by K'wan
“Came to check on an old friend. I hear you ran into a bit of misfortune last night.”
Pops snorted. “More like my whole world came crumbling down around my ears. That bar was the only thing I had left to hold on to.”
“A real tragedy, and I was sorry to hear about it,” Big Stone said sincerely. “How are you fixed for bread until you get back on your feet?”
“I got some moves in the works. They won’t put me back where I was, but hopefully they’ll pull me out of where I am,” Pops said sadly.
“Well, you know if there’s anything I can do to help, all you have to do is reach out,” Big Stone told him.
“You know I ain’t never been one to walk around, hat in hand,” Pops said proudly.
“Cut that, Pops. What’s a few dollars between friends? You just tell me what you need, and I’ll make sure you get it,” Big Stone assured him.
“You’re a good man, Big Stone … a damn good man.”
“That I am, but don’t let it get out. Might fuck up my reputation.” Big Stone chuckled.
“And the insurance money?” Knowledge plucked the chart from the foot of Pops’s bed and gave it the once-over.
“Huh?” Pops was caught off guard by the question.
“They say it was an electrical fire that took your place down, so I’m guessing you’ll be able to file an insurance claim on it, right?” Knowledge pressed.
“Right, right … the insurance will kick out something, but it probably won’t match up against what I invested. Besides, it’ll probably take them forever to pay it off.”
“If that bullshit claim holds up,” Knowledge challenged.
“What are you trying to say?” Pops asked defensively.
“I think you know what I’m trying to say.” Knowledge touched the purple bruise on the side of Pops face, causing him to flinch. “Did you get that when you narrowly escaped that fire?” His voice dripped sarcasm.
Pops’s eyes darted to Big Stone, pleading for him to interject, but he remained silent. Knowledge had already brought him up to speed on his suspicions, and he had agreed to let him handle it and watch it play out.
Knowledge snapped his fingers to draw Pops’s attention back. “Why are you looking at him when I’m the one asking the questions?”
“Now, hold on, Knowledge. I got a lot of respect for you on account of Big Stone, but I don’t think I appreciate how you’re speaking to me.” Pops puffed up.
“And I don’t appreciate you trying to play us for some fucking chumps.” Knowledge drew his gun and put it to Pops’s head. “I’m not the smartest man in the world, but I don’t believe that fire at your place was an accident, nor am I buying that you got all them lumps and bruises during your great escape. Somebody worked you over, and I want to know who it was and how it ties into what happened to Pana.”
“Kid, you’re crazy. I don’t know shit about what happened, don’t know nothing about what happened to Pana except what everybody else does: some young niggas killed him!” Pops babbled.
Knowledge cocked the hammer and pressed the barrel deeper into Pops’s temple. When he spoke, his voice was a low hiss. “According to everyone else, they were wearing masks, so how would you know they were young niggas?”
Pops’s mouth suddenly became as dry as a desert. He cut his eyes back to Big Stone, again hoping to get some sympathy, but all he saw in the face of the man he’d once called a friend was contempt. “Big Stone, how far we go back, man? You gonna let your boy do me dirty like this?”
“Only thing gonna be dirty is that wall when your brains hit it if you don’t cut the bullshit and come correct,” Big Stone spat. “Now, I was genuine when I said I would help you out, but not if you keep pissing on my head and trying to tell me that it’s raining. Somebody has been making unauthorized moves on this chessboard, and I need to know who it is. Tell us what really went down at your bar, Pops.”
The old man remained silent.
“Fuck it. Shoot this chump and let’s go,” Big Stone ordered.
“Okay, okay, okay! Don’t shoot! I’ll talk!” Pops said frantically.
Big Stone waved Knowledge off and motioned for Pops to continue.
“Listen, Stone, you known me twenty-something years…,” Pops began. “I ain’t never took a dime that didn’t belong to me or step on a toe that wasn’t over my side of the line. I been around since a time when the game had rules, before these disrespectful lil niggas started stepping on the backs of old-timers like me to get where they gotta go.”
