by Bella Knight
Last Days in Baton Rouge
“Simple pleasures are perfection…”
The morning sun was warm and bright, with a cocoon of golden light that crept into the hotel rooms. The boys were up first, watching idiotic cartoons, to everyone else’s amusement. Henry ordered enough food for a platoon: waffles, strawberries, grapes, bacon, cheesy grits, and carafes of orange juice. The boys consumed so much that Henry had to order more bacon and grits.
Grace was all about telling her mother, in exact detail, what she had done the day before.
“Wish I could have gone with you,” she said.
“You can today,” said Lily. “We have an escape planned for the kids. It’s a mystery and you figure out how to get out of a locked room.”
Grace bounced up and down and said, “Let’s go!”
“Full stomach first,” said Callie. Grace smiled widely and ate a slice of bacon.
Lily and Ace took the rental car and the kids to a climbing wall, and then to the Escape Artist place to solve mysteries.
Henry stood. “Gonna ride around,” he said. “Have a good day, ladies.” He hugged Ivy, Ghost, and Alicia, and saluted Baby. Then he was gone.
After a hurried conference, Ghost and Alicia got Baby to move around slowly, carefully.
“I’m walking like I’m ninety,” she complained to Ivy. “I gotta slammin’ body and I can’t earn nothin’ like this.”
“What you wanna do?” asked Ivy, passing her some orange juice.
“My mama was a ho,” she said. “She came from Thailand with her boyfriend. He got her kilt when he got inna fight with the 8 Balls Boyz. He ran off. First smart thing he did. I knew about Baby Fats, and he took me in.”
“How old were you?” asked Ivy, eating a strawberry.
“Thirteen,” said Baby.
Ghost nodded. “My mama too,” she said. “Needle. I’m good now, work wit bikes wit Killa here, got some large dogs.”
“I want a dog, but later,” said Baby.
“Whatchu wanna do?” asked Ghost. “We can get ya into fixing Harleys, pays good money.”
“I’m a bar back, and I’m learning to tend bar. We got dancers at our club, too,” said Bella. “They’re dancing to pay their way through college.”
“I like what I do,” said Baby. “Easy money most nights.”
Ivy nodded. “It was. How old are you?”
“Why you wanna know?” asked Baby, walking another circuit of the balcony. Her right eye was still swollen shut and an alarming shade of black and purple.
“Options,” said Ivy.
“On the street, I’m fifteen. I’ll be eighteen in two months.”
“We’ll get you a computer today,” said Ivy. “Gotta have your GED to work for Di at the Palomino, a legal whorehouse in Vegas. You get your GED, we’ll get you a broken-down trailer. You strip it, you fix it up, you attach it to the Palomino. Pretty girl like you, the money be rolling in. You do girls?”
Baby straightened her shoulders and winced. “Anytime, anywhere,” she said.
“Good,” said Ivy. “Make more money that way. What you wanna do after?”
“After what?” asked Baby.
Ghost snorted, “This smart bitch here,” she slapped Ivy’s shoulder, “saved her money, bought her a rock n’ roll bar. She be makin’ book every night, off her back.”
“Not my thing,” said Baby.
Ivy sighed, “There are whorehouses in the desert, closed ones, pretty places, just filling with sand. One of them I thought about buying. It’s just this side of the county line, closest to Las Vegas you can get. You buy it, get it fixed up, it could work.”
“You willin’ to invest?” asked Baby.
Ivy laughed and said, “Maybe. Let’s look on my cell phone for GED classes. You can probably just take them on your cell.”
Baby’s eyes narrowed. “You promised me a computer.”
Ivy laughed, “All right, I’ll look it up.”
They called Room Service to take away the food. Ivy found several stores selling used laptops nearby. She found a laptop repair store and headed out. Bella went with her.
The young black man at the counter smiled widely. “What can I do for you today?”
“You got any fixed laptops that you sell?”
He thought a minute, then smiled. “I’ve got one. Idiot just left it here, disappeared. Phone number and the name he gave us is bogus. Older but super-fast once we were through with it.”
“I’ll take it,” said Ivy. “How much?” They negotiated a few hundred dollars, and the young man included a laptop backpack and a wireless mouse. She also bought a burner phone for Baby.
