by Noire
Wild Man laughed at that shit but Slick didn’t.
Instead, he looked square in his manz eyes with mad love and respect.
“Yo, I owe you,” Slick acknowledged straight up. “You came through righteously for Jewelz and you saved her life. I’ll never forget that. You looked out for me too, man, when I never even expected you to care. Me and Jewelz both owe you forever, homey. That’s word. From the heart.”
“You know how we get down,” Wild Man shrugged the love off. “Besides, y’all woulda done the same thing for me too. But check it,” he said looking around as his eyes went on scan. “This shit ain’t over yet. That diamond you yanked just elevated our criminal hustle to a whole different level. We gotta be super on-point with everything we do from here on out because we’re on our own. No more BBU, no more zippin ’em up. Fuck it, if this was our last hoorah then I’m glad we went out with a bang.” He shook his head. “I just wish Noodles coulda been here to roll out with us, man.”
“He is here, man,” Slick said, glancing up at the clear blue sky. “Noodles is still down with the crew man, and he’s gonna always be with us.”
“Yeah,” Wild Man said, blinking hard like he was about to choke up.
“But I was real wrong about something,” Slick said quietly. “I accused you of getting Noodles smoked and I kicked you off the crew. And yet and still you showed up to help me and Jewelz at that warehouse anyway. I was dead wrong for that, slime, and I apologize.”
Wild Man accepted Slick’s apology with a dap, then he nodded as he reached into his backpack and started pulling out his gear. He slipped outta the blood-stained security shirt and slid on a white button-down jacket with the words “Foo Man Chu’s Delivery” embroidered over the pocket in bold black letters.
He reached back inside his bag again and retrieved a folded white hat made of thin paper that was commonly worn by short order cooks. He set the hat on his head and paused for a moment as he watched Slick strip outta his security guard gear too.
His ace pulled a dingy t-shirt shirt on, and then quick as shit he snatched a raggedy, peasy-haired wig outta his backpack and yanked that shit down on his head. Then right before Wild Man’s eyes a look of stupidity washed over Slick’s cunning face. He slumped forward at the shoulders, and then shuffling his feet in his bird shit-stained boots, he opened his pocket-watch and went straight into Sometimey mode.
“Yo, you still got that diamond, son!” Wild Man hollered as his day-one turned away and started limp-walking toward the street. “Whassup with my fuckin cut?”
Slick looked over his slumped shoulder and shot his partner-in-crime a sly grin.
“C’mon, now. I owe you my life, son. I owe you Jewelz’s life. You just gonna have to trust a muthafucka,” Slick said as he headed toward the hospital so he could be by the side of the woman he loved. “Nigga you gonna have to trust and believe.”
$$$$$
Slick got to the hospital as fast as he could. His heart was beating fast and he was moving on a thousand, but he took off his bird cap and stopped at a vendor in the lobby and bought every long-stemmed white lily the man had on his cart. He even picked out a nice Hallmark card with a sweet poem written inside of it.
Slick made his way through the packed emergency room and headed straight over to the front desk clerk. Every inch of his spirit ached for Jewelz, and just knowing she had gone through all that trauma with Goody and was fighting cancer on top of it left Slick with a feeling of utter guilt in his bones.
He just couldn’t get around the fact that Jewelz coulda got ended today and it was all his fault. He put the blame for all the shit that happened squarely on his own shoulders because he was the one who had sent Jewelz out there to risk her life for a mission that in hindsight wasn’t even worth it.
Slick was directed upstairs to the intensive care unit where he slipped a few hundred bucks to the receptionist so he could bypass all the drama. A million thoughts ran through his mind as he walked into the room where Jewelz lay sleeping. He peered down into her face and damn near wept.
Jewelz looked run over. She had a little oxygen port in her nose, and all kinds of tubes and shit were sticking outta her arms. As Slick stood there staring down at her he could see that even in her sleep she was in very deep pain.
“Hey tough girl,” Slick whispered to her softly. “It’s ya dude Slick. I told you I would come back for you, and I’m here. I’m here and I’ma stay right by your side until you’re ready to get outta here and come home with me, ya heard?”
