Two Wrongs
Don’t Make a Right
By Alan Cramer
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 by M. Abdul-Malik
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons living or dead is coincidental.
CHAPTER 1
It was three o’clock in the afternoon and Andre Steele was lying in bed. He should have been on his way to work, but he had called in sick. He hated his job with a passion.
Even though he was upstairs in the bedroom, he could hear his wife when she came in the house.
They worked different shifts so they hardly ever saw each other and they both liked it that way. Andre often fantasized about divorce. But he was so deep in debt, a break right about now would definitely cramp his lifestyle. He was comfortable in the three bedroom house in the north east Bronx and wasn’t ready to move into a furnished room.
His wife Monique walked into the bedroom. She saw him in the bed.
“You didn’t go to work today?”
That was a stupid question, Andre thought. She could see he was lying in the bed. “No I didn’t go to work,” Andre said. His voice was deep, like the late night quiet storm radio DJ.
“I don’t know why I married your skinny lazy ass,” Monique said.
Andre turned and pulled the covers over his head even though he wasn’t cold. He might have to listen to her mouth, but he definitely wasn’t going to look at her.
Monique on the other hand definitely made sure she was heard. She slammed her purse down on the night stand next to Andre’s head. He knew that it was her purse because she often did this when he was trying to sleep.
I hope you break your phone again, you stupid chicken head, he thought.
She started making other noises. First she sucked her teeth real loud. Then she started slamming dresser draws closed. Next came the closet door. Andre couldn’t take it any more. He took his head from under the covers and looked at her. She was naked but had a towel wrapped around her.
“Why are you making so much noise?”
She looked at him and bobbled her head like a chicken as she spoke. “Some of us went to work, so do you mind if I take a shower?”
“Yeah but you in here slamming dressers and closet doors like you’re mad about something,” Andre said. “That’s how you break stuff, up being rough like that.”
“I ain’t touched nothing you paid for,” Monique said.
Andre just stared as she walked out the room like she was big Willie.
A few minutes later Monique’s cell phone rang. Andre ignored it until it stopped. A few seconds later a voice mail notification came through. He ignored that too. Then it rang again. He picked it up and looked at it.
The caller ID said, bobby b. Andre waited for it to stop ringing. He called the number back.
They answered.
“What’s up baby,” the male voice said.
“What’s up Bobby, why you calling my wife?”
“Oh shit,” Bobby said. “Naw…I was calling her with the number of a good mechanic… uh she said she had a problem with her head light on her car. I gotta go.” Bobby hung up.
Andre was up and dressed by the time Monique came out of the shower. He didn’t want to get into it with her without being fully dressed because he didn’t know how it was going to turn out.
“Who’s Bobby B?”
“What!”
For a second, Monique looked scared. It didn’t happen often but when she was caught out there by surprise she couldn’t help it. But she recovered quickly. She looked over at her phone.
“You been going through my phone?”
“The thing was ringing off the hook, I thought it might have been an emergency,” Andre said.
“You don’t pay my phone bill to be answering my phone,” Monique said.
“Forget all of that, why is this dude calling my house?” A soon as Andre said it he realized his mistake.
“Your house,” Monique said with a laugh. “Your name ain’t on no deed or no mortgage. You don’t pay no car notes in here and you definitely don’t pay my cell phone bill.”
Andre’s stomach felt like he was on the first drop of a big roller coaster.
Monique smiled. She took the towel off exposing her naked body. Andre guessed this was her way of saying forget you. She had what some people called a beer belly. Andre liked to think of it as her being permanently pregnant. He would have laughed at the show, but her words had cut him too deep. He just walked out the room.
He went into the bedroom at the end of the hall. Even though it was Monique’s house, this small room had become his sanctuary.
Andre looked at the electric piano as soon as he entered the room. Next to it was a rectangular device with large pads on it. This was the Maschine beat maker. Next to the Maschine was a lap top. All this equipment was hooked up to a receiver. The receiver was plugged into a pair of Bose speakers. The system was kick ass, but when Monique was in the house Andre often used the headphones.
There was also some specialized video equipment, but Andre never really got into it. He had bought the very small remote video camera, but never used it except to see how it worked.
Making music was Andre’s real passion. He had never made any money at it. In fact he never even tried to sell the beats he had created. He told himself the music industry was a crooked game and if you didn’t have a hook up you didn’t stand a chance.
He turned everything on and sat down. A few minutes later he was in another world. He tried to push the thoughts of this Bobby B cat from his mind, but the name was stuck in his head. So Andre did what he did best, he turned it into a beat.
