It was 1997, late March or early April. I know that because of Michael Jackson and The Notorious BIG. I’d mentioned to some guy; I think he was a stranger I met outside somewhere; that I was a big Michael Jackson fan and he told me that he had a new album coming soon. I was a bit skeptical because he’d just released the History album two years prior, but the guy even knew the title. It was my first time hearing about Blood On The Dance Floor, which was released two months later. BIG’s new album, Life After Death, had just been released. It was the newest and hottest thing out as far as rap music went, so it was mostly what we played in the rented Expedition or Escalade or Blazer we drove from (Detroit) Michigan to (Norfolk) Virginia.
Actually, Tobe was the main or only driver. I think PJ rode in the front passenger seat and it was Will who rode in the back with me. Monique and others went in a separate vehicle. I think they were either following us or leading because I remember us talking to them during a gas or bathroom stop. I also remember Tobe driving away as if he were going to leave Will. We all laughed as he ran to catch-up with us. I think it was PJ or one of the girls from the other vehicle who pointed-out how cartoonishly funny his legs looked as he ran, which only made us laugh more. PJ also laughed when Puff Daddy said “fuck the nigga next to you” on The World Is Filled, pointing-out how gay it sounded. We corrected him by explaining that he was talking about a girl.
I remember us eating “trip chicken”; chicken fried at home, usually by somebody’s mama, and brought along during a long road trip to eat at room temperature whenever hunger strikes. I don’t remember much else about the trip there, which, according to Google, took around ten hours. I don’t even remember arriving in Norfolk, Virginia. I know we stayed in The Omni Hotel though, which stood along The Elizabeth River, on a high enough floor to give us a nice view of the water. That view came into play when I met some girls out there and signaled for the guys, looking down at us from the hotel window, to come down. They saw me but couldn’t leave out in time because “Will was in the bathroom”. If it were me, I would’ve left him in there.
It seemed that meeting and fucking girls, at least one, was the main thing on Larry’s mind. I remember him complaining in frustration as we roamed the hotel one day, looking for anything we’d be willing to stick our dicks in. It wasn’t a major goal for me; I didn’t really expect to get pussy on a church trip; but it was funny seeing him go mad over it. The trip, which probably lasted for two or three days, is what introduced me to him and Jovaun. I think it was the first time we ever met. The overall impression they made was that of typical light-skinned black urban high school guys… who wore Nautica shirts and thought KRS-One was “wack”. At least Larry did. I remember him dissing him when his new Step Into A World video came on the hotel TV.
Larry and Jovaun were also pranksters. They put toothpaste on Eric one morning as he slept, which was funnier to them than me. Eric took it in stride. I don’t get the connection, but he said he thought he was dead when he awoke. Maybe he thought the toothpaste was embalming fluid. I don’t know. It was him who got lost at the mall though. I remember us walking around looking for him. This trip wasn’t my first time meeting him, but it was my first time hanging-out with him. Others complained about the way he inadvertently mean-mugged people, particularly strangers, but he was cool with me. I was with him when he stopped at the hotel arcade to play Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out and lost to Glass Joe. I made fun of him for years after that.
PJ dropped something in the bathroom and screeched like a girl, which was hilarious, but I don’t remember a lot else like us going out anywhere but the mall or eating anything but trip chicken. Tobe, who was romantically linked to Kita; I think that was her name; got mad at Monique. Something about her being in his business. Earlier I forgot to mention that when he finally stopped the SUV and let Will in, Will, who’d just been talking to Monique and them in the other vehicle, said out loud that her “breath stank!” Tobe reminded him, calmly and rather satirically, that the window was down as he rolled it up. I don’t know if Monique and them heard what Will said or not, but the whole incident was funny in an embarrassing sort of way.
I also forgot to mention that, according to Tobe, I got lost like Eric. He said that they were looking around the hotel for me one day. I think he even said that they called the local jail to see if I got locked-up. I had no clue. I guess I hadn’t told anybody when I went out walking that day, alone, to explore Norfolk on foot. That might’ve been when I met the guy who told me about Blood On The Dance Floor. I ended-up back at the hotel hours later, in a room with some of the girls, when they found me. A lot of people from Solomon’s Temple were at The Omni, clustered together in separate rooms. The main purpose of the trip was for church members to attend some sort of convention. I just went along for a vacation. It was an enjoyable experience.