Chapter 55
"You want me to kill your father," said July. "But I also need something from you."
"Well," she chuckled nervously. "I'm sown so--I can't do that."
"I don't want to--what is wrong with you."
She sighed, "Ok, my father is a vampire King."
"That's awful." July couldn't question his choices more. He could take a vampire king and give that body to his grandfather… or he could be black with some height. The last thing he could do was revive his bones and he was certain that was back at school.
He believed deep within himself that Aleigha didn't want his body.
"My dad is a vampire king. Ever heard of the Ty and She clan?"
"The She clan is black." he corrected. "The vampire King of that clan I know is Attaullah."
"Dead. The She clan that I'm speaking of is Chinese. Ty came from She."
"So, nigga became Chinese?"
"Shut up and listen." she stomped. Honestly, July just wanted to handle business. He was on a clock and didn't have everything solved. "My father is from the Ty clan that separated. Now, have you heard of Je Maisha?"
"No?"
"It's an African Stake. You gotta know about the obayifo that had people worship him. Or them." she started to beam. "That's another thing! The Obayifo never had a gender. Or at least people didn't know.
If he had eyes they would be looking at his brain. "She!" she exclaimed. "Comes from the Obayifo. But back to what I was trying to say--"
He didn't have hands to hit her. "--My father is from the She clan. He's also like super old."
"Why am I being told this?" his soul was dim with boredom. Rim whispered, "My father made a stake to bring vampires to life."
"WHAT!" he circled the room. "Is that what that is?"
"Hush!" she waved her hands for him to calm down. "Listen, my boyfriend--actually husband-- have been trying. I even thought I could stab myself, maybe there was like a reverse and I could be a vampire."
Without the full knowledge, July already knew that wasn't it. "Are you stupid?"
"Maybe..." she sighed. "I get beat a lot."
"It's Dayshia all over again." he turned grey. "I need a mirror or something."
"You can't use mine. You don't wanna be Chinese."
July groaned, "You got a bathroom?"
.
.
.
July stood in the bathroom and floated in front of a mirror. "You know how to speak Chinese?"
"No."
"Be mute. That's what he calls me."
July looked into the mirror. He saw a woman with blonde hair and overly large eyes. That wasn't it. He saw a fat woman with double chins and brown hair. "I need a man."
"This is a unisex bathroom," she said.
"Why? You got niggas using the same stall as a bitch with a period."
"He's super cheap!" she stressed. "My dad, was like, I can't get separate stalls so we got four urinals and four toilets. And three sinks."
"Are y'all broke?"
"I'M FUCKING CHINESE!"
July focused on the mirror. There was an image o a little boy next to his mother wiping his face with a napkin. "I could be a little boy..."
He searched again and saw a dim light. A black man with a bloody nose washing his hands in the sink. He was of average height, a dim set of brown eyes, and wore a large overcoat. "Black people come in here?" he asked. "Not anymore."
"Why?"
"He's racist. Which is a shame because they gave us money. Y'all love fried rice."
"Fuck you."
"And the dumplings and chicken and--"
"Fuck. You."
Again, he saw in the mirror a tall, nerdy-looking white man with glasses. "He's tall, I'll take it…"
"Thought you wanted to be a nigga?" she jested. His soul changed into the white man. It wasn't completely solid but he was visible to a human. "I'm a ghost still but this can hold me."
He frowned looking at himself. This man had no ass, his eyes were far apart, and a hearing aid. "Lord, what have I done...?" Rim jumped in place. "We have no time to change!"
"I wish I could." he checked the pockets and found DOHRCC's pills. "What the fuck is he taking?" July saw the trashcan near the door and went for five points. The pills smacked off the back wall and on the side of the trash can. "Goddamn it…"
"STOP!"
"Why are you so excited?" A vision came to him that made his body jolt. The man's body dropped as he was coming out of the bathroom. July's chest started to beat. "He took meds from the Department?"
He heard screaming in his head. 'Stefan!' It was the same woman wiping the child's face in the mirror.
None of it was important to know. It basically told him was the Department did. The Department of Human Resources and creature Comforts wasn't a source of help. Because everyone that went to a damn doctor died. His mother never went.
His eyes expanded, a breathtaking memory. They used to get mail sent to the house saying she had an appointment but she wasn't registered.
