Ghett-Dough Cities: C-Manor

GHETT-

DOUGH

Cities

C-MANOR

TRACI ALLEN

This is part one of book one of a dysfunctional family functioning in the streets of Houston, Texas. It represents the struggles of most black families in America in one aspect or another. The raw truth of what one family endures to make it work and the drama that comes with it.

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© Copyright 2013 Traci Allen.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-7964-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-7965-9 (e)

Trafford rev. 02/25/2013

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CONTENTS

Synopsis

Prologue

Dedication

Chapter 1

Believe It Or Not

Chapter 2

Love Hurts

Chapter 3

While That Was Happening

Chapter 4

Meanwhile Beth Had Her Memories

Chapter 5

Sam’s Plan

Chapter 6

The Truth Hurt With Good Memories

Chapter 7

Sam’s Survival

Chapter 8

Facing Reality And Responsibilities

Chapter 9

Time To Be Strong Sam

Chapter 10

Strength Comes In Number

Chapter 11

Face To Face

Chapter 12

Sam’s Instincts

Chapter 13

The Truth Was Out

Chapter 14

Homeless

Chapter 15

Sam’s Discovery’s

Chapter 16

Tying Up Loose Ends

Chapter 17

New Alliance

Chapter 18

Secrets

Chapter 19

Family Day

Chapter 20

Mean While At The Hospital

Chapter 21

Gladis And Her Sons

Chapter 22

Sam’s Girl Talk

Chapter 23

Too Late To Make A Different

Chapter 24

This Can Not Be Happening

Chapter 25

The Choices We Make

Chapter 26

We Don’t Need Food

Chapter 27

My Brother’s Keeper

Chapter 28

Taking Care Of Our Business

Chapter 29

Investigations From The Streets

Chapter 30

Sam’s Entrepreneurship Luck

Chapter 31

A Plan In Motion

Chapter 32

We Are Rich

Chapter 33

Joyce, Threatens

Chapter 34

Learning To Educate Yourself

Chapter 35

Reflection Of One’s Self

Chapter 36

Investigation

Chapter 37

Back To Her Beginnings

Chapter 38

Major Problems

Was Putting It Lightly

Chapter 39

The Truth Shall Set You Free

Chapter 40

Putting The Pieces Together

Chapter 41

A Good Mother

Chapter 42

A Change Is Coming

Chapter 43

Show Time

Chapter 44

A Plan In Motion

Chapter 45

Freedom Rings

Chapter 46

The Life On The Street

Chapter 47

Business As Always

Chapter 48

Where Your Heart Is

Chapter 49

Busy Business Kids

Chapter 50

Advice In Two’s

Chapter 51

Forever So Humble

Chapter 52

Family Talk

Chapter 53

A Hustlers Business

Chapter 54

Family Knox’s

Chapter 55

A Long Day’s Night

Chapter 56

A Change Is Abot To Come

Chapter 57

The Zourney

Chapter 58

Ghetto Scars

Chapter 59

Daddy’s Girl

Chapter 60

Causalities Of War

Chapter 61

Friends

Chapter 62

Family Of Hustlers

Chapter 63

The Marriage Counselors

Chapter 64

The Final Decision

Chapter 65

Who Let The Dogs Out

Chapter 66

Unwanted Information

Chapter 67

Changes Are Coming

Chapter 68

House Divided

Chapter 69

The Backfire

Chapter 70

Fear Is Healthy

Chapter 71

Understanding

Chapter 72

Serious Goals

Chapter 73

A Plan In Motion

Chapter 74

Think Before Not After

Chapter 75

Birds Sing But Bee’s Sting

Chapter 76

Guys Time

Chapter 77

Is This Really Love

Chapter 78

Picking Up Pieces

SYNOPSIS

We continue to learn about ourselves as we apply what we’ve learned. There are many values that can be learned from honesty. Facing the issues in life, the fears, shame, anger, and grief. We all act differently with anger, which is unavoidable at times, but should be avoided at all times if possible, so it’s important to think while you’re angry like a boxer in the ring. It won’t block your spiritual growth. Grief can be healthy to make you stronger. We’ve learned that it’s okay to grieve. We don’t need the mask of illusion that’s only fooling ourselves. Shame is issuing a bad report card to yourself for failure to admit to yourself and others, what you know is wrong. We all are still working on areas of our lives that we can name now, that we weren’t able to do before. We are not all at the same gate in life, as some of us are at the same age. If we had tighter control over the privacy of each other and what’s said, individuals can feel free to open up and release the issues to get positive feedback from peers and family alike that’s very important.