Bobby B…Bobby B…Bobby B.
He added a baseline. Once he got it just right, he added the hook. He set the Maschine to loop and just nodded to the beat with his eyes closed.
Andre liked to use syncopated beats. It was like what’s old is new, because a lot of hip hop artist didn’t know about syncopation. This gave Andre a unique and original sound.
After a few seconds he opened his eyes and Monique was standing there looking at him. She was saying something but the music was so loud he couldn’t hear her. His first thought was too leave the headphones on and ignore her. He sat there and looked at her running her mouth, not paying attention to anything she was saying.
But then he remembered he was out sick from work. The agency they both worked for, the New York City Transit Authority, often sent supervisors out to check on workers who called in sick. If they came by and didn’t find you home, it could mean you not getting paid for the day. It could also result in you being suspended from work.
Andre realized he needed to listen to what she had to say. He pulled the headphones off one of his ears. “What’s up?”
“Look at you,” Monique said. “A grown ass fifty year old man playing on the computer making music that nobody wants to listen to, why don’t you act your age…”
Andre put the headphone back on his ear to block her out. But she didn’t stop. She stood there running her mouth.
Andre put words to the beat again. But this time instead of Bobby B, the new words to the song were; drop dead bitch…drop dead bitch…drooop dead. He kept repeating it in his mind and nodding his head to the beat. He looked up at Monique and a smile broke out on his face.
It took her a couple of seconds to realize he was laughing at her. Once it sank in, she said something real loud and turned and walked away. Andre went back to making his music.
He tried to ignore the reality of the situation, but he didn’t know how much more of this he could take. Monique might have liked him in the beginning, but she only held on now to protect her pride. She would never admit she made a mistake by marrying Andre, she’d rather be miserable before she did that. Plus she knew that only a broke man would put up with her nonsense.
Andre just had to get his pockets right.
*****
It was eight o’clock Saturday evening. Andre was just getting ready to go out the door. He was on his way to Gino’s Lounge.
It was basically a large bar were they served food as well as drinks. Even though it was in the South Bronx on 149th Street and The Grand Concourse, the place was kind of fancy. The reason for this was it was close to Yankee Stadium. During baseball season, some of the white Yankee fans would come in before and after games.
But tonight the NBA Playoffs would begin. The Knick game started at eight thirty. Andre was just about to call a cab when Monique came walking down the stairs. She was dressed in a tight black dress with her shoulders out.
“You ready,” Monique said.
What the hell? Andre thought. She never wanted to hang with him. And more importantly there was no way he was going to Gino’s with her. This was a boy’s night out thing, he didn’t need her nagging, ruining a perfectly good night.
“Ready for what?”
“I told you last week, I was going to the retirement party at the Boston Road Ballroom,” Monique said. “You know there’s no parking over there, I need you to drive me there and then bring my car back home.”
Andre had completely forgotten about the big Retirement party. Three popular long term employees of Transit Authority were having a party thrown in their honor. It wasn’t like he wanted to go, it would mostly be Transit workers. And as far as Andre was concerned, he spent enough time with his co workers when he was at work.
There were a few he was friendly with, but the only one he really hung hard with was his man David. They had been friends since high school. He was glad all he had to do was drive her there.
Andre and Monique left the house.
Andre loved driving Monique’s car. It was a 2010 metallic black BMW X5 30i. When Monique was in a good mood like the one she was in tonight, she’d let him play hip hop on the radio. But she’d never let him play the CD’s he made of his own music. He’d have to wait for her to get out of the car. He turned the radio on.
They caught a red light at the intersection of 233rd Street and White Plains Road. It was a major intersection under the route of the number 2 elevated train line. There was a bus stop that was actually in the street. This meant that most of the people waiting for the bus were standing in the street.
The red light caught them right in front of the bus stop. Andre glanced over towards the people waiting for the bus. As usual, the people in the bus stop were taking glances at the car.
The ritual was always the same. Most men would take a quick look, but as soon as Andre caught them looking, they would look away and try to ignore him and the car. The women though, were a different scenario. They’d glance at Monique and then stare at Andre. Most of these same women would have paid Andre no mind if he was walking down the street. But behind the wheel of a BMW, that was a different story.
A popular song came on the radio. Monique, feeling the envy of the people in the bus stop turned up the volume, lowered her window and started bopping her head to the song. She noticed one of the prettier girls in the bus stop was staring at Andre. Monique turned the radio down and faced Andre.
