by L. E. Newell
But he knew his boy Rainbow, and true to form, he didn’t even flinch; instead, he pushed ‘B’ to the side, drew his piece and started blazing lead at the trio. His first shot caught a startled Chopper in the shoulder, actually through the shoulder, as blood and cloth splashed from his back. The force of the impact caused him to ram, with a loud thud, into the nearest car. The second shot hit him in the stomach and he clutched his midsection as he bounced off of the car, grunting to the pavement.
In the same moment Rainbow had opened fire on them, Sparkle drilled a couple of rounds into Stack’s back and legs, lifting him off of the ground. He flopped down into an awkward position like a pretzel.
Joker seemed to get hit from both angles almost simultaneously as he spun one way and then the other like a top. Miraculously, he didn’t go down at first, as he staggered around with a shocked look on his face at being caught in a deadly crossfire.
When he looked down at his wounds and then back up undereyed at Sparkle, his face had suddenly changed to the whimpering little kid that they had pampered as a snotty-nosed runt. Sparkle froze and lowered his piece. The battle appeared to be over before it had even started. He took a step closer to help the little Joker he remembered. Before he realized it, he had tripped and fallen on an unseen object on the pavement. Grimacing as he rubbed his knee after the gritty contact, Sparkle looked up to see Joker’s deadly firearm aiming at his head. He was no longer the little Joker that his mind had momentarily deceived him with. Instead, there were the cold eyes of a killer—his killer. He blinked his eyes and prepared to welcome death. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, from the blinking in Joker’s eyes, to the snarl that had formed on his lips, to his finger slowly pressing on the trigger. There was a loud boom and he closed his eyes and mind to the inevitable. But for some reason he didn’t feel any pain. Was this the way that heaven or hell welcomed him? Then Sparkle blinked a couple of times before his eyes set on the horrifying sight of Joker still standing there, but with a hole in his forehead, before he tumbled to the ground.
When Sparkle got up off of the pavement and crawled over to kneel over the fallen Joker, he saw both of his buddies scampering for the staircase to avoid the still pouring of hot lead that was ricocheting off of metal and concrete. Somehow Chopper had regained his composure and was alternating shots at him and his boys.
As he dove for cover, he saw out of the corner of his eyes, two figures running toward the fray, guns blazing. His first thoughts were that their hunters had back-up. But then he remembered the Asian girl going in the donut shop and thinking that she made him think of Lt. Woo. But now he recognized her as indeed being the evil little bitch.
Sparkle’s heart skipped another beat when he recognized Beverly as the other threat that was rapidly approaching. His thought immediately shot to the conversation they had discussed in the hotel room. But this time it was a lot more than a conversation between lovers. This time it was a reality, she was a cop and he was a bandit caught red-handed in the act. He had to get those thoughts out of his mind with the quickness because both women were coming at them with guns blazing and shouting in no-nonsense explicit terms.
In his mind and heart he knew that he couldn’t fire at Beverly. They went too far back for that. Yet on the other hand, he knew that he wasn’t about to go to nobodies jail, either. So he did the next best thing. He screamed, “Five-o, five-o.” He got to his feet and crouched behind the car nearest to the building. Then he looked over to his boys and tried to whisper, “Yo, man, it’s Beverly and that crazy-ass Woo. We got to get out of here.”
He knew that they had heard him because their eyes budged out, obviously feeling the same dilemma that he had when he recognized her. He heard them curse as they both stared through the gaps in the stairs and saw what he saw.
Quick to respond, Rainbow shouted, “Yo, dog, 1012, 1012!!!!” It was their personal signal to fire warning shots in the air before hightailing it. Immediately all three of them laid a round of fire over the heads of the fast-closing policewomen. When they dodged for cover behind the parked cars, Rainbow and ‘B’ turned with the swiftness and sprinted around the corner of the hotel. Sparkle knew that they would hit the wooded embankment and scale their way to I-20 toward the woods behind the nightclub, on their way to his sister Debra’s house in Candler East Apartments.
