The Circle: Autumn

by Keisha Ervin

  “Q says she’s driving his Escalade…call Maria she works at Convergys…they run OnStar…let her track down the car through the locator system. I want the girl found as soon as possible so I can get my fucking sister off my back and get back to business here,” Loe demanded. Then he turned towards Quinton, his dead eye seemingly jeering at Quinton.

  “Our business is not over. You will make this shit right with me and my sister or you will die. Once you cross the line into my family like that there’s no getting the fuck out,” Loe told him. Quinton glared at Loe, but knew he was out numbered and out gunned being in Loe’s house. Quinton shifted his weight on his feet, nodded and headed for the door. He knew that he would have to stack some paper and get the fuck out of dodge. Loe wasn’t going to let what happened to Naja die and Quinton knew that meant his and Autumn’s days were numbered.

  ***

  Autumn drove in Quinton’s Escalade until her back ached, her eyes were burning and she was practically out of gas. She finally pulled into a gas station right on the outskirts of St. Louis, Missouri. So she hadn’t totally lied to Rain…she did end up in St. Louis, just not with Erin like Rain had expected. Autumn slowed the truck down as she approached a light on the off ramp from the highway. She looked around thinking there was no place like Baltimore in the world.

  Across the street she spotted a small, seedy motel that looked old as shit. She was so tired that she could barely keep her eyes open so she decided she would check into the motel, no matter how much of a dive it was. Besides, whenever the Porters went out of town together Rain always preached the dingiest motels were the ones with less of a chance of cops and less of a chance of a nosey front desk clerk. Autumn was about to take those lessons to heart.

  After she gassed up the Escalade, she drove across the street and parked in the gravel parking area outside of the motel. She grabbed the bag with the cash that Quinton had given her and headed inside of the raggedy double doors that led to the lobby of the motel. It smelled like cigarettes, old fried chicken and mold mixed. Autumn’s first instinct was to turn and get the fuck out of there, but her heavy eyelids and longing for some sleep propelled her forward to the front desk.

  “Aye! How you?” the snaggletooth front desk clerk said, smiling enough to show just how many missing and misshapen teeth he had left. Oh God! Where the fuck am I? Nutbush?? Autumn thought to herself. Every time the clerk spoke a little bit of spit flew from his lips. Autumn found herself dodging spit like it was bullets.

  “I need a room. Paying with cash,” Autumn mumbled, trying to keep her eye contact with the man to a minimum and trying to keep from getting rained on with his stale spit.

  “Ok! Ok! Cash is always good!” the man cheered, clapping his ashy hands together. He reached behind him and took a key that was dangling on a scratched up plastic key chain and handed it to Autumn. She looked at the key strangely and then back at the man. What kind of motel still uses keys these days? No card key? This shit old as fuck! Autumn said to herself. Now she was scared of what she would find inside of room at the old ass outdated motel.

  “But I needs an I.D.,” the man told her. Autumn was surprised that a dive like that would require ID since it looked like nothing but helter skelter stayed there. Autumn shot the raggedy man an evil look but decided against arguing with him and bringing more attention to herself. Instead, she passed him one of the two fake I.D.s Rain had given her. The man examined the fake I.D., then flashed his fucked up grill and passed it back to her. He scribbled down the name she had on the I.D. and passed Autumn the ancient looking key for the room.

  “All set Rita,” the man said cheerfully, flicking through the cash Autumn has just given him.

  “Thanks,” Autumn grumbled. She was too tired at that point to protest or to drive any longer to find another spot.

  Autumn’s room was on the third floor and she had to pass several fiend out looking dudes and women on the stairs leading up to the room. Autumn also noticed several scantily clad women milling about on the motel’s outdoor tiers.

  “These sorry, nasty, fiend bitches trying to sell pussy in the middle of the damn day?” Autumn mumbled to herself under her breath.

  “Agggh!!” A shrill scream cut through the air as Autumn made her way to her room. Autumn almost jumped out of her skin and immediately went for her gun and clutched tightly to her bag of cash.