Jewelz’s eyes fluttered for a moment and then they slowly opened up. Slick took her hand in his then bent forward and kissed her forehead. Jewelz moaned. They had doped her up on some good shit and she struggled to see him through her grogginess. When she realized who was standing there holding her hand, all the energy in the room changed.
“Get…get the fuck away from me,” Jewelz muttered in a weak voice as she pulled her hand out of his grasp. “I don’t want you in here. I don’t need you no more.”
“Hold up, slow down baby,” Slick said, his own emotions running wild too. “Please don’t talk like that. You been through a lot and I just wanna comfort you, that’s all. Look, I’m sorry for how all of this got twisted and tangled up. I’m sorry I hurt you, Jewelz. I was on some next level bullshit and I got caught looking stupid as shit. Forget what popped off at my crib. Fuck the gun, the bullet, and please forget all the stupid shit I said to you. I didn’t mean none of it and I’m sorry. Just let me just be here for you baby. That’s all I wanna do for the rest of my life is be here for you.”
“Nah,” Jewelz said as she shook her head and started coughing. Slick grabbed a cup of water off her night table and tried to get her to sit up and drink some, but she wasn’t beat for that shit. She pushed him and the cup away.
“Just get away from me, Slick. You turned your back on me. You pushed me outta your house. I don’t need your love and I don’t want your pity. Handgun is dead, Noodles is dead, Whitey is dead, and the Zip ’em Up Crew is dead too! I ain’t got no more rap for you, Slick. I tried to give you everything I had in my heart and it was never good enough. Anything that me and you mighta ever had together is dead and over with. It’s done.”
Jewelz’s words came outta her mouth softly, but they cut Slick deeper than any knife he’d ever faced. He started to deny it, but as doped up as she was, he could tell Jewelz meant every single word she said. And what made it even worse was that everything she was saying was true. When she had been tryna give him her love he didn’t even want it. How much more could she have done? How many more ways could she have shown him just how deep she cared?
Slick felt his blood growing cold in his veins. And as he looked into the eyes of his oldest friend and she stared back at him with undisguised wrath, Slick knew it was a dub. It was a wrap. The love train had pulled outta the station and Jewelz was finally done. But he still had to try.
“C’mon, Jewelz,” Slick pleaded as a tear slipped from his eye and rolled down his face without him even realizing it. “Gimme another chance, baby. Please.”
The chief gunslinger was practically on his knees. He was lower than he had ever been in his life, and he was willing to beg and plead all night long if it meant Jewelz would let him back into her heart again.
“Look, baby,” he said softly, “I get it. I swear I do. There’s no excuse for the type of fuck-shit that I put you through. I’ve got no defense. I placed everything and everybody else in front of you. I let cheap bullshit come between us, and I was dead-ass wrong for that. But I love you, Jewelz. I love you with my whole fuckin heart, and I can make it up to you. I swear on my mother, I can. You my rider and you always have been. I owe you everything, Jewelz. Everything. Don’t leave me here alone, love. You’re all I have left in this whole fuckin world. Please don’t leave me here alone.”
“You’ll be just fine Samir,” Jewelz said dryly. “Save them tears for the next dumb bitch ’cause I’m all the way cool on you. Matter fact, I
need you to leave. Get on outta here before I tell the nurse to call security. There’s no reason for me and you to ever be in the same room again, Slick. Not even at my funeral.”
Jewelz reached for the emergency call button and clicked it for assistance.
Slick wanted to wait for security and then tear shit up, but he decided to respect Jewelz’s wishes and just fade out.
With his heart ripping apart at the seams, he walked outta Jewelz’s room and headed downstairs toward the hospital exit in stunned silence. Tears streamed freely down his face as Slick dropped the lilies and the card in the trash on his way out the door.
