I've Been Waiting For You

ART: "Divine Order" By Wak

The Alley directly behind Josie's Bar was the cleanest alley of that type in Philadelphia. Gus had his employees hose down the alley and sweep it regularly.
They hosed down the trash cans and stacked them in nice neat rows on top of each other. When you walked down this back alley..there was no foul smells of garbage or urine or feces...It was clean and smelled , well as good as that type of thing could smell.

It had been about a month since Cherry vanished and since I had come back from Puerto Rico. I was lonely..Chris had decided to "extend his vacation" in the island paradise of Blue Beach and stay off of Philadelphia's streets, which he used to rule. Although I sent money to Rell and my son...I didn't bother to visit them. She called me a few times , but I didn't answer her calls. I knew that once she realized that I didn't have a woman, all of this great sex would end...so rather than be hurt again by her game playing..I just decided to cut it off myself.

I spent my days in my gym, working out...lifting weights, running, sparring a little and riding the exercise bike..Sometimes I went swimming. I spent my nights up in my condo, watching Television or sleeping. This particular Friday,
I felt like going out..So I decided to go to Josie's Bar.

I went to Josie's because that was Chris's spot..It was a classy joint and a cross section of people came through...Maybe I'd get a line on where Cherry went.
I was sitting at the bar enjoying my drink and listening to the music when I noticed him!! He was tall, about six ,three, well built..kind of thick and was walking around showing photos to people...I over heard him saying-

"This is my wife...If you see her or know anything about her,Ah wants to know.
I'll pay..I heard she was with some nigga named Chess..I want information on
him too!"

I was going to just ease out of the bar, when I heard someone say to the man...

"Thas Chess, right over there."

Damn!!! I really didn't feel like any drama tonight...really I didn't. The guy, who I knew was Cherry's husband...Ray Johnson walked over to me.

"Nigga is your name Chess?"

"My name is Chess...but it aint nigga...and I really don't think Black people
ought to address each other like that." I said dryly..

"I don't give a merry damn what you think NIGGA...I want to know where
my wife is..." He said.

"This conversation is over" I said and I got up from the bar.

"Don't turn your back on me sucka!!!" he said.

I looked at him, smiled and then said- "Yeah...okay!!!"

Chris would have told me to finese my way out of this situation...Easy for him to say...but he wasn't here right now...When this arrogant peice of woman beating crap put his hand on my shoulder..the next thing he felt was my right hand smashing into his temple and his neck snapping back and him damn near
losing his balance.... I then dug my left hand into his solar plexis and damn near laughed as he let out a grunt that sounded as if he was about to vomit..

He backed up towards the door and I landed another right hand to his jaw that
sent him through the door and out into the streets...By now the entire bar had jumped up and was following us out the door..I would apologize to Gus later.

This was far from a one sided fight... Old boy gave me a whack across the lips and sent me flying...he dug his right into my sides and another left into my cheek and had me feeling pain like I never felt before..He grabbed me with his
massive arms and gave me a head butt that nearly had me unconscious...

I hit him in his stomach with my right and kneed him in his groin..He let out another grunt that sounded as if he'd crapped his pants and then I hit him square in his jaw...He felt backwards into those trash cans and they , to his
horror began to fall over on top of him...after getting cracked in the head with
more than one of them...his night was over...he fell to the ground, unconscious.

The crowd clapped loudly and Gus came running out of the bar with his shotgun.

"Chess , you alright? I saw the whole thing....He started that crap...but I see you
finished it...." said Gus.

"Sorry Gus.." I said with my head down.

"You aint got nothin to be sorry for...but that fella there do." laughed Gus and everyone that was in earshot.

It was just then that a Police car pulled up and a Black Government Sedan pulled up behind it...

" Special Agent in Charge, Frank Cotton, FBI." said the tall Black man getting
out of the Government car...Two white special agents got out behind him and three uniformed Philadelphia Policemen got out of the cop car.

"Well, look what we got here...Tough ass Ray Ray Johnson, done got his clock cleaned...oh man..they gonna love this back in Oakland.." said Cotton.

