Daddy Dearest (11 page)

Cataya helped Rafeal to the couch, while Dehila stared at him in disgust. He was bleeding from several bite wounds.

“Oh, my damn!” he cried. “Give me the phone, Dee!”

She obliged.

Rafeal rocked himself back and forth as he dialed out. I can’t believe this shit! Obama told us that Bin Lade…”

“Dominoes Pizza. How can I help you.”

“This Dominoes Pizza for real, right?”

“Yes, sir. How may I help you?”

“Are you black?”

“Uhh, last time I checked, I was.”

“Good, good. I’d like to order a large pepperoni pizza with extra olives.”

“Will there be anything else?”

“No, that’s it.”
“Have you tried the cinnamon twists? They’re only-“

“Are they free?” Rafeal asked.

“No, sir.”

“Alright, then. That’ll be all like I said the first time.”

“That’s be $12.15. Is 704 Belvin Ave your correct address?”

“Nope. I live at 704 Belvin Avenue, dummy.”

“Thank you, sir. Your pizza will be there in thirty minutes or less.”

“Okay. And one more thing. Tell your deliveryman, if he’s black, to keep his eyes open. There’s a KK-canine on the loose.”

The man started laughing.

“It’s not fucking funny! I’m dead serious.”

“Okay, sir. I’ll tell him to keep his eyes open.”

“Alright. Bye.”

He ended the call shaking his head. “When is all this going to end? I thought things were going to change when Obama killed Bin Laden.”

Fuck Obama!

Dehila watched as her uncle bawled like a baby. Her anger then turned into compassion when she realized what was wrong.

“It’s alright, Uncle Ra-Ra. Let me go get your medicine.”

Do that bitch ever give up? She wants your ass high like she is.

Rafeal watched her go upstairs with mixed emotions. He badly wanted to take his medicine, but he couldn’t deny the truth.

“He was right, Taya. He has been right nine out of ten times.”

“Who, Uncle Ra-Ra?”

“EL The One DeBarge.”

She started frowning. “Who’s that?”

“The voice. The one in my head. Or the one that’s supposedly in my head, I don’tknow.”

“Oh. Don’t give in to EL…him. You’re going to end up killing somebody, or getting killed.”

What the fuck is she now, a counselor? She ain’t in no position to give somebody advice as fucked up as her life is.

“Maybe killing or getting killed ain’t as bad as it depleted out to be.”

“Don’t talk like that. That isn’t a good way to be thinking.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Good and bad is just a person’s perception. I’m tired of living up to people’s expectations.”

Well said, my nigga! That’s what the fuck I’m talking about! Preach the gospel!

“You don’t mean that. You’re just sick, that’s all. You’ll be fine once you take your medicine.”

Yeah, right. Keep taking that shit if you want, your ass gon’ start throwing up Gremlins and shit.

“I haven’t been
fine
in a long time. Especially since I’ve been taking that medicine. Those fucking doctors keep upping my dosages higher and higher-

“Uncle Ra-Ra! Dehila yelled, as she came down the stairs holding a pill bottle. “This pill bottle is empty! What happened to all your medicine?”

Cataya turned to him and seen that he was smiling. “You didn’t!”

Boot-see!

“I had to. It was only making me sicker.”

Dehila threw her hands in the air. “He won, Taya! I can’t fight with him anymore. I’m tired.”

Burn the road up then, bitch! Tweet me when you get where you’re going.

Rafeal stopped his self from repeating that. He didn’t see any need to rub it in her face. After all, he had won the battle. Now he had to save his energy to fry bigger fish.

* * *

“You couldn’t have called at a more perfect time,” Ron, said to Hammer.

“You got her?”

“Not quite yet, but I got the address. Thinking about buying the house.”

“Oh, yeah yeah. Snatch it up.”

“I told you that I was going wrap this up, didn’t I?”

“Thanks, man. I panicked, that’s all.”

Ron made a U-turn at an intersection. “Don’t worry about that anymore. Everything will be signed and sealed within an hour. I promise you that.”

“Thanks, man. I don’t know what I’ll do without you.”

“Come on, Hammer. There’s no me without you.”

“Vice Versa.”

“Just kick back and call me in the morning. I’ll have that house.”

“Okay, later.”

“Later.”

“And Ron.”

“What’s up?”

“Make sure you clean up good, we don’t need any bad investments.”

“You know how I feel about stuff like that.”

“You know I had to say it anyway.”

“Thanks. Talk to you later.”

Hammer hung up knowing that Ron might take a life or two, if he deemed it necessary, but he tried not to think about that. Sometimes the means justified the end.

* * *

“Just shut the door,” Dehila commanded, Cataya. “Momma will deal with his ass when she gets off. I swear I don’t have time for his shit.”

“I feel so bad for him.”

“That’s how it starts out. Wait until a couple of months pass, you’ll be rooting to get his crazy as committed.”

“I don’t think I would. He’s family. I‘ll never turn my back on him.”

“You’re better than me. If the decision was mine, his ass would’ve been strapped up in Dorthea Dix, first class. I-“

A loud crash startled both women. Dehila marched out the room.

“This fool is getting on my last nerves!”

Cataya stayed put. She didn’t want to witness or entertain Dehila’s cruelty. Their word exchange could be easily heard from where she stood.

“You ain’t going to believe what that ignorant ass nigga is doing,” Dehila said, as she slammed her room door closed.

