“I know that, Aunt Sybil,” he said. “Don’t worry about me.”
“I’m not just worried about you, son. I’m worried about that child. Well, I’m worried about the both of you. I want to see you do something productive with your life.”
They turned the corner to walk back in the opposite direction.
“I wanted to run something by you, T.C. You know I closed my own practice and started working at a firm.”
“Yeah, Mama told me the man got you.”
“Yeah, well the man pays the bills, let me tell you. Nothing like a paycheck every two weeks.” She laughed, a polite chuckle. “Anyway, they’re looking for a mailboy. It’s not much, but if you do all right there, you could rise up to paralegal. Then, if that seemed like a good fit, I have enough stowed away to pay for you to go to law school.”
He laughed. “Law school? I barely made it out of the twelfth grade.” He laughed again, but she cut him short.
“That’s because your focus was off. Basketball is great as a hobby, but you can’t rely on it. I told your mama that when you were a boy, but no, that made too much like sense. Anyway, here we are now, and I have an opportunity for you.” She stopped walking, gripped his wrist. “Don’t answer me now. I want you to think about it, really think about it, ’cause if you take it, I’m going to need your commitment. You know I’m just starting out at this place, T, and I’d be putting my neck out for you.”
He nodded. “I know,” he said. “I know.”
Licia was up when they got back, and she and his aunt said quick hellos. T.C. walked Aunt Sybil out.
“I’ll let you know in a week or so,” he said before they hugged.
When he got back, Malik was more alert than T.C. had ever seen him.
“What she wanted?” Licia asked.
“To offer me some job.”
“Hmph. Working for her?”
“Yeah. In her new office.”
“That’s funny, you always said you wished Sybil would give you the hookup.”
“Yeah, I know. But the timing is off. I got some things I need to finish and then maybe—”
“Don’t be stupid, T,” Licia cut him off. “That’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, what she’s proposing, and the timing is perfect. You know Sybil wasn’t fucking with you after jail. But she came all the way out here to see the baby and offer you that job. That’s something. I mean, maybe Malik worked out that miracle himself.” She paused, cooing at the baby. “Don’t mess it up by being prideful.”
“I’m not being prideful.” T.C. lifted the baby from Licia’s arms. “I’m not being prideful,” he repeated in a baby voice, making funny faces with his seed. “It’s just a big deal,” he said. “I gotta think about it first.”
Alicia didn’t respond; she just looked at him hamming it up with their child, and finally she laughed.
They were discharged the next morning. After T.C. dropped his baby off, he took Licia’s car to Tiger’s to check on his weed. He could see once he got inside that the bags were light, but he rooted through them anyway when he reached the mattress, trying to make sense of the deficit. He dialed Tiger up.
“What the fuck, nigga? Where my shit at?”
“Sold, mothafucka! I tried calling you, but you didn’t answer.”
“You know Licia had the baby.”
“I heard, I heard congratulations were due, and I figured you’d be all camped out with her and lil’ Malik, so I took it upon myself to put that lil’ nigga I interviewed to work. He went out on Monday, and by Thursday a quarter of that shit was sold. I told you my marketing campaign was what’s up. I was just on my way back to the house to reup.”
“And give me my money.”
“Right, and give you your money. I mean, I took a cut for myself like we discussed, but 75 percent is for you, nigga, and well earned. You did it.”
“Well, I had help too, bruh,” T.C. had calmed down some, knowing he was about to be paid. Shit, diapers were expensive, and as of this morning they were off Blue Cross’s dollar.
“But you still coulda waited though, bruh,” he added. “It’s my shit. I like to label it, and I knock the prices up for some of the rare mixes,” he added.
“Oh, I just took the liberty of knocking them all up. Sixty bucks an eighth.”
“And people paid that much? Even for the OG?”
“Hell, yeah, I told you, leave the marketing to me. Anyway, you gon’ be there in twenty? I’m on my way. I got some other things I want to discuss with you.”
Tiger was manic when he arrived, scooping up the bags so fast T.C. couldn’t keep track.
“Calm down, mothafucka. What’s gotten into you?”
“Aw, nothing, bruh. I’m just amped, you know. My lil’ nigga said they asking about more, and we gotta take advantage of all this momentum.” He sat down on the edge of the mattress.
“That’s actually what I want to talk with you about,” Tiger went on. “I know you just had the baby and all that, but we got a market, a serious one. I’ma need you to go get some more of them cuttings tonight, start over, maybe double up. Two months from now is too long to have people waiting, T.C. I’m gon’ be done with this batch in a few weeks max, and then how we gon’ look, dry as fuck for the next two months? Nah, I’m thinking we could set it up so we always have some in rotation. Like halfway through the process, start on the next.”
T.C. stood up from the mattress, his hands in front of him.
“Man, hell no. I told you when we started this it was just temporary, to get me on my feet. I got a kid now, bruh. I’m not messing with this stuff.”
“That’s why we got lil’ Kevin on the street selling. Nobody’s even gon’ trace it back to you.”
“Don’t be stupid, the first thing that lil’ nigga’s gon do is tell on me when he get caught.”
“You mean on me? He ain’t never even met you. And I got you, bruh. Trust me.”
“Till we beef out, then my name gon’ be all over your mouth.”
“What we gon’ beef out over?”
T.C. sighed, shook his head. “Look, man, it’s not that I don’t trust you. I just don’t trust the industry. I’m out after this. Go head, you and Kevin sell this lil’ bit, and however long it takes, that’s fine, but when it’s over, it’s over.”
“What, Winn-Dixie calling for you?” Tiger started singing the theme song. “Hey, by the way, While you’re at the marketplace—”
“Shut that shit up,” T.C. cut him off. “Nah, as a matter of fact”—T.C. paused, not sure if he wanted to continue—“as a matter of fact, bruh, my auntie offered me a job.”
“Who, that lawyer?”
“Yeah, she want me to start working by her firm.”
Tiger bust out laughing. “What, you trying to be some lawyer now? Oh shit, now I know you crazy. They ain’t gon’ let you through the front doors of no law firm. If they do, if they do, they damn sure not gon’ keep you the whole first day.”
T.C.’s head was down, but he raised it before he spoke. “Well, maybe so, but I owe it to myself to try. I owe it to everybody, Licia, the baby, shit, my mama. She suffered enough over me.”