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They slowly drove back towards Liberty Hill, coming through the front end of Montague Avenue. As opposed to the backside of the hood near the beer factory. They knew ball which, is code for police would be deep looking for any suspicious activity, mainly the shit they were doing. As they drove through, they were right, ball was all over the place. They turned to Lester Street and drove down Nesbitt Avenue, figuring they’d come up the street, so the truck would be facing towards Rivers Avenue and a fast get-away.
It was crazy, but dope was still being smoked openly. It seemed like everyone said fuck the police. Tricks, prostitutes, and fiends looked at them like nothing happened. The only thing though, no one crossed the avenue to the other side. The ones that tried were immediately pulled over, questioned and subsequently harassed. Good for their dumb asses. There was no expression on Hulie’s face. His breathing was heavy like he had bronchitis or something. He drove carefully, this time on purpose, paying attention to the speed traps along the way.
As he came to a stop where ‘ball’ sat, he smiled but all the time rubbing his gun along his thigh like he had a nervous tick. Jabari thought about what his sister would say. It would be some ole slick shit. She’d just told him something bad was going to happen if he didn’t change. She’d asked him for his social security number and if he knew where his birth certificate was just in case, he died, or something happened? Man, she’d hit it dead on the head. That’s what started the damn argument.
Jabari cursed her ass out so bad she cried in the street like a lost baby. Jabari knew he was wrong for that shit. After all, he loved his sister, but they were just on separate roads. Jabari still wondered what she saw in Hulie’s ass, he wasn’t shit. To Jabari, he seemed bigger than life when he really didn’t know him. But now he was just a quick-tempered thug who really didn’t have no more than the drugs allowed to him. Given another environment he would be an average dick-head joe.
‘I can’t believe fuckin’ Rip got himself killed. I’d have to explain this shit to Dondi, to everyone. Hell, I haven’t had the chance to come up with a good lie yet. But what would I tell the cops?’ All this ran through Jabari’s mind.
He knew they would come looking for him asking questions. Dondi saw them leave together, she knew something was going down but maybe she wouldn’t say anything. Yeah, fuckin’ right. That bitch would sing louder than Beyonce if given the chance. Jabari’s mind wouldn’t stand still for shit. He wondered what T-Black was trying to say. Why did Hulie shoot him in the chest if he needed to know where the money was? The bullshit he fed him about all this money. Was it real? Jabari was about to get trapped off.
“Yo’ man, that’s the house,” Hulie said pulling Jabari out of his thoughts if only for a moment.
He pointed up the street to an old wooden house that sat deep inside a fenced-in lot. It was well kept but the screen was dark and dirty. You really couldn’t see on the porch. Jabari looked around the sides as they drove by and no lights were on in the front, but one shone bright in the back. It looked like the kitchen or something there was an old Beamer sitting in the yard off to the side on blocks. The hood was halfway open like somebody was doing work. Bushes sat off along the three-foot leaning fence with crabgrass running wild along its bottom.
They turned the corner and came up the other block on the back side and parked in the darkest spot they could find. Hulie checked his gun and reloaded it.
“Is there going to be that type of trouble?” Jabari asked.
“You never know,” Hulie answered.
He was right, so far, the night hadn’t gone according to the plan. Jabari checked his clip and replaced the bullets he’d used earlier. Jabari looked over at Hulie than put one in the chamber.
“I’m ready,” Jabari said.
They got out quickly and silently and snuck into the wooded area behind the house looking behind our backs up and down the street making sure there were no cop cars in the vicinity. They peeped over towards the next couple of blocks where they’d just left earlier. They were all over there and an ambulance had just left. Jabari wondered if T-Black’s moms knew what was going on? They’d better handle this before the cops came because they would be over once they got people to ID the bodies. Then shits fired, oh yeah, they’d be over. They pushed our way through the thick prick filled bushes into the back of the house. Something was different, kid’s bikes were pulled up in the back, that was strange. Hulie pulled out his gun and started towards the porch.
