by Edwina Fort
“The warrior woman has been given to you as a gift. But because you are so stiff-necked, you are going to lose her.”
I shook my head. Who said angel knew everything? “Nope…I’m not.”
“Yes…you are.”
I shook my head again. “Nope.”
“See what I mean? Stiff-necked.”
He went back to reading his paper. “This is our last time meeting for a while, son. The next time I see you, the world will be on fire.”
I didn’t know how I felt about that. Yeah, it’s true, I didn’t necessarily enjoy our meetings. But like I said, we’ve been meeting every Tuesday since I was a kid, I’ve come to depend on his guidance.
“Don’t be afraid, Romeo. The warriors you will find yourself with need you, and you are going to need them. They have been created for one purpose.”
“What is that?”
He turned to look at me again, his eyes more piercing than daggers. “To destroy…They are demon slayers, son.”
I frowned. “Is it Joseph, punk---?” I stopped myself from cursing. My friend here didn’t care for foul language.
Please don’t let it be Joseph…Please don’t let it be that bastard.
“It is…” He continued to read his paper.
“Yeah, but I don’t really like him.”
“So…?” He turned the page.
“So, I don’t really want to work with him.”
“It doesn’t matter. Your paths were destined to cross. Not only him, your woman, and Joseph’s siblings, natural born demon slayers. They have all been called to be warriors for The Ancient of Days.”
I was a little confused. If they are the demon slayers, why the hell did they need me?
“You…you, are going to be the brains of the outfit.” He chuckled at his own joke.
I shook my head…that was really corny. But then he turned to look at me, piercing me with his gaze, all humor gone.
“You need to find out what really happened to Joseph and his siblings. They are going to need you to help them defeat the toughest demons they will ever battle.” He paused for a moment. “Their own.”
“In order to become one with The Ancient of Days, they will have to let go…”
Nahkti
“What do you think they’re talking about?” I asked Rob.
I’ve never seen Rome appear to be learning from someone. It seemed strange. But I knew deep down in my gut, he was learning.
“I don’t know. I think that cat is really smart. My brother meets with him every Tuesday without fail. And after he beats Rome in chess, my brother just sits quietly.” He shrugged. “It’s like he be playing their game over and over again in his head or something.”
I nodded…and for a minute, Rob and I just sat and watched Rome talk to his angel. But then I was reminded of something.
“Have you seen Happy? She didn’t show up for work today.”
“Ohhhh!!” He sat up straighter in his seat looking over at me. “You ain’t heard?”
“Heard what?” The look on his face was beginning to give me a bad feeling.
“Dude put her in the hospital last night.”
“What?!”
He shook his head. “Sis, he beat her so bad they had to take her to the hospital.”
My heart turned cold. “Take me to her…now!”
He didn’t ask any questions, he started his car and wisely began to drive.
“I’m sorry, sis, I thought you knew.” I held up my hand stopping him.
I needed him to stop talking. I was battling with myself not to kill a man. Happy would be crushed if I did that, but I was hanging on by a very thin string.
He needed to die!
I was going to—
No! I couldn’t kill Happy’s child’s father.
But he needed to die! Every cell in my body thought so.
By the time we got to the hospital, I was barely holding on. But it wasn’t until I walked into her room that I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wasn’t going to be able to control myself.
She lay with her back to us. I could tell right off that something was seriously wrong with her. I was almost afraid to walk around the bed. I didn’t want to see what I knew I was about to.
She lay staring out the widow, her face covered in bruises with huge tears in her eyes.
“Happy?” I whispered. Rob stood by the door as if he wasn’t sure if he should come in or stay out…he looked extremely uncomfortable.
“Happy?” I gently touched her shoulder.
“She’s dead…”
I leaned closer, because she spoke so low, I didn’t hear her. “She’s dead…my baby is dead.”
Oh dear God, no!
I sat down in the chair next to me. Happy was so excited to be a mommy. It’s all she talked about; what clothes she was going to buy the baby. Just the other day, she and I were looking at baby cribs in a magazine. She saw so many she liked, but the one she really wanted was too expensive, so me and Rome had already decided we were going to gift her with it.
I’d even started thinking about putting her together a little baby shower.
Oh my God! Her baby is dead.
I can’t—I just… can’t.
Before I knew what was happening, I’d jumped to my feet, my adrenaline was shooting through my body at an alarming rate. My soul was going into battle mode whether I wanted it to or not. My mind had begun to plan a killing. Her hand shot out grabbing me when I turned to head for the door.
“I know the truth about you. I know you kill people for a living.” Her angry gaze came up to mine. “You know how you’re always going on about how sometimes you be gentle with people?”
I nodded.
“Well don’t…Don’t be gentle with him! I…hate…him!”
“Say no more…” I leaned down and kissed her gently on the forehead. “Say no more.”
Rob held the door for me as I stormed past him.
“I know where that mutha f***a at too!” He told me before I could even ask the question.