“I’m well aware of your résumé, Pops. I need to know who torched your place and how they got to Pana,” Big Stone told him.
Pops went on to tell him the short version of the young desperados who bragged about murdering the crime boss Pana, before whipping his ass and burning his bar to the ground. “They not only made me watch while they set fire to twenty years of my hard work, but they made me sign over what was left of it to them. Took my boy Rob hostage to make sure I went through with it.”
Knowledge shook his head sadly at the end of the old man’s tale. “I knew all this shit happening wasn’t a coincidence. This is bad … real bad.”
“Bad is an understatement,” Pops added. “These fuckers are predators and don’t too much care who they feed on. First Pana, then my spot. Hell, ain’t no telling who they could go after next.”
“Including us.” Big Stone had said what everyone in the room was thinking. “We gotta get out ahead of this thing. Is there anything else you can tell us that might help, Pops? A name or anything?”
Pops thought on it. “As a matter of fact, yeah. The ring leader of the crew had a real girlie-sounding name. If I recall correctly, it was D … Dia…” Pops suddenly broke into a fit of coughing.
“You okay?” Big Stone asked nervously, watching the old man choke. He grabbed the pitcher of ice water from the nightstand and filled a plastic cup. When he tried to tip it to Pops’s lips to get him to take a sip, the old man let out a hard cough followed by a spray of blood. “Jesus!” Big Stone jumped back. “Get some help!” he ordered Knowledge.
Knowledge came back a few seconds later with several nurses and a doctor in tow. He and Big Stone stood off to the side and watched as they tried to resuscitate the old man, but it was no use. He lay there, eyes staring vacantly into space, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. It was swollen and had turned a sickly shade of purple. It was the first time any of them had ever seen a man literally choke on his own words.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The ride around the block to search for parking was a quiet one. Pearl was lost in her own thoughts while Sandra kept her eyes peeled for an empty space. The young girl just couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea that one of her best friends was gone and she felt partially to blame.
“You know this ain’t on you,” Sandra said as if she could read her mind.
“Huh?”
“What happened to that girl,” she explained. “It’s not your fault, even though I know y’all were there together.”
“What gave me away?” Pearl asked.
“C’mon, Pearl. I might be old, but I ain’t no fool. I got up early this morning to collect everyone’s laundry to put in the wash, and I found your outfit stashed in the back of your closet. You know it was stupid of you to sneak out, knowing your father was coming home last night.”
“I know, but I just wanted to have a little fun,” Pearl told her.
“A little fun can lead to big trouble, as I’m sure you’ve figured out by what happened to your friends.”
“If you knew, how come you didn’t tell Daddy on me?” she asked curiously.
“Because he’s got enough on him as it is without you adding to it with your foolishness. I spared your ass this time, but don’t let it happen again. Are we clear?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Pearl said sheepishly.
On the second loop of the block, the parking gods decided to be kind, and somebody vacated a spot across the street from th
e hospital. After parking, the two women strode inside the hospital. They stopped at the information desk to find out Marisa’s room number before riding the elevator to the third floor. Pearl’s legs felt like noodles as she moved down the white hallway. It was like walking the green mile, and she was going to the electric chair instead of to visit her friend.
Standing vigil outside the door was Knowledge. There was a troubled expression on his face, but he wiped it away when he spotted the two women coming in his direction. He gave a curt nod before stepping to the side and allowing them access. As Pearl passed him, she could feel his accusing eyes on her. Normally she would’ve made a smart remark about it, but it was neither the time nor the place.
Big Stone and Tito stood off near the bathroom, speaking amongst themselves. Marisa’s father’s normally youthful face now seemed aged and etched with worry. Pearl’s dad gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze, telling him everything would be okay. It was obvious Tito was hurting, but he put up a good front. Evelyn, on the other hand, was in bad shape.
