Chapter 1
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Three shots outside of her bedroom caused Remedy’s exhausted body to jolt from the bed she was hoping to be in for the next couple of hours, to the floor. Another round of shots fired off before she heard the weathered voice of her next door neighbor.
“I’ll put something hot in your ass, muhfucka! Leave you stankin’!”
Typically a threat like that, followed by fire, would mean the two gangs were duking it out over asphalt that didn’t belong to them. But the words coming from Mr. Ernie’s mouth meant he was having an episode.
She grumbled into the sweatpants she kicked off before falling into the bed. “Dammit, Ernie.”
Remedy pushed herself to her bare feet, haphazardly grabbing the pants from the floor. As she rushed through the old house, she pulled the pants over her bare legs and slid her feet into a pair of slides.
“Keep your ass from around here!” Mr. Ernie shouted again.
Remedy took in the scene, finding nothing but parked cars, trees, and a few shot out streetlights. “Mr. Ernie, what’s going on?”
“Them niggas trying to come in my shit! You don’t see them? Get behind me,” he protested.
Mr. Ernie had to be in his mid-seventies, silky salt and pepper hair, skin like onyx. Upon first look, anyone could see he was hell back in his day and he knew it. The problem with being hell in the prime of your life was when you got like this – you were indeed still hell.
Remedy squinted, thinking quickly on her feet before he killed someone. “Point them out.”
“Right fucking there! Staring at me, trying to take my shit!” Mr. Ernie fussed, pointing to the tree line.
Remedy took the shotgun out of his hand and fired two shots into the wooded area. “Did I get them?”
He darted his eyes around before looking down at her. Faint realization flashing in his eyes. “You a good shot, little Remedy.”
Remedy gave him a faint smile of her own.
She studied him further. He was still in the sweatpants and t-shirt she talked him into earlier this morning.
Now, the sun was getting ready to set and the stain on the front of his pants proved he’d peed himself without knowing.
For a moment, her heart sank and the morbidness of it all rushed back in.
For as long as she lived next door, she’d never seen anyone come and check on him.
It wasn’t until the last couple of months that she’d really started checking on him.
Making sure he ate before her shifts, amongst other things but as of late, his sundowning was getting harder for her to watch.
Last night, she’d found him roaming down the middle of the street, naked and frantically searching for a woman named Cherie.
It took her hours to get him calm, and down to sleep.
She slipped out an hour after he started snoring and was hoping he’d been too tired from all of that to be out here like this.
“Have you ate?” she asked, looking up into his gray-rimmed eyes.
Mr. Ernie focused on her, taking a little longer to register her question. “Nah.”
“How about you let me help you shower, get dressed in one of those suits I saw last night and I’ll take you with me tonight,” Remedy posed.
“You gon’ take me to see ass and titties?” Mr. Ernie asked, immediately coming back to his fresh self.
Remedy stifled a laugh and eye roll. Considering that’s how she’d really met him, she knew what he liked to get him to sit still for hours.
And at least having him in the club meant she could ensure he wasn’t shooting up the block or wandering around naked.
He’d be fed, entertained and too tired to cause ruckus when she needed to be sleeping.
That, and her heart wouldn’t be able to take anything happening to him.
“I ever told you I used to pimp hoes?” Mr. Ernie asked ,walking back toward the steps of his house. The paint had chipped away years ago. The steps were rotting and the front door either got stuck or wouldn’t shut. This was no way for anyone to live.
Remedy walked in behind him, happy he hadn’t messed up the house much from her deep clean last week. “Yeah, I remember you telling me about that.”
“Poppi wasn’t letting me get too carried away though. She had me treating them hoes like real employees until I got my hands on sweet, sweet Cherie,” Mr. Ernie shared.
“You were looking for her last night,” Remedy shared as he roamed down the hall to tuck his shotgun away and grab the things necessary for him to take a shower. Mr. Ernie, used to the level of care Remedy offered him, followed her into the hall bathroom.
“I fucked up. Poor pussy management. You know back in my day, the hoes used to give daddy a taste. I had a taste of Cherie, never let her out my sight. She was here, all up and through my house before running off with my boy.”
