The Scourge

by R. Tilden Smith

  Oh, I can’t wait to taste this sweet young thang, Jill thought.

  She traced her tongue along the base of Victoria’s neck. Victoria’s breathing became more rapid, until she was hyperventilating. Poor thing is going to blow a gasket, she thought, amused. “Goodness Victoria! You need to calm down honey!”

  “I-I-I-I’m trying ma’am. I-I-I-I’m sorry. I-I-I’ve never done anything like this before!”

  “I understand honey. Take a deep breath. The first time is always the scariest.”

  “Y-Y-Yes ma’am,” Victoria replied as she inhaled deeply, trying to catch her breath.

  “I know, why don’t we talk about something else for a little while. Would you like that?”

  “Y-Yes.”

  “Ok, why don’t you tell me a little something about your neighbor, Miss Mojisola Douglas.”

  “Y-You mean Moji?”

  “Yes honey Moji. You went to her boyfriend’s party, am I right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, tell me what you saw. Some of the other girls already told me the juiciest bits but the story’s so good I would love to hear your account.”

  Victoria paused then spoke slowly, praying that Jill wouldn’t get bored and opt to resume her sexual advances. “I didn’t see much at the party because I got there sort of late. I heard that Moji was arguing with her boyfriend Darryl and then some girl named Queen got into it with Moji and pushed Moji into the pool.”

  Oh, yes!” Jill said, laughing, “I must meet this Queen person. She sounds delicious!”

  “Anyway,” Victoria said, “when I got there everybody thought that Moji had left the party but it turned out that she had just went into the house and crashed in one of the bedrooms.”

  “So she didn’t leave the party after she got pushed into the pool?”

  “No, because a couple of hours after the fight was over it started to rain so almost everyone had left. I stayed and was hanging out in the kitchen talking with Darryl’s friends from Florida when we heard someone running down the stairs.”

  “It was Moji?”

  “Yeah. I didn’t get to see her face before she ran out the door, but Brute said she was crying and looked very upset.”

  “Who’s Brute?”

  “Oh, Brute is one of Darryl’s friends from Florida.”

  “What a hideous name!”

  Under different circumstances, Victoria would have smiled or even laughed at the way Jill’s nose wrinkled up when she made that comment. But that time seemed so long ago. Now their relationship was all business. Jill’s business. The way Jill looked at her made her feel like a songbird trapped in gilded cage, a fragile thing to be used at the whim of its owner. “His name is not really Brute. That’s just his nickname. His real name is Bruce.”

  “Bruce what?”

  “Huh?”

  “What’s the boy’s full name child?”

  “Uh, I don’t know. I never asked him.”

  “See there honey,” Jill said, playfully tapping Victoria on the bridge of her nose with her index finger, “when I send you girls on these little junkets it’s important that you pay attention. You never know what little piece of information will be useful.”

  “I’m sorry Miss Jill.”

  “Don’t fret honey,” Jill said with a wink, “I’m certain you’ll think of a way to make it up to me.”

  Victoria felt a cold shiver travel down her spine. “I do remember something that happened earlier that day, right before she left for the party.”

  “Do tell.”

  “Well, you know, Moji and I live in the same building and on the same floor, the tenth floor. I live down the hall from Moji, but right across from her lives an old lady named Emma Watson. That morning I heard shouting and screaming out in the hallway. I poked my head out my door and saw Moji screaming at Mrs. Watson’s door.”

  “Really! What was she screaming about?”

  Victoria almost said the words ‘I don’t know’ before biting her lip. I don’t want to owe Jill any more favors than absolutely necessary, she thought. “She was screaming something about her right to have a dog. I do know that Mrs. Watson doesn’t like Moji’s dog. I think she’s scared of him.”

  “Is it that pit bull Tyson she’s always going on about?”

  “Uh huh, that’s the one.”

  “Why in heaven’s name would they be fighting about a dog?”

  “I didn’t catch all of the details but I think Mrs. Watson got some of the condo rules changed so that Moji will have to get rid of the dog.”

  “Oh my, I bet she didn’t like that.”

