Dead on Arrival

by Kiki Swinson

  I finally got up, showered, and got dressed. I slipped on a lavender-and-white, floral-print Adidas sweat suit with a pair of lavender Fenty flip-flops by Rihanna.

  After I took one last look at my sandy-brown curls in the mirror, and realized that everything about me was intact, I smiled and headed out the front door.

  * * *

  When I pulled up curbside to my parents’ house, I saw my mother on her knees, leaning over in her flowerbed, planting new flowers. Making sure her house had curb appeal was one of my mother’s favorite pastimes.

  I got out of my car and walked up the sidewalk that led to her house. “Hey, Mrs. Joe Bryant,” I said.

  “You better address me as Mommy before I lay your butt across my knees and give you a good spanking,” my mother threatened while she laid the hand trowel down and stood. She stumbled a bit, but she managed not to fall.

  “Mommy, you gotta be careful getting up like that. You know Daddy would lose his mind if you fall down and hurt yourself.”

  “Oh, your father will be all right,” she started off. “So, why aren’t you at work?”

  “I took one of my vacation days so I could run a few errands,” I replied while I continued to walk up the sidewalk. As soon as I got within arm’s reach of my mother, I leaned toward her short, small frame and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Everyone in the neighborhood called her Ms. Cicely Tyson because she looked and acted just like her.

  “Well, I’m glad you stopped by. Your dad’s been extremely worried about you,” my mother said as she removed her gardening gloves.

  “Why is he worried about me? I’m fine.”

  “He’s been hearing some things and he’s not happy about it.”

  “Trust me, whatever Dad is hearing is all lies,” I tried to assure her.

  “Listen, honey, I’m not calling you a liar, but it seems as though everybody is saying the same thing.”

  “Who is everybody?”

  “Some of the guys that used to work with your father,” she said.

  “Where is Dad now?” I asked.

  “He’s in the den reading his newspaper.”

  “Okay, well, I’m going in there and straightening this thing out right now,” I said and walked away from my mother. I entered the house and walked down the long hallway that led to the den at the back of my parents’ house. I saw my father sitting in his favorite recliner, buried in the morning newspaper. He looked shocked to see me. I smiled as I walked toward him. “Hey, Daddy,” I said, and kissed him on the cheek.

  “And hi to you,” he replied, while I took a seat in my mother’s recliner, right beside his. He looked at me from head to toe. “Why aren’t you at work?”

  “I took the day off so I could run some errands.”

  “What brings you by here?”

  I continued smiling like a little kid in a candy store. “I stopped by because I missed you and Mommy.”

  “Your sister must’ve told you that your mother and I have been missing you.”

  “Yes, she told me, but that’s not why I stopped by,” I lied. He was right, I was trying to avoid seeing my father and mother as long as I could, so they couldn’t pick my brain with a bunch of questions about my relationship with Reese. I knew my husband wasn’t handling his business like he should be, but that was not their problem, it was mine.

  “So then tell me why you stopped by.”

  I chuckled a bit. “Dad, why are you looking at me so suspicious?” He was making me feel like he could see through me.

  “You think so?”

  I chuckled a little more while I covered my mouth with my hand. After I removed my hand, I said, “Daddy, look, I came by here to see you and Mommy because I missed y’all. That’s it.”

  “So, you’re not here to borrow more money?”

  “No, Daddy, I’m not. Reese has been picking up more hours on the pier, so things are looking better for us,” I lied once again. I think my dad knew it too because of the way he looked at me for a second or two. I wasn’t going to change my story just because there might be some doubt in his mind. That was my story and I was sticking to it.

  “How is he picking up extra hours when NIT has a ban on overtime now?”

  “Dad, I know that. But he’s picking up hours from a few of the guys in the union who haven’t been able to work because of personal issues,” I explained.

  “I heard he’s still gambling.”

  “Come on, Daddy, this is not why I came over here. Can we please talk about something else?” I was getting sick and tired of him asking me questions about Reese. “Leave Reese alone.”

