Scandalous Heroes Box Set (52 page)

Vanessa shook her head incredulously at the nerves of this girl. She was a little scared because Marcella was older and obviously a trouble maker, but between her and Jalissa this big mouthed fool was not going to push them around. “We don’t want your help. Go make your own fort.”

Marcella’s eyes swung back around to meet Vanessa’s. “Yeah, okay dumb bitch. I can make one better than this stupid ass one!” She kicked at it with her plastic boot and knocked a hole into the top.

Vanessa was suddenly angry; if her gang was here than they would beat this girl down. Vanessa looked at the damage and then over at the other kids who had been helping them build. They should be as outraged as she was…except for the fact that none of them was being called out of their names. Yet they were all having fun until big mouth started talking smack! But all of the girls were younger than Marcella and did nothing but watch in anticipation or awe. Suddenly she wasn’t afraid of Marcella. Reading her mind Jalissa put her mittened hand on Vanessa’s wrist and stopped her before she could act.

Marcella continued talking smack. “Come on y’all. Let’s go show that trick baby that we can do one better than this.” The other girls retreated, following along behind the bully; including Cherrelle, who had the cute baby brothers and sisters and who often played in Vanessa’s hair.

Jalissa watched her playmates march away. “Y’all two-faced!” she hollered.

Someone called her fat and told her to shut up. This time it was Vanessa that informed her cousin that it was time to go home. As they headed back to Jalissa’s apartment complex Vanessa heard Marcella saying that her mother was a hooker on Vine Street. Vanessa was beginning to see red. She was not the type to put her status over anyone else’s but no one was going to call her mama out of name without getting a correction.

Vanessa stood with her legs spaced apart as if she would do a flying kick at the older girl. “Don’t talk about my mama! My mama don’t need to be a hooker when she works at the telephone company! Worry about your own mama that is just sitting home collecting welfare!” Jalissa gasped and Cherrelle took a step away making it clear that she didn’t have her back. Everybody that lived on this side of Winton Terrace was on welfare. Wrong move.

Marcella’s brown face seemed to darken. Before Vanessa knew it the older girl had the lapels of her sheepskin coat. Vanessa reached up to block a punch but the bigger girl just threw her down roughly into the snow. Before she knew it Marcella was on top of her, pummeling her with her fist. Vanessa blocked her face but the wild girl was swinging and wheel milling her hands leaving Vanessa no choice but to block!

With a loud scream Jalissa jumped on Marcella’s back, snatched off the girl’s hat and dug her fists into the bigger girls hair until she yanked her off her cousin.

Vanessa reached up and touched her nose. It was bleeding! She climbed to her feet and then another girl pushed her back down. She looked up in surprise when Kaneeja grabbed her ponytail and began pulling so hard that it felt like she was being scalped.

“You think you cute! You ain’t nothing but a trick baby!” Kaneeja said, wearing a scowl across her usually friendly face. “The only reason you and your mama live up on that hill is because she is a ho. My mama said that when she lived down here she always had men coming in and out of her apartment so she would just send you across the court to stay with them white people!”

Someone threw a snowball, which struck her in the side of the head. Since it was made up of mostly ice it stunned her and nearly knocked her out and it did knock her down.

“So what if our mama is on welfare?!” Someone hollered.

When another snowball whizzed past her head Vanessa jumped to her feet and turned her back, shielding her face. Four kids were now throwing snowballs at her and she was trapped slipping and falling and not able to uncover her face to run.

She wasn’t sure how long the hard pelts of the snowballs rained down on her but it suddenly stopped and the gleeful taunts of the children quieted. Vanessa peeked up and saw that the kids were still surrounding her and Jalissa was still on Marcella’s back. The bigger girl was now crying because Jalissa had pulled out great hunks of her hair and hadn’t let up yet.

Vanessa’s eyes moved in the direction of where the girls were staring and she saw two boys walking towards them; Phonso and Scotty Tremont. Her eyes grew wide at the sight of Scotty’s normally beautiful face. He had a black eye and swollen lip. A second later Tino came out of the apartment shrugging on a jacket. The older boy held a look of amusement on his face that scared Vanessa. It was as if he wanted to see someone get hurt.

