Free Alibi II by Teri Woods Page B

She was a goner, too. Any of them could be got and would be. It was all a matter of timing. When it was all said and done, they would wish they had never laid one finger on his brother, Poncho’s head.
      
    Wink, on the other hand, was ready to spit fire. He was so heated, he couldn’t contain his anger.
    “How the fuck they gonna let this nigga off like that?” asked a troubled Wink. His anger was getting the best of him. He could no longer contain himself. The only comfort he had was knowing that no matter where Nard went, he could be got in prison. Wink had family throughout Pennsylvania’s prison system, and wherever Nard was sent to do his time, there would be people on the inside waiting to take him out.
    “Wink, calm down,” said Leslee, trying to get Wink to sit with her on the sofa.
    “Leslee, that fucking judge and jury let that nigga walk, they let him walk,” said Wink, unable to believe the verdict and unable to believe that Nard was getting off with a slap on the wrist manslaughter charge. “He’ll be home in less than five for manslaughter. That’s nothing after what he did to my brother.”
    “Wink, just calm down.”
    “No, I won’t calm down. We’ll see. This nigga thinks he’s going to get away with killing my brother, that shit just ain’t gonna happen,” Wink said, picking up his nine-millimeter and making sure his clip was fully loaded.
    “Where you going?” asked Leslee, scared of her brother and what he might do.
    “I’m gonna show that motherfucker, Nard, how it feels to have his family fucked with, that’s what I’m going to do,” said Wink as he stuffed the gun in his hoodie and slammed the front door behind him.
      
    “The social worker’s bringing me another baby. All the paperwork is complete and there’s nothing really left for them to do,” said Donna, quickly adding, “I’m getting one of them abandoned babies and the news is coming so you got to watch Channel 10 tonight.”
    “For real?” asked Beverly, truly amazed Donna would be interviewed on the evening news.
    “Wow, Donna, this is big.” Beverly smiled, then added, “You hear that, Uncle Ray Ray? Donna’s gonna be on the evening news.”
    “That’s really something. And they interviewing you?” he said, shaking his head at the shame of it all.
    “Yeah, you know, only a crazy person would abandon a baby like that.” She sighed, not understanding what kind of person would leave a baby in the cold.
    “They pay good money?” asked Beverly, thinking about getting her a foster child, too.
    “Girl, they pay real good money, but you know, you get more for the handicapped ones,” she said, serious as a heart attack.
    “How much more?” asked Beverly.
    “I don’t know, ’cause I ain’t got time for no motherfucker can’t walk and talk and shit,” she said, biting into a piece of fried chicken. “But, it’s a lot more, girl, a lot.”
    “And the state be giving these children to you?” asked Uncle Ray Ray, as if he needed to write a strongly worded letter to the Department of Human Services.
    “Yeah, and?”
    “Shit, when they find out, this shit liable to be on the evening news and not you.”
    “Look, I’m good to them children, where would they be without me?”
    “Probably living with a kind family who would be taking proper care of them and not pocketing state assistance for Jheri curl money,” said Ray Ray, knowing he was starting trouble, as he liked to.
    “Don’t worry about my Jheri curl, Ray,” she said, fluffing her Jheri curl mane, looking like Michael Jackson back in the day. “Look, my kids wouldn’t be nowhere if it wasn’t for me,” she said, lighting a Newport. “Shit, I don’t see you in here making a difference in a child’s life, Ray!” she snapped.
    “I don’t see you making no difference neither,” he teased her back.
    “Shut up,” she said, blowing a spitball from her mouth that she had sat there and rolled between her fingers from a torn