The Circle: Rain's Story

by Blue, Treasure E.

  Erin eyes widened and her head snapped to attention. She couldn’t believe her ears and repeated. “Twenty thousand dollars….you serious?”

  “I think you witnessed how serious I am and you still want to question me?” Rain asked calmly.

  “Bet!” Erin said with glee.

  Autumn sucked her teeth and threatened. “That’s if I don’t murk your ass first, so keep running your fat mouth.”

  “Autumn, chill out. She’s been through enough.” Rain assured.

  “Nah, don’t worry, sis.” She grinned, talking to Rain. “I’ve been treated a hell of a lot worse, then what this chick could dish out.”

  * * *

  When Rain finally settled on the right motel to stay the night, she parked as far away in the motel’s parking lot from foot traffic.

  “Aiight y’all. We’re here. Y’all lay tight and let me check into a room. I’m gonna come back out with some bed sheets and blankets to cover those orange prison jumpers y’all have on.” Both girls nodded.

  When Rain emerged from the car and walked towards the office, Autumn could not resist taunting her big sister and whistled. “Work it bitch.”

  Rain tossed up her middle finger. Autumn grinned with all her teeth, as Rain strutted toward the office. Fifteen minutes later they were all cooped up in the motel room. Back and forth, Rain paced. Every few minutes, she peaked from the curtains to make sure they had not been followed.

  * * *

  For the better part of the evening, Autumn and Erin threw snipes and shots at each other. Rain busied herself by sitting behind the window, peering out at the parking lot for anything suspicious and plotting her next move in her mind. For safety reasons, Rain opted to stay settled in the motel room instead of going in and out minimizing anyone seeing her, and simply bought purchased snacks and drinks for both girls to munch on.

  Rain was resistant to consulting with her sister Autumn in depth about Dayvid and Fallon and their next plan of action in front of an outsider so she kept everything to a minimum.

  After a while, Rain became amused at Autumn and the girl Erin insults at each other and started to become silently tickled by it. Happy to hear her sister’s laugh and smile again. Seeing her sister in that jumpsuit was a reminder that Dayvid and Fallon, were still locked away suffering, and just like that, she felt guilty for laughing. She killed her smile and became serious all over again.

  In the wee hours of the night as Autumn and Erin, more than exhausted by today’s event, slept peacefully; Rain sat in front of the window, staring out, and deep in thought. Out of nowhere, her mind shifted back to Smitty and their now ominous and dark past.

  CHAPTER 14

  WINTER 2001

  Over the course of two short years, Smitty proved to back his words up with actions, gaining a trust like no other the Porter Family had seen outside their own blood, even their Aunt Nanny.

  On the outskirts of suburban Baltimore County, on a nice, tree-lined street, the home for the four Porters was a nice single family home. A bedroom split level. Rain, Fallon and Autumn had their own bedrooms upstairs while Dayvid dwelled in the basement. Since none of them were of legal age to own property in the state of Maryland, they put the house purchased with two hundred cash, in their Nanny’s name. Stipulations in the contract of the home purchased outright stated when Rain and Dayvid become of age; ownership would be transferred to them.

  A professional from the streets, Smitty educated them down to the very smallest detail, so they would always be safe and sound, and never the fool. Impressed with their minds and their hunger, Smitty thought they were ready for the big leagues. He trusted them enough to introduce the two twins to his real line of duty – robbing banks.

  Like moths to a flame, Rain and David were instantly attracted to it and craved the stories and the details. Smitty taught them everything from A to Z about the highly profitable, dangerous trade, down to the smallest detail. And then, at the tender age of fifteen, he set up their first heist. Six hundred and twenty five thousand dollars later, they never looked back.

  * * *

  Rain was a B student all throughout her formal education and schooling. The only thing that prevented her from getting straight A’s, was her lack of participation in class. But every one of her teachers were amazed by her uncanny ability to ace every single test she was given, and maxing both SAT and ACT test. Rain was courted by the nation’s top colleges to attend their school on full scholarships. School officials were baffled and floored when Rain showed them little interest, didn’t even bother to answer any of them. Rain simply knew that wasn’t the life she wanted to live. She was drawn to be a criminal. She simply loved the thrill of it.

