CHAPTER EIGHT
Baylon tugged at his crotch, adjusting the
fit of his pants, primping in the mirror. Long sleeves made him
invisible. In long sleeves he was straight, a nine to five working
man who no one would give a second glance to. Hair cut low, but
without flash, no gold, no grill, no tattoos, he could walk into
any church or office or restaurant or store and be treated as Joe
A. MiddleClassCitizen.
For this meeting, he went with
short sleeves. The short sleeves showed he'd been working out, made
him appear harder. He scratched the head of his pit bull. Even his
dog was more affectation than necessity. His troops needed to see
him as the shot caller, second only to Dred in word and deed. As it
stood, they begrudgingly followed orders and too often challenged
his authority by asking to hear them from Dred himself. It boiled
down to how he carried himself. Maybe he would never escape Griff's
long shadow.
"Yeah, you still the fairest one
of them all, nigga." Griff sidled next to him, examining his
reflection up and down in the mirror. "But you'll never be
me."
"I know." Baylon spritzed on some
cologne.
"You don't have the
heart."
"I know."
"Your men sense it."
"Then I'll have to make them…
respect the office."
The house leaned between two others
just like it. King, Wayne, and Lott observed the comings and goings
without a plan. They just wanted more information. If Michelle had
a bounty on her, it had to come from one of the local dealers. His
neighborhood was under assault and he had not taken notice of it
until now. A young man approached another, neither out of high
school. The one palmed the cash, slid into his pocket, while he
scanned the streets. A smooth, practiced move.
A group of young boys
gathered only a halfblock away. Fixed with industrial intent, they
tore strips of newspaper into dollar sized scraps. They took their
assembled "bills" and fashioned wads for themselves. They'd pull it
out of their pocket and peel off a couple bills to one another. One
took his stack and threw it into the air to the chants of
"Make it rain".
And King's heart
seethed.
Before he was aware of
himself, he strode toward the men.
• • •
Austere but clean, the brown walls had
a greasy film to them, like a kitchen
with a long history of deep frying everything. A tinge of smoke in
the air mixed with faint fumes of alcohol. A cracked fixture
filtered cold light into the room, casting a yellowish pallor. The
electric money counter unattended on the counter, they were on the
count, their duties interrupted by a tryst. Junie straddled the
couch, one leg sprawled over the back. He sat alone, god of the
couch, master of all he surveyed. Waiting for Parker to finish. His
fatigue pants around his ankles, he was laying pipe to a jumpoff
girl, pumping furiously in plain view, a voyeuristic thrill
heightening his performance. Junie squinted at the girl, trying to
place her. These tricks started to blur together after
awhile.
Junie loved that boy after
his fashion, conjuring vague plans for Parker's future, but also
hated him. Hated him for making him see himself. As he was, not who
he dreamt he was.
"You bout done over
there?"
"I don't give a fuck. You
feel me? I don't give," Parker retorted in close to an insulting
tone. "A. Fuck." Tall, but skinny. Heartless, he had done had all
the life damn near ground out of him. His smile, even his laugh,
was joyless. He could shoot or otherwise inflict all manner of
cruelty without a moment's hesitation. He was perfect. The secret
to enforcement wasn't a matter of the most intimidating body, but
the precision of the coldest heart.
Parker carried around his
share of pain, let it accrue in his belly until it knotted the
muscles in his shoulders. Pain he was all too happy to dish out.
Not one for confession, he was one of those mute motherfuckers,
just as soon turn to an icy glare and stone lips rather than admit
to anything personal or true. Stoic silence was his definition of
holding his head up. Of being a man. He'd never admit to anything
like abuse. Bitches were abused. Yet when he was eleven, a friend
of his mother's came to stay at their house. It was how family did,
drop in and board with their people for a minute as they pass
through. Every night the woman secretly summoned Parker to her
room. Three raps against the wall separating Parker's room from his
sister's. Each night. As his sister slept in the next bed, the
woman had him go down on her. His first sexual experience outside
of nutting off to his father's stash of Player magazines. She had no special love for or
attachment to him. During the days, she dismissed him, choosing to
talk only to adults. Beyond the initial conversation where she told
him how special he was, asked him if he thought she was pretty, and
asked him if he wanted to prove how much he liked her, they never
even shared a knowing wink. The age difference didn't matter. Nor
the fact that she didn't let him get off. He was a means to an end.
An instrument of her gratification. She taught him everything he
needed to know about sex. And put to death the idea of
love.
