“Why you laughing?”
Brooklyn frowned. “I’m just saying ma, what a lil nigga like him doing with a woman like you or could do for you for that matter?” he said with surprise.
Veronica twisted her lips, but remained silent— allowing him to keep talking.
“That lil’ dude ain’t even a boss, he the help. Selling for the next nigga.”
Veronica eyes lowered to a slant and asked. “Oh so what you tryna’ say? You a boss or something?”
Brooklyn stood an inch or two taller. “I’m from New York baby, Brooklyn. You think I come all this way just to front?”
* * *
Up the block Lil Dot right hand man, Caesar, who directed a dope fiend to one of his hoppers as he sat on an abandoned stoop, casted his eyes down the block at their enemies. He adjusted his eyes then stood to his feet. He then walked over to a group of boys, who were in a circle shooting dice, and hollered at his boss, Lil Dot.
“Yo, D. Let me holler at you for a second.”
Lil Dot, grimaced because he was in the thick of the game, and losing badly, shouted to the rest of the gamblers, “Hold your dice, yo.”
He walked over to Caesar in a huff, sweating profusely, and growled. “What nigga?”
“Yo, not for nothing, but ain’t that that bitch Veronica that you said you was fucking with talking to that nigga Brooklyn?”
Lil Dot followed his eyes and stared down the block. Lil Dot face turned numb. Only seconds later it turned scornful, but he held his rage and contempt inside. He watched Veronica laughing energetically with the one person he hated most.
Ego deflated, and to save face, he waved it off and said, “Fuck that tramp. I ain’t tripping over no bitch. She ain’t nothing but a hoe anyway.” Despite him staring down the block like a hawk at them.
“Yo, Dot!” Yelled one of the boys in the circle. “It’s your roll yo.”
Still staring and still vexed, he said, “I’m out yo.”
* * *
“Aiight, I’m gonna call you tonight. See if we can get into a lil sumptin,sumptin.” Brooklyn said with a cunning leer.
“I’m walking back this way after I kick it with him for a minute.” Licking her lips, she asked him, “You going to be here right?”
Brooklyn looked up and saw the glaring eyes of Lil Dot staring daggers at them from up the block. He smiled and didn’t hesitate to take advantage of the young boy’s weakness and said, “Hell yeah, I’m gonna be here. Let me just get a hug so I don’t forget you.” He joked, but was serious. He lurched down and gave her a tight hug with compliments. “Damn baby, you smell like a bacon and egg sandwich. I’m ready to eat that.”
Veronica blushed and smiled approvingly. His mack game was on point and undeniable, she thought.
Watching it all unfold, Rain and Dayvid nodded assurance to each other— both taking their guns off of safety. Dayvid radioed to his sisters, and told them. “Be ready.”
* * *
It was a perfect storm ready to explode as Veronica, strutted up to Lil Dot without a care in the world. Standing ridged, she attempted to greet him with a hug, but he denied her by raising his arm preventing her of such greeting.
Acting oblivious, Veronica questioned him with surprise. “What’s wrong with you?” Already pissed, Lil Dot scowled, “Fuck you mean what’s wrong? You know what you did.”
“What the fuck is you talking about?” she asked.
“Fuck is you playing me by talkin to the punk ass, gump ass nigga on my block?”
Veronica’s face turned sour with surprise, and then sucked her teeth. “Who…You talking about that dude I was just talking to?”
Lil Dot with fleeting control of his anger snapped. “You know who the fuck I’m talking about. Don’t try to play me for a sucker, yo. That’s a violation.”
She didn’t trip and played it off easy, and dismissed it as if it was nothing by waving her hand and saying. “Dot, please. He was just trying to holla at me just like every other nigga be doing. Only reason I stopped was because I was asking did he know you.”
Lil Dot didn’t miss a beat. “You ain’t had to ask nobody where I’m at. You know this is where I bang at all day every day. I told you that.”
She twisted her mouth and said with attitude then flipped on him.
“I walked pass here like twenty minutes ago and I didn’t see nothing but a bunch of loud niggas shooting dice. I wasn’t about to stop and ask them.” she lied quickly. “Where were you?”