Jabari grabbed him by the shoulder, and he looked back at me and snarled. “What!”
Jabari pointed next door. “This is the wrong house. We’re supposed to be over there.”
He looked around at the yard and realized Jabari was right. They quickly beelined toward the bushes to the fence and looked in the other yard. An old boy kennel and the gates were open. Jabari picked up a small rock and threw it. There was no dog, at least Jabari hoped it wasn’t. Jabari looked around for fresh dog shit making sure and saw nothing. They hopped the fence and stayed low making our way to the back porch. The back porch was also screened in and they slowly opened the door and peeped in.
An old washer and dryer sat on the back with dirty linen and big laundry bags scattered about on the floor. Jabari guessed the washer must have worked and it looked like they still had to dry clothes elsewhere from the condition of the dryer. He glanced across the yard and spotted the clothesline. Hulie snapped Jabari out of his trance and pointed to the window. Jabari ducked...it was her! T-Black’s mother, she looked so familiar. He knew he’d seen her somewhere before. She tricked on the tracks downtown around Romney Street.
She opened the window, looked around, then called out. “Carl! Carl, you out there, baby?” she looked around the yard.
They hugged the ground in the shadows beneath her and stopped breathing. They panicked somewhat and made a little noise, but if she saw them, she would have screamed. Between the dogs barking and the sound of her screaming, the cops would have been here asap. She shook her head, checked her watch and shut the window. Jabari couldn’t get her face out of his mind. She was pretty as hell. She was fine on the block and all but up close, her face was flawless. Her lips were full, and her eyes were slanted, bright and mysterious.
One thing about her she didn’t just jump in and out of cars. She had certain people she dealt with from what he saw they were mostly old skool ballers. Every now and then a young boy or two would come up with the nerve to get at her, but it would cost them big. Jabari never knew that would be T-Black’s mother. Damn...T-Black why would you let your own mom trick and be in the streets like that?
They got back up slowly and opened the gate to the porch, crept up the steps and slowly tiptoed our way to the back door. Hulie braced himself against it.
“Hold up!” Jabari told him, then checked the doorknob to see if it was open...it wasn’t.
He braced up against the door and signaled to Jabari that he was going to count off then they’d hit it together. They had one good shot, that was all, and they were lucky she sat in the back of the house. Jabari peeped back in one more time and she sat at the table with a bathrobe on. Her long, shapely legs were exposed and as Jabari strained his eyes, he could see a slight glimpse of pink between her thighs and that was enough to make his dick tingle. He felt like jacking off right then and there. She was reading a newspaper and smoking...smoking crack. That fucked the whole picture up. A minute ago, he was horny as hell. Now all he wanted to do was get high, too.
As if he’d read Jabari’s mind, Hulie dug into his pocket and pulled out some pills.
“Where the fuck he getting that shit from?” Jabari asked himself.
He had no clue, but Hulie took one and offered Jabari one. Jabari quickly snatched it out of his hand. He needed to be good and high to do this shit.
Hulie held up his hand and his fingers, then counted down. “Five...four...three...two!”
“One...ahhhh, shit! Damn, that shit hurt,” Jabari said.
They bounced off like rubber bands. It felt like there was a solid bar of steel or something midway around the door. All they did was manage to crack it and as they gawked and held their arms in pain that’s exactly what was holding it, a steel bar bolted across the middle.
T-Black’s mother looked up at them, turned and started to haul ass. Hulie pointed to the screws that held the bar and they hit it one more time. The door burst off the hinges and Jabari fell and scrambled to his feet. Hulie fell against a huge metal refrigerator collected himself and dived at her. She tripped, fell and desperately crawled trying to get up to her feet. It was too late, Hulie was holding her foot. She kicked at him repeatedly, at one point catching him in the face. He swung at her and started beating her backside like a drum. Jabari ran over trying to hold her down. Hulie continued to swing and he held up his hand.
“I got her!” Jabari yelled. “I got her!”
