Page 22 of Welcome to the Table

Wisdom

I ’d known Melph for a long time, but Athena even longer.

Athena was the prettiest girl in the Desire project you could have ever laid eyes on, but she wasn’t the typical female.

She was never a product of her environment.

She wasn’t a typical hoe looking for her next come up or dope boy to get some money from. Athena got her shit out the mud.

When I first laid eyes on her, I knew she was different.

She was the type that you had to have your shit together to even have a decent conversation with her.

I would watch as she turned niggas down left and right and would laugh because she was serious.

She was all about making her own money, and I admired that about her.

I didn’t know too much about her parents because I didn’t see them often.

I would sit in the cut and watch her, just to make sure niggas weren’t doing too much.

I wasn’t from the Desire, not that anything was fucked up about it.

I lived on the Westbank but did my dirty work on the Eastbank.

I had my own shit going on. I had eight years on Melph, so it was a lot I knew that he didn’t.

Once I took him under my wing, after I saved his life, I knew we would be forever locked in.

I had just walked out of the corner store, and a dice game was in full effect on the side of the building in the alleyway.

A few young niggas, but Melph’s face was the only one I knew, so I decided to stand there and watch.

I was never a man of many words, but I knew and watched everything.

I knew that Melph was winning their money because of the looks on their faces.

Some even mumbled shit under their breath.

I didn’t pay it any attention as long as shit didn’t get out of hand.

I leaned my back against the warm layer of brick with my foot propped against it and observed the entire scene.

Females were on the corner selling their bodies for whatever they could get, music playing, asses in the air, but I didn’t pay that shit any attention because that’s what they craved.

I noticed every nigga at the dice game had a gun on his hip or in his back.

I noticed the environment was getting hostile, and I made sure my safety was off because Melph wasn’t paying attention.

He was boasting because he was taking all of them niggas’ money.

He got up and began to walk away laughing.

“Y’all niggas should have known I would beat y’all at your own game. Give me my fucking money. Ya lucky I ain’t take the guns y’all got on. Those bitches probably got bodies on them that don’t belong to y’all.” He saluted them and walked away without a care in the world.

One of the young niggas went to pull their gun out when Melph turned his back, but I was too quick. I leaned up from the wall, gun in hand, without making a sound. He didn’t even see me, and the niggas surrounding him knew not to say anything. I cocked my shit and put it to the back of his head.

“Not a wise choice, my guy. Put the fucking gun down before yo’ brains be on the fucking sidewalk.”

The nigga paused, and Melph turned around to the gun in his face and laughed.

“Nigga, you gon’ kill me because you lost all yo’ money and this cheap ass watch?

” He laughed in the nigga’s face, further pissing him off.

I knew how the young niggas moved, but Melph didn’t give a fuck.

He tossed the watch at the nigga, and it fell to the ground, shattering the face.

I shook my head because I knew this nigga was about to pop his shit.

The watch was fake, but I understood the principle.

“Nigga, that was your dice. That shit was loaded,” he said, and Melph smirked.

“Nigga, I ain’t hurting for money like y’all niggas are. The fuck I gotta have loaded dice for? I come out this bitch every day and play. Take yo’ fucking L and keep the shit moving.”

This nigga was running his mouth, but I wasn’t worried because they knew who the fuck I was.

“You ready to die, nigga?” I asked, cutting that shit short. Too much conversation was going on.

He turned to me, and I knew he was about to let some stupid shit come out of his mouth, but I shut his ass up permanently.

Pew pew

Two to the face, and he was gone. Head off and body dropped to the ground. Melph turned to me with a smile.

“Thanks, but who the fuck are you?” He stepped over the nigga’s body like it was trash.

The other lil niggas scattered like roaches.

I put my hand up, giving him the signal to wait while I made a call to my cleanup crew to come and get the body.

The people around continued to do what the fuck they were doing because they knew better.

After I finished my phone call, Melph came toward me.

“Again, nigga, who the fuck are you?” he asked with a little more bass in his voice.

