...Ain't Gold Grand Finale (Alternate Ending)
Nicole, Toots, Lani, Chuchi and Cora clasped hands at Cora's request. They stood in a circle, heads bowed, as Cora recited a prayer.
"Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen."
"Amen," the girls answered, everyone turning to look at Nikki. "Thanks ma," she said.
"Anything for my baby. Today, the Lord is looking down on you and smiling, sweetheart. This is the most important day of your life. And you know you got the Good Lord sending an angel down to sit on your shoulder."
Nicole smiled at her mother and turned to ther sister. "Well, I guess its time for me to get dressed then, huh?"
The gown had been handpicked by Nicole from the Vera Wang Collection. It cost Rich an arm and a leg at four hundred grand but he never could say no when it came to his babygirl. It was a slinky number, and when tried on it looked like Nicole had poured herself into it. When she was finally in it, her mother helped her put on her tiara. She leaned over and whispered in her eldest daughters ear.
"Today is your day, baby. Make it count."
Rich was in the bathroom mirror conferring with his reflection as he shaved. "You a sexy nigga, man, you realy are. I mean, you always was, so there ain't really shit I could say like oh I remember when you was ugly, nah, I can't say that. You been fine since you popped out the pussy, you smell me?"
He lifted his chin and shaped up his goatee. "But today you lookin extra sexy. Can't nobody say shit about you today. Shit, you poppin tags like you designed that shit. I'm scared of you my nigga, I really am."
"What the fuck are you talkin about?"
Rich turned in time to see Mookie stand in the doorway behind him, giving him a concerned glance. "You aight son? You need a pill or somethin?"
Rich chuckled and rinsed the shaving cream off his razor. "I'm good. A nigga's all nervous and shit, so I'm in here tryna play it cool."
"Cold feet?"
"Ice blocks my nigga."
Mookie laughed and reached into his pants pocket and produced a little bag of sunshine. "I got the remedy, my nigga," he said, laughing.
Rich turned away from the sink and snatched the bag. Mookie made a couple of calls and within a few moments, they had a party going.
Upstairs, Nicole was freaking out. She had spent six months preapring for this day and now that it had come she was not ready for it. She stood in front of her mirror, wringing her hands, tears streaming down her face.
"What if he leaves me there? What if he's afraid to marry me and leaves me at the altar?"
Chuchi ran around in circles fanning Nikki's face. "Nicole, its going to be alright. You're just nervous. You're-"
"But what if something happens to my dress? What if I fall? Oh my God, this is all wrong. Somethin's gone happen, I know it."
"Nikki, it's going to be fine, would you relax?"
"I can't relax!" She looked at her mother and burst into a fresh round of tears. Cora looked over at Alanis and nodded.
Lani wanted to have an active part in the planning so Cynthia obliged and gave her a walkie talkie to be used in event of a crisis. This was most definitely a crisis.
Cynthia Weintraub took her job very seriously. She was not the type to slack, or give her client a half assed job. No matter how loud, or boisterous, or ghetto, they may have been, she was going to carry out her duties. They were cutting her some serious paper, and she was seriously going to deliver.
So when she knocked on the door of Room 303 (the honeymoon suite) she prepared herself for the worst. And she was not disappointed.
Cris cracked the door a bit, looked both ways, and when he was sure his visitor wasn't a threat, he pulled it open. "Yo, what up G-Ma?" he said.
"G-Ma? Excuse me?" Cynthia pushed her way inside, right into a blaze of smoke. Rich's eyes widened when he saw her because he knew the shit storm that was about to come down on his head.
"Mr. Knightley! I'm more than sure this is not what I want to see twenty minutes before your are to be married. You plan on arriving to your own wedding stoned? Look at these floral arrangements!" Cynthis fluffed a bunch of white roses in their vase.
"Ay yo, relax Grams, we got this," Mookie said.
"It's Cynthia. And didn't I give explicit directions that there was to be no smoking today? What is the matter with you?" Just as she was about to rip into them, her walkie talkie crackled.
"Cindy? It's Lani. We have a situation."
Cynthia's attention was diverted as she headed for the door. "What kind of a situation?"
"I think Nikki's having a nervous breakdown up here."
