ground. His bloodied and broken nose told me that the fight was over. I knew right from wrong. But, right or wrong, you didn’t grab a man in the ghetto without expecting a fight.
Rufus laughed and slapped his legs with his palms. “Lord, I can still remember how he looked up at us and screamed. Run. Make it look like I’m chasing you. Nigga, I don’t wanna lose my fuckin’ job. I got three kids. This all I got. Pick up the chicken and run, nigga, run.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You grabbed that chicken and ran like the wind.”
“If I’d run home without that bird, Momma would’ve beat me until Gabriel blew his horn. After Reverend Daddy, Momma picked up right where he left off. She’d hit you and you’d just stand there and look at her. I’d look at you and think, Lord, please don’t let that nigga hit Momma. She’ll kill us all.”
Our laughter gradually died. Thought about the days when I’d shoot craps to come up on some cash, break into somebody’s home, hook up with an older woman who had a fetish for young dick. Sometimes I just got a job. We let the misty memories of our past go. Then I closed my eyes, had another one of those moments I had from time to time. A sort of philosophical moment where I wondered if the life and things around me were just a product of my own mind.
Rufus said, “Yessir. Reverend Daddy taught us how to lie and Momma taught us how to steal.”
“That they did.”
I touched the wound behind my ear. Blood and pain told me this life was real.
I opened my eyes, told my brother, “I need quick cash to get her off my back.”
“When did she start tripping?”
“When I quit dicking her down.”
“Duh. Why didn’t you just keep on fucking her? All she wanted was some attention and some dick. Hell, she’s frustrated with pinky and wants the chocolate thunder.”
We laughed like two men in a locker room. His was deep and true, mine uneasy.
The anger in Lisa’s eyes; still saw it. I told Rufus that she had pointed her Glock at me.
That changed his disposition.
He said, “She’s a horrible human being. The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. She looks like her mother, but she’s a nutcase just like her father. That Jekyll and Hyde would smile at the people at noon then destroy his enemies at midnight. He ran Compton the same way she’s coming at you. People cheered when he had a stroke. That stroke saved a lot of people’s lives.”
“Could you make it sound a little worse, Rufus? Could you do that for me?”
A cool breeze rustled through the palm trees.
He folded his arms and rocked. “Should I ask how much you owe her?”
“Don’t ask. And change your damn posture.”
He straightened up before he asked, “Do I need to call somebody?”
“I’m cool. She’s bluffing.”
“You should sneak in her house and piss in her Listerine.”
“Rufus, c‘mon man. That’s nasty.”
“Or put some depilatory in her perm. Remember when I did that to Peter? He had curly hair and used a mild perm to make the curls a little wavier. I bought extra-strength perm and mixed it together with Nair and put it on his head, rubbed it all through his damn hair. When he said it was starting to burn, I told him, ‘Well, you only have a few more minutes.’ ”
My expression shut his laughter down.
He said, “You should look up Ray Ray. Now that’s one crazy-ass nigga. He’ll fuck a heifer like Lisa up for a value meal at McDonald’s and you won’t even have to supersize.”
I thought on it and shook my head. “A man handles his own problems, Rufus.”
“Oh, please. If that was the case Bush would’ve gone to Baghdad his damn self.”
“Whatever.”
“If you can’t find Ray Ray, what about Andre?”
“Rufus, I’m not calling in the cavalry because of a damn woman.”
“Newsflash. A bitch with a gun ain’t no woman. That bitch has balls.”
We both sat there, rubbing hand over hand, same thing Reverend Daddy used to do.
For a moment, I wished I had done whatever it took to keep the peace. For a moment. I thought about Wolf, how good he had been to me, like another brother, and I shook my head. I wasn’t a saint. I’d bedded a few married women, would experience another married woman and send her home wearing my scent without a second thought, but not if