“This is Kathy Sawyer reporting live from Channel 11 WTVD News. In headline news, seven deaths have been attributed to a lethal batch of heroin that has hit the streets of Durham, reportedly called, “Black Magic.” Police have no leads as to the source of the deadly drug, although sources say it may be coming from as far as Mexico. Anyone with information should contact the Durham Police Departments anonymous information hotline….. So, there it was. I sat in the kitchen watching the news and realized, my plan was starting to unfold. Seven bodies. Casualties of war I’m afraid. Anybody who’s ever dealt with heroin knows that if you wanna see dopefiends go crazy looking for a certain named bag of dope, then let somebody die from it. It’s a calling card. A dopefiend doesn’t give a fuck if the next person died from it. In their mind the person either did too much, or didn’t know what the fuck they were doing. Now, every dopefiend from Virginia to South Carolina, was running around Durham looking for one thing. The dope bag called “Black Magic.” The one that was killing people. And it was time to give em what they wanted. I met up with Bubba Jack and Jill at the Red Roof Inn on Guess Road, and gave them instructions for the day. I had fifty bundles with me. It was the dope that I’d had Jill cut of course, but I knew it was still the best shit on the street. I didn’t need nobody else dying. The raw I’d put out there the night before, was just to get everybodies attention. It was 5a.m. Dopefiends have to have their fix as soon as they wake up, to get the sickness off of them. So, I knew we had to hit the streets early. We packed up in my Plymouth Reliant and headed out to make history.
First stop, I gave Jack ten bundles and dropped him off on Ashe Street in East Durham. Bags of dope at the time were selling for $15 dollars. I instructed him that our bags went for $10 dollars. Don’t tell nobody though. I knew he wouldn’t have no problems. Once he sold the first bag, the dope fiends would run him down to get to the infamous “Black Magic.” When he was done, he was to go to a pay phone and call Bubba’s phone. I didn’t give him my number. I dropped Jill off on the West End, right on Rosedale and gave her the same instructions. If you’re wondering why I was using two heroin addicts to sell heroin, it’s because heroin is not like crack. Once a dopefiend gets their fix, they can function normally with no problem. As long as they’re not sick, nobody can sell dope better than a dope fiend. Believe it or not. It’s the Untold Truth. I took the other 30 bundles, drove over to Spruce Street, parked and got out. There, me and Bubba took off walking to the North. It was 6am. I was lucky that morning. As soon as we rounded the corner on Juniper, I saw the same heavy set booster I met at Shell’s trap when I first got home. She was pouring gas into her Station Wagon from a gallon milk jug. She’d run out of gas.
“Need some help?” She jumped as I walked up behind her with a smile. Her eyes and nose were running and I knew she was dope sick.
“Oh lord! You about scared mama to death. These young folks out here these days will rob you for the peanuts outta your shit.”
“Let me help you with that.” I said as I took the milk jug from her and finished pouring the gas into her tank. Bubba stood off to the side looking around like he was scared too.
“Thank you sweety. You’s a sweet angel. Maggie sick this morning. I got twelve dollars and them son of a bitches won’t even let me get a bag. Talking bout everybody gots to have straight money this morning. With that weak ass shit they got! All the money I done spent wit them and this how they treat Maggie.” Big mama spoke about herself in the first person as she sat down on the bumper of her Station Wagon seemingly exhausted. “What yall doing out her so early? Yall bout to go up there and get straight? Please give mama a lil taste so I can get off this sickness.” Big mama begged as she grabbed her stomach and doubled over obviously in pain.
“Nah big mama we don’t want they weak shit. We got that Black Magic.”
“Say what!” Maggie shot up like she was hit with a bolt of lightening. “You say you got “Black Magic?” Don’t fool Maggie now. They said only the Mexicans can get that.”
“Nah Maggie they wrong sweetheart. The Haitians got this and I work for em.” I said pulling out a bundle and removing two bags. “Where that twelve dollars at?” Quicker than you can say “dopefiend,” Maggie produced a five and seven wrinkled dollar bills outta her bra. “Aight big mama these bags going for $10 apiece. I’m gone give you two of em, but I need you to get out her and spread the word that “Black Magic,” is around.”
