Christmas in the Hood (33 page)

He responded by aiming his gun at her head. “Sit the
fuck
down, Grandma, before you drop more than your money. Yeah, I may lose my soul over this, but you, old biddy, you might lose your life. So take off the Superwoman cape, put on your prayer shawl and pray to your God that I don’t take you out of your misery.”

She cut him a look that only a no-nonsense grandmother from the South could deliver. Sister Mary hadn’t gotten her age by being a fool. She followed the gunman’s instructions and sat down. Under her breath, she uttered, “You still going to Hell.” She rolled her eyes and added, “Crumb snatchchas.”

There was no way Des could let something like this go without retribution. He had a reputation to uphold: not only was God watching, but so were the streets. And the streets were watching from row seats and pews alike. He was tempted to reach for his own automatic weapon stashed under the podium and begin gunning himself, but there were too many innocent lives involved. Especially his wife and daughter. He noticed that Yarni had put their daughter underneath the pew to protect her as best she could under the unorthodox circumstances.

Sometimes diplomacy was the best course of action, he thought.

Into his microphone, Des spoke for the first time since the potentially deadly interruption started. “Please, my brothers and sisters, don’t do anything rash. I’ll personally replace any- and everything that these people take. You have my word.” Des would rather die like a man than live like a coward. He knew what he wanted to do, but there was no need to risk the lives of so many over money. “With the power of God, saints, you will be restored.”

Des and the leader of the gunmen locked eyes, which had nothing to do with one trying to intimidate the other; they were simply conveying a message to each other in a telepathic, psychological gangsta language that they both seemed to understand.

The gunman’s look said, “Chalk it up as a loss. It’s just part of the game.”

While Des’s look said, “There’s a consequence behind every action. I hope you can handle it when it’s reciprocated.”

Trash bags were quickly passed throughout each and every aisle and were gradually filled with wallets, credit cards and jewelry. Sister Mary continued to spew contemptuous venom. “Robbing old ladies’ purses. It don’t make no sense. The fire of Hell y’all going to feel.”

Long after the bold gunmen were gone, Des figured out that the whole thing had all been staged to divert attention from the real heist. While everyone in the sanctuary was emptying their pockets, two other gunmen had overtaken Chip, the church’s accountant, in the back office and forced him to wire ten million dollars to an overseas account. The move was brilliant, Des had to admit to himself. Except for the one thing. They had definitely fucked with the wrong preacher’s money.

Christmas in the Hood
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2007 by Nikki Turner

Excerpt from
Heartbreak of a Hustler’s Wife
copyright © 2011 by Nikki Turner.

Street Chronicles
copyright © 2007 by Nikki Turner “Secret Santa” copyright © 2007 by K. Elliott “Me and Grandma” copyright © 2007 by Mo Shines “Holiday Hell” copyright © 2007 by Dee Blackmon “A Christmas Song” copyright © 2007 by Seth “Soul Man” Ferranti “Charge It to the Game” copyright © 2007 by J. M. Benjamin

All rights reserved.

ONE WORLD is a registered trademark and the One World colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nikki Turner presents Street chronicles: Christmas in the hood.

p. cm.

eISBN: 978-0-307-49447-4

1. Short stories, American. 2. American fiction—African American authors. 3. African Americans—Fiction. 4. Street life—Fiction. 5. Christmas stories. I. Title: Street chronicles. II. Title: Christmas in the hood. III. Turner, Nikki.

PS647.A35N548 2007

813′.04083552—dc22 2007026536

www.oneworldbooks.net

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