17
after first-period geometry class, Kennin stepped out into the hall and almost bumped into Tito and Angelita.
“What are you doing here?” Tito asked him.
“In school?” Kennin replied. “They tell me it’s required by law.”
Angelita smiled.
“But this early?” Tito said. “The bus strike’s still on. Don’t tell me Mariel’s driving over to your place every morning and giving you a ride.”
The smile disappeared from Angelita’s face. Kennin wondered why she and Tito were together. They rarely spent time with each other in school.
Luckily, Tito had more pressing news. “You hear about Chris? He’s on the Babylon team. Driftdog Dave made it too. Everyone wants to know when you’re gonna try out.”
Kennin’s eyes darted back and forth between Angelita and Tito. “How many times are you gonna ask me that?”
“Things have changed,” Tito said. “The ‘no car’ excuse doesn’t wash anymore.” He glanced at his sister.
“I talked to Shinchou,” Angelita said.
Kennin stared at Tito, who’d promised not to tell anyone where Shinchou was.
“Look, I told my sister, okay?” Tito dropped his voice. “You know you can trust her. And I did it for your sake, so chill already.”
Kennin felt his fists tighten. He was seriously pissed, but there was little he could say in front of Angelita.
“How is she?” he asked Tito’s sister. Kennin had been afraid to go see his sister himself. He was worried that Jack, or someone who worked for Jack, would follow him.
“She looked okay,” Angelita said. “I mean, I guess what she’s doing is pretty stressful, but she seemed glad she was doing it.”
“Did she say anything?” Kennin asked.
“Just that it was really hard. I guess Sista Bertha insists you quit everything at once. Shinchou wasn’t sure which she missed more, the meth or the cigarettes.”
“She’s not angry at me, is she?” Kennin asked.
“I got the sense she thinks you’re a good brother.” Angelita smiled, obviously happy with what she was about to tell him. “Besides, if she was angry at you, would she say it was okay to use her car?”
“What does she have to lose?” Tito asked eagerly. “All we’re gonna do is fix the thing up for her.”
“You really think a Corolla has much of a chance against turbocharged 240 SXs and RX-7s?” Kennin asked. But the words had barely left his lips when he remembered the five grand Mike Mercado was willing to invest.
“It might in the right hands,” Angelita said. “And on the right track.”
“Come on, Kennin, no more messing around,” Tito said. “You’ll do it, won’t you?”
Kennin could see the flicker of hope in Angelita’s eyes. “I don’t get it,” he said. “I thought you were all about going to California.”
Angelita lowered her eyes, then raised them again. “I am,” she said. “But I’d like to do this before I go.”
After school, as usual, Mariel met Kennin a few blocks from school to give him a ride to work.
“Chris is on the team,” Kennin said.
Mariel shrugged. “He’s good at getting what he wants.”
Interesting comment, Kennin thought, since the same could be said about her.
Mariel glanced sideways at him. “I’m keeping my promise and not asking about you and the team.”
“Looks like I’m gonna have to decide pretty soon,” Kennin said.
“I don’t understand what the problem is,” Mariel said. “You love drifting, don’t you?”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Kennin said.
“No one made you run in the tsuisos,” Mariel said.
There was no point in explaining that running tsuisos on mountain roads was different from sliding around cones on a track. Or that as soon as you combined the words “organized” and “drifting,” the BS factor increased a hundredfold.
Mariel dropped him off at the parking garage. As Kennin got out of the car, Tito came down the sidewalk on his BMX bike.
“What is she? Your personal chauffeur?” he asked after Mariel drove away.
“You should be happy,” Kennin said. “I’m leaving your sister alone, just like you want.”
Before Tito could reply, a big black Hummer pulled into the garage. Derek rolled down the window and looked out at Kennin. “You’re a hard guy to find.”
“Looks like you found me,” Kennin said.
Derek pushed open the Hummer’s door and stepped down. Without a word, Tony came out of the valet office and parked the car.
“Let’s take a walk,” Derek said.
“What about me?” Tito asked.