Her trot turned into a jog. "I'll be right there."
"Everything is in order, I trust?"
"We all set. We just waitin on the show to begin."
"Alright." There was a pause. "No fucking mistakes this time."
"Don't worry about it. There ain't gone be no mistakes."
"Hey."
"What?"
"How does she look?"
Another pause, this one in the final trimester of its pregnancy.
"She looks good."
Mookie watched the tiny woman dash out of the room before he put the blunt back to his lips. Then he removed a bottle of Chris Brothers from an undisclosed location and walked around so everyone (Rich, Cris, Tony B., and Ice) could tap the bottle. They did, and he poured a little poison for everyone.
"I never thought it could happen," he started sarcastically. "I always thought his royal pimpness would be single to the day he died, poppin his collar and shit."
"So did I," Ice shouted from where he perched rolling a joint.
"So when this nigga looked me in the eye and said, 'yo check it, I'ma marry her', ya'll know I had to clown a nigga. But you a better man than me, nigga. Just think: the same pussy for the rest of your life."
There were groans from all his boys at the thought of giving up their philandering. Rich smiled goodnaturedly and laughed right along with them. They could say what they wanted, but he was glad they were on his side. He looked around the room at the family that had held him down while he got established, loved him and all his flaws. They weren't just business partners, they were his brothers. Each and every last one of them.
Then Cris broke the mood into laughter by adding, "Just make sure you keep her and Shadow away from each other. We don't want no more bullets flyin."
Speaking of... Rich smiled and pointed, standing to find his phone. It was laying on the counter by the door; he grabbed it and went into the hallway. It rang twice before being picked up.
"Hello?"
Silence, the same as always, greeted him.
"You know the drill."
He heard a button.
"You are coming, right?"
Another button.
"Can you tell me where you are?" Someone tapped his shoulder and he whirled around, phone still glued to his ear. He hung up when he saw who it was. "How the hell do you do that?" He knew she wouldn't answer but he had been asking her rhetorical questions for years. Why stop now?
He fought the urge to hug her, instead taking a step back and looking at her in her halting beauty. She looked so different outside of her usual darkness. Instead of black, she wore the exact opposite, an all white tighter than tight leather suit and four and a half inch red fuck me pumps. Her black eye patch had been replaced with a white one and her cleavage threatened to revolt against her with each movement.
Richard was speechless. He knew she looked good but he didn't know she looked this good. He choked trying to find the words. "Ah-you-uh-well. You look really good."
She nodded an I know and reached into the matching white clutch in her hand. He knew she had a weapon in there, knives today, and wondered where her gun was. Probably hidden away somewhere on her body. She was good for that. She found what she was looking for and tossed it at Rich.
It was a bullet.
Not just any; the one the doctors had extracted after Nicole shot her. Rich wasn't sure he was going to see her again after that and this was the first time he had seen her since the frantic wedding planning began. She tossed the bullet at him and he caught it, understanding the gesture. It meant she was back. No hard feelings, don't sweat it, everything's a go. He nodded and smiled, she nodded as well and turned on her heel.
Cynthia opened a jar filled with what looked like crushed lavender petals and shoved it under Nikki's nose. With her other hand she spritzed her in the face with some Evian and fanned her gently. She whispered soothingly in her ear.
"I just went upstairs darling. Richard is more than ready for today. He's not leaving you, he's not having second thoughts. In fact, he sent this," Cindy prodcued a white rose, "and said to think of him."
Nicole took the delicate flower in her hands and smiled. Rich always bought her white roses. She smiled harder and clutched the flower to her chest. Her faith was renewed at the small gesture. She let Cynthia finish retouching her makeup.
"Well, if we're all done here, I think its time for you to go get married!"
Nicole's goddaughter was the flowergirl. The five year old had her work cut out for her as she stepped down the all white aisle tossing pink petals to the floor. Toots and Tony followed, Lani and Cris, and Chuchi and Ice. Nicole couldn't peek out before she walked out, she knew her nerves were going to be jacked up.
She made it to the aisle in record time. When she made it, Rich and his reassuring hazel eyed gaze were there waiting for her. He smiled and took his hand in hers.
