“What if we offer you right now, three hundred thousand?” Lance offers. He’s a bit taller than Mr. Kardashian and slimmer. I guess I was talking to Kim, and this one is Khloe. I wonder where Kourtney is. “What do you say?”
“I say you’re lowballing me from the jump and you hope my naiveté and age will prove I’m stupid enough to take you on that offer.” I produce a business card of my own. “If you’re serious about this home, you’ll call and speak with Prince Jones. He’s my father and my aunt’s brother. Good day, gentlemen.”
I make my way towards the house as I overhear my auntie apologize to the men for my rudeness and she assures them I’ll change my mind. I’m not even a few feet into my home when Gloria comes barging in. “You are so damn rude!”
“Why in the hell were you entertaining those men?” I ask. “This is not your home. You have no right to tell anyone what I plan to do with it.”
“Do you want to stay here in the ‘hood, Keisha? People are shot for no reason here! Didn’t a few of your friends die within the past few years because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time? Do you like being inside when it’s only six o’clock at night because if you step foot outside you might get shot? Do you like hearing helicopters and seeing police chases up and down our street? I don’t! I don’t want to stay here! I want to get the fuck out of Inglewood!”
“Then go!” I shout. “I’m not forcing you to stay here. If you want to leave, ain’t nobody stopping you from doing so. But what you not gon’ do, is talk to some scammers about me selling this home. You keep talking about black-owned this, black-owned that. How we need to have pride in our community. And then you gon’ get mad at me because I refuse to sell to some Kardashians? Woman, have you lost your damn mind?”
“You’re not going to get a better offer than that, Keisha!” Gloria shouts back. “You think any black realtors are going to offer 300 grand for this home? You think any Latino realtors are going to look out for you? They don’t care about you, Keisha. They don’t care about anyone than themselves. They ain’t trying to learn English, but you have to learn Spanish. How does that feel?”
“It feels like you voted for the wrong candidate this last election,” I smart back, “listen, I’m not selling the home until I’m ready and I don’t know when that’ll be. If you don’t want to stay here, don’t. But please, don’t worry about what I’m going to do when my decisions will not affect your life. Now please excuse me, I need to clean up my home.” I turn around to leave when Gloria stops me again.
“For that white boy that comes over?” She says. “That guy who only comes over for a few hours and leaves? You think I don’t know what’s going on? It’s obvious he’s using you and you’re letting him. I have to say he’s an upgrade from that Jalen fella, but not much. You think that white boy wants to come over here with the possibility he’s going to get shot every time he steps foot inside your home? You need to think about how your actions are affecting other people.”
I turn around and shake my head. If my auntie wanted to hurt me, she did a splendid job. “I sell this home and you’re not getting a dime. You think you’ll be able to stay here while Becky and Timmy gentrify the hell out of it? Rents are going up all over L.A. and everyone is being pushed out. You think it won’t apply to you? I can leave anytime and not look back, but you cannot say the same. I’m keeping this home because if I don’t, it’ll beyouon the streets, not me. Now if you have anything else smart you want to say, save it. I have a guest coming over tonight and I need to smudge the hell out of this house to cleanse it from your negative bullshit. Good day!”