“You stay,” Derek said. It was obvious that he was in a bad mood. He and Kennin left the garage and started to stroll down the sidewalk, past the tourists and out-of-town gamblers who would soon be going home broke.
“Not living in the trailer park anymore?” Derek asked.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Jamison?” Kennin cut to the chase.
“It’s time to stop screwing around, kid,” Derek said. “Mr. Mercado made you a very nice offer, and it’s time you accepted it.”
“I told Mr. Mercado that I’d think about it,” Kennin replied.
“Let me explain something to you, kid,” Derek said. “People don’t tell Mr. Mercado they’ll think about things, okay? You do what he says or you suffer the consequences. Now, he wants a rivalry between you and Chris Craven, okay? Nobody wants to watch the Yankees play the Colorado Rockies, but when the Yankees play the Red Sox, you can’t find a seat. Michigan versus Ohio State, Auburn versus Alabama, USC versus UCLA. That’s what brings people out. Now, I’ve known Mike Mercado a long time and I’ve never seen him be this generous before. That’s not a five grand loan he’s talking about. It’s a frickin’ gift. No one thumbs his nose at a gift from Mike Mercado.”
“I guess he could break my other leg,” Kennin said. “Or is it time for that shallow grave in the desert?”
Derek let out a big sigh. “All right, kid, let me explain it to you in a different way. Car washers are a dime a dozen. Mr. Mercado don’t need you to wash cars. He can find a hundred other kids to do that. And he definitely don’t need kids who borrow his clients’ BMWs for a few hours without permission. So there’s your choice, either Mr. Mercado thinks of you as a drifter on his team, or as a car washer who tends to borrow cars that ain’t his.”
Kennin didn’t like to be threatened. He didn’t see the point in it.
“You know, Mr. Jamison,” he said. “You’re right that car washers are a dime a dozen, but the flip side of that is that there are a hundred other jobs around here that pay just as badly. So if I lose this one, chances are pretty good I’ll find another one.”
Like an experienced boxer, Derek came right back with another punch. “You’re tough, and I admire that in you, but you haven’t learned to recognize when the cards are stacked against you, okay? And this is one of those times. So which card would you like me to play next? How about the ‘I know where your sister is’ card? And here’s another one. I know there’s a slimeball pimp and drug dealer who’s looking real hard for her. How’s that card sound?”
Kennin stopped walking and gave Derek an astonished look.
“Come on, kid, you’re smarter than that,” Derek said. “You must’ve figured out by now that you can’t keep a secret in this town.”
“Tito told you?” Kennin asked.
Derek shook his head.
“Then how?”
Derek gave him a steady look and said nothing.
“If you know, maybe a lot of people know,” Kennin said. “Maybe it’s not a secret anymore. So my doing anything for you won’t help anyway.”
Derek gave Kennin a weary look. “I guess there’s one way to find out. You willing to give it a try?”
Kennin didn’t have to think about it for long. “If I take Mr. Mercado’s five thousand
and build a drift car, can you swear that no one else will find out where my sister is?”
“I can swear that they won’t find out from me,” Derek said.
Kennin knew he’d been backed into a corner. “Okay,” he said. “But so help me, if anything happens to my sister, I am coming after you.”
Derek grinned. “I admire your spunk, kid.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope. “This is for the car and nothing else, understand? I find out a penny of this money went anywhere else, the deal’s off, and I won’t be able to vouch for what happens to your sister, understand?”
Kennin nodded and took the envelope. He turned around and started back toward the Babylon. By the time he got there, he had an idea.
“So what was that about?” Tito asked in the locker room a few minutes later while he and Kennin changed into their uniforms.
“I’ll tell you when the time is right,” Kennin said. “Cousin Raoul still have his van?”
“I guess, why?” Tito asked.
“See if he can meet us after school tomorrow.” It was their day off from work.
“What’s the deal?” Tito asked.
“I need him to return a favor.”
Tito called his cousin, who said he’d be glad to meet them.
“Tell him to bring about a dozen long screws,” Kennin said before Tito closed the flip phone. “Wood screws, not machine screws.”
