Bronxwood Read online

  Everything ’bout living here is starting to piss me off. But then I think ’bout my pops and I don’t know where it’s worse, here or with him.

  I’m ’bout to knock on Cal door to find out what happened to the kitchen, not even caring that I’ma be breaking up whatever him and Tina is doing in there, but before I even get down the hall all the way, Greg come home. I hardly seen him the whole time I been back from down south.

  “What up, Ty?” he go.

  “Chillin’,” I say. “What up with you?”

  “Working hard. Trying to stay ahead.” He go in the kitchen and say, “What the fuck?”

  I shake my head. “Cal and Tina musta been fighting in here or something.”

  “Where he at?”

  “His room. With Tina and the baby.” “He did this?”

  “I don’t know. Pro’ly. Or the baby.”

  “Your friend losing his mind,” Greg say. “And he losing money for us. You need to tell him to start working harder, you know what I mean?”

  “I ain’t got nothing to do with y’all business, Greg. You know that.”

  “That’s fucked up, Ty. Least you could do is help when we need you. We ain’t saying you gotta do this shit forever.”

  He leave the kitchen and go to the living room, right for the PlayStation. He turn it on and say to me, “Don’t touch that game. Me and my boys gotta get our guys outta this battle and kill them Vietcong assholes. Shit taking too fuckin’ long.” He go down the hall, looking pissed, like any of that shit is real. I hear him pull out this big set of keys he walk ’round with so he can get in his room ’cause he always keep it locked.

  Even though Greg in charge of handling the weed, Cal always tell me that Greg don’t keep no big stash of drugs here in this apartment ’cause he ain’t stupid like that. From the little I know from hearing them talk, Greg s’posed to be keeping the drugs in different spots, and making sure the guys they got out there selling always got what they need. And he also s’posed to be driving ’round, making sure them guys is alright out there all night. That’s all I know.

  My whole thing is this, I don’t wanna be the one to go down for some shit they doing. All three of them brothers know how I feel ’bout that. I’m not ’bout to live in no apartment that got drugs stashed in it, ’cause it ain’t gonna matter to the police that I’m not part of they business. They gonna arrest my black ass just for living here.

  Greg go in his room and close the door. I ain’t never stepped foot in his room, but the way he lock it all the time make me wonder what he got up in there. I know he got a lot of clothes and sneakers and shit, ’cause ever since he started working harder for Andre, he definitely making more money. But that ain’t no reason to lock his door like we even care what he got in there.

  I go to the bathroom, take a shower, and get dressed. I missed most of the day working for my pops, helping Cal with CJ, and sleeping. Now I wanna have some fun.

  While I’m passing the living room, Greg on the couch with his headset on, screaming battle commands into the microphone real loud. Dude think he really in the war or something. On the TV screen, shit is blowing up and heads is flying off and blood is shooting out all over the place. Greg don’t even see me. He too busy shouting crazy dumb shit like, “I wanna see dead bodies on that bridge, men! Make them motherfuckers taste they own blood!”

  I gotta get up outta here.

  It’s nice outside. Hot. Too hot to be sitting inside, which is probably why everyone hanging out. Not Novisha, not that I’m looking for her or anything. I know she been back from church for a while, but she don’t be hanging out no matter how nice the day is. She always upstairs in her apartment.

  Or, for all I know, she could be out with that dude.

  I walk over by her building, the same building where Adonna live at. Man, I used to come over here so much when me and Novisha was together that now, for a couple seconds, it’s like I’m walking over here to see her.

  I pass by Kenny truck and ask him if Adonna ’round.

  “She’s somewhere around here,” he say.

  “Yeah? She with somebody?”

  “She ain’t with no boy,” Kenny say, staring me down like he wanna know what up. “She’s with Asia, probably watching them knuckleheads play basketball behind Building C.”

  I nod, trying to play it off like it don’t really matter to me who she with or what she doing. “A’ight,” I tell him. “I’ma go over there and see if I can get in the game.”

  I walk a couple steps away and hear Kenny go, “What, you like my sister or something?”

