The Glamorous Life (26 page)

“I hear you talking. All you going to do is come real quick as soon as you get a sniff of this.”

“We’ll see.”

“Lynx, what you going to do when you come home?”

He sighed. “Look, I’m going to be real honest wit you. When
they picked me up the police took a lot of money from me. Some they reported and some is paying for their kids’ college tuitions. I tricked up a lot of money rumbling with my case. I spent a couple hundred thousand dollars on lawyers, which I couldn’t avoid because I had some real serious shit looking at me. I wasn’t cutting no deals, and you know that snitching, that shit, was dead. But my lawyers beat the drug charges. This bitch-ass detective Columbo was on my back. This ma’fucka has been after me for years, since I was young. I’m talking thirteen years old. His whole existence revolves around trying to catch me. He thought he had me cornered, and honestly he basically railroaded me. He was at court every day doing all this extra shit to make sure I got sent up the river forever and a damn day, and I guess the judge felt like he had to give Columbo something just for his effort—which was to slap me with an illegal weapons charge. And so that’s what I’m doing here.”

“I think I remember you mentioning him.”

“Dude was mad as hell that the feds picked up my case. They used his ass, made him do all the work, and then they stepped in. That’s what that dick-breath ma’fucka gets.” He changed the subject. “Then I had to pay for Cook’em-up’s lawyer.” He shook his head and took a deep breath. “And this nigga who used to be my man—I don’t think you ever met Ronnie.”

She shook her head no but said, “I heard you talk about him, but I never met him.”

“Well, he crossed me.”

“For real? As close as y’all used to be?”

“Yup.” He shook his head. “He stole a few hundred thousand from me. With this bid, I been taking loss on top of loss. So basically I am broke. I still got my Benz, but my Navigator, my mom’s sold that shit. And you know her larceny ass only
gave me part of the money. Not to mention, you know she had her hand deep, way down in the cookie jar.”

“Damn, baby, I wish I would have known.”

“Me too! I’m not tripping off being broke, though. If I don’t know nothing else, I know how to get money. So me being broke—that shit is only temporary! Once I get out there I’ll be okay,” he assured her.

But Bambi didn’t care about him having any money. She would accept Lynx barefoot and broke. She loved him, plain and simple, like she had never loved anyone, and she knew he was telling her the truth.

“Baby, don’t worry about money! I got a real lucrative business going now. I got money and good credit. And whatever you need, I’ll make sure you get it.”

“That is a helluva gesture, baby, but you know how I do. I have to have my own. I need to be the provider. I already told you if I can’t add to your life then you don’t need me,” Lynx said, looking into her eyes.

“Visiting hours are over! Try again next week,” the guard said sarcastically.

Lynx escorted Bambi over to the guard.

“Yo, let me use yo pen right quick.”

The guard handed Lynx a pen. Lynx handed Bambi the pen and a napkin so she could write her full address down and all her phone numbers, with the exception of the apartment where she and Loot’chee stayed from time to time. “Expect to get a letter from me this week. You should have it like Wednesday or Thursday,” Lynx told her. He gave her a long tongue kiss and said, “Soon as they add yo numbers to my list, I’m going to call you.”

Once Egypt and Bambi left the prison, Bambi could not stop talking about Lynx. Egypt looked at her and said, “B, I am
soooo happy for you! As long as we’ve been friends, I have never seen you so excited about a man as you are now. I see love, love, love,” she sang, “written all over your face.
But
as your best friend I have to ask you, what are you going to do about Loot’chee?”

“I don’t know,” Bambi answered, her smile never leaving her face. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. How could I feel so strongly about Lynx after not even seeing him in over three years?”

“Because, my friend, sometimes old feelings never die.”

Bambi looked back at the prison gates and knew she’d be seeing those gates again and again. However long it really took Lynx to be released was however long she’d be acquainted with those bars.

CHAPTER 26

The Block Is Hot

B
ambi had planned to spend some time in Richmond before going back to Dallas. She wasn’t in any hurry to get back to Dallas because Loot’chee was in Reno looking into buying some hotels.

Her feelings were running wild. She didn’t have the foggiest idea what her next move should be. So she went to the one place where she knew she could get an answer: Grandma Ellie’s house. It never failed that Grandma Ellie could tell there was something on Bambi’s mind. Ever since Bambi was a little girl, she’d always sat in the kitchen acting as if she were trying to learn recipes, while her grandma cooked. Grandma Ellie knew better. If she hadn’t picked up the recipes after all these years of hanging around the kitchen, then she wasn’t going to.

“Chil’, what’s wrong with you?” her grandmother asked.

“Nothing, Gram. I just wanted to spend some time with my favorite gram, that’s all,” she said as she licked some leftover cake batter.

“Girl, you knows I know better. I may be old, a little slow and a little deaf, but the ol’ girl don’t miss a beat. Now I know good and well that something ain’t right with you,” she told Bambi as she peeped in the oven to check on her pound cake.

“So when did you get that new wig?” Bambi asked. Grandma had on a bob wig that could have come from Diana Ross or the Supremes’ closet. Her grandmother was the queen of wigs. She had all styles, colors, long ones, short ones. She had a room that was like a shrine for all her wigs, and everybody in the family knew not to enter.

“This old thing?” she said, and sucked her teeth. “Chil’, I done had this thing since Carter was president.”

Bambi laughed. “Gram, you need to throw that thing out.”