  “You’re right. She definitely looked upset. She was yelling and banging on Mrs. Watson’s door. She was making such a fuss that even her dog started barking and howling. It sounded like it wanted to get out there and tear Mrs. Watson to pieces.”

  “Oh my! Sounds like quite the drama! Did the police have to be called?”

  “No, just as it looked like things were about to get really crazy, her boyfriend Darryl showed up and got her to calm down.”

  “Hmmm, so everything turned out ok then?”

  “Well, yeah, at first. I saw them go into her apartment and everything got real quiet so I went back into my place to finish getting ready for the party. But then a few minutes later I heard some folks talking right outside my door. I look through my peephole and see Darryl and Moji fussing some more.”

  “My! It just gets better and better, doesn’t it? What were they arguing about?”

  “Well, I couldn’t hear all that well through the door but it sounded like Moji was upset about how Darryl was spending his money and he didn’t like the way she was getting into his business.”

  “Well bless their little hearts,” Jill said, “sounds like Darryl is tiring of his little buttercup. If I was a betting gal I would give my last shiny nickel that Moji will be in the market for a new man by this time next month.”

  “It-it-is that good?” Victoria asked, sensing that the conversation was about to end.

  “Yes, my dear Victoria, that’s very good,” Jill said, wrapping an arm around Victoria’s waist and pulling her close. “I tell you what, my dear. You do me a big favor and keep a close eye on your neighbor Moji for me. I want to know what she’s up to.”

  “I-I-I-I d-d-d-don’t know her very well. We just see each other in the halls and say hi.”

  “Well do me a favor hon and get to know her, ok?”

  “O-O-Ok.”

  Jill placed her index finger over Victoria’s lips. “Oh stop it with the stuttering and come over here a give me some sugar.”

  Victoria closed her eyes, swallowed hard, and took a deep breath. Though she promised herself that she wouldn’t cry, she felt tears running down her cheeks. The scent of Jill’s breath filled her nostrils, it was hot and wet, like the air in an old attic on a hot summer’s day. A wave of nausea swept over her as Jill’s tongue pierced the space between her tightly closed lips, writhing, forcing them apart, searching her mouth for its mate. Suddenly light bloomed behind her eyelids and her face got warm like a bright sun lamp had been shined in her face. She exhaled as Jill’s tongue quickly retreated from her mouth.

  “What the hell was that?” Jill said.

  Victoria opened her eyes and tried to blink back the bright light, using her forearm to provide protection from the sun-like object that had just appeared in the sky to their northeast. Before her eyes could adjust, the light faded as quickly as it had appeared. She heard Jill exit the hot tub and her vision cleared in time to see her naked silhouette walking gingerly on the damp wood floor to the terrace’s privacy wall, looking up at the sky.

  “Wow, that was something, huh?” Jill said, “I wonder what it was?”

  “Uh, I-I d-d-don’t know.”

  “I hope it wasn’t a plane crash or something horrible like that.”

  “W-W-Wouldn’t there be some sort of noise?”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Oh well, I’m sure the answer wi
ll be all over the internet tomorrow.”

  Jill made a half turn and took one step toward the hot tub when the entire building shook. She was thrown off balance, lost her footing on the slick floor and fell backwards,. She struck her head on the edge of a large clay planter hard enough to shatter it, spraying the floor with black soil and clay fragments.

  The water in the hot tub surged and picked Victoria up, smashing her pelvis into the edge of the deck then tossing her forward into middle of the tub. The compressed air of the shock wave slammed into the right side of Victoria’s face, perforating her eardrum.

