by JD Dutra
“You don’t need to go through that, Danny. I’ll file a report that he made an attempt on another inmate’s life, he’ll be locked up in solitary for a while.”
“But the other inmates will know it was me who turned him in,” he said, shaking his head and feeling hopeless.
“Whitey is constantly harassing other inmates, including ones from other racial groups. Everyone here knows he likes to cause trouble. A few weeks in the cooler will do him well, maybe by the time he gets out, you’ll have your life back to normal again.”
She stepped halfway into the cell to hide her body from the corridor camera and pointed at the cigarettes, her palm open. Daniel stood still, weighing her words against the feeling of that sharp rusty nail shank in his throat. For a moment he hesitated.
“Don’t be a fool, Daniel, if they find you with those down there they’ll ban your last visitor. That lady won’t be able to come in to see you anymore and, depending on the mood of the screening guard at the time, they may even throw her in here for a few days. Smuggling forbidden items in here is a felony.”
Daniel stood up slowly, placed both packs on her palm and she pushed them into a thigh pocket of her tactical pants. She stepped out of his way, back into the corridor, held the door open, anticipating his exit as well.
“Are you sure he won’t find out about me turning him in?” He asked, trying to figure out the implications of his choice, but all he could think about was Isabella.
“Yes, I’m positive,” said Jennifer with calm reassurance. She began to look into his eyes again.
“Are you still going out with me when I leave here, Jen?” Daniel asked while stepping out into the corridor, hoping the third pack of cigarettes would stay hidden until he got to his tent.
“It’s a bad time to ask, Danny, I’ll just start by making sure you can get out of here alive,” she replied before locking the door behind him, and pointing the way down the hall.
“Sounds good, thank you,” said Daniel with a warm smile.
“No more smiling at me. From here down to the tents I’m Officer DeLeon, not Jen. Got it?”
“I can’t wait to sleep with Officer DeLeon when I get out of here…”
Jen’s muffled laugh put him in a good mood, for now.
Chapter 19
Maryvale Village, Phoenix, Arizona
Friday, October 23rd, 2020
4:15 P.M.
Baby Ray had just finished showering when a heavy hand banged loudly against the door of Oneita’s apartment. Fear and anxiety had kept him awake the night before after breaking into the rich woman’s house during the day, then there was what Jimmy had done to the security guy. He’d woken up feeling weird and didn’t know if it was something he ate or if it was the shot of adrenaline he’d got the day before. He quickly dried himself with a crusty towel and put on whatever he had drying on the bathroom hooks. The angry knocks got louder and louder, there were now kicks too, their booming sound echoed around the rundown apartment, the few old and worn out furnishings seemed to shake.
Could that rich lady have the guts to come here looking for her stuff?
He grabbed a kitchen knife, the sharpest he could find and began to walk slowly towards the door, listening. There were voices on the outside, and after listening for just a few seconds he tossed the knife into the kitchen sink and went to open the door, rolling his eyes.
“Why the hell did it take you so long, huh?” Oneita screamed with anger as she walked in, her hands full of heavy shopping bags and packages.
“I was in the shower Big Mah, why didn’t you take a damn key?” He said, before getting out of the way. He headed towards his favorite chair, looking for the TV remote.
“Come on in, DeShawndra, just put the bags down here,” said Oneita, waiving a brand new set of extra-long nails that were purplish red.
Good thing she don’t work for a living, she wouldn’t be able to get nothing done with them purple claws, Baby Ray thought.
“Any weird stuff happening outside, Oneita?” He asked.
“Not a thang.”
“The pawnshop say anything?” Asked Baby Ray, mindlessly flipping through channels as he eyed DeShawndra’s skin tight leopard leggings that showed off her assets.
“We been to three; they ain’t asking nothing. We gotta take the rest of that stuff in there, I bet they’ll pay something for all that,” said Oneita, who was tossing all the old stale food from the fridge into a supermarket bag, to make room for the new groceries she’d bought hours ago, before she got her nails done.
