Wrath

by K'wan

  The original plan was for them to lay in the cut while Jewels and Black went into the motel. She would tie her head scarf on the outside of the door so they would know what room she was in. Mula would play the hall to keep an eye out for signs of trouble, while Jonas, Ace, and Prince went into the room and administered the beating. With Prince out of the picture, they were left with two choices: keep with the plan of going into the room three-deep and leave their backs unguarded, or do it as a duo instead of a trio. Between Jonas and Ace, they should’ve been able to handle Black, but Jonas wasn’t comfortable leaving anything to chance. He had a bad feeling about the whole thing, and that feeling grew the closer they got to the hour of reckoning.

  “You up for this?” Ace broke Jonas’s train of thought. They were loitering in front of a bodega a half block from where the motel was.

  “I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t,” Jonas said, sounding more confident than he was. That strip was usually busy with people coming and going, so it would’ve been easy for them to blend in. That night, it was quiet, though. Jonas was sure the three new faces stuck out like sore thumbs to anyone paying close enough attention. “Just remember, before we do anything, we gotta make sure Jewels is clear.”

  Ace laughed. “Don’t worry about Jewels. She can take care of herself. You just make sure you don’t freeze when I pop on this nigga.”

  “There they go,” Mula spoke in his whispery voice. A livery cab was pulling to the curb a few yards from where they were standing.

  Black was out of the cab first. He was dressed in jeans, fresh Tims, and a button-up shirt. A thick chain hung from around his neck. He went around and opened the door for Jewels like every bit of a gentleman. She looked good that night; a tight blue denim skirt with a matching jacket and a pair of Jordans. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail on top of her head and tied off with a white scarf. She looked over her shoulder warily as he ushered her across the threshold of the motel. Jewels had probably been thinking the same thing Jonas had . . . I hope this shit goes right.

  They gave them about a five- or six-minute head start before Ace motioned for them to follow. In front of the motel, a man stood shaking his cup and begging for change. He was stooped over and wearing a dusty overcoat with a hood that obscured part of his face. He gave the youngsters a smile, revealing a gold tooth, hoping one of them would do him a kindness. Ace didn’t give him a second look, but Mula, for no reason other than to be cruel, slapped the cup out of the man’s hand. The man looked on pitifully as his coins crashed to the ground and rolled in every direction.

  “That’s fucked-up,” the homeless man said sadly and went about the business of picking up his money. Jonas made to help him, but a stern look from Ace made him think better of it.

  Inside the motel, a brown-skinned girl sat behind a Plexiglas window. Behind her, a television mounted on the wall played some reality television show, while she busied herself flipping through the pages of a magazine. When the boys filed in, she spared them only the briefest glance before going back to her magazine as if she hadn’t even seen them. So far, so good.

  It took them another five minutes to find the room they were looking for. They hadn’t factored in there being so many. They started from the top and worked their way down. The hotel stank of weed, sex, and alcohol. It wasn’t the most respectable place, but you could get a relatively clean bed to handle your business for a couple of hours for about fifty or sixty bucks.

  Ace spotted the scarf hanging from the door on the second floor. He crept down the hall with Jonas and Mula on his heels. Through the door, they could hear muffled voices. It sounded like Black was trying to get right to it, but Jewels was stalling. They needed to get in there.

  “Showtime, baby.” Ace produced three ski masks, handing one to Mula and the other to Jonas. “Mula, go stand at the top of the stairs. You see anybody, shout.” Mula didn’t look happy about being left out of the action, but he didn’t argue. Ace reached for the knob, but Jonas stopped him.

  “Before we go in, give Mula the strap,” Jonas said much to everyone’s surprise, including Mula’s.

  “For what?” Ace didn’t like going in without the hammer.

  “Mula is too small to do much if somebody tries to rescue this nigga while we’re beating his ass. At least with the gun, he can back them down long enough for us to get clear. You really wanna get trapped off up here?” Jonas asked. In truth, he didn’t trust Ace not to shoot Black, or worse, Black takes the gun from them as the deliveryman had done with Ace and Cal. It was a weak lie, but enough to get Ace to pass the gun off and take the baseball bat instead.

