A Hustler's Wife Read online

  Rallo was happy, although he had ulterior motives, when he first met her and messed around on her, but now he truly loved her. He wanted to marry her. He even told her to set up some marriage counseling with her pastor, but Yarni wasn't thinking about marrying him. Rallo was a snake. How could he even think I would dare to even entertain the thought of marrying him after, just earlier today, he had the dogs out looking for me? Am I just supposed to forget about that?

  Yarni knew that Rallo, more than anything, wanted a child with her. He thought that was his way of trapping her and the ultimate revenge on Des. But really it was her way of imprison-ing his mind. He'd never find out the truth. The fact that he truly loved her, just the thought of him knowing that they'd conceived a child together, and she aborted it. It would damage him for sure. Not like a gun shot wound that would eventually heal if nursed right. She wanted real damage. Injury to the heart is the worst kind of bodily harm. Now, if he didn't love her, it wouldn't have had any affect on him, but that wasn't the case.

  On the way from the doctor's office she explained to him that having a child right now wouldn't be a good move for her.

  Yarni could be very persuasive. She'd always been able to debate and argue her point. So she explained to Rallo while he drove.

  "Rallo, I am still trying to complete my schooling and we're not ready for a child. I'm not even legally divorced from Des, and Des isn't going to take no divorce papers lightly." She said, even though she knew that she and Des weren't legally married, but Rallo didn't know that. She continued to assure him.

  "We have plenty of time to get married and have a baby. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. Do you plan on messing with somebody else?"

  As soon as she said that he consented to the abortion.

  "I'm not real good with these type of things, but if you absolutely need me to, I'll go with you." Yarni paused for full affect.

  "Rallo, for real, it's going to be hard enough to do it. I don't need you there making the situation worse. As a matter of fact, I need some time to myself to get my mind right." Rallo respected her wishes. When he dropped her off he told her he was going to bring the money back. He left and came right back and gave her $3,000. He said it was some extra money in case she might've wanted to go shopping afterwards.

  He thought it would help her feel better.

  She went straight to Cloverleaf Mall, a.k.a. "the ghetto mall of Richmond," and every city has one. Whenever you go to Cloverleaf Mall you are subject to see anybody and run into some of everybody. She ran into this big mouth girl Amy. Now Amy was a gossip box who grew up in the suburbs near Yarni, but as soon as she got a job, she moved to the city just so she could be closer to the action.

  Every town is equipped with three or four Amy's. Amy is the person who knows everything about everybody. She knows who drives what, who has a baby by whom. You don't even have to request a blood test because Amy knows. She knows where everybody works, who's getting money, as well as who's bank-rupt. If you need to locate or get a message to someone, she can take care of that too. The only thing she don't know, is how to take her gossiping ass up to Channel 12 and get a job so she can get paid to report the news instead of being a broke bootleg gossip columnist.

  Amy was pretty as a little girl, but now she has so many scrapes and scars from being in scuffles about, he said, she said, type mess. All of her bruises have given her "a hard" look, which has added about seven years on to her actual age. Thirty years old, standing 5'5, birthing three children, she still maintains her brick house type shape, and is up on all the trends to hit the fashion scene. Amy's complexion is a walnut shade of brown and she has nice round, full lips. Most of the time when she is out during the day, her hair is wrapped around in a doobie under a scarf to match her outfit. Although she can maintain the upkeep of her hair herself, she is faithfully in the beauty shop every Friday and Saturday to get her hair and nails done. But while she's getting pampered, she's gathering and passing on gossip.

  Amy informed Yarni, "Girl, that dude Bengee has been looking all around town for you. He's been trying to locate you. He said he didn't want to show up at your mother's house unannounced." She remembered telling Bengee that was her mother's house and she was never there, because she had just met Bengee and didn't want him to know exactly where she lived.

  She thanked Amy for the info and kept it moving.

  She also ran into Tina, Ralleshia, and Rallo, looking like a big happy family. Oh, I'm glad to see them out doing a family outing. This is all I need. This is surely a valid excuse to be rid of him. He stopped to talk to her.