Back at the hotel, she gave the laptop to Baby. Baby had it open, had researched an online GED program, and had two trailers up on her screen in minutes, using the hotel’s wi-fi password. Ivy showed her photos of her own trailer, covered in silks and gold and silver spray-painted furniture and a round bed.
“I can make this work,” said Baby. “Go all red and black, be a powerful Asian lady.” She stuck out her chin. Ivy tried not to cringe at the blue-black bruise on her jaw and her cut lip.
“Excellent,” said Ivy, handing her some ice packs. “Lay these on you, drink some sodas, and have at it. We’re gonna take a ride, bring back lunch later. You need anything?”
“No,” said Baby, staring at the screen. “This is easy shit. Get it done in two months, easy.”
“Awright,” said Ghost. She held up the burn phone, plugged into a charger. “You got our numbas now in this here phone. You need anyfing, you call us, we come runnin.’ We ain’t goin’ far.”
“Yeah,” said Baby, poking at her keyboard. They left.
They were down the elevator, at Ivy’s and Ghost’s bikes, when Ghost said, “That girl be lyin.’ She only know pimps and pushers.”
“Word,” said Killa. “We givin’ her freebies, but the minute her face clears up, she outta here. She don’ know us, she don’ trust us.”
“Whatever paperwork that girl’s got has gotta be bogus. I doubt she’s seventeen,” said Ivy. “But she’d never go for school, not even the homeschool one at the club. She’s a street rat who can’t see anything but street.” She sighed, “At least at Di’s no one will beat her up, and she’ll make a lot more money than she would on some street corner. She’ll keep most of it. Di also keeps her girls clean, both medically and off smack and shit. You use, you lose. Any of you see any tracks on her?”
“Naw,” said Ghost. “Just black and blue over every fuckin’ bit of skin she has.”
“Fuck,” said Killa. “Gotta not let that happen no more.”
“You and Killa here gotta keep her on the straight and narrow,” said Ivy. “Get her straight, no matter what it takes. If we can get her to see beyond the street, maybe that girl can make something of herself.”
Killa nodded, as did Ghost who said, “We take care o’ it.”
“I will too,” said Ivy, “but she needs all of us if she’s going to stay alive.” Ivy put on her helmet. “Let’s ride,” she said.
They rode the river, reveling in the roar of the Harleys, the breeze in their faces, and the feel of the road.
They were all back by the early afternoon. They picked up Baby, and they went to a restaurant with a huge wooden table and all the clam chowder and shrimp Po-boy sandwiches they could eat. They washed it down with sweet tea.
Grace and the boys regaled them of how they escaped from the inside of a pyramid, and how they became secret agents. Grace lorded it over the boys that she got them out -twice. She also rang the bell on the climbing wall the fastest.
Callie said, “Grace, honey, gloating isn’t pretty. Don’t lord it over them.”
“Don’t listen to her, honey,” said Lily. “Girls rock!” They fist-bumped, and everyone laughed.
They put Baby in a coffee shop with chaise lounges and her new laptop, and she waved them off. They walked around, looking at the architecture, and stopped for ice cream. They had
a moment where Ivy and Ace were concerned about the boys’ reaction, but they didn’t seem to associate ice cream with the kidnapping. They walked through parks… actually, the kids chased each other, and threw a tennis ball around. The tennis ball game ended when a golden retriever stole it, and Keiran said he didn’t want to throw anything with dog spit on it. Grace, Keiran, and Pavel played with the dog, throwing the ball. A large yellow labrador joined in.
“Shit,” said Ace. “The boys live at the school, and I don’t know if they allow dogs.”
“Text them,” said Ivy. Ace texted Principal Wovoka, who texted back that she had been considering creating a therapy dog program for the students to do, for some volunteer hours.
Ivy nodded. “I heard about that,” she said. “They get shelter dogs as puppies and train them to visit people in nursing homes, kids in hospitals, stuff like that.”
“Awesome,” said Lily. “I wonder… we have a car with us because of Baby and Grace…”
“Gotta be small dogs,” said Ace, “like a corgi or a French bulldog. We still gotta get our bikes home; we can’t all rent a car.”
“I wanna pug,” said Lily.
“Got a pug and a dachshund and possibly a corgi at a pound thataway,” said Ivy, looking it up on her cell phone, pointing off to the right.
Ace sighed, and they all followed Ivy to the pound. It took only minutes for them to make their choices, and much longer to do the paperwork.
