Page 29 of Welcome to the Table
I laughed a little to ease her mind.
“No, baby. I don’t sell or transport drugs. We own just about every store and club in the city. We run an underground gambling ring that stretches from police officers to politicians,” I told her without too much detail. She didn’t need to know the day-to-day operations.
“I have to leave because someone in the business is snitching, and they are on my back.” She looked at me with a face of confusion.
“But if you have all these people in your corner, why do you still have to leave?” I knew she would ask that.
I hated to lie to my daughter, but I was protecting her heart.
“Someone is talking too much, and until I find out, I have to leave, but you will be safe. Your mother, brothers, and Uncle Wisdom will be here to protect you. You don’t have shit to worry about. Someone is always watching.” I winked at her, and she smiled. Then, I kissed her forehead and let the kiss linger before I got up from the bed because I knew I had another monster who wouldn’t be so understanding.
“Just come back home, Daddy, and don’t take too long.” I winked at her again. “And why do you have Hellcat taking me out shopping? You know we don’t get along, and he’s just too wild.” We both laughed at that because it was the truth.
“The same wildness that he has is the same way he loves. Just remember that,” I told her, and she blushed. She loved Hellcat, and the feeling was mutual.
“Calliope is going through some shit, and he needs time to come to his senses, but you gon’ be good.”
With that, she gave me a smile, and I left to see what my wife would have to say.
I walked down the stairs to the middle level, where I knew Athena was. A nigga was kind of scared because I didn’t know what the fuck I was walking into. When something was happening that she didn’t fucking like, she was a whole other demon. It wouldn’t surprise me if she had a lamp ready to throw at me or, worse, her little handgun aimed at me as soon as I entered the room. I tiptoed to the door. It was closed, and my heart skipped a beat. I put my ear to the door to see if I could hear any movement, but didn’t hear anything. My heart ran rapidly in my chest because it was silent as fuck.
I tugged at the door and pushed it open wide. It was dark as fuck, but I still walked in. I knew our room like the back of my hand. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear her breathing. I made my way to the light switch and flicked it on. My eyes went to where she stood with a fucking AR-15 in her hand, pointing the motherfucker at me. I put my hands up in surrender because I knew she would fucking shoot me with one false move. The gun shook in her hands as tears ran down her face. She knew I hated to see her tears, and it made me feel like shit because I was the reason behind them.
“Put the gun down, Athena, and stop playing.” Her short ass holding a gun as big as her fucking body was almost comical, but I was too scared to smile.
“Grab yo’ gun! We not separating unless we’re leaving in body bags and meeting each other in heaven with weed andbackwoods,” she said, nodding her head at the other gun on our bed. She was tripping. Her pain was killing me.
“You already know why the fuck I gotta do this, Athena. Put the fucking gun down!” I raised my voice, but that didn’t stop shit. She didn’t put her gun down. I walked over to the bed and picked up the gun. If this was what the fuck she wanted, then this was what it was gonna be.
“This what we doing? We’re going out like this?” she asked.
I shook my head from left to right. I noticed the tears still streaming down her puffy cheeks. Her eyes were red like fire. She had been crying since she got to our room. I couldn’t show her how I really felt. I wanted to snatch her up in my arms and kiss every tear that fell, but I couldn’t. She had to be strong. I needed her to align with me and know that I was gon’ always come back to her. I looked at the nightstand and noticed she had her empty glass of wine and a bottle. I didn’t even know how she got that shit up here. I straightened my shoulders with my chest out.
“Fuck it. You shoot first. You crying and shit, so this shit has been on your mind for a while. You want me dead, Athena. Shoot that bitch,” I egged her on because I knew she wouldn’t pull the trigger. She was barely holding the motherfucker up.
I knew she wouldn’t kill me, and I didn’t have the heart to kill her. I held my gun in my hand, but I didn’t point it at her. She fell on the bed, throwing the gun to the floor, and curled up in a fetal position. I laid mine against the wall and went over to the bed. I got in bed behind her and pulled her into my arms.
“You really leaving me. What the fuck am I supposed to do without you? We have been married for almost twenty years, and we never separated,” she cried in my arms.
I placed my hand on her chest. Her heartbeat matched my fast one.
“Stop that fucking crying and hold shit down until I get back. I prepared you for this shit. Wipe those fucking tears. I ain’t gon’ be gone that long. I am protecting all of us by leaving. I know you in good hands,” I told her, and her sniffles stopped.
She turned to me, wrapping her arms around my neck with her head in my chest. “Just come back to me, Melph. I can’t live this life without you,” she said before drifting off to sleep.
I kissed her forehead, nose, and lips, and hugged her tighter as she fell asleep, knowing that when she opened her eyes, I would be gone like a thief in the night.
Chapter 7
Wisdom
I’d known Melph for a long time, but Athena even longer. Athena was the prettiest girl in the Desire project you could have ever laid eyes on, but she wasn’t the typical female. She was never a product of her environment. She wasn’t a typical hoe looking for her next come up or dope boy to get some money from. Athena got her shit out the mud.
When I first laid eyes on her, I knew she was different. She was the type that you had to have your shit together to even have a decent conversation with her. I would watch as she turned niggas down left and right and would laugh because she was serious. She was all about making her own money, and I admired that about her. I didn’t know too much about her parents because I didn’t see them often. I would sit in the cut and watch her, just to make sure niggas weren’t doing too much.
I wasn’t from the Desire, not that anything was fucked up about it. I lived on the Westbank but did my dirty work on the Eastbank. I had my own shit going on. I had eight years on Melph, so it was a lot I knew that he didn’t. Once I took him under my wing, after I saved his life, I knew we would be forever locked in.
I had just walked out of the corner store, and a dice game was in full effect on the side of the building in the alleyway. A few young niggas, but Melph’s face was the only one I knew, so I decided to stand there and watch. I was never a man of many words, but I knew and watched everything. I knew that Melph was winning their money because of the looks on their faces. Some even mumbled shit under their breath. I didn’t pay it any attention as long as shit didn’t get out of hand.