“Did you pay the cable bill?” Monique said loudly.
“Damn, I forgot,” Andre said. In fact he forgot to pay it last month too. Cablevision had sent a letter out saying they would cut the cable off Monday if they didn’t get at least two hundred dollars Monday morning.
Monique turned her head and looked out the car window. “You don’t pay no rent, you don’t pay no car note, and you can’t even pay the cable bill? What kind of man are you!?”
Andre couldn’t even look toward the bus stop anymore. Monique often used his financial situation as a weapon against him.
Andre was paying nine hundred twenty dollars and eighty three cents a month in child support to an ex for his for his daughter Asia. His little girl was eighteen now. He had three more years before she turned twenty one and that nut would drop off his pay. But on top of that he owed over twenty thousand in credit card bills.
The light turned green and Andre pulled off. Twenty minutes later, he dropped Monique off in front of the Boston Road Ballroom. Before she got out, he told her he’d stop by a twenty four hour check cashing place and pay the cable bill.
Andre decided he’d take the car to Gino’s and then bring it home after the game. He knew she’d stay till the party was over and would probably get a ride home. So she wouldn’t know how long he had her car as long as he got it back in the driveway before she got home.
He decided to take Southern Boulevard down to 149th Street and then go across. He was at the red light on Southern Boulevard and Hunt’s Point Avenue.
He noticed a young girl and guy standing on the corner arguing. There were people passing them on foot but no one paid much attention the couple.
Andre could hear the guy yelling but couldn’t make out what he was saying with the radio blasting one of his home made CD’s. Suddenly the guy smacked the girl. It looked like she had put up her hands to block it but the force of the blow still knocked her to the ground.
Andre turned the radio down.
“Why you hitting a girl,” somebody yelled.
“Mind your business,” the guy yelled back.
The girl attempted to get up by climbing up on the guy. He shoved her back to the ground and started kicking her.
The car behind Andre started blowing its horn, the light had turned green. Instead of going through the intersection Andre pulled over. He had to see this up close. Just as Andre was climbing out of the car, he heard the woop woop of the police. The dude that was kicking the girl heard it too. He took off running.
Andre walked over to the girl. She climbed to her feet. Andre reached out his hand to help her up. He was surprised that she wasn’t crying. She took a better ass whipping than most of the guys he grew up with.
“You alright?” Andre said.
“Yes,” she said.
She was a cutie, Andre thought as she stood up. She looked to be about twenty five years old. Half Andre’s age.
She was wearing well fitting gray blouse that was a spandex type of material. The blouse was low cut, so Andre had a good look at her breast. They had to be a B cup, Andre figured and the push up bra she was wearing made them look like they were busting out of the blouse.
She tried to take a step, but her ankle was sprained. She wrapped her arm around Andre’s neck for support. He instinctively put his arm on her lower back to help her stand. Her waist was so small, he thought as she leaned into him to support her self. She lifted up the sprained ankle to rub it.
She was short so her hair was in Andre’s face. It smelled good, like strawberries. Andre looked down at the ankle she was holding. She had on black sandal type looking shoes. Her toenails were painted pink. Her black spandex pants were laced at the ankles. He followed the spandex with his eyes up her leg.
Damn, Andre thought. Even though the girl had a small waist and petite figure, she had big ass. Andre was starting to get turned on. He looked around feeling a little embarrassed. He hoped no one could tell, especially the girl.
Andre saw two cops approaching.
“He went that way,” an old Spanish lady said pointing down the block. One of the cops gave a half ass look down the block. The other cop ignored the old lady and walked over to Andre and the girl.
“What’s going on?” the cop said.
Before the girl could say anything the cop pushed Andre away from the her. The girl stumbled and followed Andre back.
“Why are you pushing me? The perp went that way,” Andre said pointing down the block.
The cop was about to say something but paused and looked Andre up and down instead. Andre’s use of the word perp had thrown him off. He realized now that Andre was in his forties or older and wasn’t dressed like a street person. Plus now Andre was staring at the cop’s badge and name plate. It took the cop a second to realize that harassing Andre might be more trouble than it was worth.
The cop looked at the girl. “So what happened?”
“Nothing,” she said.
The cop looked at Andre again, then turned and headed back to his car.
The girl started limping away.
“You alright?” Andre said.
“I guess so.”
“You need a lift somewhere?” Andres aid.
She looked him up and down.