Hulie paid him no mind. Jabari turned her underneath him and Hulie’s punches made their way to his back as he shielded her, then turned slightly.
“That’s enough, calm the fuck down!” Jabari yelled out.
Hulie stopped, but T-Black’s mother continued to struggle. Jabari held her tighter and motioned for Hulie to grab a chair. Then he picked her up and sat her down.
“Where’s the money, bitch?” Hulie questioned after catching his breath.
“Mi-nuh...kna-wah...em-de-raj dem tak ‘bout!” she said.
At first, it took Jabari a minute to digest what she was saying. It was straight geechie and right now she was spittin’ raw Gullah.
“You know!” Hulie slapped her.
Too bad for her, Hulie had been in downtown Charleston and his Mama and Auntie bought him up on fish and rice. He understood every muthafuckin’ word she said. She closed her eyes for a second absorbing the sting. Jabari could tell she didn’t like that shit at all.
“The money he stole from me!” Hulie yelled.
She spit some blood from her mouth and looked back up at him. “Who?”
“Your son, T-Black!”
She shook her head, it started to register for her now. It was a stickup. After all these years she was being robbed. Who would have the nerve? They had to be from out of town or something. Hulie slapped her again.
“Unuh, haff ta ask him!” she hollered back.
Hulie snickered, it was like he was waiting for this moment all his fuckin’ life. He stood up and smiled. “I would...but, he’s dead!”
She turned her head towards Jabari, and he looked off. He couldn’t look her in the face. All Jabari saw was pain as wells of water formed in her eyes and she broke down. Hulie wasn’t shit, he could have at least let her have her moment, but he slapped her again. This time she didn’t move or nothing. She continued crying, bitterly.
Hulie shouted at her. “Tell me where the money is or you’re dead, too!”
She looked up at him and said softly. “Mi-nuh care...kill me den.”
Hulie clutched her face with his hands tightly. “That’s how you want it, huh?”
He walked over to Jabari and told him to start searching the place. He said he was going to try and get some info out of her. Shit sounded too corny, so Jabari paid him no mind and started in the front room. He looked up in the ceiling and found nothing. He pulled back the carpet and stomped the floorboards looking for an opening. He rummaged through closets and drawers thinking, ‘It’s got to be here!’
He walked into T-Black’s room, he could tell it was his. Black label shirts and outfits, Timbs, A PlayStation 3, Air Force Ones and Jordan’s and a closet full of Dickie outfits gave it away. Jabari checked his dresser and came up on a jewelry box full of rings, chains, watches, and other shit. He grabbed what he could and stuffed them in his pockets. He scattered everything on the desk and then noticed a small black and white picture. He picked it up and looked at it, it was of two kids and some older dude that looked like him. It must have been his dad. Jabari smiled wishing he had pictures like that. He threw it down to the floor and flipped over the bed, checked the mattress and then dipped into the next room, which was his mother’s.
It was decked out like one of those five-star hotel suites that he’d seen in magazines. It had a king size bed, a silk linen bedspread, and sheets. He rummaged through the closet and threw brand new outfits to the floor still with the price tags on them. Brand new stilettos in boxes and then he looked up and spotted a panel that was slightly cocked. He pushed at it and it fell, jumped and pulled himself up. He spotted a box, grabbed it, pulled it down and peered inside it. It was cash, bundles of cash, it wasn’t ninety grand but it was something. Jabari tossed it aside, flipped over the mattress then stopped in his tracks. It was weird, there was a big ass gold metal dick, still wet at that.
‘Damn you mean to tell me as fine as this chick is and with this kind of money. She can’t find a real dick?’ Jabari thought shaking his head.
To top it all off her crib was laid, she had new plasma flat screen T.V.s that were thirty-two and fifty-six inches. A brand-new carpet and state of the art appliances. Why did she have to sell pussy anyway? Was Jabari’s next question. But if this is what it got her, it must be some good pussy and he wasn’t mad at her. He didn’t dwell on it too much longer. The room was empty other than some jewelry she had laying around. He left it alone, he had enough shit in his pockets. He stuffed what cash he could in his socks and briefs then left out of the room and went into the kitchen and tripped.
