One Drop Too White

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© 2011 Mike Mose. All rights reserved.

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First published by AuthorHouse 4/28/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4567-5805-9 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-5806-6 (sc)

Printed in the United States of America

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Revenge of a Wife Tastes So Sweet

Chapter 2 - From the 313rd To the Suburbs

Chapter 3 - Thou Shall Judge

Chapter 4 - Moving On Up

Chapter 5 - City vs. Suburbs

Chapter 6 - The Rise of CJ & The Eight Smooth Criminals

Chapter 7 - The Black Intellectuals

Chapter 8 - The Polo Boys

Chapter 9 - Am I Black?

Chapter 10 - The Willie Lynch Effect

Chapter 11 - The Secret Meeting: Light skinned vs. Dark skinned

Chapter 12 - Identity Crisis: Where Do I Belong?

Chapter 13 - You Reap What You Sow

Chapter 14 - Backfired

Chapter 15 - Revelations

Chapter 16 - GOT BEEF? DETROIT! WHAT!

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 - Revenge of a Wife Tastes So Sweet

As we left church with my mom and four brothers, headed to my dad’s office, I was as happy as I could be, but I never did understand why my dad never came to church with us. Being an inquisitive child, I asked my mom, Why doesn’t dad ever come with us? I thought the pastor said that’s what families do? My mother replied, Yes son, but you know your dad is working very hard to support us so we can be a family. That’s what a real man does. He provides for his wife and family. He and I made a wedding vow, ‘till death do us part’, just me and him forever. Comments like this showed me how in love with each other my parents really were.

My mom turned into the parking lot of my dad’s office in her brand new family sized van my father had recently purchased for her. When my mom pulled up, she looked at me and said, Michael, remember your dad loves you. I know you’ve been down about not being able to spend time with him so I thought it would be a good idea to surprise him with a visit from you! I have to take your brothers to their hockey game so you will have daddy all to yourself! My face lit up with excitement. I hurried to unbuckle my seatbelt. Before I could finish getting out of the car, my mother raised her voice saying, Michael, aren’t you forgetting something? She handed me the keys to his office. Oh yeah, my bad mom. Thanks! I said as I walked to my dad’s office. My mom pulled out of the parking lot after she saw that I had unlocked the door and was walking into the office.

I walked in and yelled, Dad!!!, but received no answer. I began to walk around the first floor but didn’t see anyone. Voices were coming from upstairs. I walked closer to the steps and heard my dad talking with his secretary, Mrs. Wright. I knew of her from the times she had come over with her husband for dinner, and traveled with us on family vacations. I began to tip-toe upstairs to surprise my dad, but what I heard ended up surprising me. Mrs. Wright said, Baby you are so freaky. I can’t believe we just had sex with no condom while I’m on my rag. My dad turned to her and said, A little blood ain’t never hurt nobody, and they both laughed.

I didn’t know what she meant, exactly, but I was in shock. My dad always boasted about being a family man and my mother said he was here working to support the family he loved and cared for so much. I wasn’t sure if I should say something, just stand there and listen, or go and sneak a peek. I walked up to the door, peeked in, and listened further.

Christian, how come we only get to spend time with each other on Sundays? You’re always with your wife. to which my dad replied, Baby, you know that’s the only day I can get away from my family. If I could have more sex with you, believe me, I would. Mrs. Wright responded, Christian, you know I can love you way better and do things that little church girl of a wife of yours can’t. Make me your whore and have your way with me Christian! She began gently rubbing my dad’s chest and easing her hands down below his waist. My dad grabbed her arm and said, I told you, I love my family. I just got needs. Right now you’re one of my needs. I need sex and you need money. So, here you go! Fair exchange, no robberies! He tossed her a few hundred bucks on the bed and said, Keep the change. Take your family out somewhere nice this week. He sat on the bed, and as he began to put on his clothes, he said, Don’t call me this Sunday. I’ll be busy. Mrs. Wright said, Hold on, why can’t you see me? You got another woman? You cheating on me?! How could you Christian? You said you loved me?! My dad exclaimed, Woman are you crazy!? Don’t you ever question me! You work for me and I’m the only reason you and your sorry excuse for a husband, and your two nappy-headed little girls can eat! And yes, there’s another woman! So what! You’re cheating on your husband with your boss! You’re my mistress! I don’t love you! Why would I ever take you seriously? Look, we are already set in our lives. Let’s not mess up a good thing. He began to kiss her and said, Don’t you like this diamond ring I got you? What about the 745 BMW I got you? That car costs more than my wife’s van but your sex is worth it. I’m not having sex with you for the companionship. That’s what I have a wife for. Being my mistress is much better. Mrs. Wright smiled and embraced my father’s kisses.

Suddenly, someone grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me from the door to the other side of the hallway and into the wall. I blacked out, but I’m not sure for how long. I woke up lying in a huge hole in the wall but couldn’t move. The person who threw me into the wall bombarded the room where my dad and Mrs. Wright were putting on their clothes. It was then that I recognized the man as Mrs. Wright’s husband, Greg.

