White Lines (12 page)

Marquis saw a familiar man walking swiftly in their direction. He recognized the man’s face but didn’t know his name. He was walking very fast, and his face was set in a frown. His eyes were focused on Leo. “Dad.” Marquis tugged at Leo’s shirt. “Here comes your friend.”

Leo looked in the direction his son was pointing at, and he shook his head. “This muthafucka ain’t nobody,” he said. He looked at the man as he approached, and greeted him halfheartedly. “What’s up, Nick?”

“Don’t give me that ‘what’s up?’ shit, nigga! Where the fuck is my money at?” The man was fuming. He was taller than Leo, and heavier. But Leo didn’t seem at all intimidated.

Leo smiled at the menacing man. “Fuck you,” Leo said, puffing on his cigarette. “I brought that money by your house last night. You wasn’t home, so I was gonna give the dough to your wife. But after I got finished fucking her, she said it was so good that
she
shoulda been paying
me.
So I don’t owe you shit.”

Leo’s audience laughed at angry Nick, and Marquis watched to see what would happen next. To his amazement, his father went right back to talking to his boys, as if Nick wasn’t even there. Furious, Nick pulled out a gun, and everybody scattered. He started firing at Leo, aiming for his face. Using his arms to block his face, Leo ducked and tried to ward off the gunshots. The first bullet hit him in the forearm as he fell to the ground. Marquis stood frozen in fear, crying loudly. Leo tried desperately to wriggle out of harm’s way. But the shooter continued to fire, hitting Leo several times.

Mayhem erupted as the shopping plaza exploded in screams and chaos. Leo tried to go for his gun, which was on his ankle. But the shooter was still firing, and Leo was badly injured. Marquis watched his father and was disturbed by the obvious pain that he was in. Leo was like a giant to his son, and so seeing him sprawled on the ground, with his face twisted in agony, was difficult for Marquis to witness. Marquis stood crying as he watched his father cringe in pain. Finally out of bullets,
Nick ran off in the opposite direction from which he’d come, and Marquis ran to his father’s side.

“Dad,” he cried. “Dad, are you okay?” Marquis’s tear-streaked face was all that Leo could focus on as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

The madness that followed seemed to swallow Marquis right up. All of Leo’s boys came out of their hiding places, and began to talk to him, trying to keep him lucid and alert. Someone called 911 from a nearby pay phone. All the while Marquis clung to his father and prayed that he wouldn’t die. After close to twenty minutes, an ambulance finally came, followed by several police cars. Cops swarmed the plaza as the paramedics tended to Leo down on the pavement. Marquis stood off in the corner, scared to death that his father would die. Leo struggled to remain conscious as they loaded him into the ambulance. He was rushed to the hospital while Ingrid hurried to the scene in order to get to Marquis. She arrived to find the police questioning her son about the shooting.

“Son, you have to try to remember more details. Do you remember the man’s name? Was he a friend of your father’s?” One officer grilled Marquis.

“Excuse me, he ain’t answering no more of your questions,” Ingrid interrupted, taking her son by the hand and hugging him close to her body. “He don’t remember, and that’s just that.”

“Ma’am, we’re trying to find the guy who shot your husband—”

“Good luck. Now I’d appreciate it if you leave us alone, so that I can get to the hospital.” Ingrid stood calmly, and patted Marquis on his back reassuringly. But inwardly she was agonizing, wondering if this time Leo really might not make it. All the accounts she’d gotten from his boys had sounded grim. She knew that her husband had been shot at close range and that Marquis had witnessed it all. She knew that Nick was responsible. But she also knew that, if Leo survived, he wouldn’t want the cops to do his dirty work. Leo would want to handle Nick all by himself.

The officer reluctantly allowed Ingrid to leave, handing her his card and instructing her to call him if her son remembered something. She lied and told him that she would, and then she took her baby and headed
toward her car. Once inside she hugged and kissed her traumatized child, who was still crying from the trauma of what he’d witnessed. Ingrid tried her best to assure him that his father was tough and that he would survive. As they headed to the hospital, she assured Marquis that Leo would pull through.

When they arrived at the hospital, Ingrid left Marquis in the company of Aunt Betty while she stood vigil outside of Leo’s operating room. Even with five bullets in him, he was talking shit and giving the doctors a hard time.

