok, Ma, tell her I’ll be there in a minute.”

Her mother nodded and closed the door behind her. She looked beside her and saw that Kenny was still laying right next to her in a deep sleep and smiled. He told her that he, too, was up for the past two days worrying about her and hadn’t slept.

She scooted out of the bed, not wanting to wake him, and searched for her slippers and house gown. She went down to the kitchen and saw the phone dangling off the hook and picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Yo, Jess, it’s me, Vonda.”

“Yeah, what’s up?” Jessica asked, sensing something was wrong.

“Yo, Tiny is in the hospital.”

“In the hospital?” Jessica repeated.

“Yeah, they say she got walking pneumonia. And she’s fucked up real bad,” Vonda admitted.

“For real? How’d you find out?”

“Because the hospital called me and told me I should come down because they don’t think she’s going to make it.”

Jessica nearly dropped the phone. “Vonda, are you serious?”

“I’m not going to lie to you. They say it got something to do with that virus she got.”

Jessica remained speechless, unable to believe what she was hearing.

“Jessica? You still there?”

Jessica suddenly snapped out her trance and answered, “Yeah, I’m still here.”

“Are you ok?” Vonda asked with concern.

“Yeah, I’m ok. Which hospital are you at?”

“I’m at Harlem Hospital.”

“Ok, I’ll be there in a minute.”

Jessica hung up. She ran upstairs and woke Kenny and explained to him what was happening. Kenny didn’t blink and told her he was coming with her. As they both got dressed her mother, again, knocked on the door.

“Come in, Mama,” Jessica said, as she was putting on her sweater.

“What’s going on?” Ms. Jones inquired with genuine concern.

“Tiny’s in the hospital, Mama, and she’s real sick . . . they say she might not make it.”

Ms. Jones’ hand flew to her mouth and she shuddered. “Oh, my goodness, no.”

“I’m meeting Vonda there right now, so I might be there for a while.”

Her mother nodded and asked her to give her a call and let her know what was happening. Jessica nodded and she and Kenny were out the door.

When they arrived at Harlem Hospital, they rushed into the emergency room, looking frantically around for their friend. The place was packed with ailing patients who moaned on beds and gurneys as the sickening combination of antiseptic and death loomed in the air. Over her shoulder, Jessica heard a familiar voice and turned around and saw that it was Vonda waving for them to come over to where she was at.

They ran over, and when she got to the bed and saw her friend Tiny, Jessica gasped at the sight of her. Tiny’s shrunken and skinny body was beyond anything they would have imagined. Her skeletal, torn body was hooked intravenously to bags that hovered above her in into her tiny arms. She wore a flimsy hospital gown that exposed her body, and it was the first time that any of them saw her without the double and triple layers of clothing that she normally wore. She had an oxygen mask over her face, and her chest heaved heavily for each breath of air.