The People vs. Cashmere by Karen Williams Read Free Book Online Page A

Daddy loves the hell out of you. Things gonna always be cool ’cause, as long as he got Cash Money, he’s going to be okay.”
    I looked at her for as long as I could before my face crumbled. I covered it with both my open palms and cried into them. She pulled them away, kissed both my tear-stained cheeks, my mouth, then both my hands, and then she walked away.
    That was the last time I saw or heard from Mama.

Chapter 7
    â€œNow check this shit out. Y’all bitches have to pay me this month, and I don’t care if y’all have to sell your ass to do it.”
    Me and my sister sat on our Aunt Ruby’s beat-up couch as her fat, bubble-shaped ass paced back and forth in front of us, slapping one of her flabby hands into the other. So much for family. Our mom had ran off, and because me and my sister were still minors, my aunt collected us. And after all that we’d been through, the fat bitch was demanding money from us.
    Aunt Ruby was dark-skinned like our mom, but nothing else like her. I guess Mama took all the looks, ’cause she didn’t have none. For real. She had a smashed-down nose and beadie-ass eyes. And her ass was so big, you could put a wide load bumper sticker on it, and no one would question it.
    My aunt was dressed in a old-ass muu-muu, which clung to her. Imagine that shit—a muu-muu clinging to a fat ass, not an appealing sight in the muthafucking least.
    There was a hole on one side, so all you saw was an old, tired, wrinkled-up nipple, and splits all in the bottom, showing mounds of cellulite. She looked like a tar-colored Beanie Baby. A chocolate popsicle. No damn curves, just fat.
    The only positive attribute she had was that the fat bitch could cook. But, shit, I’m sure you’d assume that. I’ll bet the first thing people probably said to her after first meeting her was, “I’ll bet you fry a mean-ass chicken up,” or “How much gumbo filé do you put in your gumbo, girl?”
    She had a double fridge in her kitchen, and a lock and bolt on that bitch, not to mention a small fridge in her room, and a fridge and a meat freezer in her garage. Can you say, Gluttonous to the muthafuckin’ extreme ? And she kept them all under surveillance. If you walked anywhere near one of her fridges, she would yell, “You betta stay the hell out of my refrigerator!”
    She continued in her deep voice, sounding like Darth Vader from Star Wars . “If y’all don’t cough up three hundred apiece, y’all going in the muthafuckin’ system, ’cause I don’t want no kind of they support. I’m still on Section Eight, and it would raise my rent. And, on top of that, I got to be assured this gonna work. If I tell the courts your mama gone and I take full responsibility of y’all, then I’m stuck.” She studied us and shook her head. “And I’m not so sure if I wanna be stuck.” She twisted her lips to one side. “Plus, y’all mammy may come to her senses, what little she has.” She started coughing.
    Desiree whispered, “There she blows.”
    I cleared my throat to cover my laugh.
    â€œAnd, girls, let’s face the facts. Your mammy, despite how fine and sexy she thought she was, is a self-centered bitch. And she fucked y’all off.”
    When my sister made a growling sound, I elbowed her quickly.
    â€œNow first things first—yo Daddy can’t stay here.”
    Me and Desiree both said in unison, “What?”
    â€œHe can’t. Ain’t no one to care for him. He already gone anyway. I hauled his ass off to Pine Meadows. And there ain’t shit y’all can do about it.” Aunt Ruby placed both her hands on her fleshy hips.
    I sighed loudly and slapped myself in the forehead at what this bitch was telling me.
    Desiree mumbled, “This is bullshit.”
    â€œY’all got a problem with it, then run up on me. I guarantee, if you do, y’all