“Okay baby! Just let mama get off and I’ll do whatever you want me to do!” She said with a smile showing her two front teeth missing. I handed her the two bags, she grabbed em, ran around to the passenger side of her Station Wagon, opened the door and sat down. Bubba and I watched in awe as she prepared her works, then scooped rain water off the side of the street. The most shocking event happened, as we watched her fix the dope, lift her skirt, and then find a vein, to prepare to shoot the dope into the side of her pussy lip!
“What the hell is you doing!” Bubba asked right before I got the chance.
“Mama done used all the veins in her arms and legs baby. This the best spot for me to get off….” Her head fell down into a nod with her skirt still around her waist.
“Ah man that’s sick!” Bubba turned his head disgusted.
“Well homeboy this is the life we chose. And frankly, I don’t give a fuck if they shoot it in they asshole. As long as my money come up. Ya feel me?”
“Damn nigga you a cold motherfucker. You didn’t seem like this when we were locked down.”
“Tell ya the truth bru, I wasn’t always this way. But it’s how they made me. You either eat or get eaten. Now wake her ass up.” I pointed to Maggie nodding in the passenger seat with a needle hanging out of the side of her gray - haired pussy. Traffic was starting to pick up and we stuck out like a sore thumb standing on the side of the road beside a big ass yellow Station Wagon at 6:15 in the morning. Just as Bubba reached over to shake Maggie outta her nod, his phone rang.
“Yeah.” He answered. “Here it’s Jack.” He handed me his phone.
“Yeah what’s up nigga? I told you not to call until you were finished!” I barked into the phone.
“I am finished man Jack answered excitedly. Once these motherfuckers found out I had “Black Magic,” it was a wrap! I’m standing in the phone booth at M&M Mini Mart and it’s like sixty motherfuckers standing around waiting to see if I get some more. It’s some niggas in a green Yukon grilling me like a motherfucker too man. I think half these motherfuckers waiting on me is they customers.”
“So, you sold ten bundles already?”
“Yeah man. What you want me to do? The police riding like a motherfucker too. I think somebody got murdered early this morning about 4 o’clock. That’s what one of the tricks said anyway.”
“Aight, call a cab and go back to the room. We’ll be there shortly.” I hung up without waiting on a response.
“Damn! That nigga finished ten bundles already? It aint been but thirty - five minutes! Bubba asked. Before I could answer, Bubba’s phone rang again. I answered prepared to curse Jack’s stupid ass out for not following my instructions.
“Nigga I told you to go back to the hotel!”
“Huh?” Jill sounded confused.
“Oh. I thought you was Jack. What’s up? Don’t tell me you finished too?”
“Yeah and these motherfuckers all over me! I’m in the car with this white chic say she work at Duke Hospital and got to be to work by seven - thirty. She wants two bundles.”
Damn this shit was moving quicker than I thought! “Do she look legit?”
“Yeah, she got on her uniform, name tag and everything. I know she aint no police or nothing because she bought my last two bags then did em wit me.”
“Aight tell her to go to the Circle K in Wellons Village. Somebody will meet yall there in fifteen minutes.” There was a silence at the other end of the phone. “Jill……Jill!”
“Huh? Oh okay,” This bitch had nodded out on the fucking phone. “Shit this dope good!”
“Yeah, I know. Fifteen minutes” I said as I hung up.
“Man, you gotta let me take some of this shit back down to Port City!” Bubba suggested as he shook a nodding Maggie out of her dope induced stupor.
“Don’t worry. I plan to. Maggie get up. Drive us down to Wellons Village.”
“Oh okay. I’m up cutie pie. Good Lord you got a barn burner!” she spoke as she pulled the needle from her pussy lip and stood up. “It usually takes Maggie a half a bundle just to get off her sickness, let alone get high. They aint had no shit like this in Durham in years! You got some more?” she asked as she walked lazily around to the driver’s side and got in, as I slid in the passenger side and Bubba got in the back.
“Don’t worry. I got plenty.”
“Hold on. There go Sandy! I let her know, and you aint got to go nowhere! Sandy!” Maggie jumped out the wagon and flagged down a passing Nissan Altima with two white men in the front seat and a black woman in the back.
