Pecking Order, page 11
Ivan perked up and smiled. “Oh, yeah, I figured since I’m around professionals who are making good money, why not ask them about their accounting. So, I’m kind of, like, working my business links at the network parties instead of out at the golf course.”
“Whatever works,” Dwayne told him. “But we’re giving you the company standard of ten percent on each new client, so just continue doing what you’re doing. And I totally understand if you need to exclude me because I’m at the office. Jealousy and envy are still very much a part of the corporate structure. So keep your extra business to yourself, and I don’t know anything about it.”
Ivan felt uplifted. He had no idea Dwayne was that cool. He looked across the man’s desk and beat his heart twice with his balled fist. “That’s love, man. I appreciate that.”
Right as he said it, his cell phone vibrated against his hip, but Ivan ignored it.
Dwayne warned him, “Just don’t slack off on your tax work. Or if you do slack off, just make sure you bring in enough new clients where John and Barry won’t mind as much.” Then he smiled again. “That’s when they’ll move you up to manager and ask you to explain how you did it. So begin to prepare yourself for that conversation. I had to do that myself years ago. Along with pulling on a tougher coat of skin that I have to wear now.”
Ivan heard Dwayne out and understood him a lot more now. He nodded thoughtfully and said, “I’m glad we finally had this conversation, man. Because, to be honest with you, I had no idea who you were or what you represented.”
Dwayne heard that and held up an index finger of caution. He said, “Ivan, just like I’ll maintain your business as your business, I’ll expect you to do the same with mine. So I don’t want you treating me any differently now. That means no ‘What ups,’ no ‘Hey, brothers,’ no funny handshakes; none of that stuff. You understand me? Because I don’t need any of that extra attention around here.”
Ivan understood his point and laughed. Then he deadpanned with a final nod, “Okay…sir,” he joked.
Dwayne stared at him to settle him back down from the humor.
Ivan understood his glare and repeated, “I got you. This meeting was about nothing more than our usual tax work.”
Dwayne nodded and remained stone-faced. He said, “You get yourself prepared to explain your methods, Ivan. And I have nothing to do with it.”
He then closed the paperwork on the new clients whose folders sat out on his desk and stood up to show Ivan back out of the office.
“We’ll have you sign off on the new clients by the end of the week.”
Like clockwork, as soon as Ivan stepped out of the private meeting with Dwayne, Chip appeared behind him at his cubicle.
“Hey, Ivan, what was that all about?”
Ivan looked up at him and let out a long, tired sigh. “Just your typical tax issues, man. Nothing you want to know about.”
Before Chip could ask anything else, Dwayne called him out.
“Chip Garrett, you’re next. My office, please.”
Chip looked in his direction. “Okay.” As soon as the middle manager walked back inside of his office, Chip complained to Ivan again.
“Shit. I don’t need this, this morning,” he grumbled.
When he walked off, Ivan was all smiles. If Chip only knew, he told himself. He’s probably the main guy that I have to watch out for. Me and Dwayne.
Ivan then looked at his cell phone to see about the call he had missed a minute ago. He read the 310 area code of the phone number and froze. It was his brother calling from L.A.
“Now, what does he want?” he asked out loud.
He’s not calling me in the middle of the day just to say hi. He can do that after work.
Ivan called his brother back for a heads-up. They hadn’t spoken at length since their mother’s funeral months ago. And their relationship had been stormy before then.
Ivan took a deep breath and waited for his brother to answer his call. He had his whole conversation down already. It would be quick and to the point, until he could get back to his brother later.
OUT ON THE SAN DIEGO FREEWAY of Interstate 405, at the southern tip of Long Beach, California, Derrick David drove a gray Impala with the windows down while smoking a cigarette in his left hand. He drove the old car with his right, heading south. He had slightly browner skin than Ivan’s, with the same colorful eyes, and a longer growth of light brown hair. His dress code was more rugged, with the beige khaki pants, white tank top, and basic white tennis shoes that were popular within the urban street culture of South Central Los Angeles.
