If it Aint One Thing it's Another Page 5

  Chapter Ten

  Ladelle had been trying to call Petie for over an hour, and he was wondering if parole snatched him up. He could always reach Petie and couldn’t understand why he wasn’t answering his phone. He called Renee and Alexis to see if they’d heard from him. Renee said she hadn’t, and Alexis told him she’d been waiting for him to come by since seven o’ clock. It was now eight-thirty, and Ladelle was sure that parole had picked him up.

  He decided to go and see Big Lou over on 140th and Amsterdam. Lou was on their team; maybe he had heard something.

  Renee was calling Petie’s phone every five minutes. She figured he was laid up with one of his playthings. But she didn’t care; she had her own. She called Ladelle back and he told her that there was still no word from Petie. He didn’t mention anything about Alexis waiting for him to come by and he never showed up. Ladelle thought he might be with Share, but he dismissed the idea because he knew she was a late night thing; it was only nine-fifteen, so he wouldn’t be there now. Ladelle headed over to Big Lou’s crib.

  Share and her guests ordered take-out from Domino’s Pizza. Cooking anything was out of the question now. Venus no longer had an apetite; she was deep in thought.

  Share was worried; she was hoping that none of her neighbors had seen anything from their windows. She was worried that Petie might be dead. His truck was still on her block, so that meant he was either dead or out cold. She hoped he was out cold.

  Kalif had made some phone calls and said that some of his peeps were going to come through and stay on the first floor for the night. Share didn’t mind; there were three apartments down on the first floor, so it was no big deal to her. Besides, she only used the second and third floors. She considered telling Kalif that they could stay until the shit boiled over. Share was scared; she knew Petie’s peeps and how they moved. There would be problems behind this. She knew it was about to get ugly.

  Porscha had already called Venus twice and left two messages on her answering machine. Venus hadn’t called her back yet. That was strange; she always called when she got home from work. It was after nine-thirty and BJ wasn’t there either. Porscha called Venus’ cell phone and her voicemail came on. What is going on? Before going into a panic, she called Share and was relieved to find that everyone was there.

  ”Oh, y’all bitches had drama and nobody hollered at me? What that be about?” Porscha said. Share explained to her that it wasn’t female drama—it was Petie. She told Porscha that if they had chick drama she would have hollered at her immediately. She assured her that she was okay and would call her tomorrow.

  Porscha and Giselle finished their dinner and were drinking Alize to wash it down when the phone rang. It was Lou and Ladelle. They were calling to see if Giselle had heard from her uncle. Giselle said that she had spoken to Petie yesterday, and she wondered if parole picked him up. Giselle called Renee and asked her if she’d heard from Petie.

  ”Probably laid up with some ho,” Renee said nonchalantly. Giselle hung up the phone and thought about the whole thing. She remembered that parole was looking for Petie, and she was now certain that they had picked him up. She looked over at Porscha and then started playing with her hair. Giselle loved her. Porscha had a reddish, Indian complexion with straight hair, deep dimples and full lips. Men always tried to holla at her, but Giselle had her on lock. Porscha got up to undress, and then she walked into the bathroom to turn on the shower. Giselle followed her.

  Petie’s head was throbbing, and it hurt when he breathed. The time on the dashboard read ten-twenty. He didn’t know where he was and his vision was blurry. His body and head felt heavy. He reached for the handle on the door, opened it and fell out. He was fucked up. Petie got to his feet and staggered up the block towards Amsterdam Avenue. Musical lyrics rang out from his phone: I get high, high, high, high, hiiiiigh...I get high, high, high, high, hiiiiiggh.... What is that—the Smurfs? he thought. What is that noise? Oh, God, we’re being invaded by blue people.... Petie’s mind wasn’t functioning properly, and he couldn’t figure out the simple fact that his phone was ringing. It rang again, and this time different music played. Petie fell forward, and he was leaning against somebody’s car now. He fumbled around in his pocket and pulled out his phone. He was still incoherent, but at least this time he knew to reach for his phone. He pushed the answer key. ”Yo, dick, where the fuck you at?” he heard Ladelle say.

  ”Im...I’m...on da ground...beef, dick...come g-get me.”

