The Circle: Rain's Story

by Blue, Treasure E.

  The sound of wood splintering and glass shattering filled the air as Dayvid kicked in the condo apartment door.

  “What the fuck…” Linx huffed, jumping up off of Fallon so he could reach for his gun. He never got the chance to grab for it, as he felt the powerful and brutal blows that rained down on his head and face.

  “Yeah nigga…don’t say what the fuck now. This is what the fuck! Get the fuck away from my sister. You’re a fucking dead man!” Dayvid barked, as he rested the .45 on the side of Linx’s head, ready to squeeze the trigger.

  “Dayvid! No! Wait! Please!” Fallon screeched, frantically grabbing for the bed sheets to cover herself. “Don’t hurt him! I love him!” She begged her brother hysterically. Dayvid didn’t move a muscle, and wasn’t giving away any more passes. Fallon turned her pleading eyes towards her sister Rain and panicked. “Rain, Rain, please tell Dayvid to not shoot him. Please Rain. I love him.” Dayvid snapped his cold sullen eyes towards his little sister and barked loudly. “Love him. This nigga don’t love nobody because he is a piece of shit that like fucking little girls.” Dayvid assured her. “This nigga gonna die today.”

  “If you do I will never talk to you again Dayvid! You or Rain.” Fallon spat, eyes reddened with tears. As if Dayvid was hearing things, his face soured as he took the gun away from Linx head, backing away as he leered at his little sister in great disgust. “You mean you taking this nigga side over your own blood Fallon? Porter blood?” he said reminding her. Dayvid looked over at Rain, who appeared equally stunned by her sister’s disloyalty. They were hurt beyond measure. Rain asked with clarity.

  “Do you realize what you are saying Fallon?” Caught in the heat of the moment, Fallon defiantly assured both older siblings. “You heard me.” Rain stared grimly in her little sister’s eyes and nodded her dissatisfaction and disappointment in her. Fallon could not hold her gaze and lowered her head. Rain looked at her brother and chucked her head, signaling to him to let it go. They turned on their heels, no more words were exchanged or needed to be said, and walked out the door.

  Both Rain and Dayvid were extremely hurt and disappointed, but each knew that they would have to love their little sister from a distant and allow her to find her way on her own. Over the years, it put a strain in their relationship, but they were still responsible for her because above all, she was still a Porter.

  It took nearly two years into Fallon’s relationship with Linx, when she saw it for herself, and her spell being broken when he got arrested and went to his hearing and found out that not only several of his other girlfriends had shown up, but so did his wife and children that she knew nothing about.

  The day Fallon came back home, she was so disheartened and overwhelmed with guilt, she could hardly face her brother and sisters. They spared her the shame, and welcomed her back home with opened arms.

  Because of the broken heart she sustained at the hands of Linx, it changed her. She became more bitter, cold, heartless and reckless, and would not hesitate to bust her guns at the blink of an eye now.

  Over the next several years, Fallon seemingly hadn’t learned her lesson. She still put herself in precarious positions by falling for no good thugs with big dicks and wicked tongues. She simply could not help herself.

  * * *

  Just stepping out the shower, Rain was towel drying her body and hair, when she heard her hotel room telephone ring. Naked and body still steaming, she raced towards the bed side phone and answered it. “Hello”

  “Yeah, it’s me.”

  “Yep, yep.” Rain responded, geared on speaking as vague as possible as she listen intently.

  “2 PM, tomorrow in your mall parking lot. We will be in a blue van. Bring 15 cents with you.”

  “Got it.” Rain heard the click and then the dial tone. She placed the phone back down on the receiver. It suddenly became surreal to her. It was really about to go down, she thought. She will definitely make front page.

  CHAPTER 25

  For a few fleeting seconds as Rain sat on her hotel room’s outdoor balcony, as she watch the vibrant and brilliancy of the sun rising above the city, you’d think she was in heaven as she basked in the ambience of its beauty. It was if she saw the sun for the first time in her life, as she mulled its essence over and over again. The sun was always there, she thought, and then that old cliché entered her mind… Stop and smell the roses.

