“Lee Boy! Lookin’ good,” the woman shouted when we walked in, sounding happy and welcoming, like we’d come to her dinner party.
“Shirleen,” Lee said, walking into the room. I followed. Vance followed me.
Lee put his beer bottle down and sat. I put my glass down and sat next to him thinking this was the right thing to do. I rethought it when Vance positioned himself standing behind me and to my right. Instead of looking indecisive and getting up to stand with Vance, I kept my seat.
The supplier’s eyes went to Vance and they got hard and scary and I held my breath.
Vance hadn’t allowed me to bring my gun (even though I was pretty certain he and Lee were carrying, though Vance didn’t share). He said it would send the wrong message for me to walk in armed and since I’d never had a sit down with a drug dealer, and expected he knew what he was talking about, I gave in.
At that moment though, I wished I had it just in case.
Lee felt me tense, his eyes cut to me and, quickly, to my shock, I kid you not, he winked at me.
Lee “Badass Mother” Nightingale winked… at… me.
I guessed this meant everything was all right. I let out my breath and tried to relax.
The seating scenario had us facing off against Darius, Shirleen and the other guy.
“So you’re The Law,” Shirleen said, looking at me. “You’re a tiny little thing. How you flip Jermaine on his back?” she asked.
“Um…” I started, thinking I wasn’t exactly tiny but then again she really wasn’t tiny so it was all relative.
“Not that I think that’s bad, mind,” she went on as if I hadn’t uttered a sound. “Jermaine is one evil brother. I do not like him at all. Got my friend’s daughter, Shaneequa, pregnant then left her high and dry. No child support, nothin’. We was thrilled when we heard you kicked him in the balls. He deserved it.”
“Shirleen,” Darius said quietly.
“Well, he did,” Shirleen said. “Got his ass kicked by a white girl. I tiny white girl. I cannot wait to tell Shaneequa,” Shirleen said to me. “Hey, no!” she exclaimed. “Why don’t you come with me to see Shaneequa? She’d love to meet you. She’ll give you a big, fat kiss.”
“Shirleen,” Darius said again, sounding more impatient now.
I stared.
I couldn’t help it; this was definitely not how I expected this sit down to be.
Shirleen ignored Darius’s impatience. “I hear you work with them kids at that Shelter. Well, I got me another friend, last year, her boy, he went to the street. So young, that boy. Do not know why, but he did. His parents are good people, no reason why he’d take to the street. One of you social workers found him and talked to him, got him to the Shelter then got him back home. Lord knows what was goin’ on in that boy’s head. Still, they was glad to have him home, I can tell you that,” Shirleen went on.
Darius was now sitting back, his eyes were on Lee. He was looking harassed.
“What was the boy’s name?” I asked Shirleen.
“His name was Tye. Who names their child Tye, with an “e”? What is up with that?” Shirleen answered but I leaned forward.
“Tye?” I asked. “I know Tye.”
And I did. He was young, eleven and luckily I got to him early before he’d been chewed up and spit out. He’d only been on the streets a few weeks when I talked him into the Shelter. By that time, he’d been scared out of his mind. The reunion had been quick, maybe only a few weeks more.
“You do?” Shirleen was leaning forward too.
“Yeah. I got him off the street. He wasn’t one of my cases but we used to talk all the time in the rec room. How is he? Is he doing okay?” I went on.
“Got on the A and B Honor Roll last year,” Shirleen bragged, as if he was her own son.
“Oh, that’s great. Tell him I said hi.”
“Will do, girl,” Shirleen said to me. “Maybe I’ll get him to come over when we visit Shaneequa.”
“I’d like that,” I replied, smiling at her.