"I have another son!" Chere shouted. "You have another brother. H-H-He… HE WAS ON A CASE!"
Seign sighed, "What case? Daddy yo soul is strange--"
"Don't tell me my soul is strange!" he yelled. "My shit is in the right place. My memory ain't bad!"
"You ain't got no body…" Seign said lowly. Chere's soul twitched and wobbled. "GATA!" he exploded. "GATA LYONS!"
"I don't--"
"SHUT UP!"
"OK…"
"You another brother, Gata. I was in the house."
"You was in the house…"
"And it was night! When it was night, I woke up cause I was cold."
"Ok, Ok. Where was I?"
"I didn't care!"
"Pop imma kill myself…" he didn't mean it. It was a light hearted joke at best. "Seign shut the hell up!"
He chortled. "I was in bed. I should have been in the coffin, but I was like my back hurt imma sleep in the bed upstairs." Chere heaved, "…my chest hurt."
"Yo chest hurts?"
Chere's soul shaped into his figure he recalled, na diamond faced man with yellow brown skin. He touched his neck. "I don't remember that…"
Chere's breath quickened. "Where were you?"
"I don't remember!" retorted Seign. "I was with Delagati!"
"Somebody cut my head off…" Chere smoothed down his bloody shirt. He counted the bullet holes, "I'm so confused."
.
.
.
"You want a house!" I'm sicken. It's always some simple minded shit. "What the fuck you want my apartment for?"
"You know why." He has short, tangled, dreadlocks styled into a rope connected from ear to ear. "I don't! What the fuck could I have more golden then my daughter--which I refuse to give that up--nigga, I wouldn't even had more grand--"
"I want the church…"
"What?"
"The church. The one with the basement."
"It doesn't have a basement." I scorn. "If it did, what the fuck you want with it?"
"My mother."
"Bitch!"
"You have my mother under the basement."
"Nigga, yo mama at the club not under my damn church!" The mission was to get out the bridge. "I know where Shikki is."
"So do I…" I sing in mockery. "What the fuck yo mama doing in a basement. Oh you mean spider webs and shit."
"Shikki is in Growden's house…"
I go quiet. "She's been moved several times. I am the son of a spider, a devil thing."
"Who the daddy? Crickets? Yo daddy a cricket?" I'm irritated as shit. "My father is a snake."
"Asphy'hod."
"You lying to me. You mean the damn Idol?" I reach for his throat and drag him down to the water. I stomp on his head. "My last name is fucking Bible."
"There are children from Idols." he grunts. "My father was made by Gata.
"Gata Lyons? That's another fuckin' lie. Gata left the family, he's cut off!"
His eye circles inside his head. "Why do they call you the Puzzle Man?"
"There are MEN in this world."
"There are MEN!" he chokes. "MANY MEN! You have a son, Coochie!" I press my foot into his head. "How do I get off the bridge?"
"The Growdens cut off heads! Somebody has your body! I head a headstone!" he wheezes. My eyes glow, "MY HEAD!?"
"Great Magic!" he yells. "Powerful rap lyric!"
I rub my foot in his skull. "Stop!"
"More."
"Growden cut off the heads for a massive ritual. We were appointed!"
"What my son got to do with it?"
"You disowned him! You didn't know you had a daughter! Listen--Listen!" My eyes drop. "You don't have bodies to go to. The heads are different. You have to steal!"
"Where is my daughter?"
"At the house! She's on a plantation. You woke up with your father's body. You can't use the mummy."
"My son betrayed me?"
"You adopted another!"
"I don't remember." I bare my teeth. "SEANCE!" he screams. "I don't want my soul destroyed. It's Mums!"
"There you go talking about yo mama again."
"I lied! I'm telling you I was appointed it! Aleigha I used to have a record deal, you killed me, I sold you out!" I take my foot off his spirit and kick him in the head. His eyes flutter. "You ain't dead."
"Growden paid me…" the dirty water as a splash of red. I like it. It's kind of a pretty color. "Shikki told about his secrets."
"My baby is psychic…"
"It's Mums… Growden made a… a…a God."
"He made God. I love people playing fantastic, all you do is see them lie it off." I say. "Next…?"
"Growden… is a child molester. He prostitutes, Mahlon was a pimp. A woman beater."
"Ok… Next?"
"Linus is half black. Valentina is half black; she came from Shiloh. But first that was his daughter. He can't… he can't go through the alleys like we can. He lacks ancestry."
"So Mahlon is jealous?"
"He loves slavery. He had fun as a kid, his father taught him how to throw rope. You killed him…"
I said I was old. I smirk at this stupid shit, "Mahlon Growden is doing this?"
"Using the Idol Mums. That's why. God is underground."
"It's not a fucking God if it was created--"
"It's a fake. It's a fucking Idol my nigga!"
I kick him in his head again. "Don't test me." This bitch got me smiling. "So you was one of them?"
"We dogged the fuck outta Mable! Then her daughter got involved. I raped a little fat girl and somebody tagged Yawa's daughter. Shit nigga, some of us was in prison! I ain't had no damn money, my family fake as fuck!"
"But y'all put my baby in it?" I put my fist in my pockets. "He hated the fuck out that little girl. We sold yo ass out for money. Rank did it first!"
"Y'all took my baby out my arms… while I was sleep."
"You was a vampire. You still a nigger!"
My back arches, I'm about to be ugly. "You see this?" pink reflects on the surface of the water. "You did this because I was a slave?"
"We just wanted money!"
"Mahlon beefs with my granddaddy." I summon a blunt. "Imma beat yo ass."
"Aleigha!"
"How far can yo jaw stretch?"