Midnight

“I know you’re gonna walk me home, right?” She smiled again.

  “Of course,” I told her, bouncing my ball.

  “Did you tell your girlfriend about me?” she asked.

  “What’s there to tell?” I teased.

  “Don’t break my heart,” she said. “And when you smile look the other way, my eyes and my heart can’t take it.” She placed her hand on my face and mushed it in the other direction away from her.

  “What you wanna do, Bangs?” I asked her, stupidly believing that if I stepped up she would take some steps back.

  “I wanna do whatever you doing,” she said and smiled again. “You should see me at my house laying on my bed wondering where you at and why you ain’t calling and what you doing now and who you doing it with.” She would pull on a new finger with each question she was wondering about.

  “Don’t you have anything better to do?” I asked her.

  “Nothing that I really want to do,” she answered. We arrived at her door.

  “You coming in, right?” she asked.

  “Oh no, I gotta go. I gotta work in the morning,” I told her. I walked off hard as a brick. The urge within me was growing stronger every day. It was the adrenaline from the training and the sports, the hordes of girls, the cheering and the encouragement.

  My mind switched to what was real. Every day I was yearning for Akemi. I might not have said it aloud, but I really wanted to touch and feel her womb with my fingers, with my tongue, my dick. I didn’t want nothing in between me and her flesh; no rubbers, no plastics, no creams, no patches, no pills. Just natural body to body, I wanted to be all over her and I wanted her all over me as her body flowed into some of those hot-ass yoga positions.

  Late night I listened for Akemi’s voice on the voice mail. It wasn’t there. Instead, aside from our regular and new business customers, both Sudana and Ameer called.

  “Good game,” Ameer said when I called him back.

  “Man you gotta get those knuckleheads on your team to knuckle down,” I told him.

  “Them motherfuckers is embarrassing,” Ameer said. “Never in my life . . .”

  “Yeah, but you the captain. You gotta provide the leadership. You conquering them guys instead of building them up.”

  “You right, I gotta go, man. Check you Monday night. I got a slimmy on my side,” he said.

  • • •

  Saturday there was no Akemi in sight. I was feeling miserable now. It had been seven days and six nights and I couldn’t hear a word from her.

  I called her house knowing her uncle wasn’t home and therefore wouldn’t pick up her phone. I knew he was right down the street in his store.

  Her phone rang and rang and rang.

  I called her cousin’s house knowing I shouldn’t, but I did anyway.

  “Is Akemi there?” I asked.

  “No, she doesn’t live here, as you know,” her cousin said smartly. I took a deep breath, knowing that I wouldn’t get nowhere fighting the cousin. So I tried to be easy.

  “Listen, I know you’re mad with me, but I really love Akemi. I just want you to tell me if she’s okay and what’s happening, that’s it.”

  “She’s okay,” the cousin said, softening a bit. I didn’t respond. I figured I’d give her space to talk if she was willing.

  “She’s locked up in her art studio. There’s no phone in there. She’s mad at all of us because of you,” the cousin said. “She fights for you, you know. And she is in so much trouble.”

  “What kind of trouble?” I asked, really concerned.

  “It doesn’t matter. If you really love her as you say, you’ll leave her alone. She has work to do. She has to finish up her projects for the show,” she said. “It’s a big deal, you know. You act like it’s nothing. But it’s everything to her father.”

  “So, that’s what you decided, huh?” I asked.

  “I decided?” she asked.

  “Yeah, you’re the one making all the decisions. You’re the one speaking to everybody, me, Akemi, all the families. You’re in control! I see that now,” I said, leaning on her.

  “Oh, believe me, Akemi does whatever she wants to do. She knows where you are, doesn’t she? If she’s not coming around, maybe she doesn’t want to anymore,” her cousin said, sounding pissy.

  “You got it,” I said. “My bad, sorry to bother you. Later.” I hung up.

  42

  YES

  Umma’s facial expression finally said yes.