When his cell phone went off, he switched hands to drive with his left, answered the phone in his right, and held the cigarette tightly between his lips.
“Yeah,” he answered gruffly.
“What’s up, D.? I’m at work. What’s going on?”
Derrick frowned at his cell phone. He recognized his brother’s brush-off move immediately.
“I’m coming down there to see you, man. It’s been a while,” he responded.
“What? For what?” Ivan sounded disturbed.
Derrick began to shake his head. Momentarily, he took both hands from the wheel so he could flick the ashes from his cigarette.
“What’ chu mean, ‘for what’? To see my little fucking brother. I can’t see your ass no more? I should have brought one of your nephews with me,” he commented.
Ivan asked him, “You’re doing that right now?”
“Doing what?”
“Driving down here?”
“Yeah, I’m passing through Long Beach right now. So I should be there in, what, another hour and forty-five minutes?”
Ivan hesitated. “I mean…let me call you back in a few. But this might not be a good time—”
Derrick cut him off and said, “All right, I’ll just see you when I get down there. I’m just calling you to let you know. So I’ll probably go to one of the malls or stop through Horton Plaza downtown to pick up some pussy or something.” He laughed through his smoke and said, “You know, get me some of that wet Filipino pussy.”
Ivan heard that and cut the conversation off. “All right, I’ll call you back.”
Derrick closed his cell phone and went back to his smoking and driving. He clicked on his stereo system to blast his latest Snoop Dogg CD. He sang along with the chorus while enjoying his late morning drive down the San Diego Freeway:
“Beautifuuulll / you’re my favorite girrrlll…”
BACK AT THE OFFICE, Ivan went into panic mode. This mother…He needs more money already. That’s all it is, he suspected. Why else would he want to see me out of the blue?
Ivan was ready to take an emergency break outside of his office to call his brother back and tell his ass not to come. He wanted to let Derrick have it. But his efforts would have been meaningless. If D. was on his way, he was on his way, and that was that. Nothing would make him turn back.
I should just ignore him once he gets here, then, Ivan told himself. But he knew better than that. Derrick knew where he lived, and he was an impossible man to ignore. That would only make things worse. The best solution was to hear his brother out and get his checkbook ready.
Needless to say, with so much on in his mind, Ivan couldn’t possibly get much work done.
AT A QUARTER AFTER SEVEN, when Ivan arrived home from work, Derrick was already waiting for him on the second-level walkway. He was socializing there with Julio.
“What took you so long, Ivan? You still letting that job control all your time, hunh?”
Ivan took a breath and kept his poise as he approached them.
“It is what it is,” he answered. “What’s up, Julio?”
“What’s up, man? I didn’t bust your groove last night with the smoke, did I?”
Ivan shook his hand and said, “Nah, she was cool with it.”
Derrick shook his brother’s hand next and frowned at him. “You had a girl over here last night? What was she, your first one? Let me see the sheets,” he joked.
He understood Ivan’s hesitancy with women. He didn’t want to get any of them pregnant.
Julio chuckled with Derrick, but Ivan wasn’t in the mood. He led his brother toward his apartment with no comment.
“I’ll catch up, Julio,” Derrick told Ivan’s neighbor. “I wanna try some of that weed you was telling me about.”
Ivan looked back at Julio and stopped himself from saying anything. He thought, Yeah, I need to get D. out of here as quickly as possible.
As soon as they walked into his apartment and closed the door, Ivan looked his brother in the face and asked him, “How much do you need from me, man? And I’ll see if I can do it.”
Ivan had a nice nest egg of investments and savings, but not like he wanted to have. However, his brother’s economics were an entirely different story. With makeshift employment and the needed financial support of three sons from three mothers, Derrick was in a deep hole. Nevertheless, he felt offended by the question.
