Crystal Clear Read online

  Crys tried a winning smile “Hand it back. I just got mixed up.”

  “Recite it please.”

  When Crystal didn’t respond promptly, Melody slowly tore the application in half.

  “Wait!” Crys cried as the pieces disappeared into the wastebasket.

  “You gave me an obviously bogus Social Security number, and Dallas Central was torn down two and a half years ago. Good bye.” With that, Melody walked away, tossing over her shoulder, “And don’t bother coming back.”

  A disgraced Crystal left the restaurant. Totally humiliated, she glanced over at the McDonald’s and the other fast food places nearby but figured they’d all ask her for the same information. She never wanted to go through such an embarrassing encounter ever again. Her dream of quickly finding a job was as trashed as that application. Angry at herself for being so clueless about how this stuff worked, she pulled herself together and set out again.

  The October day was warm and filled with the smells of fast food and car exhaust instead of manure, animals and open fields like it was in Kansas. Taking in deep breaths of the urban air, she told herself this was how air was supposed to smell. Thoughts of Kansas brought to mind Ms. Bernadine who was probably past frantic with worry. More than likely she’d called County Sheriff Will Dalton for help, but without knowing Crys’s true destination they’d be like Cletus the hog chasing his tail. She planned to follow through on her promise to Zoey and call, but for the moment she focused on not feeling down about her unsuccessful job search, and on finding out if her best friend Kelly “Kiki” Page still lived with her mother Estelle.

  Her knock was answered by Estelle, who peered out warily through the screen door. ‘What do you want?”

  “Hi, Ms. Page. Remember me?”

  “No.”

  “Crystal Chambers. I’m a friend of Kiki’s.”

  “She doesn’t live here anymore.” Ms. Page studied her for a few more seconds then apparently made the connection. “Okay, I remember you now. You used to have that nasty gold weave.”

  Crys’s lips thinned. “Yes.” She wouldn’t be caught dead with that mess in her hair now.

  “I put Kiki out.”

  “Do you know where she’s living?”

  “No. Told her to not to come back her until she gets rid of that gang banger Bobby. You look different. Where’ve you been living?’

  “Someplace else. How do I get in touch with her? You have her number?”

  “No”

  Crystal’s balloon of hope began deflating again. “I just got back in town and I’d really like to hook up with her. You know of anybody who might – “

  Ms. Page closed the door.

  Crys wanted to curse. Now what? Dejected, she glanced up and down the street with its worn houses and old cars parked at the curb and tried to come up with a Plan B. It hadn’t occurred to her that she might not be able to find her former best friend because life had moved on.

  Frustrated, she left the porch and started walking back the way she’d come. Surely, she hadn’t come all this way just to go back to living on the street. She’d been relatively good at it once upon a time but preferred not to have to go that route. She had three hundred dollars in her wallet, more than enough to get a cheap motel room to stay in until she could do better.

  A slick black Audi with the music bumping loud eased up beside her. The passenger side window slid down and a seductive male voice called out from within. “You need a ride sweet thing?”

  Seeing Kiki’s cousin Ross Morgan draped over the wheel, filled her with relief. She walked over and leaned into the open window. “Hey, Ross.”

  His puzzled face was mirrored in his voice. “You know me?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yes. I’m Crystal. Crystal Chambers?”

  Turning down the volume, he checked her out again before asking uncertainly, “Kiki’s girl, Crystal?”

  “Yeah.” Despite not being recognized, she was so glad to see a familiar face she could’ve kissed him.

  “You look different.” His eyes trailed over her again. “Oh, I know why. You ditched the weave. Damn, you look good girl.”

  Ross was three years older and a player. Back in the day, he was also the hook-up man. Could get you anything you wanted from an X-Box, to new tires, as long as you didn’t ask where the goods originated. She’d also had a crush on him that went back to middle school. “I’m trying to hook up with Kiki. Do you know where she’s staying?”

  “Yeah. Get in.”

