3. DaVinci
3
DaVinci
I could hear Clo Baby’s voice, but it felt like I was in a dream. Like I was floating, and I couldn’t come down. I wanted to though because I could hear Clover crying as she spoke to me. She was upset. I knew that by the tone she was using. Whatever or whoever it was that had her upset, I was damn sure gon’ fuck them up. As soon as I could figure out how to stop floating. Slipping back into a dark space, I allowed myself to relax to the sound of Clover’s saddened voice. When I came back to, I heard my mom’s voice that time along with Clover’s voice. They were arguing about something, but I couldn’t quite make out what. Fighting with my own body was a wild feeling, but that’s exactly what I was doing as I was struggling to get my eyes open.
“Vin Vin! You’re awake!” Clo shrieked in an excited tone.
Shit, I guess my eyes? were? open. Now, I had to get my mind and body on one accord because my brain wasn’t processing the fact that I could see. Closing my eyes, I attempted to move my hands, feet, fingers, something, but? nothing was happening.
“Oh my God, baby, just open your eyes again for me. Please.”
Feeling Clo’s hands on my face and then her perfect lips on mine warmed my heart. In my mind, I was telling her to do it again and hoping we were so deeply connected that she could hear my thoughts. Clearly, Clo Baby was my soulmate because I felt her sweet lips on me again. One, two, three, four. That’s how many times she kissed me on my lips before I felt her lips on my forehead and then my nose.
“Baby, please, please open your eyes again,” she begged in a quiet tone, rubbing her nose against mine.
My baby knows I love her Eskimo kisses. That’s why I made her my wife. She knew how to get a nigga right. My eyes opened again, and this time, I could see Clover’s pretty ass face clear as day.
“Hi, my love,” she whispered with tears pouring from her eyes. “Hi,” she kissed me again. “Thank you, God, for waking him up.”
Even though I wasn’t 100% clear on what was going on, it was evident that I had been sleep for a long time. My eyes shifted around the dimly lit room, and that’s when I saw my mom standing there with an annoyed look on her face. Judging by the dreary ass colors on the wall and the bed that I was in, I concluded that I was in the hospital. Why the fuck I was here was beyond me.
“DaVinci, can you hear me? Blink if you can hear me, baby,” Clover held my face in her hands.
Damn, did I not have a voice? I blinked to show her that I could hear her, but I also tried to speak. My throat was sore as hell. Trying to lift my hand to point to my throat, I realized that it wasn’t moving.
“Can you at least go get Dr. Ofei?!” Clover snapped at my mother.
Tonya rolled her eyes and walked out of the room. There was beef between them, and I wanted to know what it was about.
“Baby, as soon as I can get you out of here, I’m taking you home. Your mother is trying to kill you, and I’ll be damned if I let that happen,” she rushed her words out.
She was trying to kill me? What the fuck for? I had so many questions, but my sore throat was stopping me from saying a damn thing.
“Mr. Pierre,” an African nigga in a white coat strolled to my bedside with Tonya trailing behind. “I knew your wife would be able to get you to come around.”
“He hasn’t been able to say anything, Dr. O. Is that normal?” Clover wiped her tears as she slid off my bed.
“A variation of normal, yes. His throat could still be swollen from the breathing tube or his mind hasn’t completely gotten on the same page as his body,” he pulled my eyelids back and shone a light into them.
“I told him to blink if he can hear me, and he did, so I think his mind and body are on one page,” Clover continued to advocate for me.
“Mr. Pierre, blink once if your throat is sore.”
Staring up at him, I blinked and then looked over at Clover. She was so gahdamn fine to me. All I wanted to do was get up out of the bed and hug, kiss, and just hold her. I heard the doc say that he was going to push some anti-inflammatory meds and steroids to help with the pain in my throat. Watching him and my wife interact had me ready to get the hell up out of this bed. The nigga was a lil’ too close to her for my liking. As soon as my voice came back, I was cussing his lil’ Akon looking ass out. Grinning in my wife’s face like I wasn’t laying right here was a fuckin’ death sentence.
Once the doctor left, my mother walked out with him and Clover climbed into the bed with me. I wanted to put my arms around her but nothing on my body was working besides my eyes evidently. Just the feeling of her warm body snuggled against mine was enough for a nigga though. She placed her arm around me and started humming while her fingertips brushed up and down my arm.
“Our baby doesn’t like that you’re in here,” she looked up at me after a few minutes of humming. “He or she won’t let me keep any food down. You have to get better, baby, so we can go home. Blink once if you understand what I’m saying, daddy.”
