by Zach Tate
In my earpiece I heard Yoda saying, “You want some of this good stuff? Come and let me give you some.”
Yoda told me later that he was getting into Vampire/rapist’s head. He explained that, for the most part, rape is about urges, dominance, and control. He said if he acted like he wanted the sex, it would kill the urge of the attacker, take away his dominant position, and buy him time. After he took the knife, the rest was a mess.
I ran as fast as I could. When I cut the corner, Yoda was holding the man by the back of his open shirt collar. Yoda’s right hand plunged the crimson blade deep into Vampire flesh. Yoda gutted the freak like a fat pig. He plunged the blade high in the man’s neck and then low under his arms.
When Yoda and the freak reached the middle of 43rd Street, Yoda collapsed the freak’s lungs with a fatal blow, but he was still standing.
Yoda was sandwiched between Marcy, Elexus and me while we were all in the middle of street. A hundred feet separated us from Yoda on both sides. The queers were on the far side watching the whole thing, but I was closer to the scene. Between us, a photographer from the New York Times building next door, clicked away. Yoda’s hand was on autopilot, plunging the sharp blade into the kiddy freak.
When the rapist fell lifelessly to the pavement, Yoda removed the knife from out of his victim’s armpit. A crowd gathered and then quickly scattered when Yoda turned around with blood all over him. He walked right past me like I was a stranger and winked. I didn’t know what to do, but Marcy started screaming while kneeling at the dead man in an effort to draw everyone’s attention.
Like a zombie, I walked a few yards behind Yoda. He left a light trail of blood behind him. I still had my earpiece in, and Yoda was losing his breath when he rambled into the mike.
“Stay back. Blood-sucking lame gonna try to take my manhood on the outside? If I could bluff ‘em in jail, then I can beat ‘em in the streets. Damn booty bandits. Had to take…had to take the knife away from the freak. Sucker thought he was good. Thought he could whip old Yoda? Cuz…cuz, I’m losing a lot of blood, cuz.”
I wanted to run up and help him, but he told me to stay back. I obeyed. Between 43rd and 42nd Streets, the rush hour traffic on the sidewalk was so thick that it was hard for me to see him. In the space of one block, I watched him stop in the entrance of stores, turned around and walk backwards. He then looked me in the eyes, snatched a red, I Love NY shirt from a bin outside of Proverb’s shop. He placed a hat on his head and was weaving in and around the streetwalkers. I understood right there what blending was and how Brave Dave had disappeared into thin air when I first met Yoda.
I followed behind him the best I could. He cut the corner on 42nd Street, and picked up his pace. The red shirt camouflaged the blood that leaked from his body. The red cotton fibers soaked up the blood, and prevented him from leaving a trail. When I saw Yoda go into Camera World, I already knew where he was going.
I doubled back around to Seventh Avenue with my priorities in tact. Snatching my briefcase was one priority, and getting to the Carter was another.
When I cut the corner of 43rd Street, the block was swarming with police, news reporters, and gridlock. The freak's body, still lying on the grimy street, brought cars and pedestrians to a halt. I moved with caution. Trying to avoid anyone who may have seen me in the street earlier, I moved as fast as I could until I made to the Carter.
When I entered the hotel lobby, I asked Suki for the key to the service elevator. She saw horror on my face, along with the commotion outside, and threw the keys at me. I closed the accordion door of the elevator and dropped it to the basement. When I got there, Yoda was on the floor trying to kick the blood hungry rats at his feet. I used all my strength to pull him into the small space of the elevator. I took it up to his suite, trying to make time speed up—and my heart slow down. During the ride, blood leaked out of my mentor. I applied pressure, grateful that something I learned in the army was finally being put to good use.
We reached the penthouse floor. To avoid suspicion, I sent the fragile car back down to the lobby.
I used Yoda’s keys to let myself in. While leaving his front door open, I partially carried, and partially dragged him to his bathtub. I then removed all of his clothes, and ran cold water over his ugly gashes. The blood leaked, changing the clear water crimson. As it flowed down the drain, I prayed I didn’t lead someone to our location.