  "Come here, Yarni. Let me holler at you for a minute." Yarni giggled a little with one of those fake laughs. Ohh, he got big balls don't he? He got the nerve to stop and want to carry on a conversation with me when he is with that guttersnipe. I ain't even going to act stupid. Oh, but I'm going to stop and talk to him just to make Ms. Tina mad. Watch and see.

  She didn't get upset she just stopped and chit chatted with him. Ralleshia stood by Rallo holding his leg, smiling.

  "Hey Ralleshia, you're so cute." Yarni said, in a goo goo ga ga way.

  "Hi, what's yo name?" Ralleshia asked, but Rallo cut in.

  "This is my good friend, Yarni." Oh, I'm his good friend now, huh?

  "Daddy, that's your girlfriend?" Ralleshia asked her father, knowing the score.

  "Yeah baby, that's my girlfriend." Tina was furious. She looked like a time bomb about to explode. She stared at her watch and sucked her teeth.

  "Rahhlow, come on. Time's up. I thought you just said we was going home to lay up?" Tina said in her most ghetto-fabu-lous voice while twitching her neck and placing her hand on her hip.

  Yarni acted as if she didn't hear Tina. Yarni simply turned to Rallo and asked for some money. He went in his pocket. He pulled out a bankroll. He peeled off four hundreds. She grabbed the bankroll and left him with the four hundreds.

  "Big daddy," she whined in her most seductive voice, pissing Tina off. "Call me when you drop them off alright," and she kept on going, laughing to herself how funny she was.

  Before she got in her door good the phone was ringing. It was Rallo and she told him that it was over. There was nothing he could say. Yarni hung up on him after telling him to never call her again, but those words didn't mean anything. He kept calling, so she simply got her number changed again.

  Yarni called Information and asked for the number and address to "Right Choice Landscaping". The operator gave her the information she needed. Her next phone call was to Vogue Florist. She ordered a dozen sunflowers. The card attached read

  "Thanks a bunch for being my Superman when I was truly a damsel in distress."

  She was sure that some of his homeboys would be hanging out up at his shop. That's usually how it goes. A brother who is trying to go legit still keeps company with dudes from his past.

  Yarni's guess was that he might be trying to lay the foundation for the other brothers so they could know that they could do it too. Yarni knew as soon as the flowers arrived, the other guys would be hyping it up. She gave them until about 5pm for the flowers to arrive. Just then, her next-door neighbor, Ms. Jackson, called her to inform her that somebody was over by her car. She slipped on her shoes and ran outside. Her first thought that it was Tina or Rallo. She was wrong it was Bengee leaving a note on her car.

  He smiled when he made sight of Yarni and was clearly happy to see her. "I didn't have any way of getting in contact with you. I knew your mother lived here. I was hoping to catch her outside watering her flowers or doing some type of yard work." He stared into her eyes and said, "Today must be my lucky day! I have been looking for you ever since I dropped you off. I didn't want to come back here all unannounced at your people's house. Then today, I surprisingly get these sunflowers from you. Nobody has ever sent me flowers. Yarni already figured that anyway. She just smiled back at Bengee and was pleased with herself.

  "The guys at the shop couldn't believe it," he continued.

&
nbsp; Then they exchanged numbers and agreed to see each other the next day. He bent down, kissed her on the cheek and got into his truck. She looked at his work truck and just shook her head as he pulled off.

  She immediately ran in the house and called him on his cell phone. "I have to ask," she said laughing, "why do brothers who are most likely using a business for a front, go get a work truck and have it sitting on 18 inch rims or better. They have their work trucks chromed out." Yarni mentioned how she'd seen a work truck the other day with TV's in it. "Come on brothers, then you wonder how the police know what you're doing?" She went on.

  He just started laughing. He knew she was sharp.

  They went out for brunch the next day at the Jefferson Hotel.