“They ain’t gonna pay nothing for the other stuff, Oneita, that ain’t no pawn shop stuff. Jimmy says he knows a guy who knows another guy who’s uncle would pay top dollar for that, at least a couple of grand.”
“Couple of grand?” Asked Deshawndra with a dreamy smile on her full soft lips.
“Yeah girl,” said Oneita who turned to her and offered the trash bag she was holding.
“Here, clean this fridge up for me and make some more room in there. Just toss out all the old stuff and I’ll give you some money.”
Before she gave up on the task herself, Oneita tossed out a moldy to-go foam box which she’d put in there before she was locked up weeks ago; alongside that was a bottle of yellow Gatorade with two more sips in it. The smell of mold and rancid food that filled the grimy apartment was almost making her gag.
“If Mamma Rosie were still alive, this fridge would never look like this,” Oneita said to herself, her voice filled with the pain of an old wound.
“How much you gonna pay me for cleaning this nasty fridge of yours?” Asked Deshawndra, surprised at the amount of stains, mold and trash inside the fridge.
“Cuz you mah girl, here’s $10, but clean them stains too.”
Oneita struggled to pull a crumpled bill from her pocket, suddenly the rising volume on the TV grabbed her attention. The sound was the voice of a female news anchor.
“While social media is buzzing with doom and gloom talk, government officials say there is no pandemic. So what is the truth? This is Katy Leonard with your News Update,” said the attractive African American anchor.
“Good afternoon to you Arizona.
Hospitals around the country are admitting patients with the same symptoms of a rare and mysterious disease that is affecting people in countries all around the world. They say a person can go from healthy to terminally ill in just a little over 48 hours and no one knows what it is exactly that is causing these illnesses, which have been affecting everyone from young children to seniors.
Despite thousands of these reports on social media, no cases have been officially confirmed by the Center of Disease Control.
Yesterday President Soetoro broadcast live from the White House gardens and asked for calm, telling people not to give into despair and to focus instead on the rise of the Federal minimum wage and on other new money policies designed to improve the economy. Here is a cut from yesterday’s speech.”
‘But what good is economic growth if our very lives are at risk. I would like to take this moment to assure you that the viral infection reports that you are seeing on social media and on the alternative media are misguided.’
“I feel great that our President has come out and reassured us that all these YouTube videos and pictures are probably fakes, don’t you, William?” Said news anchor Katy Leonard to her co-host, William Guzman.
“It sure is, Katy. You know, people these days will do anything to get a ‘like’ or a ‘share’, we need to be more conscious and aware, we can be stirring panic out there and not even know we’re doing it. I’ve seen some of these videos, they can be pretty convincing and we need to do all we can to remind each other these are nothing but tasteless hoaxes from desperate people seeking attention online.”
“I completely agree William. Now here is Chuck Jackson with the update on sports.”
Baby Ray lowered the volume and shook his head slowly. “This ain’t no Africa alright, this is America you know
what I’m saying? We get them viruses things under control around here!”
“Now, the President ain’t telling the truth,” said Deshawndra, who stopped cleaning to wave a finger in the air. “My cousin she a nurse at the Saint John’s Hospital downtown and she tol’ me that’s all for real. It’s happening right here, right now in Phoenix. She swears it is!”
“If the Prez says it ain’t nothing to worry about, it ain’t nothing to worry about,” said Oneita, on her way to her bedroom, her tone clearly meant she had the final word. Minutes later she came back with some objects wrapped in an old and wrinkly plastic bag from the local food bank. She began touching the makeup on her eyebrows, as if she was getting ready to leave again.
Suddenly, the door crashed opened and Baby Ray jumped from his chair.
Jimmy walked in, his forehead dripping sweat. He was breathing heavily, his eyes full of purpose, as if he was looking for something. Two more men walked in behind him, one had red bandana over his forehead tied into a maid’s knot that dangled like dog ears on his forehead and two studded earrings. The other was wearing a wife beater shirt and large sweat pants with jeans pockets sown into them.