  I turn ’round and Kenny leaning out the window to his truck and shit. “We talkin’,” I tell him, ’cause it ain’t none of his business. “I gotta go, Kenny. Check you later, a’ight?”

  I’m walking ’cross the street when Keith come up behind me. He trying to ride his scooter and carry a cherry icee at the same time and it ain’t working.

  “You gonna bust your head,” I tell him.

  “Not me.” He smile big. “I’m gonna be a stuntman in Hollywood. A famous one. Watch.”

  I wanna tell him he gonna hafta stop working with Cal and them first, but I don’t wanna bust on the kid for trying to make money, ’specially when I don’t know what his family situation is like. I mean, this kid is thirteen and he out to, like, midnight almost every night. No way his moms don’t know what he doing and ain’t using the money he bringing in. So I tell Keith I’ma look for him in the movies and he keep on scooting down the street.

  Adonna right where Kenny said she was gonna be. Sometimes I think he be sitting in that damn truck keeping track of everybody and what they up to. Adonna and Asia is running they mouths and watching the guys play ball. I gotta figure out a way to get Adonna away from her friend this time, ’cause ain’t nothing gonna happen with them two girls together.

  Adonna smile when she see me coming ’cross the playground. That’s a good sign, I’m thinking. She do like me. As usual, Adonna looking hot today. She got on another pair of shorts and one of them tops that leave the whole back out, and she still rockin’ my pops chain. Make me walk faster past the basketball court over to where they sitting.

  I say hi to the girls and sit down next to Adonna. Her legs is looking nice and smooth. Girls don’t know what they be doing to guys when they show this much skin to us. We weak. We lose our minds when girls is this sexy.

  “Why you hiding out back here?” I ask her. And I ain’t gonna lie. I make my voice a little deeper, kinda like one of them baritone brothas girls be getting excited over. “You ain’t want me to find you?”

  She look me in the eye and smile so damn cute. “Can’t you tell? I like to be chased.”

  I smile my own self. “I like chasing.” And just like that, I lean over and give her a kiss on the lips. Nothing like we was doing the other night in the elevator, just something to keep her wanting more. And it look like she do too, ’cause when I stop kissing, she still leaning into me like she thought it was gonna go on for a while longer. “I wanna talk to you,” I tell her real quiet so Asia don’t hear me. “Alone.”

  It ain’t easy, but after ’bout twenty minutes of me sitting there, talking and joking with both them girls, trying not to show how bad I wanna spend time with Adonna, Asia finally take the hint and say she gotta go home and help her moms cook. I think that’s what she say, but to be honest, I ain’t really paid her no mind. This time ’round, my mind is focused on what I want.

  As soon as Asia gone, I grab Adonna hand and get her to walk with me away from the basketball court. I’m trying to find someplace where me and her can go where there ain’t a whole bunch of other people ’round, but that’s hard to find in the projects. They got us packed in here like fuckin’ rats. I mean, I don’t know why we don’t all go crazy at the same time.

  I take Adonna back ’cross the street over to the side of the community center that’s closed now. They only open in the morning on Sunday to give the old people ’round here breakf
ast and a sandwich or something to take home with them. I lean up against the building and bring Adonna close to me, and before she can start talking, I go in for the kill. My mouth is on hers and we doing some long, hard kisses. I know it ain’t easy to turn me down, but at the same time I’m kinda surprised that Adonna kissing me outside like this, even if there ain’t a lot of people that can see us. I mean, she don’t never mess ’round with guys from Bronxwood, and now it’s like she letting everybody know she like me or something, and that’s cool. Funny thing is, if Novisha in her apartment right now, she could see us if she was looking out her kitchen window.

  My hand is on Adonna back, right on her nice smooth skin, and I start sliding it down to her ass real slow so she won’t even hardly notice. It don’t work though. She pull her lips away from mines and is like, “Where is your hand going?”

  “I don’t know,” I say, and try to go back to kissing, but she keep her lips away. I smile. “Both my hands got a mind of they own. But this one, the right one, it’s a bad hand.”

