“It’s time for you to meet my best friend in the world for real. We are going to New York for New Years and stay at my pops crib for a couple days,” he said.
“You’re taking me to meet your father?” she asked eyes wide with surprise.
“Yep, and my mom’s will be visiting from Marietta Georgia too.”
“You mean I get to meet both of your parents?” she asked.
“Yes love, and they are gonna love you too pieces!”
They hit interstate 78 East, off of South 4th street leading out of Allentown, with two suitcases ready for a New York New Years. They entered NY by way of the George Washington Bridge bypassing the Bronx. Taking in all the gritty NYC winter beauty, they crossed the Throgs Neck Bridge leading onto Cross Island Parkway; Playing The Notorious Big’s IT WAS ALL A DREAM. They exited the Cross Island onto the LIE and down the home stretch to Exit 50, Wyandanch.
As they entered the town they rode up the hustling strip that K had spent so many days and nights on, slinging rocks like Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble did for their boss Mr. Slate. They say the game never changes only the players. As they cruised through in his newly acquired Infinity QX56 headed to the crib, evidence of that fact was all too clear. All the young up and comers were beating the block in their Timberlands and True Religions, or Gortex and Snorkels getting their grind on as he had done many, many a day.
When K pulled up to the crib, he could see his moms had already made it in town by the sight of her Crispy clean Cream Chrysler 300M posted up in the driveway behind his baby sisters dark green Camry. His pops Sporty red Mitsubishi 3000 with armor all tires shining was parked out front. K and Liza had barely made it out of the truck before his nephew Marcus came out of the front door yelling, “Uncle, Uncle! Grandma, grandpa uncle is here.”
“Boy! Get back in here with no coat on before you get sick!” His sister Tamisha yelled out the front door at her son.
K snatched him up, gave him a big hug and carried him in the house. His moms was in the master bedroom recuperating from her journey from Georgia, so he just gave her a peck on the cheek and let her sleep. His pops was in the basement with his crew; four miniature Dobermans that went nuts if you came with 10 feet of him. He was watching his 60 inch plasma screen with the Super Surround Sound System, kicked back relaxing sipping his vodka and orange juice.
“Hey, what a nice surprise,’ he said noticing us as they entered the basement door.
His dogs went nuts. Liza grabbed K’s arms scared to death.
Raising his voice over the high pitched barking dogs he asked, ”And who is this beautiful young lady?”
He turned to the dogs, “shut up goddamit!”
They calmed down a little; not much but enough for K to say,“Dad this is the love of my life, Liza. Liza this is my poppa.”
“Mr. Johnson I am so happy to finally meet you.”
“Please call me Joe, that Mr. Johnson stuff makes me feel old.”
“Ok Joe, nice to meet you. You have a beautiful home,” said Liza.
“Thank you. And my home is your home. Damn, my son you sure can pick em,” said K’s pops.
His sister came out of her room next to the basement, gave him a hug and he made introductions while his pops made drinks. Pops had already been cooking the food for the New Year’s celebration and the aromas floating through the house had caught Liza’s attention.
“Somebody is hookin it up, that food smells delicious,” said Liza.
“Baby you have no idea. If you think that chicken parmesan was good, you just wait til my pops cooking hits those taste buds,” K said.
She gave him a mean but playful look that broke into a shameful smile at their own personal little joke. She still denied the way she massacred that chicken parmesan that first night, but from being with her over the past couple of months, he’d found out that her appetite increased a little when alcohol was involved. But he still used to tell her “ You smashed that chicken ma — ma!”
“I got ham, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, cornbread, sweet potato pies, fried fish, lasagna, black eye peas, and yams,” Said K’s pop’s.
K looked at Liza and the drink in her hand that she was sipping on and smiled at her. From out of nowhere K’s nephew appeared with the notoriously embarrassing old family photo album. Before K could grab it from him Liza had it and was flipping through the pages. He already knew what was coming and there was no way Kevin could stop it. She got to the picture of his first birthday party, where he made it to the cake, before the cake made it to the oven and K was sitting on the table with his big afro and a bowl of cake mix between his legs. His mother caught the moment as he was smiling ear to ear, cake mix all over his nose, mouth, and hands.
“Oooooh, you were so cute,” Liza said laughing until she had tears in her eyes. K slid down on the couch and covered his head with one of the big pillows in embarrassment.
“Yes my baby was cute and he still is,” K heard his mother say from the basement doorway. His Pops dogs had obviously felt the wrath of moms because they didn’t make a sound.
“Ma!” K said as he quickly hopped up to get him a mom’s hug.
He introduced her and Liza and they hit it off from the beginning. Not long after, a few of his sister’s girlfriends came over to hang out and girl talk for a while. K asked Liza if she felt comfortable enough to hang out at the house while he went through the hood to go holla at his boys. She said she felt more than comfortable and of course she didn’t mind. She knew he hadn’t kicked it with his boys since he left town, So K gave her a kiss, hopped in the truck and went to go check his niggahs.
His first stop was the candy store/weed spot/gambling spot. It was on the corner of a row of stores on the main drag and had pool tables, clear canisters filled with various candies on the counter that you had to buy at least a dollars’ worth, along with however many dime bags of weed you wanted. There was also a big dice shooting table in the back where you could always place a bet and try your luck. Because it was the holidays, the spot was packed with locals and other hustlers returning to the hood from out of town. As soon as he walked in he got crazy love because his peoples hadn’t seen him in a while.
The parking lot and curbside was lined with Benzes, Beemer’s, Lexus’s, and Jeeps. Old school cats and new school cats were kicking it and bottles of liquor were in heavy rotation.
A few of his boys asked, “When you gone bring us with you to get some of that PA money?”
K looked at his man’s Tommy and Irvin leaning on T’s Lex and said “shit, it looks like yall niggahs is doing pretty good right here.”
It was all love through. They liked to fuck with him about shit like that. He dropped a couple of hundred dollar bets on the Cee lo table, and on the way out, the house man said,” hey where you going wit all that coke and music money after a couple little hundred dollar bets?”
“I got places to go, people to see and hot spots to get out of,” he said joking, but was dead serious. “I just came through to show my face in the hood. I got plans on doing some big things if shit keep going smooth and I want my niggahs to be a part of it. “
K slapped everybody five with a half hug showing love and rolled out. When he stepped outside the spot he bumped into his niggahs Pook and Blass.
Blass said “Yo K-MO, what up nigga, what you doing back in the hood? You must be up here for the holidays.”
“Yeah, no doubt. What ya’ll niggas up to?” K asked.
“You know we out here grinding, we both got mouths to feed,” Pook said. “Hold up K, let me catch this dough real quick.”
Just then one of the regulars K had known for years because she had been one of his old customer’s, came walking up. Her face lit up with a big crackhead smile and you could tell she had been a beautiful black woman at one time. She had a daughter that was even more proof of that.