Pointe of No Return: Giving You All I Got (19 page)

After turning the truck back on and heading towards The Barbershop to tell Unc the good news, a call came through. Papa wasn’t in the mood to deal with The Underworld. Today was a good day and it would stay that way. His girl promised that dinner would be ready by eight, which gave Papa a few hours to do what he needed to do.

Demi already made plans for tomorrow to go shopping since they finally knew the sex of the baby, and he couldn’t deny he was ready to shop too. His li’l boy was about to have all the fly shit and as soon as they agreed on a name, Papa was getting Demi a nameplate with his name on it.

              She was the prettiest pregnant woman he had ever laid eyes on. The way her face lit up when she found out she was having a boy would forever be etched in his mind. He asked her was she mad it wasn’t a girl and Demi told him she was relieved.

She wasn’t mentally prepared to raise a daughter, not until she received closure from her own mother. Demi knew her son would always be with his daddy and Unc and she was okay with that.

Papa finally answered Polo’s call, just in case it was an emergency.

“Yeah?” he said, into the phone.

“Meet me at church,” Polo told him, coolly.

Papa didn’t know who he was giving orders to, but it damn sure wasn’t him.

“No can do,” he told him.

Polo hated dealing with Papa these days. “It wasn’t a suggestion, see you in twenty minutes,” he told him, and hung the phone up.

Papa knew he was being followed or worse, they had a tracker on his truck because it would take him twenty minutes to get to where they normally met. It wasn’t too often Polo called his phone so he would chop it up with Unc after this impromptu meeting.

Once he made it to the abandoned Catholic church, Papa sat in the truck getting high. He knew there was no way he could go into this meeting without hitting the blunt.

The Underworld was full of leaders. They were all bosses and sometimes that was a good thing, but it was too many chiefs and not enough Indians. He was still unsure who deemed Nasir the leader of the pack, but it was like an unspoken agreement that everything had to be approved or given the green light through Nas.

The immigrant, the one that had never seen the inside of a crack house, he was the leader. Papa had dealt with it all, weed, pills, cocaine, heroin, and syrup. There wasn’t a drug he hadn’t made money off of. He was never too good to serve to the crack heads or the politicians.

There were plenty of occasions where he would walk his tall, sagging ass into City Hall and drop off a few pills for one of the councilmen or commissioners.

A tap at the window brought Papa out of his thoughts. He looked at Malachi and didn’t smile like he normally did and it pained him, because Malachi was his motherfucking nigga. But that night, the night where they all tried to oust him, Papa would never forget it.

Malachi said, “Man, let me in.”

He unlocked the door and Malachi slid in and took the blunt from Papa immediately.

“I miss you, nigga,” Malachi told him, a few minutes later.

“Fuck you,” he spat. Papa was sensitive and they all knew that.

“Straight up, it was all a misunderstanding,” Malachi told him.

“I’m only here because Polo called me,” he told Malachi, which meant it was nothing he could say to him right now.

Malachi handed him the blunt back. The back door opened and in hopped Sean and Roderick.

“Nigga, this ain’t the magic school bus!” Papa yelled.

Sean laughed and took the blunt from Papa. “Shut up bitching.”

Roderick dapped Malachi up and told Papa, “No love?”

“I don’t fuck with y’all,” Papa told them.

Malachi said, “Man we brothers, chill out.”

“Brothers my ass,” Papa mumbled.

Roderick said, “I know I’m not around that much, but that night Papa, you came in there ready for war.”

He turned around and told him, “Guess what? I don’t give a fuck. Why are y’all in my shit? Polo said to meet him-,”

Sean said, “Polo ain’t even in town, we knew you wouldn’t listen to us.”

“Get out!” he said, angrily.

“Nah, ain’t no getting out, we about to squash this shit,” Malachi spoke up.

“My issue not with y’all. The motherfucker who should be here ain’t,” he said, speaking of Mr. Nasir King.

“Well, you turned your gun on me and honestly, I got a problem with that ‘cause I would never do you like that,” Malachi told him.

Papa ran his hands over his five o’clock shadow. “I just found out I got a son on the way so whatever I did before today really don’t matter,” he told them, and in that moment he meant every word.

Sean was the first to speak. “Young Demi pregnant?”

Papa couldn’t hide his excitement. “Yeah, a few more months I’ll be a daddy,” he said, proudly.

“Salute my nigga, fatherhood is a different ball game,” Roderick told him.  If no one knew he did, he was a father of three.

Malachi beamed with joy, his baby brother was growing up. Papa was the youngest of the crew.

“You and Nas need to talk.” Sean hated to bring it up, but it had to be said.

“He got my number,” Papa said, arrogantly.

“I’ll set something up,” Malachi offered. He was always trying to be the peace maker.

Papa didn’t say anything because truthfully, he didn’t care if he spoke to Nasir or not. His money didn’t stop so he had no issues to address. Nasir thought he was the Don and Papa didn’t agree, nothing more, nothing less.

“Well my nigga, I’ma let you get back to the family,” Roderick told him, before dapping the others up and dipping out of the truck.

Sean said, ‘Yeah I’ma slide too.”

It was Malachi that stayed a little longer and chopped it up with his homeboy.

“So, what’s good?” he asked.

Papa shrugged his shoulders. “Not shit, I’m grinding.”

“How the trucking thing going?” he questioned.

“I don’t know, my Unc handling it. Good question, today I’m going to ask him,” Papa told Malachi.

Malachi saw that Papa wasn’t in the mood to talk, but it was important they cleared the air of any negativity. It was imperative that they were all on one accord, confusion within the company caused problems.

“So we good? Everything one-hundred your way?” Malachi pressed.