“So, that’s all I am to you now?” he asked Ivan. “No ‘How are you doing? I love you. Let’s hang out and kick it. Go get some girls.’ None of that brotherly love shit, hunh?”
Ivan said, “You tell me, man. You don’t call me for none of that.”
“Yeah, and you don’t call me,” Derrick threw back at him.
They were at a stalemate.
Derrick looked at his brother’s dress code, all nice and neat in his business attire. He said, “I see you still taking good care of your business.”
Ivan nodded. He said, “And I see you still…doing you.” That was all he could say about his brother. He hadn’t done much of anything but make babies and hang out in the streets of Los Angeles. It was a wonder that he hadn’t been killed or sent off to jail yet. He had had a few close calls, however.
Derrick told his brother, “I’m always gon’ try and do me.” Then he added, “But I never really had that chance to get away from it all and do me like you do you.”
Ivan began to shake his head, predicting where their conversation was headed. He said, “Don’t even start that shit again, man.”
“Start what?” Derrick asked him.
Ivan used his right hand to make his point as he spoke. “Mom’s cancer didn’t have shit to do with you fucking up your life, man. And I’m tired of hearing that shit. It ain’t like she gave me some extra push to go to college. I had the grades for it. But you didn’t even finish high school,” he commented. “Now how you gon’ blame that on Mom’s cancer? She didn’t even have cancer when you fucked up.”
Derrick snapped, “Yeah, but she had all kinds of other shit going on that you don’t know shit about, Ivan, because you were too young to know. So your ass got a chance to go to school and all of that other shit without being bothered by it. And who stayed home to be close to Mom while you did you?”
“Aw, here we go,” Ivan told him, walking away inside the room. He faced his brother again and said, “That’s a real convenient excuse for you, ain’t it; blame everything on Mom? Well, that’s bullshit to me, man, ’cause I’ve seen what you do. And if anything, you made Mom’s situation worse with the shit you kept taking her through. So don’t stand here and try to blame Mom for shit! You’ll make her roll over in her grave.”
Derrick heard that and went crazy. He rushed across the room toward his brother, hollering, “You little motherfucker! I’ll kick your fucking ass in here!”
Ivan skittered away and around the living room sofa to keep his distance. He then raised his hands to defend himself, but only after he had escaped his brother’s reach.
He said, “That shit won’t work no more, D. We can kill each other in here if you want, and it won’t change nothing. Mom was giving you money out of everything that I was sending her the whole time, and I know it. So now you gotta come to me for your living. And beating my ass ain’t gon’ change that.
“If you can even do it now,” Ivan added. “Because I really don’t wanna go up against you that way. But this shit is childish, D. We ain’t kids no more, man. So don’t fuck up the hands that’s gonna feed you unless you gon’ find another way for you and your kids to eat.”
Derrick listened to him and realized that he was right. But how could a grown man admit his economic dependency on his little brother? So he calmed down and nodded his head. Then he tried reverse psychology.
He said, “Okay, you live a nice fucking life now, Ivan. You a grown-ass man now, and I’m a grown-ass man. So I won’t bother you ever again. You hear me? You did this all by yourself.”
When Derrick rolled out the door to leave, he slammed it back so hard that every resident inside the complex could hear it.
BOOM!
“Shit!” Ivan cursed as his brother left. Derrick was famous for making scenes. He was the main reason why Ivan hated bringing unnecessary attention to himself. Nevertheless, he was his only brother, and Derrick was now in desperate need with their mother no longer there to help him.
I can at least find out how much he needs. It may only be a few thousand. But what if it’s more than that? Ivan questioned.
He went back and forth trying to decide whether to let his brother leave or to chase him down and figure things out.
Finally, Ivan told himself, “Shit, I’m an accountant. I gotta make this shit work somehow.” Mom would have begged me to, he realized. Otherwise, what is the point of my education?
“Fuck!” he cursed himself. He hated the reality of his decision already. He dashed outside and ran his brother’s car down before Derrick could leave the parking area.