  She wished she was familiar with its meaning, and took actions sooner; wishing her brother and sister could share the moment with her. But as in life, it was an acquired thing to take time to appreciate a situation or slow down and pay attention to what is going on around you. Stop and smell the roses, she said out loud. Take a few minutes for yourself each day, which is exactly what she was doing. Rain took a deep breath and then reminded herself, “but only for a minute.” She had much on her to do list today.

  * * *

  She left out early that morning, to get a jump start at the local bank in McLean that she had her lawyer set up temporarily for her, two weeks earlier, just for this purpose. She had thirty grand, he took all of it out, and closed the account for good. Rain checked the time, only 9:30, and realized that she still had a long way to go until she met up with Miss Jackie for the drop off, and decided to have a light breakfast then take a walk in the park to kill some time. She hadn’t been outside in day, cooped up in her hotel suite; she welcomed the freedom of just taking a long walk.

  * * *

  The businessman sitting at the table beside Rain, in the small French café, finished his plain black cup of Java, checked his watch and immediately headed out the shop door. Rain envied him at that moment because men like him vast concern was for time and deadlines. He didn’t have to deal in death, damage and destruction to make a living. His parents guaranteed him of that…. A safe world.

  Bored, Rain noticed the man had left his newspaper, and reached over to secure the thick morning paper to pass some time, maybe even do the crossword puzzle, something she always loved doing. Then, right one the front page; she saw it in bold headlines.

  ONE OF 3 FUGITIVE SIBLINGS SHOOTS NEBRASKA STATE OFFICER, KILLS 2 OTHERS IN COLORADO AND NEVADA

  “Police in Nebraska say eight hours after a near deadly shooting of a Nebraska state trooper they have a lead. A police spokesperson reported that a lone fingerprint recovered from a soda purchased by the perpetrator just minutes before the shooting has come back to this woman, who police have identified as Fallon Alicia Porter, an escaped inmate of the Baltimore Detention Center in downtown Baltimore. Police say they believe the trooper may have identified Porter as an escapee and confronted her, causing her to fire the nearly fatal shots. There is a one hundred thousand dollar reward for anyone who can offer information about the woman’s whereabouts. Police say she is driving a black Ford Focus, which may be a rental car from a Baltimore enterprise rental car company. Nebraska police warn that the woman is armed and considered dangerous. It is believed that federal agents from the FBI and US Marshall’s service will be joining the manhunt for Porter.”

  Rain’s jaw was grinding furiously while reading the article and cursed. “Fucking imbecile!” She checked over her shoulder to see if anyone heard her outburst, and then continued to search the newspaper for more information.

  Enraged, she tossed the paper on the table as her body began to shiver frantically with anger as her mind swirled in a million directions.

  “After all the shit we taught her, she still got to be so damn hardheaded!” Rain questioned. She was so shaken and vexed, that she could no longer take sitting down and stomped out the café. It was nothing more she could do for her and was ashamed to admit it.

  CHAPTER 26

  It was a quarter to two that afternoon when Rain checked out of her hotel room. Her entire demeanor was bitter, as she loathed inside deeply about her sister Fallon stupidity. There she was, caught up in a damning 55 count federal bank robbery indictment, to completely get away by break out of prison, and was scott free, and risk
ing everything because she had no discipline. “Fuck!” Rain cursed. She paid for her near week stay and headed fully packed out the hotel exit, failing to check her surroundings, especially the man sitting clandestine, reading a newspaper. Wearing an ear piece, his eyes following her every move like an eagle, spoke into the hidden microphone in the cuff. “Subject left the establishment.” He stood up, signaled to another man, behind the check-out desk, and radioed into a walkie-talkie, and then men in tactically dressed uniforms appeared running in every direction. Hotel security rushed, and locked down every entrance and exit, redirecting all now disoriented hotel guest, back to their rooms for their safety.

  * * *

  Outside the hotel, Rain’s eyes surveyed the parking, and noticed how sparse and empty the usually bustling mall was. She looked upward; the sky was darkened with fine sprinkles of rain sweeping the city. She then noticed dark clouds forming, and dismissed it by reasoning people didn’t want to get caught in the rain. She walked towards the center of the huge mall, and in a distance, she spotted a blue van head lights flick on and immediately off. It was Miss Jackie.

