Everything a wife must do lies in the planning. If you are prepared for every situation, you will always be able to hold your head high.
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six. It is the number of days she has collected apple seeds. Indeed, she had been planning all this time without even knowing the reason why.
22
Taliqwa call. Fearius aint heard from her fo like a month. She way off his radar, even if she carryin his baby. Fearius think it not his. She run around plenty. Way he hear it, she fuckin one them Baton Rouge boys at the same time she with Fearius right along side two other wardies. He try not think on how stupid he musta look, bein all lovin with her like she his when she bangin anything with legs.
He hangin at work when she call. “Hey, Fearius,” she say kinda rushed. “You okay? You out still?”
“I outside, if that what you mean. What up?” She gone ask him for money or somethin.
“You dint hear yet? Your brother Michael.”
What happen to Muzzle? “What?”
“He roll over on Alphonse.”
Whoa na. But Muzzle not like that, not even if he high. “He aint like that.”
“They haul Alphonse in. My cousins sister friend see the whole thing.”
“How they know it my bro do it?”
“I dont know.” Taliqwa sound frustrated on the phone. “It the word, Fearius. I just call see if you okay, but whatever. You go on with your life.”
“Why you have to get like that? I just ask a question.”
“Your brother a snitch, Fearius. You gone have some times. I just wanna see you okay is all. I carryin your baby an what.”
“Girl, dont even go there. You know it not mine.”
“I can sense it,” she say.
“Whatever.” All Fearius want to do get off the damn phone with Taliqwa and make some calls. “You awright?” The words come out an he wanna suck em back in. He just seem weak.
“Whatever back atcha, big man,” she say. “Just tryin do my deed fo the day. I call you when I get the baby blood test.”
“Go on an do that, Miss T.” He hang up.
Fearius pace the narrow back and forth fast. What happen now? What the fuck happen now? First he need to find out it true. If it true, his world gone change again. If it true, Taliqwa right. He gone have some times.
Fearius put in a call to the lieutenant. His voice mailbox full. It aint a good sign, yo. Not no way. Fearius hold his post till somebody tell him what all else to do. It the only thing he know. Much he want to, Fearius cant be callin the Moms right now, showin he on the inside. Who else might know bout Muzzle?
Lieutenant finally swing by late, makin rounds in the Escalade. “Get in,” Brick say. Fearius go to the empty passenger side and step up.
“You hear, huh?” Brick ask. He a giant. He make Alphonse feel protected. No wonder why Brick be a lieutenant. He got three bullet scars, one on the side his head in a line where no hair grow, like he stuck in the 80s with a do from MC Hammer hisself. Brick old, like twenty.
“I hear all kind things,” Fearius say, tryin. “Boo say the 5-0 beat Muzzle into talkin.”
“Boo a retard.” Brick dont say nothin more. He drivin around somewhere, nowhere.
Fearius wanna ask where they goin but know better. He not Muzzle, but he connected by blood. Fearius got somethin comin one way the other.
Brick not sayin nothin. He turn an drive up by The Fly. The sun goin down. Fearius got his cell, got his Jericho, got his pager. He try and see what Brick carryin. What the fuck goin on? Fearius pretend he worse off, pretend he just have a sharpen toothbrush. He take it and stick it in Bricks neck right now, surprise the lunkhead. Get out and run to Mexico. Texas not far enough. What up here on The Fly but a fast way a puttin a body into the river?
Fearius not make sixteen yet. He some young fish food, hey. His scalp crawlin. Fuck, he dont want give Moms a Blockhead.
Brick pull into like three parking spots sideways. He turn off the engine, a good thing. If he want make it quick, he leave the car runnin. “Muzzle a snitch,” Brick say, and Fearius feel his words like a punch.
“I not Muzzle,” Fearius say, the first words out his mouth to try an earn him time save his life.
Brick look down on Fearius. “Alphonse gone pay fierce fo what yo bro do.” Brick slide his hand down the side his seat. “Like Angola fierce, not gettin out but bein carried feet first.”
Fearius try get at the front his boxers without Brick seein, and there it be. Brick lift up a Uzi Fearius see once before and put it in his lap aimin at Fearius sideways. “Yo blood fuck up,” Brick say. “Muzzle gone.”
“I not Muzzle,” Fearius say and know he cant get the Jericho in time. He lift up both his hands like he bein bank robbed. “I swear I not no Muzzle.”
“Here how Alphonse arrange it,” Brick say. “You gets to prove you not Muzzle o you get yo coins.”
Fearius dont want him no coins on his eyes. “I hear.”
“It come from Alphonse,” the lieutenant say, an Fearius believe him. Fearius sure he hearing the truth. Brick look sad. He an Muzzle come up together, Muzzle hangin with the older kids when he just a runt. It a small world they all busy in.