  “Okay. Okay. I’ll drop it for now. But if I keep hearing about him throwing his money away at the poker table and stealing televisions from those containers, I’m gonna have another man-to-man talk with him. And he’s not going to like my approach the next time we have that talk,” my father warned.

  I sucked my teeth. “All right, Dad. All right!” I huffed.

  “What’s on the agenda for you today?”

  Before I could answer my father’s question, Alexia walked into the den. Her eyes lit up when she saw me sitting in the recliner next to our father. She smiled and said, “Hubby let you come out the dungeon, huh?”

  I rolled my eyes and sucked my teeth. “You sure love being messy, don’t you?” I commented. I had just got my father to stop talking about Reese, now here came Alexia, adding fuel to the fire I’d just put out.

  “Oh hush! You know I’m just playing with you.” Alexia smirked and took a seat on the couch across from my father and me.

  “You know you can’t play around Daddy, especially if it has something to do with Reese,” I reminded her.

  “Where is his sensitive tail anyway?” Alexia wanted to know.

  “He’s on the pier. Where else would he be?”

  “At the gambling spot. Or hanging out with some side chick,” Alexia said sarcastically, and then she looked at our father, who gave us a snide look.

  “There you go again, being messy!” I was starting to lose my patience with Alexia and I let her know it. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do right now, so I’m asking you to stop it or I am going to leave.”

  “Stop whining. I’m just teasing you,” she said. But it was a lie. I knew what she was doing and so did she.

  “All right, Alexia, cut it out. I’ve heard enough,” my father interjected, and I was glad he did.

  My father changed the subject and we started talking about his birthday, which wasn’t too far away. He was turning sixty-five years old. And the beautiful thing about it was that he looked like he was fifteen years younger. “So, Dad, tell me—what do you want for your birthday?” I asked him.

  “I don’t want anything from you girls. The fact that you’re spending time with me right now is the best present I could ever have.”

  “Dad, why do you have to be so sentimental? I’m trying to buy you a birthday gift and you’re talking about quality time.”

  “That’s because time with you girls is so much more precious than any gift you could ever give me,” he explained.

  “Have you and Mommy figured out where you guys are going?” I wanted to know.

  “Yeah, Dad, where are you and Mom going this year?” Alexia asked.

  “He doesn’t know. I’m planning everything myself,” my mother said as she walked around the wall that led her right into the den with us.

  Alexia chuckled. “Mom, don’t let me find out you were standing around the corner eavesdropping on our conversation with Dad,” she joked.

  “I don’t have to eavesdrop in my own house. I’ll leave that for you two girls to do,” my mother replied in a feisty manner as she sat down on the couch next to Alexia. “So, what else were y’all talking about?”

  I spoke first. “Nothing really.” The last thing I wanted to do was breathe life back into that dead conversation about Reese. I have made it clear that anything concerning him is off limits.

  “So, are
you hungry? Want me to whip you up some breakfast?” my mother asked me.

  “No, I’m good, Mommy. I’m gonna get something while I’m out running errands.”

  “You’re too good to eat your mama’s cooking?” my dad blurted out.

  I turned my attention to him. “Of course not, Dad.”

  “Then why won’t you let her cook you something?” he asked.

  “Because I’ve got to be somewhere in the next thirty minutes,” I lied.

  “Where do you have to be?” my mother interjected.

  “Probably to the fertility clinic,” Alexia blurted out.

  I gave Alexia the nastiest look I could muster up. “Did they ask you?” I hissed. Alexia was aggravating me all over again.

  “You’re still giving those doctors all that money so they can put a baby inside of you?” my mother said.

  “Yes, that’s what you gotta do when conventional efforts don’t work,” I clarified.

  My father said, “Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe God doesn’t want you to have a baby with that man? I mean, come on, Dawn, you’re a very smart girl. Look at how he treats his other kids.”

