“Told me Tyrone was taking her to the store.” My grandmother rolled her eyes and took a seat at the table. “We know what kind of store that is. You been to see your aunt?”
“Not today. I went up there yesterday. You going by there?”
My grandmother sighed. “Yeah. I’ll probably spend the night. That’s why I’m cooking now.” My grandmother had smooth dark skin, and she almost looked younger than my mother. My grandmother may have had a hard life, but she stopped drinking alcohol in her thirties, and she had never smoked cigarettes or done any kind of drug. She was the only black person I knew that didn’t like chicken, and she didn’t eat red meat because it made her gout flare up. My grandmother was 5’8 with long hair thattouched the middle of her back, and it was gray from root to tip. There wasn’t an ounce of black in it, but her skin was wrinkle free.
“You need anything?”
My grandmother eyed me intensely before answering. “When are you going to get a job, Wilde? You know I don’t bother you too much, but you’ll be thirty-one soon. I’ve never met a girlfriend or any woman that you were serious with. You don’t have kids. Do you want to live the same way forever?”
“I don’t want kids.”
“Okay, and you don’t have to have kids. You don’t want a wife, either? Somebody in this family needs to get married. I’ve been to one wedding in my life. That’s sad as hell.”
“I doubt my wedding will be your second. I’m not even on that type of time. Nina and Pierre will get married before I do.”
That comment made her suck her teeth. “Nina needs to get married but not to Pierre’s ass. She needs to find a good man and give Pierre her black ass to kiss.”
Chuckling, I shook my head. “How you gon’ say she needs to do your grandson dirty?”
My grandmother tossed a nasty glare my way. “I don’t give a damn about him being my grandson. He’s been doing her wrong for years, and she deserves better. The day she finds someone that treats her right and wants to be there for her and her kids will be the day I dance a jig around that front yard.”
“If Pierre hears you say that, he’s going to have a bitch fit.”
“I don’t care. Pierre can’t whoop me. Niggas will get mad when they hear the truth.”
I laughed as my mother walked into the kitchen with a brown paper bag in her hand. It was crazy as hell to me that seeing her made me instantly think of Wonder. The entire reason that she was at Mazi’s house that day was because she was buying cough syrup. I’d seen her sipping it more than once, and she took somefrom the bottle I had in my kitchen. I didn’t drink it and since I made money off it, I knew how much I left in the bottle. She didn’t take much, so I wasn’t tripping, but something told me her lean drinking wasn’t just recreational. Shorty didn’t look or act like an addict, but I would bet money she was on that shit heavy.
Shorty was too pretty and had too much going for herself to let that lean fuck her life up. Just like I didn’t want her telling me anything when I was on the way to get at Boone, I’m sure she’d feel the same if I came at her about lean. I didn’t even know why I cared. It was her life. If she wanted to drink lean, that was on her.
“Hey, baby. ‘Bout time you stopped by. I thought I was going to have to pop up at your house to see you. How you been?”
“I’ve been good. What about you?” I wasn’t sure if I was tripping or if the whites of my mother’s eyes were slightly yellow. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if her liver was failing. I was shocked that it hadn’t happened sooner.
My mother’s left shoulder hiked into a shrug. “I’ve been tired lately. No matter how much I sleep, I’m still tired.”
“I don’t know why you’re surprised,” my grandmother grumbled. “You drink alcohol like its water, and you don’t drink water at all. Your insides are probably dust. You’re the walking definition of dehydration.”
“Yeah, you might want to go to the doctor,” I suggested.
“For what? For them to tell me I’m sick and need a bunch of medicine, and make me run back and forth to see them for me to probably not be cured and die anyway. I’m good.”
And I didn’t have shit else to say about it. My mom was grown. If she didn’t care about her health, I wasn’t going to care for her.
“You want something to eat?” my grandmother stood up.
“Yeah. Thanks.” I didn’t even know what she had cooked, but it didn’t matter because I would for sure eat it. My grandmother could burn in the kitchen.
I ate and visited with my folks for another thirty minutes or so. I slipped my grandmother some money before leaving. I gave my mother some money, too, but I gave my grandmother more. She actually paid bills. My mother was just going to take hers to the ABC store or a neighborhood liquor spot. There was an older married couple that lived a few blocks over from my grandmother and they had what we called a liquor house. From around 7 p.m. until about five in the morning, they sold liquor, beer, fried chicken, and fried fish.
I had plans to go home, but I found myself driving to Wonder’s house. For the most part, my business with her was done. The impromptu visit that I was paying her was more personal. She wasn’t rid of me just yet. When I arrived at her apartment complex, I spotted her whip in the parking lot. I didn’t know if she had company, and I didn’t care. I rang the bell and waited for her to answer. She had a Ring camera, so I knew she knew it was me.
Wonder opened the door a few moments later with a confused look on her face. “Can I help you?”
“Don’t act like we don’t have business.” I brushed past her without waiting to be invited in. The television in the living room was on, and it appeared that she was alone. My eyes traveled the length of her frame, and my manhood stiffened at her exposed legs. She wore a pink, silk robe that was only long enough to cover her ass cheeks.
“And what business is that? You did what you were going to do, right? You still trying to get underneath Drew’s skin?”
I invaded her personal space, and she swallowed hard. “What did I do?” I really didn’t like the fact that she’d witnessed me kill Mazi, and while everyone else could assume that me or Pierrekilled Boone and his baby mama, she knew for sure that it was us. Well, Pierre actually pulled the trigger, but I was there, and if I ever got arrested for it, I’d never utter his name.