He never told his friends.
The bragging of his tryst with an older woman, no matter how he
cast it, rang hollow to his ear. All it brought up was the feeling
of powerlessness. Of weakness, of being a bitch. He buried it
alongside the other memories, like the leather strap of his father
when he was due to be punished.
"I just don't give a fuck."
The words had become his personal mantra. Half prayer, half
braggadocio, he announced his climax not caring that Junie was in
the room. Junie tossed him an admiring smile and knew they would
fist bump later recalling the events. The moneyhungry ho who still
chickenheaded in his lap swallowed his seed without complaint. She
was face less, a walking fix waiting to score, a convenient orifice
to empty into. Something akin to pride stirred within Junie as he
dismissed the girl with the turn of his back and the hitching of
his pants.
"We got to wrap this up and
turn the count over to the Durham Brothers."
"Them some uglyass
Samoans."
"You need to learn when to
back down and when to step it up," Junie said in a low, warning
tone. Parker was an eager student, one who looked up to Junie, and
admiration was a powerful intoxicant.
They trod downstairs where
the Durhams discussed a matter with Baylon. Junie and Parker waited
to the side, not interrupting. Baylon waved them in. Junie wasn't
too fond of the Durham Brothers, but respected their rep. Michaela
with her purple hair and matching shirt over a pair of blue jeans
towered over Baylon. Her brother, Marshall, sported a set of chops
which looked like he glued two hedgehogs to either side of his
face. Ridiculous appearance aside, their penchant for the most
brutal of violence to the human body was well documented. Rumor
whispered that they occasionally ate their kill. From Michaela's
recent weight gain, he assumed Baylon had them out on
assignment.
"What's with the hair?"
Junie tried to forage for any humanity in her eyes to reassure him,
but found no trace. Her jowly face, the extra waddle about her
throat, the girth of her belly failed to make her any less a
killer.
"Needed a change in my
look," Michaela said.
"I don't think a haircut's
gonna do it. Plus, purple–"
"Draws too much
attention?"
"I think you've got that
covered too."
Baylon made some mild
clucking noises. Junie was never fond of him. He had a way about
him, let folks know he didn't think much of them. Condescending,
like they didn't know nearly as much as he did. His ass never held
a gun. His ass never did any jail. His ass never did anything
beside talk. He acted awfully superior for someone who was simply
Dred's errand boy.
"Damn girl, you packed on a
few pounds," Parker said with the brazen fearlessness of youth. Or
psychosis.
"It's not polite to talk
about a girl's weight." She flashed him an eye
warn.
"Since when you so
sensitive?"
"I'm a flower. I'm a
delicate flower who's gained five dress sizes in the last year and
is pretty pissed about it."
"Need to work off a few
calories?" Parker tossed her the tapeddown grocery bag full of
cash.
Full of hate and wariness,
Marshall leaned near Junie's ear. His fetid breath reeked of
decayed carcasses. He smacked in his ear with a wet gurgle. "We get
called in for special jobs. The man says come up, we come up. The
man says make this delivery for me, package gets delivered. The man
says handle this here problem, the problem gets handled. Do we have
a problem here?"
"We don't have shit,"
Baylon said, feeling suddenly pressed in. "You got a delivery to
make. I got an errand to run."
"You hooking up with
Griff?"
"Not that you need to know,
but yeah. You two hold down the fort. Don't need any unnecessary
drama tonight."
That was the night
everything went to shit.
Griff stood guard
while Baylon slipped into the house. He didn't know who was
such a threat to Dred who might have lived out here. One of those
transitional houses used for homeless teens to get off the streets.
Baylon was hit with that critical self assessment of living in
Griff's shadow. Having no heart, no respect, no gravitas. He
skulked about the house, every bit as dangerous as Griff or Tavon
or even Junie, but he lacked some essential intangible. The focused
will to survive, oblivious to the lives of others, he lacked. The
singlemindedness, the ruth lessness. Intelligence and prudence, on
the other hand, he had in spades. Out here, if you were going to
make it, all you had was your name, your word, and your rep.
Without heart, you were nothing. And Baylon needed to show
heart.
The first door on the left,
a soft light revealed the outline of a door. He pushed it open. A
young woman rifled through some cabinets. Under a furred jacket she
wore a black Korn Tshirt and had five friendship bracelets on each
hand. An acne scar dotted the middle of her forehead giving her a
vaguely Indian appearance. Blue jeans – bellbottoms in his day,
flare cut these days – with ragged edges barely cov ered her ragged
Chuck Taylors.