“D., hold up, man, come on. Let me ride with you.”
At first Derrick looked tempted to run his brother over. But he backed down and stopped the car just long enough for Ivan to climb inside the passenger seat. Then he zoomed off.
“What the hell you want, man? You got your life now and I got mine, right?”
Ivan ignored his pouting. He said, “So, you had your six thousand, and my six thousand from mom’s life insurance policy, right? How did you spend it all?”
Derrick looked at him and said, “Come on, man. How long you think twelve thousand dollars is gonna last me in Los Angeles? Think about it. I got three sons from three greedy-ass mothers to feed.”
Ivan figured twelve thousand dollars could last his brother a lot longer if it was budgeted properly. So he thought it all over. He said, “You got the mortgage payments for Mom’s house, your regular bills, your life, health, and car insurance, and a minimum amount that you owe each month for the mothers of your three kids. We can figure out a way to work that all out into a budget. In the meantime, you’re gonna have to find steady employment, man, to help me out.”
Derrick asked him, “Doing what? Janitorial shit? Like you said, Ivan, I don’t have no education, right?”
Ivan said, “Look, if that’s what you gotta do, then do what you can, man. At least to keep your own pocket money.”
Derrick said, “I got my own fucking pocket money, Ivan. I can do that. But it’s mainly the house and these kids that I gotta take care of now.”
Ivan nodded and pulled his thoughts together. He said, “Okay, we can work on that. We gon’ figure it all out.”
Then he looked over at his older brother, who continued to drive aimlessly.
“Are you hungry, man? Let’s stop and get something to eat,” Ivan suggested.
It took a minute for Derrick to respond to him.
“Yeah,” he finally grumbled. “Let’s do that.”
Six
Football Party
WHEN THE TWO BROTHERS made it back to Ivan’s apartment that evening, both with full stomachs from dinner, Derrick noticed the collection of flyers Ivan had held on to from his first three promotion events.
He picked one up from the coffee table and asked, “What is this? You’re throwing parties now?”
He looked at Ivan for an explanation of the obvious.
Ivan grinned. “I’m just trying to do a little something extra, man. So I came up with the idea and ran with it.”
Derrick broke out laughing. “Ivan, you don’t know shit about throwing no parties. What made you decide to do this? But I like this name, though,” he commented. “I.D. Promotions is a good look. I like how you used your initials on that.”
Ivan told him, “Look, I’m just learning on the job right now. But I just started this hustle, and already I’m meeting the right people to help me blow it up.”
His brother asked him, “You made any money off it yet?”
Ivan couldn’t lie about that. “Not really,” he answered. “But I haven’t really lost any money, either. Everything is breaking even. In the meantime, I’m building a strong website.”
Derrick flipped the flyers over to view the website brand on the back and nodded. “I see.” He said, “But if you wanna make the real money in the party game, invest in a liquor license.” He took a seat on the sofa. “You need any help with this hustle?” he asked.
Ivan thought about how unreliable his brother had been over the years, but it didn’t matter anymore. He needed to help out to manage his mess of a family, as well as to maintain their mother’s house in L.A. So he came up with a workable plan.
“I could make you a special events advisor and put you on salary. That way I can pay your insurance, taxes, and child support, and they won’t have to bother you about money anymore. And from there you can just be a father to your kids.”
Derrick frowned and said, “How much are you talking about paying me for that?” He didn’t want all of the money going somewhere else.
Ivan sat down on the sofa beside him. He said, “We still have to run through all the numbers and figure that out. But I’m looking at somewhere around…three to four thousand a month.”
That was nearly as much as Ivan’s salary at Hutch & Mitchell. But he offered it anyway.
“Are you sure about that?” Derrick asked him. He didn’t believe his brother had it like that. He would have been satisfied with one or two thousand. That’s all he was there to ask for. The rest he figured he would scrape up for himself.
