Stone de la Bru Familia (4 page)

 She'd looked to Max. Her fear of him had been misplaced and Max seemed to communicate her mistake with a cool gaze. She looked to Stone. "When do you need it?" 

 "Before Friday." 

She inhaled slowly, her pointy nose flaring. "Okay," she agreed, letting out a  breath of final submission 

Lillian approached with a cheerful smile, unaware of the social worker's dilemma. "Hi, again," she said, looking into the fallen woman's eyes. "Are you going to let Serena stay?" 

"Well, I believe she might do good here," she responded with a more genuine smile for Lillian's benefit, who shrieked with joy and wrapped her arms around Stone’s neck. 

"She's staying! Oh, I'm so happy!" she screamed over Stone’s shoulder. 

 "You better stay out my room," he responded with a gentle shove, forcing her to disengage her body from his. 

Lillian was still smiling when she turned to face Mrs. Cartwright. "He's part of a special club that has their own clothing line," she said with pride. 

 Stone wished he could take the words from the air and stuff them into her mouth. A new look of interest show itself on the social worker's face. She was beginning to put the pieces of some obscure puzzle together, her eyes scanning the BRU Capo print stitched on the tracksuit when Coretta appeared at the back door. 

"Hi everybody!" she said, looking from Stone to the social worker. Stone was thankful for her arrival and even more thankful that Mrs. Cartwright announced she'd be in touch soon. 

The sultry voice of Cassandra Wilson lay like a rich carpet under the smell of boiled cabbage, fried pork chops, cornbread, mashed potatoes with a touch of garlic and real butter, and sweetcorn. Mixed into this vibrant mix was the boisterous laughter of Serena responding to Mabel telling the story about when she went swimming in the lake and lost her shorts. 

What tickled Serena most was the realization that Stone's mother was a little girl at one time. The Mississippi town Mabel described was enchanting, filled with Interesting people who sat outside of liquor stores.  

“Like a wino?” Serena asked. 

 This caused laughter from Stone, Coretta and Lillian as they sat at the kitchen counter while Mabel smiled graciously before explaining how this was not the case. 

They could easily eat in the dining room, but the kitchen counter had become the family gathering place while Mabel moved between sink, stove and cabinets, enjoying her family in the process.  The dining room was on the other side of the wall, just before the living room.  

Behind them was a small alcove eating area, but this area lacked the intimacy of being close to Mabel as she moved about on the other side of the counter. As it stood, whoever sat at the counter would be elbow to elbow and everyone here completely enjoyed the closeness that the counter offered. 

"Granny Mabel," Serena had come to call Stone’s mother. "Tell me again about the chickens that chased you around the old barn and how you had to climb a ladder to get away from them!" 

Her infectious laughter reached Coretta first, who every time the cute girl with long auburn silk hair said something endearing, looked the Stone to see that he couldn’t wait to have this child.  

Mabel reveled in Serena’s attention. Her own children having heard these stories enough times.  

"The chickens would not let me be!" Mabel repeated with demonstrative excitement. "They kept clucking …" Here, she mimicked the head motion of the chickens with her elbows flapping back and forth. Serena had to be held in her seat by Coretta because she was laughing so hard. 

"Stop it mother!" Lillian said to her own mature giggles. You going to hurt the poor little girl. 

Stone was right where he wanted to be. The day had been one of washing cars, mowing the lawn, and a quick nap with Coretta who was still not giving him any pussy.  

He’d been awakened by a soft kiss on the cheek from Serena. Lillian picked her up from school, not wanting to wake him from a much needed rest. 

From then until now, as the sun fell from the sky, they had been at this counter while Mabel prepared dinner and told stories. Stone loved days like this. It was days like this when he felt happiest and like the  luckiest man alive. 

 He was feeling especially joyful this day because it meant that Serena would be staying. He decided not to tell her yet. He'd rather wait and see that it was official for fear of setting her up for disappointment, but he was sure everything would work out as he’d planned. 

"You okay baby?" Coretta asked Serena as she nestled against her side. The laughter exhausted her, forcing her palm to her forehead in a show of fatigue or fever. 

"Oh… Oh… My head is hot," she responded in a voice reminiscent of a movie damsel in distress. 