She could tell he fell for it and gave her the benefit of the doubt. Veronica decided to take advantage and set it off.
“When he started talking sideways about you, that’s when I stepped off.”
Lil Dot head snapped to attention, his eyes lowered into a slant, then asked with furious, dripping venom. “Fuck that nigger say about me?”
Veronica hesitated and stumbled over her words, infuriating him even further. “It ain’t even that serious. I’m with you now.”
“Fuck that shit! You shouldn’t be worrying about what that nigga think and be worried about me. This is my block, my fuckin hood. This nigga is in my city. Now spit that shit out.” His growl alerted his underlings behind him that it was a problem stirring.
“Okay…okay.” She relented and stammered. “I mean, he was just talking some slick shit but didn’t say nothing much. He just said that you were a lil cornball ass nigga, and that you ain’t a boss for real, and some shit like that. He said you were like the help or whatever. I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying him no mind.”
Lil Dot, looking down the block at Brooklyn all the while, as he mockingly defied him by staring right back at him, stretching his arms out as if he was daring him to do something. Steam was coming out of Lil Dot ears, his leg trembled violently with anger, as his eyes turned blood shot red. It was an unwritten code of the streets that stated ‘no real nigga should ever fight over no girl, no hoe or bitch’. You would be playing yourself, but once he heard her say the rest, all logic went out the door.
Veronica decided to put the dagger in his heart, and say the one thing she knew would push him over the edge and become hell bent on revenge… attack his manhood. “And he also said that you were probably too ‘small’ to handle a woman like me. That’s when I told you I walked because that was so disrespectful.”
That was it, Lil Dot snapped, and yelled to his crew. “Yo, tool up!”
As if he was a General in the Army, nearly a dozen young boys, scrambled everywhere— inside the buildings, in the bushes, in the under carriage of parked cars, all retrieving weapons.
Watching them like a wolf, Brooklyn didn’t skip a beat as he saw it unfold and quickly shouted to his equally strong crew to strap up. It was war.
* * *
Draw strings tightened up on their hoodies to protect their face, Rain’s heart rate quickened. Things were about to go down, just as she’d planned. Standing at the front door, they could hear the men and boys sling insults back and forth. Like a siren warning of disaster, folks in West Baltimore got out of dodge. Most took heed and fled in the opposite direction of the chaos. But then there were those nosey souls, who no matter the threat of danger, slowed to witness.
Up and down, Rain’s chest rose then fell as she drew in quick breaths. Eyes locked with her brother’s, she didn’t have to ask. His dark pupils showed he was ready. His chest moving up and down, much faster than Rain’s, screamed he was amped.
Walkie-talkies in hand, Dayvid gave his little sister the order. “Do it Fallon.”
Upstairs in the living room, Fallon lifted the huge, ugly black weapon out the window, closed her eyes and squeezed the trigger. Chaos broke out at the sound of the pops. As soon as Rain and Dayvid heard the first shot, they ran at top speed towards Brooklyn’s building, while Fallon fired shots in the opposite direction.
“They inside the building,” Fallon screamed to her sister, who sat on the bed with a prepaid cell. “Call now. Call now.”
Autumn dial
ed 911 from the cell. Told to act scared, her trembling voice required little acting.
“9-1-1. what’s your emergency?”
In a ball of jitters, Autumn in a voice thin and frail said, “they shot my mommy. They shot my mommy. They shot my mommy!” Little Autumn shouted in calamity.
“I want you to calm down and talk slow?” The dispatcher said, doing her job. “Sweetie are you saying they shot your mommy?”
“Yes,” Autumn repeated.
“What is your location?” Autumn told them and then begged them. “Please hurry.”
“Help is on the way.” The dispatcher said assuredly.
Seconds later, the walkie-talkie chirped. Dayvid’s voice ordered. “Do it!”
Without hesitation, Fallon stuck the weapon out the window and once again, letting off round after round until she saw her older brother and sister exit the trap house, black plastic bags in both hands, as they made their way across the street back into their building safely— perfect distraction.