Chapter 9

The evening that the two brothers had fought, the bigger and older boy had once again out powered Scotty. Tino’s fists had rained down on him until Tina came running down the stairs screaming for him to stop. Her screaming caused more of a racket than the fight and Scotty wanted to tell her to be quiet before someone called the cops. Tino pushed his mother away but backed off.

A while later Scotty was sitting at the kitchen table—after Tino had righted it. The table had faired well but one chair was broken as well as several dishes and a wobbling pantry door. His mother was smoking a cigarette and dabbing at his face with a washcloth. Scotty thought that he needed that cigarette more than her but his lip was busted and hurt like hell. He figured that he would have a shiner come morning and his ribs were sore. Tino had given him mostly body shots, for which he was thankful. He didn’t want to have to walk around with a jacked up face.

“You do this when we have CPS breathing down our throats!” She plucked the cigarette from her mouth, placed it on the edge of the table all while shooting Tino with an angry look.  He watched from across the room where he leaned against the counter, completely ignoring his mother. Scotty was pleased to note that his jaw was jacked.

Tino rubbed his chin.

“I guess you’re not a pussy. You’re getting better at fighting.” He held up his hand and his knuckles were swollen and bleeding. “I almost broke my hand on your fucking face,” he said while walking to the table. He used his uninjured hand to retrieve the cigarette from the table then he placed it carefully between his brother’s lips.

Scotty knew that this was Tino’s way of saying that he was sorry. But Scotty wasn’t. They’d fought and he hadn’t just gotten his ass handed to him. This time he had actually done some damage. Best of all, he had finally shown his brother that he wouldn’t be bullied.

Tina went back upstairs to sleep; leaving Scotty and Tino to put the kitchen back to order.

“I mean it. I’m not doing it.” Scotty muttered while keeping a careful eye on his brother. A half smile tugged at Tino’s mouth.

“If you say so little brother.” The calmness of his response chilled Scotty.

~***~

A few days later Phonso came running down the stairs. “Yo, you gotta see this! Yo Tino! Scotty! Check this out!” “Your sister is out there getting her ass whupped by a gang of girls!”

“Beady?” Tino went to the living room window. “Who is that?”

Scotty joined him and all three boys peered out into the courtyard where a group of kids were evidently fighting.

“Vanessa,” Scotty whispered. A bunch of kids were throwing snowballs at her until she could do nothing but duck and cover.

Scotty went outside without bothering with his jacket. Phonso joined him and a moment later Tino had his coat and was right behind them.

The kids—all girls took one look at Scotty’s face and began to back up, all except the pudgy girl that was wailing on a crying teenager.

Phonso grinned. Girl fight. This is what dreams were made of. Scotty nudged him while gesturing to Jalissa and the boy easily yanked the two girls apart.

Scotty stooped down next to Vanessa and gave her a critical look. “Don’t tell me you can’t fight.”

Her eyes were wide as she looked at him. She was so shocked at his bruising that she momentarily forgot to cry. His face had the remnants of purple and yellow bruises that transformed his handsome face into something that broke her heart. Without realizing it she reached up and gently touched his cheek.

Scotty sat back on his haunches, breaking the contact and stared at her.

“Fuck,” Tino said while lighting a cigarette. “It’s cold as shit out here.” The older boy looked at the children that were backing away. “Go home stupid!” The little girls ran off. Marcella was crying and rubbing her sorehead while Jalissa circled Phonso trying to reach her. Marcella finally ran away and Phonso looked at Jalissa in admiration.

“You know how to scrap.” Jalissa blushed and grinned and the two went over to Scotty and Vanessa.

“Your nose is bleeding.” Scotty stood and then pulled Vanessa up. She suddenly remembered her own injuries to both her body as well as to her pride. She swiped at her nose and saw the blood on her gloves. Angry tears welled up in her eyes and she clenched her teeth and looked after the retreating kids. They had ganged up on her and called her mother names. The words swirled around in her head;
trick baby, your mama is a ho
.

