A Hustler's Promise: Some Promises Won't Be Broken Read online

  ****

  Jaicyn stood outside of the mall waiting for Rayshawn and his crew to show up. Even though Autumn didn’t like to hang out with Little Man, Johnny, and Pete, Jaicyn didn’t mind. If she wanted to spend any time with Rayshawn then she’d have to get used to them because they were always around. Rayshawn didn’t go anywhere without his crew. Rayshawn was the newbie in his crew so King had Little Man and Pete looking after him. King’s order was that nothing ever happened to Rayshawn so Little Man and Pete were always near. They also had instructions to hold down his corner while Rayshawn went to school. Under no circumstances was Rayshawn allowed to even think about quitting school.

  Jaicyn noticed Little Man’s black Explorer pull up in front of the mall and Rayshawn hopped out of the car. He walked over to Jaicyn and grinned from ear to ear when he saw her. Rayshawn looked good in a new pair of Jordans, black Polo shirt and black jeans. He walked over to Jaicyn and hugged her.

  “What’s up? You look good,” he said to her, noticing her tight blue jeans and black sweater.

  “Thank you,” Jaicyn almost blushed at the compliment. Instead she looked around the parking lot to see where Little Man had parked.

  “Where’s your crew? Aren’t they coming?”

  “No. I told them to go back to the block. Did you check out the movies and see what’s good?”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t see anything that you might like. You know I want to see cute and romantic.”

  Rayshawn laughed and shook his head. “Not hardly. I’m not sittin’ through a chick flick. I want to see that new James Bond flick.”

  “I figured that,” Jaicyn said, “but it doesn’t start for another hour and a half.”

  “That’s cool. We can go get something to eat then.”

  As they strolled through the mall looking for a place to eat, Jaicyn figured that they’d stop in the Food Court and grab some Chinese or something like that, but when they stopped at the entrance of Benihana’s, Jaicyn wondered what the hell they were doing there.

  “We’re eating here?” she asked.

  “Yeah, it looks cool,” Rayshawn said.

  “You think they’ll let us in here?” Jaicyn asked, unsure of going into an expensive restaurant filled with white people.

  Rayshawn laughed to himself over Jaicyn’s nervousness. Like most people from the hood, she wasn’t comfortable outside of her own neighborhood. Now that he was making money, Rayshawn wanted to show her that there was life outside of the south side of Washington Heights. He couldn’t forget what he saw at the Valdez compound. Washington Heights was nothing compared to the rest of the world. Jaicyn needed to know that. When you have money, people don’t see anything but green. King had told him to take Jaicyn some place nice. In Washington Heights, it didn’t get any nicer than Benihana’s.

  “It’s not like I don’t have any money, Jaicyn. That’s all that places like these care about anyway.”

  Rayshawn and Jaicyn followed a hostess to a long table where a Japanese chef was tossing food in the air and doing all types of tricks with his knives.

  “This is so cool,” Jaicyn whispered to Rayshawn.

  Since neither of them had ever been in such place, they decided to let their fellow diners recommend something for them. They even tried sushi, which surprisingly, Jaicyn really liked. Rayshawn couldn’t get over the fact that his girlfriend was eating raw fish, but he did like the shrimp and steak.

  When the check came, Rayshawn smiled. He hadn’t planned to spend so much money but he felt like a man because he was able to pay for the meal and leave the waitress a big tip. The look on Jaicyn’s face as they walked out of the restaurant was worth every moment he spent on the block or in the dope house preparing his package. She looked impressed and happy. Rayshawn had decided early that he always wanted to be the one who could put a smile on her face.

  “Business must be real good,” Jaicyn commented as they walked towards the movie theater. “I saw the check.”

  “Business is good,” Rayshawn said. “King hooked me up with a good crew and a good spot.”

  “You’re being careful, right?” Jaicyn asked.

  “Yeah, why would you ask that?”

  “Because I come from the same streets that you do. I know too many boys who’ve gotten shot or killed because of drugs. Don’t act like you aren’t playing a dangerous game.”

  “I’m good, Jay-Jay. You don’t have to worry about me.”