"We are gathered here today to witness Richard Knightley and Nicole Baisden join together in Holy Matrimony. For this is the most powerful of bonds, based on love, respect, honor, and trust..." the preacher began.
"Trust," said a voice from the back. "The most powerful bond."
Rich looked down the row of people and frowned. He instinctively shoved Nicole behind him. Toots made a move forward, but he motioned for her to stay where she was. Nicole tapped his shoulder. "What's going on?"
"Sssh, Nikki," he hissed. Something had to be wrong, she reasoned in her mind. He had never spoken to her like that before. She stayed where she was. Who was this man interrupting her ceremony?
"I trusted you, Richard. Trusted you enough to allow you inside my home. Trusted you enough to introduce you to my family. And what did you do?"
"Maxell, this is not the time or the place."
Cora turned, her hands clasped firmly around Alanis. She wondered, like everyone else in the audience, just what the hell was going on.
"Oh, I think so. You've caused me many inconveniences in the past year and it's high time you pay for your crimes."
"We are not going to do this here. Not in front of my wife."
"She's not your wife yet."
Richard didn't want this to deteriorate into what he knew was going to be a SNAFU of epic proportions.
"My daughter. And my firstborn. My only son."
"Richard, what is he talking about? What's going on?"
Before he could answer, Maxell whipped out a pistol and aimed it at Richard. Nicole shrieked and tried to make herself disappear behind Rich, she was beyond afraid now. Toots raised her trigger finger and pointed it at Maxell. Maxell nodded and Mookie drew his weapons, pointing them at Toots. Shadow was up and had her own gun in Maxell's neck before any other words could be said. As soon as she stood, Cookie got behind her. Shadow trained a gun on the both of them. Rich exhaled, exasperated. And now it was a standoff.
"Mookie? What the fuck are you doing man?"
"Sorry fam. Money talks."
"Money talks? You my fuckin brother, man! How you gone do this shit to me?"
"Again, this is where trust comes in. Now you know how it feels to be betrayed."
"Mookie you betta get that shit out my face, nigga, for I put on in ya eye."
"Shut the fuck up, bitch. Ain't shit gone happen to me."
"Rich, what the fuck we doin man," Toots shout whispered.
"Just tell them to lower their weapons and this will all be over with," MAxell said, still aiming at Rich.
Shadow was itching for this to be over with. She had had a feeling this was going to happen but she couldn't say anything if she wanted to. Cookie's hands were shaking.
"Cookie, you too?"
"Shut up Rich. Just shut up and do what he says."
No one knows who fired the first shot but whoever was meant to be hit that day was laid out. Toots made good on her threat and Mookie was dead before he hit the floor. Shadow let off two shots, one into Cookie's heart and the other into Maxell's brain. The guests began to scream and uck for cover, most of them making it out of the door. Toots dove and tackled Nicole to the ground, protecting the girl as the bullets flew around them. The shot Maxell managed to let off skimmed Rich's neck, right under the tattoo of Nicole's name.
"Aah, shit!" Rich twisted and went down. He clutched a hand to his neck and that quickly began barking orders. "Toots, Shadow, get the fuck outta here, go, fore 5-0 get here!"
Cris and Tony hustled Cora, Alanis and Chuchi out of the church. When the shooting started, the had gone under the pews for cover. Cris found them clutching each other and crying.
"Baby!" Nicole crawled over to Rich and touched his face. "Are you okay? What happened? Oh, shit you're bleeding, let me see it, let me see it."
"It's just a scratch, I'll live."
"Somebody shot you Richard. Let me see it."
When the EMT's arrived a day late and a dollar short five minutes later, they found a strange scene. A man in a tux and a woman in a gown sat on the steps in the front of the church surrounded by three bodies. The man had a considerable amount of blood on his tux and the woman had some smeared on her dress.
Rich watched them jog up the aisle. He noticed Nikki's hands were shaking so he leaned over to Nicole and kissed her like he hadn't seen her in weeks. "I love you, baby, I really do."
"And I love you back. Who else would I go through this shit for?"
Rich smiled again as the EMT's came forward to see what had happened.
"Let's try this again in Jamaica, huh?"
Nikki rubbed his shoulder and lay her head on it. "I'll see you there."
(c) 2006
Jacki Simmons
All rights reserved.
