RIPPED & READY (PART 94)

RIPPED & READY (PART XCIV)

            Call me Bobby Fischer because I just checkmated this shady ass nigga with a power move.  Instead of dragging this questionable paternity out and keeping my reservations inside to fester, I put the “got-dayum” shit out there because I wanted to know today – not tomorrow or six months down the line – Now.  So much had occurred that I wasn’t about to stay docile and obedient for long periods of time anymore.  I was my mother’s child but I was not my mother.  I commend her on her ability to continue lying down night after night sleeping beside a cheating bastard for the sake of her children and her own security, but you know what…

          Fuck all that shit.  I refused to live my life like that. 

          All respect in the world goes to my moms and her strength for being able to turn the other cheek because that is the stuff that martyrs are made of, but I didn’t want to wake up older and one foot away from the grave knowing that I was a “welcome mat” at the doorway throughout my life.  God forgive me if this isn’t the way I should be thinking, and please guide me to where it is you want me to be, but I have to believe that you want better for us, your children. 

          Ewuare had Todd stitched up within thirty minutes and both of them said their goodbyes, leaving behind the scene of an unreported crime.  The tension between my two sisters was as thick as Tule Fog – neither of them could see further than an inch of their hate and despise of one another.  I knew that it was for them to work out because I was not in the mood to play referee in other people’s conflicts.  My sister was getting to be a big girl and it was time she learned to fight her own battles (and by that I mean she needed to learn how to choose her battles with a lot more tact).

          She should realize just how close she came to being taken to jail.  If Todd didn’t have the Nigerian connection, her ass would be sitting behind bars as we speak because, now I love my sister, but I wasn’t taking a rap for no “got-dayum” body.  I knew that, as a black man, here in the U. S., I would be just another number with black and white stripes on in a racist judicial system.  I knew black women weren’t too far behind us in the disregarded and put up with category either, but it was far more worse for a black man. 

          "Give-us-free"

          Now pops on the other hand was an entirely different story.  I looked over at his nasty ass, sitting over there in that easy chair, reclined, with his mouth wide open, slobbering, and snoring like he had done a hard day’s labor.  I decided to leave him alone for the rest of this night (or early morning since it was 5:00am) and deal with him when he had sobered up.  When he woke his slouchy ass up I wanted him to answer some burning questions about his dirty dealings.  Peewee’s admission;  about him owing out a great deal of money assured me that this was why he had been pressuring my mother to sell the house.  He was trying to scrape up money to pay off his debts and to save his surly ass. 

          Were they gambling debts?

          Where they drug debts?

          Where they blackmailing debts?

          I didn’t know, but for my mother’s sake I was going to grill his ass like a fat roasted pig until I found out.

          With all that sorted out in my head, I shifted my attention back to the hazel-eyed weasel standing before me, looking like a “got-dayum” shame.  He was leaning up against the wall, posing like he was being photographed a press conference.  When he narrowed his eyes at me, I assumed he was trying to figure out where I was coming from, but he didn’t know exactly what to say or how to say it. 

          I instructed my two sisters to take their asses to bed in different rooms.  I warned them that I would be the next one kicking some ass up in here tonight if I heard a peep from either of them.  Danita needed to get over it – Denise was our sister and we needed to be helping her, not disowning her.  Hell, she had already been through enough – I mean, come on, she was putting in work with her old man – that had to be humiliating for her.  Then, on top of that, her mother had been killed because of her association with our low-life of a father –so we all had that in common. 

          When Danita and Denise disappeared behind the doors of their respective rooms, I turned to D’Andre and asked him point blank if he had stuck his dick where it didn’t belong. I watched his eyes very closely, because usually you can tell if a motherfucker is lying just by looking at their eyes. 

          They darted to the left.

          They shifted to the right.

          They looked up at the ceiling.

          When they were about to look down at the floor, I broke the silence.

          “Well, motherfucker, what have you got to say for yourself?” I asked, folding my arms, waiting for him to open up his fucking mouth.

          Still there was no response. 

          I watched him fidgeting for a minute or so and then I popped off another question, asking him about his association to Peewee, the late Lance, and Darrius.  It was time for this joker to come clean all the way.  I was sick of him and his fucked up ass ways. 

          Still there was nothing. 

          I walked over to him, and slammed him up against the wall.  I had started smelling myself real good, because I had almost forgotten the beat down that he put on my ass at Claim Jumper’s, but I didn’t give a fuck. 

          “Take your motherfucking hands off me, nigga!” he said, pushing me back with defensive force. 

          Once my feet found a stable place, I planted them and didn’t move. 

          We both stared each other down like two fighters in the ring before the fight. 

          “You really don’t want any more of me, Marco, so you need to sit your pudgy ass down some place,” he said, putting his hand on my chest like I was a punk.

          I knocked it off without blinking an eye.

          “Okay, Marco, that was strike two,” he warned me. 

          Before it could escalate into total chaos again, another early morning knock interrupted the heated exchange.   

          Who in the fuck could this be at 5:00AM?