  “The block that King put you on is dangerous. That’s where Autumn’s cousin got killed.”

  Rayshawn nodded his head. At first, he was apprehensive about working that block. Marshall Avenue was drive-by central. Before King let Rayshawn post up there, he had Slim and Blaque clear out anyone who didn’t work for King. Other crews didn’t bother Rayshawn or his crew. People were hesitant to shoot at King’s people.

  “It’s cool now. All of Marshall and 125th is ours. No one is selling down there except us.”

  “So, how does this all work?” Jaicyn asked. “What exactly do you do besides tell your crew what to do?”

  If anyone else had asked about his hustle, Rayshawn wouldn’t have answered a single question. Common sense told him that you don’t tell people what you’re up to, especially if what you’re doing can get you killed or locked up. Jaicyn was different. Jaicyn could be trusted.

  “Man,” Rayshawn said, “King has me doing everything. Everybody else gets their shit street ready. I have to cook it, vial it, and everything. He says I have to learn every aspect of the game from every perspective. It’s a lot of hard work.”

  “Well, he’s right, don’t you think?” Jaicyn asked. “You do need to learn everything. Especially if you’re going to take his place.”

  “I’m not trying to take his place. I’m just trying to make some money. I’m not trying to be the boss.”

  “Oh,” was all Jaicyn said.

  Becoming the boss might not be what Rayshawn strived to do, but everyone else in Washington Heights knew what King had in mind when he brought Rayshawn into the fold and started grooming him for the streets. King had been looking for someone he could take under his wing for years. Rayshawn’s eagerness to get down with the crew came at just the right time. It would take years but Rayshawn was next in line. He had to start small like every other dealer. Rayshawn had it harder than everyone else because King expected much more from him.

  “Anyway, what’s up with you and your moms?” Rayshawn asked as they stood in the line to buy their movie tickets.

  “Nothing. I’m still not talking to her but she’s acting like everything is cool. She cooked and cleaned up the house. Bobbie and Rickie seem fine.”

  “I don’t get that,” Rayshawn replied. “How can she be a part-time fiend?”

  Angelina didn’t fit the profile for a crackhead. She could hold down a job if she wanted to. She’d gone to college. She could take care of her kids. She could go months without using. None of the crackheads that Rayshawn dealt with on a daily basis could say the same. The situation was weird and so was the relationship Jaicyn had with her mother. From their conversations, Rayshawn knew that deep down, Jaicyn cared about her mother. She just tried really hard not to show it.

  “I don’t get her,” Jaicyn snapped. “For months she’s fine then next thing I know, she’s getting high again. She’s been in rehab more times than I can remember.”

  “But she’s a good mother when she’s not high, right?” Rayshawn asked.

  “Yeah, to Rickie and Bobbie. She’s always been a bitch to me. That’s why we don’t get along. But believe me; this shit isn’t going to last long. By Christmas, she’ll be gone again. That’s why I’m saving every dime I get. I’m going to have to play Santa for my sisters this year again”

  Rayshawn shook his head. “That’s triflin’. If you need some help, I got you.”

  Jaicyn smiled and kissed Rayshawn on his cheek.

  “Thank you but I’m good. Besides, your birthday is right before Christmas. Save your m
oney for that.”

  Rayshawn bought their tickets and they walked into the movie theater. After finding their theater and getting seats in the back, the young couple sat down holding hands and stealing kisses during the boring parts of the movie.

  Rayshawn was well aware of Jaicyn’s ‘no sex’ policy and respected it. He was enforcing his own policy as well. He liked Jaicyn so much that he knew if anything could be his downfall, it could be her. He didn’t want to lose focus on what he was trying to accomplish and sex meant a whole lot of issues. No, he’d wait until they both were ready.

  Chapter 6

  The doorbell rang a second time as Jaicyn hurried down the steps, almost tripping over Bobbie’s shoes; definitely not the place where she told her to put them when she got home from school yesterday.

  “I’m coming, damn!” Jaicyn hollered, shivering in her pajama bottoms and tank top. Without checking to see who it was banging on the door AND ringing the doorbell, Jaicyn swung the door open.

  “What?”