  Ace waited until Mula reached his position at the end of the hall before resting his hand on the doorknob. “For Doug,” he extended his fist.

  “For Doug,” Jonas pounded his fist, and they went in to handle their business.

  * * *

  They entered to find that they hadn’t arrived a moment too soon. Black had Jewels pinned to the bed with her skirt hiked above her hips, while he was trying to pry her legs apart with his knee. In his hand was his cock that he was in the process of stroking to an erection.

  “Chill; just wait a minute.” Jewels was trying to shove him off, but Black’s weight was too much.

  “Come on with that wait shit, baby. We been playing this game for too long already. Let me just put the head in,” Black was trying to convince her while sliding between her legs. When he noticed the door open, he looked up in confusion. “Fuck is this?”

  “Room service, nigga!” Jonas cracked Black with the brass knuckles.

  Black rolled off of Jewels and onto the floor, dazed but hardly out of the fight. His lip was busted, but other than that, he was unharmed. When he turned his eyes on Jonas, Jonas felt just like he had earlier that day in the hallway with Eight-Ball. It was at that moment that he realized that they might have been in over their heads. “Good one.” Black spat blood onto the floor. “My turn now.”

  Black was on his feet and moving across the room faster than Jonas’s brain could register. In the glint of moonlight, Jonas saw the flash of something. It was a knife, no doubt tucked into the pocket of his pants which were around his thighs. Jonas cursed himself for them not thinking to make sure he was unarmed before trying to rush him. Jonas tried to move out of the way, but he wasn’t quick enough. Fire shot through his chest as the blade cut through his shirt and the top layer of his skin. The only reason his chest had been cut instead of his face was that Jewels stuck her foot out and tripped Black when he was trying to get to Jonas.

  Before Jonas could recover, Ace had joined the battle. He swung the bat in a high arc and brought it down across Black’s arm with a resounding crack. The knife went flying to the other side of the room, but losing his weapon didn’t deter him from his mission of trying to kill the two young boys. When Ace swung the bat a second time, Black had been expecting it. He swept the cheap lamp up off the nightstand and smashed it against the side of Ace’s head. Had it been made from anything stronger than cheap plastic, Ace would’ve been dead, or at least in a coma. Instead, he was just knocked out.

  Black started stomping Ace like he was trying to put out a fire. He probably would’ve killed him had it not been for Jewels. She had managed to recover the knife Black had been wielding and plunged it into his back. Black roared in pain and backhanded the girl and sent her sprawling across the bed. “You stinking bitch!” He leaped on top of her and drove his fist into her face.

  Hearing Jewel’s screams washed away the shock of Jonas having just been cut for the first time. His chest burned, and his shirt was damp with blood, but he would live. That was more than he could say for Jewels if he didn’t do something—and quick. Just then, he spotted the bat sticking out from under the bed. He wasn’t sure what he intended on doing with it. In fact, he wasn’t thinking at all when he picked it up. A surge of adrenaline washed through him as he tightened his grip on the handle. He planted his feet and swung it with everything he had. There was a sickeni
ng crack, followed by a spray of blood that hit the wall. Black turned to Jonas and looked at him in wide-eyed shock before falling over the edge of the bed.

  “Raf . . . Raf, you okay?” he heard Ace calling to him, but his voice sounded as if it were far away.

  When Jonas finally came out of his daze, he was standing at the foot of the bed, still holding the bloodstained bat. Jewels was standing near the door, rubbing her neck. It was red and bruised from Black choking her out. Ace looked like shit. His lip was bleeding, and he had the beginnings of a knot forming on his head. On the floor, a few feet away, Black lay facedown. Blood seeped from the opening in the back of his skull along with something white.

  “What did you do?” Ace asked, looking down at Black’s body.

