Natural Born Liar: The Misadventures of Mink LaRue by Noire

my mother had done something real twisted and wrong when she drove her car into that river, but by the time I was grown I had come to understand more about that kinda thing. And even though in my heart I had forgiven her for what she did, I had never been able to say those words out loud to her.
    “I gotta go outta town for a little while,” I told Mama as I brushed her soft, pretty hair and dabbed lipstick on her mouth. “Guess where I’m going? Down to Texas! You never been to Texas, huh? Well, I’m gonna be doing some acting work down there,” I lied. “I’ma be gone for a couple of weeks but I’ll be back to see you right after my birthday okay?”
    A strange look came into my mama’s eyes. Like she was real scared of something. She started drooling a little bit and moving her lips around like she was tryna tell me something real important. Her twisted hands reached out to touch me and I grabbed them and kissed them.
    “You gonna be all right,” I shushed her as loud moans came from her throat. I pressed her stiff hands to my chest and rocked her back and forth. “The doctors have my number, Mama. They’ll call me if you need me and I’ll come right back, okay?”
    I always hated to leave my mama, but I couldn’t wait to get outta that damn nursing home. Peaches was waiting outside for me in his boyfriend’s car, and when I got in beside him his eyes was full of understanding. Peaches was good to me, and he was the only person in the whole world who really understood my soul. The woman laying in there in that bed mighta gave birth to me, but Peaches had been my mother when it really counted.
    “You good, Madame Mink?” he asked softly.
    I felt like shit inside, but a gwap was on the line so I wiped my tears and put on my game face and nodded.
    Peaches touched my hair and smiled, and then we headed on back to Harlem.

CHAPTER 12
     
    I t was time to go! Me and Bunni were ready to blow New York and put a hella hurtin’ on the city of Dallas. The Fourth of July was falling on a Thursday, so we decided to fly to Texas that Friday morning, just in time for the Dominions’ annual barbeque. I knew the DNA lab was gonna be closed for the whole weekend, but I figured we could just play dumb and talk our way into the Dominion mansion and put our feet up for the weekend.
    Borne had charged both of us a one-way ticket on his little credit card, and after I put some hot booty whammy on him he tore me off a couple of hundred dollars in cash for my pockets too.
    Of course Mink Minaj was itchin’ to floss real gully down in Texas, and Peaches and his crew went on a boosting spree for me and Bunni, and he even came through with some extra ends that helped us out a lot.
    “I got two hundred dollars,” Peaches told me. He looked real dainty as he took a little white hankie outta his bra, and when he opened it there were two yards inside folded up in small squares. “This is my last little bit of play, you hear? So y’all betta get down south and work !”
    The flight was only a few hours long, but me and Bunni were runway-dressed from our shades to our shoes and loaded down with Yves St. Laurent luggage full of boosted gear.
    “Don’t forget,” I warned Bunni for about the tenth time before we left. My girl wasn’t adaptable like me. I had practiced playing so many roles over the years that I could call one up just like that. But Bunni was always the same chick, no matter what. She looked the part of an uptown diva, but when she opened her mouth all kinds of ghettoisms were prone to jump out.
    “Them Dominions are rich and Selah sounded bougie as hell. So keep in mind what I told you,” I cautioned her. “Whatever you do, don’t let ’em peep your real game, you dig? You just keep smiling and looking good, that’s all you really gotta do. If they ask you a bunch of questions just nod a little bit and play ’em off. We ain’t gonna steal shit while we’re down there, and we definitely ain’t tryna get