  While he drove, she tried not to stare his way. He was still chocolate fine. Not as fine as Diego July, but Ross had that urban fine going on. Shaved head. Studs in both ears. He was wearing a blue tee that showed off the black, free form ink tats on his guns. She forced herself to breathe slowly and not act like she’d never been in a nice car with a cute guy before.

  When they stopped at a red light, he asked, “So where you been?”

  “Kansas City.”

  “Your man spring for the outfit?”

  “No, my mother died,” she lied. “Been collecting her social security.”

  “Ah. Sorry to hear about your moms.”

  “Thanks. So, what’ve you been up to?”

  “Same ol’ this and that. Just trying to make a living. How long you planning on sticking around?”

  “Permanently I hope. Need to find a job first though.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  “I got skills.” Even though she lacked a social security card and a current address.

  He gave her the heart melting grin she remembered so well. “I bet you do.”

  Her melted heart pounded.

  “Make me want to kick my own girl to the curb and see just how skilled you are.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “You think I’m lying.”

  She didn’t believe him for a minute. “Who’s your lady now?”

  “Unique Ralston.”

  Crystal was stunned by that. When she last lived in Dallas, Unique Ralston had been singing in her pastor daddy’s church choir and looking down her nose at poor people like Crystal and Kiki. “Thought she was going to college when she graduated.”

  “One taste of my loving changed all that,” he boasted. “We got a place not too far from Kiki and Bobby.”

  Although surprised to hear about Ross and the stuck-up Ms. Unique, she wasn’t about Kiki and Bobby. They’d been together since sixth grade. “How’re they doing?”

  He blew out a breath. “Please. I keep telling Bobby he could make some real money hanging with me, but he’s stuck on working a bullshit minimum wage job washing cars at a dealership.” He shook his head as though finding that choice unfathomable. “He keeps talking about starting his own business. He never even finished high school, and now with the twins. He needs to be out here making stacks instead of chasing smoke.”

  “Wait. Back up. He and Kiki have twins?”

  “Yeah. Almost a year old.”

  “Wow.” Life had most definitely moved on. Kiki was only a year older than Crystal. How in the world was she dealing with twins? Were she and Bobby still hitting the clubs? Crystal hoped so, because it was one of the first things she wanted to do.

  As if reading her mind, Ross asked, “So, what you doing tonight?”

  “Not sure. I’d like to celebrate being back. Is the Grind still open?”

  “Nah. Burned down a year and half ago. Everybody’s hanging at the Escort these days.”

  “Where’s that?”

  He gave her the location and she was left confused. “Didn’t that used to be a dry cleaners?”

  “Yeah. In fact, Brick, the man that owned the cleaners owns the club. He figured that was a better moneymaker.”

  Crystal shook her head in confusion. Who turned a dry cleaners into a dance club? “So, are you and Unique going there tonight?”

  He blasted that smile again. “I think that can be arranged. You got a phone? I’ll give you my number.”

  She fished it
out of her backpack.

  “Whoa. You really have moved up in the world. That’s top of the line. And so is that leather jacket you’re wearing.”

  “Yeah,” was all she said, figuring the less attention she gave the remark the better. She slid the phone open and saw what appeared to be a hundred missed calls and texts from her mom. Guilt spread through her like heat. “What’s your number?”

  He recited while she tapped.

  He added, “Give me a call around ten. Gotta be twenty-one to get in though.”

  “Okay.” She tucked the phone away and saw him eyeing her backpack.

  “Nice pack.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You should let me drive you around and show you some of the changes around here,” he offered smoothly. “I’m free for the rest of the day.”

  “Think I want to check in with Kiki first. How about tomorrow or the day after.”

  “Sounds good.”

  He turned the Audi into a large, aging condo complex and wove them around to a row of buildings near the back. “Kiki and Bobby live in that one there.”

  “Okay, thanks, Ross. I’ll give you a call later.” She put her hand on the door.

  “I don’t get a kiss for my trouble.”

