IT WAS ALL A DREAM (1) (9 page)

This was bad news and he immediately thought of Mya and Moesha, Lonnie’s little girls. It was still early afternoon and K hoped that the girls were at the Day Camp that they attended. His temporary concern was soon replaced with thoughts of the 6G’s that he was supposed to pick-up this morning.

“Is it safe to talk Queen? Where you at?

“I’m at my sister’s house on Mount Avenue with the girls. They didn’t find the money but they locked up my Lonnie,” she stated and began to cry.

“What’s the address? I’m gonna come and get you so we can work on getting him out.”

She gave him the address and he gave her assurances that everything would work out ok. As K exited the bedroom, he noticed Reebie sitting on the couch with her grill fucked up.

“Dam shorty, what the fuck happened to you?” K asked.

Reebie never looked up, obviously embarrassed. Reebie and K had a love hate relationship. He held resentments and secretly blamed Reebie for some of the actions that Mattie had taken in the past and while he was locked up. He felt her sister was a bad influence on her even though whatever Mattie chose to do was entirely her own decision. But, he also had
madd
love for Reebie because she was a really goodhearted person. It was just that she was confused about many things in life.
One of those
things being relationships with men.
K felt sorry for her and went over and sat beside Reebie and Mattie on the couch.

“What happened
lil
sis?” he inquired concerned.

Mattie explained the situation because Reebie had laid her head on his shoulder and began to cry.

“So where this niggah at?
All I gotta do is
call
my dudes and we can handle it.”

“No K. Please don’t get involved in my mess. I created this situation and I’ll resolve it,” said Reebie.

“So
there’s nothing I can do? You a
lready know Pook got a crush on you All I gotta do is say the word.”

Reebie remembered how Pook was something like her bodyguard in school.

“Do you mind if I borrow your couch for a couple of nights. I’m
kinda
scared to be at my place alone. Plus I really don’t want anyone to see me like this,” said Reebie.

That was unexpected. Realizing that he had put his foot in his mouth and committed, there was no backing out now. He wanted to ask for how long but changed his mind. He locked eyes with Mattie and they were pleading with his to say yes.

“Yeah you good.
You just gotta wash yo feet. I don’t want it
smellin
like corn chips up in my joint,” he said jokingly in an attempt to bring some humor to a tense situation.

They all laughed. K soon remembered that he had to go meet Gwen.

“I got some business to tend to but when I get back we can shoot over to your spot and grab you some clothes.”

Mattie walked K to the door.

“Thank you. I really appreciate what you just did, “said Mattie before they kissed and then he was out.

                                            Chapter 9

When it rains it pours, K thought as he shot pool in the local bar on the strip. He had bailed Lonnie out for $2500, but his crib was on shutdown. For the past two days Rat and Fat had been parked on the corner of Lonnie’s block in their patrol car. Lonnie had only had a slow quiet little hustle until K started hitting him off with the slabs that made the traffic run crazy.
Gwen was scared and rightfully
so
,
because they had trashed her house. The worst part of the whole situation was how they had drilled Lonnie with questions about K. But, Lonnie was a soldier, and stood strong.

“Somebody been doing some serious talking,” Lonnie had told K on the day he bailed him out.

K had decided to throwback a couple of shots and shoots a couple games of eight-ball. His problems were beginning to $tack on top of each other and he needed to revise his game plan. Last night he had went by Norma’s house to pick up his money and when he pulled up there was an ambulance and two police cars in the driveway. His first
thought was that it was a robbery gone wrong. He figured it was only a matter of time before the stick-up kids would try their hand.

Naturally he di
dn’t feel that it was in his bes
t interest to stop, so he sent a fiend that was up the street to be nosy. He waited up the block until the fiend returned, impatiently fearing the worst.

“They said Norma Od’d on h
eroin. She aint dead yet but it’s not looking good,” the fiend said as he returned with an update.