In summary the significance that brought out this book varies from being able to express your feeling to your family members, to taking control of your emotion or having the tools to be trueful and honest with yourself, As we grow we are developing strategies to use that will become priceless to our future. And finally we understand that words are verbal expressions of the mind. Our actions are physical expressions of the mind. The way we think and how we think comes from the heart of the mind. Your attitude controls your emotions. Believe it or not

PROLOGUE

My neighborhood is my tribe

My block is my village

The streets are my schooling ground.

The alleyways are my playground.

When I walk through my village

Down the gray cracked walkways

I can hear the verbal drums,

Coming loudly through the doorways.

This is my home. This is where I am from.

As I reach my spot, things are always hot.

Drama is non-stop, with old folks about to drop

And the po-po-ramming locks.

This is where I am from, this is home.

I am raised by the tribe of the night

Who rob and steal just to get a meal.

Who fight for the right to live life.

This is my home; this is where I’m from.

When things go wrong, I can’t stay long,

Because young flesh is best when it ain’t been had yet.

This was my home. Where I no longer belong.

Growing up fast, knowing life last

Letting nothing pass, but gas.

Until you have a slip at the lip.

Then you take flight to save yo life

Cause this ain’t home and I don’t belong.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to many, but written for a few

To the ladies that’s still holding it down

behind the fence;

The fraternity of women in prison.

To my family whose love and support has always been there for me To my daughter: ZAKIYYAH A. ALLEN-LUSK that has been my rock and has always supported me no matter what. To Genice Godwin who always keeps it real with me in her own special way. To my brothers; QUINCY ALLEN, RODGERS ALLEN, JOE ALLEN, JOHNNY ALLEN, AND RUBY JR who always show me love when we see each other To my sisters; PHYLLIS, CALYON, KALUA, COZETTE, who are my best friends To all my nieces and nephews out there trying to make it happen for them, I LOVE YOU

CHAPTER 1

Believe it or not

Like most stories told this one starts out in the place where I was raised, Cleburne Manor. It’s a large ghetto-vicious complex that covered two blocks. It was a city in the city. My apartment building was my neighborhood. The apartments were set inside of the buildings with a long tunnel like hallway that ran from the front of the building to the back with apartments on both sides, up and down stairs. There is a light bulb connection at each door that spoke a language of its own. ‘The stairs going upstairs started at the front door and ended at the back door. All the apartments were made the same in the maze of brick and concrete.

There are a lot of kids in the Manor; in fact there are more kids than adults in residence here. There is no fear for us in this small city of apartments. There were always sounds of gunshots in the air; it was no big deal unless you heard sirens. To a stranger in the Manor there was cause for concern and probably would appear frightening, but to us it was a safe haven; especially when we were on the run from areas where mischief had taken place. My friends and I are just like the rest of the kids that suffer from one thing or another under adult control. I didn’t have it as bad as some, but worst than others. I am Sam, short for Samantha; and I live with my mom that’s an addict, who suffered from the decisions she made at an early age,

Whether she’s running a train or flying a plane, which I later found out what that meant, she’was out of it most of the time and I was hungry all the time. I learned to feed myself awhile back and my perfect attendance at school was mainly because I receive free breakfast and lunch which is good, but there was no seconds at school in the food line and I was a growing girl with a big appetite. This is my story about the way I grew up in the Manor. I look back on it and count my blessing and remember the lessons I learned.

There’s a lot of hustlers and real gangsters and pimps too that hang out in the Manor from time to time taking the food from us through our Moms. Especially from mid-week to the end of the week; all of them seem to know my Mom I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing yet. My mom’s real pretty to me so why not to others too. I heard that she was a very beautiful woman who made a wrong turn in life by falling in love with the wrong man. I love my mama and I worry about her, and the drugs she uses.