"Who are you?" he
asked.
"Who are you?" she
retorted, unstartled and with out making eye
contact.
"Michelle."
Davis. Michelle Davis.
Baylon expected a prosti tute, maybe a burnout crack whore, someone
who had run game one time too often or stolen money and had to pay
the final piper. Not some fresh faced girl no older than his niece.
She reached into her rich, furred coat and fondled the hilt of her
knife.
"We match." Baylon pulled
up his shirt and re vealed his knife.
"Where'd you get
that?"
"My father gave it to
me."
"I never knew my father,"
Michelle said.
"Not all of us are so
lucky," Baylon said. "A pretty girl you. It isn't right for you to
have such… teeth."
"I ain't got no choice out
here. A girl's got to be able to take care of herself. I'll carry
it until I find someone good enough to take it from
me."
"Someone good enough to
make you feel safe?"
"Something like that. You
know King?"
Baylon bristled at the
name. "We go back a ways."
"What's he
like?"
"He
a'ight."
"Seriously."
"He's good people. Means
well. Big heart," Baylon admitted. "But, damn, he has this way
about him. Where you always feeling judged. Like no matter what
you're doing, he expects more. Better."
"That sounds like a good
thing. Someone who believes in you and pushes
you."
"Unless you're being pushed
off the edge."
"No one doubts your heart.
No one other than you."
Her ambercolored eyes
pierced him as if reading his soul. No attitude. No stiffness. No
fear. She bared her teeth to let him know she could handle herself
but let the conversation play out. Baylon found himself intrigued
by her. On the flip side, one quality Baylon didn't lack was the
fact that he was headstrong. And he had just decided that Michelle
was either "unable to be found" or otherwise not going to be
killed. At least until he learned what her offense might be. Once
he got an idea in his head, he ran it into the ground without
looking or thinking. As if he couldn't change course even if it
meant his destruction.
"Damn, man, what's taking
you so long?" Half out of breath, Griff poked his head into the
room and spoke with a hurried whisper. "Oh, I see. This a private
party?"
"Naw man, nothing like
that. Let's roll," Baylon said.
"Naw, naw. We got a
minute." Griff's eyes were without hope but swam with complete
malignancy, shark's eyes. He walked around with so much pain,
trying to figure out a way to make it all go away. His shirt loose
to hide the gun in his waistband, he closed the door behind
him.
"Come on man, let's
go."
"Not till your big brother
has a taste."
"It ain't like that. You
can't…" Baylon put his hands on him to get him out the door. Griff
laid a feral glare on him, promising that Baylon, Baylon's kids,
and Baylon's kids' kids should line up and apologize for the
effrontery. Baylon released him and raised his hands in a "my bad"
gesture.
"You always did have
trouble sharing."
The strange look on Griff's
face, hungry and predatory, made Baylon anxious. Griff touched one
of Michelle's tendrils of hair, a gentle caress flush with intent.
Her braless breasts pert and at attention, he could trace the curve
of her back through her thread bare outfit. Stifling a lascivious
grin, he stepped to her, the heat of him wafting off in waves. He
grazed her cheek with his finger, an intimate gesture, one too
reminiscent, to Baylon's mind, of an owner with his dog. Griff all
but let her take in his scent, but she slapped his hand
away.
"Oh, it's like that is it?"
Griff asked.
"It's like that," she said,
too defiant. Unafraid of him.
Baylon winced. Griff had
changed over the last few months. Became harder, an impressive feat
as he was already one of the hardest men Baylon knew. However, not
just harder, but colder. And he didn't brook women telling him
"no".
Griff smiled seductively.
An icy laugh. He grabbed her arm and jerked her to him. She raked
her finger nails across his face and drew her knife. The thing
about knives, to Baylon's mind, was they showed more heart than a
gun. Any fool could squeeze a trigger and blast. There was a
distance to the killing. The death. To use a knife required one to
be up close and personal. Angry and intent. They couched together,
crashing to the ground. Wrestling over the knife. "NO!" Baylon
shouted and jumped in, hoping to leverage the blade. He tried to
take it from her or keep it from him. If anyone was to have it, it
should be Baylon. She clung to it, desperate that he might hurt her
with it. Griff released his hold. The blade pierced her with a soft
gasp, driven into her body. Her hand dug into his arm, a lover in
the throes of passion, and then released. Warm in his arms. So
peaceful. He wished he could hold her forever. Her lifeless gaze
not too different from Griff's everyday expression. Her blood
smeared his clothes. Stained his hands. Baylon's senses left him.