  Paul, their landlord, was standing outside on the stoop, shivering in the cold morning air.

  “Jay-Jay,” he said, “I need to talk to Angelina.”

  “She ain’t here.”

  Paul shook his head. “Where is she?”

  Jaicyn shrugged her shoulders. Angelina had left on New Year’s Eve and hadn’t returned in days.

  “I don’t know,” Jaicyn answered, annoyed that he woke her up way too early on a Saturday. “What do you want?”

  “She owes me rent money, Jaicyn,” Paul said.

  “We have until the fifth to pay the rent. Today’s only the third.”

  Every other month, Paul showed up at their door demanding money that neither Angelina nor Jaicyn had. Every other month.

  Jaicyn hadn’t expected her mother to take off so soon after Christmas, especially since they’d had one of the best Christmases they’d ever had in Washington Heights. Jaicyn didn’t even have to spend all of her money on her sisters. She’s bought them a few gifts but she spent most of her money on the new outfit she’d worn to King’s New Year’s Eve party.

  “Your mom still owes me the other half of December’s rent,” Paul responded almost apologetically.

  He didn’t like to burden a child with the misdeeds of the parent, but he couldn’t keep letting Angelina and her children occupy an apartment in his building without paying rent. He had bills to pay just like everybody else.

  That lying bitch, Jaicyn thought to herself. Angelina had sworn that she was caught up on the rent, and they were starting the New Year off with a clean slate. At least the other bills were caught up. Jaicyn had paid them herself.

  “Look Paul, you’ll get your money by the fifth. I promise.”

  Jaicyn slammed the door. How in the world was she supposed to come up with eight hundred dollars in two days?

  She walked into the living room and flopped down on the couch. She had to come up with a plan. The first thing she had to do was return her dress. Even though she had worn it, she was careful and kept the tags on, just in case she needed to return it and get her two hundred and fifty dollars back. The next step would be asking her grandmother or her father for some cash. If she could do that, the money would pacify Paul for a week or two.

  Jaicyn tried to keep in contact with her father as often as possible. He was the only stable thing she had in her life, even thought he lived all the way in Miami.

  Despite popular opinion, Jason Castillo had not run off and left his only child with Angelina. He was not the deadbeat that Angelina tried to make him out to be. He tried to make his relationship with her work, especially after his daughter was born. Angelina ruined everything when she decided that she didn’t want to be with him. She left Jason because he wanted to get married. The idea of settling down and having a bunch of Puerto Rican babies did not suit Angelina’s plan. She wanted to be free. She didn’t want to marry anyone, not even for her child’s sake.

  Jason wanted to take his daughter to Miami with him. He knew that he could provide her with a better life than Angelina would. He and his cousin were opening an auto shop and Jaicyn could be happy in the fun and sun of Florida. Angelina refused to cooperate. If she lost custody of Jaicyn, she’d be kicked off welfare and forced to get a job like a regular person. She snuck out of Cincinnati in the middle of night and bounced from city to city until Jason gave up looking for her and went to Florida as planned.

  It was Jason’s mother, Juanita, who convinced Angelia to move to Washington Heights so she could be near her only grandchild. The only way Angelina would agree to move was if Juanita promised to help take care of Jaicyn. Juanita agreed. She had to make sure her son’s child was taken care of.

  Juanita made sure that her son kept in close contact with Jaicyn. Angelina didn’t approve but she was usually too high to care. As Jaicyn got older and shouldered the responsibility of her sisters, Jason became her rock. There were times when all it took was a phone call from his mother and Jason would be on a plane to Washington Heights to see his daughter. Jaicyn loved to see her father and every time he visited she wanted to go back to Miami with him. But there was no way she could leave Bobbie and Rickie.

  Jaicyn hated asking her father or grandmother for money, especially since Jason secretly sent her money every month. If he knew that she was spending it on things like the water bill and groceries instead of herself, he’d be pissed. Feeling like she didn’t have a choice, Jaicyn sighed and picked up the phone to call her grandmother. An early riser herself, Juanita answered cheerfully in Spanish. Jaicyn answered back in Spanish, not as perfect as her grandmother.

  “How are you, baby? Juanita asked.