He felt like shit but he was getting exactly what he deserved and he knew it. He’d been so hell-bent on revenge and blinded by lust that he had lost the only woman in the world that he truly loved. In his stupid attempt to safeguard his heart and protect himself from the bittersweet trials of love, the scared little boy in him had tried to win at a grown-man’s game and he’d failed.
If you ain’t loving you ain’t living, baby!
Slick heard his father’s deep voice in his ear and there was no doubt that Big Slick had been right. Slick had misused his cards and played himself right off the board. Like a dumb-ass pup, he had made his bed hard and lumpy, and now he had no other choice but to lay in that shit.
$$$$$
Out on the Rock, Honore Morales, aka Prisoner 104579, stepped into the intake tank with a fresh murder charge over her head and a brand new jumpsuit.
Just like all the other inner-city criminals, she was unshackled and told to strip down to her birthday suit. A fat white female guard ordered her to stick out her tongue and bend over and spread those beautiful cheeks apart. Honore had done that shit plenty of times before, but this time there was no dick waiting for her, and a probing latex-covered finger was about to become her new man.
The intake cell was dirty as fuck. Strands of hair and caked-up mildew and grime were all over the place and the dank aroma mingled with the faint odor of musk and stale piss.
Two other inmates were already sitting on the bench waiting to get processed, and Honore sat down between them. On the outside Honore looked fearless just like every other inmate, but inside her head was whirling with questions and anxiety.
“If you wanna take a shower you can do so,” the guard said as she handed Honore a bar of generic soap and some shower shoes. “You’ll be taken up to see the nurse in a few. Fold your street clothes up and leave them on the bench next to you.”
Honore wasn’t even thinking about stepping foot in that grime-filled shower. She stared at the shoes she’d been given. They were flimsier than the flip-flops you got at the damn Chinese nail salon.
Shaking her head, she flashed back to that last look that had been on Sly McFly’s face right before he jumped outta the van and left her behind so the pigs could get her. With Avi’s body slumped over and blood flowing everywhere, she was lucky them cops didn’t Mike Brown her ass right then and there on the spot.
Instead, they had ripped her from the van and slammed her on the ground like she was a grown-ass nigga. They swung their billy clubs down on her like maniacs as she screamed and begged for mercy, and the only reason they had stopped is because peeps on the streets started wildin and filming the assault with their cell phone cameras. Honore’s back and shoulder were sore as shit, and the side of her face was bruised and swollen from smacking the concrete, but she knew she was lucky to be alive, especially since they had swiss-cheesed Chimp Charlie like he had just murdered a baby.
And it was all his own fault too. That fat idiot had panicked like a goddamn coward! If he hadn’t’a jumped outta the van and ran they all coulda gotten away!
Honore was gritting her teeth and rocking back and forth when the prisoner sitting on her left patted her on her shoulder.
“Hey, w’sup light-skin,” the disheveled older woman whispered as she nudged Honore with her elbow “Baby girl please tell me you snuck some percs or some mollies or something up in here. I’ll pay you, but I’m itching real bad and I need something to calm me down.”
“Back the fuck away from me!” Honore snapped at the fiend. “I don’t give a fuck about your habit or whatever kinda fix you need. Just don’t put your nasty hands on me no more!”
“Well damn!” the woman twisted her lips and recoiled with an attitude. She leaned away from Honore and snarled, “You ain’t have to come at me all disrespectful like that! All you had to fucking say was no. You young bitches think ’cause you got a little perfume on and ya nails are done up that you better than somebody. But you sitting up in here witcha lip poked out like a fucking punk though. Suck it up! I bet that lip wasn’t all over the floor when you was out there on the streets doing whatever the hell landed you in here right next to me!”
Without a word Honore slapped the fiend so hard her head bounced off the wall and she fell straight to the floor. Honore jumped all over her old ass with a quickness. She had heard mad stories about crazy dyke bitches in the joint and she started wildin on the smoker with right and left hooks for days.
But not because she thought the chick wanted to fuck her, and not because the older woman was talking shit neither. Honore had pounced because the bitch was right!
It seemed like just minutes ago she had been about to pull off the jewelry heist of the century, and now she was holed up in a damp and dirty cell that she might not ever get out of.
