"It was my penultimate act in service to King."
"Penultimate?"
"I have one more trick up my sleeve."
"That counting what I want you to do?"
"What is it that you want me to do?" Merle knew the answer but wanted her to play out her role.
"I want you to make a place for us. A magical place. I want to learn how to build it."
"A place of joy and solitude. Never undone. I will teach you."
"Why?"
"I am impelled by a fatal destiny."
Merle knew that his fate was in her arms. And it would not be pretty. Having fallen asleep beneath a bush of white thorn, laden with flowers, while resting in her lap. As the story went. Like how children fall for one another; find one another without introduction, he was hers the moment they met. Beauty reduced to a blues ballad. Not content with his devotion, hers was a mission to isolate him, to get him alone. Nine was dual-natured, both girl and ancient. She would kill him if she could, to satiate the hunger. And still, he cleaned up his alley, his secret place. He swept the broken glass, and picked up the cans and bottles before he brought her here.
"I am but one of the Guardians of the Totems."
"One of the Lords of the Wheel?"
"Coo coo cachoo."
Bored and restless, Merle panted after her worse than an adolescent in love. Truth be told, by now, he probably was an adolescent. He went where she went, jumped when she asked, begged for her company like an old, well-trained dog. And, as girls often were with old men, she was wary of him, impatient with him. And he frightened her. For all of his seeming feebleness, he was the devil's heart, she thought, and she feared when he might turn his powers on her.
For all of her craftiness, her agenda was obvious: she wanted his knowledge and traded it for time spent with her. When the "inborn craft of women" met the "inborn weakness of men". For many, it passed as love. Helpless before her, he was unable to break out of the girl's spell. He wanted to teach her, be her tutor. Show her wonders. To show her his house.
"Show me, mage. Teach me everything."
"The magic is deep and the magic is old. But there is little room for magic in this age. In this world. So little faith. Magic is pure faith. A wellcast magic circle isolates you. The spell is just you and creation. You are cut off. One with…" Whatever image he chased after, the words escaped him.
"Perfect communion."
Merle nodded. "Look around you. What do you see?"
"A thin copse of trees."
"This is my home. My true home."
"A glamour?"
"No," Merle sighed. "Look. Even when you were young, you thought you knew so much. In all your travels, in all your accumulated knowledge, in all your years, you still overlook the basics. The primal forces."
"The dragon's breath."
"Forget the dragon's breath. You forget how powerful you are. You have it at your fingertips to shape that energy into reality. It requires a boldness to repurpose reality. You have to be careful. Concentrate. Block the energies. You tap into it. Can you feel it?"
Old, deep, eternal, a call. The ley line. Lush, thick, green. Candlelight flickering in the night. The delicate hum of whale song. The gentle fragrance of rose petals. The scent of a newborn. A lover's embrace, the feeling of home. The thrum of life. Intimate, deliberate. Intentional. Knowing, probing, wanting. A whisper. A caress.
"Here we are, male and female, in perfect balance. I know that is the final key. Co-equals. Co-heir. Communion." She circled behind him and stretched her arm along his. "Tell me the words."
"The spoken word is the final tool. You have to form your own path, not walk someone else's. What you fear shapes the experience."
"And what do you fear?"
"You. I'm a foolish, foolish old man. Besotted with age and drunk on the promise of the charms of the young's fickle embrace. I know this and I am powerless to stop myself."
"Tell me the words."
"Et Verbum caro factum est."
"Et Verbum caro factum est," she repeated. From her lips, the power carried different images. Tiny skulls crushed under boot heel. The slow spill of intestines from a gutted animal. Graveyard dirt spilling overhead. Old bones grinding together. The splintering of joints. A selfish voice. Proud. Shrill. Chaotic. A living fear. Doubt. Insecurity. Violence. Death. "The home you created. The home you will stay."
The fabric of space bubbled out. Created a slit and then resealed as if swallowing the home in a single gulp. When the light faded, the trees remained as they were. The camp cleared out.
Only Nine stood in the clearing.
In her hands a green orb shimmered. Merle's
face flickered across the surface, bewildered then resigned.
"Our time is done, my love. Let the children have their end game."
CHAPTER TEN
Bo "The Boars" Little was known for his propensity for violence. It came to him naturally, he believed, as if God Himself gifted him for violence. By his freshman year at Northwest High School, he had the sculpted physique of an African Adonis. Well over six feet tall and 250 pounds of solid bulk; skin a lighter shade of onyx, his head shaved bald, yet nursing a full beard, he had a grown man's body. Playing left tackle, when he hit someone, they stayed hit. The stands chanted his name when he was on the field, the students parted in the school hallways as he strode down them, girls were quick to offer themselves to him, talent scouts up and down the east coast knew his name, but none of that was enough. He wanted his name to ring out in the streets. Navigating the complexities of office politics proved more difficult than he would have imagined. He attached himself to Garlan, positioning himself as his second-in-command, not really out of any sort of corporate climbing move – for that he would have sidled up next to Nine or perhaps to Dred directly.