“Hold the fuck up! Who the hell is them white dudes? You sure they aint the police?” Bubba asked her.
“Oh no, cutie pie. That aint nobody but Jesse and Hank. You might as well get used to seeing a lot of white folks, wit this good shit you got. They the ones gonna make you rich baby.” Quickly the white dude driving Altima, slammed it in reverse and backed up to where we were. The black
chic in the back, a dark - skinned woman with cornrows and bad skin, whom I was guessing to be Sandy, rolled down the back window.
“What’s up Maggie? I aint got time to be messing wit you this morning. We all sick and trying to get down here to Canal to get straight. Damn I see you high as Cooty Brown! Who you cop from?”
“Girl my peoples right here got that “Black Magic.” Maggie bragged.
“What! For real! The real shit! I thought they said the Mexicans had it.” Sandy was out the car and over to us, before I even saw her feet touch the ground!
“Nah girl. They got it wrong. Some Haitians got it, but cutie pie right here moving it for em. What’s yo name again cutie pie?”
“D.J. Just call me D.J.”
Sandy was at my window so fast I couldn’t tell she was dope sick! “How much yo bundles going for D.J.? The bullshit they got out here now going for a hundred, but we don’t mind paying more if it’s that shit that killed them people.” Sandy spoke about buying drugs that were a known killer like it was the most natural thing in the world. “Oh yeah, my name Sandy baby. Sandy know everybody and everybody know Sandy. I can sell all that dope for you.”
“Hold on bitch! These my peoples! Don’t even try to slide yo funky ass up under em!” Maggie rushed around to stand beside Sandy with her fist balled up.
“Yall chill out. I’m probably gonna need both of yall help. I got dope for days. Sandy tell your peoples to ride around the block. They look suspicious as fuck sitting in the middle of the street.”
“Ay Jesse! Ride around the block a couple times! We straight. They got that killer!” Sandy yelled to her two white partners. “Okay. They gone chill. Them my peoples. They know I aint gone shit em. I got the three hundred right here though. We trying to get three bundles.”
“My bundles eighty - dollars baby girl, so here go four.” I said as I took the money from her and instructed Bubba to hand her four bundles.
“Eighty dollars!” Sandy beamed as she snatched the dope from Bubba’s hand like he was gonna try and take it back! “You sure this that “Black Magic” they talking about? This aint no dummy, is it? I been tricking all night and I aint trying to get beat.”
“Oh yeah baby, It’s official. Ask your girl Maggie,” I pointed to Maggie who couldn’t fight it any longer and was now sitting on the curb nodded out again.
“Maggie!” I yelled over the morning traffic.
“Huh… Oh shit, I’m sorry cutie pie.” She stumbled back to her feet. “Damn this dope a monster. Mama can’t even function.
“Oh hell yeah, this it!” Sandy grinned as the Altima pulled back up and the two white cats looked out the window at her expectantly.
“Everything good Sandy? You know we gotta get to work.”
“Yeah everything good Hank here I come. Can I get your number D.J.? I see right now, you about to put everybody outta business! Everybody know Sandy and they always come to me to find out where the best dope at.” Without a second thought I ripped off a piece of paper, wrote down my number and handed it to her.
“Okay baby if this really that shit then make sure your phone charged up good cause I’m about to blow that shit up! You got hard too?”
“I got whatever you need. Just hit the number.”
“Okay pretty boy.” Sandy said enthusiastically as she ran back to the Altima jumped in and they pulled away. Ten minutes later, Maggie pulled us into the Crown gas station right across the street from the Circle K. I looked across the street and saw Jill, nodding in the passenger seat of a tan Suburban, with a blond haired white chic in what look liked surgical scrubs, sitting behind the wheel. She was glancing at her watch every few seconds.
“Here. Go put some gas in your car. That one gallon damn sure ain’t gone get you far,” I said to Maggie as I handed her a 20$ bill and stepped outta the wagon.
“Thanks cutie pie. The good lord is gone bless you. You got a good heart.” Maggie answered as she got out and headed into the store.