“Don’t… put me to sleep! I don’t… wanna go under. Don’t put me … to sleep. I’m serious. I’m … serious.” Leo was yelling at the doctors, nervous that if he was sedated he might not wake up.

The doctors argued with him, but to no avail. Finally a doctor came out to speak to Ingrid to explain the situation. “Your husband is refusing to allow us to sedate him. He wants to remain awake during the surgery. He’s got several bullet wounds—one each in his forearm, his hand, his shoulder, and his stomach. He also has a graze wound on his neck. That’s a lot to stay awake for. Maybe you can talk some sense into him.”

Ingrid shook her head, knowing that it would be pointless to try to talk to Leo when his mind was made up. Leo always followed his instincts. He was superstitious at times—he was the kind of man who would never lay his hat on a bed or walk under a ladder. If his gut instincts told him not to go somewhere, Leo didn’t go. And if he was apprehensive about being put to sleep, nothing she said to him would change his mind.

“Can’t you give him something to numb the area where he was shot and still allow him to stay awake?” she asked. “He doesn’t want to be put to sleep, and if he’s strong enough to handle it, I think you should let him have his way.”

The doctor was surprised by her response. He stood speechless for a long while. Then he nodded and returned to the operating room. He explained to the anesthesiologist that only a local anesthetic would be used. Leo lay there with his teeth clenched, sweat streaming down his face and his fists tightly balled, while the doctors removed the bullets and closed
up his wounds. They saved the abdominal wound until last, hoping he would succumb to the pain and beg for anesthesia. Leo was stubborn. But he eventually passed out from a mixture of exhaustion and pain. The doctors tended to his abdominal wound then.

The next several hours were tense for Ingrid and Marquis. They waited anxiously for Leo to wake up. When he finally did, Ingrid cried for the first time all day. Leo looked at his wife and his son and was so happy to see them. As long as he could see them, that meant he wasn’t dead. Leo’s dry mouth made it difficult for him to talk. So he simply squeezed his wife’s hand and winked at her. Ingrid smiled, feeling that her husband would be strong enough to survive. Marquis thanked God for bringing his father through the whole ordeal alive.

When Leo was finally released from the hospital, Ingrid waited on him hand and foot. His recovery was slow and deliberate. And she was with her husband every step of the way. While Leo had always been a far from perfect husband, he was a good man, and a good provider. Ingrid loved him intensely.

Ingrid had grown up in Marietta, Georgia. Her sister, Betty, had been bold and adventurous, and had ventured out of the small town they’d grown up in, opting for life in a big city. Soon Betty was living in New York City. She was three years older than Ingrid, and she’d gotten a sleep-in job in Manhattan, cleaning house and working as a nanny for some wealthy white people. Eventually Betty got her own place in Harlem and worked odd jobs to get by. Her sister, Ingrid, came to New York in the fall of 1970. Ingrid was seventeen. She left her mother, her father, and her four brothers, and came to stay with her sister in New York, looking for something better.

Ingrid had been living with her sister for about ten months. She loved New York, just
loved
the city. And it was nice for her to be back in the company of her sister. They had always been close, since the two of them were the only girls in a family of so many boys. But Betty had a man. His name was Calvin. Calvin would get high, and he’d get a wandering eye. It wasn’t long before he started making comments and staring at Ingrid, leering at her. Betty seemed not to notice, and Ingrid didn’t
want to upset her sister. Instead, she made up her mind that as soon as possible, she would find a place of her own and vacate the uncomfortable surroundings in which she was now living. She and Betty spent a lot of time at supper clubs on Friday and Saturday nights. They would hang out there whenever Calvin was tripping. On one such night at a supper club, Ingrid met the man who would sweep her off her feet and change her life forever.