  “Help me!! Give me my shit!” the screams continued. Autumn whirled around on the balls of her feet, ready for whatever. Her eyes went round as she finally identified the source of the screams. She watched two fiends…a man and a woman…rolling around on the ground fighting over a crack rock. Autumn took a deep breath and shook her head as she finally made it to her room door. This place was going to be worse than she thought, but there was no turning back now.

  “I guess my ass won’t be leaving the fucking room until I’m ready to bounce for that goddamn border. A shower and some sleep is all I need, then I’m blowing this fucking joint,” Autumn told herself.

  She entered the dark, dank room and shook her head in immediate disgust. Once she was all the way inside the room, she put on the little weak doorknob lock and the rickety looking chain to secure the door.

  I see my ass gonna need to keep my gun close. These locks ain’t worth a shit, Autumn said to herself. She threw her IDs and her bags down on the small, shabby little metal table inside the room and clicked on an old, lopsided lamp that sat next to the bed.

  “Damn this place is a fucking dump,” she said looking around the room carefully. Everything inside looked like it was a throwback from the 1970s. The carpet was a vomit green shag that looked like it hadn’t been shampooed in centuries. The T.V. was one of those small old fashioned joints with the rabbit ear antennas and it sat on top of a cracked wood stand that seemed like one touch would cause it to collapse. The bed headboard was made of material, bordered by dark wood, like something Autumn had seen watching reruns of the Brady Bunch. The blanket on the bed looked like it had been there since Jesus walked the earth and had a few old stains on it, which Autumn assumed was either from blood, cum, or piss. She snatched it off and threw it in the corner of the room because no matter what bodily fluid it was, she wasn’t sleeping on that shit. Autumn walked into the bathroom and noticed all of the rust stains marking the bottom of the tub. The shower curtain had mold stains streaking the bottom of it and the toilet had rust stains in it as well.

  “I need a shower so this is just going to have to do,” she told herself. Autumn left her socks on thinking she could ward off any fungus living in the bottom of the motel room tub. She undressed, took a quick shower and got in the bed. The sheets at least looked like they had been washed since the last person rented the room. She said a quick little prayer that she didn’t get eaten alive by bedbugs and hoped for the best. Autumn turned on the T.V. and of course the news was on the one channel that worked on the little T.V. Autumn turned up the volume when she noticed that the news crew was in her old neighborhood in Baltimore. Autumn squinted at the screen and couldn’t stop watching what was playing.

  “Ain’t this a bitch,” Autumn whispered. The reporters were interviewing old neighbors, old teachers and old friends who all said they knew the Porter siblings. Autumn laughed and shook her head in disgust. She had always been taught by Smitty and Nanny that black people acted like crabs in a barrel—when one tried to escape all the others would pull it back to the bottom—but now she was getting to see it firsthand for herself. Some of the people she saw coming across the screen were people her and her siblings had broken bread with, or helped out in times of need. Every year for the holidays Dayvid and Rain made sure all of the Porter siblings handed out gifts, turkeys, food, and sometimes even cash to neighborhood families that didn’t have anything. This was the thanks that they were getting in the end.

  “All it takes is to offer a nigga fifteen minutes of fame; ten dollars and they’ll get on T.V. and sell you the fuck out. How many of these niggas did Dayvid buy sneake
rs? Or took their kids school shopping? Or donated to their fake ass church building funds?” Autumn spoke out loud in a disgusted tone as she watched neighbor after neighbor tell a different story about the Porters.

  “I heard that one time the Porter kids robbed a jewelry store and made ten million dollars. I heard they killed the owner and buried his body at the stadium but the cops wouldn’t look into it because Dayvid Porter had them cops on his payroll,” one old neighbor named Mr. Jamison said. Autumn shook her head.

  “Yeah, I heard they killed a guy because he threatened to tell that they were planning to rob his boss…some big time drug dealer. They weren’t only known for robbing banks and jewelry stores…naw, they robbed drug dealers too,” Another lady Autumn remembered from her block said into the camera.

