I’m too tired to nod along. Right after King left, I put my son back to bed and tried to get a nap. Couldn’t for thinking ’bout that conversation with King.
Dre glance over at me. “You good, cuz?”
I rest my head back. “King rolled through earlier. I told him what you said.”
“How’d that go?”
“How you think it went? He was pissed, but he said he’d stop,” I lie. I gotta look out for my boy.
Dre nod. “Good. That’s all that’s bothering you?”
“Dawg, when did Andreanna start sleeping good?”
He laughs. “Don’t tell me you worn out already.”
“Hell yeah. I ain’t sleep worth shit this weekend.”
“Come with the territory, playboy. Be glad you got nothing else to do, like school. You told Shorty ’bout him yet?”
He mean Lisa. My baby only five two, but she ball like she six feet.
I twist one of my cornrows at the root. Last week, I sat between Lisa’s legs on her front porch as she braided me up. Fireflies flashed around us, and cicadas hit high notes. It was the kinda peace I needed.
“Nah,” I say. “I haven’t had a chance to go over there. I can’t tell her on the phone.”
“You gotta tell her or the streets will.”
“Ain’t nobody finna tell her.”
“Shiiiid, a’ight,” he says. “Put it off if you wanna. It’s gon’ bite you in the ass.”
He act like this gon’ be easy. Lisa gon’ be hurt, for real. It don’t matter that we weren’t together when I messed with Iesha. I messed with Iesha, period. “I ain’t ready to break her heart, Dre.”
“It’ll hurt her more if she hear it from somebody else. Take it from me. After some of the stuff I did, I’m lucky Keisha deal with me now.”
Dre been with Keisha since around seventh grade. Hard to imagine them not together. “Man, get outta here. Y’all stuck with each other.”
He laughs. “I hope you right. I’m more than ready to make it official.”
“Still can’t believe you getting married.” The word don’t feel right coming outta my mouth. “I love Lisa, but I can’t imagine letting a girl lock me down.”
“You say that now. One day, it’ll be a whole different story. Watch.”
“Nope! I’m a playa for life.”
Dre crack up. “Yeah, we’ll see.”
“Hail Mary” by Tupac start on the stereo. That’s my joint right there. ’Pac the greatest to ever do it. Hard to believe he been gone almost two years now. I remember when the radio announced he got shot in Vegas. I figured he’d be a’ight—he survived getting shot five times in New York. Dude was invincible. A few days later, he was dead.
At least that’s what they said. “Yo, did you hear? ’Pac alive.”
Dre laugh. “Get outta here! Next you gon’ tell me the world ending in the year 2000.”
People already bugging over this Y2K stuff, saying the year 2000 gon’ bring the apocalypse. We gotta make it through ’98 first.
“I don’t know if that’s true,” I admit. “They said on the radio that ’Pac living in Cuba with his auntie Assata. The government had a hit on him.”
“C’mon, Mav. Bill Clinton wouldn’t put a hit on ’Pac.”
Ma say Bill Clinton the closest thing we may ever get to a Black president.
“Shiid, I don’t know, man. ’Pac’s family full of Black Panthers, and he spoke so much truth. Word is he’ll come back in 2003.”
“Why 2003?” Dre says.
“It’s seven years after he faked his death,” I say. “’Pac got all these connections to the number seven. He was shot on the seventh. He died seven days after that, exactly seven months to the day that All Eyez on Me dropped.”
“That’s a coincidence, Mav.”
“Hear me out! He died at 4:03 p.m. Four plus three is seven. He was born on the sixteenth. One plus six, seven.”
Dre rub his chin. “He was also twenty-five when he died.”
“Right! Two plus five, seven. Then the name of his last album. That Makaveli joint.”
“The Seven Day Theory,” says Dre.
“Exactly! I’m telling you, he planned this.”
“Okay, let’s say he did,” Dre says. “Why he focus on the number seven?”
“Apparently, it’s a holy number, I don’t know.” I shrug. “I’ll have to look more into that.”
“Okay. Well, I’ll admit it, all that do seem planned out. But ’Pac not alive, Mav.”
“You said it seemed planned out.”
“Yeah, but only cowards hide and fake their deaths. ’Pac wasn’t a coward. I don’t care if the government wanted him dead, he would’ve gone out in a blaze of glory.”
True that. ’Pac was the definition of a rider. He wouldn’t be hiding from nobody.
“A’ight, you got me there.”
Dre pull into the store parking lot. Wyatt’s Grocery ’bout as old as the Garden. Granny used to send Ma in here when she was a kid, back when Mr. Wyatt’s pops ran it. You can buy everything from fresh vegetables to dishwashing liquid.
Dre help me figure out the stroller—why everything with babies so damn complicated?—and I push my son into the store. For a spot in the hood, Wyatt’s Grocery is real nice. Mr. Wyatt make sure that the floors always shine and the shelves stay neat.
He at the cash register, bagging up some old lady’s groceries. Mrs. Wyatt right beside him, talking to the lady. She retired last year and always in the store nowadays. Except when she across the street, getting her nails done. She keep them painted pink.
Her eyes light up when she see us. “Maverick, you brought the baby!”
Mrs. Wyatt love babies. She and Mr. Wyatt used to be foster parents, and they’d get babies and kids all the time. I always had somebody to play with thanks to them.
Mrs. Wyatt come bend down to look in the stroller. “Chile, you couldn’t deny this boy if you tried. He look just like you.”
“Yep,” Dre says. “Even got Mav’s big apple head.”
“Man, shut up!” I say.
Mrs. Wyatt laughs. “Be nice, Andre.” She grunt as she pick Li’l Man up. “Ooh Lord, you a big boy. They feeding you good, huh?”
“I’m in here to buy formula now,” I say.
“I see why.” Mrs. Wyatt smiles at him. He give her a gummy grin right back. “Faye told us you’re taking care of him by yourself today. Everything okay so far?”
Leave it to Ma to give the Wyatts a heads-up. They been our next-door neighbors so long that they family. “Yes, ma’am. I got it.”
Mr. Wyatt says goodbye to the other customer and make his way over to us. He got this thick mustache, and he always wearing some kinda hat. I think he losing his hair. Today he got on a straw hat to cover it.
“Careful, Shirley,” he says. “Hold him too long, and you’ll get baby fever.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that. Ain’t that right, baby?” She kiss Li’l Man’s cheek.