Lust by Noire

reminded me of Grandmother and the ladies she used to hang out with in church when I was growing up. I longed to put my head down on her shoulder and confess my sins on the pulpit the way Grandmother had always urged me to do back in the day.
    But times had changed, and all the good church ladies I knew were up in Harlem, which was the last place I was going. Instead, of putting my head on her shoulder, I glanced around the room.
    “Excuse me, Mrs. Singletary. Is there a phone around here that I can use?” I asked.
    She nodded and pointed at a desk up against the far wall. “You can use that one right there,” she told me. “Just dial nine to get an outside line.”
      I sat down at the desk and dialed nine, and then I punched in the rest of the numbers as I remembered them.
    The phone rang four times, then a recording came on that said, ”The number you have dialed is not in service. Please check your number and dial your call again.”
    My ass dialed real slow and careful on the next try. I took my time and deliberately pressed every number real hard, pausing between each one to make sure I got it right. And I did. This time the phone was picked up on the second ring.
    “Hello?”
    The background noise was so loud that I could barely make out his voice. It sounded like he was in a wind tunnel or shouting into a fan the way me and Jimmy used to do when we was kids.
    “Sallie!” I shouted and stuck one finger in my ear. “Sallie are you there?”
    “Yeah?”
    “It’s Juicy,” I said. “It’s Juicy!”
    “Yeah? What’s up, Juicy?”
    “Look. I know it’s been a minute, but remember that favor we talked about?” I let out a big sigh. “I’m gonna need you to do it and do it real fast.”
    “I can’t hear you, Juicy. Lemme roll up the window.”
    All I heard was the wind in my ear as he paused for a few seconds. And then he spoke again.
    “A’ight. Now what favor?”
    “You know,” I reminded him, still yelling even though the noise in the background had died down. “The favor ,” I lowered my voice and glanced around and tried to whisper. “The favor I told you I might need you to do with that money Gino left with you!”
    “Gino who?” Sallie said. He sounded like he wanted to make sure his words came through real loud and real damn clear.  
    I half-chuckled even though my situation was far from funny. “Look, I’m dead serious,” I told him. “If you knew what kind of shit I’ve been going through you wouldn’t even be playing.”
    “Who’s playing?” He sounded dead serious too.
    “Oh, so it’s like that? All right then. I’ll just call your aunt and uncle and tell ’em you’re trying to fuck over me, Sallie.”
    “Call ’em,” he said calmly. “Yeah, go ’head and do that. Since the Feds are on your ass, why don’t you lead them straight to Renata and get her and Big Frank thrown in jail too.”
    “What?” I damn near screamed. “The Feds? What the fuck are you talking about?”
    “You fucked up, Juicy. They know you stole all that drug money, and they know you blew up your own car and skipped town too.”
    “I didn’t blow up no damn car!” I shrieked.
    “Whatever. Tell it to the Feds. All I know is that you left The Organization in a bag, sweetie. I tried to tell Frank you weren’t shit from the very beginning, but I’m not Italian so he wouldn’t listen to me.
    “And now look at what’s happened. You brought trouble to their door and our entire family is about to go down because of you. Some kind of friend you turned out to be. Yeah, call Uncle Frankie and call Renata too. I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear from you while they’re throwing her ass in jail.”
    I felt like a train had just run over me. What in the hell was going on? My mouth went dry with fear. Gino had stressed out hard over the Feds tracking us down. Did I leave a trail for them to sniff me out? Was I gonna go back to jail?
    My head was spinning. I couldn’t believe what I was