After Tupac & D Foster Read Free Page A

he talked about having a beef with his moms but loving her anyway. D knew all the words and she moved real sweet when she did the rap parts. But when the chorus came on, she just stayed still and sung it— I love you. I need you. I appreciateyou —over and over until the song was done.
    We got quiet. An ambulance raced by, and way down the avenue, somebody started honking their car horn like they didn’t have any sense. It was June now and school was out for the summer. Our neighborhood was usually quiet even in the summertime. It had always been like that, boring and quiet with some kids and some teenagers and a whole lot of parents up in all of our business. It was the kinda block where somebody was calling your mama if you even talked too loud. Crazy how grown people liked their quiet.
    We loved D because she was our girl and because she’d been to places and seen things me and Neeka probably weren’t ever gonna see. Even though Flo had her on lockdown at night, D also had all this freedom in the daytime. I leaned against the bus stop sign and watched her and Neeka. Mostly I was the quiet one in our group, the Brain. Mostly I watched and listened. But I could watch until I was ninety-nine and I’d never be able to see what D saw.
    “The way I figure it,” D said, “we all just out in the world trying to figure out our Big Purpose.”
    “Oh, now you gonna go get all relevant ,” Neeka said. Relevant was one of her favorite words. A lot of rappers used it and Neeka used it whenever she could too. “Well, drop your knowledge.”
    “I’m serious, Neeka. My Big Purpose ain’t about telling Flo to let me do whatever I want to do. I could do that and then be out on the street tomorrow. And the street is not my Big Purpose.”
    “What’s your purpose, then,” I asked. “I mean, what’s your Big Purpose?”
    D smiled.
    “You my girls,” D said. “You been my girls for a long time now and we tight like it’s all right. Everybody knows that. Everybody see us coming say, ‘Here come—’”
    “Three the Hard Way,” we all said.
    “I know I got this Big Purpose. And when I know what it is exactly, I’m coming right to y’all with the news.”
    The bus came and D kissed me and Neeka good-bye and climbed on. We watched her pay her fare, walk to the back and climb into a window seat. There were only a few other people on the bus and D pressed her forehead against the window and gave us the power peace sign. Me and Neeka gave it right back to her and stood there until the bus pulled away. She kept waving at us until the bus was way down the avenue.
    Then me and Neeka headed back to our block. We’d lived across from each other since we was babies. If Neeka wasn’t spending the night, she’d cross to her green house with the dark green shutters. Inside, Miss Irene would be fussing at the kids to be quieter and fussing at Neeka to help her get dinner ready before her daddy got home.
    My house was painted white and had dark red shutters at the windows. Mama worked most days, so a lot of the time it was just me, myself and I. Some days, I’d just lay back on my bed and stare up at my ceiling. I’d stuck these glow-in-the-dark stars up there and some days I’d just stare at them until the light faded enough to see them real clear.
    “You better call your mama the minute we get back,” I said to Neeka.
    “Why? She’s probably still in the window clocking me.”
    “Just call, Neek.”
    Neeka nodded. Then we both got quiet. And stayed like that for the whole walk home.

CHAPTER TWO
    Seems I’d always known Neeka. From our first baby steps, I remember the big hands of our mamas lifting us up out of the playpen. I remember the smell of our mamas’ coffee and the way their voices got all quiet when they were gossiping while me and Neeka chased each other around their legs and laughed at stupid stuff, like Elmo and the way dust turned all shiny when it got in front of some sun.
    Neeka had come running to me