Marisa’s mother looked like a slightly older version of her daughter, except she had alabaster skin and her hair was dyed a deep shade of plum. She was a beautiful woman who was always immaculately dressed, her face perfectly beat, but that day she looked like a train wreck. Her clothes looked they had been slept in, while her eyes were red and weighed down with heavy bags. Pearl couldn’t ever remember seeing Marisa’s mom without her makeup and her hair done, so seeing this woman in front of her felt like looking at a stranger. She sat on the edge of the bed, stroking her daughter’s hand lovingly.
Marisa’s eyes lit up when she spotted Pearl, and she motioned that it was okay to approach. Pearl took timid steps to the bedside, eyes wandering over her injured friend. She lay with her head propped up, a gas mask covering her nose and mouth. From the streaks cutting through the soot on her cheeks, Pearl could tell that Evelyn wasn’t the only one who had been crying that morning. She couldn’t say that she blamed her. Marisa had no doubt gone through a tragic experience, and she was lucky to have survived. Seeing her best friend like that threatened to break Pearl down, but she held it together so as not to add to the sadness that was already filling the room to capacity.
“Hey,” Pearl offered when she had finally found her voice.
“What’s up, chica?” Marisa tried to push herself into a sitting position but broke into a fit of coughing.
“You have to take it easy. Remember what the doctor said about overexerting yourself,” Evelyn gently pushed Marisa back down and fixed her pillows.
“I’m fine, Mom. Would you cut it out?” Marisa swatted at her hands.
“How you holding up, Miss Evelyn?” Pearl asked.
“As well as can be expected, mami. When I got that call in the wee hours of the morning, my heart literally stopped.” Evelyn sighed. “That’s every parent’s nightmare, to hear a stranger’s voice on the other end of the line telling you something has happened to your kid. I’m not letting this one out of my sight again until she leaves for college.”
“Ma, I think you’re overreacting,” Marisa said, trying to downplay it.
“Overreacting?” Evelyn’s neck snapped back. “Can you imagine my surprise when I found out that instead of being at a friend’s house, watching movies, like she told me, my teenage daughter was in a bar full of grown-ass men, doing God knows what? You had no business being in that freaking fiesta del gamberro in the first place!”
Marisa sighed behind the oxygen mask. “It wasn’t a thug party. I was there with some friends,” she argued.
“What friends? Were you there too, Pearl?” Evenly turned her angry eyes on her.
Pearl looked to Marisa, not quite sure what she had or hadn’t said.
“No, she wasn’t there.” Marisa saved her the trouble of having to answer. “I got other friends in school besides Pearl.”
“See, that’s the problem right there. You keep throwing the word friend around, and I don’t think you have the slightest clue what it means. A real friend wouldn’t have given underage girls alcohol in a place where just about anything could go down. Look, I get it. I’d be lying if I said me and my friends had never snuck a bottle into the house or had a few drinks at a house party, but you were way out of your depth by being in that place.”
“C’mon, Mom. Stop acting like you know what time it is on the streets. This ain’t the eighties,” Marisa quipped.
“Same game, different players, baby girl,” Evelyn shot back. “Don’t act like we raised you with rose-colored glasses. Me and your dad have been through some shit that would’ve broken your pampered-ass back, and we did it all to make sure you would never need, want, or suffer. Now, you can keep letting this nice life we’ve provided you and your sister go to your head, or you can get it through that thick-ass skull of yours that it ain’t nothing new under the sun. Everything you’re trying to do, I’ve already done ten times over. Before I was a wife or a mother, I was a survivor!” she said heatedly.
“E, how about you and me go get some coffee and give the girls a few minutes?” Sandra walked up and placed a hand on Evelyn’s shoulder.
Evelyn looked up at Sandra, and there was a silent exchange that bled away some of her anger. “We’re gonna go to the store. Do you guys need anything?” she asked sweetly, as if she hadn’t just been about to go postal.
“I’m good. Thanks,” Pearl said.
Marisa simply folded her arms.
Sandra and Evelyn headed over to Tito and Big Stone, where they exchanged a few words before the four of them left the room together to give the girls some privacy. Knowledge, of course, stayed at his post outside the door. With all the adults finally gone, the two teenage girls were able to speak freely.
“How are you feeling?” Pearl sat at the foot of the bed.