Deep down Andre knew it wasn’t a good idea but he wanted to impress her. He pointed the key chain with the alarm control at the car. The BMW chirped. She turned and saw the car.
“You can take me over to West Farms?”
“Yeah, no problem,” Andre said.
He helped her to the car. As soon as they got in he could smell her perfume. It was different than the strawberry smell that was in her hair. Andre swung a u turn and headed up Southern Boulevard toward West Farms Square.
“So what’s your name?” she said.
“Andre.”
“I’m Leigh,” she said.
“Leigh?”
“Yeah I know, it’s a white girl’s name. My mother named me that so on a résumé they would think I was white and it would be easier for me to get a job.”
Andre wanted to ask if it worked, but was pretty sure she didn’t have a job. Not sure of what else to say he asked the obvious question.
“Was that your boy friend you was fighting with?”
“That was my ex, why?”
Andre shook his head. “Just want to know what’s going on, I don’t need nobody running up on my car and what not. I didn’t get a good look at his face, he could come up on me and I wouldn’t even recognize him.”
“Don’t worry about him,” Leigh said. She looked around the car. “This is a nice car.”
“Yeah and I’m a nice dude.”
She smiled. “Yeah I know, otherwise I wouldn’t have got in the car with you.”
She rubbed his shoulder. It seemed more like a buddy buddy type of rub than a sexual thing. But when he glanced at her, she looked down between his legs and then quickly turned away.
“Can you turn the radio on?” Leigh said.
Andre looked down and saw that the radio was on. He turned it up. His CD was still playing. Leigh started rocking her body to the beat. The fact that somebody else was feeling his music, made Andre feel good.
“That’s my CD,” Andre said.
Leigh looked at Andre with a big smile on her face. “You’re a rapper?”
“No, I just produce beats,” Andre said.
Leigh turned in her seat and faced Andre. He looked down and saw that she had taken her shoes off and had her feet in the seat.
“I could tell you were big time,” Leigh said. “Have I ever heard any of your songs playing on the radio?”
Andre thought about telling the truth. But then he thought about impressing the hot young girl that was looking at him like he was a star. He chose to be a star.
“A lot of writers and producers make money doing commercial and what not,” Andre said. “Or they write songs for big star and the big stars put their names on them like they wrote them but the real writer gets paid up front.”
What he said was true. Andre never said he was getting paid for his music, if she got that impression so what, after tonight he’d probably never see her again anyway.
“So you’re a ghost writer?” Leigh said.
Andre nodded his head. He didn’t think she knew that much about the music industry.
“How do you come up with the idea for a beat?”
Andre’s posture straightened up a little. Her interest in his music was stroking his ego. “I take whatever I’m feeling and let it move me,” Andre said. “Then I put a drum or base line to that rhythm. Then I add the hook.”
“How long does it take?”
“Sometimes less than a day, sometimes more than a week, it’s like falling in love, you have to go with the feeling.”
“Cool,” Leigh said. Her cell phone rang. She answered it with one hand and pointed with the other, “Over there,” she told Andre. “Hello,” she said into the phone.
They had reached the corner of Boston Road and Tremont Avenue. The area was known as West Farms. Even though Andre was raised in the same neighborhood he was a little uncomfortable. When he started working for Transit, he moved to Irvington New Jersey. He stayed out there for almost two years before moving back to the Bronx.
But when he came back to the Bronx he moved uptown. It wasn’t a crime free hood, but compared to West Farms it seemed like the suburbs.
He pulled the car to a stop as Leigh talked into her phone.
“Yo what’s up…Yeah I was there when five O rolled up on the block…Naw he didn’t have it on him, but he was in the hallway and he’s on parole…Marty said his girlfriend was going down to one sixty first on Monday to see about his bail, but his parole officer is probably going to violate him…I’m bringing that thing to Marty’s house now…”
The whole conversation was turning Andre off. Leigh was a little too street for him and for all he knew she was setting him up for a robbery at this very moment.
He’d never be able to explain to Monique how he got car jacked in West Farms. He pulled the car out and started driving.
Leigh stopped talking into the phone and faced Andre. “Where you going?”
“I want to find a better parking spot,” Andre said.
She went back to her phone conversation.
Andre drove around the block and came back out on Tremont Avenue. It was a major street. It was 9:30 so there was still a lot of traffic. He pulled up near a bus stop.
She hung up the phone and looked at him. “What’s up?”
Andre had been playing in his mind with the fantasy of pushing up on her, but the phone conversation deaded that. He looked at her. She was fine as hell. I’ll never see this girl again in my life he thought, so I might as well go hard.