  “What do you mean, how he treats his other kids? They live in another state,” I snapped.

  My father kept questioning me. “That’s my point. They live in another state. When was the last time those kids stopped by the house and spent time with their father?”

  “I don’t keep up with stuff like that.”

  “Just answer the question.”

  “I can’t say. But it’s been a while.”

  “And why is that?” he continued.

  “Because their mother is silly and she’s being vindictive because he moved on to be with me.”

  “That’s not the real reason. That woman suffered years of him cheating on her and gambling,” my father said.

  Heated by the fact that I was starting to feel like I was being tag teamed, I looked at my dad and said, “What is it, gang-up-on-Dawn day? It seems like the only person that cares about my marriage and me having a baby is Reese’s grandmother. She’s so supportive.” My blood was boiling right now.

  “That’s because she’s senile,” my father blurted.

  “Dad, that was not right,” I spat.

  “We’re not ganging up on you, sweetheart! Your dad and I just want you to explore the fact that maybe God has another plan for you. That’s all,” my mother said, trying to defuse the situation.

  My father said, “That’s not all. You’re giving that doctor too much money. Money you don’t even have. I say that if you can’t have a baby naturally, then that means that it’s not meant for you to have one.”

  At that moment, I knew it was time for me to go. I wasn’t going to continue to sit there and allow my family to ridicule me about my personal life, so I said, “Let me get out of here,” and then I stood up from the recliner.

  “Don’t leave, honey,” my mother begged.

  “Mommy, I gotta go. I told y’all I’ve gotta be somewhere in thirty minutes,” I replied as I walked by her. She and Alexia followed me down the hallway and out the front door.

  “I’m sorry if your dad upset you,” my mother apologized as we stepped onto the front porch.

  “It’s okay. I’m good,” I lied. I was irritated by everyone there, and I wanted nothing else but to get in my car and leave.

  “When are you coming by again?” my mother asked.

  “I’ll probably stop by tomorrow after I get off work,” I fibbed once again. I had no desire to come back to my parents’ house for at least another week. If they’d stop bashing my husband to my face, I wouldn’t mind spending more time with them. I’ve told them more than a handful of times, but they don’t listen.

  “Mommy, trust me, she’s not coming over here for a while,” Alexia exclaimed.

  I lightly punched Alexia in her left arm. “Oh, be quiet. You don’t know when to stop talking, do you?”

  “Owwww, that hurts!” she said, and started massaging the area of her arm that I hit.

  “Oh, toughen up. And get a job while you’re at it,” I suggested sarcastically, and then I leaned over and kissed my mother on her cheek. “I love you, Mommy! And I’ll call you later.” Then I walked off the porch.

  She stood there and watched me walk toward my car. “What about your father?” she yelled.

  “Tell him I love him too,” I screamed back.

  5

  REESE

  I drove into the Norfolk International Terminal through the Baker Street entrance. A long line of trucks waited to get their loads and head back out of the terminal. After I went through the checkpoint, I headed over to NIT North. I was solely focused on finding Ed and Todd so they could fill me in on what kind of job we were getting ready to take on.

  It took me about five minutes to find them both. I wasted no time getting them to give me the details. They were standing in a huddle with two more of our accomplices, near a stack of new containers that had just arrived overnight. The other two guys that worked with us were Gene Harris and Brian Butler. They were both around the same age as Edward, with salt-and-pepper hair, mustaches, and beards. They were also considered OGs. They looked like two ordinary blue collar guys like the rest of us, except Gene Harris was a very short guy and Brian Butler was the tallest of all of us.

  “What’s going on, fellas?” I asked the moment they all looked in my direction.

  Edward spoke first. “We’re talking about this new job we’re about to do.”

  “I’m all ears,” I replied right after I closed the circle of their huddle. I became anxious as I stood there, giving Edward my undivided attention.