Again, I blinked to show her my understanding. She started crying, and I hated that she was crying so much. I could see the fear in her eyes mixed with sadness and a little bit of happiness. I wanted to fix everything so that I could only see happiness in her eyes. Right after I killed Akon Junior, I was tending to my wife’s needs to make her happy again.
“I love you, baby, I swear I’m not leaving your side,” she kissed my chin and then rested her head on my chest again.
“I love you, too,” I croaked out in a hoarse tone.
My throat was still somewhat sore, but whatever meds AJ pushed was helping. There was never a time my wife would tell me that she loved me, and I didn’t let her know I loved her, too.
“DaVinciiiii,” she broke down crying all over again as she sat up and looked at me. “I’ve missed your voice so bad!”
“What…happened?” I forced out, trying to lift my hands again, but still there was no movement.
“You…you were shot. We were leaving your grandfather’s funeral and someone started shooting. You’ve been in a coma for a month now. You and River.”
The second she said funeral , my memory came rushing back to the day I was shot. I remembered the Petrovs speaking to us and then the sound of an AK-47 ringing out. I knew the sound of that gun all too well because my grandfather had trained me on it. Crazy thing was, I don’t remember feeling a bullet hit me at all. I just remember hearing the gunshots and wanting to protect Clover. Hearing that River was in a coma broke my heart.
“Where’s River?”
“She’s across the hall, baby. She was shot in the head, but Dr. O said it entered the left side and got lodged into the right side of her head. Y’all’s grandpa’s spirit must’ve been there to save her because the bullet didn’t tear through her brain. Dr. O said it did minimal damage to her brain because of the way it entered, but he’s been running her brain scans every other day, and there hasn’t been any swelling. She still hasn’t come around yet, so Dr. O doesn’t know if she’ll have any neurological defects or not, but I think she’ll be fine,” she thoroughly explained.
Slowly moving my head up and down, I was relieved that she would at least survive. I wouldn’t be able to handle life if I lost River. I loved Lake, no question about it, but River owned a different part of my heart. Just like Clover did.
“What about Lake?”
I noticed the more I spoke, the easier it got.
“Lake is turning Virginia every which way but loose,” she giggled and sniffled, wiping her nose with her sleeve. “He wasn’t shot, but he’s been putting a lot of bodies in the morgue.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” I laughed a little, knowing how crazy and reckless Lake was.
“Are you feeling okay, Vin Vin?” She pouted at me. “And don’t lie to me.”
“I don’t feel anything,” I hesitantly replied.
I didn’t want to worry her but the way her expression changed, I knew that’s exactly what I had done.
“What do you mean? Are you numb?” She dragged her stiletto fingernail down my arm. “Do you feel that?”
“Yeah, bae, I feel that. It just…feels like my body isn’t attached to my body, if that makes sense. Like I know it’s there, but my brain doesn’t understand that it’s my body. I can’t move my hands. I’ve been trying to touch you for the last ten minutes.”
Her pout deepened, but she picked up my hand and placed it on her face. “Do you feel this?”
“Yeah, wifey. I feel that crocodile ass skin,” I smirked.
Dropping my hand, she sucked her teeth and lightly tapped my arm with a laugh. “Boy, fuck you! I see you haven’t lost that sense of humor!”
“Never that,” I winked at her.
“DaVinci, I need to talk to you about something,” her demeanor shifted again.
“What’s the matter?”
“I…” she started fidgeting with her fingers. “I think your mom did this.”
My eyebrows raised. “Did what ? Shot us?”
“Yes.”
“Nah,” I denied that allegation. “She’s crazy but not this kind of crazy. And she wouldn’t have done that at her father’s funeral. Despite all the bullshit, she loved him.”
“Baby, you banned her from the funeral. Just the day before the funeral, she said if we kept her from attending then watch what happens. And then this happens. Think about it. The only people that got shot was you, River, and my mother, but I think my mother just literally got caught in the crossfire. I have POA over you and Lake has POA over River, and your mom went and got that shit revoked so that she could have it over both of you. The second she got it? She marched her funky ass down here and pulled the plug on you and River. Vinny, I’m telling you, that evil ass winch did this,” she stated with so much conviction that it had me slightly convinced.
Me and Tonya had our beef fa’ sho’, and yeah, I pressed her with my Glock but kill me? That was extreme, even for her. I just couldn’t see her having her dad’s funeral shot up like that. She would try to ruin me in a different way, not put me in an early grave. I considered that the shooting had something to do with the Petrovs. There had been whisperings about the family Irina married into being caught up in some mob shit. That seemed more likely than my own mother doing something as fucked up as that. If I found out otherwise, that would be the day our family was torn apart again .