Joyetta Smith grew up in St. Francis Woods, one of the
most affluent neighborhoods in San Francisco and attended Mercy (Catholic) High
School, not because her mother, Gloria Jean, was a six figure a year income
earner, but because Gloria Jean knew how to take advantage of the plentiful resources
in San Francisco County, i.e. Section 8 and educational scholarships. Joyetta lived with her four brothers (two
sets of twins) and their single mom. Her
brother’s father died of cancer before she was born and she didn’t remember her
father (Robert Earl) because Gloria Jean left him when Joyetta was about three
or four for reasons that are not openly discussed.
In spite of the normal sibling rivalry Joyetta and her
brothers loved each other and got along well.
Glo as her family affectionately called her was really big on education
and made it a priority over television and video games all of which was limited
and censored. The older twins Therman
and Sherman were model sons, dependable, obedient, over achievers and laid
back. Though Coy and Roy were twins they
were like night and day. Roy the younger
twin was more like his older brothers while Coy marched to the beat of another
drum: he was mischievous, fought a lot and had a huge influence on his circle
of friends, but especially Joyetta.
Glo’s children were fully aware that they were to love
and protect each other but Coy took it to another level and his aggression rubbed
off on Joyetta. Unbeknownst to Glo they
both earned the nick name Bonnie and Clyde from the kids in Lakeview where they
spent a lot of their free time as teenagers because that type of behavior wasn’t
tolerated in the Woods where they lived.
Besides, they decided not to do their dirty work where they lived.
For example: if one of Coy’s girlfriends got out of
line he had no problem “putting them in check”.
He would grab them in their collar; get in their face and verbally abuse
them but he didn’t hit them, however, by the time he finished any or all of the
above antics it felt like they had gotten their tail “whopped”, you hear me. If a chick got completely out of line, he
would put Joyetta on them. Joyetta was
all girl but she fought like a dude because she learned from rough housing with
her brothers, but Coy taught her how to master her natural ability. She learned to watch her victim, toy with
them by using her femininity as a surprise weapon, where to strike, how to
overcome someone larger than her and to use her height as an advantage. When a fight was planned she used her
favorite tennis for balance and agility; a roll of quarters for a more forceful
punch and gloves to avoid scarring up her knuckles but when an impromptu “dance”
went down, she used whatever was close: a stick, broom, shoe, brick, it didn’t
matter because losing was not an option or she would have to answer to him.
This took place in their latter teens but now they
were in their mid-twenties and they still carried on this foolish behavior. She had a few more battle scars now, had
picked up a few more pounds in all the right places but she still wore the same
shoe size. Joy (as she called herself
now) didn’t fight as much because her reputation proceeded her, however, she
had no problem throwing down when it was necessary. Today, she has adult temper tantrums instead
of childish outbursts but she would do so over really stupid things. For example:
Her boyfriend Reggie was really busy at work one particular Friday and
chose to work through his lunch hour to avoid having to work past the end of
his 5pm shift because he didn’t want to piss Joy off. His employer prohibited cell phones on the
work floor so when he finally checked his phone, he had 15 missed calls and 12
text messages that were a minimum of two pages each. His heart started racing, he got nauseated, his
palms began to sweat and he felt like he had cotton in his mouth. When he did finally call her after work he
didn’t even get a chance to say “Hey Babe” as he normally did because she went
from zero to 10 in 1.6 seconds accusing him of ignoring her; cheating on her
you name it and she ended the call by cussing him out and hanging the phone up
in his face. She was so angry that she
paced the floor and bit her fingernails until they bled. The more she thought about his lying,
cheating tail the angrier she became.
Enough time had elapsed that she knew he would be home by now. It wasn’t over yet, he was gonna be sorry he
ignored her again. She had already
warned him he better not ever ignore her calls again or there would be hell to
pay. She didn’t know who he thought he
was but she wasn’t gonna tolerate anybody disrespecting her. She changed clothes and put on her tennis as
she rehearsed in her mind how she was gonna “get him together.”
Just as she was about to leave the house, her mother,
Glo, arrived, saw the look on her daughter’s face and asked what was wrong to
which she responded “nothing”. Realizing
that Joy had put on her old tennis Glo knew instantly that there was gonna be
trouble. She immediately recalled the
last time Joy put those old nasty stinky tennis on that Coy ended up in jail. Why? Because Joy’s former boyfriend, Omar,
made the mistake of trying to defend himself while she beat the crap out of him
and he wasn’t gonna let Omar get away with hitting his baby sister. Glo knew her daughter all too well. She was a hot-head, possessive like her
father and her irrational thinking caused her to make some dumb choices to put
it plainly.
Glo snapped back to reality when she heard the squeaky
front door open and instinctively said: “Joy,
I don’t know where you’re going or why but I do know that every time you make a
decision to put those old nasty stinky tennis on there’s always trouble,
besides I thought you got rid of those things.”
Joyetta looked at her mother with concealed contempt in her eyes and
said with as much control as she could muster: “Mah’ Deya, I’m just going to
the gym to work out, I’m fine.” At that
she closed the door and began cussing under her breath from the time she left until
the time she got to Reggie’s front door.
She banged on the door like the po-po.
When he snatched the door open to confront the idiot banging on the door
she punched him in the mouth and continued to punch, kick and scratch him as
she ranted about him disrespecting, ignoring and taking advantage of her. When it was all over he was in complete shock
with a black eye and matching scratches to his neck and face.
I’m
out of time, we’ll have to conclude tomorrow.
In
His New Excellence
Tania Not Tanya
No comments:
Post a Comment