“I don’t want to hear, I don’t want to hear!”

“I don’t know why you wouldn’t, you’ve been on every set since you been here.” She smiled when she seen that she had a fresh notice in her inbox on her Facebook page. “Please, God. Let him have some coke.”

Cataya couldn’t deal with it anymore. She left out, only be confronted by pizza debris throughout the hallway. She followed it all the way to the living room where her uncle was working studious on something.

“Uncle Ra-Ra. You alright?”

Rafeal looked back with cheese and pizza sauce coercing his face. “Huh?”

“You okay? I heard a lot of noise.”

Go ‘head and tell her. She ain’t going to believe you. Watch!

“I figured it out, Taya! I figured out where the voice is coming from.”

I bet she won’t believe you. Bet your eyebrows!

“Where, Uncle Ra-Ra? Where is it coming from?”

“Okay.” He turned around to face her fully. Pieces of pepperonis littered his hair also. “Let me give you the whole story.”

She braced herself for anything. “Okay, tell me.”

“I was sitting here eating pizza and listening to the radio when I heard him in the background of the song. I know it was him ‘cause I done heard that song a million times, and dude don’t have a back-up singer. Know what I’m saying?”

Yes Maxwell does! It’s Uncle Charlie, dickwipe!

Cataya noticed that he had dismantled the stereo with a hammer and a flathead screwdriver. The speakers alarmed her the most, they had multiple holes I them.

“Listen to me,” she began choosing her words carefully. “I understand what you’re saying, but what about when you’re not here. Don’t you still hear that voice?”

“Uhh, I didn’t think about that.”

That’s because you have shit for brains, my nigga. Let me do all the thinking, and you put it I motion.

“You didn’t just hear that?”

She shook her head. “All I heard was you.”

“Maybe I am crazy, then.”

Slow, yes. Crazy, hardly.

“Uncle Ra-Ra, I think I should call Aunt Fannie. She-“

Rafeal suddenly sprinted to the window.

“What is it, Uncle Ra-Ra?”

“I got his ass now!” He ran outside.

Cataya would have followed him if she wasn’t mentally exhausted. Both he and Dehila had drained her enough for one day. She didn’t know how her Aunt Fannie did it. Cataya then wondered if she would have been better off going to Ching’s house. She had been sadly mistaken by considering this house a safe haven. And the multiple gunshots confirmed that!

* * *

Ron was grateful that the neighbors were either asleep, or gone, because he was certain that the situation would call for extreme measures. He could feel it in his gut.

There was no way around it, the things that he had done for Hammer had tilted the scale of loyalty dramatically. There were times when he had done for Hammer before he done for his family.

This was because they had made a pact as teens. They had promised each other that one would take care of the other one if they went to jail; without feeling that they were jinxing their selves.

Cataya had been wearing his patience thin for the past five years. It seemed to him that she was doing everything in her power to be a nuisance. He had played with the idea of telling his friend that he couldn’t look after her anymore. That, of course didn’t pan out right. Ninety percent of Hammer’s requests had been involving Cataya. If he stopped dealing with her, then he wouldn’t be any use to Hammer anymore.

Now as he approached a window on the side of the house, he saw a man destroying a radio. He wasn’t disturbed by the strange behavior; he was quite familiar with Rafeal and his condition. And as much as he liked him, Ron knew that he could and would kill him, if he got in his way.

A chill ran through his body when Cataya walked in the room. He unconsciously put his face on the window.

It didn’t register that he had blown his cover until Rafeal came to the window. There was nothing that he could do now but pull out his pistol, and prepare to neutralize the situation.

* * *

“Dehila!”

“She poked her head out of the bedroom door with a wide-eyed expression. “What was that?”

“Call the police, I think Uncle Ra-Ra just shot somebody!”

“Oh, shit!” she exclaimed, disappearing back in her room. Cataya went the opposite way. She felt like it was her obligation to check on her uncle’s well being.

Uncle Ra-Ra!”

No reply.

She then stepped off the porch and made her way to the side of the house. It was there that she discovered the bullet-riddled body.

I don’t hate you, I swear on everything that I do—

When you tell me that you love me, I be like ‘who?’.

Your mouth says one thing, but your actions aren’t the same—

Then you have the audacity to get mad when I’m disappointed,

I guess that’s your other way of being lame.

It’s hard to be friends with someone, that doesn’t have your

Best interest in mind-

And it’s sad that we haven’t conquered each other, after all this time.

Life is crazy, but it unfolds the way it suppose to be—

Whether we’re friends or not, whether you’re with him or me

So, I don’t hate you, I swear on everything I do—

If you think that line is confusing, then welcome to y thoughts of you.

From the book of Sweet Nothings

By: Kevin Bullock

 BOOK TWO: SERVED

 –—Chapter Twelve–—

Hammer awoke the next morning feeling exceptionally well. Last night was the first time since Cataya had ran away that he slept throughout the night. He knew that this was because Ron had found her.

He didn’t immediately call his friend like he had originally planned because he overslept. And being that he worked out every morning at eight o’clock, today wouldn’t be an exception.

His workout partner, Big Tab, was waiting on the weight pile when he arrived.

“That’s how you feel today? Jus going to come out when you feel like it, huh?”

“Nah, it’s not like that. I messed around and slept late. My bad.”