She’s all I got and I’m learning that the world is larger than the Manor. People said that we were bad; yeah we were hungry too, for sure. We barely had a place to sleep. Yeah, we roamed the streets, stole clothes off the clotheslines from people’s houses that was our way of going shopping. We didn’t know that we had pride and survival tactics in us to make it, and survive it. We never begged for nothing to eat, and since we were young, people weren’t concerned about us. We pretty much moved around undetected. I was the leader. I wasn’t voted onto it, it just happened. I wasn’t the oldest, I was the tallest and that’s not saying much considering how young we were. The rest of my crew ranged in ages from ten to thirteen. We all had problems that no child should have to worry about, and we learned to solve our problems together. It reminds me of a saying that I once heard that I didn’t understand at the time; you don’t have to be educated to be dedicated.

Tadpole was ten years old, stocky built with small eyes and buck teeth and a big head. He was always bear footed and angry about something. His mom was a whore too, a renegade whore that didn’t have a pimp and didn’t make much money either. That boy didn’t know what a hot bath was until years later.

Le-Le was ten too; he was Tadpole’s twin. They didn’t look alike but they smelled alike. They both had that Indian tan color skin and wavy hair. Le-Le had big eyes, small teeth and compared to Tads, Le-Le was quiet and more of a follower than a leader. They were both cute in their own way.

Sand was Eleven the same as I, but a couple of months older. She was fat in a chubby way with a real pretty face; she was always peeking around corners trying to stay away from her step dad. Her brother Clarence was in a boy’s home. Sands mom worked at the cleaners next to Emancipated Park on Dowling

Sand looked like her mom, charcoal colored skin, slated eyes with long lashes and a pouty mouth. Boys were always hitting her on the ass and men watched her ass like something was going to fall out and they was there to catch it. Sand’s step dad would take her moms money and then beat her up. She was weak and Sand was the same way.

Mark was ten. Too cute to be a boy in the hood, Short, bowlegged and cocky with Goldie locks curls, hazel color eyes that changed when he was angry and could out run everybody in the hood which he did often when we were stealing. We would pass what we had to him and he ran with it. I really felt sorry for him, he had it the hardest. His mom left him with a street cousin, that was popping pills and letting men fuxk her brains out for free. Mark’s mom was doing a lot of time. Rumor on the street was that when she got out she’d be too old to wipe her own ass. Mark was a trick baby; He was mixed with something but nobody seemed to know.

Jeff was twelve, we called Jell-O because he was fat and slow, but he was the smartest one to me and could pretty much fix anything when he had his glasses on. Jeff lived with his grandma and she was blind as a bat with wings. She saw well enough to not miss anything that went on in the Manor. He loved her lot, Hell, he didn’t have anybody else. His mom was killed by his dad who was now doing time for the killing.

Karla was thirteen, sharp, talked a lot of shxt; all in your face kind of shxt. She stayed wherever she could when she could. Right now she was staying with me. She was a runaway that nobody came looking for; She said she was from Los Angeles and had a lot of street savvy as far as I was knew, I was learning what she had already mastered.

And then there was Dava; now having a white chick in the Manor was an oddity, because this is basically an all black area. You see white people appear in the Manor from time to time that look like shxt and nobody turned their heads. Dava turned heads. It was like she wore a sign that told some and warned other to beware before you approach. If you had sense and wanted to keep your freedom you enjoyed, than look the other way. Dava was the shxt in the hood. Now, about a mile down the way on Dowling was where the whores strolled at; no female was safe especially a white one. Dava stayed amongst us because we kept her hid from the adult world when she was around and that was often. Dava was a thirteen-year-old hoe that loved what she was doing, but made a man think he was making her do things. She looked so much older than she was and real feisty with big tits.

All of us lived on the same block. We met up at my house because it was a little cleaner and my mom was always high on something.

Where I lived at was in the first building on the corner of Cleburne and Dowling and there are two other buildings next to mine with sidewalk space between each one; that we called our playground. The whore stroll was really a few blocks down from my building. Dowling is on the side of my building and Cleburne was in front of my building. Sand and Jell-O lived in the second building and the twins live in the third one. Mark lived in the second one too or the third one, when Gwen had company.

The private driveway that runs through the complex was so busy that I once thought it was a regular street. There’s a dope house in the back of all the buildings, but at mines, it was in the front in the first apartment.