"Oh my goodness… Get the child some more kool-aid, that's all she needs. Look, her glass is nearly empty," Mabel said with a knowing grin, shooting Stone a proud-of-you look before she turned to the refrigerator. 

 They had been successful in offsetting the pain Serena felt with losing her mother by providing her with a constant dose of love and laughter. 

The ringing phone hurried Mabel from the refrigerator, handing the grape Kool-aide off to Stone for him to pour. 

"Hi baby," Mabel said into the wall phone. There was only one "baby" she had that was not in this room, and he was the oldest and in federal prison. 

 Stone checked his Rolex, figuring that Marcus had eaten a few hours ago. He imagined that his brother was hungry and lonely. Mabel nodded in his direction. 

"He's here with his beautiful fiancé and of course Lillian is here. Did you get a chance to meet Serena?" Mabel asked, seemingly unaware that Marcus was in prison before Serena moved in, or the fact that he was one of the last people to see Candi alive. Mabel could be innocently naïve in this way. 

Stone was too comfortable to vacate his seat. He knew that Marcus would want to talk to him and make his usual plea. He figured it was getting close to the time for his phone call. When Mabel handed the phone to him it was no surprise. More surprising was how Marcus all of a sudden felt that he was the only one who could help him; when he was free he'd constantly warned that Stone’s lifestyle would land him in prison. This irony was humorous to Stone. 

"Waddup bruh bruh," he said into the phone. 

“Hey little brother. How's everything?" Marcus sounded small, Stone thought to himself. He imagined that he'd lost a lot of weight from his hefty frame. 

"Same. What it do?" Stone asked, wanting him to get to what it was he wanted. 

"I need your help little brother. All I need to do is get a good lawyer and I can get back to my wife and kids." 

"What about mama? You want to get back to mama?" Stone quipped, catching a warning look from Mabel for him to be nice. 

Marcus exhaled deeply in frustration. "I need your help. I know you got a little cash stashed away,” he said, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. 

"I'll see what I can do, but I ain’t making no promises." 

"That's all I can ask, thank you. Hey, my time is almost up. Tell mom I said bye for me, will you…" 

“No problem." Stone said this to a dead line. He looked to Serena, who'd been attentive during this exchange. "What you looking at with your big hazel eyes?" he asked, breaking her curious expression. 

"Was that your brother in jail?" Serena asked, resisting a smile. 

"Yeah. Why?" Stone was aware of Mabel moving slowly about echoing everyone's attention being paid to Serena's curiosity. 

"He sounded like he needed your help real bad. Are you going to help him uncle Stone?" She couldn't know the grown-up depth to which Marcus had sank in his relationship to her deceased mother. 

"I don't know what happened to that boy," Mabel sighed as she replaced the wall phone. She kept her back to the counter, looking through the window over the kitchen sink. 

"Mother," Lillian whispered, "you always told us that we'll have to lay in the bed we make." 

It was Coretta who rescued Serena from this moment of sorrow. "Come on Serena, let's go get ready to watch one of the movies I got for you."  

This diverted the girl's attention. She hopped from the stool, but not before leaning to Stone and asking if he would  watch the movie with them. 

"It'll make you less sad," she added with a serious face. 

"Yeah. I'll be there in a minute," Stone replied, able to get a cheerful grin from his charge. This is when she motioned for him to lean down to her. He did so to accept a kiss on the cheek she offered. 

"Aww… That's so cute!" Lillian sang as she nudged Stone on her way around the counter. 

Stone’s iPhone rang as Coretta followed Serena through the kitchen door. They were going to the den where the large plasma screen was located. Along the far right wall were enough DVDs to watch for the rest of her life if she sat in the cool place for the rest of her life. 

"What it do Misty?" he answered, watching Lillian soothe his mother's quiet tears. She was reminding Mabel that everything would be okay.  

Stone thought it unfair that his mother would be made to suffer for a man who had done nothing but display shame towards her and everything associated with his family. Marcus hardly ever brought his kids to see her, their grandmother. Stone reasoned that his downfall was the result of marrying a white woman so he could have kids with wavy hair and bright skin. That didn't even work out right. 

"Hello?" Misty was saying, bringing Stone back from his thoughts. 

"Yeah….wassup?" 

"You okay?" 

"Yeah," he replied as Mabel turned around. Her eyes were bright with fresh tears. 

"Go on and lay down mother. I'll clean up in here," Lillian offered. 