“Yeah I used to. Bubba get yo ass out and pump the gas for her.” I told him as I headed across the street to the Circle K. If I forgot to mention it to yall before, Bubba is about my height, but he also weighs about 260 pounds. Some muscle, but more fat. I walked around the back of the store and came up on the passenger side of the Suburban where Jill was nodding so hard, it looked like she was reaching under her seat for something. Yeah if she had a dick she could damn sure be sucking it herself. Hell, she could probably eat her own pussy with the nod she was in!
“Bam! Bam! Bam!” I hit the window startling the white chic, and causing Jill to jump up hitting the back of her head on the dashboard!
“Ouch!” she grunted loudly as she grabbed the back of her head.
“Get yo ass up. If I was a stick-up kid, yo dumb ass would be robbed. No nodding on the job. You’ll have penty of time to scratch the bottom of your feet later,” I schooled Jill as I opened the back door and slid into the back seat of the truck.
“Oh Shit. Damn.” Jill said shaking her head trying to clear the cobwebs. “I usually don’t nod like that. Damn. I don’t know who you getting that shit from but don’t stop. I ain’t never had no dope like that in over twenty - five years! Shit!” Jill said, again trying to fight off the nod she was going back into.
“Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, no nodding on the job. Where my money at?”
“Oh, right here.” Jill reached into her pants and pulled out a rolled-up knot of money.
“You a doctor or something?” I asked the rather pretty blond haired chic.
“No, a nurse. I gotta be at work in ten minutes. You got two bundles of that same stuff?”|
“I might. Where you been copping from?” I asked disregarding that shit she was talking about being to work on time.
“I usually cop from Cee Cee from Turnkey. I stay on Lynn Road. I called him this morning, and some girl answered the phone, and said he was in jail for murder. I used to cop from a guy named Keith who stayed on Rosedale. I was sick and knew I couldn’t make it to work without getting something, so I just rode through hoping I might see him, and that’s when I saw all the people standing around here. I took a chance and pulled over. I had to throw up anyway. Jill ran over and got in the car with me, and I bought her last two bags. She did most of it though, as you can see.” Jill was nodded off again and this time I let her nod.
“Anybody else you know cop from Turnkey?”
“Yeah, most of my friend’s cop from out there, even though they shit aint that good, it keeps us from having to ride into the city.”
“Uh huh.” A lightbulb went off in my head. “You got the money?”
“Yeah. I got two hundred right here.”
“Uh Uh. My bundles are eighty dollars, so here go three.” I took the two hundred and handed her the boy.
“Eighty! And this that same stuff? That “Black Magic?”
“That’s what it says on the bag.” I smirked a little.
“Can I get yo number?! I can bring you a lotta business!”
“Yeah gimme a pen.”
She reached up on her sun visor, handed me a pen and I gave her my number on the back of her hand. “What should I call you?” She asked enthusiastically.
“D.J. it’s on your hand. What should I call you?”
“Oh.” She giggled like a typical goofy white chic. “I’m Lisa, I get off at four o’clock. I’ll probably need some more for my girl and her husband. You gonna be around?”
“I’m always around. But during the week don’t call me between eight and ten a.m.”
“Okay,” she said looking down at her watch again. “Shit I’m late for work. Fuck it. This was worth it,” she smiled that goofy smile again.
“Aight just hit me. Jill!” I yelled to snap her ass outta her dope world as I slid outta the back seat. Before my feet hit the ground my phone was ringing. “Yeah?” I answered.
“Hey this Sandy! I need three more bundles and an eight ball of hard. How much yo eight balls?”
“One twenty - five.”
“Oh Shit! Is it good?”
“The best.”
“Hell yeah! Where can I meet you D.J.?”
“Meet me at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Wellons Village. Fifteen minutes.” Without another word, I hung up. It was obvious that I was gonna need another phone. “Maggie drive over to the Dog House. I gotta meet somebody else.” The Dog House was right across the street from Kentrucky Fried Chicken.
“Okay cutie pie. Can mama have another lil taste?”
“Give her a bundle Bubba. But don’t do none of it yet Maggie. Not til after you drop us off. I ain’t trying to see yo gray haired pussy no more.” I laughed but I was serious.
“Oh, thank you cutie pie! You’s a gift from heaven. Don’t worry, Maggie can wait. This the last stop aint it?”
