Black Buck(58)

16





A week later, Rhett ordered us to offer steep discounts to close more deals, but that didn’t work. PSST News aired an interview Bonnie Sauren did with the chief of police of Little Rock, where Donesha Clark was from. In it, the chief revealed that before working for Sumwun, Jiao-long Lee had spent five years in Qincheng Prison, a maximum-security prison in Beijing, for domestic assault, armed robbery, and voluntary manslaughter—which exposed Sumwun’s negligence. If we’d been in deep shit before, we were drowning in it now.

A bouquet of chocolate, peanuts, and caramel drifted toward me as I entered the kitchen on Friday morning. Brazilian. Likely a robusta from the state of Espírito Santo. Ma was at the table with a cup of it in one hand and a newspaper in the other.

“Smells good, Ma,” I said, and took a seat across from her. It was early, but she was already dressed for work, which made me happy.

“Mm-hmm,” she said, reading her paper. She took a slow sip of coffee, struggling to swallow, as if she were drinking liquid concrete.

“You okay, Ma? You look like you’re about to choke.”

“I’m okay, Dar. Jus’ a sore throat, that’s all.”

“I didn’ know sore throats made you choke on coffee.”

She put the newspaper down and finally looked at me. “Seems like you don’ know a lot these days, baby.”

“What’s that mean?”

She went to the sink. “I raised you to have more sense, Dar. To stay away from trouble. But all I’m hearin’ nowadays is about your company and the trouble it’s causin’. Maybe it’s time you took a break.”

“Took a break? Ma, this isn’ somethin’ you jus’ take a break from. You been talkin’ with Soraya?”

“No, I haven’t, but you need to give that girl a call. I haven’ seen her around here in too long, and Wally Cat tells me you and Jason still aren’ talkin’.”

I sucked my teeth. “That guy stays runnin’ his mouth, man. Wally Cat needs to mind his own fuckin’ business.”

The plate fell from Ma’s hands and bounced around the sink. “I don’ wanna hear any of that disrespect in here. Wally Cat is your elder, and I raised you better,” she said, wet hands gripping the sink. “I jus’ know how these people use us. One day they have you on TV defendin’ them, then got you out all hours of the night, comin’ back smellin’ like a whiskey barrel.”

“No one is usin’ anyone, Ma. Trust me, I got this. Plus, you’re the one who wanted me to do this in the first place. You kept tellin’ me to go and show the world who I was. To not let these people get to me. To be more than who I was before.”

“I didn’ say be more, Dar. I said give yourself the opportunity to be yourself. That’s all. Who you are has always been enough.”

“Nah, tha’s not what you said, and you know it. So if you think I’m not who I used to be, it’s because I’m not. Jus’ like you wanted.”

She turned toward me. “Dar.”

“Nah, Ma. I gotta go. Have a good day at work.”

“I love—”

Down the stairs. Turn the corner. Soraya was walking out of Mr. Aziz’s bodega, but I kept going.

“D,” she called. I stopped.

“What up.”

“Listen, I know things haven’ been good with us, but we gotta work it out.”

“Why do we gotta work it out? Seems like you worked it out fine when you left the spa.”

She closed her eyes, rubbing her shoulder. “My dad invited you over for dinner tonight. He saw what happened with Jason and knows you’re goin’ through a tough time, so he wants to cook for you.”

I’d been to Soraya’s house a handful of times, but never when Mr. Aziz was there. He’d always been nice to me, and he obviously knew Soraya and I were more than friends, but he always just treated me like one of his customers.

“So I think,” she continued, noting my surprise, “that it’d be a good reset for us, you know? You can get to know my dad more, and he can get to know you as more than jus’ some guy from the neighborhood. We can work it out.”

I took in a big breath of Bed-Stuy and held it. I’m not gonna lie, I was still upset about the things she’d said and how she’d been acting, but we’d been through shit before and always got over it. “Aight.”

“Aight?” she asked, smiling.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Aight.”

“See you at seven then.”

I passed Jason’s empty corner as Wally Cat shouted, “Aye, Darren! Aye!” But I put my head down and descended into the station, preparing for whatever the day had in store for me even though no amount of preparation could’ve helped with what happened next.



* * *





“Hello?”

“Hi, Dawn! This is Darren calling from Sumwun, how are you?”

“Oh, hi, Darren. I’m sorry, but, um, this really isn’t a good time.”

“No problem, but I thought you said to call Friday at two? Should we reschedule?”

“Um, no Darren. We just, I, um, I just don’t think we’re going to need your services.”