The Glamorous Life (22 page)

The next time Douglas called, Bambi cried over the phone about how the bank had turned down the loan to finance their dream house. A house she wanted him to believe she just had to have. He responded, “Do you think my info will help?”

“I’m not sure if that would help, especially with you overseas. How would you even be able to sign the papers from there?”

“Well, I’m sure with the help of my commanding officer, something can be worked out,” he suggested.

“I don’t know … Maybe we should just wait till you return home.”

“No, I won’t be home for another two years, and I want you to have everything in order when I get there. I’ll figure something out. When I call you, I’ll have a better idea of what we can do. Remember now that I won’t be able to call you for another two to three weeks because of my training schedule, okay?”

“I know.”

Doug had once told Bambi that he expected to have the finer things in life and to have the Joneses strive to keep up with him. He was eager to start their new life together, and he bought right into Bambi’s story about her having trouble getting the house financed. Already he had sold some of the land his mother had left him to give Bambi money for the down payment on their dream house. He had also located some of the most exquisite furniture that money could buy. Her favorite piece among the things he’d shipped back stateside was a unique coffee table. To the naked eye the oversized coffee table was big and round, but once the right button was pushed and a combination was punched in, it opened and could be used as a chest for storage. Bambi used it as a hope chest and stored her precious photo albums and other personal and valuable items in it.

Once Bambi had everything in her name and all the documents were final, the excuses started rolling in.

“I’ve been so busy, fixing this and that on the house. They sold me a handyman’s special and didn’t even tell me.”

She whined to him about how nothing was going right and how she needed money for this or that to get things fixed up. Doug was caught in her web and powerless. He didn’t know what to do or what direction to take things. Shoot, he was half a world away from her. And Bambi knew there was nothing he could do. So she continued taking advantage of him while
bouncing back and forth between Richmond and Dallas. Her business was thriving, and with the extra money from Doug, Bambi and Egypt went on a trip to Vegas for a week and another trip to Vail that winter to go skiing. Bambi also bought her mother a complete set of furniture and told her it was “compliments of an old friend.”

Bambi knew she had to continue to string Doug along, and she did with finesse. She wrote him letters and sent him cards all the way up to one month before he was due to return home on leave for a few weeks before going back.

When he tried to call her, her number was disconnected. All the letters he sent her were returned to him. When he returned to Houston on leave, he discovered the address he’d been writing to, which was supposed to be his six-bedroom, six-bathroom home, was actually a two-bedroom corporate suite Bambi had rented while doing business in Houston. The white upper-middle-class woman who answered the door told him that she had been living there for the past month and that she had no idea who or where the former tenant had gone.

Doug stopped at the rental office to inquire about Bambi. The rental clerk asked, “What’s your name?”

He told her. The clerk said to him, “Ahhh, yes, she said you’d be by. Wait one minute. I have something for you.” She handed him a metallic red envelope that had a beautiful red-and-white bow on it. He smiled at how it was perfectly wrapped. He was sure this was the good news he was waiting for.

He opened it.

I guess now you understand that all those sayings are true— that you do reap what you sow and that what goes around, comes around, and especially that every dog has its day.

It really didn’t have to go down like this! You had nine months to make things right. All you had to do was apologize for tormenting me in school, but you never did! How dare you think that we could ever be anything together after you did every mean, hateful thing that you could think of to hurt my feelings just so you could impress your little prep-school so-called friends who never liked your half-breed ass anyway. Well, I told you a long time ago, I think when we were in the fourth grade, that I was going to get the last laugh. Well, guess what, mother-fucker???? I am laughing all the way to the bank with YOUR MONEY!!!!!

And guess what, there ain’t a damn thing you can do about it!

XOXO!!

Then Doug saw that Bambi had put her red lipstick on and kissed the envelope. At that moment all he could do was break down and cry. There had been so many times that he had thought about apologizing to her, but since she’d never mentioned it, he hadn’t seen the sense in bringing it up. Now he stood there broken. He wanted to end his life right then and there, he was so in love with her.

I
n the meantime, back in the outskirts of Richmond, Bambi sat in her brand-new half-a-million-dollar home, built from the ground up according to her specifications. The rental agent in Houston called to confirm that Doug had received Bambi’s letter and described for her blow by blow how he had reacted, crying as if he had just lost his best friend. Bambi had tipped the agent handsomely to perform this duty on her behalf. With Doug still in the service, there wasn’t anything he could do.
He’d have to go back to Korea. Would he come after her when he got out? Bambi didn’t know and didn’t care.

Bambi toasted herself. “To the sucker born every day….”

“Hold on, let me propose a toast,” Egypt interrupted. “To my homegirl, my li’l sister Bambi, who has taken the game to the ultimate level, who didn’t even have to get off of her poonannie; what you did was sell some words and some dreams, breaking a dude down and draining his pockets.”

