(RECAP)
I mounted Arnold's bike riding it shakily out of the yard across the draw bridge at the edge of the property.
"SHIT TAMAYA, UN!! UN!! UN!! UN!! UN!! FUCK!!" I was taunted by some unseen kids as I rode by the side of the trailer towards the park. Her young charges trolling me were obviously in the know as I still wondered if they were her children after all.
When all was said and done Tamaya Hope was a prostitute.
I resolved to cherish the memory and delete her shitty postcoital explanation as I absentmindedly found myself riding back towards Ms. Minnie's house finding Arnold walking in my direction with his shirt draped over his shoulder.
"Where you been?" He asked.
"I took a ride into the twilight zone; saw some tig ole' bitties at the park too; fake ass church girl over there." My mouth was rebelling wholesale as Arnold laughed probably noticing my butthurt expression.
"OH I KNOW WHO YOU TALKING ABOUT!! UHM, HER NAME TAMINA OR SOME SHIT LIKE THAT, RIGHT?!!" His uninhibited mirth was off-putting.
"Tamaya."
"Watch out for her bruh; she selling the kitty around there. Bitch been coming down here for the last two years hawking her titties to dummies with loose pockets! Uh, did she get in your wallet like Capital One?"
"Hell no." I lied unevenly as Arnold side eyed me.
"Get off my bike; oh yeah, come with me over to the house. I need you to run interference between me and Daisy Mae."
"Yeah?"
Once again the hair stood up on the back of my neck as I thought of the night prior and our tryst in those woods.
Was it a dream?
I was about to find out.
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TIG OLE' BITTIES 5
I was in for a surprise as we rounded the bend coming up on Arnold's trailer home in that we found the front yard occupied surprisingly by Daisy Mae and Niecy who was in the process of having a hair braided. The specter of fear and overt guilt ran through my body as I shot Arnold a side eye knowing what I had spent the whole of the previous day doing with his girlfriend. It all seemed so surreal up until this very moment as I watched Niecy sitting on a plastic milk crate with Daisy Mae posted up behind her in a chair from their kitchen.
The plus size beauty was using a hot comb on her future sister-in-law's head with a little set up on a wooden crate that contained some hair supplies and a nasty looking jar of Vaseline. The hot comb was plugged into an exterior outlet on the trailer I hadn't noticed before. you know Niecy honestly looked like an oversized kid sitting there with her shoulders slumped wincing as that sizzling hot piece of metal ran through her hair. It didn't look like a pleasurable experience. Daisy Mae's own rather large shock of wild curls hid her face putting her eyes partially in shadow as she worked intently with the strained expression. Niecy wore a simple white slip, cleavage bulging.
"Something wrong with your eyes?" She spoke abruptly with the tone sounding rather terse.
I wasn't sure if she was speaking to me or her boyfriend looking at him for some guidance before she glanced up simultaneously reaching back want her sister in laws head making the woman wince and cry out from the heat. Her big ham sized fist cupped Niecy's chin roughly adjusting her noggin before taking a dab of Vaseline to her scalp.
"I'm talking to you and I wanna know if there's something wrong with your eyes because you seem to be staring a hole in my head. I wanna know if you got a problem that my boyfriend needs to fix."
"Come on now Daisy this is my friend Robert, he from the city; I can vouch that these good people and I've known him since we were little kids."
"Arnold how long have I known him?"
"Well I guess you're meeting him right now I reckon."
"Then you ain't worried about him staring up at me like he wanna snap me up for a snack?"
"Come on stop playing girl he's like my best friend."
"So I'm supposed to automatically be OK with some guy I never seen looking at me with nasty eyes probably wishing he can use your bed to sate his lust; since you're so cool with him perhaps you want me to go in your trailer and get on my hands and knees. Is that what you want Arnold?"
"I'm not saying anything I was just bringing him here to meet you." My friend looked thrown off by her candor I was as well feeling like a third wheel, an, intruder and a complete stranger.
Her voice betrayed nothing of the previous day and our tryst. the way she spoke made me feel as if everything that occurred was some elaborate fever induced mirage conjured up by the stifling summer heat and the pungent smell of the sewage assailing my nostrils even as I stood there in the middle of the street looking at her angry countenance. Daisy Mae sat there in a blue cotton night dress staring back at me lime green eyes full of fire and brimstone. It felt like Arnold was shrinking right before my very eyes under her gaze.