  “He was going to kill her,” Jonas said just above a whisper.

  “Well, he damn near killed us all. What the fuck was he, a superhero?” Ace half-joked.

  “Probably all the powder he’s been snorting all night,” Jewels explained Black’s unusual strength. “He said it was going to make him ‘stand up in the pussy.’”

  “Well, he ain’t gonna be standing up in much of nothing anymore,” Ace laughed.

  “What’s going on in there?” they heard a man’s voice in the hall.

  “Mind your own business, muthafucka!” came Mula’s response.

  “We better get the fuck out of here,” Ace said. It would only be a matter of time before someone came to investigate the noise, or Mula shot somebody. Neither option would bode well for them. Ace and Jewels made for the door, but Jonas didn’t follow. He continued to stand there, looking down at Black.

  “C’mon, Raf.” Jewels took his hand. Her touch was comforting to him, and he needed it. At that moment, something passed between them. It was nothing that could be put into words, but it was safe to say that was the night when Jonas and Jewels would become more than just friends.

  The four of them managed to make it out of the motel and into a taxi without incident. The ride was full of nervous energy. None of the teens were strangers to violence, but none had experienced anything like what Jonas had done. Mula was disappointed that he had missed out on the action and hung on to Ace’s every word as he recounted the story. They were all chattering away except Jonas, who was unusually quiet.

  They dropped Mula off in his hood and spun back around to 139th. Ace paid the cab, and they all got out. Before sending Jewels into the building, he reinforced to her the importance of keeping quiet about what she had seen, but it wasn’t necessary. It was a night that Jewels hoped to forget.

  “You good?” Ace asked Jonas once Jewels was gone.

  “Yeah, man,” Jonas said but didn’t sound convincing.

  “Listen, bro, you did what you had to do. Don’t beat yourself up about it. I’ll check you in the morning.” Ace gave him dap and slunk off into the darkness.

  Jonas continued to stand in front of his building for a time, enjoying the cool night air against his skin. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, he was sore from the fight. When he got upstairs, he would need to soak in the tub for a while. He looked down and realized that he was still holding the bat. He knew he probably should’ve gotten rid of it, but something about the bat brought him comfort. Ace was worried about Jonas being traumatized about what he had done, but he had it wrong. Jonas felt no grief or guilt for what he had done to Black. In fact, he felt good. For the first time, Jonas had discovered something that he liked more than football . . . violence.

  Chapter Twelve

  It was three days later when the dominoes of what Jonas and his friends had done would begin to fall. He was awakened early that morning by the sounds of shouting. He was pissed because he had been having trouble sleeping since the events at the motel, and the night before was the first time he had been able to get a good rest. He had been suffering from very violent dreams. They were usually the same, him clubbing someone’s head in with the bat. Sometimes, it was Black, but there were others. Always people who had wronged him: Slick, the dude who had tossed his football onto the ice in the park. His mother had even been the victim of his violent outburst in one dream. That was the one that had disturbed him the most. He sometimes disliked his mother, but he didn’t hate her enough to hurt her.

  Since the motel, rage had become one of his closest companions. It followed him everywhere like a shadow. Little things that he would have normally overlooked now drove him to fits of anger. He had even beaten up a crackhead the previous night when he was hanging out in the park with Ace and Mula. The crackhead had asked Ace to let him borrow a few dollars because he was short of the ten he needed to buy his drugs. When Ace told him to fuck off, the crackhead said something slick. It was a harmless remark, but enough to set Jonas off. He stomped the crackhead out and hit him over the head with a trash can for good measure. Ace was pissed because the fight made the spot hot, and he had to shut down his weed operation for a few dollars. Mula just laughed. He said he liked the new Raf, and Jonas was inclined to agree with him. He was changing, and everyone around him picked up on it, even Sweets. She had asked him about it once, but Jonas downplayed it as him just having a lot on his mind. How could he tell his kindhearted sister that he was now a killer?

