KG listened to the whispers, the beeping sounds, and the nurses casual chatter. He could feel the cold stream of air rushing through his nose, the ventilator shoving life into his body, but yet he couldn't move. He couldn't obey her. He struggled to grip her hand just like she'd pleaded over and over again. And with all his strength he tried to simply move his thumb. But he couldn't. His mother cried on his shoulder, kissed his cheek, but he couldn't kiss her back. He couldn't even see her, but he could hear her soft nurturing voice. Her plea for him to wake up, to say something. The cold hospital room smelled of death doused with bleach and the images from his past, his present and then his past again held him hostage.
"Roll the dice!" KG said. "Roll the damn dice."
KG stared down at ten year old David, eying him as if he were the enemy. "What you crying for? Just play the game."
David sank deeper into his chair. "Would you please stop yelling?"
"Please?" KG said. "You gone beg for me to ease up on you? That's what we do now?"
The fan stuffed inside the window of the dusty attic spun a web of summer heat and rattled the frame. On the walls, Marcus Garvey, Tupac, and Malcom X stared down from their posters to observe the two play a game of monopoly. Bookshelves lined the attic wall and the gigantic boom box sat stiff on the end table, humming Snoop's Gin and Juice.
"Doubles!" David yelled. "I got doubles!" He sat up in his chair, his chin up, his eyes wide, but smile wider. "One, two, three," he counted as he skipped his silver puppy around the board.
"You ain't got doubles," KG said. "Count that shit again."
David scratched his chin, studying the black dented dots. "Yes it is! They both six!"
"I know. But I don't like that shit, so rules just changed, you ugly mothafucka. You rolling with one."
"But why? I don't get it."
"You don't get it because you can't read."
"But... But... How you got so much money?" David scanned his stash of colorful bills, back at KG's and then frowned. "I only got a little bit."
"You just now catching that? Where you been?" KG said. "You too busy thinking about Sam, huh?" He turned his head to blow the reefer from his chocolate brown lips. "Well Ima tell you what. Girls don't like dummies. And they sure don't like broke dummies. So get your mind right. Pay attention to your money."
"But you're the banker!" David said. "Your supposed to pass out the money."
"So. You can count. Why you ain't never the banker? You just say, fuck it, huh? You got the board. The easy shit."
David shrugged his shoulders, fell back into his chair and crossed his arms so hard, the table shook.
"You like that easy shit, huh. That shit where you use your hands instead of your mind. As long as I toss you a nickel and dime here and there, you ain't paying no mind to what I'm doing. Just goin bout my day. Massa. Whatever you give me, Massa. It's all good...Massa."
KG bent across the table. Downstairs he could hear his grandmother bumping B.B. King, his sister blasting L.L. Cool J's 'Lady Love' with her friends on the porch, but stayed focused. He kept staring at David's worrisome eyes.
"Piece by piece, you built this shit, but ain't never pay attention to the money. Who fucking cares how hard you worked to set this world up, how pretty you look doing it. You still my slave because you still ain't got shit. And you proud too. Proud of the work you did. You my proud bitch."
KG sat back into his chair, picked up his joint and blew circles toward the spinning fan. He then grabbed a stack of hundred dollar bills from his gym bag. "Money. It's the most important thing about this game called life. If you don't have the money, you ain't playing the game. If you ain't winning in this game, the game playing you.
