Find Me In the Club (pages 5 - 7)

2

Veronica (Roni)

For as long as I can remember Roni lived across the street from me. She was being raised by her grandparents; her grandfather was a kind and gentle old man that doted on her. Her grandmother was a “sometimey”; speak to you when she felt like it, stuck up, holy-roller. I don’t know how she and “Pops” ever got together because he loved his beer just as much as she loved her bible. I guess he drank to tolerate her sermons; she had an itemized list of everything that would send you to hell and didn’t mind telling you, in detail, about each infraction.

             Grandma Bookman first condemned me to hell when I was in the sixth grade; I wore jeans and a T-shirt to the first day of school. She did everything short of throwing holy water and rebuking me from the stoop.  Today was the first day of school and my outfit was a repeat performance of the first act of hell-fire and damnation. Roni answered the front door wearing a god-awful plaid dress and had her hair pressed and curled in an Easter hairstyle.  Grandma Bookman made it a point to call my mother to see if she knew that I wore jeans to school. I could hear disappointment creep into her voice when she found out that my clothing met my mother’s standards. She got her digs in after getting off the phone.

“Well, my precious lil’ girl gonna have a bodyguard to keep the boys away while she walks to school.”

“Grandma don’t you think this dress is a bit much for school?” Roni asked.

“Lawd Jesus, I done lost one child to them streets and I ain’t about to lose another; you’ll dress like a young lady and not a hoodlum or streetwalker.”

Roni looked at me and mouthed the words “Like clothes gonna make a difference.”

We left Grandma Bookman in the house rebuking the devil and praying for our full salvation. We walked down the block and we were greeted by Pops as we turned the corner. Pops had packed a paper bag with jeans, T-shirt and tennis shoes for Roni.

“I’m gonna drop you at the coffee shop on the corner and you can change there. Change before you come home. I’m gonna start talkin’ to your grandmother about you wearing what you want; hell you damn near in college. She gets all head up on something and it makes ALL of us crazy. Y’all have a good day at school.”

Pops gained all my respect. He puts up with a lot of sermonizing from Grandma Bookman but he also asserts himself in his own way. I've often heard him mutter “Choose your battles.”  Whenever Grandma got going good on a subject.

Roni hurried and dressed in the coffee shop bathroom while I ordered us two jelly donuts.

“Your grandmother is a cold piece of work, making you wear that Sunday-go-to-meeting –mammy dress to school.”

“That ol’ hag works my nerves. I can’t do shit right to hear her tell it. I am so grateful that Pops has my back.”

Roni was more “street” than her grandmother was aware of. Roni would often duck out of school to sneak a smoke and would fight man, woman, child, and cat or dog if she felt she was being disrespected. I was Roni’s voice of reason; she would always consult with me prior to doing anything that she felt would cause problems later on down the line.  I wasn't’ crazy enough to believe my talking would stop Roni, I knew her well enough to know she was going to do whatever the hell she wanted to do  but she would at least hear me out and then weigh her options. Roni’s unwavering trust in me is the bond that cements our friendship.

We got our doughnuts and headed out to school.

I’ll be glad when my mother gets her shit together so I can go and live with her.”  Roni would often make “fantasy” statements about having a life with her mother.

My mother explained to me a few years back that Roni’s mother fell in with a bad crowd and got hooked on drugs.  My mother kept the information basic and age appropriate but over the years I was able to gather enough information to get a clearer picture. Roni’s mother got pregnant in junior high and the guy turned out to be a pimp. Pop’s tried to get his daughter out of the life but she kept going back. Pop’s gained legal custody of Roni after both her parents got a rather lengthy jail sentence for drugs. My mother was somewhat hesitant and cautious about my friendship with Roni but she was also compassionate about the circumstances that shaped Roni’s young life. My mother would always lecture and warn me like I was the person doin’ dirt on the streets. . It was mama’s way of telling me that she knew what was going on and that I better not engage in any of it.

“When is the last time you saw your mom?” I asked.

“I actually saw her about 3 weeks ago.”

“Did y’all talk?”

“Naw, she was on the stroll. We made eye contact but then tried to act like we didn't. It hurt my feelings to see my mom out there with them busted $2 ho’s. I see pictures of her around the house and she was beautiful and then I see her today and it’s like an optical illusion.  I saw my mother with my father a couple of times. My father gave me the creeps; he talked to me like I was a young girl he wanted to turn out.  When I got home I told Pops and he got in his car and tracked them down and told every last ho and pimp on the track to look the other way when they see me. Pops was acting like a man possessed. He called all them fools out by their birth names; yellin’ that he knew their folks. Did you know Silky’s real name is Cleofus?” she and I both laughed about the lack of power and street credibility in the name Cleofus.

I changed the subject to bring the mood back to fit the first day of our senior year “On a lighter note, you playin’ ball this year?  You know it wouldn't be a school year without the one, two combination of D-Nice and D-Nasty.” (playground nicknames that stuck throughout our high school years. I was D-Nice, a takeoff on Denise, but also because I patterned my game after Magic Johnson and could pass the ball through the eye of a needle. Roni was D-Nasty because she was built like a fireplug and could set a pick and bang like a big man under the boards.)

“Girl, you know we gonna run the court like we been doin’ for 3 years. We've played against and handled most of these fools. On, the real, I know that basketball is the only way I’m getting’ outta my house and going to college and the good Lord know that academics will never get me there. Write that down because you know I don’t get serious too often” we both laughed because I knew that to be way beyond truth. Roni was the personification of the saying “when life gives you lemons”; she was always joking and laughing.  Roni only shared her serious thoughts with a select few people.

“I know what you mean Roni, there’s no way that my mother can put me through school so I have to go on a scholarship. I received offer letters in my freshman, sophomore and junior year and I have to maintain the same level of intensity this last year.”

It was on this fall day, the first day of our senior year that we made a pact to support and push each other to perfect our game and to make it to college.