The sorrow hit him like a blow to the chest, his heart heavy with
shame and grief.
"Come on, man," Griff
announced, a kid whose dinner had been spoiled. "We gotta get out
of here."
Baylon took the knife, the
proud owner of a matching set.
Laying naked next to Omarosa, Lee became
suddenly self-conscious of how much his bed smelled like ball sweat
and cheap aftershave. The sheets were rough and stiff, not fit for
a woman like her. Omarosa slept barely making a sound, little more
than an observed presence in his bed. That was the only way he
could think to describe her. As if he took his eyes from her, she'd
disappear, a wisp in the night. So he stayed up watching the gentle
rise and fall of her chest. Taking in her scent. Listening for the
sound of her slightest stirring.
"I'm awake, you know. I'm not
going to disappear on you."
"I'm trained police. I specialize
in finding folks intent on disappearing."
"That what you were doing at the
Phoenix?" Omarosa asked.
"Nah, I was looking at
you."
"Ah, the fates conspiring for us
to meet." She curled up, the sheet wrapped around her. A portrait
of seduction, her every movement was choreographed to elicit an
effect from him.
"Something like that." Lee sat
up. He never imagined himself bedding a black girl. His mind
focusing on the black part of her description, he rolled the idea
around in his head. Not that he bought into the stereotypes of
black people's sexual prowess. He contented himself with knowing
what to do with what he had. "What do you do?"
"Do you care or is that some
residual Protestant guilt rearing its head?"
"Catholic. Very
residual."
"Do you even remember my name?
No, never mind, don't strain yourself." Her voice little more than
a low purr, she made him feel both inadequate and important at the
same time. "What do you know about dogs?"
"They bark, shit, eat, and
sleep," Lee said.
"They fight, too."
"Not legally."
"How often do you stake out for
legal operations?"
"What are you getting
at?"
"I just hear tell of a
dog-fighting ring."
"Not my beat."
"So you'd think. You gang task
force."
"How'd you–"
"I know things," Omarosa said.
"Now, who do you think runs the dog fights?"
"I'm listening."
"Lots of rules go into these
things so that shit don't accidentally jump off."
"Even police."
"Po-po go where they go. Can't be
helped. Cost of doing business."
"So you know where one of these
fights is going to be held?"
"Maybe. But I'll take some
convincing to give it up."
Suddenly uncomfortable, he didn't
know if he was capable of anything approaching tender.
But the thought of her riding him
again rekindled an erection.
Junie didn't know how things got so out
of control so quickly. One minute he and Parker chilled in the
house, getting their heads up with a little weed, catching up on
television. The next, raised voices outside put him on high alert.
Donning his professional grimace, he stormed outside to see if
there was a problem. Two camps of men squared off, beefing over the
corner. He didn't have time to sort through the nonsense. Locked in
an aggressive lope, he peeled off a couple rounds. The men
scattered.
"Night!" one of them called
out. "I got you. Get behind me."
The blood drained from his
face. His sallow and wasted complexion reflected in the car window,
full of hate and wariness. Oh shit. Did I just fire at Night? The
full realization left his legs weakened. He forced himself to a
steady gait. Duplicity he learned was in his own nature. With a
level voice he called out, "Dred says hello,
motherfucker."
He watched his head, making
sure he wasn't seen. It wasn't much of a plan, but better the shit
not fall back on him. His was already a life of a false resigna
tion. A false life filled with scorn.
Junie knew when he first
learned to carry the mix of rage and shame. In fourth grade, his
teacher, Mrs Crider, a bunhaired brunette with a pinched face and
aristocratic manner, made him a member of the safety patrol. This
was back in the day when fellow students wore white sashes and were
given badges and were charged with seeing their fellow students
across the streets. This was a matter of high prestige, and short
of student council or making the honor roll, only the most
responsible or favored were chosen for the function. Junie was
neither. Instead, as he could only surmise later, that Mrs Crider
attempted to reach him. To give him a connection to the idea of
school and his fellow students. It wasn't lost on him, even at the
time, that his post was the most remote, where no student or
quasiresponsible parent would allow their child to cross,
especially escorted only by a three feet tall scrawny black kid
with unkempt hair and questionable hygiene habits. Defying all
odds, and despite Junie's reluctance, the blatant and transparent
manipulation worked. He actually swelled with pride when the safety
patrol was dismissed early and he rose as one of the chosen lot,
eyes of his fellow classmates on him, to at tend to his duties. Nor
did he feel ridiculous, lone black boy at the ass end of an
isolated stretch of road, barely within eyesight of the nearest
safety patrol member, as he waved and returned the allclear signal.