  As she walked towards the meet spot, her head shifted from left to right in caution. The closer she got to the tinted van, the more uncomfortable she became, as her sixth sense started to kick in. As she got within ten feet of the van, she saw movement from the corner of her eye, several cars and at least a van, turned in both directions in the same mall lane to the left and right of her. She became wary and her steps became shorter, and then cursed at herself for not having her gun in reach, but inside of her Coach bag. She blew a momentary sigh of relief when all the cars passed her by, then she saw Miss Jackie, and stepped from out of the blue van’s passenger seat, waving her arm motioning to her that it was okay. “Get in.” said Miss Jackie, sliding the side door of the van as her eyes darted around, ensuring all was clear. Rain looked at the driver, he was of Middle Eastern descent, and then she looked around the inside of the van. It was totally bare inside of the old beat-to-hell vehicle, other than 2 large black gym bags that lay directly behind the driver’s seat, a couple of white plastic bucket pails, that doubled as seats, and scattered fast food cups, empty bags and debris. She turned, and looked into old Miss Jackie’s face, then jumped inside. Miss Jackie jumped in right behind her; Rain gave her hand as assistance as she strained to get inside. On her knees, Miss Jackie used what strength she had left to slide the door closed. Miss Jackie huffed relief, and took a seat on the other bucket and made the introduction. “Lisa this is Abdel. Abdel, this is my niece Lisa.” She lied. The man in the driver’s seat whipped his head around and leered at Rain with his dark, no nonsense, grimly eyes, without as much as a gesture of friendly. Rain matched the gaze of the eerie, psycho, rabid looking man, with every same cautious and contempt. A long pause followed until Abdel demanded flatly, in a thick, Middle Eastern dialect. “Do you have the money?”

  “Yeah, but I would like to see the stuff first.” Rain sneered, holding the same staunch position of distrust. Rain watched him closely, as the man rose from his seat and made his way towards the back with them. He hunched down on one knee and snatched the black gym bag and unzipped it snatching it open for her to see. Rain stared inside at an assortment of ugly looking reddish-brown, tan, and grey wrapped cylindrical sticks with tons of coiled-like wires that were stuffed to capacity. He opened the next one. Rain couldn’t hide her awe. It definitely looked to her like a weapon of mass destruction-type, but clearly didn’t know what it was.

  It was a fragmentation jacket that contained and produces the shrapnel responsible for most of the bomb's lethality, effectively making the jacket a crude, body-worn, claymore mine. Once the vest is detonated, the explosion resembles an omnidirectional shotgun blast. The most dangerous and the most widely used shrapnel are steel balls: A suicide bomber weapon of choice.

  Rain was at a loss for words, because it looked more complicated than she had anticipated. She looked over at Miss Jackie, and she could tell that she was equally oblivious and stunned. Rain submitted to her ignorance and asked, “What exactly is all this?” Disgusted by her question, he spat his displeasure. “It’s what the woman asked for.” Rain paid his sarcastic and smug undertone no mind, and couldn’t risk the deal falling apart. She had to at least get him to tell her how it works.

  “I know what it is; I just don’t know how I’m going to put all this together without blowing up in the process.” Suddenly, his voice spoke loud.

  “I’m not instructor. I come here to drop off and get money and leave.” Speaking more so to Miss Jackie.

  “Stop playing Abdel, you know goddamn well ain’t nobody gonna know how the hell to put that dangerous shit together, much less want to even be around it.” Miss Jackie cried. “She a young girl and she’s my niece. I brought a lot of business your way, so just show her how it works.” Rain waited for the man answer.

  “Do you have the money?” Rain nodded, and lifted her purse, insinuating that she in fact had it.

  “Twenty thousand total for me to show you how to construct and operate.” Miss Jackie was ready to voice her displeasure for reneging on the said price, but Rain stopped her.

  “That’s some bullshit, Abdel and you know it. We had a…..”

  “Okay, auntie. I’m not going to haggle over five stacks.” Rain said, growing bothered.

