Page 35 of Welcome to the Table
I felt his body still, so I knew he wouldn’t tell me the truth. I prepared myself for the lie.
“You want the truth or a lie?” he asked.
I backed away from him, wiping the tears that hadn’t made his shirt wet. I had to mentally prepare myself for what he wasabout to say because I was in the dark when it came to family business. Don’t get it twisted, I was trained like my brothers, but I was in my soft girl era and wanted to remain that way. From the looks of shit, that was about to change.
“The truth, please. I feel like I have been lied to enough,” I told him.
“I only come out when I need to. Somebody wants your father dead or in jail, and he needs to go away for a while. When he called me, I came to hold the home front down while he’s away. He won’t even be in the United States until I find the snake and kill it. He won’t be gone for long, but it must be this way to keep his precious cargo safe.” He laughed. “Besides, you don’t miss your godfather?” He nudged my shoulder, and I laughed.
“I am glad to be home, but this house feels like Fort Knox. So many men with guns outside on the roof, like, is it that serious?” I had to ask him while he was spilling the truth serum.
“Yes, it is very serious because we don’t know who the snake is or even if it’s in the family. Everything that is being done is very necessary for your and everyone’s safety.”
Now, I understood everything. I still felt like he wasn’t telling me the entire truth, but it was okay. I was glad he came in and told me what was going on because they just threw me in this room and left. I didn’t have shit but the things I left years ago. Hellcat was about to run up some commas on me tomorrow.
Wisdom reached over to kiss my forehead before standing. He slid me a pre-rolled blunt and nodded to my window.
“You know what to do.” He winked at me and walked out my door.
I looked on my bed where he had previously sat and noticed a lighter and two knots of money along with a note. He was slick as fuck because I didn’t see anything in his hands when he walked into my room. I didn’t hear his footsteps when he left either, but I smiled. I knew he wouldn’t smoke with me because he deemedit disrespectful. Wisdom was like my second father because Melph would forever be head honcho in my heart. I grabbed the things but opened the note first. I was curious to know what he had to tell me.
Pumpkin,
Don’t worry about the moment, but trust the future. I will protect you with my life. Smoke yo’ blunt and chill until tomorrow. And try not to put the paws on Hellcat. Take this money and spend his, too, but not too much.
Wizzy
I laughed at the name because when I was little, I could never pronounce his name. He was right about me and Hellcat, though. Our relationship was on some love-hate shit. I loved my brother with everything in me, but we could not get along for shit. I would kill a motherfucker behind my brothers, but Hellcat always took shit too far. He had no pause button, so I knew tomorrow would be eventful.
I got up, put my note on my dresser, and walked into my closet. Then, I grabbed my pink Kurt Geiger bag and threw the money inside. I opened my window, sat on the windowsill, flicked the lighter, and lit my blunt as I took in the scenery. My father had redone the backyard over the years, and now it looked like it belonged on MTV. The garden was beautiful. Daisies, pink and red roses, orchids, and a bunch of other flowers were growing on one side. The other side was cabbage, greens, jalapeno peppers, sage, and it looked like some weed, too. That was my mother’s doing. There was a deck that led to the pool. I knew I would have fun.
I smoked my blunt, just thinking about myself. I was a pretty girl. I was still petite but had a little weight on me from all the eating I did when I was in New York. It felt good to be home. I put my blunt out just as my door opened. I panicked, thinking it was my daddy, but was surprised that it was my mother instead. My bond with my mother was unbreakable, but I did hold a little resentment because she didn’t speak up for me when my daddy sent me away.
“Girl, don’t put that shit out. I need it more than you do. And since when do yo’ ass smoke trees?” She walked in and closed the door.
We looked at each other and burst out laughing. My mother was beautiful. Long, beautiful hair that touched the middle of her back, which I inherited. I had her body, too. The only thing I didn’t have was her color. I was a mixture of her and my dad. I didn’t have the funny colored eyes like my brothers either.
Athena didn’t look a day over thirty. She had aged gracefully. Her bowlegs strutted over to me like she was ripping the runway. Her long, black hair was hanging over her left shoulder, and her face was glowing. Her eyes were slanted, and her skin was the perfect shade of vanilla mixed with mocha. She had on a silk nightgown, but her eyes looked troubled, and I knew my father was the culprit. She had on her fuzzy slippers, but I knew my mother. Everything she wore was expensive, so they didn’t come from Walmart. She made her way to me and took the blunt out of my hand.
“Why yo’ ass sitting in the windowsill? You are thinking about jumping? If you are, take me fucking with you.”
We shared a laugh.
“No, but I know there is no smoking in the house, and there are all those men downstairs guarding everything, so I knew they wouldn’t let me out of the gate.” I wasn’t about to rat on Wisdom.
She gave me a look that I couldn’t read before grabbing my arm and pulling me into a hug. I couldn’t stop the tears from falling because I really did miss my family, even though Hellcat got on my nerves. Athena’s hugs were what I missed most, and I needed them so much.
“Go ahead and cry witcho crybaby ass,” she whispered in my ear, and that’s exactly what I did.
We held each other for a few minutes before I let her go, and she looked me in the eyes. We were the same height, but I was a little thicker.
“This is my fucking house. Who told you that you can’t smoke in here? Ya paw? Please. He doesn’t run shit around here but his mouth. I control this shit while he controls the fucking streets. You can smoke yo’ shit anywhere in this bitch as long as you let yo’ momma hit it. As far as the guards, ya paw did that for this shit that’s going on. Hence, the reason Wisdom’s ass is here, but I told him I can take care of us. Your brothers are only a phone call away, with the exception of Calliope because his ass lives in the forest. He meant he wanted a private fucking life, and he made it that way,” she told me, then hit the blunt.
I found it so funny that she still smoked after all these years.
I remember as a little girl sitting on the steps between my mother’s legs as she braided my natural hair for school. My hair was always long and naturally beautiful. Athena didn’t trust anyone with my hair, so she did it herself. She would smoke and have her bottle of MD 20/20 on the side of her with Blue Magic grease smeared on the back of her hand with a comb in the other. I always had a different braiding style every week because my hair was so long. That was our bonding time until I was a senior in high school.
My mother and I talked about everything except the shit that went on in the Black Guerrilla Mafia business. She told me little shit, but not the day-to-day shit. I could respect her honestybecause my father tried to shield me from shit, and I didn’t like that. There were days that my mother would drive me to school, get out of the car with me, and walk me to class. She would always tell me that you should only have two friends that you could trust with your life, and she was one of them. I couldn’t wait until I was able to go out alone and see the one friend I did have because she didn’t even know I was in the city yet.