“What the fuck did you do?”
Hulie stood over her straightening his pants then turned away from Jabari and said, “I had to punish her.” He laughed.
Jabari looked at her, her face was damn near unrecognizable. All that beauty she had was beat into a bloody pulp. Her robe was pulled open and bite marks bled around her breasts. Her legs were gaped open and blood oozed out of her pussy. This muthafucka was sick. He walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a bottle.
He held it up. “This outta finish her off.” He stalked over to her grinning.
Jabari stepped in front of her. “Did she at least tell you anything?”
“Naw...that’s why she has to be punished. Her bitch ass son stole my...”
This wasn’t about her, it was about T-Black. Jabari couldn’t just let him do her like that. He looked down her and thought she was dead. Hulie started to raise his arm and Jabari stopped him.
He pulled his gun out. “You want some too?”
“I think she’s dead, yo.” Jabari turned away from him, picked her body up and carried it over to some clothes that were piled up near a room by the back porch. It was a linen closet or something.
Hulie kicked her. This nigga wasn’t shit, her body flinched slightly, and he saw it.
“She’s still alive!” he said. “We need to torture her ass and find out...”
“No, that’s enough. We gotta get the fuck outta here.” Jabari advised.
“Did you check the house?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Did you find...anything?”
Jabari tried to conceal the bulge in his pockets, but it was too late. Hulie saw it but didn’t say anything. He put a towel over T-Black’s mother and started to stand and confront Hulie. Shortly after that, he felt the stinging of a bottle on the back of his head and glass shattering all over the place. His head throbbed as he tried to turn, all he felt next was a hard thud to his jaw. Stars and blackness started to overcome him. Jabari fell on top of T-Black’s mother and felt Hulie going through his pockets and talking shit. He didn’t search his pants leg at least he hadn’t felt anything, but he was numb anyway. He would have never known. Jabari tried to stay conscious and collect himself.
He heard Hulie going through some boxes on the back porch. He came back in and ran through the house. He sprinkled some wet shit on them. It stunk, it was gas, this nigga was gonna burn them up.
“Yo’ what the fuck you doing?” Jabari asked.
“She’s seen our faces,” he replied.
“Help me up...” Jabari pleaded struggling to get to his feet.
Hulie kicked him back down. “No, you gotta go too. You just tried to steal from me. What makes you think I can trust you now? You might tell your sister and shit. Oh, hell no!” He kicked him in the chest. “Now take it like a man!”
He pulled out a lighter and Jabari heard him run into the living room and the others kicking doors open like a maniac. Jabari could hear a whoosh from the flames as he lit the gas. He ran back into the kitchen squealing in delight like he was possessed and flicked the lighter. It wouldn’t light, he played with it and Jabari mustered everything he had, got up and jumped on him. The can with the gas in it spilled all over the place and it made a trail to the fire. Hulie tried to run but the flames made its way to his arm and cried out in pain.
He bolted for the back door. The fire had gotten worse, it was already making its way to the kitchen. Jabari tried to make his way over to T-Black’s mother, but it was useless, the smoke, the fire in between them, blocked any attempt to reach her. He could hear the faint sounds of sirens in the distance. Jabari looked over at her and she started moving and coughing. Maybe she would get up after all, but he couldn’t take it no more. It was just too damn hot. Jabari dived through the door and hit the ground rolling. He got up, fanned the fire off and groggily made it across the fence.
The pricks on the bushes cut through his face and chest. He could see the lights at the other houses on the street coming on. He made it through the cut they came through and spotted Hulie’s truck. Hulie was already inside cranking it up. Jabari waved at him and started running towards him, then he skidded the wheels and took off.
“He left me,” Jabari mumbled.
Jabari was in pain; the burns made his arms welp up and this bitch ass nigga had left him. Jabari looked behind him and all he could see was the orange glow from the house. He looked back and saw someone run up the street.
