Motherless Child #4
I didn’t hear much of it.
Besides the combined weed and liquor making me feel like I was in an underwater tunnel, Snow decided to come pay her respects, and sit in the back with my niggas and her sister.
I never got around to telling her what happened, so I damn sure didn’t tell her when and where the funeral would be.
Yet there she was.
In a black dress and sweater. A forest green headband that kept her hair out of her face. She and Autumn sat in between Set and Turkey, which bothered the fuck out of me.
I couldn’t stop staring as muthafuckas I didn’t know told me how sorry they were for my loss. She must have felt it, or maybe Set seen it, because after he whispered something to her, her eyes found mine.
She didn’t smile. She didn’t even look worried. She just peered at me, then dipped her head low, as if she was giving me permission.
The doors to the church opened dramatically. I felt Fredo grab me before I could tear my gaze away from Snow, but it took half a second for me to see why.
I was done with Pooh when he didn’t answer my call.
I was done with Pooh when Nan let it slip that he was out of town, which was why he ain’t answer.
I was done with Pooh when he insisted on throwing this bullshit funeral, open casket at that.
But seeing him walk into my mother’s funeral with another bitch on his arm. I was beyond done.
I was beyond pissed.
I took a step toward Pooh as Fredo gripped me tighter.
“Don’t–”
I turned around and pushed him so hard he bumped into Ty-Ty.
“Ricky,” Nan gasped, but I barely heard it. Not as I whirled around to where Pooh and that bitch were, feet away from me.
Perfect swinging distance.
I curled my fist and put my all into it. Everything that simmered deep inside of me came rushing out, and through my fist.
I connected with his eye perfectly.
He went down like a sack of laundry.
The entire church gasped, but I only heard my Snow.
She sat there, both hands covering her mouth as her eyes shifted from Pooh to me. When they focused behind me, I turned just in time for Fredo to sock me in my jaw.
“You dumbass! You got Nan hyperventilating and shit! Fuck you!”
Fredo had never said some shit like that to me. Ever. Not even when we called ourselves disagreeing. He immediately went over the line, fuck crossing. That nigga jumped, feet first.
“No, nigga. Fuck you!” I roared, socking him back.
Seeing Fredo fight was one thing. Fighting him was truly another.
That nigga was giving it to me, I couldn’t lie. But I was angry, and hurt, and embarrassed, and he looked just like Pooh, like I did, so I just imagined he was Pooh.
Ty-Ty grabbed me up, but I twisted out of his grip and pushed Fredo as hard as I could.
But remember, I was high as giraffe ass. And me and Peanut took a fifth of Hennessy to the head that morning. So I had tunnel vision.
I didn’t see Ma’s casket. I damn near forgot we were in the church.
Until Fredo fell into it. One of the legs on the stand snapped, and Fredo, the casket, and Ma herself came tumbling down onto the ground.
“Dios mio! RICKY!” Nan shouted. I looked over just in time to see her faint into Rone’s arms.
Fredo shot up, his eyes in a panic before focusing back on me.
“I’ma kill you!” he screeched, dodging our friends before tackling me to the ground.
It took Ty-Ty, Turk, Set, and Reem to get him off me. Peanut got me off the floor and we dipped back to the Birch.
“Yo ass… fuckin’ tripping,” he slurred as we sat on the bleachers.
We drank almost another fifth of cognac, still in our Sunday’s best, as we watched over our domain.
It was a ghost town, but the Birch could never feel dead.
If we had looked hard enough, we could have found a story hidden in the bushes, or in one of the windows looking down at us.
“Like, you fucked up every muthafucka you related to. Pooh; Fredo; Nan; shit, even Auntie Yani,” he sputtered, before taking the bottle to the head.
“It’s yo fuckin’ fault. I shoulda never smoked with yo ass. Shit had me feeling like Incredible Hulk.”
We both cackled at the absurdity of it all, before I snatched the bottle from him and took a swig.
“They’ll be aight. Pooh know he wrong for that shit. Emotions high and shit right now. It’ll be fine.”
“Nah,” I said, glaring at the netless basketball hoop in front of us. “It’s forever fuck that nigga, on my soul. I called him that night, hella times, and he ain’t answer. As far as I’m concerned, he killed my mama.”
“Well damn. I guess it’s fuck that nigga then. I’m on whatever you on.”
We dapped each other up, making a B with our hands; the Birch handshake we’re all taught before we’re taught to walk.
“You know, you was the last one of us with a mama–you and Fredo. Now, none of us have mamas. Shit sad as fuck, on Baby. Set’s lil’ brother Shad still got one, but it’s fuck that bitch, so she don’t count.”
I snorted, thinking about the lil’ nigga with cockroaches coming out of his head that started coming around on the weekends. My neighbor Sean reenacted how he knocked Remy and Kilo clean out on the courts, and me and Fredo were pissed we missed it.
Shit was so simple just a couple weeks ago.
“Well, Reem still got a mama, even though she don’t let him come outside.”
“The point I was tryna make, as yo Ace, is that you not alone, brodie. I know you got ya twin and shit, and he prolly will forgive you for tagging his ass and knocking out y’alls Moms in the afterlife, but even if he don’t, you not alone. I got you since the sandbox, and I’m not letting up…
so you better forgive me if I kill this bitch.”
My smile melted off my face as I moved my hands to see Kisha walking up to us.
“Hey, baby. You good?” she asked, rubbing the tips of her nails on my cheek.
“Ay,” Peanut barked, making her flinch. “How long you been fuckin’ my Ace?”
She glanced at the bottle he held by the neck, before jutting her chin up in the air. “Over a year.”
“So, since he was fourteen,” Peanut mused, standing to his full height. He took a bigger swig, before handing the bottle to me.
“And how old you is?”
She turned to me, but I wanted to see where this would go, so I shrugged.
“Twenty-two,” she said, rolling her eyes to Peanut.
Peanut nodded his head like she said some profound shit. Neither one of us seen his hand flying toward her cheek.
He slapped her ass better than any pimp.
“You a sick ass bitch,” he seethed, getting in her face.
“What the–RICO!” Kisha yelled, holding her cheek.
I took a swig of the Hennessy and shrugged again.
“You a nasty ass duck bitch, fucking on a kid with that ran-through pussy.”
Kisha tried to push Peanut out of her face, but he grabbed her hands and pushed her onto the ground.
His hand reached behind him and he pulled out his piece. Only then did I stand up.
“On my mama, if my Ace tell me you even breathe around him, I’ma do the world a favor and put a hot one in ya gut, so you feel me, foreal.”
“Go on, Kish,” I sighed, trying to keep a straight face as she crab walked to the other side of the courts.
We both sat down then, and Peanut scowled until she was inside her building.
“Now why you do that, witcho Nutty ass?”
“I told you, these old bitches is fucking weirdos. She was proud to be fucking you when you was in fucking middle school. A fuckin’ duck. You ain’t finna get tied to one of these pedophiles ‘cause you got Mommy issues now. Fuck that. And if that bitch fuck witcha after that, she’s not only a duck,
but a dumb duck, and that’s worse.”
He punctuated it with another shot, before passing it back to me to kill.
“I’m glad you came back, brodie,” I said, long after the bottle was dead, and people started trickling back through the courts. Our time alone was ending soon, but I needed him to know that.
He wrapped a heavy arm around me, lowkey putting me in a headlock before releasing me. “I’m already knowing.”