They didn't come up as boys but had been thrown together to put work in. They got high on occasion. A couple of times while high, they spoke of things they rarely mentioned. Not especially close, the only thing they had in common was the ache, the one they only spoke of when high. They spoke of missing their fathers, of not belonging anywhere, they let breathe the dead areas of their souls and gave voice to their pain.
"I'm tired of being poor," The Boars said.
"A nigga just needs a break." Garlan took another hit in commiseration.
"I'm tired of being poor," The Boars repeated, confused, thinking he had only thought the sentiment rather than said it aloud the first time. "I'm tired of having to claw through every day just to keep my head above water. It gets so I don't give a shit who I got to hold on to as long as I stay afloat."
"I just need some money. Rich motherfuckers ain't got shit to worry about."
"Taxes, where to go out to eat, and how much to pay their nanny."
"What if we weren't here?" Garlan touched his ring. Garlan was so low-key, he was practically invisible. No one would ever guess that he had thousands stashed away. He was cut more from a business cloth than anything else.
"What you mean?"
"What if we had been given a chance? Born somewhere other than here?"
"White?"
"Nah, shit, I didn't say all that. But, you know, into a real family. With a mom and dad. No niggas trying to shoot each other as soon as breathe your way."
"I don't do no 'what if' shit. That's enough to drive a nigga madder than he already is. I think more about how it's all gonna end."
"How's it end?"
"For me?" The Boars turned toward the night sky, lost in dreams. "Maybe taking out a cop, going out in a blaze."
"Putting yourself out of your misery."
Misery took a toll. All the death and hopelessness drove him to a place of despair. Stuck between life and death with only jail or the grave as a way out.
Garlan treated the fiends fair, like customers, and if they shorted him, he had The Boars administer swift recompense. Between them, product moved like clockwork. They weren't pleased when they were charged to bring Naptow
n Red's spot on a running as smoothly. Though both Garlan and Naptown Red were in the inner circle, Garlan's presence tended to carry more weight. A fact not lost on Red.
The only reason Garlan was present was because he was due to collect a money drop. Garlan made sure no one handled both money and product. Their crew paid some apartments to stash guns and drugs. The corner smelled of re-breathed beer and piss. They could only venture to guess what liquid soaked the pavement. When windows were shattered they remained broken. The procedure was simple. The crew left a taped-down grocery bag full of money under the passenger's seat in a car. All they had to do was drive up, get out, make small talk, watch for police, and switch drivers. He wisely pulled out exactly ten dollars without exposing the rest of his wad.
Naptown Red, Prez, and Fathead had their own thing going on, right under the nose of The Boars and Garlan. Which was difficult, because Garlan was always watching. Even when he wasn't around, if you were working Garlan's spot, you did the work cause his eyes were always on you and he had a way of just showing up. They'd be careful, unlike those other crews. They'd sell to only those they knew. They'd use check points to guard the stash house. On the spot, no drugs and money would be handled by the same dude. All re-ups would be taken to the cutting house and then split up and delivered to safe houses.
Naptown Red enjoyed the role of schooling these young'uns, molding them in his image. The stoop offered the best vantage point to take in the action of the neighborhood.
"Isn't that your lady's girl?" Fathead whispered.
"My girl can't stand her," Naptown Red said.
"Why not? She seems nice."
"You know how women get about each other," Naptown Red said.
"Nah, brotha. That's what I come to you for. So you can school me about these things."
"They too much alike and want the same things. Women know how cruel women are. If they know you got something, they don't care. They think they can take it."
"So she thinks she can steal you from any woman out there?"
"Man, she was ready to give up the goods from the jump."
"You retarded. You think every woman wants you."
"I'm part thug and part businessman. I can be calm, but I know when to go off. And I know how to treat a lady. Women love that crazy stuff, that versatility." Relationships, Naptown Red long ago realized, were little more than altars to yourself. Either you wanted someone to adore you, dote on you, take care of you, or you wanted someone to reflect you, be like you, so you can be with you more. "But most, I'm telling you, most are wolves in sheep's clothing. Can I break it down philosophically?"
"Go 'head, brotha." Fathead became his oneman amen corner.
"Women try to be of a character that they really ain't to try and get that good man. Fake him out, hook him, and they don't care about being a good friend to another woman. They mess up a good thing to try and get their thing."
"That happen to you a lot?"
"Fuck you." Naptown Red tipped his bottle of beer in Prez's direction as he came waddling up the street. As low man on the totem pole, Prez made the food runs. Brought back to-go boxes from Yats, a Cajun joint up in Broad Ripple. They ate like men ravenous and entertained.
"What, you no good?" Naptown Red ran his tongue along the roughness of his teeth, ground down from years of gnashing. His jaw clicked when he yawned.
"You won't find the answers to your questions in a bottle," Prez said.
