Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

By Alan Cramer

Unassuming Transit clerk Andre Steele falls hard when he meets Leigh who’s half his age. They become involved, but Leigh keeps a neighborhood bum, Jaheem, on the side as her real love interest. Hoping to impress Leigh, Andre embezzles money from his employer. What Andre doesn't realize is that Leigh and Jaheem are getting rich on his songs, which have become a huge success under Leigh's name.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mikaeel Abdul-Malik
• Release date: Aug 6, 2011

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Two Wrongs

Don’t Make a Right

By Alan Cramer

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011 by M. Abdul-Malik

All rights reserved.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons living or dead is coincidental.

CHAPTER 1

It was three o’clock in the afternoon and Andre Steele was lying in bed. He should have been on his way to work, but he had called in sick. He hated his job with a passion.

Even though he was upstairs in the bedroom, he could hear his wife when she came in the house.

They worked different shifts so they hardly ever saw each other and they both liked it that way. Andre often fantasized about divorce. But he was so deep in debt, a break right about now would definitely cramp his lifestyle. He was comfortable in the three bedroom house in the north east Bronx and wasn’t ready to move into a furnished room.

His wife Monique walked into the bedroom. She saw him in the bed.

You didn’t go to work today?

That was a stupid question, Andre thought. She could see he was lying in the bed. No I didn’t go to work, Andre said. His voice was deep, like the late night quiet storm radio DJ.

I don’t know why I married your skinny lazy ass, Monique said.

Andre turned and pulled the covers over his head even though he wasn’t cold. He might have to listen to her mouth, but he definitely wasn’t going to look at her.

Monique on the other hand definitely made sure she was heard. She slammed her purse down on the night stand next to Andre’s head. He knew that it was her purse because she often did this when he was trying to sleep.

I hope you break your phone again, you stupid chicken head, he thought.

She started making other noises. First she sucked her teeth real loud. Then she started slamming dresser draws closed. Next came the closet door. Andre couldn’t take it any more. He took his head from under the covers and looked at her. She was naked but had a towel wrapped around her.

Why are you making so much noise?

She looked at him and bobbled her head like a chicken as she spoke. Some of us went to work, so do you mind if I take a shower?

Yeah but you in here slamming dressers and closet doors like you’re mad about something, Andre said. That’s how you break stuff, up being rough like that.

I ain’t touched nothing you paid for, Monique said.

Andre just stared as she walked out the room like she was big Willie.

A few minutes later Monique’s cell phone rang. Andre ignored it until it stopped. A few seconds later a voice mail notification came through. He ignored that too. Then it rang again. He picked it up and looked at it.

The caller ID said, bobby b. Andre waited for it to stop ringing. He called the number back.

They answered.

What’s up baby, the male voice said.

What’s up Bobby, why you calling my wife?

Oh shit, Bobby said. Naw…I was calling her with the number of a good mechanic… uh she said she had a problem with her head light on her car. I gotta go. Bobby hung up.

Andre was up and dressed by the time Monique came out of the shower. He didn’t want to get into it with her without being fully dressed because he didn’t know how it was going to turn out.

Who’s Bobby B?

What!

For a second, Monique looked scared. It didn’t happen often but when she was caught out there by surprise she couldn’t help it. But she recovered quickly. She looked over at her phone.

You been going through my phone?

The thing was ringing off the hook, I thought it might have been an emergency, Andre said.

You don’t pay my phone bill to be answering my phone, Monique said.

Forget all of that, why is this dude calling my house? A soon as Andre said it he realized his mistake.

Your house, Monique said with a laugh. Your name ain’t on no deed or no mortgage. You don’t pay no car notes in here and you definitely don’t pay my cell phone bill.

Andre’s stomach felt like he was on the first drop of a big roller coaster.

Monique smiled. She took the towel off exposing her naked body. Andre guessed this was her way of saying forget you. She had what some people called a beer belly. Andre liked to think of it as her being permanently pregnant. He would have laughed at the show, but her words had cut him too deep. He just walked out the room.

He went into the bedroom at the end of the hall. Even though it was Monique’s house, this small room had become his sanctuary.

Andre looked at the electric piano as soon as he entered the room. Next to it was a rectangular device with large pads on it. This was the Maschine beat maker. Next to the Maschine was a lap top. All this equipment was hooked up to a receiver. The receiver was plugged into a pair of Bose speakers. The system was kick ass, but when Monique was in the house Andre often used the headphones.

There was also some specialized video equipment, but Andre never really got into it. He had bought the very small remote video camera, but never used it except to see how it worked.

Making music was Andre’s real passion. He had never made any money at it. In fact he never even tried to sell the beats he had created. He told himself the music industry was a crooked game and if you didn’t have a hook up you didn’t stand a chance.

He turned everything on and sat down. A few minutes later he was in another world. He tried to push the thoughts of this Bobby B cat from his mind, but the name was stuck in his head. So Andre did what he did best, he turned it into a beat.

Bobby B…Bobby B…Bobby B.

He added a baseline. Once he got it just right, he added the hook. He set the Maschine to loop and just nodded to the beat with his eyes closed.

Andre liked to use syncopated beats. It was like what’s old is new, because a lot of hip hop artist didn’t know about syncopation. This gave Andre a unique and original sound.

After a few seconds he opened his eyes and Monique was standing