Well, today is Thursday and it’s going to get busy around here so I better go see mama before she gets busy. I show hope that she cooked; she does that every now and then. Mama, I’m home.

Yeah, she mumbled while she scratches the side of her face, then the side of her neck in lazy slow dragging motion.

Mama did you cook?

Girl, you always hungry, she mumbles and turns her head without even opening her eyes.

Mama, Mama!!!

What? Damn it! She rose up and stared at me so hard I jump back and wanted to run, but I flinched instead. You just getting in here from school and you haven’t even cleaned up yet and worried about food, go in there and get that sandwich that’s in the refrigerator eat that and get the hell away from me.

With my head lowered I left out of her room and went to my room and cleaned up. I didn’t feel as hungry any more as I did before.

Once I made it to the kitchen I noticed that the frig was ajar; I was almost afraid to peeked in. I saw where the rat had eaten some of the sandwich and left its droppings and the roaches were feasting on the rest. My appetite to eat was gone and the food was gone too.

I didn’t want to go and tell mama that, she would really get mad and blame me for not eating when she told me to; so I just drunk some juice

Then I looked around the living room that was a combination with the kitchen, to make sure that it looked okay before I went out side. All I had to do was find some food to eat before bedtime, which was at anytime, and clothes to wear for school the next day.

I have clothes but they are all dirty, so me and the crew, we go to the laundry mats and in people’s back yards that we knew had kids and check to see if there was anything we can use; or sometime we get lucky and the man at the laundry mat will let us wash if we sweep up his place. I will have to think of something, that’s what I do come up with ideas and daydream about what I want my life to be like. When we wanted new clothes, and we had enough change for bus fare, we went to Shopper’s Fair on Scott and OST especially on the weekends and everybody got what they wanted and ran with it.

Sam? Sam! I know you hear me girl, bring me some juice.

I had drunk the last of the juice and was afraid to tell my mom that, so I just added some water to what was left and walked it slowly to the bedroom then set it on the table and ran out the front door. As soon as I closed the door I noticed the lights were out in the hall that meant that something was about to go down and that spelled bad news. It was still daylight outside so it couldn’t be that serious. I still ran out as fast as I could, while looking back. I ran into this high yeller female that was a prostitute for Fast Eddie.

She was blocks away from the stroll and it wasn’t prime time yet, so that meant that she was there buying dope that Fast Eddie didn’t allow his women to do.

Watch where the fuck you going child! Damn; Bitch can’t hit her dope without running into one of you ill looking fuckers.

Ill looking! I know I’m cute, so you need some glasses or a mirror

Child make like Casper, that’s the only thing you can do for me,

Get out of my alley then, go home and you won’t have to worry about running into nobody. I live here you don’t.

I tell her this as I backed up towards the door.

Watch your mouth you ill looking little bitch, I know your mama.

So what, I know her too; I know your pimp too.

You best stay out of grown folks business little girl.

You ain’t got no business and when I see your pimp Im’ma tell him where you at too.

You see Eddie, you better do what you do best, and keep walking, before he have your little ass out here turning tricks with yo mama y’all really would be a happy family then, She laughs and then hit her dope.

My stomach reminds me that it’s still empty; so I tell her, pay me and I won’t tell Fast Eddie I saw you . . .

I hear my name being called and I turn to see Tadpole coming up the driveway that comes straight through the apartments, he’s still a distance away but I can tell by his walk and the shape of his head. I guess he could tell who I was too cause he noticed who I was first. He waved; I waved back and left the whore standing in the archway still talking shxt about me saying I’m ugly when I know I’m cute. I was no longer listening to that dumb hoe and ran to meet up with Tadpole.

Where are you going Tads?

To see if you want some cereal that we got at our house.

Yeah man, I’m hungry We looked out for each other like that.

Well you better come on because I saw Mark on his way upstairs when I was leaving.

Once we were finished, none of us was full but we weren’t hungry either.

Come on y’all let’s go and get Jell-O and see if we can get him to cover for us in the store on the corner". When I suggested that we all were up and out in seconds. We hit the stairs stomping and yelling to let others know we were coming. As we exited the building we could smell all kinds of aromas in the evening air. I looked up at the sky something that I did a lot to see if I could make out shapes in the clouds. There were no clouds to be seen only the smells of people cooking coming through. Pork bones boiling, Chicken frying, Beans cooking and Weed being smoked. With food smells like that what little we ate seemed to dissipate like thin air. Jeff’s building was next to the twins building. Across the streets, a dope runner named Skip lived in a duplex building upstairs. Before we reached Jell-O’s building I could see that pimp Fast Eddie’s Caddy parked at the other end, talking to Skip at the back door to my building.

