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It was not that long of a ride to the more urban area of Harlem. It was like stepping into a different area of a video game. The once clean streets, and buildings turned dirty and some were covered in spray paint. Boys were wearing baggy pants and shorts, most heading towards the nearby basketball courts, with groups of girls sitting on the steps to the apartments here talking and chatting. I was not used to this kind of culture so some of the words they used to greet Joshua as he passed by were friendly but also could be seen as insults. I could already tell that there was little chance that Katherine would even step foot in this area. From her time raising me as a mother, she was a neatfreak, and hated dirty places.
We walked over to an older looking building that had the words. “Mama Row’s Hair Salon.” The bell at the top of the door sounded off, and I shyly hid behind Joshua as three older dark skinned women looked our way. The entire building smelled of hair products and voices filled the air with laughter and gossip. “I’ll be damned to hell, is that Joshua Cash?”
“In the flesh.” Joshua replied as he threw his arms around a nearby woman with long pink nails and curly hair much like my momma. “How are you doing, Kesha?”
“Been doing as well as I can, I ain’t got no complains.” She replied sweetly before taking his head in her hands and seemed to be studying him like he was a book, and clicked her tongue three times. “That fancy ass island of yours has been fucking your hairline up sugar.”
My mouth practically dropped to the ground at the woman’s language. My momma would have already popped me in the mouth if I dared to swear like that in front of her. “Come on, Kesha, it isn't that bad.”
“Child it is horrible,” she waved a bored looking little boy out of one of her large leather black chairs and pushed Joshua into it. “I can’t have my favorite, little cousin out there looking a damn fool.”
“Hang on cus, damn.” Joshua replied, swatting away a pair of silver hair clippers the woman had picked up and turned on. “Can’t I say hello to everyone before you go cutting my hair, I haven’t even introduced you to someone I brought with me.” Joshua motioned for me to come a bit closer. “This is Verona Whisperwind, she is from my island and is actually here helping me do a bit of work.”
“H-Hello,” I whispered as now everyone seemed to be looking over at me.
“Child stop stepping in front of the door like that and come take a seat.” I turned over to a lighter skinned african american woman, with long black braids, who had spun her own chair around to face me. “And let me have a look at that hair, it looks like you just woke up.”
“Thank you,” I replied as I quickly walked over and climbed into the chair. She raised it up a bit more before spinning me around so I was facing Joshua and the woman that was already running those clippers across his hair line. “I-Is this your cousin, Joshua?”
“We ain’t blood cousins,” the woman confirmed. “I just started watching over his narrowed headed ass when we were kids. Scared me to death when he suddenly disappeared one day, though he got caught up in that raid on 5th ten years back. Then he shows up talking about how he was on that island with those jeepers people.”
“Jepei, cousin.”
“Thank you, Joshua.” She turned her attention over to me. “You’ve been living on that island your whole life, little girl?”
I made a sour face as she called me a little girl. “Yes ma’am, and my name is Verona.”
“Ohhh,” I looked over at a heavier set woman that had just stepped out of the back. “Better be respectful, Kesha. I got a friend over on that island, and from what she has told me. This little girl could probably whoop your fat ass north to south, east and west without breaking a sweat.”
“The only one with a fat ass in this shop is you, Porsha.” Ms. Kesha replied, causing Joshua to start laughing a bit.
The woman they called Porsha rested a hand on her hip. “Well guess what? This fat ass can fire your fake ass anytime she wants. So best watch your manners.” She pointed at another teen girl and got her seated in a red and black chair. “Now knowing if Joshua came all the way over here, he wants something done that he can’t get nowhere else. This nigga never comes to just say hello, always needing something. Just like when he was a kid.”
“Yall better stop all that damn cursing in my store!” Even I jumped with them as an older and stern voice came from the back. A moment later an older woman maybe in her 60s came walking out of the back. “Talk like you got some sense, we got youngins in the store today.” She had short black hair that was starting to gray in certain places. She had a hunched back and had a pretty nice walking stick, it took me a moment to realize that she was also a jepei user. As a bit of dark yellow smoke was spilling off her shoulders and resting on her shoulder was a small yellow owl. She walked over to Joshua and gave him a quick hug. “How are you doing, sugar?”