There was a card game in the basement at Jack’s after-hours spot. Only the “in” crowd was allowed downstairs, and Betty qualified as part of that crowd. With her sister in tow, she gained
access
to the exclusive club, and the two of them watched the card game in progress. A bailer by the name of Leo was there. He was with his crew of fellow bailers, and Betty was familiar with one of them. His name was Wes. He was from Bed-Stuy, and he ran numbers for Simon. Ingrid felt grown, living in a big city, coming from a small town, and she wanted to see everything. She stayed in the middle of things, and got to know all the characters in the neighborhood. She watched Leo doing his thing. And she also saw him checking her out. But Leo was there that night with some high-yellow broad from Harlem. She was shining, too, with some diamonds in her ears and a mink wrap on her shoulders. She was stuck-up, though, and she sat all night long in the corner, away from the party. Ingrid was with Betty, and Betty had an ass as big as Rhode Island. With all that junk in the trunk, it was no wonder Betty commanded the attention of half the men in the room.

Betty started dancing when her song came on. She was out there in the middle of the floor, grinding and twisting. Soon all eyes were on their little corner of the basement. And when the song went off, and the cards were dealt, Leo won the card game.

It all got rowdy, with the losers grumbling and Leo and his boys gloating. He sent over a bottle of champagne for Ingrid and Betty, and the high-yellow ho he had come with jumped up and got in his face. She yelled, “Leonard! You got me sittin’ over here all night, and when you win, the first thing you do is send them bitches a bottle?” Betty jumped up, about to mop the floor with that bitch. She was really going to hurt
the girl. But Leo’s boys held her back, and Leo just laughed. He looked at the chick, and said, “You better sit down somewhere before you get embarrassed.” But the redbone didn’t sit down. She hauled off and slapped Leo dead in his face. The whole room stood still. And then Leo hit her right back! Slapped her so hard, Ingrid just knew the woman must have seen stars. The redbone soon recovered, and when she did, she started
swinging.
The two of them fought each other so bad in that basement that Leo’s boys pulled her out of there and put her in a cab. Leo sat right there at the bar and bought drinks for everybody. It was the funniest thing Ingrid had ever witnessed.

Leo’s friend Wes was sweet on Betty. He was over there all night, whispering in her ear and all that. And with the rowdy redbone long gone, Leo would not leave Ingrid’s side. He was glued to her, but he wasn’t too aggressive. He was as smooth as butter. Ingrid fell in love on the spot.

Ingrid and Betty decided to leave at around one o’clock in the morning. They had come alone, so they were prepared to leave alone. But Leo insisted on driving them the seven blocks to Betty’s place. They piled into his Cadillac, and Ingrid was thoroughly impressed. By the time they pulled up in front of Betty’s house, Ingrid had her mind made up that she was gonna see that man again. He asked for her number, and she gave it to him with no problem. He kissed her hand before she got out of the car, and said, “I’m gonna marry you someday, Miss Ingrid Bourne. You can take that to the bank.” Leo said all the right things. He was so confident, so charismatic. Within months Ingrid had married him, and was expecting their first child. Their son, Marquis Lamont Graham, was born on a rainy night in 1972.

After Leo recovered from the shooting his youngest son had witnessed, he went right back to the streets he loved so much. Nick was killed in a “botched robbery” soon after, and Leo even went to his funeral. Everybody knew that Leo had killed Nick, but no one went to the police. Everybody knew that the penalty for fucking with Leo was death. Nick had only gotten what his hand had called for.

As he grew up, Marquis watched his father with much awe and respect. Leo had had six kids with three other women. But Marquis was his youngest and his favorite, whether he ever said it or not. Wherever he went, Leo had his baby boy by his side. Marquis saw a few of his siblings often. His half-brother Michael and his half-sister Bridgett were the closest ones to him. And they were only closest to him because they lived in close proximity to his mother. Marquis had always felt like an only child, even though he had so many brothers and sisters. In his house, it was only him, his mother, and his father. It was easy for him to forget, at times, that he was the youngest of seven of his father’s children. And being his father’s child definitely had its perks.

Once Marquis had gone with his father to an arcade in Staten Island. When they got there, a couple of kids were playing the video games. Marquis couldn’t wait to get in there and play, too. But judging by the looks of it, every game in the arcade was already being played. Leo saw the look of disappointment on his son’s face and told him not to worry. Marquis watched his pops walk over and say something to the guy who ran the place. The owner walked over and spoke in a low voice to the kids who were playing, and suddenly every video game became available. The kids gathered up their stuff and left. No one was allowed access to the games except Marquis, and he got to play all the games by himself. It was then that he knew that Leo Graham was a powerful man. Without being told, Marquis knew his father was into something serious.