When It All Falls Down 2 - Strapped Up: A Chicago Hood Drama (A Hustler's Lady)

by Tamicka Higgins

  “Yeah,” Tramar said, looking around and over the tops of cars. “Don’t get too excited just yet.” He glanced back at the bank tower, as it yet again stood out in the concrete jungle of downtown Chicago. “We ain’t outta the way yet. We gotta get the fuck up outta downtown before the shit gets hot, or we gon’ be headed straight to prison with the rest of them niggas.”

  No sooner than those words had spilled out of Tramar’s mouth, police sirens rang out into the air. Instantly, Tramar and Jackson could each feel their hearts practically jump out of their chest. While they did not feel as if they stuck out in the crowd, partially because Chicago was no stranger to black professional men walking down the street, they still felt vulnerable in their current situation.

  Just as the two of them had gotten halfway up their second block, with their eyes on the parking garage at the beginning of the next block, police cars rushed across their view on the street above. They wanted to stop in their tracks, but they knew they’d look suspicious if they did. Once the police cars had gone out of their view and were clearly headed to the next street over, which was a one way south and headed toward the bank, Tramar tapped his boy Jackson’s arm. They stopped, causing people on the sidewalk to swerve around them.

  “Hey, nigga,” Tramar said. “Let’s do that Plan B part, now, okay? Let’s do that shit real quick just to be on the safe side.”

  Without arguing, Jackson followed Tramar as the two of them turned around and went back to the corner. For a moment, they actually felt crazy for heading back toward the bank when the police sirens were ringing out in the air. However, they knew that they had to change up the plan to make sure they got out of this situation alive.

  They turned the corner and went to the food court – the same food court where Ayana and Tramar had eaten yesterday when they’d come downtown to case the two banks. Inside of the food court, Tramar and Jackson quickly pulled their sunglasses off of their faces and headed to the upstairs bathroom. Inside, they both rushed into stalls were they pulled their jackets off and left them on the floor. They then tossed their sunglasses into the trash bins on the walls. Once they’d somewhat changed their look up, they rushed out of the bathroom and were making their way back down to the street.

  Out on the street, the two of them ignored the scene a block down at the bank. Even with all of the traffic, the police had managed to swing their squad cars up onto the sidewalk and had swarmed into the bank. Tramar and Jackson looked away as people walking passed gawked, trying to see what was going on. They quickly walked up the block, crossed the street, and then turned into the parking garage.

  “I swear, my baby better be in here,” Tramar said out loud, to himself. “I swear to God she betta be in here.”

  ***

  Ayana had actually been doing all right while waiting in the parking garage. In fact, she was practically calm and tranquil…that is, until she heard sirens ring into the air. What had been a peaceful fifteen minutes or so since she’d pulled into the parking garage had turned into a dramatic, fight or flight moment in her life. The noise of the city had been a constant hum, with the occasional horn beeping in traffic. However, this tranquility had all changed once the sirens rang into the air. Instantly, Ayana wondered how close the sirens were to her specific location.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Ayana said. She looked at the time on her cell phone, remembering that when they’d been in the motel room planning the entire ordeal, that she was only supposed to be parked in the garage for no more than ten minutes. Now, ten minutes had long passed.

  Ayana looked out of her rearview mirrors from her parking spot. At any moment, she hoped that her phone would start vibrating with Tramar telling her to make a move. Sure, the plan had been for them to casually walk into the garage and find where she was parked. However, the plan didn’t call for police sirens ringing in the air while she sat in the parking spot. Ayana then wondered if something had gone wrong during the robbery. She wondered what could go wrong. They’d planned everything so well, practically down to the smallest detail.

  Just as Ayana’s mind was dragging her soul through the possible outcomes of what had gone down at the bank, she felt her phone vibrate. She quickly pulled it out of her pocket and answered.

  “Hello?” Ayana said, frantically wanting to hear Tramar’s voice.

