“So you really are doing it?” He said sitting in the black recliner.
“I told you. Ain’t nothin’ in DC for me no more.”
“What about Jace? I thought you two would get married when the time was right.”
“He put shit in perspective for me the other day…As long as he thinks I’m a whore, I will forever be a whore. And who wants to marry a person like that?” I said forcing my pain deeply into the pit of my stomach. It hurt too much to hear and understand the truth. That I had messed up my chances with the one person I really loved.
He took another pull of his weed and said, “So when you gonna tell me what you wanted with that jailbird? The one who kidnapped you?”
“It’s best you don’t know.”
“You know that nephew of mine stepped to me and told me to stay away from you the other day.” He laughed. “That boy’s fucked up in the head and he don’t even know it.” I never told Grand about the things Kali did to me, mainly because I was too embarrassed. “Are you fucking him or something?”
“Not anymore.” I paused.
“That explains everything.”
“Hey, Grand, why is Kali…You know…So violent? Did something happen to him when he was younger?”
“That boy was doomed from the day he was born.” He said firing up another joint. “My sister didn’t just get high with him, she stayed high with him. When she was with his father Rufus, Kali at least ate two squares. But when Rufus got clean off the drugs, and she wasn’t, he left both of them.
“Whenever she got high, she’d leave Kali with anybody who had a floor. But when she wouldn’t come back for him for days at a time, people got hip to her shit and wouldn’t let Kalive stay at their houses no more. So she started leaving him in this abandoned one bedroom apartment she lived in. But she had two dogs in that place too and they were just as hungry as Kalive.”
“Dogs? Why?”
“She figured the dogs would keep people from coming in. She didn’t care that her son was in there alone with them.” He said shaking his head. “If my trifling ass sister Bernie brought Kalive food, and left him in the house with those hungry dogs by himself, they’d fight him for it and would eventually take it from him. Look at his body, he got bruises all over from dog bites.”
I remembered the dog marks when we took the shower together. Damn.
“This went on for days at a time, until one day she came home after being gone for a month. And both dogs were dead. But one of them…One of them…” Grand paused.
“What?! Spit it out!”
“The boy ate one of them to survive.”
“Grand, please tell me you lying.”
“I wish I was, Harmony. But I couldn’t play with nothing like that even if I tried.”
Kali’s life was way worse than I ever could’ve imagined and as long as he stayed away from me, I didn’t care.
“What happened to his mother?”
“I don’t know. People saying she moved out of the state, some people saying he killed her. No one ever really found out.”
I shook my head and said, “He is really fucked up.”
“More than you can imagine.”
I kicked it with Grand for a few minutes and went back to house. When I got home, my grandmother was in the living room on the phone. Most of the things I was taking were neatly organized and stacked against the side of the wall. And reminded me of my decision to go.
“Look, talk to this damn teacher and tell her you were lying about what you said. She been callin’ my damn house every day threatening to have folks come over here because of you.”
I rolled my eyes, got on the phone and said, “Yes?”
“Harmony?”
“Yes!” I repeated with an attitude.
Silence.
“Harmony, I understand you’ll be leaving to stay with your aunt in Texas soon. Is this right?”
I looked at Shirley and said, “Yeah…So what?”
“Well, what are you going to do about an education? You don’t even have your diploma.”
“There are schools there you know.” I said, as if I had intentions on going to any of them. “I am enrolling there.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“I don’t know, Mrs. Duncan.”
“Harmony, if you don’t go to school, how are you going to support your baby?” She persisted. “You need an education.”
“Who told you I was pregnant?” I said already knowing it was Shirley’s ass.
“That doesn’t matter, Harmony. But I hate seeing young black women go down the road you’re traveling. And you need…Help. If you were sexually abused, then we can help you.”
“I thought you were sending somebody to come over here. To question my grandmother and her son.” Shirley stomped around in place. “What happened to that?”
“I was told your uncle died and they believe he was the one who hurt you. People find it hard to believe that your grandmother could be so cold.”
“This is why kids don’t tell the truth! Nobody believes them.” I hung up in that bitch’s face.
“You so fuckin’ pathetic!” Big Shirley said. “That’s a damn shame.” She continued getting some gin. “You really told people about what goes on in my damn house. And I want you out tonight.”
“Shirley, come on now, I’m your granddaughter.” I said. “Let me stay until tomorrow and I’ll be out of here for good, I promise.”
She frowned and said, “And you betta tell them friends of yours to stop callin’ my damn house!”
“Shirley, considering what you have done to me and considering how you threw all of my shit out of my bedroom and into the living room…I should be able to have anybody call I want.”
“When are you movin’ again?”
“Tomorrow.” I said.
“Good!” She said walking to the back of the house.
“Can you at least tell me who called?” I asked. “Other than my teacher?”
“Jace!” She said bending the corner.
“Jace?” I said running behind her. “What…What did he say?”
“I ain’t no answering service, girl. Call him back.”
I quickly ran to the phone but when I did, it rang. It was Shirley’s friend Lola from up the street. “Lola, can Shirley call you back? I was about to make a call.”
“Naw…She asked me to get a number for her. And I have it and need to talk to her now. Somebody owes her some money.”
“Lola, I got to make a call. Can I have her call you right-”
“I know damn well you ain’t about to redirect one of my calls!” Shirley came from behind me, going for the phone.
