The Heat Seekers

Pauline rolled her eyes at Tempest again. “We are talking.”

“I mean alone.” Tempest diverted her eyes to the sistah on the stool, who was so large that she almost needed two of them. “Can I speak with you in private?”

Pauline seemed to ponder the request for a few seconds. “Dawna, let me see what Miss Thang wants right quick.” She hit the sistah on the stool lightly on the back, pushing her up off the stool. “Why don’t you go down to the corner store and get us another pack of beer?”

“With my hair lookin’ like this?” Dawna asked, staring at Pauline like she’d lost her mind. Only half of her hair was finished. The other half looked like she’d just lost a wrestling match. “No fuckin’ way!”

“Aw, come on, it’s my treat.” Pauline reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a ten-dollar bill.

“What? Your treat?” Dawna asked, smacking her lips and putting her hands on her rotund hips. “Must be snowing in hell today.”

Pauline plucked Dawna on her chunky arm. “Bite me, bitch!”

Dawna smacked her lips one more time for effect, rolled her eyes at Tempest, and headed for the door. “I’ll be right back, heifer!”

“So what’s so damn important that I had to kick my homegurl out the crib and spring for a pack of beer?” Pauline asked, once Dawna was out of their line of vision. “It’s not like Dawna doesn’t know Kensington spread her legs one time too often. She’s showing big-time. Her ass better not be having twins either. I can tell you that much right now.”

“You know what, Ms. Sparks?” Tempest asked from the sofa, feeling herself getting even more hot under the collar than she was before she came over there. “Pauline, rather. Can I call you Pauline?” Pauline shrugged her shoulders, giving Tempest a look of disdain. “I came over here with the intention of having a nice, warm, civilized chat with you, but—”

Pauline plopped down on the stool, taking Dawna’s place. “But what, Miss Thang?”

“I can see that’s not going to happen, so let’s just throw tact and everything else that comes with it out the damn window.”

“Damn, Miss Thang said ‘damn’!” Pauline exclaimed.

Tempest jumped up off the couch and walked over to the stool. She’d had enough of the Miss Thang comment. “Oh, I got your Miss Thang, aiight!” Tempest shouted, poking Pauline in the shoulder blade with her index finger.

Pauline appeared stunned that Tempest would step to her in such a fashion. “I know you’re not even trying to break bad with me. You better take your fancy ass up out of here before things get ugly. This is the hood, and we don’t play that shit.”

Tempest threw her head back and chuckled. She wasn’t hardly impressed. “First of all, this situation has already turned ugly. Second of all, I’m not going any damn place until I speak my mind, and thirdly, I grew up in the hood, and I don’t play that shit either. You can’t intimidate me, bitch.”

Pauline leaped up off the stool and tried to increase the distance between them by grabbing Tempest’s arm and pushing her backward. “Bitch? Who the hell do you—”

“Shut the fuck up!” Tempest yelled, standing her ground. Pauline was taller than her, just like Kensington, but she didn’t care. She would kick off her shoes and take off her earrings if need be. “Look, I’m just gonna throw the shit right on out there. Enough bullshittin’.”

“Well, throw the shit on out there then,” Pauline spewed back at her, saliva flying out of her mouth as she spoke.

Tempest stared at her dead in the eyes. “I know you’ve been beating Kensington.”

“I haven’t touched that child!” Pauline exclaimed, giving Tempest that no-you-didn’t-even-go-there expression. “She’s my baby girl! How dare you accuse me of—”

Tempest circled around Pauline and sat down on the stool. She refused to engage in some silly Mexican standoff. She noticed a roach crawling out of a dirty cereal bowl that looked as if it had been sitting in the same spot for more than a week. “Save your pathetic lies. I know you’ve been hittin’ her, and the only reason I came knocking on your door instead of Social Services and the police is because Kensington begged me not to call them. She’s afraid they’ll make her a ward of the state and place her in foster care.”

Pauline leaned against the counter and crossed her arms across her chest. “So why the hell did she tell you, then?”

“Oh, so you’re admitting it?” Tempest asked with contempt.

“Let’s get something straight right now.” Tempest perceived something in Pauline’s eyes right at that moment, something resembling love and compassion. Pauline must have sensed Tempest reading her mind; she lowered her eyes to the floor. “I’ve never beaten Kensington, as you put it. I may have slapped her around a time or two when she wasn’t listening, but that’s my damn business. I gave birth to her, gave up my own childhood for her, and I can do whatever the hell I want.”

It was then that Tempest noticed how young Pauline Sparks really was. While she had signs of age, probably due to acute alcoholism, it was still obvious the woman wasn’t a day over thirty. Tempest did a quick calculation in her brain and gauged that Pauline must have had Kensington when she was about fourteen or fifteen, the same age range as Kensington. She was about to try to reason with her but decided she needed to continue to take the hard approach, whether the woman was young or not. Abuse was abuse and inexcusable. “No, you can’t do whatever the hell you want.”

Pauline looked like she was about to spit fire, she was so angry. She stomped over to the door and swung it open wider. “Get out of my house!”

“Fine, I’m leaving, but let me make myself perfectly clear before I do.” Tempest adjusted her purse strap on her shoulder, stood and walked over to her, getting as far up in Pauline’s grill as she could stand without being nauseated by her breath. “If you ever lay another hand on Kensington, pregnant or not pregnant, I will call the police.”

“No, you won’t.” Pauline giggled. “You already said Kensington’s afraid they’ll take her away. The last thing she wants is to leave up from around here.”

“Oh, I will call. You can bank on that.” Tempest hadn’t even thought that far ahead, so she was improvising. She had hoped to reason with Kensington’s mother, but things weren’t going too well. “Not only that, but I’ll also file for temporary custody of Kensington myself.”