To my calculation, ten minutes passed. After rinsing the blood from Yoda’s body, I scrubbed the stains from my own hands. Suddenly, I heard heavy steps coming into the suite. I didn’t even have to look back to see who it was. I was busted. My eyes were closed and I knew that the police were going to have a field day with me and Yoda’s injured body.
With my eyes closed in prayer, I heard a familiar voice yelling at me. “Move out of the way,” Elexus said. While dropping a pile of towels and medical supplies at my feet, Suki rushed in behind him, “Move-out-way.”
I felt like I was in the trauma unit of an emergency room. After reality hit me, I stood, turned around, and saw Lee. He was nonchalantly mopping up the trail of blood as if it were a simple spilling of grape juice.
Looking at the figures in the bathroom, I asked, “What are y’all doing here?”
As Elexus moved around the tub like a doctor in an emergency room, he gave me a mean look. It was the first time I saw the masculine side of him.
“Fool, you think this is the first time one of us got hurt down here? This is the jungle. You bound to get a scratch, if you come out alive.”
“Yoda—Yo-da? Dr. Gibb-son is on de way,” Suki yelled as Yoda lost consciousness.
Elexus lifted Yoda and sat him up. He stuck gauze pads in the wound and packed the area with cotton to stop the bleeding. With more strength than I ever could have had, Elexus lifted Yoda out of the tub. He carried Yoda to his bed, and laid him down. Applying pressure to the wound, he then covered Yoda with sheets and blankets.
I didn’t know what to do. The phone rang once, and didn’t ring again. My heart pounded. I was having an anxiety attack. Suki walked over to me and kissed me on the lips. She saw the blood on my clothes and said, “You wait here.”
Lee cleaned the whole place. The bloody mess that was there a few moments earlier had disappeared. Lee looked like blood, gore, and killing a man was all in a day’s work. When he finished cleaning, he pulled out his shaving clippers. I didn’t think it was the time for cutting hair, but followed him when he walked into Yoda’s bedroom.
Elexus saw the clippers and knew exactly what to do. He piled a bunch of pillows and another blanket behind Yoda, sitting him up. Lee trimmed Yoda’s hair to a two inch cut. He shaved the thickness of Yoda’s eyebrows down, removed all the hair off of his face except his mustache, and then cleaned every drop of hair. Yoda looked altogether like a different man.
With a straight razor in his hand, Elexus lathered Yoda’s face with shaving cream. I must have had a dumb look on my face, because Elexus looked at me and said, “This is just in case we was sloppy and the police work they way up here. Maybe they won’t recognize him? I’m sure once Marcy finish with they asses down there, they gonna be looking for a cripple and blind Italian, with blonde hair living in the Bronx with a Black woman. Ouuu child you should of seen the way she was down there performing and carrying on like she knew that dead man her whole life. The place is swarming with the police out there. Once Marcy started crying and shaking, the police investigation gonna be more twisted than a butch drag queen.”
The door to the penthouse opened and a red-faced, balding, White man stood with a medical bag in his hands. Suki was next to him with my clothes in her hands. While I changed, the man they called Dr. Gibson was in the room turning the small space into an operating room. I watched in disbelief as the doctor kissed Elexus on the lips. I was more confused when they removed the shower curtains, laid them on the bed, and then laid Yoda on top of them.
The doctor was nonchalant about the whole thing. He dropped his black bag
on a coffee table and removed his tools of trade: sterile bandages, three different sized syringes, a pair of surgical scissors, iodine, packs of gauze pads, elastic tape, and bottles filled with a rainbow of pills. Yoda had the best health insurance: cash. When the scissors tore through Yoda’s skin like a shark cutting waves, it was time for me to go. Elexus was the medical assistant—latex gloves and all.
An hour later, the doctor came out, looked at me, and said, “Tell your pal when he gets up and around that he has ten large for me.” I nodded knowing Yoda’s health care wasn’t delinquent. Suki escorted the man out of the hotel.