  While her mother taught her the love of books— particularly philosophy, Smitty helped her refine it, by pushing her to learn and play the game of life, the power of the mind and to always know the rules if you want to continue winning. The first book he ever advised her to read and to learn backwards if necessary was: The Art of War. An ancient Chinese military treatise attributed to Sun Tzu, a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician. Composed of 13 chapters, each devoted to one aspect of physical and mental warfare.

  She spent hours, mulling over them, front to back, then front to back again. Rain studied the book countless times to the point she’d memorized most of the book. Smitty regularly tested Rain’s sharpness by asking her random questions for her to think about and mull over. It got to the point over the years that it became a game, both testing each other’s wit.

  “Rain, ‘heavy is the head that wears the crown.’ Do you know what that term means?”

  Rain paused for a long while and watched Smitty twirl around his ever present toothpick in his mouth, then recited. “Tired, sick, guilty, and beset by rebellion; Why, even the "vile" of his realm, after hours of drudgery, can in their "loathsome beds" get a good night's sleep while he—a king! —cannot.” Rain cracked a slight smirk and said, “That’s Shakespeare. King Henry IV is feeling the weight of his crown as the King.” Rain became his greatest and brightest student he told her on many occasions.

  CHAPTER 15

  Morning broke with the exception of an occasional nod, Rain stayed up the whole night thinking about her past and even daunting future, when suddenly the same nagging feelings hit her again—Smitty, but she just could not put her finger on it. She shook it off, rebuking such thought and cleared her mind.

  What’s next? Rain thought. All she knew at that point was that she had to stay ten steps ahead of the game and moving, so she decided to get up and take a shower and close some loose ends and get a jump on the rest of the day.

  * * *

  By the time she got back to the motel room, shortly after eleven that morning, she could hear from the outside of the room Autumn and Erin loudly arguing up a storm. Through gritted teeth, Rain pushed opened the motel room door with urgent fury and spat sternly.

  “Yo, what the fuck is wrong y’all? I could hear y’all bitching all the way in the parking lot. Do you not know we on the fucking run?”

  Vexed, Rain watched both of them drop their heads to the ground. Rain stomped forward and dropped the bags she brought into the room on the table and said while shaking her head in disgust. “Stick y’all arms out.”

  She reached in her pocket and pulled out a small key on a round ring and to their relief she removed the handcuffs from their wrist. Both girls were smiling from ear to ear as they massaged their wrist.

  Autumn parted her lips to ask the obvious, but Rain beat her to the draw. “Don’t ask.”

  Erin humbled herself and started to apologize. “Rain, I’m sorry about that, I should have known better. The last thing I want to do is fuck up y’all shit. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

  Autumn felt worse and repeated the same sentiments. “You right, sis. It’s just… this whole situation got me on edge. But I’m straight now and on point.”

  Rain disengaged the whole thing by simply nodding. Once Autumn an
d Erin breathed easier, the aroma of food wafted across their nose. Erin looked at her illustrious host with joy and asked with a dopey chuckle.

  “Is that chicken I smell?” Already forgetting about the food she brought in, Rain waved her hand in the direction of the food, welcoming her to it. Erin didn’t hesitate and rushed over to the table, pulling box after box of chicken and sides from the bag and Autumn directly behind her.

  After devouring their meal and satisfied, both girls were now in a much lighter mood and for the first time since meeting, under awkward and tragic circumstances, they actually started talking friendly and civil towards each other.

  “So, what’s your story, girl? How you get caught up with the feds?”

  Erin shrugged, then lurched forward and took a long sip from her cup of soda, then burped. She placed her hand over her mouth and apologized.