  She grinned. “No, because I don’t want trouble from Unique.”

  “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

  “Bye, Ross.” Laughing she made her escape.

  Watching him drive off, she warned herself to be careful around him. Last thing she needed was drama, especially from Ms. Unique Ralston.

  CHAPTER THREE

  In response to the bell, the door opened and the sight of her best friend on the other side made Crystal’s happiness soar until she heard, “Whatever you’re selling, I don’t want it.”

  “Wait!” Crystal cried before the door closed again. “Kiki, It’s me! Crystal Chambers.”

  Kiki slowed and gave her a critical up and down. When the recognition registered, she threw open the door and her arms. “Crystal!”

  A hug filled with laughter and rocking followed. Tears stung Crys’s eyes.

  “Where’ve you been?” Kiki whispered. “Oh, my god! I’ve been so worried. Come in. Come in.”

  Inside, a grinning Crystal stood while Kiki checked her out. “You look good girl! How’d you know I lived here?”

  “I ran into Ross.”

  A baby’s cry interrupted the reunion and Kiki instantly turned her head to the sound.

  “Ross said you have twins?”

  “I do. Come meet your niece and nephew.”

  Crys followed her through the sparsely furnished apartment and into the kitchen. The sight of two babies seated in matching child chairs put a smile on her face. “They’re so cute.”

  Kiki picked up the crying infant. It quieted and snuggled close. “This, is Bobby Jr. Probably needs his diaper changed. That’s my baby girl, Tiara.”

  The little girl with her curly hair and big black eyes was contentedly gnawing on a small, cloth doll. “They both look just like you and Bobby. Ross said they’re almost a year old?”

  “Nine months. I love them to death, but these have been the longest nine months of my life. Babies are a lot of work.”

  Only then did Crystal see the weariness in her friend. There were dark circles under her eyes and her shoulders were slumped. Although she went about the diaper change with a practiced precision, she moved like a woman far older than nineteen. The long black weave she once wore when they ran the streets together was no more. Her real hair was pulled back into a short tail and it was obvious from the dry, rough texture that it hadn’t been permed in a while. Crystal glanced around the kitchen, taking note of the old electric stove with its burned black eyes, the old fridge and the small sink filled with a few glasses and bowls. The small dining table and its two chairs appeared to be as old as everything else in the room. The off-white walls were badly in need of paint and the small window over the sink had a cracked pane plainly visible through the clear plastic it was covered by. “How long have you been living here?”

  “About six months. We stayed with Bobby’s mom after the babies were born. When the state finally came through with the paperwork for subsidized housing, we moved in.”

  Crystal knew it was wrong but she couldn’t help comparing her present surroundings to the bright beautifully furnished house she’d left behind. The calls and messages waiting to be acknowledged on her phone pulled at her, but she was determined not to let them get to her.

  “So, where’ve you been?” Kiki asked.

  “Kansas.”

  “Kansas? Wizard of Oz, Kansas?”

  Crystal nodded, and while Kiki fed her kids lunch, she relayed what her life had been about for the past four years

  “And this lady adopted you?” Kiki asked skeptically at one point.

  “Hard to believe, I know, but, yeah. She’s really nice. And she has her own private jet.”

  Kiki laughed, “You are so lying.”

  “No, I’m not.” Crystal told her about the white jet and pilot Katie Skye. “I’ve been to Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Hawaii. Here let me show you some pictures.” Once again, she looked past the messages lined up in her inbox and tapped up the photos.

  Kiki looked over her shoulder at the picture of Ms. Bernadine. “Wow, love her earrings.”

  “She real classy.”

  “Who’re those boys?”

  “That’s Amari, Preston and Devon. We all came to Kansas at the same time.”

  “Do you get along?”

  “Sometimes, but mostly they’re a pain in the behind. That’s Zoey. She’s the little sister of the group.”

  “She white?”

  “Yep and her adopted mom is the old-school singer Roni Moore.”

  “Estelle has a bunch of her CDs. She lives there too?”

