her grandchildren. In her opinion, Snow could be the answer to her prayers because Morris was as weird as they came and she feared he would never mate.
It was really embarrassing when she went to church with her son—, that the Bradshaw’s also attended—only for young women to avoid Morris as if he walked around holding his dick in one hand and a bible in the other.
Girls, who were there to build a relationship with the Lord, would laugh at his hanging jaw often to the point of hysteria.
That was until Nadine spotted Snow.
Yes, precious Snow was the only one at church more gauche than Morris.
“Well, whatever you’re cooking it smells delicious,” Maureen, said as she straightened the collar of her navy blue dress with the huge gold sailor buttons.
When a clump of her graying hair plummeted into her face, Maureen’s husband lovingly placed it behind her ear and kissed her on the cheek. Although wrinkles outlined most of the features on her face these days, Lamont still looked upon her with adoration.
Besides, when he ran numbers and sold cocaine on the cold streets of Washington, DC in the ‘70s, it was Maureen who stood by his side as he attempted to get his shit together. It was Maureen who wrote him letters and visited him in the penitentiary when he needed companionship. And it was Maureen who gave him his first and only child. Snow.
If one were to take a look at the shiny chocolate ball that was Lamont’s head and the graying section of hair that dressed its perimeter, they would never see a gangster. But, they would be sadly mistaken.
In his heyday, Lamont was one of the most feared men in DC. Many lost their lives at his hands when they wagered on tic in the numbers, lost and failed to pay. Or took a brick of coke and got ghost. Lamont didn’t accept apologies and didn’t show mercy either, which was why in his darkest hour, mercy was almost not shown to him.
It was a snowy day when three niggas from New York placed a gun to Lamont’s head and stole five kilos of white from the trunk of his money green Mercedes. Of course this enraged the powers that be, despite their history.
His chief, Louie the Knife, had given Lamont his first break into the crime world after he asked for a number and the kid gave him 4578, which netted him fifty thousand dollars.
Under Louie’s reign, through the years, Lamont had proven to be smart, vicious and loyal and Louie realized he chose correctly. Lamont always got the money owed, even if it meant taking the lives of the debtors or their family members. He was known on the streets as Lamont of Little Mercy.
But when he was robbed and he couldn’t replace the dope or the lucre himself, Louie the Knife had him dragged by his ankles into an abandoned building. Louie loved Lamont, he truly did, but he would treat him like a nigga who raped his granddaughter if he fucked with his cash.
So Louie stood over top of him and was preparing to give the order to drop the fifty-pound cinder block dangling over his face until he yelled, “Please don’t, Louie! My wife is pregnant!”
Louie called him a liar until Lamont reminded him how hard he had been hustling to earn money lately. The requests for extra trips to New York while working way past his scheduled time in the process. And the odd jobs for other heavies in the game in search of a larger payday. Suddenly it all made sense to Louie. His dear Lamont was about to become a father.
So Louie the Knife, father of five and grandfather to fifteen, granted him mercy. On two conditions. That he work until he paid off the debt and name his only child after the coke he forfeited. Whether boy or girl, Louie insisted that the child be called Snow.
Lamont never earned a living illegally again.
“Well, I hope everything tastes as good as it smells,” Nadine said to Maureen as she played with one of the pearls around her neck. She focused on the children again. “Morris, why don’t you take Snow upstairs and show her the