After firing another round in their general direction, Sparkle set off running in a low crouch through the other cars. Destination: the other end of the hotel. When he started his escape, he made eye contact with Stack, who was leaning against one of the cars holding his leg and arching his back. There was a mixture of fear and panic written all over his face. He also noticed that Stack’s gun was way out of his reach, so he paused just enough to smile at him. “That’s the way it goes, youngun.” He chanced one more look over the cars for the women’s pursuit. “You chose the wrong side, kid, but don’t worry. I’ll read or hear about that nigga of yours Don from the DeKalb County Jail, see ya.”
The only thing that Stack could do was grimace in his discomfort and stretch his fingers unsuccessfully for his piece. To make matters worse, Sparkle kicked the gun up under the car, winked at him and continued with his crouched exit away from the scene. He knew that he couldn’t reach the gun in time to do him any harm. But in the back of his mind, he was sorta hoping that the fool did get to it and have a shootout with Bevy and Woo and get his stupid ass killed. That way he wouldn’t have to worry about him possibly snitching on them.
“Aw fuck,” he screamed when he got to the next to last car before the corner of the building and more shots came in his direction. Damn, I should have put that fool down, shit, he thought as he dove to the pavement and rolled to the far side of the car. Sparkle looked over the edge of the hood and saw Chopper leaning against a car firing at him. He opened up on him. His aim proved to be good but he could tell by the way that his body jerked, that it wasn’t his bullets that impacted his now lifeless form first.
A bullet was fast but there was no way that it was that fast as his body was lifted backward into the air before it fell to the pavement. It could only mean that one of the policewomen had blazed him first. With that brand-new terror entering his mind, he broke into a full sprint to the corner. He barely made it as the boom came a mere fraction of a second before a sprinkling of concrete from the side of the building dusted the side of his neck. Man, did that ever put some more pep in his stride and he sprinted to the edge of the embankment. He looked to his left and saw Rainbow and ‘B’ struggling to get to the top about a half a football field away.
He jumped over the ditch, slipped on the muddy edge and dove into the bushes. Boy, did those guerilla tactics from military training ever come in handy, as he belly-crawled and maneuvered his way up the steep incline. After nearly a minute, that seemed more like minutes, of getting slapped and snagged all over his body by the twigs, bushes and whatever else was assaulting his face, arms and legs, he finally made it up the slippery embankment to I-20. With sweat, blood and mud seemingly everywhere, he struggled to the railing and had lifted his aching leg to straddle it when his heart took another tumble. His weary eyes didn’t want to believe it, but there they were. Flashing lights of the police, rapidly approaching from both directions on I-20 and Candler Road, had him diving back into the bushes. He laid low until all of the cars had turned toward the direction of the hotel.
Feeling a lot more comfortable, he struggled back out of the bushes and hobbled across the interstate. It didn’t surprise him that he ran into an identical batch of foliage behind the club. He dreaded going through the same type of deep woods again, only this time it was going downhill. But he didn’t have a choice. So he sighed heavily and started the downward trek.
Since he could see the huge club sign high above the tree line, he knew that he had to veer wide to the right to avoid the long parking lot, that was most likely full with eyewitnesses. With the excitement of the chase bumping hard in his chest, he stopped several times on
the way down to gather his bearings and equilibrium. He constantly was tortured by snagging vines, thorns and branches, occasionally getting tripped and one time sliding head-first into some bushes but he finally made it to the East Lake apartments. He was now in familiar territory, but that certainly didn’t mean that he could get wide open. So he kept low as he crept along the rolls of razor wire fence. He reached a gap in the fence that had been previous clipped with what looked like wire cutters.
He quickly scaled to the top. When he reached for the top rail, his hand slipped away and along with it was a piece of rag that, on closer inspection, he saw was a piece of ‘B’‘s shirt. He smiled at the thought of the old geezer getting snagged and struggling to pull away, cursing like a sailor.
He muscled himself over the top and was about to descend down the other side when he saw a line full of clothes between adjacent buildings. A light bulb flashed through his tired brain and he crept over and grabbed a windbreaker and a pair of jeans close to his size. He scampered to the other end of the building and pulled the jeans on top of the ones he was wearing and slipped into the jacket.