When you little, when they ask you what you wanna be when you grow up, Fearius answer he want be a builder. He wanna build things, bridges an skyscrapers and what. Fearius remember what Michael—what Muzzle—done say one day when he come home for dinner. Muzzle say he got a friend who a boy wanna be a dancer. It Brick. Over the years it come clear that Brick mean like second line dancing, not like wearin tights for ballet. But back when he say the words, everybody think he gone be a ballet dancer and prance around in a tutu, laugh and laugh. Now he big as a house. Nobody make fun a Brick no more any day the week.
“It come from Alphonse,” Brick repeat, “not me.”
Fearius look at Bricks finger on the trigger. “Say.”
“Make him his bail an take him out,” Brick say.
Fearius look at the Uzi an look at Brick. He hear right? “You want me kill my brother?”
“Alphonse say it. We raisin funding fo Muzzle bail. No choice, lil man.”
Fearius gone save his own life first, work on Muzzle second. “He my brother,” Fearius say again, like for a exclamation point.
“I been knowin Muzzle years,” Brick say all sad, holdin the Uzi. “But he fucked up now.”
“He done fuck up, yeah,” Fearius say, his arms gettin tired from holdin em up. “I put my arms down?”
Brick nod.
Fearius put his hands on his legs, stare at em an dont recognize em. It like they connected to somebody elses arms. “When?”
“It yo call after he out, but Alphonse not takin no less. Alphonse say it all start goin bad when you come in, Fearius. It yo fault.” Brick stare out the front window his Escalade, look down the road winding by the river, not even at the water.
It not Fearius fault, not nohow.
Muzzle beat the shit out Fearius when he little. Fearius bet Muzzle beat the shit out Brick too when they kids, even with Muzzle bein younger. Funny how everything get goin backwards. Now Fearius got to kill Muzzle or he be killed hisself. He take his orders an think about the rest when he have breathin room. The Escalade not the right place, not when it full with a Uzi. “When I get the bail?” Fearius ask.
“I call you.”
“You drop me by Camellia Grill maybe?”
“You an yo fuckin horse balls, lil man. No wonder he say it start with you. Get the fuck out, nigga.”
The walk back from The Fly long. Fearius dont know what he gone get when he make it home. The Moms and Pops likely fightin, assumin Pops there, over what they do about Muzzle. The sisters gone be real quiet. Hey, Fearius, all he hafta do be commit murder. On his brother. Aint no thang. Fearius stop in the middle the levee and puke up what left his lunch along with the grape cold drink he have after. Fuck if the mess dont stink.
After some days, Fearius come to think on why Muzzle not
be free if he turn state witness. OPP down at Broad an Tulane Avenues pretend they cant help Fearius. His bro lost in the system. Maybe Muzzle go into the Witness Protection and Fearius never see him another day the rest a they lives. Fearius wish. His bro just rotting somewhere inside the Orleans Parish Prison guts, got his sign in name backwards or somethin.
Five days in, the supply start gettin sketchy. Ali Abubu come tell Fearius Boo not got no work after today. “I sorry,” Boo say. “I like lookin out fo you.”
“You a good look out,” Fearius tell the retard, tryin to be nice. It like kickin a dog bein mean to Boo. What the point? “What you gone do?” Fearius ask him.
“I gone work,” he say.
Duh. “Yeah,” Fearius say, an that all.
On day seven, they find Muzzle in the OPP with the help a Moms bitchin up to the ceilings. Both Moms and Fearius get in for a sittin after they fill out papers an Fearius lie about his time spent in juvey.
Behind the plexiglass, Muzzle look bad. Worsen bad. Fearius feel Moms go real sad next to him, but she hold up. Moms the strongest lady Fearius know. She put her hand on the plexi and say, “I love you, Michael.”
Muzzle look like he think on smiling but his bottom lip split so bad and only half scabbed up he cant. He too much a man stick his hand up against the Moms. She take it down eventually.
Fearius see Muzzle done lost twenty five, thirty pounds easy. Mo fo on the product. Son a bitch. Muzzle sittin on his hands an chewin on his cheek, swingin his jaw back an forth like Banana Truck. What the hell happen in nine months?
An this the fucker Fearius get to off. This sad sack a shit be his blood brother. When Muzzle open his mouth to talk, Fearius see his bro missin a front tooth. That gotta hurt. “Moms and baby bro,” he say, noddin.
Moms clamp her hand on Fearius leg where Muzzle cant see and squeeze hard. Man, Moms deserve better. It pain Fearius bad, real bad.
Fearius lift his jaw at Muzzle, ask, “What you need?”
Muzzle laugh like he lost his brain, show em instead he lost two teeth. “How Witness Protection sound?” So it true. It all true. Muzzle roll on Alphonse. Do NOPD even do Witness Protection? Fearius not hear about it yet. Likely not.
Muzzle suck at the hole in his teeth. “Yeah,” he say, noddin, “ate me some teeth for lunch last week.”