“Shit, I’d drink to that,” Ruby said.

“Nooo, noo, let me get my two cents’ worth ’cause truly it’s true, there’s a sucker born every day,” Bambi said as she raised her glass to toast, but deep down inside she didn’t feel the sweet satisfaction she thought she would.

CHAPTER 22

Birds of a Feather

B
ambi set up an office in Dallas, Texas, and it was bringing in big bucks. She rented a charming three-bedroom house in Dallas for Ruby, who would coordinate things there. Ruby decided that Texas would be her chance at a new beginning. No one knew anything about her in Texas, so she could build her life and not have to deal with any of the issues from her past. However, some things Ruby couldn’t escape—including the impact that prison life continued to have on her even though she was free.

B
ambi and Egypt banged on Ruby’s door. Bambi paced back and forth; she had to go to the bathroom really bad. When Ruby opened the door, Bambi ran past her and headed straight to the bathroom. She entered and saw that Ruby must have been in the process of getting ready to go herself, because the
toilet seat was lined with toilet paper. Bambi used the bathroom, but seeing the toilet paper on the seat deeply hurt her because she felt that Ruby still was not free from her prison experience—not even in her own home.

Bambi decided to sit Ruby down in the living room for a heart-to-heart talk with her as Egypt sat in the kitchen reading the newspaper.

“Rue, you know I love you, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And you know we keep it real with each other, right?”

“Yeah.” Ruby nodded and then asked, “What’s up?”

“Ruby, this is your place. You don’t have to line the toilet of your own bathroom. You can’t catch nothing from yourself. Ruby, this is yours. If it breaks, fix it. If you don’t like it, get rid of it. I went through your bedroom, and you got food stored up all under your bed: can sodas, chips, and all kinds of snacks. Ruby, you have a kitchen with plenty of cabinet space and a refrigerator. Ruby, I love you and the whole nine, but come on now. You got money saved in a stash here, plus you got a bank account. You’re not starving and can afford whatever you need or want. Now please tell me why you have sheets hung on your windows?”

Ruby studied the sheets on the windows as if she’d never noticed them before. But before she could answer Bambi, Egypt ran into the living room. “Girl, we need to go find us some funeral outfits.”

“What?”

“Yes, hurry up. We got to go to the mall.”

“What?” Bambi said, looking at Egypt like she was crazy.

“Yes, I need to get me a superchic black dress,” she said, grabbed her pocketbook, and waited by the door.

“Who died?” Ruby asked, looking dumbfounded. “You say
a funeral, well, why you got smiles like you going to a party, then?”

“What other place to find a baller or shot caller than at another baller’s funeral? And they call him Black Money, too. Then to top it off, he was out on a one-million-dollar bond. Shit, if a nigga can post a mill bond, he’s worth some paper, and I know birds of a feather flock together. So I am going to be at that funeral front and center, honey.”

“We don’t know him, though,” Bambi interjected.

“Shit, you think the family going to tell us to leave?” Egypt asked. “No, they don’t know who he knows.”

“B, I think she’s right—there is going to be all kinds of money rolling in there to show their respect, not just hustlers but his other associates, too,” Ruby added, seeming to be getting hyped, too.

“Y’all are crazy. How could you be happy about a funeral?” Bambi said, shaking her head at the both of them.

“Here, just read the write-up in the paper,” Egypt said, handing Bambi
The Dallas Morning News.

As Bambi read the front-page article out loud, Ruby stood over her, and Egypt smiled as if she’d just hit the Texas lottery.

“‘Police have identified the body found by a housekeeper in the basement of a house yesterday as Michael ‘Black Money’ Stommer. The cause of death was a single gunshot to the head. There have been no arrests and are no suspects at this time. According to court records, Stommer was awaiting trial for crimes ranging from money laundering to the Continuing Criminal Enterprise Act.’”

Bambi put the paper down and looked at the other two with wide eyes.

“Girl, listen to this part right here,” Egypt stated, excited as she picked up the paper and continued to read. “‘He was facing
life in a federal penitentiary and was out on a one-million-dollar secured bond.’ Did you hear that, a one-million-dollar secured bond? Do you know what that means?”

Ruby without hesitation jumped right in and broke it down as if her girlfriends didn’t know. “It means the nigga had to come up with the whole mill—not ten percent with the bondsman, not a million in property, but a million dollar for dollar in cash, baby. Not yo average dude can get out on a million-dollar bond. Now, that’s some real high-post, baller-out-of-control, heavy-hitting type of shit,” Ruby said.

Egypt continued to read. “‘The funeral services will be held tomorrow. In spite of allegations of criminal activities, Stommer was well-known and influential in many legitimate aspects of the community, including several charitable organizations. Police officers will be on hand to control the expected crowd.’”