  Naja said, “It’s gonna take us a year to clean this mess up and paint these walls and it stinks in here.” She was right.

  “We’ll have to let a lawyer look at the paperwork first,” I told the old man.

  “It’s your money. Spend it how you like. The first one who gets here with—”

  “I know. We’ll contact you first thing next week,” I promised.

  At home, we sat on the floor reviewing the paperwork and organizing the details of the steps we needed to take before purchasing the house. We both wished that we could finalize the purchase of the house, yet we both knew from experience that only fools rush in. A lawyer would cost some fee; however, a good lawyer might save a lot of agony in the long run.

  Afterwards, we studied the one hundred questions, agreeing that we would go through the citizenship ceremony on this upcoming Wednesday. It would be nice to have the citizenship in place, prior to the purchase of the new home.

  43

  DOING IT

  Chris called. “Me and Ameer are going up to that party at the high school tonight where the black team practices,” he said. “You want to meet us over there?” he asked.

  “What time y’all running through?” I asked.

  “About 10:00 P.M. tonight. It ends at 1:00 A.M., you know how it is,” he said.

  “I’ll be there at ten. Y’all be easy till I get there,” I told him.

  “We got it,” he said. “Yo, yo, yo, my team won, did you hear?”

  “I knew you would,” I said. “You’ll keep winning until you meet the blacks!” I said. We both laughed.

  The beats in the music were so powerful I could feel them vibrating in my chest. It was dark like nighttime inside of there. Only the light from the DJ booth and a random beam from the flashlights of the four or so chaperones had any impact on the darkness.

  Looked like every teen in Brooklyn was packed in the space of the gym. Each person was body to body, booty to booty for real. I stood still in the crowd waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, smelling hairsprays and perfumes and oils and sweat.

  The DJ threw on a Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick joint and the crowd jerked like a train pulling off from the station. It was a good feeling in the atmosphere. I walked around looking for my boys but there were at least two hundred fifty cats up in there and three hundred girls.

  By the time I walked all the way to the far wall, I still hadn’t seen them.

  Bangs was there though. She found me before I found her. The DJ threw on some sexy-ass song named “Doing It” by a black chick who sounded like she was fucking and rhyming at the same time. Five hundred hips were grinding simultaneously. Bangs slid herself against the wall and right in front of me. She leaned her body back on it and started grinding on me. I put my arms around her waist and pulled her even tighter. We were pressed together like what.

  The music did something no one could ever do, sucked my mind right out of my head.

  Her body felt good from her shoulders on down, all curves and valleys. She was holding me so tight, like she would die before she would let me go. Her hands were rubbing all over me, no shyness, no restrictions.

  The DJ changed the joint, sped up the pace, and flipped the vibe. I pulled back some. She pushed back in. I whispered in her ear, “Go home.” She let her hands drop from me and stood on tiptoe to whisper back.

  “Why?”

  “Because I said so,” I told her.

  “Will you come?” she asked me.

  “I don’t know,” I answered. ??
?But you go,” I told her. She started cutting her way through the tight crowd. I followed her but she wouldn’t know. It was too loud, too crowded, too dark, too confusing.

  Once she pushed through the doors of the gym, I waited a few and walked out.

  I watched as she made it out to the sidewalk, then took off in a mean sprint.

  It was 10:45 P.M. I knew she had to be home to her grandmother by 11:00 P.M. anyway.

  When I went back in, I found Ameer in a dance battle against five dudes, all six of them freestyling and surrounded by a triple layer of girls cheering them on. It wasn’t long before I spotted Chris up against the wall wrapped around some girl like a pretzel.

  This was the perfect crime scene, I thought to myself. Everybody all pressed together with the lights out. Nobody really controlling shit. No gun check at the door. Everybody dressed in their best. Scared niggas with their chains tucked. Bold niggas with their chains dangling, in plain view. If I had beef with people in here, I could stab them up easily and get away with it too.

  Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought so. I seen a line of niggas collecting and swerving through the crowd like a train that ran off the track. They was being led by none other than the red team idiot from Red Hook.

  I went and plucked Ameer from his good time and stripped Chris off of an unknown girl. “It’s about to go down,” I warned them. The Red Hook niggas started shouting Red Hook, which made the teens from this hood, which was Bed-Stuy, start screaming Bed-Stuy. Brownsville spoke up, then East New York sounded off with a crazy loud unruly crew. People started pushing and splitting up.

  “C’mon,” I told Chris and Ameer. They followed me.

  Before we could get to the door, a fight broke out. Some chains got snatched. The Red Hook nigga knocked a couple of people over then shot through the doors with the jewels. A crowd of hundreds got panicked and everybody tried to stuff themselves through the gym doors at the same time.

  The sirens were screaming and police lights were spinning by the time we hit the open air. Everybody started running. I mean flying and jetting and zigzagging. Chris and Ameer was gone and so was I. The cop cars were accumulating, careless and confused.

  As I ran down the dark path to Bangs’ window, I heard eight Glock shots let off. I heard the separate siren sounds of the ambulances screeching.

  Bangs had the window open. I jumped in. The lights were off in her room. I closed her window and felt around for the window lock.

  “It’s at the top, but it’s broke,” she said. I sat down on the floor where she was at. It was warm inside.

  “It’s so nice to see you,” she said calmly. She struck a match and held it up as though it could light up her whole room. It burned down and heated up her fingers instead. She got up and started searching for something as my eyes adjusted to her darkness. I heard her strike a match again then saw her light a candle.

  She put the candle, which was waxed onto a plate that held it up, on the floor. Then she went and lit another one. There was one candle on her side and the other candle on mine.

  Now I could see her pretty smile and deep-dish dimples. Still, my mind was on my boys and I could hear the running and chasing drama still going on outside.

  “It’s nothing, Supastar. This shit happens all the time around here. You in Bed-Stuy,” she said, smiling, seeming much calmer than I had ever seen her.

  “Where you think I’m from? The police is the police,” I told her.

  “They’ll bring the paddy wagons around in about five minutes, start sweeping everybody who’s outside on the streets right up into their custody,” she said casually.

  “Somebody got shot,” I told her.

  “Better hope it’s not a cop. They’ll go door-to-door tearing everything up, pulling everybody out. Better hope it’s just some nigga shot in the leg or some’in,” she said even more casually.

  “Chris and Ameer is out there. I rather it be a cop than be one of them,” I said.

  “You want me to go get ’em and bring them inside here?” she asked.

  “Why would I send you out there?” I asked her.

  “ ’Cause I live around here and it ain’t nothing to me. I’m a girl and they ain’t looking for no girls and won’t fuck with me. And even if they say something I can just say that’s my house right there. All they gon’ say is, ‘Well get inside and stay inside for the rest of the night,’ ” she said softly.

  “Damn. How many times did this shit happen to you?” I asked her.

  “It doesn’t happen to me. It happens around here. That’s what I’m saying.” She got up and put on her jacket.

  “I’ll be right back,” she said.

  In ten minutes she came back. I had stashed my gun by that time, just in case.

  I got off the floor when I saw Ameer step up. He was smiling like this whole thing was a game.

  “Brother, you really are a fucking disappearing magician, ninja secret agent, ain’t you? Look at you, you got a girl and a house and all that shit. Who the fuck knew? I’m supposed to be your best friend and I didn’t know,” Ameer joked. Bangs laughed too.

  “Where’s Chris?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know. You seen what happened, everybody broke up and split off and went they own way,” he said.

  “I found him in the fried chicken store on the corner,” Bangs said. “Right where I knew he would be.”

  “We gotta go and get Chris,” I told Ameer.

