King of Her Desire

20

Tenisha caught a break that day. The cops had to haul away so many of Frowzy's peeps that they kind of forgot about her after they sat her down on this curb with her hands cuffed behind her back.

And she was so entertained by the sight of all these freaky looking white people hissing and spitting and kicking and wrestling with the cops that she just sat there watching it like all she needed was some popcorn and a drink.

But I charged on into the shit storm with her crew and all the other people screaming at the police and found this one Black one I actually knew. We called him Officer Friendly because he was always pretty cool with us, out on the street.

He treated us like he was actually worried about our silly asses. He'd had some issues in the force, too. Racial stuff. So he wasn't as "gung ho" as a lot of the others. He'd listen a little.

And when he saw me shoving through, he folded his arms, smiled and said, "Rapunzel in the house! What's your story?"

Yeah, he was forever giving me grief about how my hair had almost got him "in some trouble" a few times. Because he mistook me for a woman until I turned around.

Happens a lot. I've actually had a few guys slide up behind me and murmur, "Hey, girl" in my ear. The look on their faces when I turn and shove them away is priceless. Cause they're always these really macho assholes so it scares the shit out of them that they pushed up on some guy.

Anyway, I said, "C'mon, man! You see the flags on that guy's arm? They were spoiling for a fight from the moment we got there. Staring us down, making little stupid comments—scared my little sisters, man, the way they were acting."

"What'd you do to get 'em all riled up?"

"It's the girl I'm with," I said, looking over at Sochi and the sibs. "She speaks Spanish and...well, she looks...like she looks."

He smiled and said, "Yeah, she looks, for sure. Damn."

And I laughed and said, "Get a grip, dude. This is serious. You know what went down. Tenisha talked back and they went nuts. And then she went nuts because you guys came after her first, instead of them."

He shook his head and said, "Okay, just hold your horses, pardner," and went to huddle with his boys.

And I raised a fist to him when he went over and took those cuffs off of Tenisha. And ran over to get her, too, because he'd done us a solid, but since his pals on the force were probably a little bit less than thrilled about it he'd cuff her back up again if she went off on him.

Sochi looked deeply relieved when we got back to her. And Tenisha's crew started talking a lot of cop smack but Tenisha told them to "shut the fuck up before they come back at me again."

And I said, "Yeah, you better get outta here, you guys. You got a ride?"

"Yeah, we good. Now."

"Yeah, you ran up against some of my kinfolk today, huh?"

She laughed real loud and slapped me on the back and said, "I forgot about that! Shit, you come from Dogpatch don't you?"

"Probably down the road apiece from those ones there, if I'm honest."

And she winked at me and said, "Well, they made one somebody worth saving, though. Your people."