Dead on Arrival

by Kiki Swinson

  For some reason, today was going pretty fast and my lunch break was here before I knew it. I didn’t bring anything from home to eat, so I went to the vending machine on the main hallway and got a bag of pretzels and a bottle of grape juice, since those were the only appealing items to choose from. After I had my items in hand I decided to hang out in the lounge area of the building and play a game of solitaire on my cell phone.

  But as soon as I started walking in that direction, I noticed Reese walking down the hallway toward me. Seeing him set off a load of mixed feelings. I didn’t know whether to smile and run into his arms or tell him to kiss my ass and turn my back on him. And before I could make that decision, he smiled at me and said, “Got some good news for you.”

  Good news! I thought to myself. What kind of good news could he have for me? The only thing I wanted to talk about was getting the rest of the money he had so I could pay all our bills, not some.

  “What do you want, Reese?”

  “I came here to bring you a gift.” His smile had gotten bigger.

  I stopped in my tracks because I really didn’t want to deal with him or his games right now. And before I could really tell him how I was feeling, he reached down into his front pants pocket, pulled out a huge wad of money, and extended his arm in my direction.

  “What is that?” I asked him.

  “It’s the other ten grand you wanted. It means that now you got the whole fifteen grand.” He continued toward me, holding out the money in his hand.

  Hearing him tell me that he was giving me the money he earned on this last job made me feel so happy inside. I couldn’t believe that I was really getting that money.

  “Don’t play with me, Reese,” I warned him with a half smile.

  “I’m not playing, baby. See, look.” When he got within arm’s reach of me, he put all the money in my hands. I examined it and then I looked back at Reese.

  “This is the ten grand, for real?”

  “Yes, baby, it is.”

  “What made you change your mind?”

  “Because I thought about what you said.”

  “Reese, stop playing with me and be honest for once in your life,” I begged him.

  “Okay, all right. Me and the rest of the guys met up with that Asian dude, and after he gave us our money, he told us he wanted us to do another job for him and he will pay us another fifteen thousand.”

  “Wait, hold up. You met who? And you’re gonna do what?” I asked him. I needed to give him a chance to backtrack and rethink this nonsense.

  “Edward took me and the other guys to meet that Asian dude so he could thank us and pay us the money he owed us,” he clarified.

  “Okay, I got that part, but what’s up with this other job he wants y’all to do? I thought this was a one-time thing.” I wasn’t happy about the news I was getting from Reese right now.

  “Calm down, baby, everything is going to go smoothly just like the job we did last night.”

  “What if it doesn’t?”

  “Stop being so negative. Everything is going to work out fine. Just trust me.”

  “You may need to give me another word that would reassure me, because the word trust doesn’t mean anything to me,” I said sarcastically.

  “Are you going to take it easy or what?”

  “Just tell me when you gotta do that job?”

  “The day after tomorrow.”

  “Baby, I don’t know about that. It’s too soon, don’t you think?”

  “Look, do me a favor.”

  “And what is that?”

  “Go back to your office and ask your supervisor if you could take an extended lunch break so I can take you out to eat.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “Don’t worry about all of that. Just go do like I told you and put that money away before somebody robs you,” he said, and then he turned me around and ushered me off in the direction of Mrs. Powell’s office.

  “Don’t rush me,” I protested half-heartedly.

  Instead of saying something else, Reese smacked me across my butt, pushing me forward. I looked back at him and noticed that he was staring at me.

  “What are you looking at?” I asked him from three feet away.

  “I’m looking at that big ole bootie you got!” He smiled.

  “Don’t smile at me like everything is all good. You still got more explaining to do,” I warned him.

  “Yeah, okay,” he replied, as if he was taking my words lightly.

  After taking a few more steps, I turned into the next hallway and made my way into my office. Before I walked over to my supervisor’s desk, I put the money away. I tried to think of a good excuse for me to get off for the rest of the day. Once I had the lie forged in my head, I headed over to Mrs. Powell’s desk.

  13

  REESE

  I was so glad that I had the idea to take Dawn out for lunch. After filling up her belly and giving her the money, it felt like I was home free. She tried to talk me out of doing the second job for Mr. Ming, but I told her that wasn’t going to happen. We needed the money, so therefore the job would get done.

  On the drive back to her office, she became inquisitive about the meeting with Mr. Ming, but I kept it simple and sweet.

  “How does he look?” she asked.

  “He looks Asian.”

  “Is he tall or short?”

  “He’s tall.”

  “Is he old or young?”

  “He looks kind of young. Maybe late thirties or early forties.”

  “Does he look mean?”

  “Nah, as a matter of fact, he doesn’t. He looks like one of the drivers who delivers takeout from a Chinese restaurant around here. But the difference between him and that driver is that he’s got plenty of money and the driver doesn’t.”

  “Do you think he’s gonna ask y’all to do another job after this one?”

  “Baby, I don’t know,” I replied, and let out a long sigh. I really wasn’t trying to touch that subject. Not now anyway. I wanted to tell her to ask me that question after I completed this job the day after tomorrow. But I left it alone.

  “Well, answer this.”