“I’m doing well, Mama Row.” Joshua turned towards me before saying. “Mama Row, this is Verona Whisperwind. I think you might know her momma, Grandmaster Ravana Khalid now Whisperwind.”
The woman’s older eyes locked onto me and her wrinkled face broke out into a warm smile. “Yeah I know your momma little girl, she told me a bit about you the last time she was here maybe a year or so ago. I am glad to meet you.”
“It’s an honor to meet you, Mrs. Row.”
“Child, just call me Mama Row.” She took a position behind this younger girl and began gracefully undoing her braids. “Now Joshua, why are you in my store? Knowing you want some help with something. Can never stop by just to say hello.”
“I was just saying that,” Mrs. Porsha mumbled as she called over another girl to a nearby chair that had a sink behind it.
Joshua let out a nervous laugh. “It’s not my fault you’ll got the best information in the city, this shop is known for gossip and I need some for the case we are working.” Joshua leaned back in his chair a bit and looked over at me. “I need that favor you owe me, Trinity.” He seemed to be speaking to the woman that had started combing out my messed up hair. “I need you to give her a new hairstyle and maybe help us tan her skin a bit more. I know you got a friend that works at that tanning place in uptown.”
“Are you trying to hide this cute girl?” Mrs. Trinity replied, causing me to blush a bit at her compliment.
“We don’t want her to be spotted, we are working to deal with the Marsh Pride and someone that is working for them knows her on a more personal level. I’m trying to get her friendly with Mr. Wallace’s younger daughter.”
A collective silence fell across the entire store. “Damn you getting involved with Hezekiah?” Mrs. Trinity spoke up.
“Yes ma’am, gotta take him down now, as well as try and get his right hand woman it seems.” Joshua answered.
“You are after Katherine Bloodthorn?” I turned my gaze towards the older woman.
“You’ve seen her?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Her old eyes locked onto me for a moment. “She came here a few weeks ago, talking about wanting to buy my store.” She answered cautiously, her expression grew a bit darker as she added. “If I was five years younger, I would whooped her ass for the way she was talking.”
“Grandma,” Mrs. Trinity began. “You knew that irritating white bitch?” I stiffened a laugh at the woman’s words.
“I know that woman on a very personal level, she damn near destroyed my home island five years ago.” Her expression suddenly shifted and she looked at me as if she had seen a ghost. “My god, you are here daughter aren’t you, Verona was it.”
I sadly nodded my head. “Yes ma’am, but I don’t like being called her daughter, and I don’t like people saying she is mother, she hurt me in a lot of ways ma’am.”
“I’m sorry to hear that little one.” Mama Row said. “Alright y'all, we got work to do. Trinity gets Joshua here whatever he needs to help him, free of charge. Porsha, do me a favor and call Trinten on 10th and see what he knows that could help.”
“Thank you, Mama Row.” Joshua looked over at Mrs. Porsha. “Speaking of help, I heard that your daughter is friends with Hezekiah’s daughter.”
“Yeah they are friends, spoil that child rotten if you ask me.”
“When is the next time your daughter is gonna go and see her?”
“Shit, this afternoon I think. Going to that little dayclub he got for her.”
“Think you can bring Verona here. We need her to get friendly with her.”
“I can pull that off, she can be my daughter's plus one.” Mrs. Porsha explained looking over at me. Her round cheeks widening a bit as she smiled at me. “However, we gotta do something about that look of hers. I mean you got her in clothes like she is gonna be fighting someone. Take her down to 25 n north, I got a friend over there that can get her into some much better clothes for this little party.”
“Thank ma’am,” I looked over at Joshua who gave me a wink. I now understood why he said this was the best place to get help, and I started to get myself mentally ready for whatever was gonna happen this afternoon. “Ma’am can I maybe keep my hair a bit longer.”
“Anything you want, babygirl.” Mrs. Trinity said with a lot more affection than before. “I ain’t mean to upset you, sugar. I call everyone little.”
“It’s okay, miss, and I’m sorry if I was rude to you.”
“So polite,” she then raised her voice towards Joshua. “Joshua, why can’t your narrow ass be more polite like this little sweetheart?”
“She ain’t that polite, Trinity.” Joshua shot me a slight smirk. “Shit, if you heard why she is here and not at home where she was supposed to be it would change your opinion in a second.”