He was seen. “Hey...hey you!” someone called out.
Jabari ran back into the darkness and slipped into the woods cursing Hulie’s ass out. “I’m gonna get that muthafucka if it’s the last thing I do...I swear!” Jabari said running as fast as he could through the darkened woods trying to escape.
****
All Nikki could see as she awoke from her pain inflicted stupor was thick, white smoke and fire flickering from behind it. She coughed and wheezed as her throat burned trying to grasp at whatever cooling air she could find. Instinctively she started to get up and run, but the sharp pain in her now fractured ribs prevented her from doing so. Perhaps it was a good thing because it made her stay low. She obeyed that inner voice now and crawled around on the floor looking for an escape from the unbearable heat that ate her flesh.
She had to get her bearings, so she looked around for a fix and she spotted the bottom half of the kitchen table chairs and right behind them the bottom of the kitchen cabinets. Across directly from them was the oven, it glowed crimson red as the flames worked steadily on it. She knew to stay away. The door to the back porch should be directly behind her she remembered. She turned and was met with kindling in her face coming from off the expensive oak table she’d just bought, burning out of control to the ground. The tile started to buckle and melt beneath her hands and knees and she crawled knowing she only had moments before the door would eventually catch fire also.
The top part of the doorway was torched, and she couldn’t see her way clear from all the flames.
“Damn, I’m stuck,” she said to herself.
It was at that point she seriously thought of dying. It was so damn hot, just give the fuck up. Something made her glance up at the refrigerator by the doorway to the pantry, an expensive and huge appliance her son had just brought into the house. She complained about it at first.
“It’s too out of place. The house’s too small. It’s gonna eat up all the electricity like crazy. How much food we gon put in it anyway,’ she had whined.
Now as she glanced up, she was glad they kept it and damn sure glad he ignored her. Now if she could only open it and get some ice, that was the only thing her mind wrapped around, right now. She crawled over and touched it cautiously. It was still cool to the touch, but just barely. It would soon look like the oven in a matter of time, she had to act fast. She grabbed at the side of the door and the rubber seal around it burnt her fingers. She cried out in pain but still managed to get it open. The frost and cool air coming from it drew the flames like a moth to a candle. She started lifting herself up by the shelves inside and was almost successful until they collapsed from her weight.
She fell down onto the heated floor cursing as her head was beat down from the food and bottles of juice that fell on top of her. She could hear the sizzle from the containers of liquid that were consumed into the refrigerator sucking up whatever air she could and shuddered when she heard the windows to the house explode from the heat. Scared, she squeezed herself up into it some more trying to shield herself from the glass that was slung throughout the air like missiles. She was safe now, but for how long?
“The fire trucks should be here any minute,” she told herself, as she heard the once faint sirens grown louder in the distance.
The sound of cracking underneath her suddenly caught her attention, she looked down to see where it was coming from. The floor beneath her was starting to give and the refrigerator started teetering forward slightly.
“Damn!” she screamed. “Now what?”
The floor wouldn’t support the weight if the huge refrigerator anymore. The support beams underneath the house were loosening and shifting. The fire was destroying the small home completely. It was ready to give up and collapse. The fire was just too much for it. She wrapped herself up into a ball and braced herself trying to prepare for the impending impact. It fell forward slowly at first then hard with a bone-crushing thud and the whole back side panel of the refrigerator fell on top of her.
She waited a second before she made any moves. It was dark but she could hear and feel things falling on her. It was plastic and papers of some sort. She wiggled around on her back and picked up the refrigerator slightly by using her legs and tried with all her might to turn it towards the door. Almost as if it sensed opportunity the flames jumped on top of it attacking the cool air that escaped from it. The bottom of her feet stung like hell from the heat. She figured if she could just ease it towards the door using it as a shield, she would be alright. She managed to move a couple of feet but got stuck on some trash that came down from the ceilings, probably burnt up insulation. If she could just muster enough strength to clear a hole to the back porch. Yeah, that was the plan she was going with, but the reality of it all was clear as she felt the crusted-up blood that had hardened on her inner thighs and her pussy was swollen and bruised.