"Did somebody die here?" he asked. "Um, yeah, he did. He was having a conversation with his wife? And he went to the bathroom but dropped dead. He had a massive heart attack. And that's why we're broke."
"It wasn't your fault."
"Well!" she yelled. "According to white people, we had to pay 18,000 dollars. Now we have one fucking eating booth."
July went and picked up the bottle and opened it revealing a lone red pill in the container. The view changed. It was full of pills, about 90. A vision flashed, the top wasn't screwed on, and he lost more than half.
July narrowed his eyes.
'Why are you taking the whole bottle!' his wife beat him across the stomach. 'If I lose them now--'
"He overdosed on purpose? Or addicted."
"Well, thank you for that… NOW!" she huffed, "We are currently fucking broke. My mom is at an orphanage in China or dead. My brother got shot and the only thing that could make me feel better, IS THAT BITCH DYING" she pointed in the direction of the stairs.
"Why do you hate your dad so much?"
"He beat my mom!" she screamed. "I'm a halfie! But I'm not allowed to have magic, so.: She put her hands on her waist and bent forward. "I got a nigga that did!"
It wasn't unusual for vampires to have a bunch of hoes. In case they needed bodies. "It's standard," he said. "Why are you all out of shape?"
"I gave my mother freedom!" she exclaimed. "You don't know what's it like to see your mom be beat and kicked! He hit over the head countless fucking times until she forgot me!"
He would be lying if he said he cared. He could relate. Maybe he was broken on the inside.
"It happens…" he said coldly.
.
.
.
"Ok, so I'll say you want a job here. Which you won't get because Hee, just got shot by a white person."
"Why am I up here?" July lamented. "If your dad is so racist. I could just seek him."
"We have to plan this!" she uttered. "Maybe you can prove something. Build his trust--"
"Goddamn, you want me to work!"
"It won't be that bad!" Rim grinned. "My dad doesn't have magic and I've been doing things."
"What about the stake?"
"Don't worry about that--"
"What about your brother?"
"Well, I was thinking I could kill my dad and give him up--"
"Let your brother have him?"
"Will you let me talk!" she smacked him. "Ow!"
"We have to be smart about this!"
"But the stake!"
"Don't worry about the stake!" she stood cupping her chin in her hands. "Maybe… I can get him out the house--"
"Store. Food joint. You don't live at a--"
"I'M POOR!
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.
.
"What would you like to order?" Rim pretended behind the counter. "Do you have a menu?" July asked.
"We do." She pulls out one of the menus from side of the cash register. "Here you go."
July opened up the small red menu.
Teriyaki burger, orange chicken and rice, fried rice, sushi, honey glazed fried chicken. Banana Pudding, Strawberry Pocket Rice.
"What's the strawberry pocket rice?"
"So you make some dough like a pocket. Fry it, make some rice and dice some strawberries. Mix together and put into the pocket. It's only 3.99."
"Do you have a glaze with it?"
"Same shit that goes on donuts or cream cheese," she said. "Some people come in here to eat pocket rice." she rolled her eyes.
"Mmm." July looked at the menu. "I'll have the Teriyaki chicken, fried chicken sushi, and give raw chicken too."
"We don't serve raw chicken…" she furrowed with her mouth open. "The bone, Rim…"
"Oh…" she punches in the order. "Well, I gotta fix it. Hee's shot and down," she grumbles. "Give me like five minutes."
"Five?"
"My brother usually cooks I handle the cash and baba… I guess cooks too."
"It's only 3 people?"
"Well, his mom is dead."
"I'm finding out too much about you."
"You wanna know what else?"
July raised a brow, "What?"
"I'm pregnant," she whispers.
"Really?"
Rim shrugs bearing a smile. "You can't kill a voodoo doll." Rim looks at the ticket and goes to the kitchen. "He's dead…"
July fluttered his eyes and focused on the silence of the food joint. He looked at the ceiling. It was so soft and subtle. "Rim…"
"Huh?"
"Um…" July looked at the top floor again. "You said you were pregnant with a doll?"
Out of the corner of his eye, Ma-Zhu came hopping downstairs. His body unraveled with magic swarming him. "We could use this one." July stepped back looking into his button eyes. Ma-Zhu jumped to the bottom of the step. "Rim!" As his mouth opened, his intestines leaked out. "I got your brother."