Memphis Streets 4: Skeletons

Chapter 16- Shaniqua

"You need to get rid of that damn baby," Li'l Bit says, shaking her head.

"It was all over the news last night that they found that bitch and Tyneshia's bodies last night." "I know. I know." I sit across from her at my kitchen table, tryna spoon-feed Jayson this yucky oatmeal stuff, but he's more interested in playing in the shit and splashing it everywhere.

"You know?" Li'l Bit asks.

"Then what's the plan? You're just gonna raise some other bitch's kid? Have him running around and calling you mommy? Is that the game plan? If so, that shit ain't gangsta, bitch. It's fuckin' crazy." My eyes nearly roll out the back of my head.

"Girl, you're itching up my last nerve with this shit. I done told you that I got it."

"Do you?"

"How many fuckin' times do I have to tell you that the kid is insurance?"

"Insurance against what?" she explodes. "Le'Shelle isn't interested in that baby. She wanted it dead —like his momma. And if her crazy ass is watching the news, she gonna know that you snatched that bastard and she's gonna want to know why—which means that she's gonna be looking for your ass."

"She ain't gonna do shit, not if she don't want her man to know her ass was behind the hit on that yellow bitch."

"Okay. What shit have you been smokin'? That ugly reptile ain't going to take your word over his woman's. He's fuckin' that bitch. Who are you?"

I stop feeding Jayson to look up and smirk. "I'm the one that's going to throw Le'Shelle off her throne."

"How?" Li'l Bit asks, rocking her neck.

"It's about time your slow ass catches up." I wink at her. Jayson chooses that moment to grab a fistful of oatmeal and launch it at my hair.

Li'l Bit cracks up. "You little fucker." I jump up from the table and snatch paper towels down from the counter.

Jayson takes notes from Li'l Bit and bursts out laughing. He's adorable with his big head and big dimples. It's kind of hard to stay mad at him. At four months, he's turning out to be quite the comedian. Everything is funny to him. Li'l Bit stops laughing and gawks at me.

"Oh. My. God!"

I wipe the smile off my face. "What?"

"You've gotten attached to this big-headed baby."

"I have not . . . and his head isn't that big," I lie. Jayson has a big muthafuckin' head.

"Aww, sheiiit. You got my ass twisted in some bullshit," Li'l Bit snipes.

"Don't start." I wipe the oatmeal out of my hair and return to the table.

Li'l Bit keeps grumbling. "This shit ain't right. I still got a baaaad feeling about all of this." She stares at Jayson. "And what about that damn birthmark on his neck, huh? What are the damn chances that this baby and your new man, Diesel, have the same muthafuckin' birthmark in the same fuckin' place?"

"It's gotta be a coincidence," I reason. "Plenty of people have birthmarks. I have a black beauty mark on my left shoulder."

Li'l Bit ain't tryna hear it. "Tyneshia was right. We're caught up in some demonic curse for cutting him out of that bitch. You shouldn't have shot her ass for spitting out the truth." Heat rushes up my neck. I grab Jayson's bowl and toss the rest of the oatmeal dead in her face.

Li'l Bit jumps up, gasping. "What the fuck?" Jayson cracks up.

"Don't fuckin' say that bitch's name." I glance around the kitchen to make sure my brother or nosey-ass daddy ain't ear-hustling. "What are you tryin' to do—blab it to everybody? If they find out we bodied one of our own—"

"We?" My girl swipes gobs of oatmeal from her face. "What the fuck is this we shit?"

"We—as in, if I go down then I'm taking you and Adaryl with my ass. Got it?" Li'l Bit shakes her head in disgust.

"I knew that you were going to pull this shit."

"Then stop actin' surprised and keep your damn mouth shut."

"Niq, niggas 'round here may be crazy, but they ain't that fuckin' crazy. Sooner or later the police are going to ID Tyneshia and that boy's momma. When they do, they're going to come around here and start asking questions. And everybody knows your ass didn't birth no fuckin' baby. One and one is always gonna be fuckin' two. These bitches are going to look upside our heads and know that our asses are dirty. We need to be getting a story together or we need to get rid of this bastard."

"She got a point," another voice floats into the kitchen. Li'l Bit and I jump. GG, my brother's girlfriend, has snuck in and propped against refrigerator.

"Fuck. Don't you knock anymore?" GG dangles a key. "Your brother thought it was time that we took things to the next level."

"The next level is for his ass to get his own place," I snipe. GG flashes me a smile and then swishes her big hips over to the baby and kisses his forehead.

"How's my sweet boy doing today?" While she coos with the baby, I can't help but wonder how much of our conversation she overheard. The way Li'l Bit's eyes are shifting around, I know that she's wondering too.

"Don't mind me," GG says. "Y'all can go ahead and finish y'all conversation." Li'l Bit opens her mouth, but I cut her off.

"We're done." GG smirks. "Really? So what did you decide to do?"

"I'm going to keep on minding my own business, set an example for other muthafuckas to follow." Her neck swivels back.

"Oh. So I'm a muthafucka now?"

"If the shoe fits, lace that bitch up."

"Ding, ding, ding." Li'l Bit jumps in the mix to play referee. "Back to your corners, bitches. It ain't even that serious." GG struggles to back down.

"A'ight. You know what?" she says. "I'm gonna let you have that shit 'cause it looks like you have enough rope to hang yourself."

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Someone is pounding on the door. "Who the fuck is that?" I go peep who it is. The second I snatch open the door, Adaryl blows in like a fuckin' tornado.

"Ohmigod, bitch. Have you seen the news?" Adaryl doesn't wait for an answer; she blows straight through the door and into the living room.

I follow, hissing behind her, "I know they found the bodies—"

"You do?" She turns to blink at me. "Yeah, but we can't talk about it right now. GG is—"

"What about the fire?" she asks. "What fire?"

"The one that's all over the news." Adaryl grabs the remote from the coffee table and turns on the TV.

She flips through the channels until she comes to a clip of a house burning on channel five. "So?" I shrug. "Whose house is it?"

"Watch," Adaryl says. The news camera pans away from the on the scene journalist to a girl screaming.

"Is that . . . ?" Dice rushes up behind the chick, grabs and holds on to her. "What the hell is this?"

"Brielle James's foster parents were killed last night in that blaze." The scars slashed across my face throb, reminding me that I still have a score to settle up with that bitch.

Brielle slithered her stank-pussy ass onto Dice's arm and got his nose so wide open that if he walked outside on a rainy night, he'd drown. He should've been my man. I suck in a deep breath while plotting in my head.

"Look right there!" Adaryl points to the corner of the screen, My heart skips a beat. Brielle bolts from Dice's arms and races to kick the taillight of a car: a burgundy Crown Victoria.

"Le'Shelle," I whisper. Li'l Bit and GG join us in the living room. "What's going on?" Li'l Bit asks.

The pieces snap together. "That psycho bitch murdered her sister's foster parents." Li'l Bit gasps. "We need to get rid of this damn baby before that psycho bitch comes looking for him." I nod.

The sooner, the better.