“Ohhh, what you do, little girl?”
“Nothing, Mrs. Trinity.”
“She snuck onto a plane with a forged signature,” Joshua spoke, causing my cheeks to blush furiously.
“Shut up!”
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I almost didn’t recognize myself as I stared into this large mirror. My skin was still a bit itchy from my full body spray tan, but it differently helped with the part. My once creamy skin was now a lighter brown color. I had requested the dazzling dark treatment since it was the darkest I could get there. My entire head now looked like a sea of dark brown vines, it still stung a bit from how tightly Mrs. Trinity had braided my hair. Even my eyes were different as Joshua had gotten me a pair of dark brown contacts to hide my true eye color. My skin was tanned, hair braided and dyed and eye color changed. I truly felt like a spy that was getting ready to go on a secret mission.
I guess technically I was.
“Yall do good work,” Joshua said, to the older woman that had done my spray tan. “How is this gonna last?”
“About a week or so, it still needs another 24 hours to truly sink in.” The woman behind the counter explained, she had darker brown skin and an annoyed look on her face. Something that Joshua had told me not to be disheartened by, it was just how she always looked. “Tell me again, why I suddenly had to rush and get her in? I mean I'm fine as long as it was Mama Row that requested it but I hope I’m not getting involved in something I shouldn’t.”
“What makes you think we are doing anything illegal?” Joshua questioned.
I watched as Mrs. Harris raised an eyebrow at us. “Joshua, you brought a little white girl into my store for a rush order. Yall got her fixed up with contact lenses to hide those pretty purple eyes she had, and I bet my last dollar that you got her hair done up in the last hour. You told me your people are proud about who they are and never hide, but yall got her hiding right now.”
As she finished speaking, I took one last look in the mirror and then a bit of guilt began to spread through my head. She was right about jepei users. We are proud about who we are, about what we are. We hide across the world if we are not on Tarun’s Island, because if we don’t we are treated like monsters, in some countries are slaves and lab rats for the world to try and figure out what makes us so special.
Last night I had long flowing brown and purple hair, bright purple eyes and lighter skin. Now I was hiding who I was, but it was worth it. If hiding who I was necessary to find Katherine and bring her to justice or to the gates of hell. A
Then it was worth hiding myself for however long this took.
“Verona are you?”
“It’s okay,” I whispered back as I let out a sigh and shook out my shoulders a bit to relax. “I’m okay with this, it isn’t forever, it is just till we find her and end her.”
“Alright,” Joshua put a hand on my shoulder. “Shall we go, we need to meet up with Porsha soon and for you to meet her daughter. She is gonna be taking you shopping, so you can use that stolen gold of yours to get something more favorable to party tonight.”
“I did not steal that gold, my friend gave it to me.”
“Forgive me if I don’t believe you, just yet.”
“It’s the truth,” I countered with a small pout that made Joshua laugh.
“I am sure it is, I’m just teasing you.” Joshua led me out of the shop and into the nice blue car he had rented as his personal ride for this mission.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Go ahead,” he replied as he quickly pulled into traffic and we began to head towards our last meeting spot for the day.
“You seem so different when you are around them.” I began.
“Different how?” Joshua asked me.
“I mean, you talk differently, you curse more, you joke around a lot more with them. Do you do that because you are close to them or because…” I trailed off a bit to not seem rude or even possibly racist in my next choice of words.
“Or because they are black?” I shyly nodded my head. “It’s not like I hid how urban I really am on the island. It’s hard to explain, but when I am with those annoying bit-” He paused to fix his language. “When I am with them, they bring out parts of me that I keep on the downlow. I feel more comfortable around them, just as I am sure you feel more comfortable back in our home. Being around people like that are like you, bring out different sides of us, but we are still the same at the end of day. Did that make sense or should I try again? I can take my time and try but it might take a while.”
“I understand,” I answered with a smile. “I like seeing you like this, and I like how you are back home.” We rode for a moment in collective silence. “Do you miss living here?”
“I do sometimes, and regardless of what they say. I don’t just come back when I need something.”
I giggled a bit at that. “I mean to be fair, you only come and see my momma when you need something…”
He gave me a push but his addictive laughter filled the air around me. “I guess you have a point.”