  ”You got beef, nigga? Where? Where you at, dick? Where the fuck you at?!” Ladelle screamed into the phone. Petie was like a brother to him. If he had beef, Ladelle was gonna empty out on somebody.

  ”Sh-a-a-a-re...Sh-a-a-a-re’s house,” Petie slurred.

  ”Don’t move. Me and Lou is on our way,” Ladelle said before running out with Lou on his heels. They took three steps at a time and jumped in the Hummer parked outside Lou’s crib.

  ”Yo, the nigga said he at Share’s house. Bitch on 142nd own them brownstones and shit,” Ladelle said. He told Lou how fucked up Petie had sounded. They turned onto Share’s block and didn’t see Petie but saw his truck. Ladelle parked, and he and Lou immediately got out of the Hummer and began searching up and down the block for him. Finally they saw him slumped over a parked car. Ladelle ran over to him and bent down to get a closer look at his man. Petie’s head was swollen and he had razor cuts on his face, with old and new blood. Ladelle wasn’t sure, but it looked like he had lost some teeth. ”Call a fucken ambulance!” he told Lou.

  Petie screamed when they took off his jacket, and he winced when they stood him straight up. There was blood coming out of his ears and dripping from his wounds. Lou was getting teary-eyed now. He, Petie and Ladelle had all grown up together. Petie and Ladelle pushed bricks in the BX and Lou kept it uptown.... This shit couldn’t be happening. Somebody was gonna die behind this shit.

  The ambulance arrived and Petie was put on a stretcher. His pulse and blood pressure were low, and the EMTs and the police were asking all kind of questions that Ladelle didn’t want to answer. He gave them his cousin’s name instead of Peties; he knew if blue and white ran his name they’d see a warrant pending. Ladelle rode in the ambulance with Petie and Lou followed in the Hummer. He called Renee on his cell phone and filled her in on what was happening.

  Kalif was looking out the window when the ambulance and three police cars had pulled up around ten to eleven. He smiled at the scene. ”You don’t want no problems with Harlem, you don’t want no problems...” he rapped. He called out to BJ and Will, and they all watched as the EMTs strapped Petie to the stretcher and pulled off.

  Kalif knew the white Hummer parked down the street from somewhere. He thought it might have belonged to one of Rasheed’s peeps. Rasheed was Kalif’s older brother. He had more props than a stage play, so Kalif wasn’t worried about anything....

  Kalif’s guns went off, and niggas in the hood knew that. They used to call him ‘Wild Child’ when he was younger. Now at twenty-four he was even wilder. He had braids down his back and a basketball player’s body. He was slim and tall with thick eyebrows. Young girls loved him. They all said he had a big dick, and Kalif was well aware of it. His anaconda was his pride and joy.

  Chapter Eleven

  Venus and Share lay down to get some rest and the fellas began talking about their game plan. Will decided that Share should stay downtown in her getaway co-op just in case some drama broke out. The fellas all knew that shit was gonna jump off behind this. They did-n’t care; ride or die. Kalif and BJ placed calls to their peeps and told them what was what. They agreed to stay at Share’s just in case niggas wanted to act up. It was about to go down.

  Renee rushed to get dressed. She couldn’t believe that Petie had gotten jumped; niggas knew better than that. She asked the Hispanic lady who lived next door if she could she keep an eye on Darnell and Dante. She didn’t go into detail; the situation was none of her business. She caught a cab to Columbia Presbyterian on 168th and Broad
way. She saw Lou’s Hummer double-parked and rushed through the emergency door. She’d almost forgotten to pay the cab driver.

  Porscha and Giselle were in bed when the phone rang. It was Renee calling to tell Giselle about Petie. She told her the sketchy details she knew and that he was at Columbia Presbyterian. Giselle jumped up, unstrapped her dildo and got dressed. She told Porscha what had happened and that she would call her when she got to the hospital. Like Renee, she couldn’t believe that her Uncle Petie had gotten jumped. Petie and Giselle had always been close, and when her mother, Petie’s sister, passed away, they became even closer. Giselle loved him more than anything. She called Renee and told her she was fifteen minutes away in a cab.