  “What?” I replied, dreading what she was about to say.

  “Did that guy pay y’all another five grand up front?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Because I just wanted to know.”

  “You’re not trying to take that money from me too, are you?” I asked her, taking my eyes off the cars in front of me for a second before turning my focus back to what was going on in front of me.

  “No, I’m not. I just want you to be smart about where you’re gonna spend it. We have a little bit of a cushion right now, and blowing it up on fruitless things is going to put us right back in debt all over again.”

  “Well, I’m not going to blow it up on fruitless things, and to prove that to you, I want you to hold it for me,” I said, and handed her the wad of cash I had in my front pants pocket. She looked at me really weird as she took the money from my hands.

  “Are you turning over a new leaf?” she asked me as she tucked the money away in her handbag.

  “Look, just put it away for me.” I gave her a half smile and then I turned up the volume on the radio.

  In return, she gave me a facial expression like she was impressed with me. I didn’t want to spoil the mood by asking her about it, so I left well enough alone and enjoyed the ride back to her job in peace.

  “Make sure you have a good day,” I said after I pulled up in front of the office building.

  “And you do the same.” She smiled and then she leaned over and kissed me on the lips.

  * * *

  I couldn’t believe how time flew by so quickly. It seemed like it was just yesterday that the guys and I met Mr. Ming and he gave us our dough. But it wasn’t. Today was the day that Ed, myself, and the rest of the guys had to make sure that Mr. Ming’s property, whether it was people or artifacts, was placed on the railroad cars. There we
re no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The job had to be executed and we were the guys that were being paid to do it.

  I was amped up this morning when I got up. I thought it was because I was going to have another ten grand in my pocket in less than twenty-four hours after the job was done. I was going to have a field day with that money. I was going to pay back the bookies I owed and I was going to put some money away just in case my hands started to itch. When my hands start to itch, it means that money is coming my way. And in the business I dabbled in, that meant that I needed to run to the nearest poker table. Boy, was I going to have me some fun after I got the rest of my money. It was gonna feel like Christmas.

  Like the first time, Edward, myself, and the rest of the guys formed a huddle near the ship and mapped out our plans for this shipment. Right after we got our assignments from Ed, we headed to our positions.

  Tonight felt like a good night. Besides the timekeepers and the union managers roaming around the pier, everything else was easy breezy.

  I crawled into my straddle carrier, buckled myself in my seat, and headed over to the ship we were retrieving the containers from. I texted Edward after I got in position. He texted me back with the thumbs-up emoji.

  I sat there for about twenty minutes before he handed me off the first container. And after I had it within my grasp, I took it and headed over to the railroad cars as quickly as I could without attracting any attention. Thankfully the drive wasn’t long. I was over by the railroad cars in less than three minutes. I positioned the straddle carrier carefully and used the lift gauge to place the container on the railcar. But for some reason, the fucking container looked off.

  “Shit!” I huffed loudly because I knew I was gonna have to get out of the carrier to make sure the container was secured.

  I powered off the machine and hopped out of it. I had to walk across a million fucking rocks to get on the other side of the railroad car. I almost busted my ass when I crossed the track. Lucky for me, I kept my balance and kept it moving.

  Aside from that, it was chilly outside and it was kind of dark too, which is why I carried my flashlight at all times. When I turned on the flashlight and pointed it toward the container, I heard someone banging on the container from the inside.

  “Hello,” I said in a low whisper. “Who’s there?” I continued in the same tone, trying to prevent anyone at the terminal from hearing me. And that’s when I heard a faint cry. Then the cry turned into words. But I didn’t understand the language.

  “Artifacts, my ass!” I muttered, not knowing what to do. But then it quickly dawned on me that this was not my fight. I had nothing to do with what was inside of that container. Mr. Ming confirmed that notion when I spoke out about this shit the first time I heard it. And then what did he do? He looked at me like I was fucking crazy for even bringing that shit to his attention. Everybody at the table eating with me gave me that same look. Since I wasn’t trying to relive that, after I made sure the container was secured, I turned my ass back around and traveled across all the fucking rocks I had just walked over.

  As soon as I crawled back into the straddle carrier, I turned it around and drove back toward the ship to get the second container. On my way back, I couldn’t get that person’s voice and cry out of my head. But what was disturbing about this ordeal was that this was the second time I heard someone crying from inside a container that belonged to Mr. Ming. Were these people crying out for help? Or were they crying out because they were hurt? I figured whatever the reason was, those people did not want to be in there.

  My heartbeat quickened as I steered the machine back to the pickup location. The thought of the port police or US Customs agents finding the containers put a load of fear upon me and I couldn’t shake it. “Come on, Reese, stay calm and remain focused so we can get through this job,” I said softly so only I could hear my voice. “You can do this. Keep yourself levelheaded. You don’t wanna bring any attention to yourself. You’ve got too much to lose. You also gotta prove to Dawn that you can pull this job off with no problems. You especially can’t go to jail behind this shit.” I had a two-minute conversation with myself. But it did nothing to allay the fear I felt in my heart, because I was a nervous fucking wreck.

