The Elite

Part Two

Lisa and I drove to the closest mall to us. Low key I was tired from driving Judah to work because I had to get him there before 8:00 a.m. I normally don't wake up until 8:30 a.m. He had really cut into my beauty sleep, but since I was already up I decided to stay up and get ready for this performance.

Club Ultimate was more of a smooth jazz and R&B type of club. On certain nights they'll have rappers and events for the 18 and older crowd but most of the time it was somewhere you can just go to be calm and relax. When I heard they were having an amateur night, I had jumped at the opportunity. I've always loved singing and couldn't help but dream about me being in the spotlight since I was 5 years old. I remember it like yesterday.

*FLASHBACK*

Judah and I were sitting in the living room watching T.V. at Granny Esther's house. I was playing with my Barbie dolls on the couch and Judah was watching his Saturday morning cartoons and eating his cereal. "Awe, shit!" Granny Esther said while scrambling through her purse as she walked in the living room. "I ain't got no more damn cigarettes..." She then looked up and saw me on the couch and called my name. "Enyah!" She yelled. "Yes, ma'am?" I replied. She gave me $10 and some instructions. "Go get me a pack of Newport's and a Pepsi." I sighed. "Why can't Judah go get it?" I asked. "Are you back talking me, girl?" She said while she grabbed her whooping paddle with the verse "Mark 7:10" engraved in it. (For those who don't know the verse: "For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:
Mark 7:10 KJVA"). Seems extreme right? I told y'all she was mean.

"No ma'am, I'm not talking back," I said hopping up on the couch, afraid I was about to get my butt whooped. "You better get those damn feet off my couch and out the door to go do what I told you to do." She started. I went to go put my shoes and a jacket on so I could go do the deed I was asked. I know what y'all thinking. "If she's only five, how can she buy cigarettes?" Long story short, we lived in a bad neighborhood where the store clerks didn't care about who they were selling to. Plus, Granny Esther knew everybody in the neighborhood. From the elders to the teenaged mothers. From the drug dealers to the crack heads. Granny Esther was indeed mean as hell but she was also the neighborhood Granny, so I was safe to walk around by myself. and if something was to happen, it would always be somebody outside to let Granny Esther know or to watch out for me. As I was walking out the door she told me I could buy me and Judah one piece of candy each and to run as fast as possible back to the house if someone messed with me. "And come straight back!" She yelled as I closed the door.

I went to the store and got as instructed. A pack of Newport's, a Pepsi, me a blue pack of Now and Later's and Judah the purple pack. As I was walking back home I had opened my pack of Now and Later's when I heard some music blasting from a radio down the opposite way from the house. I know Granny Esther told me to come straight back but I was five, curious, and hard-headed. I had to go see what was going on. I had followed the sound of the stereo until I saw a group of people in a circle clapping along to the beat of the music. I pushed and shoved my way through the group until I was front row. When I was finally in front I saw that it was three women I knew from the neighborhood, Elonda, Patrice, and Yasmine. They all were singing together in harmony.

"I would like to get to know if I could be
The kind of girl that you could be down for. Cause when I look at you I feel something tell me
That you're the type of guy that I should make a move on."

This was my favorite song on the radio at the time. I knew all the words by heart and had started clapping with everyone else while they continued singing the Brandy song.

"And if I don't let you know
Then I won't be for real
I could be wrong but I feel like something could be going on.
The more I see you the more that it becomes so true.