  “Bad hand?” She raise her eyebrows, but she still got that little smile on her lips.

  “Yeah, it always been like that. When I was in fourth grade, you ain’t gonna believe this, but this hand actually threw a Pokémon eraser ’cross the classroom and almost hit Mrs. Milner in the back of her head while she was writing on the board.”

  Adonna laugh.

  “And when she turned ’round and was like, ‘Who threw that?’ I ain’t say nothing, ’cause I ain’t do it. My hand did it by its own self.”

  Adonna shake her head. “You are so full of it.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “All I know is, you better find a way to keep that bad hand off my ass.”

  “I don’t got no control over it.” I try and make myself look innocent, but I can’t help smiling myself.

  Next thing I know, I’m putting my arms ’round her and we hugging, and I’m kissing her ear and neck, and she trying to act like she ain’t a hundred percent into me, but she still letting me do what I want. Damn, I’m starting to like this girl. And the way her body feel against mines, it’s all good. I could get used to this. “When you gonna let me take you out?” I whisper in her ear. “Show you a good time.”

  She smiling. “How good?”

  “Real good.” In my head, I can’t believe she actually gonna go out with me. Cal ain’t gonna believe this when I tell him. I give Adonna another kiss.

  “My mother’s not gonna let me go out with you ’til summer school is over on Friday.”

  “No problem. Let’s go out on Friday, then. I’ma come over and say hi to your moms, and take you to see whatever movie you wanna see and then we gonna go for something to eat. How that sound?”

  “Good,” she say. Then she kinda wiggle herself outta my arms, just trying to be extra sexy. “I have to go now, Ty.”

  “You sure you can’t come back to my place for a little while? I got some new music we can listen—”

  “Remember what I said before,” she say. “I like to be chased.”

  Damn. “A’ight. I get it. I’ma let you go home and sit in that apartment all bored outta your mind. That’s cool. But let me get your digits so I can call you.”

  Adonna pull her cell outta her pocket and I tell her my number and she call it. After I save her number I walk her to her building but don’t go upstairs with her this time. I’ma be patient. Ain’t no rush. Friday gonna be here in five days and I know I’ma get her. I can tell. That girl is so into me it ain’t even funny no more.

  On the way back to my building, I’m thinking that I just told Adonna, of all the females I know, that I was gonna show her a good time. A real good time. Why I say that shit to her? She probably thinking I’ma spend crazy money on her when I ain’t even got it like that. It’s true what they say, girls can really get a brotha in some deep trouble.

  It ain’t ’til I’m upstairs that I’m like, shit, I forgot to get my pops chain back from her.

  MONDAY, AUGUST 4

  THIRTEEN

  My pops get me up mad early again and make me meet him downstairs. It’s crazy the time he be waking me up since he been back. He probably still on prison time or something.

  Me and him still don’t say a word to each other in the van. Nothin’. This time, though, I’m the one that put the radio on.

  Two of my pops friends is waiting for us at the storage place. I don’t know where my moms is at, if she gonna do anything to help out with the move, but she don’t never do nothing, so why she gonna start now?

  The four of us get to work, loading as much of our furniture and shit in the van that can fit at one time. There ain’t no room for all four of us in there too, so I’m the one my pops make stay behind and wait, like them other guys is stronger than me or something. I’m bored out my mind standing there, but least I don’t gotta spend more time with my pops.

  Since I gotta be here anyway, I start looking through a lot of the stuff we got in here. It take me a while, but finally I find the stuff that used to be in my room. Not only my clothes but my TV, laundry basket, alarm clock, DVDs, and fan. And I find a box of stuff I used to have on top of my dresser, shit I forgot ’bout. A bullet I found behind my building when I was, like, ten. My ashtray, a folded-up two-dollar bill, my incense. Then I see this strip of photos me and Novisha took last summer at Rye Playland. After we got on practically all the rides a couple times, we was walking ’round for a while and found one of them old-skool photo booths. We went in there and kissed and acted stupid and had fun wasting money. The pictures came out real funny. She took some and I took some. That was a year ago, back when my family still had a apartment and we was all still together. But everything is different now.

