A Little Bit Of Trouble

A wise man said that it takes a lifetime to free yourself from the burdens of this world and all of it's foolish pursuits...For some people that freedom can come a lot sooner than any of them bargained...Funny I was thinking this, while still dripping wet, and coming out of the shower....My wife , Sepia...she was downstairs with her business partner and BFF, Bonita Turner, thinking and talking and giggling like two schoolgirls about less meta -physical things I was sure.

I dressed quickly and walked down the stairs...I could smell a pot of coffee brewing....They were looking at possible dresses for the bridesmaids and all.. They had a half a dozen magazines spread out on my floor. I didn't care...I was just happy to not be working at the magazine today and also to not be driving the streets with a loaded gun , with Clerow and Kool Kat at my side chasing down some thug...It was just a lazy, crazy Thursday morning...

"There's coffee in the kitchen sleepy head and your breakfast is on the table." said Sepia as I walked past them in the living room.

"Hello to you too Mister Kevin." said Bonita jokingly..

"Hi Bonita , you excited about next weekend?" I said jokingly...I already knew the answer and I knew that she knew that I knew.

"Hellllll to the know...I got to turn in my playas cards baby...tell all the nuccas that Nita Neet is off the market." joked Bonita.

"That's something I'd expect your husband to be to say." I laughed....

"Ouuu Kevin...you aint no good." laughed my wife, Sepia.

But who didn't know of Robert Foxworth, Attorney at law's track record....Two wives before...Including my good friend, Homicide Lt. Sissy Van Buren...an attorney, Cindy Walters, a foxy female undertaker, Brooke Taylor, the jazz guitarist, his sex rehab instructor just to name a few and oh..that overweight stripper who helped him break the legs off of a bed and come through poor Skillet Jackson's ceiling that time....Not to mention several split headboards of beds I had seen in his apartments...Robert was the player, but Bonita had a body that was made for sin....No doubt she had turned many a head herself.....It was very possible that she too had a list of broken hearts out there too!


"Kevin...Could you run Bonita and me over to Johari's somtime today ?" asked my wife, Sepia.

"Johari's ? What's wrong with your car?" I'm low on gas...and until I transfer some money over into my account, I don't want to drive it." she said.

"That's a weak excuse....If I didn't know better, I'd swear yall just want to get a look at that muscular Yoga instructor, Larry something or other." I said.

"Kev...Look...If I tell you something...can you keep a secret?" said Bonita...now no longer laughing. By the way Sepia looked at me...I could tell that the real reason they wanted me to run them over to this spa was about to be made known.

"You mean, you don't want me to tell Robert?" I said.

"That's exactly what I mean." said Bonita.

"Come on Kevin." asked Sepia.

"Alright, okay...what is it.?" I asked.

"That yoga instructor....Larry Spann....Well....he was kind of like my yoga instructor...You remember when Robert and me broke up?" said Bonita.

"Yeah...You were involved with Ralph Scallion." I said.

"Yeah..I was...kind of sort of...but Ralph was just something to do, every now and then...we weren't serious..We were more like, friends with benefits....but Larry Spann, he comforted me...he and I had long talks, long walks...." said Bonita.

''Long sex" I said dryly....Sepia punched me on the arm...I winced playfully.

"Yes Kevin...we were intimate.....Not just during the time Robert and I were broken up , but before that too...Just like Robert was doing his thing. Finally...I broke it off and went back to Robert....Larry was crushed...He was talkin about marrying me....I just wanted to go over there and talk to him..." said Bonita.

"Just talk?" I asked sarcastically.

''Kind of like saying goodbye." she said.

"That's it?" I said.

"That's it." she said.

"Then why does Sepia and I need to go...why can't you drive over there in your car and take care of that?" I asked.

"Larry, he's soooo emotional....If you two go with me...I know that it'll just be talk...We'll have closure and that will be that." she said.

This was pure baloney....What she meant was that if we went along , she wouldn't be tempted to sleep with him once more. I wasn't going to push her....I was going to let her off the hook.

"Okay.....I'll run you over there...He know you coming?" I asked.

"I told him yesterday that I might be coming by." said Bonita.

II-

Johari was the name of a Spa in a suburb of Philadelphia.....It was black owned and most of it's clientele was young urban professional African-American women.  Larry Spann was six foot six with rippling muscles..He wore a diamond stud ear ring in his right ear and sported a shiny blad head..He was even more physically imposing than my friend Kool Kat...

When he started working at Johari's Spa....it's membership tripled....Black women passed the word of mouth and soon women who didn't know Yoga from yogurt were all chanting and stretching and checking out the yoga instructor. Like Ralph Scallion ,the cook at Bottom of the C....Larry Spann took advantage of the adoration he was getting....More than a few of the young ladies got more than just yoga from Johari's....

Considering it was Thursday and in the middle of the day...I was surprised that when we drove up to the spa...the door was locked!!!!

''Shouldn't this place be open?" I asked.

''Yeah, it's not like Johari's to be closed in the middle of the week" said Sepia.

"Yeah...this is strange....I have a key, let me go inside and check it out." said Bonita.

"You have a key?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes I do..." Bonita said sheepishly.

'Ummph...Ummph..Ummmph...Good lovin will get you a lot of things." I said.

Sepia punched me in the arm again...Bonita looked at me and scowled...Then she opened the door .....

"Larry!....Larry?  It's me ,Bonita...Larrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry!" she yelled...

There was an eerie silence...Then two very loud gunshots!

"ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH, Kevin help me, Kevin, Help me.....He's been shot....Kevin...HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!! Oh my God!!!" came Bonita's impassioned screams.

"Kevin!!! What's going on?" asked Sepia.

"I don't know...Stay down....and stay in the car!" I shouted as I pulled my .38 smokeless out and went inside... It was dark...So I did the most natural thing....I found a light switch and turned it on...and there in the middle of the floor was Bonita, cradling the head of a very very dead, Larry Spann...who had a neat hole right in the middle of his forehead....Blood was everywhere...and Larry was only wearing his boxer shorts....

"Kevin...He's dead!...Somebody killed Larry, Oh my godddddd...He's deaddddd!" cried Bonita.

"I can see that Bonita..." I said.

Sometimes you catch the bear, sometimes the bear catches you!  This was one of those times a case had just found me!


(To Be Continued...)