The two FBI agents and the three Philly cops, helped him up off of the alley floor
and handcuffed him...

"We've been looking for him for a lonng time....He murdered a man back in Oakland..A man he thought his wife was cheating on him with...She fled to a
shelter for battered wives, but he found her...She would have been a witness against him....before we could corrall her, she vanished...but we got two more witnesses that are willing to put this creep at the scene of the crime..We don't need her testimony.. We got him on interstate flight to avoid prosecution for murder in the first degree....Thanks a lot...hahahahahahaha, wait til they hear
you got your ass kicked in Philly Ray-Ray...you'll be a hit in San-Quentin."
laughed Agent Frank Cotton..

They took Ray-Ray to the police car and tucked him in...If Cherry had just stuck around, her problems would have been over. Still I wondered how he tracked her here. Didn't matter..he was off to Cali and a jail cell. Not my problem.

The next night, I drove to Rell's house..I don't know why...It was a Saturday night..She might be on a date.. Guess I was a glutton for punishment. I rang the
doorbell....

She came to the door in a nice tight pair of jeans and a white top that didn't hide the white lacy bra she was wearing...

"Chess??? Where you been?? I been trying to get in contact with you for weeks.
I was worried that something had happened to you." she said.

"I was in Puerto Rico" I said.

"Oh...with your girlfriend right?" she said.

"We are not together anymore. She's gone." I said.

"Really? What happened??" she asked...

"I don't know...she's just gone....Where's the boy?" I asked.

"He's over Mom-Mom's house...You should've called me if you wanted to take him this week..we aint seen you in about a month, so I didn't know." she said.

"It's kool...I guess you got a date tonight huh?? It bein Saturday Night and all."
I said.

Rell folded her arms....

"Is that your way of trying to find out if I'm seeing someone?" she asked.

"Nah...you're right..I got no reason even askin....I just thought I'd come by and
say Hi...just let you know I was alright." I said.

"It's all good Chess...I was just jokin with you...I'm not seein anybody...truth is, I want to, but I just can't.." she said.

"Well, uh...what if I ....nah, that's okay, forget it..." I said.

'What Chess?"

"Nothin...I'm goin home..." I said.

"You don't have to, you know.." she said.

"Really ?" I said...

"Really.....you know and I know that in a few minutes...you gon have my clothes
off and we gon be either on the floor, up against the wall or in the bedroom bumping uglies..you know that...that's why you come around here."she said.

"Well, I admit...you do look ravishing." I laughed.

"Yeah, uh huh.." she laughed.

"Rell, how come we can't get back together?" I blurted out..I couldn't believe I said that...and now I wished I hadn't...but Rell's eyes lit up...

"I didn't think you'd ever want to Chess...I been thinkin about you and feelin some kind of bad for a long time.." She said..

"I know you prolly wanna take things slow and I'm cool with that..." I added.

"Chess, let's not make things more complicated than they have to be..okay? Let's
get together, for real...in fact...why don't you bring your stuff over here tomorrow and let's really start over again?" she said.

My face lit up....so did hers...

"Really, this aint no trick?? Are you serious ??" I laughed....

"No ,it aint no trick...I'm tired of sittin here alone night after night after night."
she laughed...

"Is it too much to ask if we can still get married ,like we was plannin??" I said.

"Well,let's see how we do living together for awhile." she said.

"That's great...That's great...I'll go home and pack.." I said as I ran to my car..

"Chess, wait..wait.." she said.

"Huh, what?" I said.

"You just gon leave like that and leave me hangin on a Saturday night?" she said, pouting.

I walked over to her and pushed her up against the door and gave her the most sensual kiss I could muster...We stood there in the door for a long while just kissing...

"I didn't think you would...now close this door...and let's go upstairs and run a hot bath and get to know each other again." she said...

I closed the door behind us..She took my hand and led me up the stairs.

"I've been waiting for you so long Chess, you just don't know.." she said...

I had been waiting for her too!

-For Blu Jewell