  “Oops, sorry about that.” She calmly circled her tongue inside her mouth for loose food and said in a nonchalant manner. “They got me on some check and credit fraud. That’s my hustle.” She revealed. “That’s been my hustle for years and this was my first time ever getting caught up.” She took another sip of her Sprite before continuing. “I’m from St. Louis, but been tore the Lou down and everything in between there, so we started hitting up other states. That’s when shit started falling apart.”

  Her face turned sour and then grew silent. Autumn’s curiosity got the best of her and asked nosily, “What happened?”

  Recalling the moment, Erin answered, “Jealousy and envious motherfuckers.”

  Rain, not part of the conversation, sat by the window silently listening to her story and downfall.

  “The same person who turned me on to this shit was the same bastard that wind up setting me up for my downfall because I started going out of town doing my own thing.” She shook her head as her face scrounged to understand. “For like three straight years, I gave this nigga a cut of every lick I came off with when I didn’t even have to half the time. But I’m just loyal like that.” she shook her head again. “We had no other choice but to hit out of town because those niggas started recognizing our faces as soon as we stepped one foot in any store. Security was right on us. We were that hot.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Now, we hit up out of town and its fucking sweet like shit and we come off like the fucking mob, I’m dead ass.” Her face came alive. “We come back in town wearing shit none of them bitches knew anything about. Renting Bentley’s and shit.” she chuckled. “We were like celebrities.” Her brow lowered. “The old faggot ass, bitch ass nigga come sniffing around for his cut. I’m like, is this nigga serious? Her face displayed a preposterous look. “Now, we out of town for days and weeks at a time, risking our lives and going to jail and this motherfucker didn’t lift a finger and he expected a cut?” She looked in Autumn eyes as if she was awaiting an answer. She sighed, “Long story short, when I told him no, we stopped fucking with each other and we moved on and did our own thing. Next thing I know, first time out of town after that incident, we in Maryland, at a jewelry store, and the feds got us in handcuffs.” As if nothing mattered any longer, she stated matter of flatly. “I guess they were right when they say never outshine the teacher.”

  Rain suddenly sat up erected and said. “What did you say?”

  Fear stricken, Erin head swerved in Rain’s direction and repeated, “I just meant that you should never outshine the person who taught you the business cause if you do, they will want to see you fall.”

  At that moment, Rain felt like she was hit with a ton of bricks and her mind began to flood as she recalled from her lessons:

  Law 1: Never outshine the master

  Law 2: Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies

  In horror, memories of that law started flooding her mind. Who knew about the robberies? Who knew about her relationship with Laura? Who knew they were going to leave the country and flee to Mexico? Who knew about their safe house? It was Smitty!

  Rain rose to her feet and with dire urgency in her voice, ordered harshly. “Autumn, you are going out to St. Louis with Erin right now!”

  Rain realized at the moment she made a fatal mistake and because of that gross miscalculation, she put her family in harm’s way and cost her beloved Laura her life. Rage and anger rose to its apex in her head. All she thought at that moment was Law 15: Crush your Enemy Totally.

  CHAPTER 16

  Rain spoke to her baby sister at length… alone, and filled her in on everything. She took none of it well and was tearing up at the thought of not knowing what would happen in her future, her family, that always took care of her and there for her. She was the baby. She began to cry even harder. “But, Rain, I don’t…”

  “Autumn…” Rain snapped. “We are hot and from this point on you have to learn to take care of yourself, make your decisions on your own and live with them. The life that you’ve know is over and will never be the same again. You have to get that through your head.” Rain told her baby sister, holding nothing back. She could see the fear and pain in her eyes, and wanted nothing more but to tell her everything was going to be okay, but she couldn’t. She needed her to be stronger than she ever thought she could be, and gave her the reality and played the Devil’s Advocate.

  “The truth of the matter is you may never see me, Fallon, or Dayvid ever again!” It killed Rain to see her sister’s facial expression at that moment.

