Wifey 4 Life (7 page)

I stood there in amazement. I wanted to applaud Tony for acting
as mother and father since Rhonda’s passing, for his efforts to keep his family
together. But then I figured he knew he had done something right, because his children
definitely listened to him.

A few minutes later everyone stood in a huddle at the front door,
ready to leave. I stood among them, not knowing whether I would leave with them
or head back to my hotel.

Tony asked, “So are you hanging out with us or going elsewhere?”
I thought for a second. “I guess I can hang out with y’all for a few, since I didn’t
have any other plans.”

Meagan jumped for joy, while Li’l Tony just stood there with
no expression at all. I figured he couldn’t care less either way. Tony, on the other
hand, smiled.

After we all climbed into the car, Tony started the ignition
and then he drove off to connect to the main road. The ride back down South Military
Highway toward Highway 264 was very peaceful.

Tony had Jay-Z’s latest CD playing. Everyone was quiet during
the ride, except Li’l Tony, who sang every word on every Jay-Z track.

I laughed. He reminded me of how I used to be as a child. I was
a music fanatic. I knew every word of any song that came on the radio. I got that
from my mother, who had a huge album collection that included geniuses like Gladys
Knight, Diana Ross, The Temptations, and Earth, Wind & Fire. While my mother
played her music, I used to sit back in the den and learn the words to those songs
like I was going to get quizzed on them, though I couldn’t carry a note from one
room to the next.

I put my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes, thinking
about my mother.

“Are you all right?” Tony asked me.

Without opening my eyes, I assured him I was fine. “Is the music
too loud?”

“No, it’s OK.”

“Are you sure? Because I can turn it down if it’s too loud.”

I opened my eyes and looked directly at him. “Trust me, I am
fine,” I told him and then I laid my head back and closed my eyes again.

About ten minutes into the drive, Tony’s cell phone rang. He
allowed it to ring about five times before he answered. It annoyed the hell out
of me that he’d let it ring so long. I opened my eyes to see what the problem was.

“Hello,” he finally said.

I couldn’t hear the caller, but from the look on Tony’s face,
I could tell that the caller was just as annoyed as I was.

“Nah, nigga, it can’t be like that. I got my shorties with me.”
Tony paused.

“Yo, we gon’ have to set up something for later, because I can’t
get into that right now,” he said and then he paused once more.

“A’ight, later.” Tony ended his call.

Now I know I am not an expert of any kind, but from the sound
of that conversation I could only assume that Tony was talking about drugs. Ever
since I’d known him, he had always tried to get a decent cocaine hookup. He’d always
wanted to play with the big dogs, handle large sums of cash, and drive the expensive
whips, but no one in the game wanted to fuck with him.

Your average wannabe nigga, Tony couldn’t flip a bird if his
life depended on it. He hustled backward. Rhonda used to say he would be gone all
day long, and wouldn’t have shit to show for it. She couldn’t figure out how he
used to have so much dope but never made a decent profit out of it. Now I saw him
going around that same mountain. He hadn’t learned shit. And from the looks of it,
he probably never would.

We finally arrived at Rhonda’s mother’s house in Coleman Place,
a very quiet area of Norfolk. From what I’d heard, Ms. Mavis had lived in this house
since Rhonda was a little girl.

She met us on her front porch and greeted us with a big smile.
“Y ’all better get on in this house and stop walking like you got molasses in your
butts.”

I smiled and put a little more speed in my step.

Ms. Mavis was a beautiful lady. She had dark skin with beautiful
hazel brown eyes. Her hair was long, but she kept it back in a ponytail. She was
average height and very curvy. She reminded me of Phylicia Rashad from
The Cosby
Show
.

As I reached her side, she embraced me with every muscle in her
body. She definitely made me feel loved. “What a pleasant surprise!” she said. Then
she smacked Tony on the arm. “Why didn’t you tell me you were bringing Kira over
here?”

“Trust me, it was a last-minute decision.”

I chuckled. “It’s not his fault, Ms. Mavis. I just decided to
tag along, since I didn’t have anything else to do.”

“What’s going on with you? Are you moving back home?”