  Derek, LeRoy and Freestyle got to Share’s brownstone at eleven-thirty, and Will and BJ went down an opened the apartments on the first floor for them. They all admired the big screen TV, stereo system and leather sofa bed in the living room before sitting around the coffee table and pulling out their phillies. ”Now what’s good?” Derek said throwing four dimes on the table.

  Kalif filled his boys in on everything. BJ told them that Petie’s truck was still outside and that he had thrown his keys down the sewer. They all laughed, and Derek got up to look out the window. He recognized Petie’s truck. ”Yo, what’s that cat’s name?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

  ”Some faggot-ass name...Petie or some shit,” Will replied. Derek lit up his blunt and told them what he knew about Petie. Petie had come through 130th and Fifth Avenue with three other cats causing ruckus. He told these kids they couldn’t put work out there unless they were gonna pay them rent. When Beans, the nigga who ran shit, showed up, the kids told him that Petie came through and took their work and left. Beans bitched up and moved his work to Park Avenue and 128th Street. Beans wasn’t soft, but he didn’t want any beef with Petie.

  Kalif called his brother, Rasheed, and told him what went down and why. Rasheed remained quiet as he listened to the details. Kalif told him about the white Hummer.

  ”Listen, I know them cats. Big Lou is my man. He gonna fall back after I holla at him. The other cat was probably this nigga, Ladelle, from the Polo Grounds. Him and Petie is mad tight. He ain’t gonna be trying to hear nothing. Did the nigga see ya’ll before he went down?” Rasheed asked. Kalif told him Petie had seen them before they stomped him, but he might not remember.

  ”And who gives a fuck what that nigga remembers? He wanted it, I gave it. That’s it and that’s all,” Kalif said taking a pull on his blunt. They talked a little while longer, and Kalif gave his brother Share’s number and hung up. Then he told his team what Rasheed had told him.

  ”I don’t give a fuck about that nigga’s status,” BJ said passing the blunt to Will. ”Buttercup niggas want to run up on women. Run up on me, dog,” he said patting his chest.

  The phone rang and Derek picked it up. It was Porscha, wanting to know what had happened. ”That gay bitch being nosy,” he said to Will.

  ”Who the fuck you calling bitch, little boy?” Porscha yelled through the phone.

  ”You, bitch!” Derek screamed into the receiver. ”Take your pussy-eating ass to the dentist and get the hairs out your teeth! He slammed the phone down, hoping that she would call back. He did-n’t like gay women, especially aggressors. His shorty had left him for an aggressor, and ever since then he had it out for all of them.

  The fellas decided to go to Shaolin the next day to get some burners. Freestyle had a team out there with heavy artillery. He’d made one phone call and they told him they’d set him out. BJ said he couldn’t take off from work tomorrow, but he could leave early. They’d all ride to Shaolin in two vehicles and pick up their business. The jump-off was now in progress.

  Giselle arrived at the hospital, and when she saw Renee she ran up to her and hugged her. They both began to cry. Ladelle was talking to the doctor and Lou was sitting with his head in his hands. They were both in total shock; this shit just couldn’t be happening to their partner.

  The doctor told Renee that Petie had fluid on his brain and some inflammation. He had four broken ribs, a few missing teeth and the side of his skull was cracked. The doctor said he would survive and that she could see him after surgery. Petie was in critical condition, and the chances of him being the same were slim to none.

  Ladelle went outside to smoke a cigarette and Lou followed him. Neither one of them spoke; they were weighing the severity of Petie’s condition. Ladelle remembered that when they got Petie to the ER and took off his clothes, he didn’t have any keys on him. Ladelle puffed on his cigarette, and he now recalled that Petie had eight hundred dollars in his pants pocket. His burner was in the inside pocket of his coat and he didn’t have his ice on when they got to the hospital. The doctor had given Ladelle his wedding band because his finger had been fractured.

  ”Something is funny ‘bout this shit,” Ladelle said putting out his cigarette. He told Lou about the pieces he had put together and the pieces that were missing. They agreed that it sounded like some kind of setup. ”First of all, if the nigga had beef we’d know about it, and second of all, how could he have beef outside that bitch’s house and she not know about it?” Ladelle added. He’d already figured out what really happened. He told Lou about Petie seeing the young boy driving her car and going in her house with the keys. They were both thinking the same thing. Lou went to get the Hummer and Ladelle went back to the waiting room to sit with Giselle. He knew that Giselle’s wife was Share’s friend, but that was about to change.

