Chapter 11
“Ask her,” Ernie thought he was whispering but Remedy could hear him from the living room as she walked down the steps in the sweat suit she had on the night before.
“Man, you’re trying to set me up and I don’t appreciate that shit. She’s your bestie, you ask her,” Erys huffed back, dropping his phone on the cushion between them.
Ernie felt lighter being in Erys’ presence. Remedy knew that’s what he needed. What he longed for. At some point, Erys might be enough for him and she could slip out. That was her fear talking because as comfortable as this could be, she was too close to her trauma.
“I can hear y’all. I can’t see a damn thing but I can hear,” Remedy sounded off, coming fully into view. “What do y’all want?”
“Erys wants dinner. Like a Sunday dinner,” Ernie spoke up.
Remedy squinted her eyes. “Considering Franklin doesn’t know what seasoning is if it hits him in his face, I highly doubt he wants a Sunday dinner. It’s not even Sunday.”
“It’s my birthday though, on Sunday. That’s what that bitch at the nursing home said. Mr. Moore, you’re going to be seventy-seven on Sunday, you’re too old to be acting like this. Bet I showed them how old I was,” Ernie stated. “When is Sunday?”
“In two days,” Remedy said. “What do you want for your birthday, Ernie?”
“Some big booty bitches. Some good food. Maybe a blunt? Can I get a blunt?” Ernie asked.
“Don’t look at me,” Remedy shared with her hands up. Her probation ended months ago but that was something she kept to her chest. “Ask Franklin. Isn’t he a Trae Way Gangsta?”
“What’s that supposed to mean, Mouth?” he shot back.
She pointed at him. “That you would have all the plugs and connections, I’m just trying to get by.”
“One blunt, nothing else, you know you liked powder. I’m not having the shit,” Erys spoke up. “I’m sure Remedy can help you with the big booty bitches.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, squinting.
“Means you were a stripper, you got all the plugs and connections,” he quipped back.
Remedy shot him her middle finger.
“Rem, I’m going to assume my son fucks like me. Put the finger down if you don’t want to be put through a mattress,” Ernie commented.
Remedy clutched her imaginary pearls and gasped. “Ernie, don’t ever say that again.”
He shrugged. “I’m just saying. If May was around, she’d tell you how I nailed her ass to the gotdamn frame.”
“Alright that’s enough. I’m going to miss my bus,” Remedy said, starting toward the door.
“Bus?” the Moore men asked in unison. “You’re not riding no gotdamn bus.”
“First of all, neither of you are my daddy. My daddy is ac-” she stopped herself. “I’m not driving your car over there, it’ll be gone by the time I get into the house good. I’m fine.”
“So you’re going to carry all the stuff back on the bus?” Erys posed, standing to his feet.
“Yeah, I’ll go back for what I need. At least as many times as I can before I can’t,” she quietly admitted. She paused and blinked away a few tears. “I’ll be fine.”
“Come on, both of you. I’ll drive,” Erys said, heading toward the garage. Remedy didn’t know that he was working to secure her house before it went to auction. Even the push back from the county wasn’t enough to stop his determination.
“Erys. I’m fine really,” she replied, as if that were going to make him stop.
What she wanted was some time alone to grieve.
She knew the house was as good as gone, along with the memories and she just wanted to sit there for a while and say goodbye to the only place she’d been loved, seen, and safe.
“The man said come on,” Ernie teased.
“I thought you were my friend, Ernie,” Remedy huffed.
“Say, twin,” Ernie replied. “I’m your best friend, OG. But he’s not going to let you go alone so embrace the new. Isn’t that what you told me?” Ernie asked, making her groan.
“Yeah, I tell you a lot of stuff, it’s not for you to use it against me though.”
“I’ll never lead you wrong. You had one friend, now you got two,” Ernie said in response.
“Me and him are not friends, twin,” she hissed, following him out the door. “Where’d you even get that from?”
“Erys played me a song from some Yellow Nigga Three Stacks or something. It was trash,” Ernie said, opening the passenger door for Remedy.
“I’ll take the back, Ernie. You enjoy the shotgun,” Remedy said, opening the back door of the truck and getting in. Erys came around the bed of the truck and helped his father in. A scowl on his face. Remedy ignored it and continued the conversation with Ernie. “You mean YN3Dub?”
“Yeah him. He ain’t a good gangsta rapper. He might need another genre or something. He’s got cadence but he lacks the real. Erys manages him, street cred is out the window,” Ernie shared.
“The girls at the club love his stuff. I never understood it. He has these kickbacks, pays them to come through and shake some ass. I guess as long as he’s paying them, they’ll keep lying and telling him it’s fire,” Remedy said.