  Jaicyn started to tell her what the problem was. Her Spanish was rusty but she managed to get out the whole story. In the end Juanita agreed to give her two hundred dollars which was all she could afford. Jaicyn was grateful for every little cent. Two hundred dollars was a lot for her grandmother. Juanita lived off her Social Security check and sold Avon for extra money. Jaicyn didn’t often ask Juanita for help, so when she did Juanita was happy to give her what she could.

  ****

  A week later Jaicyn still hadn’t come up with all of the rent money and Angelina still hadn’t come home. Thank goodness Paul hadn’t been back demanding money they didn’t have. Instead, he’d started leaving threatening notes on the door that Jaicyn threw away every day when she got home from school.

  Before lunch period on Friday, Rayshawn met Jaicyn at her locker. Over the last week, Rayshawn could tell that something was bothering her. He figured it had something to do with her mother. He hadn’t had a chance to talk to her like he wanted to because he was busier than ever. When Rayshawn got to Jaicyn’s locker she was putting on her coat and getting ready to leave.

  “What’s up?” Rayshawn asked. “Where are you goin’?”

  “Out,” Jaicyn said hurriedly. “Why? Where are you going?”

  “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing, Rayshawn. What do you want?”

  “I came to talk to you but since you got a jacked up attitude, fuck it.”

  “Alright then,” Jaicyn said and shut her locker.

  Rayshawn watched his girlfriend hurry away from him and decided to let her go. He had to leave also and figure out a way to keep King from finding out that he’d been skipping all of his afternoon classes for the past week.

  It wasn’t entirely his fault. Ever since Jose got locked up and King put Rayshawn in charge of his crew, Rayshawn had twice the work and not enough hours to do it in.

  Jaicyn looked over her shoulder but Rayshawn had disappeared.

  Oh well, she thought and burst thought the doors into the freezing Ohio winter. She looked up and down the street but she didn’t see who she was looking for. Jaicyn had seen her mother ten minutes ago and she would have walked right out of her Health class if she wasn’t already on Mrs. Lee’s shit list.

  She hadn’t meant to dismiss Rayshawn the way she did, but find
ing Angelina was the only thing that she cared about. He didn’t need to know all of her business anyway. She could take care of her own problems.

  Jaicyn walked in the direction she saw her mother go. As she got closer to the deli where her mother was a waitress, Jaicyn figured that she must have been on her way to work. Jaicyn opened the door to the crowded deli, thankful for the blast of warm air that hit her. It was early January so the temperature was warming up to being close to zero degrees. Jaicyn wished that she’d caught the bus but it was easier to find her mother on foot.

  As she sat at the only empty table in the deli, rubbing her hands together for warmth and waiting for Angelina to show her face, Jaicyn stared at the restaurant’s patrons. A couple of minutes later a girl Jaicyn knew from school approached her.

  Leslie was a couple of years older than Jaicyn but they knew each other well. Right around the time that Leslie found out that she was pregnant with her first child Jaicyn had started kicking it with her boyfriend. In her defense, Darnell had told Jaicyn that he and Leslie were finished and Jaicyn didn’t know about the baby.

  “What do you want?” Leslie asked, trying to avoid direct eye contact with the enemy.

  “I need to see my mother,” Jaicyn replied. “Is she here?”

  Leslie laughed. “She doesn’t work here anymore. Although she did come by here the other day and beg my dad for her job back.”

  Jaicyn gritted her teeth and asked the question she would rather have asked anyone else except the girl standing in front of her.

  “Was she high?”

  “Of course. She’s been using since December.”

  “Did she just stop coming to work? Is that why she got fired?” Jaicyn asked.

  “No, she stole some tip money from one of the other waitresses. My dad fired her on the spot.”

  “Thanks.”

  Jaicyn walked out of the deli knowing that the situation was worse than she thought. Angelina didn’t have a job. Even if she came home, she wouldn’t have any money.

  Plan B

  When the bus rolled to a stop in front of her Jaicyn waved it away. She wanted to go home but her plan required Joy’s help. Jaicyn tightened up her coat and jogged up the street to Oak Park Projects.