“This my crew, we came to grab that stuff, we got someone interested,” said Jimmy almost out of breath, before grabbing the rim of his shirt and wiping his forehead sweat clean. It stained his shirt a light shade of yellow, but he seemed to think nothing of it.
“Oneita, bring it out,” said Baby Ray, turning the TV off, not wanting to draw attention to it. The way the guy in the bandana looked at it made him nervous.
Minutes later Oneita came out with a dark metal box that still had some drywall dust on it and set it on the kitchen table.
“Come check this out yo,” said Jimmy, who sounded like a kid who was about to make his friends jealous with his birthday gift.
Baby Ray got up and DeShawndra left the fridge door open to gather around Jimmy, whose forehead had begun to shine again with sweat.
“Open it!” Said DeShawndra, who was almost dancing on her feet with excitement. Jimmy’s ice cold stare took the spark out of her instantly.
The first thing that stood out when Jimmy pushed back the lid were the passports. There were over a dozen of them in all different colors.
“That gorgeous devil Asian lady… I love a dangerous girl like that. Maybe next time I’ll steal her instead,” said Jimmy, biting his lip.
He stacked all the passports on one hand and began reading the names stamped in their own language and in English on the front of them, as he tossed them back into the box.
“China, Japan, United States, United States, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Brazil, North Korea, Portugal, Paraguay, Russia, Russia, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, United States again,” said Jimmy, grinning and imagining his payday. He randomly reached into the box, pulled two of the passports, a green and a red one, and then flipped both to where the owner’s information should be. Mei Lin’s face was on both passports, with different names on them.
Next to the passports were five brush-metal sticks with black Chinese characters engraved on them. They were the size of a small finger and Jimmy picked up one of them and asked around.
“Anyone know what this is?”
“It looks like a one of them flash drives, memory stick things,” said the guy with the bandana, moving his head from one side to another to take a look at it.
“Nah… This is ten grand a piece homie,” said Jimmy while admiring the small metal stick in his hand like a jeweler would a precious stone.
“That little thing is ten grand?” Asked Baby Ray, who reached into the box to pick one up. Oneita slapped his hand away.
“Yeah I got these sold for ten grand a piece. I put the word out that I’ve found this secret information along with a bunch of fake passports. Told ‘em how I found them, how it was hidden in this rich lady’s house, I guess she is a public figure or someone well known around here, one of ‘em said she was even in a magazine. Well there is someone out there who is curious enough to pay us big money to have this stuff.”
“Ten grand a piece, that’s 50 thousand dollars, I’ve never seen that kind of money in my life!” Said Deshawndra sounding amazed.
Jimmy ignored her and continued.
“We are going to meet the buyer as soon as they got the cash, in two or three days. They’re only going to pay though if these are flawless alright, the passports too, they want it all in a package. Yo, 50k in cash is just what I need, can you feel me?” Said Jimmy, who smiled for the first time since he’s been out of prison.
“We’re going to be rich! Finally!” Said Oneita, her fat chin doubling and tripling with excitement.
As soon as I get the cash, I’m gone. I can’t take her no more, Baby Ray thought.
Baby Ray noticed the angry look Jimmy gave Oneita once she said ‘we’ were going to be rich. He had to keep those two apart and think of something.
“What do you think she is, Jimmy?” Asked Baby Ray, reaching for the different passport inside the box, trying to redirect his anger.
“Some kind of scammer for sure, so don’t feel bad yo, she deserved it all.”
“Oh she ain’t calling the police for this, you were damn right, Jimmy,” Oneita said slapping her meaty hands together in anticipation. “Listen, I’m gonna go out and buy a few more things. DeShawndra, call me when you’re done honey I can keep you busy cleaning around here, give you some more money, I’ll pay minimum wage in cash.”
“You can hardly buy a burger and fries with an hour of minimum wage Oneita…”
“Excuse me girl? If you want money you gotta work hard alright? I worked hard for this money right here it was the most… Excur, excrushin’, ex—”
“Excruciating” said DeShawndra, rolling her eyes.
