If You ’Bout That Life!: Take Money

By David L. Mcnair

King and Kyron were just average stick-up kids until one day, they stumbled across the lick of a lifetime. The best friends were not into selling drugs and would rather take money from local dealers who made their neighborhood drug infested. The two friends had to make the ultimate choice after finding out who the major plug really was. Will blood really run thicker than water, or will greed be enough to make the young goons put the murder game down?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543457650

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

T HE ALARM SOUNDED off, irritating Rosie out of a beautiful dream. Her boyfriend was on top of her, making passionate love to her. She loved when they got intimate throughout the night going into the break of dawn. This was all before he got set up by some jealous motherfuckers from the opposite side of town in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a.k.a. the ’Burg, a.k.a. Star City, Pistolvania.

Rosie tossed and turned, trying to pick up where she had left off in her dream.

Beep, beep, beep.

She finally sat up on the king-size canopy waterbed and realized it was time to get her daughter dressed for school and head to work herself.

Toodie! she shouted from her bed, not really wanting to move out of her comfortable spot. She didn’t hear any stirring around from the other room, so she called her again, Toodie, wake up!

I’m up, Mom, she finally answered back. Rosie had already expected her daughter to be fully dressed, teeth brushed, and face washed. Normally, all that was done before she got out of bed.

Toodie was a bright girl at nine years old. She was an honor roll student, and she hated missing school. On the days she had to visit the doctor or dentist, she would always re-test because she felt like she was missing something if she didn’t go to school that day. It was even hard for her to go to her great-granny’s funeral. Toodie was just adamant on being in school on time every day. Toodie would often recite the phrases her dad told her, Knowledge is power and The early bird gets the worm, while she was getting ready for school.

Toodie was the only child, and she was spoiled rotten by her father King. He was known around town as KB. Toodie hated the day her father got arrested, and she remembered that day like it was yesterday.

It was five o’clock in the morning when she first heard her puppy Luchi barking aggressively, Roof, roof, roof. For him to only be six months old, he had a loud bark for such a tiny body. His small stature was similar to a mastiff. Luchi barked again and was running back and forth from the front door to her room, indicating that there was a problem outside in the front yard. The loud barks had awakened Rosie instantly.

King, King, Rosie cried out loud as she nudged him out of his deep slumber.

Yes, babe.

Go and see what’s got Luchi so hyped up, Rosie demanded.

Before Toodie could call her father, she heard a vicious knock on the front door.

Boom, boom, boom.

King, we know you’re in there! a voice shouted from the other side of the door.

Toodie panicked and ran to her parents’ room as she saw her dad lift a pillow off the bed to reveal a black 9 mm and cocked it back, ready for action. Toodie never knew her father owned the gun until that day. She watched as her dad looked out of their bedroom window.

Damn, it’s the dicks, babe! King shouted.

Toodie wondered who the dicks were. Then she heard, Police, HPD, police! We have a warrant for King Jones! Open up!

King started to think that buying that troubled steel-plated door really came in handy. There was no way anybody would get in through the door he paid $3,000 for. He also thought they mistook him for someone else. He put away the gun and told Luchi to stay while he opened the door to clarify things up.

Toodie watched her dad unlock the dead bolt on the door and step out into the front porch. Then she saw two uniformed officers manhandle her father to the porch floor facedown.

Nooo! Toodie cried. The sound of Toodie’s voice made Luchi ignore what King had told him to do. He ran straight outside, only to be shot instantly.

Pow!

The sound of a sawed-off shotgun echoed to the whole house and made Rosie run downstairs, hoping nothing happened to King. Toodie stood in silence, tears flowing freely down her young face, wishing her father didn’t open the door. She had to rethink this situation, and it was a shame that she remembered everything so well, even though she was only five years old when it happened. Toodie knew her dad was coming home in less than eleven months, and she counted down the days one by one.

CHAPTER 2

R OSIE SHOWERED FOR ten minutes, wishing she could be washing away sweat from passionate sex that included syrup, chocolate, and whipped cream, but she was only washing away perspiration from thoughts of a dream.

Come on, Mom! Toodie yelled from downstairs. She wanted her mother to hurry up so that she could have some extra time to speak with her favorite teacher before class started. I have a spelling test today! Toodie was excited to tell her mother the good news.

Well, good luck to you! I know you’ll do well. I guess you want to get your usual before school? Rosie asked. Toodie always got the number 10 combo from McDonald’s, steak and eggs.

No, thank you! I’ll just eat cereal at school, if you just come on.

Wow, in that case, I’m coming now before you change your mind. Rosie giggled as she met her daughter at the door. Gimme a kiss! Rosie requested before Toodie had a chance to close the Nissan Maxima’s door as she got out.

Mom, my friends are right there waiting for me. She was trying to avoid giving her mother some sugar.

You know your dad wants me to kiss you every day for him too! So that’s two kisses. She laughed.

Ugh, Mom!

Plus, you need lunch money, so let’s make it three kisses. Rosie had her now. She knew Toodie would have to give in at this point.

She only gave in because of the mention of her father. Then it suddenly dawned on her. Mom!

Yes?

It’s Friday. Can we go early today? Toodie really looked forward to the days where she got to visit her dad.

Sure, only if you can get a 100 percent on your test today, Rosie said, knowing Toodie would ace the test anyway. Plus, Rosie wanted to kiss her boyfriend of ten years badly, she could taste his tongue as she spoke.

Last Friday, when Toodie and Rosie went to see King, a guy and his girlfriend had an unexpected visitor, his mistress. All hell broke loose in the visiting room, and the correctional officers ended up shutting the daytime visiting room down. It never happened in four years until last Friday, but Toodie wanted to make sure she spent all her time with her father that she could. She didn’t need any problems that could shorten time with him. The Friday before last, Toodie didn’t come because Rosie made up a bogus story to get Toodie to stay with her sister Keymiya.

That Friday, Rosie wore her sexy green give it to me dress to see King because the guard on King’s payroll was working between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. After getting patted down by a female correctional officer, Rosie walked through the steel bars into the visiting room. Immediately, she spotted the guard she had been instructed to give a crispy $50 bill to and went straight into the vending area.

Hello, Keyshawn, Rosie said as she shook hands with the money inside her palm.

Hi, Rosie, he replied, smiling and happy to be a part of King’s empire. Keyshawn put up Do Not Enter signs on the vending area walkway and stayed close, securing the area, making sure his boy was going to be able to do his thing back there.

King rang the bell, and Keyshawn heard the buzz on the other side and signaled that it was cool to go straight back to the vending area.

CHAPTER 3

Ding!

T HE SOUND OF her time card being punched made Rosie feel at ease. It was 7:58 a.m., and she wasn’t trying to get her last occurrence today. It was payday for her, test day for Toodie, and visiting day for King. Besides Friday being a good day for her, Mr. Davion, her manager, told her about getting to work late with a McNair’s Flavor fish sandwich only for her. Davion always told her that if she got time to stop on Walnut Street, then she could have avoided being three minutes late for work every Friday.

But the truth was even Mr. Davion couldn’t resist going to McNair’s Flavor restaurant every two or three days a week after work. Hands down, they had the best food that Harrisburg had to offer. There were decent restaurants in town, but no soul food tasted the way Ms. Nasia made it. That woman could cook anything, and it was like crack, how people became addicted to it. Ms. Nasia would let you taste another dish when you bought a dish, and you just had to come back to eat a