Papa looked at him. “Yeah I’m good, grinding right now,” he said.

He held his hand out for a dap and Malachi dapped him up.

“It’s all love, nigga,” he told him.

Malachi nodded his head. “That’s what I wanted to hear.”

“Shit I’m about to go, Demi making lasagna,” he said, happily.

“Look at you, family matters ass nigga, tell young Demi I said congrats,” he told him.

“Fa sho,” he said.

Papa waited until Malachi was in his car safe before he pulled off and headed towards The Barbershop to chop it up with Unc.

“Where you at?” Papa called his uncle.

“At the house, why?” Unc said.

“I came to the shop, what you doing home in the middle of the day?” he asked.

Unc told him, “I needed some me time.”

Papa laughed. “Hell nah, well I’m on the way.”

Unc said, “Better be important,” and hung the phone.

Papa made his way to the house he grew up in and used his key to enter.  “Damn it smells good in here,” he said, loudly.

“Yeah and it ain’t enough for you,” Unc told him, coming from the kitchen wiping his hands on the jeans he had on.

“I don’t want none, Demi cooking lasagna,” he said, for the second time today. Demi’s lasagna was his favorite.

“Bring me a plate tomorrow. I had that girl’s lasagna before and it is good as hell,” Unc told him, and sat down on the couch.

Papa pulled the sonogram out of his pocket and handed it to his uncle. The face on his look was priceless. When he looked a little closer, there were tears forming in his eyes.

“We having a boy?” Unc said, proudly.

He nodded his head, feeling emotional all over again. This was good news for their family. For many years, it was always just the two of them. Unc had other nieces and nephews, and of course Papa had cousins, but it was love from a distance.

“Hell yeah, a boy!” he said, happily. Unc pulled his nephew in for a big bear hug. “Home run!” he told him, referring to it being a boy.

“What she say?” Unc asked.

“She happy.”

“Damn boy, this just made my day. I can turn that room back there into a nursery. I’ma go get some toys and shit tomorrow. We gotta get a play pen for when we at the shop.” Unc had already started planning for when he had the baby.

Papa laughed. “A play pen at the shop?”

Unc looked at him crazy. “Yeah, that’s where I had your li’l knuckle-headed ass.”

“Look at me now.”

Unc held his chin up. “And you right! A damn millionaire!”

Papa shook his head. He was a millionaire, but he still felt empty sometimes. “Malachi and them pulled up on me earlier,” he told his uncle. Unc waited on him to continue. “They were just like life short and we brothers and all this BS.”

“What the other nigga say, Nas?” Unc asked.

“He ain’t show up,” he answered.

Unc sat down and stared at the sonogram for a few minutes before asking Papa, “Do y’all have anymore? Can I have this one?” he asked.

“Yeah Unc, that’s yours. You know Demi had them print a few out,” Papa told him.

“Sit down, Roberto,” Unc said.

Papa knew he was serious. He rarely called him his government name.  He took a seat and looked at his uncle.

“Things have changed now. They were different when you met a girl you really cared about, but shit really done changed now that a child is involved. I’m not telling you to leave because you in a good position, but it’s time for you to start making plays that’s for you. Are you following me son?” Unc asked.

“You think I should stash product?”

“I hope you doing that anyway,” Unc told him.

“Nah, I sell all my shit monthly.”

Unc sat back on the couch. “You telling me ain’t no rainy day product?”

He shook his head.

“Okay young blood, next time you re-up you need to buy your own product and put it up. Anything can happen to you. Rob, how many more times do I have to tell you you’re not untouchable? Get that through your thick skull,” Unc preached.

“Alright, I will, but I got money everywhere, you and I both know that,” Papa told him.

“You need something of value,” Unc reiterated.

“Got cha,” he told his uncle.

“Just do things a little smarter from here on out,” Unc advised him.

Demi texted Papa with a picture of the food she had just prepared.

“Shit, let me slide, dinner is ready,” he told his uncle, holding out his hand for a handshake.

Unc shook his head. “Get home safe, nephew.”

“Always, love ya, Unc, come lock the door,” he told his uncle.

Papa was feeling good about the future. His anger and temper were two things he would work on. He appreciated The Underworld reaching out to him, even if Nasir’s pussy ass didn’t show up. It made him feel good to know they still wanted him around. He would never admit to anyone that he was worried about his position being taken from him as if he never had it.

Papa had elevated and was very comfortable being at the top of the food chain. In less than three years he went from the runner, to the worker, and from the worker to a boss, and from a boss to the plug.

He would never forget the days he spent sweeping hair at his uncle’s shop or robbing the fathers of the females he fucked with on the late nights. Those days made him who he was, the gangster he was, the shooter he had become, and the hustle spirit he harbored.

He turned his head and saw Unc staring at the sonogram with a proud smile on his face. Papa was reminded in that moment that he had people who needed him around. He promised himself that his gambling days were over, and he had already discarded the strip club from his weekly schedule, and it became more like a once or twice to every two months thing.

He wasn’t concerned with the happenings in the hood because he didn’t live in the hood anymore. It was clear what everyone had been trying to tell him for so long, he was above that shit now. It took hearing his son’s heartbeat on the monitor today for Papa to have an epiphany about life and his future. He wanted to be better.

Papa looked down at his phone. Demi sent yet another picture, but instead of it being a plate of food it was her standing in the mirror, naked, one hand holding the cell phone and the other holding her womb.

He was so caught up in the beautiful picture that he didn’t notice the car creeping down the street. And yet again, Papa was caught slipping.

“What you looking at boy?” Unc asked him, especially since he had been standing at the front door and had yet to leave.