When I cut the news on, there was word that the police were looking for a Black man that disappeared into thin air in the middle of Times Square. Unclear photos flashed with a side view of Yoda repeatedly stabbing the freak. The sketch they had of him wasn’t well, it looked like the typical Black man from the hood.
Later that night, Elexus told me that Yoda needed his rest and that I wasn’t any good up in the suite. I went to my own room. Sleep didn’t come easy. I stayed up and evaluated the new dangers of the game that was revealed to me. I realized how things never came easy for me. I remembered how every time I tried to get ahead, something came along and kept me behind. I could take my money and start a new life. I had over $41,000 in Proverb’s shop. Back in 1989, that was enough to make a new start down south. When my internal debate ended, my decision was made. Since I was playing, it might as well have been for keeps.
$$$
For a few days we all took turns watching over Yoda, waiting for him to come through. I spent my days with Yoda, and my evenings with Keiki, Mimi, and then Suki. I wasn’t hustling at all, but Roxy stepped in and handed me her money like I was her man. I didn’t refuse a dime, but I spent a large majority of it killing my boredom by treating the kids to the movies.
In one week, the kids and I ran through every theater. We saw everything from All Dogs Go To Heaven to Beauty and the Beast, and everything in between. You couldn’t tell Mimi and Keiki that I wasn’t their father. We all learned so much about each other that we were indeed one big happy family.
Two weeks later, Yoda sat up in bed, calling for me to come up to his suite.
Before I had a chance to touch him or speak, he winced. With a weak voice, he said, “What’s happening, cuz? Since I’m still here and not in a jail cell, I found out that you ain’t a rat or gonna turn soft on me. I want to thank you for saving my ticker. That cock-sucker came pretty close, and I lost a lot of blood, but I been through worst.”
He called me closer to him. “Listen, it’s hot in mid ‘cause of me. That freak came from a rich family. When these things happen, the folks put value on their lives, not ours. I need a vacation anyway. I may go to Italy. They got a lot of good thieves out there. Anyway, I want you to take five grand up to that old boss you had when you was a square.”
He placed a card in my hand with a stack of cash. “Here. The car is on the way. I want you to take the cash and ask the man if he can keep you on the books. The same way as if you was still working there. This way he can cheat on his taxes, you get legitimate income and a great alibi if you find yourself in a jam like me. Don’t hesitate. When you get back, I’ll be gone. I ain’t never going to the penitentiary, so I’m gonna go lay up with Bev over across the Hudson. You’re ready to be on your own, and you know how to survive. My pad will still be here ‘cause I own fifty percent of this dump. Your room is safe, so is those little girls. Suki will take care of you, and Marcy and Elexus will make sure your game gets tighter. So get dressed and catch that ride. Ain’t no good-byes in the game, so make it snappy, cuz.”
I hugged Yoda lightly, trying to keep myself from emotionally falling apart. I went to my room to grab the keys to my apartment in the Bronx, and then headed down to the street. When I reached the pavement, a white Lincoln Town Car awaited me with two Black men sitting in the front. I was hesitant about riding with two men. I expected the man I met called Roger.
When I sat in the car behind the driver, Roger turned around. “Johnny right? I hope you don’t mind; my boss was down here, and he was headed to the Bronx. Instead of making two trips, I came right over when I got the call.” He pulled off and asked, “Where you want to go?”
“Elmax Lumber Supply on Webster Avenue.”
The older dark skinned man in the front seat turned his large body and said, “You kidding, right? What are you psychic or something?”
“No, why you ask?”
“That’s where I’m going. You buying lumber?” The man then hit his palm on his head. “Damn man, pardon my country ways. My name is Sharieff—Sharieff Clayton, but my friends call me Sha. You a friend of Yoda’s?”
I relaxed a little when he mentioned Yoda. When I saw the diamond encrusted Bicentennial Rolex on his wrist, it was clear that the man was doing more than owning a luxury taxi service. I wanted to feel him out to see if he was in the game or a possible mark.
“You know Yoda? What is it, business or personal?”
The man laughed. “Oh, it’s very personal business, if you know what I mean? I hear you and him kind of tight?”
My suspicion came alive, wondering how he could have known that. “Maybe, yeah; we have some things in common.”