Tito made a face. “Why?”
“Just do it.”
18
after school, Raoul’s white van was parked in front of the building.
“What am I gonna do with my bike?” Tito asked when he and Kennin came out of the front doors.
“Put it in the back,” Kennin said. While Tito unlocked the BMX, Kennin went over and said hello to Raoul.
“Kennin, my man.” Raoul grabbed his hand.
“Stayin’ out of trouble?” Kennin kidded him.
“Tryin’, amigo, tryin’. So what can I do for you today?”
“I’ll tell you on the way,” Kennin said. “Let’s get Tito’s bike in the back.”
Raoul pulled open the back doors. He still had the lawnmower back there, and the van smelled like dead grass. They picked up the BMX and put it inside, and then the three of them got into the bench seat in front. A plastic bag with screws lay on the dashboard.
“Where to?” Raoul asked.
“Know where the Sierra Ne-Vue trailer park is?” Kennin asked.
“I think so.” Raoul started to drive.
“Why are we going there?” Tito asked.
“Gotta pick up a car.”
“Your sister’s?” Tito guessed.
“Right.”
“So what do you need the screws for?” Tito asked.
“You’ll see,” said Kennin.
A little while later they drove past the dead palm trees at the entrance to the trailer park.
“Where we going?” Raoul asked.
“Straight to the end,” Kennin said. As they passed his trailer, he saw the black Escalade parked outside. He wasn’t surprised that Jack had posted a full-time guard there to wait for Shinchou to come home.
“Okay, stop,” Kennin said.
Raoul stopped the van, and Kennin pointed through the window. “See that Escalade? We have to make it go away. Only there’s a guy inside it who doesn’t want to go away.”
“Oh, crap,” Tito groaned. “Here we go again.”
“So what’s the plan?” Raoul asked.
Kennin told them.
“No! No way!” Tito protested when Kennin was finished. “No frickin’ way.”
Kennin just gazed steadily at him, waiting for Tito to realize that he was going to do it.
“I know what you’re thinking and I don’t care,” Tito said. “Go ahead and tell my sister anything you want.”
“Tell her what?” Raoul asked.
“Well, you see, Raoul,” Kennin began. “You know that 240 SX that Angelita spent so much time and money building?”
“All right!” Tito blurted. “All right, I’ll do it. But this is it. I swear. This is the end. Never again.”
“Gotcha,” Kennin said with a wink, then turned to Raoul. “You know what to do?”
Tito’s cousin nodded.
“Okay,” Kennin said. “See you guys later.” He grabbed the bag of screws and got out of the truck.
Staying behind trailers, Kennin managed to work his way back to his own while keeping out of sight of the Escalade. As he did, he kept an eye on Raoul’s van and watched as Tito and his cousin quietly opened the back doors and took out the BMX bike. A few moments later the white van left the trailer park.
Kennin had reached the corner of his trailer. Now came the tricky part. He had to get behind the Escalade without being seen. If Tiny happened to glance into the rearview mirror while Kennin was making his dash, he’d be toast. Clutching the bag of screws in his hand, Kennin took a deep breath, and then tiptoed as quickly and quietly as he could. A moment later he was crouching behind the Escalade, trying to catch his breath. He didn’t hear or sense any movement from inside the SUV.
He knelt down and started to wedge the screws, pointed end up, against the rear tires so that when the Escalade reversed, the screws would be driven straight through the tread and into the steel bands beneath. When he finished, he once again scampered around the corner of the trailer.
It was time for Tito to do his thing. Kennin waved, and Tito grabbed the handlebars of the bike and walked it out into the open about fifty feet behind the Escalade. He put down the kickstand, picked up a chunk of broken asphalt, and threw it at the back of the Escalade.
The asphalt missed. Tito gave Kennin a helpless look. Kennin gestured for the kid to try again. Tito picked up another chunk and hurled it.
Clank! The asphalt hit the back of the SUV.
Tito gave Kennin a nervous look. Kennin gestured for Tito to throw another one. Tito did it.