It worked, that was, until like every else in Junie's life it
turned to shit and was taken away from him.
As brilliant as Mrs Crider
had been getting him to care about being responsible, she had a
sizeable deficit when it came to sustaining that limited sense of
self esteem she had successfully fanned to life. One day in class,
she called upon Junie to answer a question. Flustered at the sudden
attention, he stammered about. Mrs Crider stood there, silent and
waiting. The eyes of his fellow classmates pressed in on him. He
grew so desperately nervous, he knocked his books and papers to the
ground. They scattered with a furious, though unintentional,
shower. Springing out of his chair, he fell to his knees to gather
up the papers. That was when he heard her, Mrs Crider, laughing at
him. He was so perfectly pathetic: lone black boy, white teacher
looming over him, white classmates a chorus of openmouthed laughter
and fingerpointing. The words "fuck you" flew out of his mouth
without thought, but they hung in the air like the empty echo of
gunshot. The two little words stilled the laughter. Mrs Crider's
eyes narrowed into an unforgiving glare and she sent him to the
principal's office.
He never walked as a safety
patrol member again.
Actually, he didn't walk as
much of anything again. Whether he realized it or not, that was
when the educational system lost him. He went through the motions
of school for another four years or so, but he was already done.
There was no reaching him after that. He had turned his back on the
institution knowing that whatever path for his life he was to
chart, it wouldn't be through any hallowed halls of higher
learning.
And on quiet days in what
passed for reflection for one Juneteenth Walker, he wondered how
many Mrs Criders shut down countless Junies each
day.
He retreated into the
house.
"Any problems?" Parker
asked.
"Just some nonsense," Junie
said. "Nothing I couldn't handle."
Octavia Burke never lamented her quick rise
in the ranks. She didn't have time for political games nor did she
buy into either affirmative action or workplace racism. Either were
self-defeating traps of a game she refused to play. Like her
mother, she was nobody's victim. "You kiss butt, then you kick it."
her mother always said, not one to pay attention to firsts either.
First black nurse hired at Wishard Hospital. First black nurse
promoted to department head. First black nurse elected to serve on
the board. Strong and vital, nothing got in her way. Her fierce
determination came at a cost. There was always a sadness about her,
like she were missing out on something. She was always closed off,
a cool aloofness she never intended with her children. Passed onto
her children.
So when Octavia's first husband
told her that she had trouble letting folks in, it came as no
surprise. Nor was she surprised when he left.
She kicked her shoes off at the
front door and hung her coat up. The house, silent and dark. A
residual flow from upstairs, probably her second husband in bed
watching television. Home was her oasis. Away from the madness of
the office away from the detritus of the streets who took up so
much of her time. She was happy to be home. It centered her and it
saddened her that she spent so little time here. She continued her
after-work ritual. Shoes, coat, then food. The microwave and oven
were bereft of a plate of food. Whatever they had done for dinner
didn't include her. The checkin calls of "when will you be home"
were fewer and further between, tired of "I'll grab a bite on the
way home" or "don't wait up, it's a long one".
Then the boys. Long asleep, she
made a point of peeking in on them if only to reassure herself that
they were still alive and that she could pick them out of a
line-up. To each boy, she'd sit on the edge of his bed and stroke
their hair. To let them know she was present and loved them, even
if they weren't awake to know. The simple gesture allowed the day
to drain out of her, all of the misery and hopelessness and
futility of her work. And it was the only time they'd let her love
on them anyway. They were getting so damn big.
Their marriage had hit a bad
patch. Her long hours, the Job, were worse than having a man on the
side. She suspected he filled the void of her absence with…
someone. No, that wasn't fair. It wasn't in him. The only thing he
filled himself with was quiet, festering resentment. Never going to
bed at the same time. Letting the gulf between them
fallow.
The television played coolly in
the background. He watched an episode of that new medical drama she
liked so much where all the oversexed doctors looked barely old
enough to drive. It was a show they decided to watch together. Or
so she thought.
