I wish I had one of my books from school so I could read it. Maybe mama would be interested. With nothing better to do, I just laid on the floor.
"Why the fuck did you kick the tv! We had entertainment." Simisola is this female wolf with a face like dad's, she's definitely my sister. She has big green eyes and a round face. "All we have to watch is Abner." he complains. "You know what! It puts a spirit in you so, if Mokiri--"
"You would set your sister in front of a fucking tv?"
"She doesn't have a spirit! The jinn is gone, you heard her!"
"So that means we just let anything take her?" Ubayd marches up to Simisola. "You are so fucking stupid!"
"At least I ain't depressed all the time. I swear this came from your love of white bitches. You wanna talk about that?"
"I don't even talk to her anymore--"
"Correction!" she stomps. "If there was a white bitch in the room, you would be sniffing her flat ass."
"Oh my god…" Ubayd retreats back to the wall. "Simi shut up!"
"Mama! Your son likes white people that kidnapped us and chopped off OUR MOTHER'S FUCKING LEGS."
"Of for godsakes!" Mama rises her voice. "Both of you sit the hell down! You both are giving me a headache!"
Lord have mercy. I sit up straight and soon the doors open, a man brings a cart of food through. I get up fast and think to run up to him and just go for the eyes.
But I don't move.
"Here's the fucking food. You got chitlins, corn, rice and ham." he walks out the room. "Are you fucking real? I can't keep eating pig guts!"
"We never get bread. Or beef."
"I need real food!"
"Sola, get me a plate." says mama. "Mama you want my plate?"
"Its not soul food. We need that and mama can keep her strength."
"That's a bad word." mama chuckles. Simisola hands her plate and gets one for herself. She sits down next to mama. "I remember my family would have chicken for Ramadan. I loved having chicken."
"My favorite is having kebab. Mama! Do you remember when daddy made shish kebabs and went to the bathroom so I slid the food off the stick and put it in separate bowl?"
"So then he had to get up for another kebab and you took the bowl?"
"That's evil." I snort.
Ubayd eats the rice off his plate quickly. "She's just fat."
"Ubayd! Slow down!" urges mama.
"Why?" he stuffs his mouth with a piece of chitlin. "Take your time!"
"Idiot. You won't be satisfied until you die." Simisola splits bits off her ham. "Mama, he's gonna choke."
"No I won't. This isn't even food. So what?" he scarf down the corn and eats the entire ham. "Mama, you want me to tear the ham up for you?"
"Please Sola."
"Ubayd, are you starving?"
"No." he licks the plate. "We could have something else. Bread, beef, or fish." he crosses his arms. "Mama, we got to get out of here."
Mama eyes him but slowly eats. "I'm comforable." mama scoops up the rice with her fingers. Simisola tear apart the chitlin for her. "This just isn't enough. I can't believe you both are peaceful."
"Mmmmhmm." Simisola drops a piece of chitlin in her mouth. "So peaceful."
I take a piece of ham and chitlin together. Simisola crawls to me, "Patience. One at a time."
"Oh!"
.
.
.
I cannot find my damn way out this fucking apartment. I have no marker. I can't make a U-turn, can't ask for directions. What if I gotta pee? Is there a spell for that? That a nigga gotta hold his bladder for eons while incarcerate?
I think I went down the same hall like five fucking times. And now I must choose between right and left. I choose to go left because I wanna leave this bitch!
Pass a window, the air is changing, is that a music box? I start to slow down as come to a diner.
The white tile floors, a red background and disco lap above the diner. I go to the counter, "Um, do you work here?"
"Huh?" I think it's a zombie. "Lost soul? We don't serve prisoners." he says. His eye ball in his left eye socket is hanging out. His pinky on his right hand is missing. "Um, what's your name?"
"You first," he gumbles. I grimace, "Alexis B. Kelly."
"McCoy." he grabs a bottle under the counter keeping his eyes on me. "But it's Harper and Shiloh doesn't like her mama. I don't who the fuck Davea is."
"My granny," I say. He looks to the ceiling in thought, "Nope, that's a seller. Davea went to jail and the church let her go."
"Who are you?"
"Delbert Puckett." he grabs a glass from the cabinets behind him. "Ok." Now what? "Torielle is my granddaughter" he sets the glass on the table and takes the cork out the bottle with his hands. "Sit down."
"You know Tori?"
"I said she my grandbaby. My son is belligerent. The boy ain't never been right." he pours a cup from the bottle. "He is retarded."
"Who yo son?"
"I hate him. Montgomery Ashley Puckett."
"Ashley," I mutter. "I have to get out this apartment!"
