Shannon

It had been almost a month since Todd got locked up and still no sign of Jock. Todd was fucking heated off the situation, because if he didn’t get a good lawyer soon, they were definitely going to be pressuring him to take a plea at his next court appearance.

These so-called street cats weren’t trying to come up off the money they owed Todd, and I was down to absolutely nothing. I was having one more fucking garage sale today to sell off some more of my bags, shoes, and coats so I could scrounge up enough money to get a little apartment up in Dolphine Cove on Military Highway. I wasn’t about to wait around for the marshals to come put my ass out once the fucking foreclosure proceedings started on the house. So far, I had had two sales and made a little cash to get me and Lil Todd through the month and enough to put some on the books for Todd. For real, though, I never knew how good I had it with my husband around until now, when I was left to survive on my own.

I was busy packing when I got a call on my cell from Todd.

“Wassup, baby?” I said, trying to sound upbeat so he wouldn’t be all stressed out in there worrying about me.

“I got something to tell you. It’s real important,” he said, sounding all excited.

His excitement confused the hell out of me. Shit, I couldn’t feel the same. There was nothing he could tell me right now—except that he was getting out—that would make me excited.

“What is so important?” I asked him, twisting my lips and rolling my eyes, glad he couldn’t see the look on my face.

“I gotta tell you about a foolproof plan to get this one big lick. Shannon, I’m telling you, with what we can make, you will be able to get me an attorney for my appeal and get the fuck up outta dodge until I get out,” Todd said, still sounding all excited.

By this time I was annoyed. How can this nigga even sound the least bit excited at a time like this? I thought while I listened to him talk.

“What is it?” I finally asked, sitting down on the couch, leaning my head on my fist. To me, it already sounded like a fucking pipe dream. I didn’t want to sound all negative, but what the fuck did he expect me to do now? It was easy for him to sit up in that fucking jail and say “Shannon do this” and “Shannon do that.” He was locked up, three square meals a day and not facing all the embarrassment I was facing from my friends and family, not to mention the streets was talking like a motherfucker. The street chronicles already had me on welfare; sucking dick for money; and, the best one yet, I was a paid informant for the same pig-ass cops who arrested my husband. I’m telling you the streets could spread some bullshit.

And to top it all off, when my hating-ass cousins had heard about my situation and heard I had to sell my most prized possessions, they all came over to rummage through my shit. Those bitches was spending they last dollar on my shit. They was buying up all my exclusive shit with their little welfare checks just so they could turn around and say they had Shannon’s shit on their backs. Pride aside, I took their money too. I had no fucking choice.

During the conversation, Todd was rambling on in fucking code again, talking some shit about how his so-called master plan was gonna involve me and how I needed to be a “soldier.” At first, I was saying hell fucking no when I figured out that I would have to be involved. But the more my husband spoke and the more I looked around at all of the boxes containing what was left of my belongings and thought about having to move and feeding my son, I got right into a ride-or-die bitch mind-set.

“What’s the plan?” I asked again. He had my attention now; he had kind of got me interested in the money part. Todd instructed me not to speak over the phone. I would be visiting him tomorrow, and I guess I’d be finding out what I was about to do.