  “Hey, baby,” Tramar said, clearly sounding worked up. He spoke quietly. The sounds of the sirens on the street level blared into the phone as he spoke, making up much of the noise in the background. “Where you at? Where you at? We gotta get the fuck outta here. These police is already here, and they all crowded around the bank and shit. Where you at?”

  “What you mean where am I at?” Ayana asked. “I’m in the parking garage at the corner, up from the bank, like we planned. I been sittin’ here. Did everything go okay? What’s takin’ y’all so long to get up to the garage so we can get outta here?”

  “Baby, it took us a little longer than we thought up in that bank,” Tramar explained. “I’ll tell you the rest. Go on and come out of the garage. We’ll be walking down the street and ready to get in the car when you get downstairs, okay? You ain’t park all the way up at the top or nothin’ like that, did you?”

  “Naw,” Ayana asked. “Just like we said, I parked on whatever floor was closest to the ground floor. I’mma be out there in a minute, okay? I’mma be out there in a minute.”

  Ayana hung up the phone as she slowly backed out of the parking spot. The sirens still rang into the air above downtown Chicago, causing Ayana to wonder just how many police cars had responded to the robbery at the bank. The ride down the two stories of the parking garage to the street level never seemed so long. She hoped and prayed to God that they’d be able to make it out of this situation alive and unhurt. However, the closer she got to the parking garage exit, the less likely she thought that would happen.

  As Ayana pulled up to the booth to pay to exit the garage, she could see the older white man working inside of it had his attention glued on the street. Even though the booth was situated too far inside of the parking garage to even begin to see what was going on a couple of blocks down, he had held a bit of a conversation with a few people he knew that had been walking up the street. He was so preoccupied with whatever he’d just heard that he hadn’t seen Ayana pull up to his window. Resisting the urge to blow through the guard stick, Ayana lightly tapped her horn to get the attendant’s attention.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” the old man, who reminded Ayana a lot of Santa Claus, said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there, Dear.”

  Ayana smiled and handed her parking check-in ticket across to the man. He grabbed it and immediately began to scan it. “You’re fine,” she said, in her sweetest voice. “I’m just ready to get home so I can get out of this traffic.” Ayana knew that she needed to sound as casual as possible.

  “I understand you on that,” the parking garage worker said. “I totally know what you mean. Have you heard what happened down the street at the White Savings & Trust, in the next block or so down?”

  Ayana shook her head, looking out into the traffic crawling down the street. “No, I haven’t,” she answered. “Why? What happened?”

  The man told Ayana what her total would be for parking in the parking garage. She handed the man a twenty and waited for her change.

  “Apparently two guys walked into the bank down the street and robbed it,” the man said.

  Ayana did her best to look surprised. She shook her head. “That’s a shame,” she said. “And that’s why I’m hearing all these sirens and stuff right now.”

  The man handed Ayana her change. “Yep,” he said. “I heard it was two black guys, but you know how that goes. Everybody says it’s a black guy that did it, so I don’t even know what to believe anymore.”

  “Oh no,” Ayana said, grabbing her change. “That’s terrible. I hope they catch the guys.”

  “They probably won’t be able to today,” the man said. He then pointed out towa
rd the street. “Look at all this traffic. How are you going to catch anybody in all of this traffic? Plus, you know how Chicago gets on a Friday night during rush hour. There are always tons of accidents, especially up on the highway. I’m surprised that the police were able to respond so quickly at this time of day. Really makes you think where they may be sitting and waiting for this kind of thing to happen.”

  Ayana was quickly growing uncomfortable. As much as she wanted Tramar and Jackson to walk past the parking garage, she hoped that they’d be a few seconds delayed. The very last thing she needed at the moment was for this old man to see two black guys getting into the car with her moments after the police responded to the bank robbery.

  “Thank you,” Ayana said, quickly, as she grabbed her change from the man. Within a matter of seconds, the wooden arm in front of the car lifted up. As the man was saying bye to Ayana, she pulled off and up to the sidewalk. Instantly, she looked down the street. Needless to say, traffic was certainly backed up. Ayana, squinting her eyes, could see that police cars had swarmed down to the bank. She looked through the crowded Chicago sidewalks, hoping that at any moment she would see Tramar and Jackson coming her way.