Without betraying any hurt
feelings, she walked into their bathroom to brush her teeth and
closed the door. His passive-aggressive point having been made, he
turned off the television. She came out wearing an old T-shirt. She
slipped into her side of the bed. The same old night-time
dance.
Percy watched the whole scene go down.
The three men who confronted those soldiers, unarmed except for
their bravery and determination. How the other man came out –
another soldier, he could tell, but terrified of the men. Firing
wildly because the men were true.
His heart
soared.
Dred stood in the littered living room
of the aban doned house the crew squatted in and used as a stash
house. One hand in his pants pocket, he checked his watch on the
other, a bored spectator with more pressing concerns. Griff loomed
over the dope dealer they'd caught unawares. The man sat up in the
ruined couch, its cushions missing and he in his boxers startled
from the nap he was taking along its box springs.
At the other end of the
room, the cushions were spread as a makeshift mattress, stained in
blood, piss, and come, yet ready for business again. Baylon guarded
the door, a careful eye on the streets.
"I don't think you hear me.
B, are you having trouble understanding me?"
"I hear you just fine,
Dred," Baylon said.
"Griff, am I not using the King's
English correctly?"
"Like you was born to it."
"Then why is this group of
fools operating in my neighborhood? Why do I have to come down here
and see to some petty bullshit?"
"Some niggas are hard of
skull. Maybe need their ears cleaned out," Griff
said.
Truth was, Dred was in a
mood to make his presence felt. Sometimes he couldn't resist a
little knucklehead stuff. It was the life. He had several stops to
make that required his personal touch. And he'd heard some
disturbing whispers about Night. Word on the street was that he was
setting up his own shop, had crews working on his watch and was
lining up his own distribution. That was the only reason Dred's
interest was alerted. He had the distribution into Indianapolis
locked up. Even the Hispanic gangs came through him. He had tied
things up nicely to where, though still new to the scene, lit tle
more than a name whispered among the operators – he doubted even
the police had gotten onto him yet – he could step away from
handling the product, short of major deals. Like the meeting he was
soon to be late for. But before he became a com plete ghost, he
needed to personally rattle a few cages.
"Rent's due, motherfucker.
That plain enough for you?"
"I'm just a wrong time,
wrong place brother. This ain't even my joint." The man cupped his
crotch and draped his chest with his other arm. "I hear you, Dred.
I didn't mean no disrespect."
"Is that a glamour
working?" Dred asked, suddenly suspicious. He studied the man,
searching for a flaw or telltale giveaway. "You the one been having
women coming in and out of here at all times, like that ain't going
to draw no notice. What you call yourself doing? Maximizing your
resources? Running dope and girls? Hope you ain't fool enough to
run guns, too. Griff?"
"I believe we have the
night's proceeds." Griff held a paper bag loosely filled with cash.
Not enough for Dred's notice, but enough for him to justify the
diver sion.
"What? We got a
problem?"
"Nah," the man
said.
"I think we got a
problem."
With a strength and
ferocity that surprised them all, Dred upended the couch and
spilled the man onto the floor. Before the man could struggle to
his feet, Dred straddled him, his hot breath steaming the man's
face. Dred headbutted him into senselessness, then slapped him like
he was a hooker short with his money. The man's nose exploded and
covered his face with blood.
"Don't you ever," Dred said
between subsequent slaps, "let me see you" slap "up in my
territory" slap "without my explicit say so." Slap. "Explicit,
mother fucker."
The man fell backward in a
pool of his own blood. His heart unmoved, Baylon wondered how many
women the man had similarly beaten. The man crawled, a dog in
cowering retreat, taking a foot to his side from
Dred.
"Dred, man, we got what we
came for. If we're going to make that other thing…" Griff trailed
off in half a singsong voice. Griff had leapfrogged Baylon in the
hierarchy. Nothing had been openly said but Baylon knew the
deal.
The rituals and things he'd
seen – things that were never explained nor even talked about –
didn't bother Griff. He considered himself a needtoknow soldier.
His brutally efficient fearlessness, and lack of questions, caused
Dred to favor him in subtle ways. Tended to go to him first when
something needed to be done. Seemed to favor his company outside of
conducting business. Spoke of him quite favorably when he wasn't
around. Things Baylon was certain was never done or said about him.
The Ndibu led, it was still business as usual. Folks scurried to
curry favor or step on the back of even their brother to get to the
next level. There was no such thing as enough: not enough women,
not enough money, not enough rep, not enough power. Discontent was
its own raison d'être.