This was the first she’d ever heard of him having children. Her brows fused as she pulled the nitrile gloves over her hands. “You have a son?”
“Yeah I got a little jit. Ain’t seen the little nigga since he told me I wasn’t shit to him,” Mr. Ernie scoffed. “Imagine, I’m the reason the little nigga exists and I’m not shit to him. Guess, I can’t fix that, now.”
Remedy stood by, quietly watching him undress and step into the shower. She wet his wash cloth and lathered it in the antibacterial body wash she’d purchased for him. Handing it over for him to wash the front of his body, she asked, “why not?”
While Mr. Ernie washed the front of his body, Remedy washed the back and waited for his response. It was heavy. Probably a reason why the ghost of Cherie weighed on him so much.
“I fucked up with his mama. Young, old don’t matter. Niggas don’t play about their mamas. That’s just some shit I have to take with me,” he spoke into the water.
“I understand that. Truly,” Remedy said, almost letting the heaviness of her own past weigh on her.
Life was supposed to be so much different for her now.
More successful, like her brothers and sisters.
More pleasing to her parents, and not so much of a stain on the family name.
The only one who accepted her for all the right and wrong she managed to do was her grandmother.
The house she lived in, thrown to her like a piece of scrapped meat to a stray dog.
It was meant to hurt her, kick her while she was down, keep her in her place — under their feet.
What they didn’t understand was the house, and all of its necessary repairs, were something to keep her mind focused and busy rather than letting her demons and past mistakes plague her.
“What kind of secrets a young girl like you got? You ain’t never did nothing horrible in your life. Not the way you takin’ care of me,” Mr. Ernie muttered, looking down at her.
She didn’t look at him. Just continued washing him. “We all have our things. You can get dressed on your own or do you want my help today?”
“I’m going to show you how I used to put that shit on,” Mr. Ernie commented. “Sweet Lick Ernie is what they used to call me.”
Remedy burst out in laughter. “Used to, because I’m not callin’ you that shit.”
“By the end of the night, all them hoes in the strip club gonna be callin’ me that. Not you though, you ain’t no hoe.”
“Ernie, I dance just like the next girl,” Remedy replied.
“Dancing is dancing. You ain’t fuckin’ for money though. I know that ‘cause no niggas be in and out your house. You honest.”
She blinked away a few tears. He was right. There was no one in and out the house. And she’d been called everything but honest – that meant that he saw her. No one had seen her since her grandmother closed her eyes.
“‘Preciate that.”
She assisted him with drying off and getting his under clothes on before scooping up his soiled clothes. “I’m going to take these to the laundromat tomorrow.”
“Can I come?” he posed.
“Are you going to sleep or are you going to be running down the street?” Remedy replied.
“I’ll sleep,” he compromised with a loaded smile.
“Then, when I get up we’re going to the laundromat and food shopping. Your fridge is bare.”
An hour and a half later, the pair were in Mr. Ernie’s wide body Cadillac Deville headed to the club. He insisted she drove his car because it matched his candy apple red sequin suit, hat, cane and shoes he’d pulled out his closet to put on.
Entering the club, Remedy could hear the muffled giggles but it was the bartender whose voice she heard the loudest.
“Uh uh, Rem. If you wanted to get pimped, I could have found someone else,” the girl spoke and Mr. Ernie started to step in her direction.
Remedy quickly blocked him, her tone cooling whatever heat he was getting ready to give her. “This is my friend, Mr. Ernie. Mr. Ernie is going to have the corner booth on my side tonight. His drinks and food can come out my tips. Aight?”
The girl nodded, taking in the words Remedy mouthed. “No alcohol.”
“Aight, Rem. You ain’t no fun.”
“I know,” Remedy spoke with a shrug before turning to Mr. Ernie. “ Come on, follow me.”
Once she had him situated in a corner booth and his wings on the way, she hurried to the locker room to get ready.
Hair, make up, outfit, stretches and warm ups.
It was Saturday night, the club was going to be packed and she needed every dollar that was coming to her.
Make up and stretches completed, she looked at stared at her reflection in the mirror trying not to let the thoughts take over her mind.
“Do what you need to do, Rem.”