  “Miss Jill!” Victoria said, trying to steady herself in the sloshing water. She heard the ‘whoosh’ of several small explosions in the distance, the sound dulled by the ringing in her ears. A second later the lights went out, throwing the dimly lit rooftop into complete darkness. “M-M-Miss Jill! Are you alright? Miss Jill? I can’t see you! Please say something!” Panic filled Victoria as she crawled from the hot tub onto the deck, feeling her way around in the blackness. She bumped into several paper lanterns that had torn from their frames and were strewn around the deck like half deflated beach balls. “M-M-Miss Jill? Are you ok? P-P-Please say something.” Victoria concentrated, trying her best to tune out the sudden choir of home and car alarms that blared for attention. Victoria crawled toward where she thought Jill had fallen, pitching her head to the side so that her good ear might catch the sound of movement or breathing. She crawled forward on her hands and knees a little at a time, sweeping her hands out in front of her after each baby step. Her hands finally found Jill. She was lying on her back. “M-M-M-Miss Jill! Ma’am, are you hurt? P-P-Please talk to me!” Jill’s legs were cold to the touch. Oh God, please don’t be dead! she thought. She put her fingers over Jill’s nose and mouth. She felt warm air pass over her fingertips. She’s breathing! she thought, relieved.

  Victoria’s eyes slowly adjusted to the dim starlight illuminating the terrace. She could see the rise of Jill’s fake breasts, jutting awkwardly from her less-than-tone torso. Glint from the broken clay and minerals in the plant soil sparkled like glitter in the dark, forming a speckled halo around Jill’s head. “M-M-Ma’am please wake up,” Victoria said, “P-P-Please! I don’t know what to do!” She brushed the dirt and clay pieces away and gently lifted Jill’s head off the floor, using both hands to trace the contour of Jill’s head. Victoria felt a deep gash at the base of Jill’s skull. Oh God! she thought, pulling one hand back and holding it close to her face. Her hand came away stained dark, coated from fingertips to wrist in a warm and sticky substance. Oh Jesus, she’s hurt! Victoria crawled to the privacy fence and cried into the darkness, “S-S-Someone please help us! P-P-Please! H-H-Help us!” Victoria fell to her knees and lay down next to Jill, then pressed her face into Jill’s hair and began to sob. With her good ear pointed to the sky, she heard the sounds of a city in agony; the belch of fires, the explosion of shattered glass, and the distant wail of klaxons. It all grew louder as time passed, drowning out her own cries for help. She closed her eyes tight and tried to shut out the cries of a city in despair.

  11

  “Blaze, you won’t believe this man!” Bruce said as he hopped through the patio door threshold and skidded to a stop on the smooth tile of the kitchen floor, “You know that honey wearing the black bathing suit, the with one with the slamming ass? I think she's gonna give me some play. She said she’d go skinny dipping with me after this meteor shower thing is done.”

  “That’s nice man,” Darryl said, acknowledging Bruce’s excitement with a raised eyebrow while holding his cell phone between his shoulder and ear. After a few seconds of silence, he threw the phone down on the granite countertop.

  “She still not answering?” Bruce asked.

  “No,” Darryl said with a sigh. “You sure she didn’t say something to you when she left?”

  “Nah. I mean, she ran outta here looking all angry and sad and shit. I told her you were upstairs sleeping but she just waved me off and jumped into the backseat of the car. She didn’t say nothing to me.”

  Darryl began to pace back and forth, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. He stopped and pointed an accusing finger at Bruce. “You should have told me she was still here Brute! I thought she’d left a long time ago.”

  Bruce feigned surrender, holding his meaty palms up by his ears. “Alright brother, chill. I’m sorry, ok? I was down here doing my thing, trying my best to get my wick lit, you know what I mean? I didn’t see you go upstairs and I damn sure didn’t see Queen follow you up there either.”

  Darryl’s shoulders slumped. He shuffled over to the doors that led to the backyard and watched as Queen, three of his teammates, and a couple of groupies from Jill’s crew, laughed and giggled while pushing a few deck chairs together. “You know I didn’t tell her to come up to my room, right?”

  “Yeah, I figured as much. But you know Queen, that girl is always thirsty. And you and that fat NFL contract looked like a mag of Ace of Spades.”

  “Yeah yeah, I know.”

  “You know I’m your boy Blaze. I’m not the one to be telling a man how to manage his women, but if it was me, as soon as I saw her step off the jet, I would’ve sent homegirl back to Jacksonville on the first thing flapping. Especially seeing how she and your folks don’t exactly see eye to eye.”