"Is everything okay? Is this a bad time?" Misty wanted to know. 

Stone hopped from the stool and walked towards the stairway at the back of the kitchen. These led to his room. "Naw. It's cool. What’s good with you?" 

"Oh, nothing. Just leaving school and…" 

"That's right. I forgot you go to school in the daytime." His room smelled like a woman. There was a time when it had not been this way. He didn't know how to feel about this. Scattered around the room were articles that belonged to either Lillian, Coretta, or Serena. 

"You're used to seeing me with my clothes off," she replied with a soft giggle.  

“Maybe that's it then." He made his way to his bathroom, passing the five foot safe in the alcove. 

"You've got my friend Ebony scared… She thinks you might be following her for your brother or something." 

Stone leaned over the toilet to take a leak. The steady stream echoed in the small room. 

"Are you seriously taking a piss while I'm on the phone?" Misty complained. 

"Are you seriously asking like you ain't never heard a nigga piss before?" Misty was quiet until the stream dribbled to a stop. "Exactly what I thought… Tell your friend Ebony I ain’t trippin’ on her. I just didn't know she was a stripper." 

"It's a small world, hunh?" 

"Sometimes too small," he replied, standing in front of the full length mirror next to the sink.  

This new life was challenging, he thought to himself. He saw the many obligations he'd taken on tossing through the air like plates. He knew he couldn't afford to drop either one. As much as he might want to help his brother, just from the way he made his mother feel, he was in no rush to add a new plate in his rotation. 

"Well, she wanted me to let you know that she's really not trying to have a problem with you," Misty said. 

"What kind of problem she think she might have with me?" With this he pushed from the mirror, stopping at the safe to place his Rolex on the middle shelf to join a troupe of other fine timepieces. 

"I don't know," Misty sighed. "She got her own issues she's dealing with. Don't get me confused with her agent." 

 Stone laugh at this."I was just about to say that," he quipped as he lay on the fluffy bed, moving Coretta’s Dooney & Burke bag out of the way.  

"I hear there's going to be an after-hours show at the warehouse in Inglewood. I might see the guy Candi dated there. That's where she met him." 

This got Stone's attention. "When is this?" he asked, his eyes squinting towards the ceiling. 

"Wednesday. Tomorrow night." 

"After the strip club close?” he asked. 

"Yeah. But it’s by invitation only. If not then all these skanks from these low-budget holes will show up. It's gon’ be nice and respectable with a DJ and everything." 

Stone smiled. "I like the way you make this sound so official." 

"I know, hunh?" Misty laughed out. "But I’ll see what’s up for you though. You gon’ hook  me up right?" 

"Yeah." 

"So, what are you talking about? I'm trying to buy a house and not have no mortgage." 

"Where at… In Watts?" he joked. 

"Hell Naw! I'm thinking Beverly Hills. Why you playing!" 

Someone was in the room. He knew who it was before he looked up and saw Coretta standing at the foot of his bed. She stood with her hands on her hips, silently communicating the fact that Serena, if not she herself, was waiting for him. 

Stone held up a finger, asking for patience. "Well, we gon’ have to check that out. Give me a call tomorrow sometime and we might work that out." His voice had taken on a more serious tone which Coretta twisted her lips to in response. 

"Okay. I like the sound of that. Bye sweetie." 

Stone took his time lifting the phone away from his ear. He leaned up on one elbow and observed Coretta calmly, waiting for what she had to say. 

"Who was that?" she asked, barely masking her jealousy. 

“Are you serious?" he asked, thinking that maybe she was too much for him after all.  

For the eight months they’ve been dating there has been no sex. For the first six months he thought she was just testing him, but soon found that she was serious. Now, there was a new aspect to her personality that he was witnessing. Jealousy. 

"Is this what I can expect from you?" he asked at length, totally aware that Serena was looking for him to join her for the movie. 

"Yes, if you say one thing and do another." 

 Stone grinned wickedly, her petite chocolate frame affecting him in some way. Her long black hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, accentuating her brown eyes and smooth flat forehead. She was the daughter of privilege with perfect teeth, skin, and mannerisms. She'd never wanted for anything and knew what she wanted from the beginning of conscious thought. Sometimes he wondered if he was exactly who she wanted or did she just get caught up in the mystery of him.