  “We’re about to hit the mother lode with this next job,” Edward started off. “I just had a meeting with this Chinese guy named Que Ming, and that guy got money coming out of his ass. He owns like five Chinese restaurants, that big-ass Asian grocery store in Virginia Beach, and he owns all of the Chinese buses that travel to and from Virginia Beach to New York. He’s also a connected man. He knows a lot of people. I guess when you’re wealthy like him, you can buy a friend.” Edward chuckled.

  “What was the meeting about?” I asked. I wanted Edward to cut out the preliminaries and get on with the fucking story.

  “He wants us to grab two containers from the ship that’s coming to this port tomorrow night, and he’s gonna pay us fifteen thousand dollars each.”

  “What the fuck is in those containers? Nuclear bombs?” I blurted out, and chuckled because no one has ever paid us that much to confiscate containers once they hit the pier.

  “No, there’s gonna be people in them,” Edward said.

  Shocked by his answer, my mouth dropped wide-open. “People?” I repeated. I needed some clarity.

  “Yes, people. There’s going to be thirty Asian immigrants in each container. So, as soon as they hit the pier, we have to remove the containers from the ship and put them on the railroad cars on the second and third row, and the Asian guy will take it from there.”

  “Where are they coming from?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t giving away my disgust at being included in this mess.

  “They’re coming from somewhere in Asia. See, the containers were supposed to be dropped off at the port in Baltimore, Maryland, but someone dropped the ball and now they’re coming here, since this is the last stop for the East Coast.”

  “You mean to tell me that those Asians been on that boat for at least thirty days?” I wondered aloud. I couldn’t believe I was having a conversation about people being transported like products.

  “Yep,” Ed answered, while Todd, Gene, and Brian nodded their heads.

  “How the fuck have they been able to survive? Those containers are hot as fuck inside, and there’s little or no air in them,” I pointed out.

  “That’s not our problem. We’re being paid to take the containers off the ships and hide them. Anything outside of that falls on the Asian guy,” Edward clarified.

  “Okay, so let me
ask you one more time.”

  “Sure, go ahead.”

  “So, you’re telling us that there’s a rich-ass Chinese guy that’s gonna pay us fifteen thousand dollars each to hide two shipping containers with people in them so they can be snuck off the terminal?”

  “Yep,” Ed answered.

  I paused and took a deep breath. These people were already on their way here. I wasn’t part of getting them in those containers, so was it so bad making sure they got out of them? Damn, this was shitty, but, “When are we getting paid?” I asked.

  “Well, today you’re all getting five grand,” Ed replied as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out stacks of one-hundred-dollar bills with $5,000 money sleeves wrapped around them. “And after the job is completed, we get the rest,” he continued as he handed everyone their portion of the money.

  “Get the fuck out of here! Is this a joke?” I replied in disbelief.

  “Nope. This is real big-boy shit. It’s so real that after we take this money, there’s no going back. We’re locked in,” Edward added.

  Everyone, including myself, held the money in our hands and had a look of excitement. Brian and Gene vocalized their reaction.

  “Do you know what I can do with this?” Gene started off.

  “I know what I’m going to do with it,” Brian said.

  I curved my lips in what I hoped looked like a smile and said, “Ed, you don’t know how happy you just made me.”

  “Good, I’m glad everybody is happy. But we can’t fuck this up. Mr. Ming said that if we do good tomorrow night, he’ll pay us more the next time around,” Edward announced.

  “You should’ve told ’em that he had the best crew on the pier,” Gene boasted.

  “I second that,” Brian agreed.

  While I was pushing the $5,000 down into my front pants pocket, I thought about how happy as hell Dawn was going to be, knowing I could give her the money she needed to take care of her business. Having money was a good feeling to have, especially when you had pressing things that needed to be taken care of, like the car payments and the mortgage. I couldn’t forget about the fertility treatments that she’d been putting on the back burner because of our financial problems. Now we could move on. And hopefully I could bow out on being included in more people smuggling.