Then all of a sudden Shirleen’s eyes changed, they didn’t go scary, like the supplier’s had, they went kind. The change was so swift, it took me off guard and I had no chance to respond to it.
“Your time’s better spent in that Shelter than on the street,” she said.
My smile faded and I felt my head crackin’ mamma jamma coming over me. Luckily, before it got a full hold and I f**ked everything up, Shirleen continued.
“Darius and me been talkin’. We’re passin’ the business on slow like. Too much headache, now with dealers gettin’ smoke bombed and plastic wrapped. They’re unhappy, want us to whack a social worker. I draw the line at whackin’ social workers, un-unh. Not me. So, we’re makin’ deals.” She indicated the supplier with a nod of her head. “Boys wanna move up, we’ll let ‘em. We’ll start with passin’ off the dealers who deal to the kids. No more. We move on from there. The games are goin’ good. We’ll stick with that.”
I felt my heart racing. I could not believe she was telling me this. I could not believe they were getting out of the drug business.
The room had gone wired. Lee had tensed beside me, waves of something, emotion, disbelief, whatever, were coming off him and bouncing off me. I felt it at my back from Vance too.
I understood what it meant. It meant this was huge.
“You all right with that?” Shirleen asked me (as if I’d say no).
I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I just nodded.
“It’ll take time. You should know we don’t speak for the others. You take on the street, you don’t have no protection from us. We’re Switzerland when it comes to you. And this deal does not leave this room. Word hits the street before we pull out, it’s war. Got me?” Shirleen went on, her eyes were no longer kind, they were hard and they were sharp.
I just nodded again. She stared at me a beat then it turned into two.
Then the sharpness went out of her eyes and she said quietly, “Thank you for takin’ care of Tye.”
Oh my God.
She’d known all along it was me who got Tye off the street. I felt something hit my chest, a weight I hadn’t felt in a long time, not since Auntie Reba died.
I knew what it was. It was tears.
I swallowed and quickly pulled myself together. “Tye’s a good kid,” I said softly.
“They all are,” she replied just as softly.
Then abruptly she put her hand on Darius’s shoulder and stood. “I need a drink. Who needs a drink?” No one said anything. “Suit yourselves. Shirleen’s gettin’ a drink.”
Then she was gone.
We all stayed where we were and were silent.
Finally Lee, his eyes on Darius, asked from beside me, “She speak for you?”
Darius shook his head, not in the negative, instead, partially amused, partially beleaguered.
“You know Aunt Shirleen,” was all he said.
“You told Eddie?” Lee asked.
“We’ve set up a meet after this one,” Darius replied.
“This gonna go well for you?” Lee went on and Darius’s eyes changed, went hard, scary.
“I had to guess? No,” Darius answered.
More waves of something I didn’t get started pounding around the room.
“You know –?” Lee started but Darius interrupted him.
“I know.”