“Oh man,” Jalissa said when she caught sight of her cousin’s face.

Vanessa looked up and saw Tino looking at her, actually seeing her for perhaps the first time. But an idea was forming in her mind that was more important than Tino, Scotty Jalissa and anything else.

She turned and dug her hands into her pocket and began walking—not in the direction of Jalissa’s home but up the hill to Garden Hilltop.

“Where are you going?” Jalissa asked while hurrying along beside her.

“Home.”

“You’re walking all the way up the hill?!” Jalissa yelled but Vanessa said nothing. “It’s going to be dark. And then you’re going to have to walk all the way back down-“

“Go home Jalissa.”

Tino and Phonso turned and walked back to the apartment chuckling about the fight. Scotty watched Vanessa and her cousin until the pudgy girl shrugged and left her to walk alone. Scotty dug his cold hands into the pocket of his jeans and then turned and went back home.

~***~

Whore. Trick.

Vanessa thought about those women on television that did ‘it’ for money and there was no way that she could connect that image with her mother—and yet her stomach caved with each step that she took towards her home.

If her mama was like that then that meant her Daddy…Hot tears burned her eyes and slid down her cold cheeks but her steps never faltered. There were no pictures of her daddy, not because her mother had never bothered—but because she didn’t have a daddy. Vanessa didn’t see the nearly empty streets or the cars that whizzed past and she barely felt the cold as she walked toward home.

“Where are you going?” A voice asked from behind her. Vanessa jumped and saw Scotty on his bike approaching her.

She just turned back, shaking her head silently and swiping at the snot and tears streaming down her face. She kept walking up the hill not caring about Scotty right now. Right now everything in her world was changing.

He rode ahead and then stopped and looked up at the stars. When she reached him he spoke without looking at her. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride up the hill.”

Vanessa hesitated and then climbed on the ten-sped behind him. She had never ridden double on a ten-speed but once she was settled on the seat Scotty stood and then began pumping up the hill. It took a moment for him to get some momentum and they wobbled a bit. Vanessa quickly clung to his grey thermal shirt. That’s all he was wearing—no coat, no gloves and no hat. She realized that he was probably freezing but he wasn’t shivering or anything.

She suddenly remembered the nasty looking man at Fountain Square that had called her mother Diamond. Her mother had known him. She had looked guilty. Vanessa closed her eyes, her and her hands that held onto Scotty’s shirt fisted tightly.

She tried to concentrate on the gentle sway of the bike as Scotty fought to pedal them both up the hill. But she didn’t offer to get down and walk. Having him this close comforted her. There was a connection formed of circumstances and she felt it unmistakably.

She was a trick baby like Scotty.

Chapter 10

The street lights were on by the time they reached the parking lot where Vanessa lived. When they passed the scary building Vanessa looked at it’s darkened depths but felt no fear. The heat radiating from Scotty and the sound of his pants as he peddled was more real than the phantoms that didn’t really live there. If something did fly out of the vacant building at them she had no doubt that Scotty would stare at it coldly and fearlessly.

She felt regret when the ride ended. He stopped in front of her stoop and she climbed down and tried to quickly wipe away any residual tears. She looked at her darkened townhome and Scotty lowered the kickstand on the bike and then checked under the mat for a key. When there wasn’t one he glanced at her to see if she wanted to break in.

“My mother locked the windows from the inside.”

He appraised the building. “Come on,” he said and then led her around back. She wondered what he was doing. Her mother kept all of the windows on the lower level locked. He stopped at the back patio and then looked around to make sure no one was looking. She saw him cup his hands in front of his mouth and blow warm air into them. He did that for a few moments and then began messing with the patio door.

Vanessa drew closer and watched in fascination as he began to rock the patio door off its track. What the--? Scotty really did know how to break into houses! Was he a burglar? She gave him an amazed look and he gestured for her to go inside. She stepped into the kitchen and was about to turn on the light when he told her no. It took him a moment but he replaced the door onto its tracks.

When that was done he made sure the blinds were closed and then he turned on the kitchen light himself.