  Just as Ayana was trying to figure out what to do, she felt her phone vibrating. It was Tramar calling. She held the phone up to the side of her face and answered. “Hello?”

  “Yeah, you still talkin’ to that old man in the parking garage?” Tramar asked.

  Ayana looked around, looking both ways down the sidewalk. “Naw, I pulled out into the street,” she said. “Where are you and Jackson at? Why y’all ain’t come into the garage or something? I thought you said you would be waiting out on the street and stuff.”

  “We did for a second, but it was clear that the old man wasn’t gonna let you go easy,” Tramar said. “Hurry up and roll down the block a little bit. We standin’ down at the next stoplight.”

  Ayana took the very next break in traffic to cut a green minivan off. She pulled out and inched down the block with everyone else. She was so nervous that she could hardly think. While she was normally cool, calm, and collected in evening rush hour downtown, today was totally different. Even though the traffic was probably its usual mass for a Friday evening, it seemed to be twice as much. Ayana could not help but feel as if she were being looked at by the drivers in neighboring cars.

  Ayana quickly made her way to the end of the block where she pulled over to the corner and into the crosswalk.

  “Come on!” Ayana yelled out of the window, getting the attention of Tramar and Jackson. The two men picked up their bags, which were on the sidewalk, hidden by a parked car. They jumped into the car and told Ayana to turn right so they could get to State Street and head north.

  Tramar jumped into the front seat while Jackson climbed into the back. Happy to see his woman again, he grabbed her by the chin and turned her head to kiss her. “I love you,” he said, with so much emotion. “I swear to God, girl. I love you.”

  Ayana drove the car on Monroe Drive until she came to State Street and turned north. The downtown Chicago skyscrapers seemed so tall at this very moment. The streets seemed twice as dark from the towers blocking out the setting afternoon sun. Everything felt closed in, causing the three of them to feel trapped.

  “Did everything go okay?” Ayana asked, seeing the look on Tramar and Jackson’s faces.

  The two men shrugged and said that everything had gone just fine. “But we ain’t out of dodge yet,” Tramar added. “They got prolly twenty police cars blocking the street down there. This shit is hot. God only know how many more police cars are running around downtown, just waiting to catch some niggas. They prolly pullin’ over every niggas dressed in dress clothes all around downtown.”

  Ayana then noticed that their suit jackets were missing. “What happened to y’all’s clothes?” she asked. “I mean, what happened to y’all’s jackets?”

  “We lost that shit in the bathrooms up in them food courts we went to when we was down here yesterday,” Tramar explained.

  “Yeah,” Jackson interjected. “We dumped that shit in them bathrooms so we wouldn’t look like the niggas that had just robbed the bank.” He leaned up and looked out of the window. “Let’s just hurry up and get the fuck outta here. I can’t believe we just did that shit. They gon’ be lookin’ for us for days, if not weeks.”

  “Y’all did keep the sunglass on while y’all was robbin’ the place, right?” Ayana asked.

  “Hell yeah,” Tramar said. “Baby, what kinda question is that? Of course we did. And we ain’t even raise our voices or say the other one’s name or nothin’. We just went up in that bank and took all the fuckin’ money.”

  “How much do y’all think y’all got?” Ayana asked.

  “Fuck if I know,” Tramar said. He then chuckled. “It ain’t like we stopped in a alley and took the shit out and counted it or nothin’. The shit is still in both of these bags. I ain’t never seen this much money in my fuckin’ life. This shit is unreal.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t know if it’s gon’ be enough money,” Jackson said.

  “What you mean?” Tramar asked, looking into the back seat.

  “Nigga, when I was up at that front desk area by the door, I asked them two mothafuckas how much money the bank would usually have on deck on the given day,” Jackson explained.

  “Yeah?” Said Tramar. “And?”

  “Five hundred,” Jackson said, flatly. “Five hundred thousand is what they said.”

  “What?” Tramar said. He leaned back into his seat and shook his head. “Nigga, we need a million.”