  “Wait until I make it back to B’more. One day I’ma see ya’ll again,” Autumn gritted her teeth. She had an instant headache from that bullshit news report. Autumn quickly shut off the T.V. She had heard enough anyway. She had listened to the manhunt on the radio in the car during her drive, she had seen it all over the news and now watching her sell out ass old neighbors just pissed her off even more.

  “Damn people will fucking sell a nigga out for a ham sandwich,” Autumn grumbled, still in disbelief.

  Her stomach started growling and Autumn finally remembered that she hadn’t eaten since she’d left Quinton’s place. She ordered some food from a local take out and when it came she barely opened the door enough for the guy to hand her the bag. Autumn didn’t trust nothing and nobody at that point. If the person’s last name wasn’t Porter…then Autumn wasn’t taking a chance.

  After her stomach was full, Autumn counted out her money. She put a few dollars in her wallet and slid the bag containing the bulk of the money under the bed on the side where she planned to sleep. Autumn thought about how she’d change up her disguise and finally climbed into the bed to get some sleep. It took no time for a heavy, deep sleep to overcome her.

  ***

  “Stop Quinton,” Autumn giggled as Quinton nibbled on her ear playfully.

  “Nah, I’m going to have you right now,” Quinton whispered sexily as he continued. Autumn loved every minute of his touch. She didn’t have a care in the world. Dayvid, Rain, and Fallon all thought she was off in another state casing for another lick, but Autumn had returned to Ohio to be with Quinton.

  Quinton put his hot mouth over hers and thrust his tongue deep inside her mouth. Autumn’s body was speaking to her in ways it had never done before as she accepted his tongue and intertwined hers with his.

  “I missed you,” Quinton huffed, moving from her mouth to her neck.

  “Shit I missed you too,” Autumn whispered back.

  “I am about to take you,” Quinton said, his dick in his hand ready to enter her dripping wet middle.

  “Yes take me,” Autumn acquiesced.

  BANG! BANG! BANG

  Autumn jumped. Quinton jumped up and was on his feet in seconds.

  BANG! BANG! BANG! Loud bangs on his condo door had alarmed them both. Quinton grabbed for his gun, but it was too late. BANG! BANG! Quinton’s blood spurted all over Autumns’ face.

  “No!!” She screamed as she stared into her brother Dayvid’s eyes.

  Dayvid had shot Quinton in the head.

  ***

  BANG! BANG! BOOM! The sound of the door crashing in filled the room and violently jerked Autumn out of a deep, deep sleep and out of a recurring nightmare that had plagued her while she was sneaking around with Quinton behind her siblings’ backs.

  “Agggh!” Autumn belched out a short-lived scream in response to the noise as her eyes were forced to pop open, jumping her out of her sleep and sending a searing pain through her cranium. Being snatched out of her sleep in response to the door of the dirty motel room crashing in almost gave her a heart attack. With her mind still fuzzy with sleep, Autumn was still on her feet within seconds. Instinctively her hand went under the pillow and searched around. Years of training at the hands of her big brother Dayvid and eldest sister Rain had made Autumn’s instincts razor sharp. Even when she was resting, Autumn was never really sleeping. With the swiftness of a magician, Autumn slid her hand under the pillow that lay next to the one she had been sleeping on. She locked her left hand around her weapon and took a deep breath.

  Autumn could hear her big brother Dayvid and big sister Rain’s voices ringing in her head, “always be ready for anything. Porters don’t get caught slipping. Catch a motherfucker before he can catch you.”

  “Grab that bitch!” one of the goons growled as three men barged into Autumn’s room. The other two men lunged and came at Autumn around the bed.

  “She got a gun!” one of them screeched as the light was flicked on. The lead goon’s eyes went wide and his jaw dropped.

  “I told you we needed to have our guns out…shoot the bitch and let’s go,” one of the men complained.

  “I thought boss man said she was a little girl…no need to attract attention to us with guns out coming up in here!” the lead goon gasped as he locked eyes with Autumn. Fear flashed in his eyes, but fire flashed in hers.