  “So, do you want me to show you? We agree on price?” he asked. Rain nodded her head, reached in her bag and counted off twenty thousand dollars cash and gave it to him.

  Abdel didn’t bother to recount the money and stuffed it into his army-like field jacket pocket, and got straight to business. He began with the second bag and pulled out the content and showed her. “This is called a loadable vest.” He turned it on both sides front and back as he explained. “It can weigh between 5 to 20 kilograms when fully loaded and may be hidden under thick clothes or loose jacket to not be detected.” Rain did the metric conversion in her head and knew it was over 40 pounds she could possibly be carrying.

  Rain watched him slide over to the second bag, but this time abruptly and to her disbelief, he pulled out a nine millimeter pistol, pointing it directly at her as he yelled in well-spoken, clear English, “Freeze! Don’t you fucking move an inch” growled an agent. “Put your hands in the air!” Almost simultaneously, the van door slide open, then the back door, as what seemed like a squadron of agents, all dressed in black military uniforms pointed weapons directly at her. She didn’t have a chance as three of them, with powerful arms and legs, rushed in and subdued her by tackling her to the van’s floor, putting her in handcuffs. To Rain’s utter surprise, when she looked up she saw Miss Jackie with her head down, untouched, looking solemn. Totally blindsided, Rain didn’t want to believe it. Her voice strained with disillusion and asked. “Miss Jackie…you set me up?” Miss Jackie could not face her, and continued to stare away from her glare. “After all these years Miss Jackie….after all me and my family has done for you, this is how you repay us?” Shouted Rain, incensed with anger and by disloyalty. The agents yanked Rain from behind, and out the back of the van. Rain kept yelling, screaming over and over at Miss Jackie. “How could you do this to me…. how could you do this to me….” They muffled Rain’s mouth with masking tape and threw a bag over her head. Rain’s vision suddenly went black, as fear and adrenaline caused her to struggle violently. She never felt the prick on her arm and the fluid injected inside of her. Within seconds, an awaiting van threw Rain inside, closed the door and sped off, as quickly as they arrived and made the arrest.

  CHAPTER 27

  When Rain came too, she couldn’t see clearly as if she was awakening from a dream. The lights in the cold, concrete-like room was dim, but she could still see the closed-circuit camera that was obviously watching her. When she tried to rub her eyes, it was then she was faced with reality, as the events preceding this began to flood her mind. She was handcuffed to a steel bar that was embedded in the wall. Her eyes instinctively went to her body, and w
ere shocked to find out that she was in different clothing. Some yellow, thin, hospital-like garbs, that now hung from her body. Rain was totally shocked by this bombshell, but remained calm by showing no reaction. To think that someone, more than likely a man, stripped her naked, made her feel more violated than she ever did in her life. But that was minor compared to the predicament she precariously gotten herself into. All was at lost and had come to a screeching end.

  Her blood pressure began to rise again when she played backwards the events that led to her capture. She wished she could carve Miss Jackie’s eyes out of skull and cut her tongue out of her mouth. Fire and fury was raging inside of her. Never in a million years, would she have ever thought the two closest people, outside of her brother and sister, would have betrayed her in that way. She learned a valuable lesson, even at that moment that— everyone had a price and Smitty and Miss Jackie were no different.

  * * *

  Coherent, Rain looked at her handcuffs. She then scanned the room and read she was in interview room number 2, a twelve-by-twelve-foot gray tiled room, with a metal table, two matching steel stools on each side, and a video camera affixed to the ceiling.

  “Hello!” Rain shouted. Her voice only echoed off the wall. The room was unventilated. She swallowed back, her throat and mouth were bone dry, and suddenly had an insatiable need for water.

  Two hours passed, and the daunting fear of the unknown began to tee away at her brain. She was growing increasingly claustrophobic, stricken with anxiety from being in such an enclosed, small space. She suddenly felt trapped, deaden, with no way out. Emotionally drained causing a physical reaction, triggering Rain to go ballistic, and began to try to shake and rattle her free from the handcuffs. The fear of her claustrophobia was so intense, after ten minutes of thrashing and psychotically induced struggling, it rendered her chained wrist, bloodied, cutting and ripping her skin and ligaments all the way to the bone.