“Yeah Maggie this the last stop,” I told her shaking my head. Obviously, she wasn’t trying to
wait that long. Giving a dope fiend dope, is like giving a fat kid a bag full of candy and telling not to eat none.
We pulled up to the Dog House, and Bubbas greedy ass was the first one out the car. “Hell yeah, I love me some Dog House cheese fries. You want something bru?”
“Yeah get me two hot dogs with everything except onions.”
Five minutes later I watched as Sandy pulled into KFC in a gray Cutlass. This time she was with two other black chics and one white girl. Instantly my phone rang. “Yeah?”
“We here D.J. At KFC in the Village.
“Aight look across the street.” I told her as I stepped outta the station wagon.
“Oh yeah, I see you.”
“Get the money and walk across the street by yourself.”
“Okay here I come.” I watched as Sandy and the two black chics got into some kind of argument. Obviously, they weren’t as trusting with they’re money as the two white men were. My phone rang again.
“Yeah what is it?”
“D.J. this bitch won’t give me the money! I shoulda let her stupid ass go on down to North Durham and buy some of that garbage! Shit, I aint even got my shit off yet fucking wit these bitches.”
“Aight bring just one of em with you,” I laughed as I hung up.
“I’m sorry D.J. This bout to be a dumb bitch.” Sandy cursed and rolled her eyes at her homegirl as they walked up to the wagon.
“Bitch fuck you! You aint bout to be going in my shit! I wanna see what I’m buying before I buy it.”
“Hold up, hold up. Y’all making a scene out here. What’s your name Miss?” I asked the short dumpy looking black lady. She looked to be in her late forties or early fifties although you could never really be sure with drug users. Her hair was cut close to her head like a man’s, and her titties hung down to her waist in her UNC sweatshirt. It was obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra.
“My name Kitty baby. I’m just trying to get us something before we go out boosting. I aint had but two bags this morning, and I need at least five to make sure I can function right in them stores. Hell, Maggie know me.”
“Hey Kitty girl. Don’t yall be fooling wit my cutie pie now. I hate to have to get out and mess yall up.” Maggie leaned out the window showing off the snaggle toothed grin.
“Girl hush yo mouth. He is a cutie though,” Kitty grinned. “Sandy say, you got that Mexican stuff. “Black Magic.” Do ya?”
“Yeah I got it. But it’s the Haitians who got it, not Mexicans.” Outta my periphial I saw a police cruiser pull up, a cop got out and walked up to the ordering window of the Dog House. It was all I needed to see. “Yall go get back in your car and follow us.” I almost whispered as I got back in the station wagon and told Maggie to pull the fuck off. Four minutes later we were pulling up to Frank’s crib.
“Sandy, you and Kitty come on.” I told the two as I got out and headed towards Frank’s door. Before I reached it, the door swung open and Frank stood there grinning like a politician.
“My Nigga!” Frank greeted me as I walked in followed by Kitty, Sandy, and Bubba. Jill was outside nodding.
“Cutie pie! You good?” Maggie yelled from her Station Wagon window.
“Hold up a second!” I said as I walked back out, told her my number and for her to call me later so I could give her the new number. A good booster is always an asset. Once back in the house, I looked around and there were tricks of all shapes and colors sitting around ghostbusting, getting high, or fiending to get high as usual. “Yall hold on a second,” I told Kitty and Sandy. Curiously, Frank watched me walk out the back door, pick up an old tire sitting by a pile of dead leaves, reach in and pull out nine ounces of hard and a scale. Four and a half cut up in twenties, and four and a half solid.
“Well Damn! Slick motherfucker! When the hell you put that there?” Frank asked when I came back in.
“Ain’t no need to try and figure me out Frank Money. You’d just be busting your brain.” Actually, I’d crept through and stashed it about 4 o’clock that morning. Right before I went and met Bubba and them at the Red Roof. “Who got the money for the bundles?” I asked once back inside.
“I got it right here baby. Eighty dollars a bundle? That’s what Sandy said.” Kitty looked at Sandy as if she knew she was lying.
“Yeah that’s right. Two forty is what you need.”
“Oh okay. Here you go baby!” Kitty perked up suddenly and handed me the money outta her bra; as I reached into my briefs, pulled out the ziplock bag full of bundles and handed her three. I took another bundle out, split it in half and handed Sandy five bags.