I rolled my eyes and said, “I’m just trying to call Jace. It’ll be…”
“Bitch, give me my phone!” she said pushing me away. Shirley was very strong when angry even though she was old.
I didn’t give her shit and the next thing I know, we were tussling for the phone. If Jace called me and couldn’t get in contact with me, how did I know he would call back? I was leaving tomorrow and chances are he would think I was dodging his calls. No I had to talk to him and I had to talk to him now.
When Shirley had the phone in her hand, and was about to walk away, I kicked her in the back and she fell. I know it was fucked up that I had kicked my grandmother but I didn’t give a fuck.
“Bitch, you gonna wish you didn’t put your hands on me!” Shirley said from the floor.
“I put my foot on you, bitch! Get it right!”
“Fuck a day, I want you out of my house, tonight!”
She was right…We hated each other too much to last another night in here alone together. Somebody was going to die and it wouldn’t be me. I gave all I was willing to give and didn’t have anything left. She and her daughter took my father, and then I watched my mother murdered. I can still taste her blood on my lips. Then I lived in secrecy as my uncle and grandmother raped me for years of my life. I started to hate people, especially women, because all of them seemed to hate me.
“I just wanted to use the phone, Shirley!” I said placing it back on the hook to get a dial tone. The moment I did, it rang again.
“Hello?”
“Did you get my message?” Jace asked.
His voice sounded soothing and I wanted him to hold me. I decided after all of the drama I was in, if he gave me another chance, I’d be serious about him. And never cheat on him again.
“J…Jace?”
“Yeah. What you doin’ tonight?” He asked.
“Nothing.”
“I’m trying to see you.”
“Okay,” I smiled. “Can you come get me?”
“I’ma send Kevin to pick you up. Bring some overnight clothes, too.”
I looked at my stuff on the floor and decided to take my most important shit. I knew Shirley wasn’t letting me back in the house for nothing else. And I didn’t wanna come back.
“I’ll see you soon,” I said with a big ass smile on my face.
“Good, ‘cause we gotta talk about you…And us.”
“Us?”
“Yeah…If you really are carrying my baby, I’m ready to be serious about you.”
When I got off the phone with Jace, I was lifted. This was the one thing I realized I always wanted. A family. With a father for my baby, like I had before my father was murdered and taken from me. And now, there was a possibility of having a family again. But what about the call I put in? I had to get in contact with Grand now! Maybe it wasn’t too late to stop the hit! The only thing is, his party is today!
Angry Eyes
Kali stood outside of Grand’s door for ten minutes before he knocked. He was grappling with whether or not he should step to him about Harmony. He decided to do just that because when it came to her he couldn’t see straight and was blindly obsessed. Plus she had information that could put him in jail for good.
“What you doing out there, Kali?” Grand asked opening the door. He was preparing to go to 7 Eleven because he always got hungry after smoking weed.
“Can I come in?”
Grand hesitated at first but then stepped back and allowed him to walk inside. When they were both in, Grand locked the door and they sat down.
“What is it, son? I’m on my way out.”
“Are you…Fucking Harmony?”
Grand swallowed hard, moved around a little in his recliner and said, “You know damn well that young girl ain’t giving me no pussy. My luck ain’t been that good since I hit the lottery for ten thousand that one year.”
Silence.
“That ain’t what I asked you, nigga. I asked you are you fuckin’ her?” His eyes were wild and he was sweating.
“Come on, Kalive. What’s this really about?” He said with a guilty look on his face. “Are you two together?”
Kali stood up, walked toward him and said, “I’m askin’ the questions.”
“
Okay. Well…To answer your question correctly, son, I’d have to say, no, I’m not fucking her.”
“
How come I don’t believe you?”
“
Kalive…”
“
Kali.” He said cutting him off. “Niggas call me Kali now.”
“
Okay, well, Kali, she came over to ask me for a favor. That’s it. You know she wouldn’t be the slightest bit interested in me.”
Just then his phone rang but he didn’t answer. He didn’t know it was Harmony begging him to somehow get back in contact with the kidnapper to call things off. But her youth didn’t allow her to understand that once vengeance has been set into motion, there are no calling things off.
“
What was the favor?”
“
I can’t tell you. She asked me to keep it to myself.”
“
So she’s worth dyin’ for?” He laughed. “You must be fuckin’ her.”
“
I’m not, Kali. You my nephew and I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“
Fuck that shit! The only thing that binds us is the whore I have for a mother.” He said with as much anger as one man could hold. “Now, what did she have you do?”
Grand thought long and hard about what Kali was asking him. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that if Kali even thought he was holding out, he’d kill him. And since he was not good at keeping secrets, he knew Kali would be able to tell by looking at his face.
“
She asked me to get in touch with Arnold Recaro
,
who kidnapped her and Jace.”
“
What? Why?”
“
I don’t know…But she sounded like she was mad at Jace and wanted to get back at him.”
Kali took mental notes. “That’s all she wanted you to do?” Kali asked knowing Grand had already given him all the information he had. “She didn’t say nothing about me?”
“
No...She didn’t mention you at all.” He paused. “She only wanted to get in contact with Recaro.”
“
Cool…So what you doing later?”
Grand breathed a sigh of relief. “Nothing. Just ‘bout to run grab something from 7 Eleven and then…”