I noticed a small box I had never noticed before. When I picked up the box and opened it, it had guns in it. Then I noticed plastic Baggies filled with a white substance. I bent down and examined it. That’s when I realized there was cocaine in my house: not just in my house, but my boys had found it!
I grabbed them each by their little faces and made them open their mouths. I looked inside to make sure they hadn’t swallowed any of it. “You boys didn’t mess with this stuff did you?” I held up one of the Baggies. My emotions were everywhere when I realized how much danger I had allowed my sons to be in. I thought about what could’ve happened if they had swallowed some of the dope or one of them would have been shot and I screamed out.
“Oh my God! Jesus!” I cried in relief. I fell to my knees and began to scream out to Jesus. I looked at how upset my babies were getting and I knew I had to be strong for them. I had to get up and comfort them and take control of this situation. I covered my mouth and held my boys and cried.
I put the boys to bed and waited for Jason to get home. While waiting I took the dope and flushed it all down my toilet. I was so angry and I wanted him to understand I wasn’t playing with him. Bringing drugs into my home was unacceptable.
“Bet you don’t bring no more of this stuff in here!” I declared. He had gone too far.
I kept calling his cell the entire time I waited but he didn’t answer. I started leaving him voice mails.
“Jason! When you get this call me! Please!” I hung up and paced back and forth to the bedrooms then I sat on my bed and boohooed. “Jesus, if you just give me a sign, I will leave him alone, please.”
But I knew I wasn’t ready for it to be over between us. I knew it was probably for the best but I wasn’t ready to let him go, not yet. What more of a sign did I need? He brought drugs and guns in my house.
I sat there on my bed and stared at the closet door, then jumped up and went over and opened it back up. I found a storage closet inside my closet and opened it up. That’s where I found a briefcase, sitting there. I pulled out the silver briefcase and tried to open it but it was locked. It didn’t have a key. It was the kind that had to be opened by a code. I sat on the bed and thought and played around with a few numbers.
“Zero-five-two-three! That’s it, Jason’s birthday! That’s the code!” I said. I had tried numerous numbers, such as the house address number. Why not his birthday?
Once I entered it, the briefcase opened.
“Oh my God!” I shouted after seeing the contents. I looked toward my boys’ room, got up off the bed, and closed the door quietly. I didn’t want to disturb them while they slept.
I flipped through the cash I’d stumbled upon. “ It has to be at least fifty grand!” I went to my bedroom window and looked out before I began to count it.
I thought about how Jason never invited any of his friends to my home except Kev. I started to panic and get paranoid. Realizing how much money, dope, and guns were in my possession was frightening. “He has put us in danger!”
I wasn’t a dope dealer. Somebody could run up in here or, worse yet, the police could be watching my house. Since Jason wasn’t returning my calls I picked the phone back up and called Kev this time.
“What’s up, Reese?” Kev answered.
“Kev! Where the heck is Jason? I’ve been calling his cell for about an hour and he’s not answering me. He needs to get here fast. I found his stuff!”
“Oh, uh, I’ma have him call you, Reese. You all right?”
“No! I’m mad as heck! I can’t believe this . . . My boys found that mess. Tell him to come get his stuff out my house now, Kev.”
“Okay, okay, Reese, calm down. I will have him call you.”
I hung up the phone, but the craziest thing happened. Kev’s cell had dialed me back up, and I heard everything that was said. From the background sounds, apparently Kev was sitting at a bar somewhere with Jason discussing their next move when I called. I could hear Jason running his mouth. I pictured him flashin’ his money and touchin’ up on some young thing.
“Jay! We got a problem, we need to go now, man!” I heard Kev holler. “I told you, Jay! I told you!” I could hear Kev yell.
I heard their doors shut once they were inside the vehicle.
“Man, what happened? Just tell me everything she said! What’s goin’ on?”
I felt weird listening in on them, but how ironic was it that Kev’s cell had dialed me? So you bet I was gonna listen.
“Reese found that stash you left at her place! I told you don’t do it!” I heard Kev say.
I pictured Jason probably reclined in his seat and leaned way back, acting all smooth. “It’s cool. I needed to tell her the truth anyway. I’m tired of actin’ like somebody I’ll never be. I’m a killa, that’s what she needs to know!”
I couldn’t believe I was finding all this out this way. I was so angry at Jason for the deceit that he had done, and to act all concerned about me and my boys and do this made me know he was playing games with my mind and my heart.
“Man, you a fool, that’s what you are! Don’t put yo’ hands on that girl, man, she cool people,” Kev told him.
“What?” Jason sounded surprised by his best friend’s statement and, frankly, I was too. Jason had never raised his hand to me before. “I ain’t, man, no reason for that wit’ her. She’ll be all right once I get there. Just take me to my truck. You ain’t gotta come wit’ me. We straight.”
“I don’t mind goin’. Just in case it gets out of hand, man. Jay, I know you. You get there, flip out, then it’s all bad,” Kev reasoned with Jay.
I was speechless. I felt so betrayed by the both of them. First of all, Jason was my man and he had deceived me and brought trash in my house. Then there was Kev, Mr. Innocent himself, I had thought. I had felt we were connected and he had my back. Yeah, right!
“Naw, man, I got it. Stop right here,” I heard Jason order. I could hear Jason get out the truck. Kev must have sat there because next I heard an engine start and a car pull off. It became silent on the phone for a few seconds, and then Kev said my name.
“Dang, Reese, I’m sorry. Just can’t get in the middle of that.” A few seconds later the phone went dead. I’d heard enough anyway.
When Jason pulled up to the house, I was still upset. I got off the couch in the family room and looked out the window at him walking toward the house. He was so cool and calm, talking on his cell and laughing. I heard him turn the key; then the door opened up and I went back over to the couch and sat down. I looked at the time on the cable box; it was well past midnight when he finally got there. The boys were upstairs in their room, sleeping.
I couldn’t contain my mouth. I couldn’t just let him get this one off without telling him to get that mess out of here.
I watched him come in, then hang his coat up in the closet. He grabbed himself a soda, kissed me on the forehead, then sat down beside me. I had to ask myself, Is this idiot for real? I couldn’t believe him. I couldn’t believe he was acting like nothing had happened. All along this man had been telling me he owned a business and he’s nothing more than a dope dealer. Really?
I watched him sit and flick through the channels on the TV. “So, Jay? I mean, you not going to say nothing? I know Kev told you.” I got up off the couch and stood in front of him with my hands on my hips.
“Where the boys, Reese? They in the bed?” He leaned back on the couch and pulled out a blunt. “Come sit down and smoke wit’ me.” He patted the couch beside where he sat.