  Darryl thrust his hands into his pant pockets and let his brow rest against the cool glass of the french door. “She’s my girl Brute, I couldn’t just diss her like that. She and I have been through some wars man, some serious shit. There was a time when she was the only person I could talk to, the only person who understood the shit I was going through.”

  Bruce joined Darryl at the doorway. “Yeah, I know y’all were tight back in the day. The thing I remember the most though, after you left to play ball for the University of Miami, is Queen bragging how you were going to make it to the NFL, come back to Jacksonville, scoop her up, and y’all were going to live large.”

  “You never told me she said that.”

  “Yeah well, I ain’t seen you in a while. You kinda stepped off the planet when you left the U. Anyway man, when you didn’t come back she stopped talking you up and started spitting out babies with that dude Black Ice.”

  Darryl grunted. He knew the rest of the story. When he left for college, his plan seemed foolproof. Make his presence felt at the U, catch him a first round NFL contract, and come back to J-ville a hero. But it didn’t turn out that way. There were lots of distractions in Miami, the kind that were hard for him to ignore. Next thing he knew he was a third string wide receiver and sometimes kick returner on a team stacked with talent. For two years he barely saw the field and a year after that he lost his scholarship. Shame and frustration drove him to shun his friends, his family, and especially Queen. He couldn’t face her. So when the offer came to play in the Canadian Football League, he jumped at the chance, hoping to resurrect his reputation as an elite wide receiver and get another shot at the NFL. I thought I could spend a few months, maybe a year, honing my skills in the CFL and make the jump to the big leagues, he thought. But that shot didn’t come quickly enough. Months turned into years. Everyone he thought had his back, his parents, his girl, his homies, they all moved on—they stopped believing in him. They gave up on me. Queen’s betrayal hurt the most. His failure to make the pros was big news in his neighborhood and it wasn’t long before word got back to him that Queen had hooked up with Larry Williamson, aka “Black Ice,” a low-life crack dealer whose biggest claim to fame was that he was rumored to have shot a cop and got away with it. He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Queen made her choice. She decided to hitch her wagon to Ice. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out for her.”

  “Yeah,” Bruce said with a grin, “somebody forgot to tell her that drug dealers don’t retire, they always get downsized—six feet down.”

  The group outside burst into a chorus of nervous laughter and swear-laced exclamations as several bright streaks flashed acro
ss the sky. Darryl spotted Queen, still dressed in her bikini-spandex ensemble, lounging comfortably in the center-most chair. Though it was too dark and far away for him to be sure, it looked as though her arm was draped casually over the waistband of the man lying to her right. Guess she’s lining up plan B, he thought. He turned his attention back to Bruce. “Since the contract, things have been going kind of sour with me and my girl Moji. She’s been getting all in my business, questioning my decisions, shit like that. So when I saw Queen get off that plane, all the memories came rushing back, you know. I just got caught up for a minute.”

  Bruce shrugged. “I don’t know her, and like I said, I ain’t one to get in your business, but if it was me I’d be scraping together some of that contract money and buying Moji the biggest damn piece of please-forgive-me bling I could afford.”

  Darryl smiled at his friend. “I don’t think she would fall for that Brute. She ain’t that kind of girl.”

  “Bullshit. Throw enough cheddar in their face and every girl is that kind of girl. I’m just sayin’, if that shit worked for Kobe Bryant, it can work for any motherfucker.”

  Darryl chuckled at Bruce’s attempt at dispensing wisdom. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  “Yeah, It would be a shame to lose a sweet honey in the rock like that. She sounds like a take-home-to-momma kind of girl, you know what I mean?”

  “Yeah, yeah I do,” Darryl said.

  Bruce pointed toward the backyard just as three more bright streaks appeared in the sky. “Good, because here comes never-in-life-would-I-take-this-bitch-home-to-meet-my-momma girl.”

  Darryl looked where Bruce was pointing. Queen was stumbling clumsily toward them. She’d been drinking.

  “Want me to turn her around?” Bruce asked.

  Darryl inhaled deeply then quickly pushed the air out of his lungs. “Nah, I got this.”