Sharieff completely turned around in his seat to face me. “Yeah, me too. Things in common like taking marks down and making some clean paper, if you know what I mean?”
I didn’t know if I was being set up or tested, so I looked out of the window at the moving traffic. “I hear what you saying.”
For the rest of the ride Sha told me how he had all types of businesses. He revealed how many opportunities arose for money to be cleaned, and for businesses to be robbed. He rationalized that no one would get hurt because the insurance company would foot the bill. He said if I had someone to do armed robberies, he had a few clients that wanted their homes and businesses to be robbed immediately. That way they could stash away the company funds, set up the robbery with limited cash, and tell the insurance company they lost an inflated number of funds.
My wheels were turning. Either Sha talked too much, or he was either connected or protected by the right people. I thought of my crazy nephew and his crime partner in Queens who did robberies for a living. I stored the information Sha gave me into my memory banks.
By the time we reached the Bronx, it turned out that Sha knew my two Jewish bosses. When my bosses saw me pull up with him, they treated me more like a celebrity instead of a missing employee whom hadn’t shown up for work in weeks. It wasn’t to my liking, but Sha was there when I handed over the money and explained how keeping me on the books would benefit all of us. With no resistance, my bosses agreed and our deal was finalized. All I had to do was fill out my taxes at the end of the year, and the return was mine to keep.
When me and Sha’s business was complete at Elmax, I asked Roger to pull over on 170th Street on College Avenue. I went to see an up and coming drug dealer named Money. He popped into my mind as an opportunity that I could capitalize off.
I exited the car, looked around, and found him serving a customer hand-to-hand. I was sure that I was about to change his life, and he didn’t even know it. When he came over to see me, I placed the keys to my apartment in his hands.
“What’s this for?” he asked with a surprised expression on his adolescent face.
“Go on up to your stash and give me three gees for my apartment. Furniture included. All you got to do is pay the rent on time at the first of the month and you straight.”
“Three gees? Damn, that sounds like a bargain. Furniture included?”
“Look man, they don’t call you Money for nothing. Make it quick or hand the keys back over, I got people waiting.”
He made a fist around the key ring and ran into building 1405. In less than two minutes he was back with a brown paper bag. I did a quick glance to make sure he didn’t hit me with a live Mich roll like Dave did in the past, and then I was gone.
When
it was time to drop off Sharieff in Harlem, he offered to put me on his payroll as a part time evening driver. “This way you got double the cash to clean,” he explained.
I liked what the man had to say and made arrangements to see him in the future.
I exited the cab in front of Proverb’s shop and sent Roger on his way. I was on my own from that day forward. I thought of Yoda when I walked into the store. “Proverb, what’s the word?”
“The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, but diligence is man’s precious possession.”
“Now that was deep,” I said, making my way to the counter.
“I got something for you.” Proverb dropped a solid gold brick worth fifty thousand dollars on the counter. “Yoda left this for you. He said you would probably never need it cause you a natural. But you can use it when you challenge Russ for the crown. Yoda called and told me to tell you to reach for the sky. And don’t stop reaching until the sun burns you. That way you know you have reached higher than us all.”
Damn, the old man was still teaching me even though he was on the other side of the river.
Proverb saw the look on my face. When I placed the three grand down on the counter he said, “That’s a plate and forty four. You up ninety four large. Kid, I ain’t never seen nothing like it in so fast a time, it is an honor even knowing you.”
Since I had nothing else to hold on to, I wanted to do some good for the only thing I had left. I turned to Proverb, hoping he could help me out.
“Proverb, I need some connections to get two girls into elementary school in two weeks.”
“If somebody can be bought, I can buy ‘em. Consider it done home slice. I got a friend in the Board of Ed that owes me a favor. You the man now, Johnny Hustle, so your wish is my command.”
Yoda was gone and I was lost. I didn’t know what to do. The only thing that stuck in my mind was that I wanted to win at life. I hoped Yoda would be back one day, but in the meantime, I had to survive. I didn’t know if I had what it took to make it on my own, but I was going to find out.