Page 60 of June: When Gangstas Collide

“How does it feel?”

Sasha stared at me curiously.

“What do you mean?”

I stared at the ceiling as her ink gun tapped at my skin. The moment she took a slight pause to dab the gun back into the ink, I turned my head to look at her.

“To be married to a nigga from the jungle?”

She laughed.

“I love it here.”

“As you should. Us niggas from the Zoo aren’t easy to love. We all come from a place of hurt and hardship. You have to have tough skin. I know you and Zeus are good for each other. Keep teaching him. He’s learning.”

She raised her brows.

“Is that what Zaria does for you?”

Zaria. I thought. Zaria did much more for me than teach me. She played a huge role in my life. I would have never thought that the woman I spotted going into that book café that day would be the woman who breathed life into me. We were all men who were still growing. Each of us has our flaws, and all we’re trying to become are better men in some way, we just need a patient woman.

Sasha began gracing my skin with her ink again.

“I think that was nice what you did for Dio. I see much of you in him with a few dashes of Zeus. He will be a great leader for my guys.”

“He would. He still has some learning to do, but I wouldn’t change my decision,”

I paused.

“Tell me more about Beans.”

The way his mother moved, I knew there was much more to the story. See, Beans was on the opposite side of the fence. He didn’t grow up like we did, but I’m sure the home he lived in was still broken somehow. I could see Sasha’s eyes bounce from me to my skin.

“Well, he has both his parents who are very wealthy. His father is a Judge, and his mother, well,”

“A controlling, money-hungry, overbearing ass—”

“Chevy!”

Sasha shouted.

I cut my eyes at her.

“What? I know a you know what when I see one.”

Sasha nodded.

“His mother is tough. She hates that he rides bikes. She hates that he’s into the whole music thing. She wants him to be like his father. But Beans, he’s different. He moves how he wants. He doesn’t ask for handouts. Although his family has money, he likes to get it out of the mud. Beans even helps at the university. He has already graduated, but he stays around. He does the university’s radio station, and if I’m correct, he runs some type of music program there.”

Beans was special. I could tell. The thought of bringing him into the Black Prestige ran across my mind. Essentially, he, too, should have been there, but the way his mother moved, she was going to make the shit hard. The sound of the ink gun turning off alerted me that Sasha was done. She had sprayed my fresh ink and wiped the remaining ink off.

“You can look at it now,”

she told me.

I got up from the table and walked over to the mirror. It was a perfect depiction of what I wanted. It described everything that was special to me. I was surprised that Sasha was able to achieve the orange color as effectively on my dark skin.

“Damn, you did good as fuck.”

I could see her smiling behind me.

“Thank you.”

I tried to pay her but she refused.

“No, this one is on the house.”

“You think she’s going to like it?”

“She’s going to love it. Thank you for giving me and my boys a chance. You know to be a part of the crew.”

I nodded.

“No, thank you for accepting. You just make sure them niggas stay the course.”

I left her shop feeling brand new. A nigga’s life was changing in a good way. I just wanted to do one last thing to solidify shit.