Erys looked at her in the rearview mirror. “You ever go?”
She shook her head. “I was actually booked for some shoot he was doing tonight, but that’s dead.”
Erys let a soft smirk cross his face knowing that was his doing. Remedy didn’t catch it. But she did walk out of her bathroom to the tips from the club counted and stacked on her dresser. From the looks of it, the stripper life was behind her and she had no idea what was next.
She tuned out Ernie and Erys talking amongst themselves and took in the ways Cashmere Lakes had changed and stayed the same.
It was still a beautiful suburb. Still crawling with affluence, still a stark reminder that she could never fit in here.
She tried her whole life but to no avail.
She was an outcast now and if they had anything to do with it, it would always be that way.
The rest of the ride, she closed her eyes, needing to still how being there made her feel. Chaos. That’s what she felt. Chaos outside of the bubble because surprisingly, in Erys’ home, she felt safety. Safety she didn’t want to get used to.
“Rem,” Erys called, pulling up to her house. “I’m working on it.”
His words alerted her to something amiss. She opened her eyes, finding everything on the curb and picked over.
“No,” she whimpered. “No, no, no, no! No!”
Ernie tried getting out the truck before she could. “Remedy, we’ll get it.”
“This is-” she could barely talk, the shock to her system choking her. “They said I had until-”
She ran to the pile of things discarded like it was nothing. Her clothes, gone. Her grandmother’s keepsakes, gone. The only thing she found worth keeping was the photo album and the recipe book. With them tightly held to her chest, she fought the tears. She didn’t expect to lose it like this.
“Rem,” Erys softly spoke her name.
“I need a minute. Just…give me a minute. Please,” she weakly pleaded, walking away and not wanting to break in front of him.
She walked down to the corner and sat there.
She didn’t give her tears a sound because she knew she couldn’t sit in this, not with eyes watching.
“I’m sorry, Granny. I really fucking tried to do right.
I really did. Everything is gone. Everything. ”
Remedy chewed her lip, bounced her leg, tried to keep her mind from slipping into the darkness. It sat on the curb by her, waiting for her to allow it to consume her. Ernie shuffled over, easing himself down on the curb by her.
“I’m sorry,” he spoke evenly.
She hurried and wiped her face. “For what? You didn’t do anything.”
“For not doing anything. If I had some sense about myself, I could have helped you. Instead, you’ve been taking everything you got to help me,” he spoke.
Remedy shook her head. “I’d do it again for you. So don’t apologize. I’ll figure it out. I think. Right now, I don’t know. I’ve somehow managed to fuck my life up. It’s not your fault.”
“We’re going to figure this out, okay? Even if I have to go down to that county building and beat all those bitches,” Ernie spoke, hoping to put a smile on her face. To no avail.
“There’s some crackhead on the avenue right now wearing my drawls and my platform heels,” she buzzed, allowing him to believe it was working. “Imagine that.”
Erys’ frustration could be heard from his truck where he paced to the corner.
“Nigga, I don’t give a fuck what they told you.
I told you to fuckin’ handle it and it’s not handled.
All her shit is gone…the fuck do you mean?
! Aight…aight…aight, Shawn, fuck, I heard you.
Get that information and send it to me.”
Ernie looked at Remedy who watched Erys. “You better get yourself ready.”
She frowned. “For what?”
“For your remedy. Come on, ain’t no sense in crying on a curb when you can cry in a mansion,” Ernie grunted, pushing himself up and then holding his hand out for her. She took it and followed him back to the truck.
Erys stopped her before she got in. “Look, Rem, I’ll get it back.”
“Don’t worry about it. Things happen right? I’ll just figure out what’s next. In the meantime, can you take me to Trends? I need some cheap clothes,” she asked, avoiding looking into his remorseful orbs.
“Yeah, get in,” he motioned, opening her door.
She climbed in, still holding onto the photo album and recipe book. Back behind the steering wheel, Erys sped past Trends and the ran down shopping center it was in. He didn’t stop until he reached midtown. A small boutique.
“Erys, I can’t afford this,” she said.
“You’re not spending your money. Keep that and take this,” he directed, handing her a card.
“I’m not taking that.”
Erys nodded and got out the truck.
“Ohh, girl,” Ernie instigated. “I knew you were stubborn but this is something else. I fear my son might be a trick like his daddy.”
“Ernie, could you please,” Remedy huffed.
“Remedy, could you please. Let the man take care of you. Shit, you take care of me, he can take care of you, it’s the natural order of things,” Ernie fussed, opening his door.