Daisy the Dachshund ended up in the backseat with Grace, and Jake the pug ended up in the front on Lily’s lap.
Henry got himself a smart, stout corgi named Bess, and sighed. “Gonna have to get me a sidecar,” he said. “Everyone at the club will laugh at me.”
Ace pounded him on the back. “I have to get one too, my man.”
Ivy already had her phone out. “Thataway,” she said. “There’s a pet supply store on the way.”
The pet supply store was a hit with the dogs. They got snacks, food, beds, and toys. There were shelter dogs there, and Pavel found his true love, a wide-eyed beagle named Duke.
“Good God,” said Ace. “Everyone will have to get a sidecar. With all this stuff, there won’t be room for dogs or people!”
Bella whipped out a cell phone. “The car’s a rental,” she said. “I’ll just get us something big.”
They got everybody groomed and got their shots at the in-house vet while they waited on the new transportation. Bella got one of those SUVs that seat seven and filled up the back with dog stuff. The car rental people carted off the old car but left the car seat for Grace.
Henry and Lily got sidecars for the dogs. “I got ‘em at home,” said Ghost. “May as well take one of them dogs.”
They bought special straps that hooked into a harness to keep the dogs in place. Jake the pug loved being hooked into Lily’s sidecar and laughed into the wind.
They picked up Baby, who freaked out at all the dogs in the car. “I gotta sit with a dog on my lap?” she asked.
Henry took his corgi. “Come on, Bess,” he said. “Let’s roll.” She yipped and licked his nose. They all laughed.
The hotel balked at the influx of dogs. They checked out, laughing, filling up the sidesaddles with T-shirts and jewelry and other loot from their trip. Henry, Ivy, and Grace filled theirs with dogfood and water containers. They found a gumbo place with outdoor seating that would accept the dogs. They waited for the rest of the Nighthawks to join them. Grace and the boys fed the dogs some table scraps.
A great rumble prefaced the coming of the rest of the Nighthawks. The riders consumed several pitchers of sweet tea and bowls of gumbo, then they were on the road once again. The main group lead the pack while the slowpokes hit up rest stops to feed, water, and walk the dogs. Rather than trying to find a hotel to take the dogs, they popped tents at a campsite, dined on burgers and hot dogs around a fire, and whipped out the ukuleles. Gregory taught Grace how to hold the ukulele and play a few notes. She laughed; her mother looked on indulgently.
Callie sighed, “How the hell am I going to feed her and the dogs?” she asked, holding up her broken arm.
“That’s easy,” said Bella. “You’re my new cocktail server. I’m going to be a bartender to give Ivy time off.”
“It’s a rock club named Dirty Rock in Las Vegas,” said Bella.
Ivy rolled her eyes. “Thanks for hiring someone without talking to me first,” she grumped.
“Ace did,” said Bella. “Lily’s the coolest person ever.”
“Point taken,” said Ivy. Ace and Lily kissed, and giggles ensued.
“How you end up with that asshole?” Bella asked, passing around frozen juice pops that been stored in the ice of the cooler.
“He was an ass,” said Callie. “First, he treated us right, and brought little things like coloring books for Grace.” She laughed brokenly. “Grace will color for about ten minutes, then she wants to move.” Callie wiped her eyes. “He couldn’t understand why she wants to move, why she wants to sing and dance.”
She looked over at her daughter, struggling to hit a chord.
“‘Why she want to move around all the time, running and dancing?’ He would yell. I had enough when he told her to shut the fuck up. I told him it was over, to find someone else. He hit me then. I told Grace to run.”
Tears were streaming down her face. She wiped them away.
“I put up my arm when he swung at me, and he broke my arm. I screamed some, hoping someone would come by.” She smiled at Ivy and Bella. “Then Wonder Woman and her sidekick busted in my door, and how I’m wearing a cast and watching my daughter play the ukulele.”
Ivy ducked her head, and so did Bella. “We both ran,” said Ivy. “No one gets to hurt someone in front of us.”
“Dey do dat,” said Killa. “Dey rush in. Ace, he promise Letitia he take care ob me, he do. Gave me to Bonnie and Ghost, make me fix bikes. Make me learn somfin.’”
“Grace took lessons today,” said Callie. “Willingly. On the little tablet. Learned about colors and wavelengths, switched to coding, did a math game.” She sighed. “Wish high school had been the same. Dropped out at fifteen just before Grace came along.”