Clank!
This time the door of the Escalade opened and Tiny got out. “You throwin’ rocks?” the big goon yelled at Tito.
Tito nervously glanced at Kennin, who quickly shook his head and backed out of sight. They couldn’t let Tiny suspect that anyone else was involved.
“I hate SUVs!” Tito yelled and picked up another chunk of asphalt and threw it.
The asphalt missed.
“Are you crazy?” Tiny shouted.
“They use too much gas and cause global pollution warming!” Tito yelled and threw another chunk of asphalt.
Clank!
Tiny quickly started to climb back into the Escalade. That was Tito’s cue to get on the bike and bounce.
19
roared and started to back up. Kennin pictured the rear wheels rolling over the upturned screws. He heard a sound like a loud gasp but was certain that Tiny inside didn’t hear it. The goon was already wheeling the Escalade around and following Tito on his BMX bike toward the exit.
Kennin didn’t think the Escalade would get very far before it was riding on its rims. And it didn’t matter anyway, because Raoul was waiting half a block away to throw the bike in the back of the van and get Tito out of there.
Still, Kennin knew he didn’t have much time. He hurried into the trailer, grabbed some clothes and his sister’s car keys, came back out, and jumped into the Corolla. A few moments later, as he drove his sister’s car out of the trailer park, he spied the Escalade on the side of the road. Both rear tires were flat. Tiny was standing beside the car, gesturing excitedly and speaking into a cell phone. Kennin was pretty sure he never even saw Shinchou’s Corolla pass.
Kennin drove the Corolla to Rivera’s Service Center. Raoul’s van was parked on the street outside. Angelita, Tito, and Raoul were waiting by the garage door. Angelita was wearing coveralls, her black hair pulled back in a ponytail and her head covered with a red bandanna.
“It went okay, right?” Tito said excitedly as Kennin drove the car into the garage.
“Y
up,” Kennin replied. “Thanks, guys.”
“Are you kidding?” Tito exclaimed. “I was just telling Angie how cool it was!” He turned to his sister. “You wouldn’t believe the size of that guy! He must’ve weighed four hundred pounds! The second he starts climbing into the Escalade, I’m on the BMX and out of there riding as fast as I can! The Escalade comes flying out behind me, but as soon as it makes a left onto the road I start to hear all this racket. Like floppy flat tires getting torn up by the rims. I look behind me and the Escalade’s stopped on the shoulder. Meanwhile, Raoul’s waiting with the back doors of the van open and that wooden ramp thing for the lawnmower down, so I ride right up into the van like frickin’ Triple X! Raoul slams the back doors, jumps in the driver’s seat, and we’re out of there.”
It was obvious that Tito was totally pumped by the experience. “So now what?” he asked excitedly.
“Now we take a look at what we’ve got,” Kennin said, gesturing toward the dirty yellow Corolla.
The excitement slowly drained from Tito’s face. “Oh, man, I’m too stoked for that. I’m gonna go play GT4. I’ll see you guys later.”
“Thanks again,” Kennin said as Tito left.
“Guess I’ll split too,” Raoul said.
“Hey, man, I can’t thank you enough.” Kennin offered him his hand.
“You kidding me?” Raoul replied. “It’s me who should be thanking you, man. You’ve saved my butt twice.”
“Stay out of trouble,” Kennin said with a wave.
“I hear ya,” Raoul said, then got into the van and left.
Kennin and Angelita were alone in the garage.
“So this is it,” she said with a smile, running a finger along the Corolla’s dirty fender and leaving a streak.
“Not much to look at,” Kennin said.
“Not yet,” Angelita replied, sticking her head into the passenger window. “Gotta start with a four-point harness.” She opened the door and looked under the seat. “Seat bolts look okay.” She stepped back and studied the car. “We’ll have to find some extra wheels and a lot of tires.”
Kennin couldn’t help admiring the way she thought about the car. No BS. No stupid exterior mods. Just plain nuts and bolts. When she lifted the hood he came around and joined her. The engine was caked with black soot.
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