K only had 2G’s tied up in the spot because the goldmine had slowly begun to fall off. He knew Norma was
a h
eroin addict, but when she had started to work for him it wasn’t a problem. But the more money, she made the heavier her habit become. It had gotten to the point where she was too fucked-up nodding out to handle business.

So now two of his main spots were pretty much shut down, and the boys in blue were inquiring about his business.

“Twelve ball, two rails, cross corner,” he stated as he sank the shot like he could have done it with his eye’s close.

“Oh it’s like that
? If you miss it’s over,” said M
oney Al, who was playing K.

“Oh, I hear you
yappin
, but I done won four of the last six and one of the two you won I scratched on the 8 ball,” said K.

K knew once he got in his groove he was unstoppable. The small
crowd of about 20 afternoon occupants were
broke off into about six small groups, all obviously discussing something criminal. Outside of K wanting to relieve some stress, he did have another purpose for being in the bar. Dante had called him three hours earlier from a 610 area code. He said he was on his way back and he had good news. K really needed some good news. Just as he was about to seal the deal with an 8-ball bank shot, skulls and Darkside entered the bar. K had told him where he would be.

Dark and Skulls gave dap and acknowledgements to the usual suspects as they made their way to the rear of the bar where the pool table was located. K gave a quick greeting to Skulls, handed him his pool stick and motioned for Dark to come with him to a table in the corner.

As they sat down the barmaid approached the table.

“What up thickness? My next drink on you,” Dark asked the 5 foot 11 inch 240 pound barmaid.

“That all depends on how you
gon
pay me back,” said the barmaid that everyone knew as Thumper. She had gotten her name from many sources.

The first being her fight game was crazy.

“Girl you crazy as hell!
Bring me and my man 2 Heinekens,” said Dante and slapped her hard across her extra wide ass.

She took off smiling, but not before giving him the evil eye and getting some kind of confirmation of a time they would hook up later. Everybody knew Dark had love for the big girls and they had love for him.

“So tell me something good,” K said when Thumper was gone.

“Check it out fam. It is crazy cash out that muthafucka. I got 9 G’s outside in the car and if I would have sold some weight I would have been done the same day we got there.
You
sellin
O’s here for $750 and they
payin
$1200 all day long, “said Dark excited about future prospects.

K too was getting excited as he ran numbers through his mental calculator. He had
bubbled
his paper to just under enough to grab 2 bricks. Then something clicked in K’s mind. In all his stress he had forgotten that he only sent him with a 4 ½ ounces.

“Hold up. You made 9 G’s in 2 days off a big 8?”

“Nah niggah!
I made $10,500, kept $500 for the pocket and got an apartment with the other G.”

K smiled as he absorbed this new information with his mental calculator counting up the possibilities. Outside of his local weight customers he only had one spot left pumping
slabs
. It was still flowing decent, but overall his hustle had taken a significant blow. Always the thinker K switched angles.

“So what’s the weather like out that way? Is the
po-po
hot or did you maneuver around without problems,
“ K
instinctively asked, recalling his recent troubles.

“I’m
sayin
-I seen a few riding but it wasn’t nothing that I couldn’t work around. I’m ready to make moves though, that’s why I grabbed the crib.”

Thumper returned with their drinks and K filled Darkside in on everything that had happened since he left town.
The situation with Lonnie and Norma.
The living conditions with Reebie which was beginning to be a burden.
And last but definitely not least, the situation with the crooked cops Rat and Fat.

“You need to get out of town and lay low for a minute. I’m telling you
fam
,that
shit is
soooo
sweet, “ said Dark.

“I’m with
you,
I just have
to handle a few things. When
Ya
ll
tryin
to bounce back?”

“Shit- yesterday!”

“I can dig it.
But look let’s go grab that paper so I can make a move.
I’ll grab the work in the morning and we can roll after I handle some overdue business tomorrow night,” said K with determination in his voice. They toasted drinks to
mo
money and focused on the near future.