As I got up, I saw my mother holding a gun. Greg was bleeding from the back of his head and was on the floor sitting up. He put his hand behind his head to feel the blood dripping down his neck. Apparently my mother hit Greg hard in the back of his head with her gun. Yeah it’s real! she said as she pointed the gun at Greg and then turned to my dad as she put her arm back down to her sides. Christian, I tried to ignore the signs about you cheating, but how could you be so inconsiderate, ignorant and stupid to cheat on me with someone so close to home? Since when did we start having sex with our employees? She turned and looked at the shaking and trembling Mrs. Wright. Our help?! We went on vacations with her and her husband! My mother slowly turned back to Mrs. Wright, You better be glad I saw your husband driving like a mad man down the street and I got here on time before he did something stupid. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even be talking right now. All you would hear is gunshots and see bullets going through your husband! Putting his hand on my child like he’s crazy! Christian, give this tramp some money from the safe to make her disappear out of our lives for good. Give her husband a year’s worth of salary and tell him to get another job. My mother grabbed me with a protective arm. Laying his hand on my baby. That negro MUST be crazy thinking he can touch my sweet Mikey and nothing would happen to him. He’s lucky I didn’t pull the trigger, and he better stay away cause my finger is still itching. Itching real bad!!! My mother then stepped as close as she possibly could in front of Mrs. Wright’s face and looked deep into her eyes, Oh, and you better stay gone or I will make sure you disappear for real! Get me? My mother cocked back the gun. Mrs. Wright looked shaken up and frightened for her life. She took the money my dad grabbed from the safe and left.

My mother put the gun in her purse, fixed her hair and makeup in the mirror, called somebody on the office phone and said, We need to aggressively audit some tax papers that just landed on my desk. I need to make sure these problems stay away from me for the rest of my life. I’m not sure who my mother was talking to, but I think they were people who were going to see to it that Mrs. Wright and her husband stayed away for good. My mother walked up to my dad, kicked him in his groin like her aunt Clarice taught her, and said, Try to have sex with them nuts baby! You almost got Mikey killed messin’ with that fast lil hussy. Make sure you get booty on your time, not on God’s or Michael’s!

I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I knew my mother carried a gun and knew how to shoot one. Her aunt Clarice taught her just in case she had to protect herself or her family one-day. She told me she never really had to use it, but she did practice a lot to make sure she knew how to if necessary. Detroit wasn’t always the safest place.

My mother walked out into the hallway and said, Aww, poor baby. Mommy’s little baby is a little bruised up, but you’re going to be ok, aren’t you? She pulled me up and helped dust off my Sunday church clothes. We proceeded to walk downstairs. My dad said, Baby! Wait! but my mom kept walking and threw up her middle finger. We continued downstairs but stopped just short of exiting the office building. She turned around covered my ears, smiled and said, By the way Christian, after you sell your whore’s BMW I will be expecting my new Porsche next week, and you’re not getting back into my bed until you get tested for whatever fleas that tramp might have given you. Thanks, goodbye!

We got in the van and my brothers were still in the backseat. My oldest brother, Christopher asked, What’s wrong Michael? I began to answer but my mother interrupted saying, Nothing! Michael fell down some stairs and hurt himself but he’s ok. Thank you Jesus! God is good! A tear rolled down her face as she drove off. I held her hand on the way home, because only I knew what had happened, and only I could console her.

Chapter 2 - From the 313rd To the Suburbs

I looked back sadly at my friends, Dennis and CJ, with all my things packed in the truck, waving goodbye to the only neighborhood and house I had ever known. I didn’t really understand why I had to move from Detroit to Southfield. City life was fun, and all that I had known up to that point was basketball all day, basketball all night, cookouts, water balloon fights, super soaker water fights, pool parties, unsupervised house parties with liquor, fights and the occasional gunshots at Beaubian Park behind my house. We would run and duck for the pavement, acting as if hearing gunshots was some type of army game. Also, the girls in my neighborhood were faster than the girls at my church, which is where my mother would always try to keep me. I was still a virgin and it was something my mother wanted to protect. My mom tried to keep me out of trouble, but I had an entirely different nightlife that she knew nothing about. I didn’t think she knew about it, but I couldn’t help but wonder if that could be one reason for the move.

Let me back up. Since the age of four, I’d be in church three to four times a week. Once on Sunday, another day for choir rehearsal, usher board and midweek service. I’d memorized and could recite all 66 books of the Bible and could tell you Jesus’ parables from Matthew verbatim. My mother wanted my brothers and I sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. She wanted us away from the city streets, neighborhood, worldly life and fast girls. Anytime I would question anything concerning the Bible, Christianity, God or Jesus, my mother would have answers ready. They usually ended with something like, You’re going to hell! Obey God or you’re going to hell! If you fornicate you’re going to hell! If you lie, you’re going to hell! If you disrespect your grandparents or me you’re going to hell! If you watch or see scary movies, you’re going to hell because it’s in the Bible that God has not given you the spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind!! Fear is of the devil and we won’t take no parts in that! If you have a girlfriend, that means you want to fornicate, so you’re going to hell! If you listen to worldly music and not this holy, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost music you’re going to hell! It’s of the devil! So yeah, I think I was scared straight into the holy life. Stories about the devil, hell, Lucifer, demons, the rapture and the lake of fire literally scared the HELL straight out of me. I was a super Christian, but little did my mom know being scared into living a lifestyle versus me choosing to live a lifestyle, would prove to not have as long lasting of an affect as she probably would have hoped. I think her ultimate goal was for us to stay out of trouble with the law, and not be male whores or get any girls pregnant before marriage. A Christian mother’s worst nightmare, but more specifically MY mother’s worst nightmare, was her child having a baby out of wedlock. If this happened, your sins would be out in the open for the public to judge you on; something SOME church folks were very good at doing.

Problems with the law or running in the streets were just the