  For the next 16 days, he sent her some type of flowers. It had been sixteen days since they first met at the club. He explained,

  "These are for everyday I wanted to bring you flowers and couldn't." Bengee wanted to make up for it now. They met at the movies the next day. When she came out of the movies, somebody had spray painted "Bitch" on her car. Another time they met at TGI Fridays for Happy Hour, to have a cocktail after Bengee got off work, when they came out, somebody had stolen her tags and colored her inspection sticker and her county sticker black with a marker. He then told her that from now on, he'd drive his car. Yarni knew that she really had to get a new car.

  With her car being paid for, she could surely trade it. The value had depreciated so much from all the times it had to be painted from the many times of being vandalized by the playa haters, plus her insurance premium was escalating as high as gas. She felt helpless. She couldn't help but to think.

  Shoot! It doesn't make any sense. Why do people who have a problem with a person, always mess with their car? What did the car do to you? Why are you taking it out on the car? Take it out on the person. The car can't fight back. Sabotaging somebody's car is a real cowardly move. What people fail to realize is that when you vandalize somebody's car, nine times out of ten, the person has insurance. And if their car is paid for, then you are probably putting a few extra dollars in their pocket.

  After all this drama with Yarni's car, Bengee decided he needed to get her away from all this madness. He decided to take her to the Poconos. They stayed at Caesar's Resorts with a champagne glass Jacuzzi, swimming pool and fireplace in the room. It was truly the getaway she needed.

  When she returned from their four-day weekend getaway, she heard that Rallo had raised the stakes up to $500.00, and if somebody broke a bone or made her have a fracture or anything of that nature, it was $750.00. She couldn't believe what was happening all because his heart was broken. Who does he think he is, that he could put a price on my safety?

  Throughout the years, Slim, and Yarni had became very good friends. He was a brother to her. He never got into anything concerning her and Des. He wanted no parts of it because he knew that they may go through things, but ultimately Des and Yarni would always be together. She tried not to involve him in any of her negative situations because she knew that he is a certified tickbird and would overreact.

  Slim already had his differences with Rallo before Des left the street. He found out Yarni was messing with Rallo; Rallo became a part of Yarni's life and was her sole provider, and for the most part, she seemed happy with him. So, he spared Rallo for the sake of his sister, Yarni. But he had carried it to another level now. He didn't like what he was hearing on the streets.

  Two days after Yarni came back from the Pocono's she met Slim for lunch and she was driving Bengee's Porsche. He could tell that she was a little shaken up. She told him that she really didn't want to drive it because it was too flashy, but she had no choice. She told him how Rallo was so petty to get Tina or some female to call the insurance company and cancel the insurance on her car. While the car was parked outside the front of her house, he came and set it on fire. She couldn't get any money for it. It was burnt to a crisp. She explained the whole story to Slim.

  "I am not going to worry about it. I'm just going to get me a little hoopty to kick around in, get me from point a to b." She joked, "after all, it's not the car, it's the star driving it." She continued to make jokes. "Now, had I spent one penny of my money in that car besides putting gas in it, oh, I'd be pitching one. He's the stupid one. He should've just taken the car up top to the chop shop. He's the one that lost out because his money gone down the drain. What did I loose? Shoot, I rode all summer at this cat's expense."

  Slim wasn't having that. He told her that he was going to help her get a car. Slim tried to keep his cool, but he knew what had to happen. This dude Rallo's life had been spared time after time, like a cat, who only has nine lives he thought to himself.

  This cat, Rallo was on his last one. One way or the other, Rallo is going to be just like Christopher Columbus - History.

  A couple of weeks later, the Feds did a sweep in the 643-Killa Villa where Rallo hangs at. They picked up twelve people, including all of Rallo's homeboys. All of them got indictments except for Rallo. Now these are the guys who Rallo is with everyday, day in and day out. They all hustle and gamble right there around the 643 together. The boys wondered how come Rallo didn't get picked up? It looked suspect to his boys in jail as well as to everybody on the streets.