“To be honest with you, I’m fucked up,” Marisa said, removing the mask. She inhaled and exhaled slowly as if she were testing the recycled air of the hospital. “My whole body is sore, and my lungs feel like I’ve been smoking cigarettes the last five years. It’s gonna take me a second to recover, and I’ll probably be grounded until menopause, but at least I’m still here. That shit with Sheila…” She choked up.
“What the hell happened?” Pearl asked the million-dollar question.
“Honestly? I’m still not entirely sure.” Marisa placed the mask back over her face and sucked in some much needed air before continuing. “One minute I’m in the bathroom with Doodles eating my pussy like it was the last supper, and the next all hell is breaking loose. When we came out of the bathroom, the alarms were blaring and the whole bar was filling up with smoke. The first thing I did was try to go back to the VIP to check for you and Sheila. Shit was crazy with all those people trying to bum-rush their way out. I ended up coming across that nigga Boom, and he told me y’all were already outside. It wasn’t until I got out there and couldn’t find either of you that I realized he was full of shit. By then the roof had caved in, and it was over for whoever had been trapped inside.” Tears welled up in her eyes.
Pearl hadn’t realized that she was crying too until a tear splashed the back of her hand. “Do they know how it happened? How she got trapped?” She didn’t know why she had asked or why it even mattered, other than there being part of her that needed to piece together the last moments of her friend’s life.
“When I was riding in the back of the ambulance, I heard the paramedics talking about two guys and a girl who had gotten trapped in a supply closet when the place went up.” Marisa wept.
Pearl thought of the two guys who had been trying to slide off with Sheila before she had intervened. “Damn” was all she could manage to say. She imagined that Sheila had died a horrible death in that supply closet. She just hoped it had been quick.
Marisa read Pearl’s face. “Our girl never had a chance.”
Raised voices in the hall drew both of the girl’s attention to the room door. Knowledge was outside, explaining to someone why he could
n’t allow them into the room. Pearl craned her neck to see who it was, and spotted Sheila’s parents. A lump jumped into her throat, as she had been hoping to avoid them, at least until the loss wasn’t so fresh in everyone’s hearts. She looked to Marisa for direction as to what to do next, but her friend just shrugged. Pearl told Knowledge it was okay, and he reluctantly let them pass him and go into the room.
Sheila’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dubois, came in dressed every bit of the conservative parents they were, in shades of brown and black. Looking through their wardrobes, you’d have thought vibrant colors were a sin. Mrs. Dubois continued on to Marisa’s beside, a tattered brown leather-covered bible tucked to her chest. Mr. Dubois hovered near the door, glaring over the rim of his glasses at Pearl and Marisa like he’d caught them staggering out of a whorehouse.
“How are you girls?” Mrs. Dubois asked in a thick accent, managing to muster what passed for a smile under the circumstances.
“Fine. How are you, Mrs. Dubois?” Pearl stood and gave her a hug.
Mrs. Dubois pulled her in tight and inhaled deeply as if she were looking for traces of her daughter in those closest to her. “I’ve been better, but the good news is that it can’t get any worse.”
“We are truly sorry for your loss,” Pearl said sincerely. It took everything she had to keep from crying.
“Mesi.” Mrs. Dubois clasped Pearl’s hands between hers. “May neither of your parents ever know the grief that fills our home on this day.”
The statement stung Pearl and stirred her earlier guilt. “My condolences to you, too, Mr. Dubois.” She changed her focus so she wouldn’t have to look into Mrs. Dubois’s heartbroken eyes any longer.
“I appreciate your condolences, but I’d rather one of you told me who had my daughter in that bar.” Mr. Dubois stepped forward. His broken eyes swept back and forth between Marisa and Pearl.
“Mr. Dubois—” Pearl began, but was cut off.
“Please, before you refer to this street code of see no evil, hear no evil and tell me you don’t know what happened to my daughter, even though there is no doubt in my mind that the three of you were together last night, I would like you to consider this: not only did we lose our child, but a university lost a future scholar. Did Sheila ever share her good news with you?”