  The day we was evicted from that apartment, man, I ain’t never gonna forget that feeling I got when I came home from school and seen my moms and Troy standing in the hall outside our apartment. Troy was crying and my moms was cursing and going off on how they threw us out our place. That’s when I seen it, that big, giant padlock on our front door, and the sign that was stuck on the door by the marshals, telling us we was evicted and all our property was in storage.

  First person I called was Novisha. And even though she never been through nothing like that herself, she was always by my side through the whole thing, making sure I was okay and not getting too depressed while we was going through the shelter system. What me and her had back then was good. I ain’t gonna say it’s messed up we not together no more ’cause things happen for a reason. I just ain’t think it was gonna end.

  I take out my cell and text Adonna. All I say is: hi.

  She text me back a minute later: getting in the shower. dont peek!!!

  That girl is trying to kill me, I swear. I don’t need to be thinking ’bout her all naked and soaped up right now.

  While I’m waiting, my pops and his friends come back, get more stuff, and leave again. Only thing left now is the living room furniture and four boxes of pots and pans and dishes and shit.

  It take a long time for Adonna to text me back: did u keep ur eyes closed or were u a bad boy?

  i seen everything. i need a spanking.

  omg!!!

  Even when she text, I can see her pretty face smiling and laughing.

  Me and her text back and forth ’til she say: gotta go 2 school. last week!!!!!!!

  I text her back telling her I’ma call her later, then my pops come through the door by hisself this time. Me and him carry the rest of the stuff outta there. Only thing we leave is the DJ equipment ’cause them speakers is too big for the apartment and ’cause my pops got a regular system to listen to his music at home.

  Me and my pops drive to the new apartment, which is on the other side of the Bronx from where Bronxwood is at. Jasmine don’t live all that far from here. I mean, she ain’t ’round the corner or nothing, but I could walk to her place from here if I felt like it. I need to talk to her anyway, find out how she doing, if she got to talk to Reyna and i
f everything alright. It don’t matter that I’m trying to get with Adonna. I’ma always gonna look out for Jasmine.

  I gotta admit, this part of the Bronx is kinda okay. I mean, for the Bronx. The place where the new apartment at got, like, four buildings that all look the same, with grass and shit. Regg don’t live too far from here neither. He over in Riverdale. This place ain’t as cool as Regg place, but it’s way better than where we was living before. When we get Troy back, he ain’t gonna believe this is where he gonna be living now.

  The apartment is on the eleventh floor and, even though it’s a mess right now with boxes and furniture and stuff all over the place, I can tell it’s gonna look nice when it’s hooked up. My family ain’t never lived like this before. It got a big kitchen and living room, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms. Me, I don’t know why they need all them rooms if I ain’t gonna be living here. I don’t even know what I’m doing here now, helping them move in this place.

  But I am here, and so is my stuff from the storage room. My moms is in the kitchen, leaning up against the counter, looking bored.

  “Lisa,” my pops say to her. “Put away the kitchen stuff.”

  “I don’t have no way to open them boxes.”

  He grab a box cutter from the kitchen table, like a foot away from where she standing, and open up two boxes for her. “Go on. Start.”

  For the next couple hours I don’t think ’bout the fact that I ain’t gonna be living here. In my mind, only thing I’m thinking is that I want this apartment to look good for Troy. Just in case. So I just work hard, carrying furniture and putting it in right rooms, hooking up TVs to the cable boxes, and fixing bed frames and dresser drawers and everything else that need fixing.

  Only furniture I don’t fix or set up is my shit, which we put in a room right next to Troy room. It’s bigger than my room at Cal apartment, and even bigger than my old room at our place on Pelham Parkway, the apartment we got threw outta. Every time my pops come outta jail, it seem like he always try and do better, try and get a bigger apartment and more stuff to put in it. Only thing, it never last. Then it just be harder for us to hold on to all that shit, keep paying for all of it, when he go and get hisself locked up again.