“The most excruciating 20 minutes of my life!” Said Oneita, who put the plastic bag from her bedroom under her flabby arm and started to head for the door.
DeShawndra shook her head and went back to cleaning the fridge, Jimmy’s crew boys followed every bounce on her step.
Before Oneita was out the door, Jimmy called her.
“Yo, Oneita, gimme that lady’s number,” he said while putting down the lid on the box. Oneita showed him the number saved on her brand new government issued phone. Jimmy began to dial.
“Everyone quiet yo. Get ready to learn somethin’, can you feel me?” While the phone rang, he pressed a button and the dial tone rang louder from the phone’s speaker.
After a few moments, someone picked up.
“This is Mei Lin—”
“Yo listen, we got somethin’ you want,” Jimmy said in a tone that would let her know who’s the boss. He didn’t give her a chance to respond and continued.
“We want $200,000.00 in the next 12 hours or your stash is gone, everything gonna be handed over to the po-lice; no, the FBI - the CIA you understand?”
The voice on the other line stayed silent.
“You got two days, otherwise everyone is going to know who you really is. Keep your phone close,” Jimmy said before hanging up, his face turning into a scowl. He felt like a real gangster for the first time.
Across the street from Oneita’s apartment sat an unmarked white SUV with the windows tinted. Mei Lin Tao sat in the back seat, holding her phone on speaker to Ping, who was sitting in the front and Leah, one of his subordinates, who was behind the wheel.
Jimmy’s voice had just gone dead on Mei Lin’s cell phone. In the brief silence that followed, she opened the app which showed a blinking blue pin on a map, her intuition of having the metal box custom made with a hidden GPS tracker in it was a probably the reason why she was still alive.
“You are right, Mei Lin, they are petty thieves,” said Ping, turning his face towards the rundown apartments.
“Yes, they won’t damage the goods before selling it,” said Mei Lin, more to herself than to Ping, before putting her phone away. “What do you think we should do?”
At that very moment,
Ping’s phone that rang. He pulled out the cheap prepaid phone and looked down at the number. A soft smile crossed his lips and instead of looking somewhat more empathetic, Ping looked like a serpent who had just caught the fresh scent of a rat’s nest.
Chapter 20
Arizona Fairgrounds, Phoenix, Arizona
Friday, October 23rd, 2020
6:23 P.M.
The thin browned skinned man walked through the packed crowds the best he could, occasionally saying, “Excuse me” in his slightly accented and quiet voice. These people were lined up to buy a ticket to the Arizona State Fair. His own ticket had been bought for him, months in advance.
Nazeer was wearing white tennis shoes with long socks, brand new khaki shorts just below the knees and a tight fitting polo shirt. Such attire wasn’t permissible by his religion, however for today’s duties he felt like it was proper to dress this way and attract less attention.
Once he reached the gates, his tired eyes shielded from the sun behind a pair of dark sunglasses gazed at the massive crowd around him. There were thousands of people crammed together, all heading towards the cornucopia of food, drinks and entertainment of all kinds. There were children of all ages, happy and loud, pulling their parents and grandparents by their hands, eager to experience everything the fair had to offer. He thought of his family, and of how his children would never enter a place such as this with their grandparents.
“Wow, this feels good, Mommy!” Said a little girl in her mother’s arms, reaching her tiny fingers into the cool mist that fell on the crowd as they handed their tickets to staff members. Nazeer smiled at the little girl, touched by how she marveled at such a simple thing. Her mother just ignored her.
When he walked into the busy restroom, it was right after lunch and people were making room for more food. After waiting in a small line for a few minutes, he got into one of the stalls and locked the door as he coughed and cleared his throat. He looked down into the toilet and then spat on the wall, the reddish green mucus ran down like a fat snail, almost too slow to notice.
He unzipped his shorts and began to urinate. His expression turned to a grimace as the stream burned him and stung more than it had the last time. Suddenly, a voice echoed inside the restroom walls.