She laughed a little bitterly.
“Found out fourteen-year-old boys don’t wanna get married and settle down. Now, I gotta go back to school, get my GED, get a better job, be a better mom for her.”
“Word,” said Ghost. “Dey got us all in GED programs. Henry sez it cuz we maybe wanna move on, gotta prove our skills.”
“Shit,” said Ivy. “I’m an asshole. Got a computer for Baby and didn’t get one for you.”
Callie laughed and said, “You see my daughter do anything for over fifteen minutes at a time? They got her switching subjects so she don’t get bored. There’s a timer and everything. Then, she goes to jump rope or tease the boys or something, and I got time. I already asked Baby here what course she’s in, and I’m in it too.”
Ivy held up her soda can. “To getting out of the hole and enjoying life,” she said.
“Word,” said Ghost, and the women drank, even Baby.
Baby had been using the cold soda cans as impromptu ice packs. The open road jiggled her a lot.
“Can I get a beer?” she said. “I’m running out of this script,” she said, holding up the cylindrical bottle.
“Shit,” said Ivy. “I didn’t know.”
“Fuck me,” said Ghost. “I shoulda thoughta it.” She fished out a beer from the cooler, and gave it to Baby.
Ivy said, “You take this now, but you stay stone clean from now on. You can drink with patrons, but drink apple juice or cherry juice or something. Better keep sharp, and you’ll get what you want.”
Baby nodded and said, “Got it. High don’ fly.”
Ivy nodded. “Yeah, Baby, that’s it. High don’t fly. But you have wings, baby girl, you’ll see.”
“Word,” said Ghost. “I make me close ta fify large a year.”
“What the fuck?” asked Baby. “F
ixing bikes?”
Killa nodded. “Get more wit my hands dirty den on da street corner.”
Baby stared into the fire, and the conversation switched to stories about the bar, about the club, rides they’d taken, and the new custom Harley trike Ghost and Alicia were building for a client. Just for a moment, Callie allowed herself to think about the future, and relax in this motley collection of strays; human and canine. The dogs slept on their beds or in laps, and ate treats, and barked at the singing. It was a little slice of heaven.
Baby saw people who could get her what she wanted. She began to realize that they took in strays, like the dogs, and didn’t seem to want anything in return. She decided to ride this ride as long as it lasted.
San Antonio
They hit up a truck stop just outside Houston the next day. They filled up their bikes, gave the dogs water and a walk, and ate a huge breakfast with platters of pancakes, bacon, sausage, biscuits, honey and syrup. They had carafes of orange juice, hot chocolate, and coffee. The “service dogs” were allowed in as long as they sat quietly, which they did, after being bribed with bacon. They said their goodbyes to Bella and Baby; Bella rented another car to take Baby back to Vegas for some much-needed rest. Keeping up with the hyperactivity of the kids exhausted her.
A few days later they rode into the San Antonio, and went straight to the River Walk. They found a hotel that didn’t mind not-yet-trained service dogs. Grace and the boys had been watching videos, so everyone got a lesson on how to get the dogs to sit and to stay. Everyone got little packets of dog kibble, and whoever was in charge got a water bottle, a little bowl, and plastic dog poop bags. The last one got everyone complaining and groaning, along with a lot of laughter.
Ace, Lily, Keiran, Pavel, and Grace went to the Natural Bridge Caverns, enjoying a day of cool, underground sights. Ivy went to a computer repair shop and found a great laptop for Callie. Then, they found a doctor for both Callie and Baby and got some painkillers for both of them. They went to the River Walk, found a gorgeous cafe, and put Baby and Callie there with their phones and laptops. They loaded credit cards to eat and drink what they wanted.
Henry, Ivy, Ghost, Killa, Bella, Baby and the dogs walked along the river. There were plenty of places to sit and relax, and they got hot enough to stop for cold slush drinks and to water the dogs all along the way. They crossed and re-crossed bridges, told stories, and laughed as hard as they could. They shopped, picking up turquoise and silver jewelry. Even Henry got into it, buying silver feather earrings for his own ears. Everyone loved the little waterfall; the dogs got wet, shook it off, and ran in the water again while they all laughed. Then, they all dried off in the sun and saw a show of Mexican dancers.