  “Nah partner, I’m a fuckin’ Porter,” Autumn gritted. “No little girls here.”

  BOOM!

  Without hesitation, one shot from Autumn’s .380 dropped the leader of the goons.

  “Who the fuck sent ya’ll?” Autumn growled, leveling her gun at the other two cowering flunkies as they tried to fumble for their guns.

  “Don’t fucking make another move! Now…who the fuck sent ya’ll?!” Autumn said through her teeth. Neither man said anything, but the one standing to the left released his bladder all over himself. When Autumn noticed that his fear overcame him, she knew that he was the one she had to leave for last. The Porters always knew how to exploit another person’s fear. It was a skill they’d learned early on in life.

  “I said who the fuck sent ya’ll here!” Autumn barked, trying her best to keep her galloping heart and the fire raging inside of her under control.

  “A’ight…ya’ll don’t wanna say?” Autumn said through clenched teeth. She stormed closer to the man on the right. “I guess ya’ll bitch ass niggas don’t wanna live either.”

  “Fuck y…” the man on the right started. BOOM!

  A point blank shot to the temple sent the man’s brain bursting out of the back of his skull. The piss stained coward that was on the left fell to his knees and began gagging like he was going to throw up.

  “Please…please don’t kill me. I’ll tell you who…who…sent us,” he begged, tears falling from his eyes like a woman.

  “I’m listening,” Autumn gritted, her gun dangling at her side. She smelled so much fear on the fake goon that she didn’t even feel the need to keep her gun trained on him.

  “It…it was…Loe,” the man stammered. Autumn squinted her eyes trying to recall the name. Then it hit her, Loe was the man that Quinton worked with in the drug business. An exclusive supplier is what Quinton had called Loe.

  Why the fuck would he be after me? Did Quinton betray me? All sorts of thoughts ran through Autumn’s mind.

  “What does Loe want with me?” she finally asked the terrified man.

  “You…you…hurt his…. You crossed him,” the man stammered. Autumn didn’t know what the fuck the dude was talking about. She hadn’t hurt anyone that she could recall. Autumn didn’t even think about Quinton’s little bitch that had attacked her. Autumn’s mind was just clouded with thoughts that Quinton had betrayed her and sent these goons after her.

  “Well guess after they find ya’ll Loe or whoever really sent you will get the message,” Autumn said with finality. “Don’t fuck with a Porter.” One last shot and she was done.

  With her nerves on edge and the police surely on their way, Autumn contemplated her next move, she couldn’t help but to think how she’d ended up in that seedy hotel room, on the run and now a murderer.

  With her nerves on a wire’s edge, Autumn gathered up the
stuff she had on the table as fast as she could, but by a mistake she left behind one of her fake IDs and the cash she had stashed under the bed. It was the first of a series of mistakes that would come back to haunt her later.

  ***

  Naja sat up in her hospital bed and squinted her eyes at the television as she watched the news coverage of the Porter manhunt on CNN.

  “Police and the FBI say this deadly trio of sisters are brazen and extremely dangerous. To date, at least ten law enforcement officers

  have fallen victim to Rain, Fallon, or Autumn Porter.

  Police are asking the public at large to take a good look

  at these faces and if you think you know the whereabouts

  of these dangerous career criminals, please call the

  FBI tip line immediately. Law enforcement officials are

  warning the public not to approach these armed and

  dangerous sisters; instead, call 911 and evacuate the area

  should you spot one of them. We are urging again, do not

  approach or try to communicate in person with these sisters,

  as they are armed and extremely dangerous.”

  As Rain, Fallon, and Autumn’s faces flashed across the screen one by one, Naja squinted harder and then she jolted up in her hospital bed like she’d been hit with a bold of lightening.

  “That’s that bitch! I will never forget her face or her eyes! She had different hair but I’m sure that’s her! Quinton’s new bitch! The bitch that stabbed me! The third one they just showed on the news…the one they called Autumn Porter…that’s her!” Naja screamed at Loe. Naja was going so crazy she almost ripped her stitches out. Loe looked at his sister like she had lost her mind.