I sighed heavily. “No, ma’am! I wouldn’t move back to VA if
somebody paid me and built me a home from the ground up.”

“Come on now. You know you miss living here,” Ms. Mavis joked.

“The only thing I miss is you and these kids. All that other
mess, I can’t be bothered with.”

“Well, you’re gonna be bothered today, ’cause I got a pot of
hot chicken soup on the stove right now. So y’all come on in here and get you a
bowl,” Ms. Mavis said as she led the way inside.

It had been a little over a year since I’d been in Ms. Mavis’s
house. The last time I was there I had come to pay my respects for Rhonda’s
death. I had left her a nice piece of change too. I wondered if she’d used any of
it for Rhonda’s kids, since that was the reason I left it.

She gave me a brief tour of her living room, showing me all of
the pictures Rhonda took through the years, while Tony and the kids raced for the
kitchen.

As I looked at each framed picture, Ms. Mavis had a story to
tell. But one particular picture stood out. A photo of me, my late husband Ricky,
Rhonda, and my old stylist, Sunshine, at the grand opening of my hair salon. We
were dressed to kill. And we looked so damn happy. Ricky stood in the middle, between
me and that bitch Sunshine. Looking at him now with his arm around her waist, I
should’ve known he was fucking her behind my back. Scandalous motherfuckers! Yeah,
they deserved each other!

On the other hand, Rhonda sure didn’t deserve to get killed.
I just hoped that I could convey that in a suitable manner and leave in good graces
with both Tony and Ms. Mavis before I headed back out of town.

Tony and both of his children were in the kitchen digging deep
inside their bowls of soup. Ms. Mavis offered me some, but I declined. I lied to
her and told her that I’d gotten a bite to eat right before I’d arrived at Tony’s
place.

So Ms. Mavis and I ended up taking a seat in the den area, where
we chatted a little bit about what my life had been like since leaving Virginia.
I painted a beautiful picture of me settling down with Mr. Right and having a successful
hair salon and day spa back in Houston. I even lied to her and told her that I might
be expecting a baby, and she seemed very happy for me.

We even reminisced about Rhonda helping me run the business and
being such a great mother.

Tony walked in the room when I was telling a story about how
Rhonda had once handled an irate customer for me. I couldn’t tell you what his problem
was, but he abruptly cut me off in mid-sentence, telling me, he was ready to go.

Ms. Mavis wasn’t ready for me to leave and wanted me to finish
the story.

“Ms. Mavis, I just got a call and I got to go,” he informed her.
“Why don’t you just leave and come back to get her later?” Ms. Mavis asked.

“I can’t, because I’m not coming back this way.”

“It’s OK, Ms. Mavis. I can call you later and tell you the story
some other time.” I stood and gave her a big hug and kissed her on her cheek. “You
take care of my godchildren.”

She smiled and held me tightly. “Oh, you can bet your last dollar
I will do just that!”

While she walked me to the front door, I slid her my new cell
number and told her never to hesitate to call me. She assured me that she would.
I hugged her once more, and then I made my exit to meet Tony, who had already gone
outside.

W
hen I got into the car with Tony, he was on the phone, but he
quickly got off. “I gotta make one quick stop before I go back to my house,” he
told me.

“That’s cool.”

Tony pulled away from Ms. Mavis’s house while she stood there
on the front porch and waved good-bye. Once she was out of sight, I turned my attention
to him. “Where you got to go that’s so important?” I wanted to know.

“Well, I’ve got to stop and get some gas first. And then I’ve
got to meet up with my homeboy before he leaves to go out of town.”

“Hold, you! Meeting your homeboy before he goes out of town sure
sounds like a drug buy.” I chuckled, but I was serious as a fucking heart attack.
Shit, I didn’t come all the way back to Virginia to be getting arrested on a bogus-ass
drug charge behind some wannabe-ass hustler. I had too much at stake, and my freedom
was at the top of the list.

“Come on, Kira. What kind of nigga you think I am? I don’t get
down like that,” he said as he pulled into a Shell gas station.

When Tony got out the car to go pay for the gas, I told him I
was going to Feather-N-Fin to get a sweet tea. I strutted myself across the street,
and when I got to the door, this older gentleman held it open for me. After I stepped
inside the restaurant, I thanked him.