“This is human hair, and it has a lifetime warranty. I’m not throwing this bad boy out. I just cleaned out the attic and found it in there.”

Her grandma looked out the window as the food cooked. “You know that Martha’s son, uhhh, Johnny Boy? You know they came in Martha’s house and locked that boy up?”

“For real?” Bambi asked.

“Yeah, he was stealing people’s checks at the nursing home.”

“How you know? I thought you stopped talking to Martha since she called the city and told them you were burning trash.”

“I don’t, but Hilda told me. Say the detectives is looking for his girlfriend, too. I see her creeping up Hilda’s house on the late night,” Grandma Ellie said as she pulled back the blind in such a way so she could not be seen. “That chil’ used to be so pretty. Now she chasing behind the dope boys trying to get a hit.”

“How you know that one, Gram?”

“Because I don’t miss a beat. I keep telling you.”

After Gram gave Bambi more neighborhood gossip, Bambi
asked, “Gram, how do you know when to gamble and when to hold tight?”

“Well, it all depends on what it is.” Grandma tried hard not to pry, but it was almost impossible. Her eyes said it all. She wanted to know exactly what Bambi was confused about.

“It’s too complicated to get into.”

“Well, if I don’t know, I can’t give you advice.”

“I have to make a life-changing decision, and I don’t know what to do. Do I listen to my mind, or do I follow my heart?”

“I hope you ain’t fixing to mess back with that Reggie. You know all that mess he done to yo momma, and on top of that, you know that boy ain’t right. If I was you, I wouldn’t even think of messing with that boy.”

“Gram, you know good and well that boy got killed in jail.”

“Chil’, shut yo mouth. How did that one get by me?”

“I don’t know how you missed that one. But even if he weren’t dead, I’m not crazy or desperate!” Bambi assured her grandmother. She got up and put her arm around her grandmother. “Gram, I would never in a million years ever mess with Reggie. So that’s one you don’t have to worry about. I promise you that.”

“You betta not, because I’ll skin you alive.” Grandma got up from the table and went over to get the cake out of the oven.

Bambi giggled a little as she followed closely behind her grandmother as she had done when she was a little girl.

“Well, let’s see. It’s still hard to say, because sometimes your heart can get you in trouble. And if you listen to your mind, your heart may be broke for a long time. Baby, it’s not a matter of listening to either. It’s a matter of which is right for you. Honey, you just have to put it in God’s hands, and when you do he’ll guide you.”

“Gram, I ain’t trying to be funny, but sometimes God takes forever.”

“Honey, let me tell you something. He may not come when you want him, but he is always on time. Listen to yo grandma now. You know I ain’t going to tell you nothing wrong.”

She hung out with her grandma for the rest of the day, and before she left, her grandmother prayed with her. At the end of the prayer, Bambi asked, “God bring to pass what I have confessed. Please come quickly and speedily, Lord, in Jesus’ name I pray.”

“Now when you leave here you have to believe that God is going to give you the answer you are looking for. If you believe that, then it shall be done,” her grandmother reminded her before she went out the door. “Be safe and call me when you get back to Texas.”

B
ambi’s flight to Texas was rough. She missed the first flight, which caused her to be booked on another flight with a different route that added three more hours to her travel time. By the time she reached Texas, she only wanted to crawl into the bed and go to sleep. Her and Loot’chee’s apartment was closer to the airport, so she told Ruby to take her there. They picked up some Popeyes on the way, and Ruby came up to eat with her. Once they had entered into the apartment, she was surprised to see a bunch of brown boxes stacked almost to the ceiling, and all the boxes were addressed to her in her full name, Bambi Ferguson.

“What the fuck?” she said, staring at the boxes. For a minute she thought they were some kind of gifts for her.
But an apartment full of gifts? I don’t think so.

“I know this motherfucker is full the fuck up with money and power, but for some reason I smell a rat—a big fat rat!” she said to Ruby as she looked closer and read the warning on all the large boxes that read keep away from heat—highly flammable. Without hesitation, she ripped opened the first box.

“What the hell is this?”

“It looks like a big steel drum?” Ruby said.

Bambi opened up the next one and the next one. All the large boxes contained huge steel drums. Then she got to the smaller boxes that were marked fragile, do not drop, Bambi pulled out bottles of vanilla extract and Karo Syrup. And when she did, it all started making sense to Ruby.

“Oh, hells no! Girrrlll, this motherfucka ain’t shit! I know what da fuck is going on now. He ain’t slick! Oh, I just can’t believe him.” She pointed her finger. “I know his kind all too well,” Ruby said, raising her voice as she started pacing the floor.

Bambi looked confused, but she knew whatever Ruby was talking about, it was something foul. Ruby rarely got upset.

Bambi stopped opening the boxes and said, “Tell me what’s going down. I know it’s something, because you never get this way unless it’s some low-down, dirty, funky, doo-doo going down.”

“Please don’t get mad or think I’m hating or anything like that when I give you this piece. You know I love you like the sister I never had, so I got to give it to you raw.”

“I would never think that. Now tell me!”

“This nigga … Girl … I am so mad right now.” Ruby took a deep breath. “And how about this nigga is pushing fucking love boat? And got the nerve to have it stored here.”

“What’s that?” Bambi asked, frowning her face up.

“Love boat is embalming fluid,” she said, and looked dead in Bambi’s face.

“Okay, why would he have embalming fluid in here?”