Fifteen minutes later we were pulling up in front of a house that had several men sitting on the porch smoking and drinking. The bastard was one of them. I jumped out the car.
“Wow! Look at this coward! Did you know your woman is at the hospital mourning the loss of the baby you beat out of her, alone?”
I had lost it, I was screaming at the top of my lungs. My screaming drew the attention of others. The men who sat on the porch with him gave him that look that said…Daaammnnn!
He stood. “B**** who you talking to?”
“I’m talking to you, you sorry bastard.” I didn’t stop walking until I stood in his face. I wanted him to hit me.
I wanted him to hit me so bad.
“You better go on by yo’ business. I ain’t Rome, I ain’t going to put up with yo’ lip.”
“Oh yeah?” I said making a doppy face. “You ain’t going to put up with my lip?”
Rob and the men on the porch started laughing at him. “What you going to do about it, coward?” I shoved him. “Only a coward hit a woman!” I shoved him again.
“Hit me! I’m a woman!” He bit down on his lip, balling up his fists.
“Ay, I dare you to hit her…” Rob muttered as he pulled a blunt out. “She gon’ beat his dumb a**…”
“Man, I ain’t got time for this.” He went to turn around, but I stuck out my foot tripping him. Rob and the other guys laughed really good at him.
That was all it took, he whipped around and punched me…hard. The blow caused me to spin around. I was now facing Rob. For a moment he looked worried. I lifted my hand and wiped the blood off my lip, allowing it to fuel my rage. Lifting my gaze to Rob’s concerned one, I winked at him before spinning back to face the coward.
As I turned, I pulled that golden bat from its handy dandy shoulder sheath. What better time to test out my superhero weapon? Let’s see how well i
t handles.
Did I fail to mention to you guys that I’d damn near went to college on a baseball scholarship? My batting average was damned near .300.
The first blow was to his right knee. He yelled out falling to the ground as the sound of it cracking filled the street.
“Damn!!!!” I yelled, holding the bat up to get a good look at it. I can tell y’all this…Gold hits way better than wood any day. I’d just shattered this bastard’s leg.
My stunned gaze went back to Rob… “Did you see the power in this thing?”
He shook his head blowing out weed smoke. “Naw, sis, I missed it. Do it again.”
I grinned. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. Maybe I misunderstood what I just saw.” I spun the bat over my head to gather extra momentum before bringing it down with all my might on his left leg.
He screamed out like a girl as that leg shattered.
I whipped back around to look at Rob. “What you think, bro?”
He nodded. “That mutha f***a make quite an impact!”
“Yes, it does!” I yelled before I turned back around swinging the bat as it did, bringing it down across his spine.
“You beat women because they’re weaker than you, and it’s the only way you can win at anything in life. Do you know why that is?”
I brought the bat back down across his spine, smiling when I heard the satisfying crunch over his scream.
“It’s because you are weak.” I told him leaning down so that my lips were close to his ear. “You are so f***ing weak!” I yelled in his ear.
I swung the bat over my head one more time and then I let loose my full fury on him. Swinging over and over, getting high on the resounding crunch that followed each blow.
It got so good to me that I didn’t hear Rob tell me we had to go because the police were coming. I could kill this coward, but I wanted to make him suffer. I wanted to break as many bones as I could in his body before ending him…
However, I never got the chance. I was tackled from the back and handcuffed before I’d realized what happened. The next thing I knew, I was standing in front of a booking officer giving them one of the aliases Jo had set up for me and my temper that was always getting me in trouble.
They led me to a cell…with the grin still on my face I sat down on the little cot. But then something happened after my adrenaline died down.
Something strange happened. For the first time in a long time, I felt…
I felt depressed.
I thought about the look in Happy’s eyes, a look that should have never been in the gaze of one so beautiful. Somehow, she’d managed to still bring joy in other’s lives although she suffered tremendously at home. Somehow, she still managed to be happy.
But now… Now, I doubted if she would ever be happy again. She’d become the mother of a dead child.
No…She would never be happy again.
And that made me so sad, the only thing I could do was ball up on that little cot and fight the tears that wanted to escape my eyes.
Life wasn’t fair. Happy is a beautiful soul. Why does she have to suffer so? Why did life abuse the good people?
It was this world. This place we live is so dark…Everybody is so evil!
I hated this place!
I hated it so much…
Rome
“You have to go now.” He began to chuckle a bit. “The wild one is in trouble, yet again.”
As soon as he said those words my phone rang. Frowning I looked at it and saw that it was my brother’s number and instantly I got a bad feeling.
Damn, I knew I shouldn’t have given her that bat.
“Yeah,” I said into the phone standing from the bench.
“Bro, Nak got arrested!”
I gave the man with no shoes one last glance before I headed for my truck. He just smiled at me, giving me a nod that said ‘go on’.
I wanted to ask him if this really was going to be my last time seeing him for a while, but never got to do it, because my feet were now running for my truck.
“What happened?” I barked into the phone as I hopped in.
