Authors: Nikki Turner
She informed Wiggles that she needed her to make contact with Joan and Wiggles did. In addition to the clothing, Joan sent $500 for Tressa with Wiggles.
Friday rolled around, and just like the crooked rental agent had promised, he had the apartment ready for her to move right in. She kept her end of the bargain and gave him three new crisp one hundred dollar bills. He presented her with the keys, and after only a week of being away from Lucky, she acquired a "home" for her children.
It may have been in the most crack-infested, grimiest, dirtiest government subsidized apartment complexes in Richmond, but at least she was away from crazy deranged Lucky. Guess he wasn't so lucky after all.
The Eastgate Village Apartments were brick with three floors and newly renovated. The city and government kept pouring money into the apartments to try to make them a better place to live. They built new playgrounds and a recreation center. The entrances were all blocked off except one, which made it one way in and one way out.
They even went to the extent to install a black iron gate, in an effort to supposedly keep all the rift-raft out, but no matter how much they tried, they were never successful.
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They did landscaping on the property to enhance it.
They also installed new laundry facilities. The city thought that if they made it a beautiful place to live, the residents would take care of it. But, the fact that it was new, didn't keep certain people from urinating in the laundry room, writing grifiti all over the walls and leaving broken forty ounce beer bottles and trash everywhere.
She drove down to the main street in the complex and as she cruised looking for the apartment address, tears started coming to her eyes. It was 11 a.m. and the hustlers were out slinging their products and the fiends were roaming, looking for their drug of choice, whether it is crack, heroine, liquid syrup or marijuana, or all of the above. They were all at their disposal. Since she was driving so slow, moving at a snails pace down the main street looking around, naturally the dealers thought she was looking for drugs. One dealer ran up to her car.
"Yo, what you want. I got the fattest 20's out here?" Another came over to the other side of her car knocking on the window. "Look, I got the biggest dope sacks out here and I'm going to look out for you." She was so upset and offended. She screamed. "I ain't looking for no motherfucking drugs!" One of the dudes backed up and threw his hands up. "I'm sorry baby."
The other one just screamed at her. "If you ain't looking then get the fuck from round here then!"
The NERVE of him! Now, I see why so many of our
brothers get locked up. They running all up to my car, don't
know me or my car. Now, what if I was the police? They all
would be locked up, begging for somebody to come and get
them out on bail. I mean, I don't knock anybody's hustle, but
can they not be so aggressive!
Once she approached the building marked 3012, she realized that the apartment was up on the 3rd floor.
She parked her car, hopped out and grabbed some of the things that she had bought earlier in the week and had been sitting in her trunk. When she approached the building, there was one guy sitting on the steps replacing the filter out of his Black and Mild cigar/cigarette and about to refill it so he could smoke another one. Another guy sitting beside him, was pulling on a blunt while another 83
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guy was just sitting there tying his shoe. There was also a stank looking girl with some old, raggedy braids in her hair that needed to be taken out and redone, examining her, which she would later find out is one of her neighbors, Meechie. All of the guys were in awe of Tressa, but none of them moved out of her way so she could get by without her having to say "excuse me".
She wanted to break down and cry, especially when she got to the top floor and noticed the large crap game that mainly consisted of thirteen or fourteen year old guys, going on right in front her door!
"Excuse me." She said to the fellas, not really wanting to trample over them. None of them budged, and all ignored her. She then took a deep breath, put a little pitch in and raised her voice. "Excuse me, CAN I GET
TO MY DOOR PLEASE?"
This still didn't mean anything to them, but one knucklehead said to her. "Wait a minute baby, let him just roll this one." She stood there and waited for this little thug-in-training to roll the dice, about to drop the things she had in her hand. They felt awfully heavy after hauling them up the three flights of steep stairs
.
When they finally moved, she put the key in the door to enter her apartment. Once she opened up the door, she couldn't believe her eyes! The apartment building was broke down on the outside, but it was very nice and clean on the inside. It was a three bedroom spacious apartment that consisted of one full bath in the hall and a half bath in the master bedroom. The apartment was even equipped with a dishwasher and garbage disposal. If only the environment was better, she thought to herself, but she decided she was going to make due until she could afford a better place to live.
The apartment itself is nice, but I hate the outside.
But at the same time, my children are safer here with me than
with that damn nut Lucky. I am just going to use this as a
stepping-stone to something better. I just have to keep
reminding myself, it ain't where you live, it's how you live. As
soon as I can get on my feet, I am outta here. Believe that!
She ran up and down the steps a few more times and unloaded the things she had in her car. She set them up neatly in the apartment, and then waited for the delivery 84
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people to arrive with the boys beds. When the beds came, she went to get groceries to stock the refrigerator. When she returned, she struggled with the bags to get up the stairs. A neighborhood drug boy walked up beside her.
"What's up Shawdy?"
She kept walking and ignoring him, but he kept talking. "You got a man?" He asked her. Giving him the cold shoulder didn't stop him from trying to pursue her.
"Can I take you out?"
