Hood Ornaments

“What’s wrong, Ma? Pop? Why ain’t y’all at the viewing?”

Dell asked trying again to control his excitement and his breathing. Luke looked angry, but was still trying to comfort Betty who appeared visibly shaken.

“Would you believe they have all of the streets to the funeral home blocked off?” Luke’s hands flailed in the air,

“Somethin about a police situation. What the hell could cause a police situation at a funeral home?”

Betty now rubbed Luke’s arm, “Your pressure…”

“That poor boy probably ain’t even get the chance to say goodbye to his own grandmother. This whole damn city has gone to shit!”

“Pop!” Dell’s stomach flipped over, and it took him everything in his power not to vomit.”

“Don’t Pop me boy. I know I am a pastor, but I am also human. With emotions. This city used to be a community. A family would be proud to raise their children here. Not no more. Once the industry closed up and took the jobs with them, all the hardworking people either had to leave, or both parents had to work. Sometimes, two or three jobs a piece. Working that hard just to survive wore a family out. Parents were too tired to nurture their children. So they ran wild. Joined gangs. Started drinkin. Doin dope. Sellin dope. Fightin. Stealin. Shootin. Dyin. I bet if you went door to door and asked who the head of household was, a woman would answer. Most of the men in this city are dead, in jail, strung out, or ran away from their responsibilities. And the cycle continues.”

Luke’s rant accompanied the family into the house, and they all sat down.

“Pop…”

Luke went in the kitchen to get a glass of lemonade. Betty kissed her son on the cheek and whispered that she was going to change her clothes. Luke took a swallow of his drink, cleared his throat, sat down in his chair and resumed speaking as if he had never stopped.

“And I know what you’re thinkin, Rondell, but Stic…Samuel’s karma is gonna come back to him. I may not be alive to see it. Shoot, you may not even be alive to see it. But I know my brother has done too much in his life for it not to. And that’s only what I know.”

Dell didn’t have lemonade, but he swallowed hard.

“Pop, what did you mean by I may not be alive to see it. I don’t plan to go nowhere but college.”

Luke chuckled to himself, “Rondell, I pray I am wrong, but do you know how to make God laugh?”

“Pop?”

“Make plans, Son, make plans.”

Dell just sat there confused for a while. First, his father was upset with him because he was runnin behind Sticks with no plans for his life. Then when he decided to become a citizen and made plans for his life, his own father tells him that God won’t like that he made plans. None of this was making any fucking sense to him. He needed to get some air.

Maybe he would check to see if the chaos calmed down at the funeral home. He couldn’t go to Sticks’ hotel. It was about to get real hot there. The only place he could think of to go was Trudy’s. This way maybe he could calm down, talk to Tori, and get some sort of plan together, no matter what God or Luke had to say about it.

As he pulled up, the first thing he recognized was that Trudy’s curtains were still drawn. But it was what Dell saw after the fact that caused him the most concern. There were not one but two shadows behind those curtains. Dell sunk down in his seat slowly.

To an outsider looking in, it would have appeared he was reaching for his cell phone. In reality, he was scanning the block for unmarked vehicles. Realizing he was one of three cars on the street, he then sucked his teeth and quickly got out of his truck.

Ain’t nobody here you idiot.

Every cop in this city is at the funeral home.

No one is looking for me.

But somebody is there with Trudy, and he had no idea who it could be.

Might as well find out.

For a split second Dell’s heart pounded because of the questions that encompassed his mind.

Could it be?

Tori?

With that he jogged to the side door and lightly wrapped on the window. He heard the familiar sound of Trudy’s slippers shuffling across the floor. He then saw the curtain flip up while he heard the locks click. He took a step back as Trudy opened the door.

“You musta felt me boy, I was just about to text you,” she said while stepping aside so Dell could enter. His mouth dropped open when he saw Sticks casually sipping tea at the kitchen table.

“The hell?”

“Go home, pack a bag, we gotta go.”

“Go? Why...how did you…?”

Sticks rolled his eyes. “You ask an awful lot of questions”

“Well in my past, I have discerned that in order to protect myself I need to.”

Sticks huffed.

Trudy took it upon herself to interject, “Dell, don’t sass your uncle. Just do what he says. It’s important. Before you know it, everybody will be back home and…”

Her voice cracked and the tears followed. Dell gave a surprised look to his uncle as his eyes followed Trudy out of the kitchen, her footsteps, up the stairs into Tori’s room. Then he heard the door close.

“C’mon boy, let’s go to your house and get a bag together. I’ll explain once we are on the road.”

Sticks unlocked Dell’s truck as if he had been driving it. Dell mechanically got in on the passenger side. He and Sticks exchanged angry glances as the truck was started.

“You can ask one question right now, Dell. The rest you are just gonna have to wait for.”

Dell huffed, sucked his teeth, and let his head fall back onto the headrest. There was just one question he wanted to know. Once he saw Trudy crying there was only one question Dell needed an answer to immediately. Sticks’ uncanny ability to read his nephew’s mind saved Dell from asking the question and becoming emotional.

“No. Tori is not okay, but she will be. All we have to do is stick to the plan, which you will find out before we get to her.”