"Then I need to ask different questions." The boy was good, but had a square streak to him which gave him pause. He wasn't built for the streets, not to survive them anyway.
"I'm just saying, we can't afford to get our heads up when on the clock."
"You looking down your nose at me, boy?" Naptown Red cautioned. "Trying to show me up in front of Garlan?"
"Naw, man. I just know how easy it is to get caught up and become an addict."
"There's addicted and there's addicted. I may smoke a few blunts, but I'm in control. Them dope fiends? Shit. There's no talking to them."
"Folks want what we be selling." Even when your market was dope fiends, one still had to battle for market share, and that came down to building a brand. Fathead called his brand of meth "The End". "Can't argue with the free market."
"Didn't you sell to your folks?" Prez asked.
"Hell yeah I did. A customer's a customer." Fathead didn't care if it were them trading in their ghetto credit cards he called food stamps. "That's their choice. Their problem. They gonna buy from someone, might as well be me. Least they won't get ripped off."
"Most times," Naptown Red sneered.
"A fool's a fool. And I won't sell to my brother. He needs to find a better way. How player is that?"
Naptown Red was still a believer. In his heart he thought that the streets could be his savior. They gave him purpose, meaning, and a place of belonging. The accusatory glare of the car side light first caught his attention. Like any believer, there were times of testing of his faith, and Naptown Red's began as soon as the flashing lights erupted and car tires screeched to a halt as Five-O jumped out all over their spot.
• • • •
The Boar's first months of school, sixth grade, were an endurance marathon of tests. Instructive on what life was really about. He wasn't The Boars then, just Bo Little. In his class, a majority of the students were black with the rest evenly split between whites and Mexican. In the seat next to him was some Mexican boy, Lonzo. Weighed less than he did, was shorter than he was, but his group of friends carried on like he walked on water. Deferred to him, laughed at his corny-ass jokes.
Bo's very existence seemed to bother Lonzo. He refused to bow before him. Hating the humiliation of the free lunch program, Bo sat away from other kids so they couldn't hear his stomach grumble. Lonzo made a special point to seek him out to sit across from him at lunch.
"You can't sit here, homes."
"Who says?" Bo searched for a nearby teacher, hoping to catch an eye and tacitly plead for help.
"You talk funny, hese. Like a nerd and shit." He laughed and his pack of hyenas brayed alongside him.
Bo needed a comeback, but fear and embarrassment paralyzed him. The best he could come up with was "What's your problem?"
"You my problem. You coming in here like you own the place, like you better than the rest of us simply cause you black. You ain't shit."
"Why you explaining yourself to this puta?" one of his boys chimed in, backed by their amen corner.
Bo made up his mind then. The instigator was larger than Lonzo and for that matter, larger than Bo, but he dove across the table at him. Slamming his lunch tray at him, sent that day's portion of peas, mashed potatoes with gravy, and meat perpetrating as meatloaf into the air. Scattering the rest of the boys. Bo landed atop the larger boy and rained down punches on him before anyone could intervene. A smile crossed his face. No one would mess with him now. He had taken on the largest one and handed him his ass. Maybe he could walk the halls in peace. He just wanted to be left alone.
Then the rest of the boys stepped in.
Let by Lonzo, they let loose a beating so ragefilled, Bo didn't know where the anger came from. For the slight trespass which occurred, they swarmed on him with other students circling around as living bricks forming a wall to hide the scene. Kicks slammed into his side, Bo covered his face as best he could and tensed his muscles against the blows.
"What the hell is going on over there?" a teacher yelled.
Lonzo and his boys dispersed like dead leaves on a strong breeze, skittering down the hallways with only a stream of obscenities to mark their passing. The teacher helped Bo to his feet and walked him to the nurse's office. Limping slowly, his fellow students lined up and parted to let him through. Bo couldn't meet their eyes, but still felt the weight of shame on him. Their eyes bored into him. The stifled snickers. The inner pain of damaged pride. The helplessness of being a victim.
All turmoil and confusion, aggression and anger, pain and contempt, the
need to belong and the inability to value anyone. Darkness, robbed innocence, with only fear and violence to earn power and respect. The Boars was born.
The Boars was wild, always being suspended from school. Quickly gaining a reputation for having low eyes: he never told anyone when he had money. Never chipped in on anything, but ate like he paid twice his share. He never escaped that fight. Thing was, he was doing all right in that tussle until Lonzo and the rest stepped in. He needed his own crew to have his back when the time came.
And the time would always come.
It began with a bang on the door.
Barely even a courtesy shout of "Police" before they knocked the front door off the hinges. Naptown Red was used to police raids. Coming up, it was as natural a part of their family's rhythms of life as family reunions. The routine was as practiced as a fire drill: the police charged the house with guns drawn even as Fathead threw bags at the open window and Pres flushed others down the toilet. When over one hundred quarter bags of China White heroin were being packaged, even in the worst of economic times, their business was recession-proof.
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