front porch and waved good-bye. Once she was out of sight, I turned my attention
to him. “Where you got to go that’s so important?” I wanted to know.
“Well, I’ve got to stop and get some gas first. And then I’ve
got to meet up with my homeboy before he leaves to go out of town.”
“Hold, you! Meeting your homeboy before he goes out of town sure
sounds like a drug buy.” I chuckled, but I was serious as a fucking heart attack.
Shit, I didn’t come all the way back to Virginia to be getting arrested on a bogus-ass
drug charge behind some wannabe-ass hustler. I had too much at stake, and my freedom
was at the top of the list.
“Come on, Kira. What kind of nigga you think I am? I don’t get
down like that,” he said as he pulled into a Shell gas station.
When Tony got out the car to go pay for the gas, I told him I
was going to Feather-N-Fin to get a sweet tea. I strutted myself across the street,
and when I got to the door, this older gentleman held it open for me. After I stepped
inside the restaurant, I thanked him.
It was a little after four in the evening, so I knew there would
be a crowd of people trying to get their eat on. I got in line and waited my turn.
The line was moving pretty quickly, so I knew I would be in and out of there before
Tony finished pumping his gas.
“Can I take your order?” the young lady asked me. She was a pretty
young girl with blonde micro braids. She looked like she was every bit of eighteen
or nineteen years old.
After I told her I wanted a medium sweet iced tea, she rang it
up. I handed her my debit card, but she told me there was a five-dollar minimum
purchase requirement to use my card. Since I didn’t have any money on me and I wanted
my tea, I ordered a boneless chicken breast sandwich with cheese.
Once she added my sandwich to the order, she swiped my card,
but for some reason, my card wouldn’t process. The screen on the terminal displayed
the words Comm Error, meaning, there was a bad connection with the phone line.
“Why don’t you disconnect your phone line and plug it back,”
I suggested. “That always worked for me when I had a merchant machine at my hair
salon.”
“You do hair?” the young girl asked as she unhooked the phone
cord from the terminal and then plugged it back in.
“I used to.”
“Where did you do hair at?” she asked, waiting for the machine
to crank back up.
“I owned a shop on Newtown Road called Millennium Styles, but
then I closed it and moved out of town.”
“Wait a minute! I thought I remembered you!”
Shocked that she knew me, I stood there and waited for her to
jog my memory.
“My sister Sunshine used to do hair there,” she said. “Remember
the time I came up there and brought her some balloons and a card on her birthday
and she got all happy? But when she opened her card and realized I hadn’t put any
money inside, she started complaining, and that was when you took up for me and
told her to be grateful.”
Looking at the young girl again, I felt like I was looking at
Sunshine. In fact, she looked like Sunshine’s twin. I assumed she knew nothing about
the affair that Sunshine had with my late husband, since she seemed excited to see
me. This young girl made me feel like I was an old friend.
“What was your name again?” I asked her.
“Fionna. But my friends call me Fifi.” She smiled.
I smiled back and thought about how she seemed to be in great
spirits for someone who had lost her sister. I wondered if Sunshine ever spoke about
me in a bad way. Well, if she did, this chick who stood in front of me truly knew
how to mask her real feelings.
“Well, Fifi,” I said, “I am truly sorry about your loss.”
“Oh, you don’t have to feel sorry. She’s in a better place. And,
besides, you should be happy that she’s gone, considering all the drama she took
you through.”
“What kind of drama would that be?” I asked, even though I knew
what Fionna
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