There goes Fast Eddie’s car; I bet he found that hoe getting high. I said this to no one in particular but we all knew what time it was.

Which one was it, Mark asked.

Pepper. I replied.

Y’all know how she got her name, don’t you, Le-Le stated, and as with us all we had rumors out the ass from what we heard, overheard, listened in on outside somebody’s door or saw, sometime. We would share it amongst each other as our way of keeping up and trying to know more than each other.

"How? We all said in unison.

A trick put pepper on his tang, and made her suck it.

"Uh huh, I don’t believe that shxt Le-Le.

Why not Sam? Le-Le asked me with a frown on his face.

I just don’t. I replied as I watched Fast Eddie’s car parked in the back of the driveway.

CHAPTER 2

Love Hurts

. . . Stop Eddie please don’t hit me again; Eddie I love you so much Eddie, please! Beth cried from a fetal position on the sofa.

Slut the fuck up bitch, you don’t love me if you did you wouldn’t have gotten yoself pregnant by another nigger then lied and said it was mine. I know the whole story. Eddie stood over her like a slave master. He hated himself for loving this woman the only woman to ever make him cry and the thought of what she did just enraged him.

I didn’t lie to you Eddie. Your brother’s lying to you, my cousin lied to you, but I never did Eddie; all you have to do is look at her, the older she gets the more she looks like you. I’m tired of being your punching bag every time you have a bad day too. Beth yelled.

Eddie looked at her and frowned, because he still had love for her, but he hated her for what she did to him as a man. He had a reputation on the streets and he couldn’t let any bixch from the back woods or city woods make a fool out of him. The prettiest woman he ever met had played him for a chump.

Get up bixch you’re going to work; Bruce was right no sense in wasting your god given talents. Eddie barked. When you left and went back to your parents you should have stayed gone. I don’t know why you came back." Eddie paced the floor while he talked and chewed his gum.

You know why I came back, because of your ass, and I wanted to keep our daughter that’s why and you know it. Beth looked up at him for the first time. Just like you know deep down that Samantha is your daughter. Beth continued.

No, I don’t know that, I know you were fuxking my brother at the same time you were suppose to be so in love with me and he ain’t goanna lie to me about that. Even your own cousin told me the same thing. I know that I am not going to keep paying for this place when you packing a fortune between your legs. Eddie yelled back.

You don’t pay for this I get welfare; but you need to pay for it and buy Sam some clothes. Beth spoke up.

Tell Joyce what you need; she takes care of all my girls and what they need you know that. And you need to keep that needle out your arm, Eddie calmly replied as he headed for the door, then turned and told Beth that he gives Joyce money every month to pay the rent.

Nawh, your brother should have never put it in my arm as a way to hurt me for loving you and making sure that you never want me again. Beth said through tears. And Joyce doesn’t pay any bills here.

My brother didn’t put that needle in your arm, you did, he didn’t hurt me you did, so quit blaming others for the shxt you did. Nobody else has a problem with Joyce but you and she’s your cousin,

Is that why you married my cousin to hurt me because you think or thought I hurt you!! Beth yelled at the top of her lungs, as she followed him to the door.

Eddie turned and slapped her twice before she hit the floor. With a busted lip she cried, you are so wrong Eddie, so wrong.

Eddie stood over her with venom dripping in his voice, I’ll be back in thirty minutes your ass better be ready if you know what’s good for you. As soon as Eddie left, Beth went to the first apartment in the front of the building to get a fix to get through round two that was coming back in thirty minutes. With the promise of what she had to look forward to she headed out the door to the front of the building.

CHAPTER 3

While that was happening

Jell-O was retrieved from his house we waited on Sand in front of the store. Sand is taking too long to come and I gotta be back in the house before the street lights come on, Jell-O says lending on the side of the store glass.

We know that Jell-O, Tads tell him.