The last of our many stops we needed to make was at a nice looking clothing store in the upper part of harlem. It was placed snugly into between two other stores. As we stepped inside we found, Mrs. Porsha looking through a few circular racks of clothes. Standing beside her was a smaller girl maybe three inches shorter than me, who was holding a cute red shirt in front of herself as she stared into a mirror. She had a bit more meat on her bones like her mother, with the same wide hips and face. She had on a pair of round black glasses that seemed to have small white gemstones on them. She had a small black purse with similar white gemstones running on the front and sides, and was wearing jeans and a V neck black shirt. “Took you long enough, Joshua.”
“Sorry about that,” Joshua greeted. “I know that isn’t Aaliyah.” He said in a surprised voice. Upon hearing her name called, the girl turned around to face us and dropped the shirt she was holding to run over and hug Joshua. He gave her a long squeeze before looking down at her with a smile. “Looking just as cute as your momma.”
“Thank you,” she said politely, she turned towards me and offered a hand. “Nice to meet you, Verona right?”
I shook her hand and gave her a friendly smile of my own. “Nice to meet you, Aaliyah.” While Joshua went with Mrs. Porsha to find me the right outfit. I walked around this cozy store with Aaliyah to hopefully get to know her more as well as know who I should expect from this Trinity girl. “What is Trinity like?”
“Honestly…” Aaliyah began carefully. “She used to be really nice when she first came to my private school, but now she can be really mean and nasty. My mom says she has just gotten used to being spoiled and getting her way, and it kinda shows.”
“Are you really friends with her?”
“We used to be really close but the more friends and the more popular she got the more she kinda forgets about me. We are better when it is just the two of us but we don’t really play at my house anymore and she doesn’t let people in her home most of the time.” As she spoke I could see how hurt these new developments made her. “Her dad is kinda nice when he shows up at the club we are going to, but he often takes her side so be careful if you make her upset and her dad is around. He might kick you out and never let you back in. He almost did it to me once.”
I nodded my head at that. Aaliyah sort of reminded me of Beatrice in a few ways. It hurt me a bit more knowing that I probably hurt Beatrice a lot with my actions last night. “Why are you asking? I know my mom said you were trying to get close to her to put her daddy away or something, are you some sort of secret spy or something, do you work with Joshua?”
“Well I’m not a spy,” I confirmed. “And technically I am not supposed to be here, I am just helping my dad with something now and getting close to Trinity helps. Does that make me a bad person for doing that?”
“If you are doing it for a good reason then I don’t think so. I heard her daddy is not a good man sometimes so if he is dangerous then I don’t see a problem with it.” Aailyah answered. “Maybe if he was gone, my friend will come back so I suppose that would be a good thing.”
“Did you know her before she met her dad?” Aailyah nodded her head. Since she seemed so open to answering questions, it prompted me to ask her the main question on my mind. “Have you seen a woman with dark purple hair and eyes in this club we are going to. She is really tall and pretty if that helps.”
“You mean Ms. Katherine?” My entire body froze and I forced myself to nod my head. “I see her sometimes, I think she currently owns this club, and has been more welcoming with who comes in now. So that is always good.”
“I-Is she there often?”
“Not really, she is busy with other things, but she sometimes shows up.”
“What is she like?”
“Honestly…” Aaliyah paused for a moment. “She is really scary and firm with the workers and the kids. Most of the time she is just talking with the rich moms that sit at the bar upstairs while we are playing and have fun. She likes money I think but that is all I really know. Why do you ask?”
I quickly made up a lie that seemed to work on this girl. “I met her once when I was in the city, she told me a lot about business and stuff so I want to see her again.”
“She often gives advice to Trinity sometimes that she shares with us.”
“Like what?”
“Like being proper young ladies and how to do good business with people. I think, Trinity is learning from her, I even heard that her daddy and Mrs. Katherine are dating or something like that.”
As we went back to idle chatter and light shopping, my mind was more focused on Katherine. Cause if what Aailyah was saying is the truth…
Than she might be molding Trinity into the daughter she always wanted, and if I had gotten so strong but didn’t fall for what she was doing to me. I could only imagine how strong this Trinity girl was if she had fallen for everything that Katherine might be teaching her.
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