Sparkle walked along, removing pieces of briars and twigs out of his hair that had joined him along the way through the woods. He slowed down to check himself out in the reflection of one of the cars parked under a street lamp. Satisfied with his altered appearance and knowing that he was out of the vicinity of the hotel, his stride took on a more calm gait. It wasn’t long before he was able to see the winding road that led to his sister Debra’s apartment.
As his adrenaline rush from all of the excitement finally started to slow down, he considered dropping by Dee’s crib for a half-hour or so for some of her good sex and relaxation. As he got closer to the apartment complex, the more he thought about it and the better he started to feel. Even the hazy night started to look more serene. Hell yeah, that’s exactly what he was going to do. He picked up his pace thinking of her nice, warm, freaky body waiting there for his enjoyment.
When Sparkle got to the spot that he had chosen to cut over toward her crib, a DeKalb County police cruiser turned down the drive. His adrenaline shot right back up in a rush of panic that tingled along his body. His first instinct was to make a break for it, but he was too tired and too far away from the apartment. So he sucked up his last bit of courage and maintained his casual pace.
He was nervous for a bitch with sweat starting to roll down his chest as the bright beam of the cops’ spotlight hit him square in the face. He threw up his arm as a shield from the glare and said in a calm voice, “How you doing, officers?”
When no reply came from the car, he knew that their gazes were locked in on him as they waited to see if he would show any signs of panic. When he didn’t, he could hear one of them sigh heavily before he said, “You see anybody running through here in the last minute or so?”
From his many past encounters with the blue crew, he knew that it was best to appear a little surprised and dumb. So he put on the proper expression and said straightforward, “No, sir, I didn’t see anybody.” He looked back down the street and played the naive citizen. It must have worked because they took the spotlight off of him and proceeded down the street. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief and then caught a glimpse of two figures leaning around the corner of the building next to Debra’s apartment.
He slowly turned his head to check on the silhouettes in the cop car. Neither appeared to be facing in his direction, so he headed for her crib. As he stepped onto the walkway, he heard Rainbow’s voice squeak out of the shadows. “What them cops say, man?”
Sparkle didn’t even pause, as he placed a foot on the steps. “They looking for our asses, but I must’ve thrown them off pretty damn good because I ain’t in the back of that rolling cage.”
‘B’ stepped from around the corner and joined him at the steps, mumbling painfully. “Godayum Joker, ain’t that a bitch? Who-dafuck woulda thought dat nigga would cross me, hell, us?”
Sparkle tried to blink the weariness out of his eyes and looked over his shoulder at ‘B.’ “Evidently youngun got sucked in by Don some kinda way.” He leaned against the wall as he pressed the doorbell.
Rainbow involuntarily jumped at the sound of the seemingly loud chime. He was still breathing hard from exertion as he said between gasps, “Man, fuck that nigga, Joker. Those fools couldn’t have known that Don was dead or they wouldn’t have done what they did. But anyway you look at it, we looked out for his little ass long before he even knew about some damn Don. And he ended up choosing that nigga against us, so like I said, fuck Joker. May his tricking ass rest in fucking peace.”
Sparkle was about to respond when the door cracked open enough for Debra to stick her roller-filled head out to blast them. “Whaddafuck y’all niggas want? We all are in the bed around…”
Debra’s mouth stuck in a wide “O” when she heard ‘B’ mutter, “Sshiiiiit,” as he and Rainbow dove immediately to the pavement as the spotlight of the police cruiser hit the wall. She gasped in astonishment as they tried to press their bodies into the cement.
Debra threw her hands up to block the glare of the bright light out of her eyes. Sparkle gently pushed her back inside and closed the door. He leaned his back against the door and crossed his fingers across his heart like he was warding off a vampire before he mugged up. “Aw, girl, go do something about that crust in ya eyes. Uggggh, and please don’t forget that slimy stuff running down to your chin while you at it.”
