This first package he received was a single black rose. The note read; it took me three weeks of tears but it's over now. The relationship was over for Spanky three weeks before he moved out. He continued to live with Jasmine only because Rachel hadn't closed on her ninth floor luxury condominium. The day after she closed on the condo Spanky packed upped his only suit case and one of Jasmines and moved out her suburban raised ranch home; which had been his residence for two and a half years. He left while Jasmine was still at work.

While sitting at the bar at the Pizza Pub he told Oliver, his best friend, who was providing the ride from his old girlfriend's house to his new girlfriend's place that things had cooled off between him and Jasmine the day he met Rachel.

"It was love at first sight man I ain't lying. I ain't never had a woman get all up inside my head like she is. It ain't never been this way for me. All I think about is her." He drained his shot in one toss. The drinks were on him since Oliver came all the way out to the south-burbs to give him a lift downtown.

Oliver was pulling a Newport out of the box when he asked "So was you still fucking Jasmine while you lived with her these last days?" He held the cigarette between thumb and index finger without lighting it.

"Yeah, as much as she would let me" Spanky grinned and beckoned to Rubin the blond polish immigrant bartender who spoke Ebonics.

Rubin catches the wave from the other end of the bar "Yeah bro?"

"Hit us all around Rubin" he ordered while downing half of the frosted mug.

"Two more shots and brew?" Rubin walked to the tap and pulled two more mugs from over head.

"Yeap" Spanky answered "and frost ‘em."

"So then she don't see it coming. I guess you kind of blindsiding her then, leaving like you doing?"

"Yeah, I guess so." He motioned to the bartender for another shot.

"Damn dog...I thought she meant more to you than that. I mean shit man when she comes home she's going to be looking for you."

"I left her a note bro."

"Cuz, she provided you with a home for three years and all you left her was a note? Dude in case you forgot...you was leaving in my basement until you met Jasmine. A cat would think she would be worth a little more than a note."

Oliver had looked at him with such disgust that Spanky didn't order another round and during the drive downtown they only had a brief conversation about the Bull's NBA draft picks. The truth was he hadn't left a note; he only left her a voicemail after Oliver made his leaving sound so foul. He wanted to make clean break with no drama, no strings and no clues as to where he was; that's why getting cards and stuff tripped him out, Jasmine shouldn't have known where he was living.

When he got the first note he was going out to walk Ming, Rachel's miniature white Poodle, when the door man gave him the note with the black rose. When he asked who left the note the doorman described Jasmine to the t.; down to the dimple in her chin. Spanky looked up and down the block and saw no signs of her. While he was walking Ming through Grant park two birds pooped on him; the first one got him on his bare shoulder, the other on the top of his head spoiling his fresh twist. All he had to wipe the bird mess was Ming's plastic poop bag which had no absorbing qualities. The poop bag merely smeared the bird mess down his arm and onto his wife beater.

Ming squatted and took a dump right in front of a beat cop so he had to use the bird mess stained poop bag to scoop up Ming's crap. When he got back to Rachel's building the doorman told him the water would be off for five hours. He washed his body and his hair with bottled water. He blamed Jasmine's black rose for the for bird poop, it jinxed him.

Two days letter the second note arrived Fedex while he was lounging leisurely looking at All My Children. The couch had arrived the day before and he positioned it across from the glass wall facing the fifty two inch LED flat screen, which the television techs had just mounted. He was getting the hang of the remote when the Fedex driver tapped on the door.

The flat envelope contained the engagement ring he'd brought Jasmine. It was a quarter carat diamond ring from the pawn shop on a Hundred Eleventh Street. The used ring was taped to a note which read; I believed you when you said you would love me forever because you were telling me the truth. No sooner than he placed the envelope on the kitchen counter his knee buckled and he dropped the remote and stepped on it; smashing it while trying to keep his balance.

He swept the pieces of the remote up from the stone tile of the kitchen floor with the plastic bristled broom then limped back to the couch. He did love Jasmine when he gave her the ring and thought for sure he would love her forever; but then he met Rachel and things changed; it wasn't his fault. After their first kiss Spanky was hooked and hooked bad.

He went back to the kitchen counter and retrieved the ring and the note. He'd gotten the ring by saving money from the loads of scrap metal he'd hustled up with Oliver. He brought the ring with his money, not hers, and he was proud of that fact. So much of what he had came from her and other people; not the ring, that he got on his own.

He wasn't as fortunate as Oliver who went to work at the mill two days after high-school graduation. Spanky didn't have a daddy that worked at the mill; through most of high-school he lived with his grandmother until she died during his junior year. After her funeral he moved in with Oliver and his dad. It was Oliver's dad who showed them both how to scrap metal which allowed them pocket money. Once Oliver got on at the mill his daddy moved down south and left him the house. He gave Spanky the basement rent free. With his mill job, house, and metal scraping money Oliver became a sought after bachelor. With only metal scraping money and no job prospects, Spanky became the broke buster that lived in his best friend's basement; until Jasmine.