I ignored that shit. I had already done my homework on that nigga, so I knew he was kind of a hot head when first encountering a stranger.

“I could be your best friend or your worst enemy. You decide how we gon’ ride,” I told him, tucking my gun back in my back.

“You out here gambling with these lil niggas when you could be running shit, making millions,” I said, and he looked skeptically at me.

I knew he was curious, but I had a plan for him. I knew he came from money, but he could make so much more the right way.

“Take a walk with me,” I told him, and walked off.

He walked with me with confidence radiating off him.

“I’m listening,” he told me as we walked.

“I know you got money. Why not profit from it?” I said.

“I’m listening.” He rubbed his beard.

“I did my research on you. Yo’ young ass own the city and got everything at your fingertips. I could help you expand”

“Help? Nigga I don’t need fucking help. I got everything covered on my end.” He got defensive, but I wasn’t on that type of time.

“But you do, and pipe down. I ain’t fucking with it like that.” I was calm. I never got out of character unless necessary. I extended my hand to shake his, and he looked at it before grabbing it.

“Melph,” he said with his chest out.

“Wisdom,” I told him.

His eyes left mine and followed something behind me.

I turned around and noticed a female walking with tight ass jeans on with a t-shirt and red and black Jordans.

She had the lil purse around her waist that I saw a few females wear.

I couldn’t lie; she was fine as fuck. Titties sitting up on beam, thick waist, skin the color of mocha, and thick ass thighs, but she wasn’t my type.

She lived in the project but walked like she was walking the runway.

Bowlegs attached to her body, and she slung her hair behind her shoulder.

I looked at Melph, and this nigga was caught in a trance.

He was stuck, and I found the shit funny.

“Who the fuck is that?” I had to ask because this nigga was damn near drooling.

“My future wife. But back to what the fuck you were talking about,” he said, focusing back on me.

“If you got the money and resources, we could make this shit a million-dollar empire,” I told him, and his wheels were turning, so I continued.

“I ain’t trying to step on what you got going on.

I got money. I’m a made man, but I want to expand.

See all these clubs and buildings, and empty warehouses?

Why not profit and do some underground shit and use these buildings to clean your money?

You ain’t gotta buy the owners out, but make them pay a small fee to use their basements.

They don’t pay, they lay,” I told him, and I knew he was fucking with it.

“Nigga, where did you come from? I ain’t never seen you on this side of town in the hood, and how you know me?” He got off subject, like I knew he would.

“Nah, I stay on the Westbank, but I come this way from time to time. I wanna do business with you,” I told him. “And I know chic over there, too, so I could hook that up,” I added, and he frowned.

“Nah, I can handle getting her. We can go into business together, but I will remain the boss of shit.” I nodded because I wasn’t a nigga who liked the limelight anyway.

“I’ll get my people on the paperwork and making deals. I know it’ll be fucked up because they are supposed to be making a cut because we are using they shit, but that ain’t happening,” he told me.

“Never said it would. This yo’ hood. I’m the muscle if you need me because I know everybody ain’t gon’ cooperate. That’s where I step in.”

He nodded, and we shook on it. We exchanged numbers, and over the years, he began to trust me more, and we became best friends. I christened his baby girl and never missed a beat when it came to business. I fucked up a few times, but that was some shit for another day and time down the line.

I realized that I was left in the living room with Hellcat and Calliope.

I thought they had left, but they didn’t.

I was in my own thoughts about what the fuck Melph had just said.

That nigga didn’t even give me a warning to prepare for this shit.

As far as Fanucci went, I didn’t trust that nigga, and he shouldn’t either.

If a nigga keeps asking for a seat at my table, and I keep telling him no, but then he turns around and calls me on some shit about somebody watching me, it wouldn’t have flown.

Then, to say leave my wife at home? The fuck that mean?

I couldn’t control what the nigga did, but I could give my opinion on what the fuck was going on. I knew a fucking setup when I saw one.