Honore was on autopilot as she kept on chipping up the loud-mouthed fiend. The lady was old enough to be her mother, but when she looked down into her face all Honore saw was a bunch of people who had done her wrong!
She saw Sly, Cucci, Slick, Wild Man and everybody else in her life who had played her out, and she kept right on punching.
The lady tried to fight back but she was too dope-sick and way too light in the ass to deal with Honore’s fire. The intake guard sitting at the desk heard the commotion but she turned her head and kept right on texting her boyfriend. It was almost time for her break and didn’t feel like filling out no incident report, so she just tuned out the noise and let them fight.
Finally the other chick in the cell stood up and walked over to Honore as she was pounding away on the poor woman.
“I’m not trying to get in ya business,” the heavy-set chick said calmly. “I know ol’ auntie here was outta line, but I think she’s had enough. Plus I heard you in here for a body. You prolly got a lotta steam on ya chest and I know you stressed out, but this ain’t the way to start off. Now, if you done already gave up hopes of getting outta here one day, then keep doing you, boo. But if you got other plans, then this ain’t the way to go. Just like you fighting this chick all tough, you gonna need to fight your charges even harder.”
Honore looked up at the chick with tears of rage in her eyes. She looked back down at the fragile woman she was beating on and got up off her. Honore sat back down on the bench and soaked up the wise jailhouse words.
Ol’ girl was right. She needed to pull herself together until she could find herself a way the hell up outta there and get her some payback. Beating up fiends wasn’t the answer. Honore forced herself to think about the bigger picture. She had a lil money in the stash for a lawyer and she needed to get prepared. Shit, this was jail, not fuckin prison! She hadn’t been convicted of a damn thing yet! It was time to put her thinking cap on because it wasn’t over till it was over!
CHAPTER 15
You Do Dirt You Get Dirty
For six long weeks Sly McFly had been laying low in one of his plush and comfortable tucky spots waiting for shit to cool down. With the police-shooting death of Chimp Charlie and the arrest of Honore, his front-line support structure had collapsed all around him but it hadn’t slowed him down not one fuckin bit.
Sitting back in the cut and sipping on top-shelf liquor and eating sardines and Ritz crackers, he had watched the news reports about the infamous Pink Lady diamond with a bitter taste of vengeance in his mouth.
“Stupid muthafuckas!�
� he spit at the television reporters as they pinned the entire Brinks truck robbery and murders on him and Chimp Charlie. “Me and Charlie ain’t steal no Brinks truck and we didn’t shoot no damn naked security guards neither!”
The hunt was still on hot and heavy for the stolen diamond, which was why Sly was sitting on that shit like a hen on an egg. With Avi dead he had been forced to make a connection with a cat from Paris who knew some underground diamond traders. They were eager to get their hands on the rock he was holding and promised they could get him a good price for it.
All Sly McFly had to do was get his ass on a plane to France this afternoon and hook up with his connect and he would be swimming in cream for the rest of his life.
Sly glanced at the fine attire that was laid out on his plush king-sized bed. The old-lady bloomers, the padded bra, the carefully brushed wig, the plain church dress, the coffee-colored stockings, and the white half-slip, were all about to serve a serious purpose.
“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do,” Sly muttered under his breath as he walked into the bathroom and stripped down naked. He stood in front of the full-length mirror staring into his own hazel eyes. Satisfied by what he saw in himself, he picked up a small baggie from the edge of the sink. With steady hands he dropped the key to his future into the baggie, and then he carefully sealed it.
Next, he dug two fingers deep into an open jar of Vaseline and scooped out a big glob. Smearing the petroleum jelly all over the plastic baggie, Sly McFly bent over and made like a mule as he took a deep breath and stuck the Pink Lady diamond straight up his ass.
$$$$$
Prisoner 104579 sat in the dayroom of Rosie Singer’s Women’s Facility on Rikers Island eating a pack of saltine crackers and watching Breaking News on Channel Seven at Six.