  “Yep. Same street.”

  “Wow.”

  Looking at the pictures touched Crystal’s heart in ways she didn’t want to acknowledge.

  Kiki retook her seat and asked, “What about your real mom? You ever find her?”

  Crys slowly swiped the phone closed and thought back on those memories. “Yeah. She was in jail up in Illinois. When I got to see her she didn’t even know who I was.”

  Kiki stopped in the midst of feeding Tiara. “I’m sorry, Crys.”

  She shrugged. “I’m good. Finally getting to see her was the most important thing. She died a few months later from HIV.”

  “Damn.”

  “Yeah,” Crystal responded softly.

  “So, it’s been awesome and sad all at the same time.”

  “More awesome but yeah, sad too. And my dad showed up about a year after that.”

  “Your dad? What the hell did he want?”

  “Money. Kidnapped me and held me for ransom.”

  “Did your mother pay up?”

  “She didn’t have to. He and I got caught in a tornado. I wound up in Intensive Care. He wound up dead on top of a picket fence. Served him right.”

  Kiki shook her head as if finding the tale unbelievable. “This sounds like a book.”

  “I know.”

  Lunch ended with Kiki wiping the babies’ faces and cleaning up the trays on their chairs. After placing the bowls in the sink, she gave Tiara back her doll, handed Little Bobby a cloth truck and joined Crystal at the table. Once again, Crystal noted her over all tiredness. She really wanted Kiki to smile and joke like she used to, but didn’t know how to make that come about. “When was the last time you got a good night’s sleep?”

  “Nine months ago,” she said with a weary smile. “Taking care of them and trying to be there for Bobby doesn’t leave much room for anything else.”

  “How’re you two doing?”

  “Good, but he’s stressing from working two jobs and doing his GED on the weekends. He’s the hardest working man in Texas.”

  “I stopped by your mom’s place first. She said she put you out and didn’t know where you were.�
�

  Kiki blew out a breath. “And doesn’t care apparently. Right after I told her I was pregnant, she kicked me out. Said I had no respect for her or myself. Dogged out Bobby. I was glad to leave to tell you the truth. Haven’t talked to her since she came to visit me at the hospital after I had the babies. Bobby’s mom stepped right up, though. Told me I could stay with her as long as I needed.”

  “That was nice.”

  “Yeah. She’s always been nicer to me than Estelle ever was to Bobby. She helped me a lot during the pregnancy. She hoped the babies would make Bobby grow up.”

  “Did they?”

  “Oh yes. The day after the twins were born he walked away from all the shit he’d been doing in the streets and got a job. And when it wasn’t enough to pay the bills he got another. Now, he’s working two.”

  Crystal thought back on Ross’s dismissive remarks and how clueless that made him seem. “Where’s he working?”

  “Valet crew at a car dealership during the week and parks cars for a hotel downtown Friday and Saturday nights. Saturday mornings he’s in school.”

  “You sound proud of him.”

  “I am. He wants the twins to have all the things we never had growing up. I’m hoping once they’re old enough to go to Head Start, I can start doing hair again and bring in some cash. He’s all about making our life better and I’m right there with him. And who knows, I may even go get my GED. Did you finish school?”

  Crystal wasn’t ready to confess the truth about turning her back on school, so she replied vaguely, “I’m almost done.”

  “Good. Books equal bucks, as Bobby keeps saying.”

  Crystal changed the subject. “Ross said he’s with Unique Ralston now. What’s up with that?’

  Kiki shook her head with disgust. “I can’t stand her. Never could. Right after you fell off the set, I guess she didn’t want to be Miss Moneybags anymore. No idea what the details were but she suddenly showed up with Ross. Didn’t graduate, didn’t go to college, gave her mom and dad fits from what I heard. Still thinks she’s better than everybody though.”

  “Ross said they’d take me to the club tonight. You and Bobby want to go?”

  “Do I look like I have time for clubbing?”

  “I thought maybe you’d get a babysitter and then – “