“Oh shit! Thank you D.J.! You aint got to worry bout nothing! I’m gone bring you all the money!”
“Yeah. Yeah. Now who got the money for the eight ball?”
“Lou Ann got the money for that. She won’t come off hers neither. No offense D.J. but don’t none of us hoes trust each other when it come to our money.” Kitty confessed.
“Who the fuck is Lou Ann?”
“That’s the white girl in the car. She good people’s. She usually be selling pussy with these bitches in here. She made her a good lick this morning. Got her a Mexican for his wallet.”
“Aight tell her to come on in.” I had to laugh. One of a prostitute’s oldest tricks, is to have a dumb motherfucker pull his pants down around his ankles, then be going through his pockets while she’s giving him head. Most likely in a car. As soon as the unsuspecting trick busts his nut, she’s outta the car with his wallet, and or money in her hands. Fuck the lil ten or twenty dollars he’s already paid her. Now she’s got it all! So, ladies, if your man comes in the crib late night or early morning, screaming he lost his wallet, he probably stopped off and got a blowjob. And got scraped, by a quick hands dick sucker. Just keeping it real. You slow; you get took fast. The Untold Truth.
Lou Ann came in the house followed by the other black chic who’d been sitting in the car, and sure enough when I asked her for the buck twenty, she pulled the money from a black leather wallet. I pulled the scale out, broke a chunk off the solid half and threw it up there. 3.8 the scale jumped to, from 0.0. Yeah, I can eyeball like a motherfucker. Lou Ann who had dirty blond hair, was a little on the tall side for a woman. She had a scar running from her left ear to the left corner of her mouth. I wondered if it was from a trick, catching her digging in his pockets while she was sucking him off. I actually did know a girl, who’d gotten cut up like that. Luckily, she escaped with her life. Barely! I picked the scale up and dumped the oversized eight ball into Lou Ann’s awaiting hands.
“Thank you D.J.! Lou Ann thanked me looking like she’d just won a Gold medal at the Olympics! Hardly ever does anybody give a smoker weighed out work. For an eight - ball they might end up with two grams. Tops! But I didn’t have any reason to try and put my pimp game down on her. I wanted everybody to know that fuckin wit D.J. or his peoples, was the only way to fly. “Here you go Tammy.” Lou Ann broke off about a half a gram and handed it to the other black chic who’d been riding with her and Kitty. Tammy was light skinned wit freckles. She didn’t seem to talk much. But as soon as Lou Ann gave her the crack, she started talking up a storm as she pulled out her stem and put a piece up on it to smoke.
“Damn girl Thank you! I been wanting me a hit since last night! I hope this shit better than that other bullshit they got out here. I swear I needs me a good blast.” Talking Tammy flicked her lighter, held it up to her stem and pulled deep, as the flame curved into the end of the pipe. She pulled the lighter down and held the smoke in, as everybody seemed to stop and watch her. When she finally blew the smoke out her eyes stretched so wide I thought they would jump out her head! Unsuccessfully she kept trying to speak, as she grabbed her chest and fell back against the refrigerator, knocking over everything on top of it as she gasped for air!
“Oh shit! Tammy! Tammy! You okay girl!” Sandy raced to her side as Tammy doubled over and was finally able to breathe.
“Oh god! What the hell!” Tammy pushed out, still bent over gasping for more much needed air. When she stood back up, her eyes were still stretched, but she was able to breathe a little. “Goddamn! Whew! That aint no shit from around here!” Tammy sat down at the kitchen table as Kitty handed her a cup of water. We watched as she drank it down greedily, still holding one hand over her heart.
“Next time don’t be so fuckin greedy. That’s that shit from Virginia.” I told her while me, Bubba and Frank laughed our asses off. “Here, take this number.” A text came across my phone just as I handed her the paper with my number on it. I read, it then looked over at Frank. “Frank lemme borrow that raggedy ass Sentra for a few. Bubba yall stay here till I get back.”
“Keys is on the refrigerator dog. Go ahead and fill it up while you out.” Frank grinned.
“Nigga you fill it up wit some of the money you making,” I laughed as I grabbed the keys and headed out the door.