Well let’s go then, Jell-O says as he walks in the door of the store. We all follow him inside to do our thing. The man in the store knew we were up to no good but he didn’t fuxk with us because he knew that we could cost him a lot more than a bag of chips. The problem was we didn’t know that at the time, it was years later before we learned that fact. When the time came we made sure that he knew that we knew too. He would yell and threaten to call the police but he never did. Grab us by our arms and put us out of the store but it was five or six of us and he could only hold two of us if he catch us. Sand came just as I was being tossed out and she started screaming and people started looking, I started faking and yelling too it was a real scene and the boys ran out with the goods. Jell-O stayed with me and just leaned against the wall outside the store as if he didn’t have anything to do with any of it.

We met up in the hiding spot that was one of two garages in the back of the apartments that was still in working order thanks to Jell-O’ s creativity.

Across from the apartments were a row of garages that were run down with crawling plants that seem to be eating up the buildings in slow motion. We fixed up the two that was in pretty good shape already and made a clubhouse and a storage place out of the other. One of the garage doors couldn’t be open so we went in from a hole in the back of the garage that one was the clubhouse.

As we replayed the antics of our trade and eat on the sweet treats, we could hear noise from the other side of the wall. Tad got up and went to the wall and signal for me to come over, once I got to the wall everybody else started coming too. By now Tad had eased out the back of the garage through our little cut in the back wall and was headed to the other garage next to where we were when I caught up with him. Tadpole looked through the hole in the wall and saw Pepper giving Sands step daddy a blowjob by candlelight. After Tad’s looked, then the rest of us all entertained ourselves by taking turns looking in the hole of nasty. When she finished she purred and said, Daddy that was so good. We all started laughing at that, that’s when they knew that we could not only hear but see them too.

That shxt was so funny we should have charged admission, Sand says as she was laughing, then she started crying in the same breath, I’m ma tell my mommy too.

No, just hold on to that, and the next time he try to feel on you then tell him that you goanna tell your mommy about tonight, Jell-O tells her.

Yeah, he doesn’t know you’re out here with us, I added.

And if she don’t believe you we can all back you up that he was spending her money on that hoe, Mark added, as he spit on the ground. As soon as I saw it I knew how I could make some money off of it. We left the garage and went to find Skip who was older than us but was fun to be around when he wasn’t working for the dope houses, running errands. Skip finally came downstairs to meet us and I was still thinking about how we could come up then I saw Fast Eddie pull back into the driveway behind my building. It was now or never for me.

CHAPTER 4

Meanwhile Beth had her

MEMORIES

When Beth made it back to her place it was on and popping and she would be able to handle anything even her broken heart. She sat down on the sofa to wait for Eddie and to let the memories play around in her head:

It was a Saturday night like most Saturday nights when the beer joints closed or were near closing, the gaming shacks were in high gear. We had the special effects from H town to help them spend their money; all sponsored by Mr. Fast Eddie himself the youngest hustler she had ever seen. The only hustler she had ever seen. He would be gambling while his ladies worked at a local lodge for a friend. Beth was a waitress at the restaurant he went to on the way back to Houston. She knew he came there to see her and she would flirt with him in a lady like way, but never going out of her way. After a while she was use to his complements to her he would say things like: her laugh was contagious, the dimples in her cheeks where so deep that he couldn’t get enough of looking at them; Her eyes were so beautiful he could get emotionally attached. His lust was at an all time high with her in mind. And the one that always made her laugh was she had curves that if you didn’t know your way around you’d run into another just as dangerous on the other side. Men were said to get erections just watching her walk with their food or someone else’s food. That was the rumor. Papa must had heard about the rumor and started watching her like a hawk over its prey especially on the weekends. Eddie became a regular on the weekend

During that time

Bruce knew something was up, Eddie went to Waller too much for it to be just business and he didn’t want to talk to his big brother about it; so Bruce went to Waller just to see what had his brother neglecting his job as one of the coldest pimps in H-Town, that controlled women of all nationalities. Yeah something was up and he knew it was a woman. She had to be a special woman for Eddie to go to Waller in the middle of the week when there was no hustling or gambling going on. He had to see the woman that had his brother chasing the cat. Then he would figure out a way to use it against him. Eddie denied it when Bruce teased him about it. Eddie had been going down so often that he wouldn’t gamble he would go straight to the restaurant and she wasn’t giving him the time of day. Not the way he wanted. He enjoyed just being in her presence. She was the aspirin for the headaches at the end of a day’s work.