As Rob told me what happened I clutched the steering wheel as anger ripped through me.
“That mutha f***a hit Nak?!”
Really, I didn’t hear much else after that. His fate was sealed.
But first I had to get my girl out of jail. And take that f***ing bat from her.
It was Lieutenant Miller herself that took me to Nak’s cell. The whole way back she apologized for the misunderstanding, claiming they didn’t know Ms. García was with me. Thanks to me, Lieutenant Miller’s daughter was attending her second year at Stanford University.
Not only was I sporting a good percentage of the bill, I had put in a lot of hours preparing her for her S.A.T’s that she scored a 1560 on.
Quite naturally, Lieutenant Miller was a bit worried. However, I was too angry to deal with her right now. There will be repercussions for this, for all parties involved.
“What the f*** did y’all do to her?” I growled as soon as I saw Nak balled up on the cot like a small child.
The lieutenant turned red as she began to stutter, trying to assure me that they never touched her.
“Open the bars.” I hissed, cutting her off, in no mood to hear her excuses.
“Nak? Baby, are you okay?”
When Minha Anjo heard my voice, she sat up and reached for me as if she was a small girl. I sat on the cot next to her lifting her into my arms.
“Baby, why are you shaking?” I swear, Derrick’s a** was dead.
She wrapped her arms around my neck tightly, burying her face in my beard.
“Happy’s baby died!” She whispered before she erupted in tears. I held her tightly as she cried. I’d never seen my fierce warrior princess cry like this.
I mean she was really balling.
“It’s going to be okay…baby.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not, Romeo. Nothing is going to be alright in this dark place. Can’t you see? It’s so dark…the darkness is everywhere.”
The fact that she’d just pretty much said the same thing the man with no shoes had told me was verification enough for me.
I held her tighter. The tides were shifting, his words were true, my life was getting ready to change.
“And they took away my superhero bat.” She muttered into my beard.
That made me smile. “No worries, Minha Anjo, we’re going to get it back for you.” I went to kiss her lips and saw that her bottom one had been busted. And I saw red.
“What happened, baby?” I asked, gently touching her lip.
“Derrick hit me…” She said pouting like a little a** girl.
“He hit you?”
With big sad eyes she nodded. “Yeah…”
It took me damn near a week to get her to smile again. The whole time, Derrick’s a** lay up in the hospital recuperating from damn near having every bone in his body broken.
I smiled…My girl did that.
Damn, she made me so proud.
Anyway, the day he was released, the nurse wheeled him out in a full body cast. Hitta and I showed up to pick him up and give him a lift home.
“Derrick my man, how you feelin’?” I asked taking the wheelchair from the nurse before sliding her an envelope.
She nodded, quickly sliding it inside her pocket. I’d already doctored up the hospital camera feed so that none of this would show up.
Seeing my gloved hands caused Derrick to panic, he tried to turn his head and beg her not to leave him with us, but she’d already disappeared back into the building and his dumb a** could only make muttering sounds because his voice box had been shattered.
“Relax, D man, I figured since it was my girl that did this to you, the least I can do is make sure you make it home safely.” I wheeled him to the bed of my truck.
“Hey Hitta, help me get this man gently in the back…caref
ul now, most of his bones are broken.”
“Sure thang…I’ll be real careful.” Hitta, who also wore gloves muttered as he helped me lift the mutha f***a out his chair and throw his b**** a** into the truck bed. By this point, he was yelling in pain, but it only came out as little grunts. I slid the bed cover in place, hiding him from view.
We then drove him down to this little spot by the river. Hitta helped me take him out and wrap him in a piece of thick plastic. The whole time he squirmed trying to beg for his life through his f***ed up throat.
Once he was covered in a few layers of the plastic, we wrapped a big chain around him that was connected to a five-hundred-pound weight. Then I doused his a** in gasoline and lit a match. We stood and watched him burn till he stopped moving. The plastic had melted around his body and the chain to form a big hard lump. Then together Hitta and I pushed the weight into the river.
The next day, I sent for Happy’s mother and sent them back to Louisiana with enough money to start over.
As her and my girl gave each other tearful farewells, I stood to the side praying she made better decisions.
Chapter 14
Storm Warning
Such a sense of loss tonight
Nought to do but ride it out
Can't stop a river when it's burst its banks
I wonder how long it's gonna take
To get over this heartbreak
Storm warning, feels like a heavy rain
Winds on the coast tonight
We may get tossed tonight
--Bonnie Raitt
Nakhti
“Nak, baby, can you run back to the loft for me and get that little box I left on my desk?” Rome asked handing me his truck keys.
I’d just gotten a daisy painted on my face and was trying to hurry and stuff cotton candy down my throat before he took it from me. I think I was enjoying the block party more than the children.
“Sure…” I told him with a mouth full of the sugary treat.
Smiling, he leaned down and kissed me and my treat nearly fell from my fingers. Cotton candy tasted good, but Rome tasted better.