“Check this out,” Andre said. “You need money, I need sex, so why don’t we just...you know…”
She started looking around and breathing real hard like she was having an anxiety attack. “Oh my god,” Leigh said as she looked out the car’s window. “I can’t believe you just said that to me.” She then turned back to Andre. “How much money?”
Now it was Andre’s turn to be shocked. Her reaction had thrown him off. He had really expected her to say no and jump out the car.
“How much you think is good?”
“Two hundred dollars,” Leigh said.
Andre’s big head said hell no, but his little head said hell yeah. He put the car in drive.
Leigh said they couldn’t go to her place, because it was her room mate’s apartment and she didn’t feel comfortable bringing people there. She suggested a hotel on Tremont Avenue.
Andre said no, he still didn’t completely trust her.
They took the Bronx River Parkway uptown to the River Parkway Motel on 233rd Street. Andre made a stop at the Quickie Mart that was in the Mobile gas station near the motel to pick up some beer, condoms and use the ATM to get the two hundred dollars.
They got a room for a four hour stay. Once they got in the room, the first thing Leigh said was she wanted to take a shower. Andre watched her undress while Andre poured them both a beer. She sipped on the beer and then lit a cigarette as she continued to undress.
She really was beautiful. Andre wondered if it was the fact that she was young that attracted him or if she really was as beautiful as she appeared right now. She stood there right in front of him butt naked. There was no shame in her game. She knew she was fine. She went into the shower.
Andre still didn’t trust her. He undressed while she showered and hid his wallet behind the dresser. He had no plans on taking a shower. There was no way he was going to leave her alone with his stuff.
She came out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her but still wet. Her body seemed to glistened. She got in the bed next to Andre.
Andre was really nervous now. He fumbled with the condom.
“Here, let me do it,” Leigh said as she took the condom from him.
She put it on him but Andre wasn’t fully erect. Now embarrassment started to set in. This just made matters worst.
“I guess I’m a little tired,” Andre said.
Leigh didn’t say a word. She just reached down and pulled the condom off and replaced it with her mouth.
Her mouth felt moist and warm. Damn she’s good, Andre thought. He closed his eyes and started to calm down as she worked her magic. After a couple of minutes he was almost there.
“That’s it baby, I’m…”
She stopped. He opened his eyes and looked at her. She was lying on her back with her legs wide open. “Put it in,” she said.
Andre did as he was told. He gave her everything he had and she pushed back as good as she was getting it. Andre tried to kiss her but she turned her head. Her body trembled like she was convulsing, “Come,” She said.
Again Andre did as he was told.
His body spasmed then relaxed then quickly spasmed again.
Then it hit him; he wasn’t wearing a condom. He rolled off her so quick he almost fell off the bed. What the hell did I just do? Andre thought. Any more child support is going to kill me. Monique is going to kill me.
“Pass me a cigarette,” Leigh said.
They were on the night stand next to Andre.
The hell with that. “I really need to get out of here,” Andre said as he sat up.
“Why, what’s wrong?” Leigh said.
“I got something I gotta do.”
Leigh sat up and looked at him but didn’t say anything. Andre put his boxer’s on.
“You’re really leaving?” Leigh said.
“Yeah, I got some business I need to handle.”
She sucked her teeth as she got up.
Once they got dressed they left the room. Andre rushed her into the car pretending to be in a hurry. The real reason was he didn’t want her to see the car’s license plate. This way if by chance she was pregnant she wouldn’t be able to track him down.
Once he started driving, Andre remembered he hadn’t paid her yet and she hadn’t asked for the money. She just sat there looking disappointed.
Andre went into his front pants pocket for the money but couldn’t get his hand all the way in because of his cell phone. When he got to a red light he took the cell phone out of its belt clip and put it in the cup holder. Andre then went back in his pocket and took out the money. He handed it to Leigh as the light turned green.
“Thanks,” Leigh said. She looked at the money but didn’t really count it.
Andre planed to drop her off at the subway station on White Plains Road and 233rd Street. To avoid any drama he wasn’t going to tell her until they got to the train station.
She picked up Andre’s cell phone from the cup holder.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to put my number in your cell phone,” Leigh said.
“Alright.” Andre might have said one thing out loud, but in his mind he said another. He had no intentions on seeing her again. Even though she was fine and all that and knew how to turn a man on, chicks like this had a habit of getting pregnant. Andre had a job with benefits. He was definitely child support material.