He met her in the parking lot of Wal-mart; she had a flat tire and he changed it for her. Doing something for somebody, especially a woman in need, made Spanky feel good about himself. He asked the pretty damsel in distress to lunch and she accepted. He took her to an all you can buffet and went broke on taking her to the movies that same night. The next day was Sunday and she picked him up and took him to her church. She was twenty-four with a degree and a job. He was eighteen and scraping metal.

She was renting a house with an option to buy but didn't know how to start the lawnmower that came with it. He kept Oliver's old truck running with duct tape and wire pliers and was happy to be living rent free in a basement. After going out a couple more times Spanky told "we fill each other's holes." She urged him to want more and he gave her common knowledge.

Knowing that she was a real church girl he didn't pressure her for sex. He liked thinking of her as pure and better than the other girls he had been with. She was smarter, prettier, cleaner, and holier than any other woman that ever looked his way. So waiting for the sex was no problem because they were building something real. He was going back and forth from her house to Oliver's basement for over three months before she let him spend the night and all they did that first night was cuddle and kiss.

His first night with Rachel was a wet dream that came to life; head, sex, even anal. A year younger than him but more sexually aware than he or Jasmine, Rachel called herself a sexual beast and Spanky found that to be true. At nineteen he had only three women his whole life; Rachel had made and was still making porno movies. He hadn't told Oliver that she made porno because he didn't know how to say it without making her sound like a...hoe.

He didn't know why her making porno wasn't a problem for him but it wasn't. He was cool with the situation; had even jacked off to a couple of her scenes. She liked watching him do that. Her being a porn star was exciting; matter of fact everything about Rachel was exciting; life around her was nonstop thrills.

Jasmine wouldn't even watch a porno and didn't want him watching them; said that they would distract him from a righteous life because they were evil. Rachel wasn't evil, worldly yes, evil no. She told him she earned fifteen hundred dollars a scene and more if she squirted. She always squirted when they had sex; she told him "you give me multiples that's why I took you from that woman." They did it twice a day every day.

He was lucky to do it twice a month with Jasmine and afterwards she was always sad. "We sinning and the Lord wants us to live right" which meant getting married but she wouldn't marry him until he got a real job. Rachel told him his job was making her smile and that the gods must be happy with them because what they did felt "so damn good." Her explanations even excited him.

He'd met Rachel in the same Wal-mart parking lot where he'd met Jasmine. She was struggling with loading a bag of dog food in the trunk of her Lexus. When he first went into the store he helped an old lady load the same type of the dog food into her shopping cart. To thank him, the old lady blessed him in a funny language and dusted him with some good luck powder. The powder made his eyes water but he didn't complain to the old lady.

Spanky easily placed the bag of dog food into the trunk for Rachel. When he looked up from the trunk he noticed her beast had popped free of her halter top during her struggle with the bag. He couldn't help but stare and she didn't immediately correct the exposure. The small perky twins with pieced nipples seem to demand his full attention. Each nipple had a small gold hoop through it and the hoops contrasted beautifully against her dark brown skin.

"Take a picture" she said.

"I wish I could."

"Why?"

"Cause I would look at it every five minutes for the rest of my life."

She laughed, covered herself and invited him to lunch. She was living right off of Torrance Avenue behind the mall in a rented townhouse. She served him shrimps and cocktail sauce. Throughout her townhouse where portraits and pictures of snakes and snake figurines; the biggest picture was above the futon in her bedroom. She'd brought that picture to her condo and again placed it above her futon.

This morning he wakes to that picture and Rachel going out to walk Ming. He rolls over on the futon to wrap himself better in the sheet when he hears keys jingle. Neither his nor Rachel's keys jingled. There is one house key and they share it and her Lexus key is on the end of a pink rabbit's foot; it didn't jingle. He sits up on the futon, pats around and finds his keys to Jasmine's house tapped to a note which reads; it's time to come home.

He stands immediately up from the futon and looks around the bedroom. Then he goes into the walk-in closet and the bathroom. He searches the condo but he is alone until Rachel returns.

He hasn't dressed and is standing nude in the middle of futon holding the keys and the note when she walks into the bedroom.

"Baby" he begins "you ain't go believe this."

"Shhhh."

She drops to her knees in front of his thighs and takes him into her mouth. Looking down at the tangle of jet black curls on the top of her head he stops talking and inhales deeply through his nose and exhales heavily through his mouth. Morning sex is her thing; especially if she worked the night before, after filming she wants what he thinks of as ‘bossy sex' the next morning. She gives orders and wants total control and it always starts with head that gets him harder than railroad iron.

This morning is no different, when he is stretched out too long for her take down her throat she orders him too "lay on you back and don't move a muscle, don't twitch, pump or pull, lay still! I'm doing all the moving this morning. Don't grab hold of me or nothing, and don't talk, don't call be baby or none of that, just keep the dick hard, your mouth shut, and your hands to yourself. I tell when to open your mouth."