  On their warrants it stated that a "confidential informant" was snitching on them. Rallo's drug supplier cut him clean off.

  He couldn't find anybody to buy any dope from or anyone who would buy any from him. He was slowly going broke. He lived off his stash money, but he pinched off of that because he didn't know exactly when the police was going to come and pick him up. Nobody wanted to be around him. Everyone kept his or her distance.

  Rallo started driving to Baltimore to buy dope. They were beating him in the head with those high prices because he was an out of towner. He was going to the Dinwiddie County in the boon docks to hustle, but them country dudes wasn't having it.

  They kept robbing him. He didn't know what to do. Hustling was all he knew.

  He couldn't sleep. He was too paranoid, not knowing when the police was going to come or when niggas was going to kick up in his house and kill him. He was wearing a hard label. The label of a snitch is the worst kind of label. In all actuality, he was locked up, just minus the bars. And for Slim, that was the best get back. With the label of a snitch, he might as well be dead.

  He's invisible to all the people he once cared about. So he's just dead weight walking around. A label of a snitch is like a tattoo, a mark that one will have for the rest of his life. Once that label is placed on somebody, it is damn near impossible to take it back and fix it.

  THROWING BRICKS

  Des called Yarni.

  "Am I going to see you, Saturday? Des said.

  "Boo, I don't have a ride. Andrea's motor went out in her car.

  She's driving my mother's Cressida, and you know how my mother is, since she got this new boyfriend. If she's not at work, she's out with her man."

  "What, Gloria got a man?"

  "Yep."

  "Where she get him from?" Des was happy for Gloria.

  "She met him at a single's conference through the church."

  "Is he a square?"

  "I don't know because I haven't met him. She always goes out to meet him for coffee and donuts. She's still scoping him out. She says once she gets to know him, then she'll introduce me. All I know is his name is Sam."

  "I am happy for Gloria."

  "Me too," Yarni was quite serious.

  "Baby Girl, I am going to call Castro or Slim, to tell him to get you the rental car. He's going to call you later." Des changed the subject.

  Castro got the rental car for Yarni to go visit Des. Yarni woke up bright and early Saturday morning to get on the road. On the way, she got a flat tire on 95 South. She pulled over, opened up the trunk, only to find that there was no spare tire. Now ain't this some shit? She slammed the trunk and went to sit in the car. She called roadside assistance. They told her it would be at l
east three hours, before they could get there. She tried to call her mother, Slim, Castro and Joyce; none one of them were available. She called Bengee, who asked, "Why didn't you call me earlier?" He arrived the same exact time the roadside assistance people showed up. They towed the car. Bengee took her to the nearest rental car place where she got another car. After she had gotten everything straight with the rental car, it was too late to get on the road to go see Des. This was the first time in almost three years that she didn't go see Des when she said she was.

  Awful was the feeling she felt, and she really had her heart set on seeing him.

  What a day she thought, as she walked into the door. She kicked off her shoes. She looked at the caller ID. She saw some out-of-areas on the caller ID, and some numbers she didn't recognize. She checked her answering machine.

  Beep. Baby Girl, it's 12:30 and you're not here yet. I spoke to Castro and he told me he got the rental. I guess you should be showing up any minute now.

  Beep."Yeah, Yarni," Des never calls me Yarni. "If you needed a rental car for something other than coming to see me, you should've just said so, and it wouldn't been no thing. No love lost. No need to rush to get up here. Guess I see you whenever." The next morning Yarni was up bright and early to get on the highway to go visit Des. She arrived at the prison at 8:46. She knew they had to call for Des before 9:15 because of the count.

  The correctional officer sitting at the front registration desk looked Yarni up and down from head to toe when she approached the desk. The masculine looking guard sat there on the telephone carrying on a personal conversation, not even acknowledging Yarni other than the stank look she gave her when she walked in the door. Yarni was patiently looking at her watch knowing that time is not on her side right now.

  "Excuse me miss, are you working or am I waiting on someone else to come and check me in? If so, would you call them please?"