She backed up a couple of steps, rubbing the back of her wrist along the side of her mouth, cinching the sash of her robe as she gritted hard at her brother. “Nigga, please, ain’t nobody ask y’all crooks to ring my doorbell.” She turned away and headed for the bathroom. She had only taken a few steps when she stopped, flexed her shoulders and cocked her head to the side. She looked back as ‘B’ and Rainbow came belly-crawling across the door sill. Her eyebrows seemed to spit fire as she sneered. “Is that sirens? Oh hell yeah, those sirens, whaddafuck? Ooooh my God, y’all stupid fools done got in some shit, and bring y’all dirty asses right to my doorstep, I swear.” She looked them up and down with pure disdain. “Mmm-hmm, briars and shit sticking all over y’all getting into some dumb-ass shit.”
They looked down at themselves and started picking stuff off.
“Ooooooh, and y’all gonna just drop it all over my rug and shit.” She didn’t give them a chance to reply as she looked at them undereyed and pointed to the patio.
Again, as a group, they put their hands to their ears and then spread their arms out wide, with their faces balled up. She tilted her head back, rubbed her eyelids as her jaw swelled up like a balloon before she blew out a long stream of frustration and moaned, “Okay, okay, in the bathroom then with y’all no-good asses, shiiiiit.”
As they lowered their heads walking past her, Debra sighed heavily, shook her head and walked to the back room at the end of the hall and mumbled, “And clean up behind yourselves, too.” She slammed her bedroom door with authority.
Trailing his boys, Rainbow looked at Sparkle with a confused look on his face. “How did you... Where you get those clothes from? Ah, fuck it.” He grimaced and pushed ‘B’ out of the way. Debra came out of the back moments later and gave them a look that could’ve frozen hell over. “Now what the fuck is up, man?”
Rainbow stepped out of the bathroom first, wiping his dampened head with a towel. “Aw, come on, Booboo, we done been through enough as it is.”
She whirled on him like a scene from The Exorcist, eyes blazing as she harrumphed loudly and gave them a reply of indistinguishable nasty words before she wrapped her arms around herself and stormed back into the bathroom.
“Whew!!” Sparkle said to them before he shouted down the hall, “We need a ride downtown!”
She shouted back through the closed door. “Fuck y’all!”
All he could do was smile at her sassy attitude. But he knew her, and regardless of whatever, his baby sis would be cursing them out while she was put
ting her clothes on, if for no other reason but to get them out of her hair. And it would last all the way downtown.
While they waited for her to get ready, ‘B’ and Sparkle grabbed the miniature backgammon set off of the vanity chest and got involved in a heated match. Rainbow, with his superhyped-up ass, spent the time pacing the floor, looking back and forth between the bedroom and peeking through the patio curtains, checking out for the police car that was still cruising along the main thoroughfare of the complex.
All of a sudden, ‘B’ jumped up and walked over to the couch. He stood there for a moment staring at the wall before he punched the top of the couch and snarled, “Damn, I just thought about it. Man, I left two ounces under the fucking seat in my roller.”
Sparkle made a pyramid with his arms and rested his chin on the back of his hands. “Baby boy, I was watching when those two policewomen came running up on the...”
‘B’ didn’t give him the chance to finish. “Is that supposed to make me feel better, because they were women?” He stopped to take a deep breath. “Shit, a cop is a fucking cop regardless, man.”
Sparkle shifted around in his seat to face him. “Dude, chill ya ass down for a second, will ya? Damn, one of the women was Beverly, fool.”
“Yeah, uh-huh, and I heard ya when I was under the stairs,” he retorted harshly.
Before Sparkle could reply, Debra came storming out of the bedroom struggling to put her arm in the sleeve of her jacket. Her cheeks were puffed out to the max. Whenever she got like that, Sparkle knew better than to say anything to her. But ‘B’ was too caught up in his own thoughts to notice her attitude.
Big mistake, Sparkle smiled as Debra in her still boiling rage, stopped right in front of him, with her hands placed firmly on her hips. When he didn’t even look down at her, she really went off on him. Kicking him on his foot, she spat, “Black-ass nigga, you got a nerve to be showing up here waking me up with an attitude. After all, y’all fools done come all up in my crib, this time of night, and with the five-o on y’all tail.”