She only walked faster as she continued to toil with the bags filled with groceries as she thought to herself,
now
here it is I am scrambling to get these bags up three flights of
steps, you ain't got a damn thing in your hand, and ain't
offered to help me. But you got the nerve to want me to
consider going out with you! Picture that? You can't; not even
with a Kodak!
On her way back to the hotel to get the children to take them to their new home, she stopped at a pay phone to make the call that she had been contemplating on all day.
Her heart began to race as she looked for a quarter to deposit in the payphone. The "Crime Stoppers" commercial came on the radio as she looked in the console for any kind of change.
"This is Deputy Investigator K. Knowitall and today, Richmond, I need your help with any information on locating the treacherous, perfidious person or people who committed the heinous double homicide this past Monday evening. Jasper Sisco, known by friends and family as Peako, had just driven off the showroom floor with his brand new 4.0 Range Rover that he purchased in expectance of the birth of his first son." Tressa froze in her tracks and chills began to go up her spine as she started to shake while the man continued with his deep, southern accent.
"Within the next thirty minutes, the perpetrator picked up Dena Dookie, known as Dee-Dee by all her friends, and as they stopped at the intersection of Horsepen Road and Glenside Drive, Peako was shot in the head while still sitting behind the wheel of his Range Rover. Dookie's body was found a few feet away from the vehicle. We are certain that this was done professionally and was drug related. We are working around the clock on this case, but 85
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we need your help. We need you to come forth with any information, small or large to bring this investigation to a close. The city has raised $250,000 to be paid to any individual with information leading to the arrest and conviction of the heinous individual responsible for this crime." Tressa sat in the car as beads of sweat rolled down her face. Her heart pounded as if she had just run a marathon. Her whole train of thought was thrown off. She snapped out of her astonishment, grabbed the quarter she found in the ashtray and continued to carry out her task to make the phone call.
Tressa dropped the quarter in the pay phone slot and the phone rang. "Yeah." The familiar voice answered.
"Hey, it's me," she said in a nonchalant tone.
"Hey baby, where the hell ya'll at so I can come and get you. Me, Killer and Dopeman really miss ya'll. Tressa, we are lonely without ya'll at the house." Although Lucky was heated and had been losing his mind, he played it cool.
After all, he had never been happier to hear from Tressa.
"Look, this is the deal, the people around this town want some answers. A snitch is nothing I have ever been, but when it comes to protecting my sons, on everything I love, it ain't no limit to how far I'll go for them. And you know this is right."
"I'm listening." He slowly said, because he knew how deep Tressa's love went for the twins.
"Well, my brother always said an eye for an eye right? Well, let us go about our way and in exchange I'll let you have your life and your freedom. I'll carry what I know to my grave, but should there be any fatal coincidental accidents that come my way, oh trust me, I got it set up so that you will go down like the Walls of Jericho. Do you understand?" She said with every ounce of emotion that she could muster.
"Tressa." He started to speak, but she cut him off.
"So, you better pray brother that no harm comes my way. I better not even break a nail or nothing! If the slightest little thing happens to my kids, it's Independence Day on your sorry ass. So, are we clear?" 86
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He was quiet for a few seconds. Khalil was actually left speechless, but only a few seconds passed before he let his frustration show.
"Oh, you think leaving me and taking my sons is going to be that easy? You think I am going to make your bed that easy to lie in?"
Tressa was quiet as Lucky continued to talk. "Since you want me out of ya'll life, then don't call me and ask me for shit! You play the role of mommy and daddy." Lucky, I been doing that all along. All this time ya ass been running the streets. It's been me who been holding it together. Not you."
"Well, scrammmm, since you want it like this. I ain't going to help you do shit for the kids.
Tressa wanted to cry when she heard the cold tone of his voice, but she held her own. "You know what? With you out of my life shit can't do nothing else but escalate boo, believe that! You were hindering me."
"A'ight, this is how you want it. I am going to let you go in peace." Lucky calmly stated. "And just so you know, I'll never, I mean never hurt you or my boys believe that, and that's on everything I love." He almost sounded sincere, but Tressa knew differently. Lucky continued. "If I ain't a part of your life, you can't get no type of help from me."
"Oh, OK. This is how you want to carry it? Always remember Tressa gonna get the last laugh. Believe that!" Tressa started to scream out of her hurt. Although she had known deep down that it was never about her children, it was always about her. This was the first time reality actually sat in. Lucky wasn't going to be a father to Hadji and Ali because he wasn't with her.
What do I have to
do with their relationship with their father? I can't
understand why he would dare hold it against my babies
because I don't want to be with him. I mean, at first I was
feeling he doesn't even deserve a relationship with my kids
after the fiasco the other night. But in all actuality, every little
boy needs his father. I can be the best mother that I can be,
but ultimately, there are things that a woman can't teach a
little boy. I will never slander Lucky's name to them, I will
simply let them draw their own conclusions about their father.
I hope that one day Lucky will grow up and get past, that it's
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not about us, but about the boys. It doesn't matter how I feel
about him or how he feels about me.
Her thoughts were interrupted when the car behind her blew its horn to signal that the light had turned green.