  I parked the straddle carrier a few yards from Edward and Todd, and sat there with the machine idling as I waited for Edward to hand the second container to me. While I watched Edward secure the container, my attention was diverted to three US Customs agents examining the twenty-digit ID tags on a set of containers on the right side of the ship. Then I saw two more US Customs agents snooping around a dozen metal containers that Todd had just unloaded from the ship. To add more anxiety to this picture, the port police were rolling deep tonight. Normally they’d do their rounds every thirty minutes. But for some reason, they’d been strolling through here like every ten to fifteen minutes. I was starting to believe that someone had tipped them off. I wanted to get Ed back on the phone to tell me what was going on down there, but I decided against it. For one, I was paranoid. And two, I could be overreacting. Edward did tell me to stay focused, so that’s what I intended to do.

  After I’d been waiting for nearly eight minutes, Edward pulled down the second container and placed it on the ground so I could grab it. Knowing that a couple of US Customs agents were a few feet from the container, I wasted no time in securing it and lifting it up in the air. As soon as I had it locked and loaded, I turned the straddle carrier around and drove out of there.

  Once again, I was on the journey to the railroad, and I figured the quicker I got there the quicker I could off-load this fucking container and get the hell out of there before the port police got the urge to come snooping around. Shit, we couldn’t afford to let this job fall by the wayside. Getting that other ten grand was necessary, especially with Dawn nagging me about the bills we’ve got.

  The ride back to the railroad cars took me less time than before. What a feeling of relief that was. So, as I positioned the container to be placed on the other railroad car, I also had to position the headlights on the straddle machine so I could make sure I set the container down on all four points of the train car. I harnessed the container directly over the railcar and let it down easy. As I began to lower the container, two people ran by the train car and it scared the hell out of me. A wave of fear and anxiety engulfed me and I immediately lost sight of what I was doing. With the container leveled midway in the air, I tried to gather my thoughts. But then another little person ran by the train car. And I got a better look at this one. And when I realized that this last person was a barefoot Asian, I almost pissed in my pants. My heart nearly leaped out of my chest.

  “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I roared. I couldn’t leave the container in midair without someone noticing it, so I took a deep breath and continued to off-load the container onto the railcar.

  After two tries, I managed to set the container down without any hiccups. I had to find those people running around the pier before someone other than Edward and the boys saw them.

  I powered the machine off and hopped out of it with my heart rate running at sixty-five miles per hour. I knew I couldn’t do this alone, so I got Edward back on the phone and started to follow the people who had escaped the container. He answered on the first ring. “What’s up?” he said.

  “Three people got out of the container,” I replied with urgency.

  “How’d they get out?”

  “I don’t know. When I was in the machine off-loading the second container, they popped out of nowhere and started running in the opposite direction of the train.”

  “Where they at?”

  “I don’t know. I’m looking for them now,” I said, and right after I answered his question, I noticed that I had another caller trying to get through on my other line. I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked down at the caller ID. “Fuck!” I said.

  “What’s wrong now?” Edward said.

  “Dawn is calling me on the other end.”

  “You’
re gonna have to call her back. Because we’ve got more important things to do on this end first,” Edward told me.

  “Yeah, I know. I’m gonna need some help. Send Brian or Gene over here.”

  “Yeah, a’ight,” Edward said, then the phone line went dead.

  Even though there were powered pole lights mounted near the train tracks, there were some blind spots and that’s why I always carried a flashlight with me. Norfolk International Terminal had dozens of dark places where you could hide or hide things. So having this flashlight was essential.

  Before I took off in the direction the Asians had run, I sprinted to the metal container to see where they had escaped from. As I approached it, I saw a tiny head peeping out the top corner. I couldn’t tell if it was a woman or a man, so I pointed my flashlight toward them. “Get back in there!” I motioned toward the container. They must have understood what I had said, because they disappeared in an instant.

  I dashed off in the direction where the others had gone. I only hoped that I found them before anyone else did. Because if I didn’t, shit was going to hit the fan really hard, and it wasn’t going to look pretty.

  I didn’t know how insane Mr. Ming could be, but judging from the look he gave me at his restaurant, I knew he wouldn’t be happy finding out that we botched this job. And knowing the amount of money he paid us to handle his business, it wouldn’t surprise me if he made us pay for our mistakes. I figured that either we got things back intact or we found somewhere to hide until the dust settled.

  14

  DAWN

  Thinking about the job Reese and his fellow longshoremen friends were doing had me on edge. I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn’t. I called Reese a few times, but he didn’t answer his phone, so I had no other choice but to wait for him to call me back or come home.

  Instead of lying around and staring at the fucking ceiling, I got out of bed and made myself a cup of hot tea. Drinking hot tea always helped me calm down. Hopefully, it would still do the trick.

  When I crawled back into the bed with my cup of tea, I heard a noise outside my bedroom window, so I rushed over to see if Reese was trying to sneak into the house. But when I got to the window and peeped through, I didn’t see anyone. The driveway was empty and there were no cars on the street. But I knew that I had heard something. Then I saw it: a black cat was sniffing around in the fucking trash.