"Vampire homes have a heart. Something in the building is conscious but it's not the angel."
"Angel?"
"Stop that. Usaimphus is dead. Thanks," he glares. "Though the damn thing didn't do anything to us specifically. At least that's one barricade down. Still can't fucking leave." Dilbert slides over the cup, "For me?"
"How old are you?"
"Um, 19…" I don't even know anymore.
"Go ahead, might be yo last drink of the year." he settles his arms against the counter. I bend my neck back and drop the liquid down my throat. My esophagus burns and my eyes start to water. "What is that?" I fan my eyes.
"Holy water."
My nostrils burn, I cough. "I can't breathe." I hack and wheeze. "Yep, you the antichrist." nods Delbert.
"You tryin to kill me?" I hop off my seat and try to shallow. More violent coughing. I suck up snot and press my palms against my eyes. "OH SHIT!"
"It hurts?" says Dilbert. "You'll be ok."
"OH MY GOD!" I went to the club and had that goddamn bloody vodka, Never again, lord. I beat against my chest. I can't see.
Dilbert goes through his dresser and shelves of wine and liquors. I hear him mixing, I slap the counter unable to breath. My fangs stick my bottom lip. My tongue is on fire. "HELP!" My nose is running! I wipe my lip and blood stains my sleeve. Fuck it! I give up!
"Here." he slide over another cup. I take off my shirt and cry into the material. My voice is hoarsed, "SHIT!"
"Drink it!" he yells. I snatch the cup off the counter and throw it down my mouth. My spirit waves, I see a second pair of arms. "EW!" I end up burping and commit all over the floor.
"What the fuck!" I snap my head at Dilbert. "It's good for you. If you have a fiary inside you, let me get rid of the impuries. This diner is pure, holy. I'll be damned if you come in here like my son and piss a bucket of darkness on the floor."
I just vomited on the floor. "Why did you give me that? My heart was racing, I could've died!"
"And?"
"Well, damn!"
"It's EXSPELL liquor. Gets rid of toxicity in the spirit. Especially if you drunk."
"So that cures drunk vampires?"
"Sure does, or else Aleigha wouldn't have me make it. Doesn't do shit for dead folk but he gives me bone sometimes."
"Where is he?"
"Dead." he states bluntly. "That's probably why the house acting up. The king missin'."
I soothe my chest, "Jesus christ…" I look at Dilbert. "What about Torielle?"
"Torielle, if you remember. Went to jail." he squints. "THat's my second grandchild, her sister is dead."
"I'm--" I'm not. I never was. "I'm sorry."
"My big fat ass retarded son raped a baby."
I'm sick. "Went to jail. Killed three people in jail. Held a cop hostage in his own cell; while in prison. All Aleigha did was rape niggas to relive frustration."
"What was he like with Torielle?"
"She look like me…" Dilbert gags. "My son has a religion that men started the world. So, the man can get pregnant."
I'm silent. "Eve came from adam's ribs." clarifies Dilbert. "And the Smiley family came from an arm and tongue." he mumbles. "My son, my stupid ass son said men could get pregnant so therefore." he exhales deeply. "Therefore! Men should have say over the kid."
"Was he ever on child support?"
"YES!"
I avert my eyes. "Torielle's mother is Yahoska, whom he shot in her own salon! My stupid ass mistake of a fucking son used to beat my granddaughter as a infant so the baby had seizures. But I knew about it. So I put my grandbaby in the bath!"
"What?"
"I did it… I asked Aleigha, who also knew, I said; please bring this baby back! She didn't get a chance to live and so… my grandbaby came back." he pauses. "It's magnum opus has a lot to do with drowning baptisms."
That's not what that is.
"Listen to me because I have the traits." he pours another cup of holy water. "Mind yo self. Vamps is ugly without blood and ugly in spirit." he passes the cup. He goes to a small fridge full of liquor about liter in size. It's an assortment of blue bottles with a black or white strap around it. "Take one with you." he lays it on the counter. "That's a secret too. Sinner are confused where heaven is but if you clean, you might find yo way out."
"I need to get the poison out of me?"
"Exactly."
"Toy?" I turn around to see a man in a white shirt with a black jacket and slits in his baggy jeans. "Toy?"
"That's not her, Sweet."
"Well… it look like her…" he walks towards me and grabs my arm, he turns me. "You look like Toy…"
He's quite handsome, his nose is big with a bit of length. He's not ugly. "I don't…" I shake my head.
"You look like Toy…"
I thought I was finna fall in love again. Then my cheek grows hot as I fall off the chair.