As Baylon saw things, Night
had his own ambitions, they all did, but Night saw himself as the
rightful heir to the throne of the streets and Dred as a pretender
to it. Baylon's strategic thinking was what made him valuable to
Dred, but not valuable enough. He was being pushed aside, reduced
to a consigliere within his own crew.
Dred and Griff turned
toward Baylon. After an other check of the streets from the slit of
the window beside the door, he nodded. Without instruction, Griff
led the way, clutching the bag full of cash, knowing to keep money
and product away from Dred. To insulate him. Dred followed. Baylon
gave one last glance at the dope dealer who moaned as he crawled
back onto the couch. Discarded as soon as he was
inconvenient.
The dope dealer stared
straight at him. "Sir Baylon, this is the boundary of your life.
Turn back and you may save yourself." And with that, the man
vanished.
Baylon imagined the
trajectory of his life as him running. Running through a dark
forest, heedless of what lay ahead, knowing that he couldn't remain
where he was. His fate chased after him, undeterred and dogged,
closing in on him like an inexorable curtain. He fought against the
listing hopelessness. He stood on the precipice knowing the time to
change ticked away quickly. He closed his eyes and waited, giving
into his destiny.
The squeal of car tires
shattered the night like a hunting horn signaling the death of
their prey. The car slowed to a deliberate crawl. Griff released
his hold on the paper bag, whatever warrior sense or maybe just in
tune to the scent of violence and blood and death in the air
alerting him to action. Without hesitation, he leapt between the
approaching car and Dred. For his part, Dred stood there. Not
frozen, as if the impending violence caught him short. No, he wore
a different face. One of resignation. Of giving in to the
inevitable. Of a time coming full circle.
Baylon withdrew his knife.
The blade snapped to life with a sharp click.
From the lowered car
windows, several gun barrels protruded. The first shot caught Griff
before he could reach Dred. The shot caught him in the shoulder
spinning him, then a second shot caught him in the side sending him
towards Baylon. As Griff's body ca reened toward him, Baylon –
perhaps on instinct, perhaps the knife had a will of its own,
perhaps many things Baylon preferred to not think about – brought
the knife to bear. It plunged into Griff's gut. His accusing eyes
widened in shock, fresh pain atop his bullet wounds. He gripped
Baylon's shirt, a desperate grasp which pulled him down on top of
him. The action drove the blade deeper into him as they landed.
Baylon cradled his head. The blood from the mortal cut covered his
front. He peered into Griff's eyes until the light left them, but
not before his countenance fixed in a look of knowing. There were
no secrets from the dead.
Dred arced his fingers down
in a wave. The night seemed to split, carved open with the gesture,
eldritch shadows catching the first volley of bullets. A shotgun
barrel leveled at him. Its thunderous report caused Baylon to cover
Griff as if he could shield him from any further damage. The
shrapnel tore through the arcane shield Dred had cast and caught
him fully in his gullet. The blast knocked him from his
feet.
The car sped off into the
night.
Baylon stood, surveying the
damage. Not realizing his cell phone had found its way into his
hand or that he had punched in the digits 911 and babbled non
sensically into it. He folded the knife and tossed it down a sewer
grate until he could retrieve it later.
Baylon wondered if he had ever had an honest
moment in his life. A time of perfect truth. The ritual of dressing
in front of the mirror, the care he took in picking out his
wardrobe, the fastidiousness of his look was so much wasted effort.
He knew it. His men knew it.
"There it is." Baylon's arms hung
at his side. He didn't know how long he had stood there, staring at
his reflection as the memories overwhelmed him. "The cost of my
sin."
"What sin?" Griff
asked.
"Bad luck."
"All your wounds are
self-inflicted."
His life was an inexorable spiral
leading to a point he dreaded to think about. Somehow not thinking
about it made its inevitability less real. Night and Dred. He and
King. He and Griff. He and Michelle. There was no warranty on
friendships. They began, they ended, each in their own season. And
when they ended, the ripples of those relationships spread into the
next. A cycle of pain he would continue to pay for.
"Sometimes I feel like it's
cursed. Either of them."
"The knife?" Griff
asked.
"Yeah. All it has ever brought is
blood and trouble."
"The cost of defending
yourself."
"But it shouldn't have to be that
way."
"You still the fairest of them
all… punk motherfucker.