It was going to be hard, Hulie’s brutal assault made her sick to her stomach. It also made just angry enough to push the metal tank-like object around and lift it ever so slightly and she could see an opening on the back porch. She knew it was going to be tough, but hopefully, she’d make a dash for the door to safety. Keeping that in mind with all the force and strength she could muster, she tried pushing the refrigerator up off of her. It was much heavier than she thought. She did manage to push it up and aside exposing her to the flames even more. She pushed the panel that fell on top of her and looked around at the trash that came out of it.
She did a second take, it wasn’t garbage, but bundles of money and plastic wrapped around white looking bricks. She knew immediately what it was kilos of cocaine or even heroin. She gasped almost losing her breath.
“What the hell?” she mumbled. “This is why Carl wanted that damn thing in here. He was stashing money!”
She grabbed at one of the bundles of money and looked at the wrapper, one thousand. She backed away slowly and glanced inside the refrigerator and money was still dropping from the hidden panels inside it. The next thing she knew she heard the sounds of the firetrucks even louder in the background. They were there and the house was on its last leg. She did a double take at the money than the dope.
“Damn, I can’t just leave it here to go up in smoke,” she said.
Her mind was made up, she looked over at the linen closet next to the pantry by the side of the door and spotted some laundry bags.
“That should do it!” she said.
She crawled over, grabbed one, came back and started stuffing all that she could grab inside of it.
“There’s too much money,” she kept telling herself. “What the hell did, Carl get himself into?”
She grabbed at the white plastic wrapped packages gingerly. They were singed from the heat, but they were sealed, and nothing leaked. She continued stuffing two-five-eight, then crawled back over to the refrigerator an grabbed the rest, eleven-twelve. She looked frantically and there was no other money or dope left that she could see. Her body was still sore, her eyes were puffy, and it felt like her pelvic bone was broken. Now she had a new life, new energy. She heard the banging on the door as the firemen tried busting their way in.
It was time to go, she crawled through the door dragging the weighted bag behind her trying to dodge the hot smoking kindles in her path and all the trash that dropped from the ceiling. Something jumped on her neck and it burned, but she had to grin and bear it long enough to get outside. Halfway through the doorway, she heard a faint hissing sound that came from underneath the oven. She crawled faster because she knew what it was, the gas line. She was too close now, she fought through the pain and almost black out as she dived for the back door of the porch and tumbled down the steps making her body hurt even more. She was out, she gulped down some cooling air into her lungs and started rolling around on the dirt and grass putting out the fire on her back. Then she remembered the gas line. She grabbed at the bag got up and ran as fast as she could towards the back part of the yard near the edge of the woods. She ducked down when she heard a voice yell out.
“Go around back!” the person said.
The firemen would be in the back yard momentarily and the would spot her easily. One naked ass, burnt, black woman dazed and standing in the mud, of course, they would rescue her. She’d have to explain the satchel of money she was dragging, the dope and the fire. That would make for a very long, difficult day and she’d probably get committed. Then just like that, suddenly, the house exploded sending a cloud of ash into the night sky. She shielded her eyes and peeped. It was a blessing in disguise as she looked at the collapsing house, but at the same time, a feeling of sadness for the memories lost that went with it.
She struggled to her feet with both hands now grabbed the bag, pulling it off into the dark escape of the woods. She hunched down behind a tree as the firemen ran towards the burning structure with hoses and axes in hand. She made it finally, they didn’t see her yet, but the cops wouldn’t be that far behind them, snooping. Her mind stayed fixed bitterly on Hulie’s face as the pain throbbed throughout her aching body. She remembered Jabari’s face if just faintly.
“Why didn’t he stop him?” she questioned. “Bastards they killed my son!”
She needed to find a place to lay low for a while and get her mind together. Get her body healed and get herself a plan, with the ninety-six grand and twelve keys she had in a satchel. She’d have her day and her revenge!