Page 61 of Welcome to the Table
After I scrubbed my walls, I ripped everything off my bed, and the pictures she had hung up, I took them off the wall to put in the trash. The huge picture that hung over my bed of us was going to the trash. My heart couldn’t take it. Maybe I should have left her ass in Georgia, where I found her, and I wouldn’t be going through this shit. I pulled my curtain back a little and noticed that the sun was peeking out, so I knew it had to be at least 6:00 a.m. I carried all the shit downstairs, including the bucket, and opened my front door.
My hittas walked out of the shadows and took everything from me without a word, and did what they were supposed to do. I only had four men that I kept on my property. I trusted them, and they resided on the property with me, but one would never know that they were there. My parents didn’t even know that. They also had a house in the woods because they were hidden.
I looked down at my watch and realized that today was the day for this fucking meeting that I didn’t want to go to, but it was needed. Hellcat was probably shaking the fucking city up, but I would deal with his shit when I got my mental together. I knew some shit was shaking, but I had my phone powered off because I needed the disconnection from the world. Crazy part is, I didn’t ask for none of the shit that I had been through. The mafia shit, love, killing. I didn’t ask for none of it, but I was thrown into it by my father. Athena and Hellcat lived for this shit, but it wasn’t for me. I didn’t have a choice, though.
I was so busy with my own shit that I hadn’t even talked to Jaci. I missed her ass something serious, but I wished she could have come back on her own terms and not because of our bullshit. Jaci knew how to get down, if need be, but I didn’t want her to. If she was hanging with Hellcat, there’s no telling what the fuck they were getting into.
Jaci was the closest thing to my heart because she lived inside it. I was sure by now that one of them had told her toleave me alone, but I needed her right now more than ever. She had Hellcat tendencies, but she displayed more compassion with me. My baby sister knew how to handle my crazy. Had she been here, we would have had lawn chairs sitting in front of the fire, watching the shit burn. The difference between her and the rest of us is that she had feelings. Real emotional feelings. Her energy and empathy were unmatched. She would dig until she found the answers she was looking for. I hated the fact that she was thrown into the middle of some snake shit that she didn’t even know about. She didn’t know the half, but I would tell her the real.
“You need another bucket, Blackk?” Risky, one of my men, asked as he walked back to me, causing me to shake my thoughts and look his way. Blackk was the nickname he and his brothers had given me once I moved them onto my property.
Risky was a nigga from the Desire projects who didn’t have shit. His mother was on crack bad, and his father was nowhere around. He was the eldest of four brothers. A few years back, I was checking on shit in the hood when I noticed him and his brothers sitting on the steps of the project.
“Why y’all out here looking like this?” I asked him. They didn’t have on any shoes, and the clothes looked as if they had worn them for weeks. They looked to be starving, and their heads hung low. “What’s y’all’s names?” I asked them, and they didn’t respond.
“Stranger danger, nigga. Why you wanna know?” his smartass said.
The way they looked, I knew they hadn’t been in school for weeks. I even smelled the odor of piss, but I didn’t say anything. They were kids.
“Where is your mother, stranger?” I asked him. He seemed to be the spokesperson for the younger brothers.
“I don’t know and don’t care. She doesn’t give a fuck about us, but what you want?” he said, looking me up and down.
I wanted to beat his ass for being disrespectful, but I realized that theywere living in survival mode. Risky looked to be about seventeen, and the other a year younger. I walked closer to them.
“What school do y’all go to?” I asked.
“William Newman. I’m supposed to graduate this year, but I probably won’t because I haven’t been to school in two weeks,” he said, and I shook my head.
I hated a deadbeat fucking parent, let alone a mother. I knew the principal at William Newman, and they didn’t know that I was about to change their lives.
“Y’all come with me. I promise I won’t fuck over y’all, and I will definitely change y’all life for the better,” I told them, and they looked at me strangely.
“We don’t know you,” the second one said.
“Yes, we do. This Calliope Blackk. I heard all the stories about you and your family in the hood,” Risky said. I put one of my feet on the step and leaned down to speak to him.
“Believe half of what you see, and all of what you know. Now, you and your brothers come take a ride with me,” I told them, but they were hesitant at first.
Risky was the first to stand, and then his brothers.
“I’m the oldest. That’s Blizzy, Blicky, and Poppy. We all a year apart.” He pointed at each one, and I put it in my mind to remember their names and faces.
I knew they needed someone to look after them and raise them, and I would be that. ’Til this day, I don’t know why I stopped, but I did, and I didn’t regret it.
They got into my blacked-out Tahoe while I went to check on some shit. After that, their lives changed forever. I made sure they all had what they needed to continue highschool. I alsotold them that if they graduated with good grades, they would have their own house, but still would abide by my rules. They all agreed and graduated at the top of their classes. After that, they wanted to do college online, so I had my secretary from Spades get them set up, and I paid for that. I made sure they didn’t want for anything, and that was their last day in the Desire project. I had them trained for the life I lived because I never knew when I would need them for something.
Nobody knew about them because they only came out when they wanted to travel, but I told them they could never go back to the city, and they were cool with that. I formed a bond with each of them and wouldn’t trade that shit for anything in the world. They were rough around the edges at first, but after my extensive defense and gun training, they were an army by themselves. It didn’t matter where I went, I knew they weren’t too far behind me. When I moved, they moved, but in the background, and silently. The only one who gave me issues was the nigga Blicky. He didn’t listen at all and reminded me of Hellcat.
“Blackk?”
I heard him and focused on him. I had gone into my thoughts. I looked at him and smiled.
“What’s with all this cleaning shit? Do we need to clean our houses too?”
I hated that he was the only one who really paid attention to me. His brothers just went with the flow and minded their business. The one thing they didn’t know was about my OCD, and I would keep it that way. I didn’t need their little asses googling shit.
“Watch yo’ words, nigga. I needed to clean, and that’s what I’m doing. Go read yo’ ass a book or something, but I need to talk to y’all in a few, so keep yo’ phone on hand,” I told him as hehanded me the bucket full of bleached water. He walked away, shaking his head.
