Kenney: Still Waters Part 2

Chapter 32

Tiana was messing with my head. And I couldn't afford for her to do that. If this was love, it was dangerous. It had been a few months since Jazz had her baby, and me and Tiana were still sneaking around doin' the grown folks when no one was looking, and then acting like we barely knew each other whenever the crew was around. My uncles just looked at me like they knew what was up anyway, and like they thought I was stupid because, according to Charity, most if not all of them were banging her, too. Not that I ever asked Charity's hateful ass that shit. She just felt the need to bring it up again and again, every time she got word that somebody's nosey ass saw me and Tiana somewhere together. I didn't give a shit whether that was true or not, since Tiana wasn't my girl. I just...didn't know what to do with her because, quiet as kept, I wanted her to be my girl. 

She just wasn't with it.

I thought about that all the way downtown and jumped off the bus without really looking where I was going. I made sure the baby was good, but it wasn't until we made it a few blocks up that I looked around and tried to figure out where the hell we were.

Stuffy, stressed looking people in business suits rushed past me in either direction. A few walked faster when they saw me, a few clutched their purses tighter. All of them avoided eye contact. I never really thought about how I must look to strangers until I ventured outside of the twelve block radius that I was pretty much chained to.

A man who didn't look away caught my eye. He was staring at me from across the street, like he was trying to figure out where I thought I was going with a baby in my arms. I looked up at the building behind him, and then back at him. I had had some of the lookouts come up here a few days a week for the past month to track this guy, to find out everything they could about him and his daily routine. I looked up at the building again, and then back at the guy. I knew this was the place that they said he would be, so I assumed that he was the man I was looking for.

I shifted the baby to my other arm and jay walked across the street. Nobody said anything, and a few people actually quickly fell in step behind me when they saw that I was getting away with it. When we got to the other side, they went their way and I went mine. The man watched me walk toward him and didn't look away or walk away when I got closer.

He just waited for me.

Interesting.

"Wallace?"

"Yeah."

I knew they called him Wally B on our side of town, but probably not down here.

"Do you know who I am?"

He looked at me tiredly. A lot of adults looked at me like that. Like they were just waiting for me to start some shit. I wasn't even that dude. I didn't have time to start any extra shit.

"Yeah." He nodded. When I didn't say anything else, he smiled at the baby, then looked back at me. "You look just like your mama."

I just stared at him. He seemed like an ok dude, so what the fuck was his problem? He didn't know how to take care of his woman?

"Do you know why I'm here?"

He shook his head no and smiled at the baby again. "Is she yours?" He squeezed her pudgy little arm and she laughed. That was strike two. I didn't like for anyone to touch her without clearing it with me first.

"No." I just left it at that.

He looked back at me, and then at his watch. "So...what's up, Kenney?"

Everyone from around our way knew my name - my nickname and my real name - and said it like they were either trying to get on or like they were scared as shit. But he didn't say it like either one of those. He said it like he was talking to a harmless kid.