Sirens blared off in the distance. Rain and Dayvid made it safe inside the house as tires screeched, turning the corner on two wheels, flooding the street with lights. Bags in hand, both out of breath, chest heaving heavily, they each let out a long exaggerated sigh. Back against the bedroom door, heart thumping faster than she’d ever remembered, Rain dropped her bags, then spirited toward the window. She was amazed watching as the shootout unfolded like something off of television. They’d done it. They’d actually pulled it off.
A quick head check, she ordered everyone to follow her into the back room for their safety and to reveal their loot.
Full of adrenaline, Dayvid followed his sister’s suit, and peeled from the black hoodie, then tossed it to the ground. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he looked towards his sister with a tremendous smile; she gave him a nod to do the honors.
He lifted the first bag and emptied it out on the top of Rain’s bed. Stacks and stacks of money, all of them secured with rubber bands, peppering the bed top. Mouths agape, Fallon and Autumn lit up like Christmas trees. And this was but the beginning. Dayvid lifted the second bag and emptied it across the bed.
All eyes turned toward Rain, the big sis stood raging with pride as money flowed from the bag. The girls giggled as they jumped up and down clapping. Then finally, Rain picked up the last bag, her face rippled because of the weight of that one. She opened it up, as she did with the last, lifted it up, and poured out the content. This time it wasn’t stacks of cash, it was cellophane wrapped kilos of dope, lying awkwardly on the money. Collectively, they all stared downward at it as if it was a snake.
It took the Porters a total of five hours to count up and organize the money. It took them so long because the bills consisted mainly of small denominations. Twenties, tens, fives and ones, with a few stacks of fifties and hundreds, the grand total was $79, 667, not including the four kilos of dope. Clueless to the value of the wrapped packages, they brushed it aside to deal with later. In regards to splitting the money, Rain announced that the four of them will split it equally, and she stressed that they were family and above all, they were Porters and that’s what Porters do… everyone eats equally.
Money arranged and stacked neatly in ten thousand per unit, Rain stood by and held court.
“We are not going to be fools when it comes to money, so we are going to do the smart thing and put half aside and not to be touched only for emergency. Y’all understand?”
The siblings all nodded in unison. Rain removed half the loot off the bed and put it away in a duffle bag.
“We are going to give ten percent of the remaining forty thousand to Aunt Nanny. How much is that Fallon?” Rain tested her sister.
Fallon looked upward and mumbled, doing the calculations in her head. “That’s four thousand dollars.” She answered proudly.
Rain nodded her approval then peeled four thousand dollars from one of the stacks.
“Now that leaves us with about thirty six thousand dollars.” She looked at Autumn, the youngest of the clan. “Autumn, what’s thirty six thousand dollars split four ways?”
Autumn didn’t hesitate. She already had the number in her head. “Nine thousand dollars between the four of us.”
Proud, Rain nodded. One by one she counted off nine thousand dollars and handed it to each sibling. Autumn looked at the large pile of money in her hand and questioned.
“Rain, if the total amount was $79,667 minus the forty thousand you put away, and then gave Auntie Nanny ten percent of the remaining forty, four thousand dollars, and you gave us nine thousand dollars each, right?”
Rain shrugged and said, “Right, but what your point is?”
Autumn looked at the remaining portion of money on the bed and answered. “If I did my math correctly, you would not get an equal share, and have four hundred dollars less than all of us.”
Rain chuckled and said, “Four hundred dollars ain’t no big deal.”
Autumn countered and reminded her. “We Porters… and Porters make everything equal. At least that’s what you always said.”
Rain, more amused than anything, smiled and said, “Okay, and?”
Autumn, small hands and all licked her thumb and counted back one hundred and twenty-five dollars and extended the money out to her big sister and said, “Well, if we are Porters lets be Porters right down to the very last dollar. One hundred twenty five dollars would make us all even.”
Rain gazed her sister’s doe-like eyes and wanted to melt.
Autumn added. “If we in for a penny we in for a pound.”
Rendered speechless when one by one, Rain watched her other siblings peel off the same amount from their take, extending the money out to her to take also.