She mounts him without looking at him, her head is back and her eyes are on the high ceiling which is stenciled with blue 3's, 6's, and 9's..

"Keep this fat dick hard nigga, you bet not nut."

He doesn't reach orgasm during bossy sex; this is for her not them. Rachel has orgasms but he's noticed she doesn't squirt or get the rash on her chest like she does when they have sex for each other. This bossy sex is like her going to the bathroom; something she has to do to feel right. At the start of the relationship he found the bossy sex exciting, until he started seeing the need and her tears. Despite the harsh talk, tears accompany her orgasms during bossy sex. And he's learned that they are not tears of pleasure but of pain; it's like she trying to cleanse herself; and knowing that, he accepts her verbal abuse.

"Oh yeah that's it big daddy, mama got it coming now, oh yeah start pumping that log daddy, push up hard damnit, real fucking hard, make my teeth rattle nigga, fuck me like I feed you! Fuck me like you know I'm the bitch that put clothes on your back! Work this nut out of me nigga, work it out!"

There is little pleasure in the act for him, she is going to and fro over his pelvic area like a child on a hobby horse until "ohhsssshhhhhiiiiiittt" and she falls to the futon. She lands on the arm holding the key and the note. He wants to touch her, hold her, but he is not sure what her response will be. They lay quite for minutes.

She rolls off his arm and ask "whose keys?"

He sits up "Yeah I was going to tell you about those and this note" he hands both to her "I rolled over this morning and found them in the sheets."

She reads the note "This from that knock-kneed chick of yours and you found it in here?"

"On the futon."

"How? That means she was in here. Did you have that bitch up in here?"

"Naw! The note tripped me out as much as it's doing you. I searched the joint looking for her."

"How the hell did she get in here? Did she creep in on us while we were sleeping? Hell I didn't get here until three thirty this morning; this some strange shit Spanky. Damn what we gonna do, we can't have that slut creeping up on us. . . We got to call the bitch."

"Huh?"

"Call the hoe, get this straight now. Ain't nan bitch gonna be up in my spot creepin', call her."

They walk into the kitchen for the house phone and as soon as he reaches for it, it rings.

"Hello Mr. Spanky, your ride is down here waiting for you." It was the desk clerk.

"My ride?"

"Yes sir, a Ms. Jasmine."

He turns to look at Rachel "She's downstairs waiting for me."

"Huh?"

"She's downstairs."

"Well let's go see the bitch."

They hurriedly dress; she slides into jeans, t. shirt, and leather slides. He jumps into a sweat suit and his flip flops. He opens the door and walks out first, looking down he sees a line of red dust and rock salt sprinkled in the door way. Rachel sees the line, screams and jumps back.

She snarls and hisses at the red dust.

"Who the fuck" she tries to jump over the line but is thrown back to the floor and lands on her back. She strips her clothes off and yells strange words at the dust, she tries again to cross door jam and again she is forced to floor. Spanky is tapped on his shoulder; he turns around to see Oliver and Jasmine; both holding crucifixes.

Jasmine blows a powder in his face and presses her crucifix against his forehead. The powder sets his eyes on fire. He falls to his knees in the hall. He blinks and wipes he eyes clear. Something is wrong with what he sees.

The hallway is tattered and old, holes are busted in the plaster of the walls. The carpet is soiled and worn thread bare. When he looks into the condo, he sees a withered old lady with flat sagging breast and cruddy feet. He looks around for Rachel but only the old lady is in the room. The old lady and a bunch or mirrors is all that he sees. The old lady reaches for the door and slams it in his face.

Oliver bent down to him "She hexed you bro, I thought something was twisted when I dropped you at this dump but I wasn't sure until I saw her. When I came back a week later to tell you that my daddy died the desk clerk told be about her, she's a witch man and be getting young cats all the time. I couldn't get to you because I had to tend to my daddy so I told Jasmine."

She bends down to him "I didn't believe him baby, I am so sorry. I thought you both were trying to play me some kind of way. But then I seen you walking that little rat dog and looking like a pick-a-ninnie about the head. I talked to the desk clerk and he told me the same thing he told Oliver and then I saw her wretched behind and I knew Oliver had spoke the truth.

"So I went to my pastor and he sent me to his wife who gave me this stuff.” She holds up a little bottle filled with red and white crystals and another bottle of brown powder. “And with the desk clerk's help we were able to reach you baby. I love you Spanky and Pastor's wife said it would only work if you loved me. You can see clear now and I can too. You my man and I ain't go let no dried up witch take you from me."

Oliver stands up "We got to go y'all, before she hexes us all." He helps Spanky to his feet.

Spanky looks at the tattered closed door, he wants to kick it open to get another look at Rachel but he looks down and the dirty pants and run over house shoes on his own crusty feet he says "Damn, get me out here!"

In the lobby Spanky no longer sees the desk clerk as a suave doorman with locs. He is a bent over wino who needs to comb his hair. "No mo' bedroom eyes huh young brother? So you almost seeing clear huh? Remember it ain't just here, da magic is everywhere. Now run boy!"