  “The cops had a bunch of boys in the paddy wagon and some boys in the back of their police cars. I think I saw your friend Chris in the back of the police car, but I’m not all the way sure. If you go out there now, you gon’ get rounded up. I’m sure about that,” Bangs warned.

  “Wherever Chris is, that’s where he’s at,” Ameer said. “It’s not like he’s still out there running or looking around for us.” I thought about it for a minute.

  “A’ight, let’s just lay low in here for a minute,” I told Ameer.

  “That’s right, ’cause they out there, the police, the paddy wagons, the whole nine,” she warned.

  “A’ight,” Ameer said. I could definitely chill right here.

  “Go out in the living room,” I told him. Bangs pointed him to the couch.

  She came back in and closed the door. As she went to sit down, Ameer came back in.

  “If y’all about to get into it, could I at least get a blanket and one candle?” he asked. “Somebody didn’t pay the electricity bill!” He laughed.

  Bangs got up. “Sit down,” I told her. “You don’t get nothing, Ameer. Just chill on the couch for a few. You scared of the dark? What you think this is?” I said. I got up and closed the door. I discovered there was no lock on her bedroom door either.

  “How did you know where Ameer was?” I asked her.

  “Because that’s how dudes around here do it when the police is chasing them. They blend right in with whatever everybody else is already doing. The ones that just keep on running on the streets are the ones who get caught,” she said calmly.

  “How did you know which one was Ameer?” I asked her.

  “Because he was the only one in there with green eyes,” she said matter-of-factly. But her words got me tight for some reason I didn’t immediately understand.

  “I’m saying, he was with you when I first met you. So I knew who you was talking about. But that’s it. The only reason why I know him is because he was with you, period,” she explained herself passionately.

  I looked at her real good in the pieces of light offered by the candle. I’m thinking to myself, at least she left the party when I told her to and went straight home like I told her to do. She didn’t give me a lot of attitude and static. At least she was smart enough to leave the window open for me. At least she was bold enough to go outside and find Ameer. She was cool, I decided.

  After some minutes she asked, “So what about us?”

  “You know I got a girl, right?” I asked her, being serious with her about t
he topic for the first time.

  “Yes,” she said, straight-faced for the first time on the topic.

  “You might have figured out that I love her a lot?” I said, watching her closely.

  “Okay, that hurt,” she said.

  “Do you want me to lie to you?” I asked her.

  “Yes,” she said and smiled in a mature way, like a woman instead of a fidgeting teen. “I’m saying, just don’t talk about her. Just don’t mention her. Don’t even tell me her name. Just when you see me, see me. We can be like real cool friends,” she said.

  “Friends?” I asked her. “Could you really do it like that?” I asked her again.

  “Could you and me really only be friends?” I pressed her. “And how many friends like me do you have?” I pushed.

  “None,” she answered swiftly. “I don’t have a man and I definitely don’t have any friends like you,” she confessed.

  I thought to myself, this girl doesn’t know me, not even a little bit. When that love works its way into my chest like it did with Akemi, I feel too close, so possessive, so crazy. I can do anything at that point. Same as I need to have Akemi completely, every single inch of her, mind, body, soul, spirit, and anything extra, that’s how I would be with anyone who I loved. Now she wanted to be a part of it. But I knew she wasn’t ready.

  “Supastar, I can make you feel good,” she sang, bringing back her excited ways.

  “I can make you feel good too,” I answered feeling challenged by her.

  “Well, come on then. Stop teasing me,” she invited.

  “Then what?” I asked her.

  “Then if you like it and you like me, you can come again,” she said, smiling.

  “And when I’m not around, what will you do?” I asked her.

  “Wait for you,” she said.

  There was a knock at the door, too soft to be Ameer. It was her grandmother.

  “The baby is hungry now,” she said. Bangs jumped up and walked over and took the newborn into her arms. Her sleepy grandmother walked away, closing the door. I could tell she didn’t even see me sitting right there on the floor. The door pushed opened again but this time it was Ameer.