  “Nigga, why the fuck you gettin’ mad at me?” Jackson asked. “You act like I run the fuckin’ bank or somethin’. I can’t control how much they keep on hand and shit. I’m just tellin’ you what they told me. Shit, for all I know, they coulda been lyin’ to a nigga and shit just so I didn’t kill them or something.”

  Ayana looked at Tramar. He looked worried beyond belief. “Man, let’s just get the fuck outta downtown before we get our asses caught or something,” he said. “When we get back to the motel room, we gon’ count this shit and see what we gon’ have to do tomorrow.”

  Ayana hoped that somehow, some way, the money they’d gotten from the bank would be enough for Tramar to get his father and stepmother back from this Byron person. If it was not enough money, then she knew they’d be doing something similar on Saturday, at one or more of the neighborhood branches. It was very clear that Tramar was willing to do whatever it took to get his family back, even if it meant robbing three or four banks in the span of two days.

  Remembering the plan, Ayana zigzagged her way north, out of downtown Chicago. As she drove into the area, which was characterized by tall condo towers and white people standing around on corners walking dogs or sipping funny named coffee, she began to head west. As she did so, she looked back toward the cluster of high rises that made up the Central Business District of downtown. Still, even though the White Savings & Trust Tower wasn’t nearly as tall as the surrounding skyscrapers, she still couldn’t help but notice it more than the other buildings. It literally stuck out like a sore thumb.

  Just as Ayana was crossing a busy street that ran north and south, a police car blazed across her path. It must have been going no less than sixty miles an hour. It’s lights and sirens were hard to miss. At first, the three of them had thought that their time had come. For a brief second, they thought they’d been caught. In fact, the mental image of a police standoff, a lot like what they’d all seen in numerous movies and television shows, popped into their minds. Tramar and Jackson ducked down into their seats until the cop car was long gone. Once Ayana pulled across the intersection, having made her way to the clogged up-interstate and getting on, they all were able to relax.

  “Fuck, that shit is scary as fuck, nigga,” Tramar said.

  Jackson looked up and over the edge of his backseat windows. “Yeah, that shit is,” he said. “I’m ready to just get back to the motel room, m
y nigga, and chill for a second. I already know that I done sweated out the inside of this suit and shit. I prolly ain’t gon’ be able to wear this shit again.”

  “Nigga, is you crazy?” Tramar asked. “We gettin’ rid of this shit as soon as we can so, in case some shit do happen, they won’t be able to have this shit to use against us.”

  “What you mean in case some shit do happen, Tramar?” Ayana asked. “Everything is gon’ be okay, right?”

  “Baby, you know it is,” Tramar said. “We just gotta make sure that we try our best to stick to the plan so that everything will be okay. We done got away from downtown and up onto the highway and shit now. We coo, so just relax, okay.” He squeezed her thigh.

  Ayana tried to relax, even though she knew she wouldn’t be able to until she was far away from Chicago. While she didn’t technically regret helping Tramar, for reasons she’d already come to grips with, the reality was really setting in with her. At first, everything had just been a theory. Nobody had pulled any guns on anybody, and nobody had gotten away with any money. Now the situation was totally different. As Ayana drove down the highway, gripping the steering wheel of Tramar’s Dodge Charger, she realized that she was officially an accomplice. Even if she wanted to turn back and try to get her life back on track, it would be too late at this point. She was in too deep.

  Chapter 5

  Friday had been somewhat of a long day for Byron. Perhaps it seemed longer because he knew that time was ticking. To start his day, he went to see this girl he’d been smashing off and on for the better part of two years. She had a man who, at one time, called wanting to fight Byron. However, as soon as he’d gotten a good look at Byron, his tone changed. In the last several months, the guy had run off with some other chick, leaving the girl and her pussy ripe for Byron’s taking.

  When Byron returned to his grandmother’s house, where he’d spent the night last night to make sure that Juan and Knight didn’t mess anything up with his guests, he kicked his feet up at the dining room table. Juan and Knight looked at him with somber eyes. Juan spoke up first.