  Jonas thought about Black often. He wondered what it must’ve felt like to die in such a violent way. Did he suffer? Or did he pass instantly into the afterlife upon impact? Fuck him! As far as Jonas was concerned, he got what he deserved. It came down to a choice between Black’s life and Jewel’s, and Black was the odd man out. If Jonas had it to do all over again, the only thing he would’ve done differently would be to bring the gun into the room so he could’ve shot him instead. The thought made Jonas giggle.

  His thoughts then turned to Jewels. Over the last couple of days, she and Jonas had been hanging out more than usual. When she chose to attend, Jewels went to one of those last-chance schools where you only had to attend classes in the morning, so she was the perfect companion for Jonas to pass the days while Ace and Mula were out grinding, and his sisters weren’t at home. Sometimes, late at night when Jewels was having trouble sleeping, or her mother was on one, Jonas would sneak her into his room. At that point, they hadn’t done anything more than kiss, though they had come close. Mostly, they would lie in each other’s arms like an old married couple, talking and daydreaming about lives outside the ones they were living. Jewels never came out and said it, but what had happened at the motel had done something to her. She had changed. Not like Jonas, but in a way that she couldn’t figure out how to put into words. Jonas didn’t press her to try. She would speak about it when she was ready or not at all. He was fine either way. The two of them found comfort in each other that they couldn’t find with their own families. They were good for each other.

  In the other room, the shouting continued. Going back to sleep wasn’t an option at that point. He slipped out of bed and pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie and went to investigate.

  He was serving the last day of the suspension from school, so he was the only one of the kids at home that day. This left only two other people who could’ve been the source of the noise. Sure enough, he found his mother and Slick in the living room engaged in a shouting match. They seemed to be arguing more than usual lately. His mother was still in her housecoat, head wrapped in a scarf, and smoking a cigarette. Slick was dressed in a pair of green pants that looked like that looked like they could stand a good washing and a dingy yellow shirt. His eyes were wide and angry.

  “Damn it, Janette. You act like I’m asking you for a lot, and its only ten funky dollars. I need to fix up.” Slick was ranting.

  “Tough shit. You should’ve gotten what you needed with the twenty dollars you stole out of my purse last night!” Janette shot back. “I been busting my ass trying to pay off your debt, and you ain’t exactly been helpful.”

  “You act like I ain’t been out hustling too!”

  “You call boosting shit from the Ninety-Nine-Cent store hustling?”
she capped.

  “I’m trying to do my part to bring some coins into this damn house!”

  “Coins which you smoke, snort, or shoot no sooner than you get your hands on them,” Janette accused. “I’m getting a little tired of having to carry both our habits, Slick. Something is gonna have to give.”

  “Baby, I’m telling you this is just a rough patch. I got a friend of mine from back in the day who’s doing good for himself over in Newark. I convinced him to lay a package on me. Once I flip it, we’re right back on our feet,” he promised.

  “Or you’re going to fuck it up and have two niggas looking to kill you instead of one.” Janette blew out a cloud of smoke.

  “You know it’d be nice to have a woman who supported my dreams,” Slick said sourly.

  “It be nicer to have a man who actually pulled his weight! I swear, I gotta look after you more than I do my own kids.”

  “Then maybe I should leave? You know there ain’t no shortage of bitches that would be lined up to take your spot.”

  “And they would be more than welcome to it! You pimping around this muthafucka like you’re some damn prized catch. Contrary to what your ego tells you, I was doing pretty good before you came into my life. Had a good man who loved me,” Janette said in a matter-of-fact tone.

  “Yup; loved you up to the point where you pushed him to eat a bullet!” Slick sneered. It was a low blow.

  Janette slapped fire out of Slick, and he slapped her back. She went spilling onto the floor. The two of them wrestled around on the ground for a while before Jonas decided to intervene.

  “Get off of her.” Jonas pulled at Slick.

  “Mind your damn business, boy! This is my woman!” Slick snapped.