  “You have to accept this fact and get it into your head now, so you don’t fall to pieces when and if it does happen, because we going to need you on the outside. Just remember that you are a Porter, and Porters have to take care of each other like we’ve done our whole lives, and right now we need you Autumn. We need you to be the strongest one now and we need you to live for us. Do you understand that?” It took all the strength she could muster, as Rain watched her inhale a deep breath, wipe her eyes, and then shake her head. Rain gave her an assured smile and said, “Good, good.” She looked up at the clock inside the bus station and realized that she only had twenty minutes left until her sister’s bus arrived and had to continue explaining critical information.

  “Now listen, I don’t care what happens and under any circumstance you do not go back to Baltimore. Not now or ever…even for me!” Rain emphasized, staring deeply into her eyes ensuring she got the message loud and clear. She watched Autumn nod her head. “I’m almost sure that Smitty had something to do with y’all getting arrested, so we are totally on our own.” She confidently assured her baby sister. “You don’t have to worry about that cause me and a few people going to pay ole Smitty a visit and take him on a little vacation to DC.” She knew Autumn didn’t know too many details about the killing side that her and Dayvid did, but she knew that when they traveled to DC, it was strictly for macabre purposes only. She continued giving her detailed instructions and to follow them to the letter.

  “Autumn as soon as you get the ID, go straight to Miami, catch a cruise ship that vacations and makes stops in Mexico, then get off. When you get to our meet up spot, relax. Go to the beach and act like a tourist, but keep to yourself and don’t talk to anybody. When your money starts getting low, call our lawyer Mr. Morganstein, and he will take care of you with money, with no questions asked, but only ten thousand dollars or less at a time though, so you don’t have to worry about banking, wire, and money transfer regulations.” She rubbed her sister’s cheek affectionately and joked. “You always were the prettiest and luckiest one in the family.” Autumn was still in gloom, but gave her a light smile anyway.

  The announcement came over the P.A speaker that the bus for St. Louis had just arrived and passengers could get in line. As they got up, she promised her that if things went according to plan, they will all meet up and reunite in Mexico as planned.

  Rain gave her sister twenty-five thousand dollars in cash, and as promised, she gave Erin her split of twenty thousand, which she was so appreciative of because that would be used as her bail money. Rain was forced to trust her bec
ause her sister needed protection and her help, but assured her that if she ever crossed her, she would have a contract placed on her and her entire family head. Erin had no reason to doubt her after what she witnessed less than twenty four hours ago. The only thing she asked her to do for her sister was as soon as she got to St. Louis asks her fraud connection to get her sister some fake identification so she could travel. For her help, she gave her an additional five thousand dollars.

  Rain took Autumn by the arm and gave her a tight hug, wanting badly to shed a tear. She whispered in her ear and reiterated. “Keep your eyes and ears open. Pay attention to everything. Live it up while you out there and God willing, we will all meet up in Mexico at our spot just like we planned, okay?” She hugged her even harder.

  “Okay,” Autumn nodded, trying her best to hold back the tears that were brimming in her eyes.

  Rain parted the hair from her sister eyes, and lifted her chin up gently and assured her, “You’re gonna be fine. Now get on the bus.” She watched her sister walk towards the bus and shouted to lift her spirit.

  “Show them slow muthafucka’s in St. Louis how us Porters get down,” she joked.

  Autumn was too sad to respond. Rain studied her face and knew she was worried about her, Dayvid and Fallon’s well-being, and instead, watched her give her a faint smile and board the bus. She watched her through the window as she walked towards the back of the bus, finding a seat next to Erin.

  As Rain watched the bus drive off, the level of her frustration and tension increased ten folds. Another war had started and it was a dead man walking, and he didn’t even know it, and just like nature, ‘you can’t stop nothing that can’t be stopped.’

  CHAPTER 17

  Rain was back in Virginia by midafternoon. She drove a rented non-descriptive Ford, and left the car she was driving in a long term parking lot and paid up on it for one month ensuring her tracks would be well covered. She hurried to Mr. Morganstein’s office, carrying the uncomfortable Gucci bag, unsteadily walking in her heels that she had yet to grow accustom to.