  Chapter Twelve

  The fellas were on their way back to the city from Shaolin. Venus called BJ, asking him his whereabouts; when she woke up to use the bathroom he wasn’t there, and she became worried. He told her he had to make a run with the crew and would be back shortly. It was already going on three a.m. and he wanted to get at least two hours of sleep. Will asked if Share was awake and BJ said that Venus told him she wasn’t. Venus told BJ to hurry up and get back.

  When they got to 142nd and Amsterdam, Kalif spotted the white Hummer. ”Oh, these niggas want it at three in the morning. I’ma have them yawnin’,” he said before jumping out of Will’s Durango along with Will, BJ and Derek. They all walked up 142nd Street toward Amsterdam. LeRoy and Freestyle had already driven around the block and came up behind the Hummer from Amsterdam. LeRoy strapped his burner to his waist and put a razor in his mouth. They were parked by a phone booth where they could see everything, and they waited for whoever was in the Hummer to get out. BJ, Will, Kalif and Derek had now stopped in front of Share’s building and sat on the steps.

  Lou and Ladelle had already seen the four cats approaching from Convent Avenue, and Lou told Ladelle about the two cats parked behind them now. Ladelle looked back and smirked. ”Oh, these young cats trying to snuff us. What you think?”

  ”I think we need to holla at the wolves and get crumped,” Lou replied. Ladelle made a phone call, uttered a couple of words and hung up. He asked Lou if he was holding heat as he put a clip in his burner. Just as he finished putting the clip in, a Range Rover turned the corner and pulled up right beside them. Lou lowered his window and exchanged words with the driver. The Range cruised down to Convent, turned the corner and disappeared.

  Kalif and his team saw the whole scenario. They’d been drinking and were now ready to do the damn thing. ”Niggas trying to ambush us, son. Believe me when I tell you. I seen shit like this happen before,” Kalif told his partners. He put out his cigarette and threw his beer bottle at the Hummer. The bottle hit the hood and busted.

  ”Let’s get it crumped, my niggas,” Will said. Before they could get in the middle of the street, Ladelle licked off two shots. One hit a pole and the other hit a parked car. Kalif opened up on the Hummer windows as the Range Rover came speeding down the block. Three cats jumped out on them, blazing heat. Freestyle and Derek had managed to pull Lou out the driver’s seat and put two in him, while the cats in the Range Rover continued licking off mad shots. The whole block was b
eing shot up. Car alarms were going off and a siren could be heard from not too far away. People were ducking behind anything and everything and creeping low alongside parked cars. Will and Kalif caught one of the cats from the Range and beat him down, causing everyone in the truck to scatter. Finally, one kid jumped back in the Range and before he could close the door, BJ ran up on him and put an ice pick in his neck. ”Drive safely, punk,” he said and pushed his head into the steering wheel. The sirens were getting louder and the fellas broke north. They didn’t want to get caught running around, so they hurried back to the ground floor of Share’s brownstone and stayed low.

  Share and Venus had been awakened by the gunfire. They watched the shootout with their mouths open from the front window. Share couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Not only was Petie’s truck still outside, but Lou’s Hummer was also there and some other truck in the middle of the street. It looked like a cowboy movie. They watched in horror as Derek put the heat to Lou’s chest and hit him two times. Venus pulled Share away from the window and started getting dressed when they heard the fellas run inside....

  Ladelle had managed to stay low during the shootout. He was not about to jump out when Lou was snatched out the Hummer. Oh, shit, he thought. Luckily they didn’t see him, or he would’ve gotten done, too. He slid out from the driver’s side and ducked down behind the Hummer. He felt Lou’s neck for a pulse. It was faint, but at least he had one. ”Hold on, nigga,” he said as Lou began to moan. This was some drama for real. Ladelle had never planned for it to come to this. He couldn’t believe those young cats had ambushed them. He made it to Convent Avenue and ducked beside a van as two police cars sped by and turned up 142nd toward Amsterdam. When he got to 145th Street and Convent Avenue he hailed a cab.