Eddie made up his mine that he had to make her his special lady, private stock.

The night that Bruce saw Beth he knew she was worth every trip a man made to get to her. So now he knew what the secret was, he was determined to have her.

Is she goanna be a new one for the stable? Bruce inquired without even looking at Eddie.

What? Eddie asked as he faked looking at the menu

Look around, Nigga who do you think I’m talking about.

Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Com-on man this is me, your brother, what’s up with her cause the food don’t seem to be all that."

I don’t know man, she’s the waitress. What you talking about?

Eddie knew that Bruce was a jealous ass Nigga that if he claimed it, Bruce would try to take it. He hated that Bruce came with him in the first place and now he felt that he was invading on his little slice of heaven that he cut out for himself. He couldn’t fake it with Bruce never could even when they were kids, cause he would call him on it and he had a reputation to keep up; plus he had four of his girls with him at the table. The way she sashays on over to the table was her way of flirting, she liked the attention that she received from Eddie, but she also knew the life style he was in, that was the reason she kept a gap between them that was closing in on the both of them.

Eddie felt his heart beat faster and the palms of his hands begin to sweat as she approached the table.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen are you ready to place your order?

Hello Beautiful. Bruce stated as she placed the water glasses on the table.

Even though she had seen Eddie almost every weekend for the last two months she still felt like it was the first time she’d seen him, they flirted in silence. She ignored Bruce’s aim at flirting and looked at Eddie.

Are you ready to order, she says as she placed water and wrapped silverware on the table. She knew she liked him but there was fear of who he was and what he was, so she tried to ignore his sly and flirty remarks, but her curiosity was stronger than her common sense. Eddie was hard to ignore and his lifestyle was exciting to her.

He was as handsome as hell was hot, and from her biblical teachings that place was flaming. Tonight she was going to take that big step, so she didn’t ignore his eyes or his remarks, Eddie looked at her and she stared back at him, and that was all it took she knew that her life was about to change. Once the order was taken and turned in she was thinking how this was going to play out; that’s when her older cousin sashays in the restaurant on the hunt for fresh flesh, called men. She had to have what she wanted when she wanted it; without the concerns of other people feelings.

Hello little cousin, here your keys are; look I will be in late tonight so cover for me with granny. Joyce told her. Beth took the keys and nodded without speaking, thinking of other things. As Joyce turned to leave she spotted the men at the table where Beth was headed with drinks, and called her back to inquire who they were. Joyce never came to the Folk’s Diner on the weekend or during the week she always went to Houston to hang out. Beth didn’t response to her beckoning, so Joyce joins her at the table. Pulled at her shoulder and Beth took a few steps back to see what Joyce wanted

Go tell Junior that I went to the bathroom, Joyce instructed Beth to do.

I can’t do that, Joyce. I’m at work plus I don’t wanta see Junior. Never mind the fact that Junior was her boyfriend before her cousin changed that by opening her legs and then tried to convince her that he didn’t mean her no good if he slept with her.

Okay then, I’ll go over with you and spread some southern hospitality to our visitors while you wait on other tables. Joyce took the tray out of Beth’s hands.

Just like that. Then she walks over and introduces herself. Joyce was two years older and real wild when it came to men and jealous when it came to Beth. If Joyce felt, thought, or knew that a man was interested in Beth, she’d lie, manipulate and distort the truth to keep Beth from that man or any man. Junior took her to her prom and after the prom Joyce says she was there to protect and serve and ended up protecting her and serving him, that was six months ago. Now Junior was used as her transportation and his nose was wild open.

As she watched Joyce flirt with both men and ignore the women at the table something came over her that made her ball up her fist and bit down on her bottom lip and boldly went over to Eddie’s table and interrupted the conversation that Joyce had invited herself to and told Eddie that she gets off at 2 p.m. The table was silent. Eddie’s gold grill shone as he smiled at the revelation that all of a sudden his patience had paid off. I’ll be here waiting for you too baby.

Bruce was angered by this cause when the lady Joyce came over, and invited herself to sit down at their booth, as far as he was concerned she was choosing. He moved over and watched