CHAPTER 7
OVER THE COURSE of the next few days, the chaos that went down in the streets just days earlier had come to a drastic halt. No one was killed that day, but two dozen or so dealers were arrested and the strip had become even hotter. The strong presence of police crippled all drug operations.
On the surface, Dayvid and Rain thought they pulled off the perfect heist. Until one day after school, their Aunt Nanny had a rare guest sitting in their living room when they walked into the apartment. From the moment they saw him, Rain, Dayvid, Fallon and Autumn, immediately went into suspicious mode and fell deafly quiet, eying him like a hawk.
He sat, cross legged on the loveseat, wearing a beige fedora hat, tilted slightly to the side. Dark shades obscured his eyes while a toothpick dangled from his mouth. The hairs on the back of Rain’s neck stood. By the curvature of Dayvid’s brow, she knew her twin felt the same. Seated comfy, cozy in their living room as if he belonged, there was something about the stranger that didn’t sit well with Rain.
Dayvid, a fierce protector when it came to his sisters, growled and demanded. “Who the fuck are you and what you doing here, man?”
A hint of gold peeped through the man’s lips as he smiled and stood up from the couch, extending his hand to greet them. “My name is Smitty and I’m a friend of your Aunt Rachel.”
Not one of the Porter clan moved, leaving his hand dangling in the air. Just then, Aunt Nanny walked in the living room from the kitchen, with a chilled beverage in her hand.
“Oh, I see you all met already.”
She handed the glass to Smitty who stood grinning wide.
“Thank you Rachel. Yes, I just had the pleasure of meeting them.” he answered smoothly.
Sensing the thick tension in the air, and knowing her nephew and niece's standoffish behavior towards outsiders, Aunt Nanny made an attempt to lighten the mood and offered the introduction herself.
“Rain, Dayvid, Fallen and Autumn—Smitty is one of my oldest and dearest friends. Smitty these are my dear nieces and nephew.” She beamed proudly.
This time, Smitty had the right mind to simply greet them with a nod. Dayvid, still stone-faced, suddenly trailed off to the back room.
Studying the man who called himself Smitty, Rain ordered her sist
ers, “Fallon, Autumn, follow your brother to the back and start doing y’all homework.”
Without the thought of protest, the two girls followed behind their brother like two soldiers. After another long and uncomfortable pause, Nanny cleared her throat.
“Rain, Smitty here is what you may call an everything man around the neighborhood. He’s well connected. If ever you need anything, he’s the person you should go see.”
Seconds later, Dayvid reappeared.
“Dayvid, Smitty –”
“I heard you,” he said.
Nanny looked at Rain and Dayvid for a reaction, she received none. They remained unfazed and expressionless.
“We did a lot of work together in the past, and made a lot of money too. He doesn’t deal in the little leagues. He’s someone you can trust.”
Still nothing. Rain and Dayvid remained unmoved, never batting an eye. Rain could sense the man before her sizing them up. She knew he had something up his sleeves. He definitely knew something, she was worried.
“Rachel, do you think I could talk to them alone?” He quickly turned towards Rain and Dayvid and said respectfully, “That’s if you could give me a moment of your time, of course.”
“Oh, that’s right.” Nanny squeaked, “I’m up here being all nosey when you got business to attend to. I’ll go help the kids with their homework. Call me if you need me.” She giggled, and strutted off down the hallway.
Smitty decided to get straight to the reason he came to see them and took off his shades to let them see his eyes.
“I’m not going to waste any of your time and get straight down to business. I know about the heist you two did the other night at that boy Brooklyn’s spot.”
That was all Dayvid needed to hear. He reached behind his back, pulled out his weapon and aimed it at him.
“Nigga, you better have a damn good reason for coming up in here talking that bullshit ‘cause you ain’t walking out here alive if you don’t.”
The toothpick fell from Smitty’s mouth. Eyes stretched in shock, Smitty threw up his hands, caught off guard. Immediately, he realized he may have made a fatal miscalculation by underestimating these youngins. Rain, on cue, walked over to the stereo system and turned up the volume, making his heart pound even harder. He remained as calm as possible and commenced explaining with caution.
The Circle: Rain's Story Page 4
