SEVEN
“WHEN YOU ON THE MOVE, SOMETIMES IT DON’T GO HOW YOU PLANNED OUT.” YFN LUCCI
“Are you judging me in your head?” Nina desperately wanted to know. Ephrem hadn’t said a word. He sipped his tea in silence, looking out at the view that her fancy office provided.
“No.”
One-word answers from her best friend were a sure sign of him feeling a way but not offering up his thoughts. Nina hated it when he was short with her.
“Be honest.”
Ephrem sighed and crossed his legs. “Can I get the check? I have some place to be.”
He’d stopped by to pick up a donation from Marcelle he was the one to blame for her lack of confidence in him and, overall, what they had.
“I ran out of blunts, baby. I went to the store and just decided to grab food and shit. Don’t do me like that,” he sounded defeated. “Like damned if I do, damned if I don’t.” Jio turned around and set everything on the counter.
“I just want the old you back,” she painfully admitted.
Jio wanted the old him back too.
η
Jio sat in his truck for nearly twenty minutes before finally killing the engine.
His mother's house looked exactly the same as it always had. The flowers lining the walkway were blooming. The wind chimes hanging from the porch sang softly in the breeze. He hated this house as a child, and he spent as much time away from this motherfucker as he could. He was shocked that he came here tonight, but she knew how to get him to pull up on her, and that was food. It was the way to most men’s hearts and his mama used it to her advantage.
She knew her boys loved her cooking, and if she had to bribe them with a dinner plate, so be it.
The house hadn’t changed at all. Jio was going to ask her if she wanted to paint the shutters or get a new front door.
It needed to be spruced up. Hell, if she wanted a new crib, he would do that too.
Nothing in his life felt familiar lately, but he wouldn’t complain.
He just had to keep going. When he walked in, the scent of garlic and basil tickled his nose.
He was high and hungry. His mama was standing in the kitchen rolling ground beef into medium-sized balls.
Eventually, she glanced over her shoulder. “What's wrong with you nigga?”
She’d always talked to him like that, so it wasn’t out of the norm.
Jio sighed. “What makes you think something's wrong?”
“Because you showed up in the middle of the day.”
Fair enough, he thought.
He pulled out a chair and sat down heavily. His mother studied him for a moment before turning the stove down. The concern in her eyes made him look away. Everybody was always looking at him like they could see the weight he was carrying, but what could they do about it? Nothing.
“I talked to Dad.”
Her expression changed.
“That’s nothing new. He alright?” She asked but he knew that she didn’t give a flying fuck. She washed her hands of him a long time ago. It was around the time she got clean for real.
Jio leaned back in the chair. “I don't know.”
“What you mean you don’t know?”
She grabbed two beers out of the fridge and handed him one.
“It means I don't know what the hell is going on with him.” The frustration in his voice came out harsher than he intended.
His mother remained quiet because Jio sometimes didn’t care to hear her two cents.
“He talking in riddles. I can’t figure him out right now,” he admitted.
“He always has.”
“Nah… not like this.” Jio rubbed a hand over his beard. It was as if he was plotting on something but he didn’t know what.
“One minute he's telling me to stay focused on business. The next minute he's asking questions that don't make sense.”
His mother's face remained unreadable. “Questions about what?”
“Niggas… but mainly the past. Old shit that don’t have nothing to do with me or him.”
She chuckled. “He not about to snitch, is he?’
Jio didn’t find that funny. “He better not be.” If he was on that lame shit, he needed to stay far away from him. Jio didn’t go against the code and his Pops wasn’t supposed to be either. He did the crime and now he had to do the time.
“Why else would he care to ask you about shit that don’t have nothing to do with y’all?”
Jio shook his head. “Not sure, Ma.”
“I know that’s your daddy but don’t trust him. He is evil.”
He ignored her and said, “He keeps bringing up things that happened before I was even born.”
She turned the music down while Jio stared off into space.
“Son, don’t let this go in one ear and out the other. I hope you listening. DO NOT TRUST HIM!” she reiterated.
“Was he really that bad?” The question lingered in the room.
For the first time in his life, she looked nervous.
Jio hated that because it told him that there was truth in the stories that he’d heard over the years.
Jio used to brush them off because that was his Pops and he would never allow niggas to sit around and throw salt on his name.
A man’s reputation was all he had and he wasn’t going to let anyone tarnish the Gotti name.
But lately, he couldn’t help but to realize that although the stories came from enemies, rivals, and bitter bitches, a lot of the pieces were fitting together to make one big puzzle.
Everybody wasn’t lying and he was starting to see it.
“I've heard things.” His mother folded her hands together.
“Like what Ma?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” She eyed him carefully.
“The Pablo shit?”