It was a little after four in the evening, so I knew there would
be a crowd of people trying to get their eat on. I got in line and waited my turn.
The line was moving pretty quickly, so I knew I would be in and out of there before
Tony finished pumping his gas.

“Can I take your order?” the young lady asked me. She was a pretty
young girl with blonde micro braids. She looked like she was every bit of eighteen
or nineteen years old.

After I told her I wanted a medium sweet iced tea, she rang it
up. I handed her my debit card, but she told me there was a five-dollar minimum
purchase requirement to use my card. Since I didn’t have any money on me and I wanted
my tea, I ordered a boneless chicken breast sandwich with cheese.

Once she added my sandwich to the order, she swiped my card,
but for some reason, my card wouldn’t process. The screen on the terminal displayed
the words Comm Error, meaning, there was a bad connection with the phone line.

“Why don’t you disconnect your phone line and plug it back,”
I suggested. “That always worked for me when I had a merchant machine at my hair
salon.”

“You do hair?” the young girl asked as she unhooked the phone
cord from the terminal and then plugged it back in.

“I used to.”

“Where did you do hair at?” she asked, waiting for the machine
to crank back up.

“I owned a shop on Newtown Road called Millennium Styles, but
then I closed it and moved out of town.”

“Wait a minute! I thought I remembered you!”

Shocked that she knew me, I stood there and waited for her to
jog my memory.

“My sister Sunshine used to do hair there,” she said. “Remember
the time I came up there and brought her some balloons and a card on her birthday
and she got all happy? But when she opened her card and realized I hadn’t put any
money inside, she started complaining, and that was when you took up for me and
told her to be grateful.”

Looking at the young girl again, I felt like I was looking at
Sunshine. In fact, she looked like Sunshine’s twin. I assumed she knew nothing about
the affair that Sunshine had with my late husband, since she seemed excited to see
me. This young girl made me feel like I was an old friend.

“What was your name again?” I asked her.

“Fionna. But my friends call me Fifi.” She smiled.

I smiled back and thought about how she seemed to be in great
spirits for someone who had lost her sister. I wondered if Sunshine ever spoke about
me in a bad way. Well, if she did, this chick who stood in front of me truly knew
how to mask her real feelings.

“Well, Fifi,” I said, “I am truly sorry about your loss.”

“Oh, you don’t have to feel sorry. She’s in a better place. And,
besides, you should be happy that she’s gone, considering all the drama she took
you through.”

“What kind of drama would that be?” I asked, even though I knew
what Fionna was referring to.

“All I’m saying is that I should be the one apologizing to you,
since it was my sister who tore your marriage apart by sleeping with Ricky behind
your back.”

Once again shocked by her comment, I stood there motionless.
I didn’t know whether to start cursing or break down in tears. Here I was again
reminded about something that happened in my past. I didn’t need that in my life,
especially since I was trying to move on. Ricky and Sunshine were both distant memories,
and I believed they’d gotten what they deserved. So if their souls were in hell,
that was where they were meant to be.

I had to take a deep breath and exhale before I could make a
rebuttal. After I got myself together, I asked Fionna how long she’d known about
their relationship.

“I’m not sure. But I do remember when he stopped over her
apartment to drop off some money. It was a Sunday night, because I was in the living
room watching
The Wire
on HBO. She took him into her bedroom hoping I couldn’t hear
their conversation, but I heard every word they said anyway, especially the part
about the baby.”

“What baby?”

“I don’t know if she was pregnant for real, but I did hear her
telling him that she needed some abortion money because she wasn’t ready to have
a baby.”

“Wow! You have got to be kidding me,” I said, heartbroken. “Nah,
I’m dead serious!”

Now I knew Ricky slept around on me, and I knew he had an affair
with Sunshine, but to later find out that she could have possibly carried his baby
was a huge slap in the face. Ricky really didn’t give a fuck about me! He fucked
all his side chicks without a stitch of protection, so I wouldn’t be surprised if
that nigga had at least a dozen kids running around between Virginia and D.C. The
thought of all the times he betrayed me gave me an instant headache, so I tried
to block him out of my mind.