Moms lose it. She just go on an lose it.
The pink an chocolate house not be touched since the, ha, what they call, the episode Fearius have with the cleaners, but now he not feel very safe no matter what.
It make sense. It the middle days a June, an Fearius get Muzzle sprung yesterday with the Moms help. Fifteen g down payment. She know it not honest money, but who care, right? The Moms first baby boy out, hooray.
But then Muzzle gone back fast to where he get his fix, barely say the thank yous.
Fearius start countin days. He know they his to count. Not nobody else with brains gone take Muzzle out. Everybody know it Fearius test. It his job. Straight out the bible, yo.
Alphonse probably gone down forever. The 5-0 done find they supplies in the kilos. Guess Muzzle know where the big haul always be cause he the one rat it out. That an word by Muzzle talk on the jobs he know bout. Muzzle name the enforcer Alphonse sometimes use. The killer nigga on the run now, they say.
The Alphonse machine still workin, but with a lot less. Everybody conserve some, get rid the Boos where they can, runners doublin up.
None them in Fearius whole family, not the Moms or Pops or none them kids, been outside town past Grand Isle. If Muzzle try an run, he not gone know where the hell to go. He never even be to Florida, an Fearius hear it a quick drive. Hell, skinny missin teeth Muzzle gone be lucky if he dont OD. It Fearius biggest wish. He dream it all the time. He step up with the Jericho an aim it at Muzzle an see his bro already dead, a needle stickin out his arm. The rush of happiness crazy. Then Fearius wake up.
Most the time he occupy down time from work with video games. He like John Madden an San Andreas. Fearius a little embarrass Debutanté win every time, but whatever. The games keep his head off what he dont wanna think on.
Fearius learn a word in school before he step out. It a great word, one he always wanna use somehow, never had the place. Now he do. The word extrapolate.
From this day on, he able to extrapolate where it all go. Oh yeah.
23
The lowdown is just nuts. The way Ed hears it from Joe, Philomenia and Ariel ought to join forces. They’d wipe out their husbands in one sweep of their brooms.
Joe says Philomenia has a genetic disease, fatal familial insomnia, which sounds like it has everything to do with not sleeping but most of it has to do with losing your mind. Apparently she’s inherited it from her mother. Joe says he never thought he’d survive his cancer, but he has, and now he has a life again. He’s alive! The man’s energy is truly contagious and exactly what Ed needs. With the kids at day camp and Ed pretty much relinquishing all of his household duties, Ariel’s left having to pick Miles and Ella up, and his days are free.
He and Joe have been coming to the Rose most days for a month now. Now Ed and Joe have the perfect toast every afternoon: “Fuck the wives!” and then one more time, “Fuck the wives!” They raise their glasses along with whoever might be along for the ride. Shane’s around sometimes, and he’ll join in, although Ed notices Shane doesn’t actually say the toast, only raises his glass. Ed’s never been big on swearing, but somehow this feels about right.
Joe knows all about what Ariel did, as do most of the other regular patrons in the Rose. The thing is, though, they all stare out the dirty window now when she comes home with the kids. Somebody almost always whistles. They say things like, “Hell, who cares what she did. She come home to me, I take her back.” Or, “Now that’s worth forgivin.”
Ariel is beautiful. It’s something Ed had forgotten. He admits it with a twinge of regret and a big swallow of beer.
Ed can’t get over the broken trust. He has no idea if Ariel’s sleeping with a different hotel guest every other shift now. Having once believed she’d never be unfaithful, he now keeps thinking she will be at every turn. The logical portion of his psyche says Ariel lives with great regret these days, a chaste and routine subsistence, but some other part of him, a bitter troll of a part, trots out from under the bridge and throws temper tantrums about her continued infidelity. She has made a fool of him.
Ed wishes he could cast spells. He would return Ariel to the state of mind when they first fell in love at college and keep her there the rest of her life. That’d be a great spell.
“My best guess is that she has maybe six months, a year tops,” Joe says, wrapping his big mitt of a hand around his pint glass. “I really thought that since she’d made it to this age she was in the free and clear.”
Now that’s some painful realizing. Joe doesn’t love Philomenia though. He claims he never has. How’s that for an ugly arrangement? “But if you never loved her, whadda you really care?” Ed’s trying to be callous and funny, but he’s not sure he’s pulling it off. What hard, dried little piece of Buddhism Ed has left hurts to know Philomenia has never been loved by her husband in the thirty-two years they’ve been married. She seems very lonely.
“She’ll tell you the same thing, like I said,” Joe says. “It’s comfortable. She’s been a good friend most of the time. Wrap up housekeeper and personal chef into one, for decades, and that’s what I’ve got with Philly Philster. Why wouldn’t you want to keep that kind of friend around?” Joe lays his hand on his stomach. “Man, have I had some cramps the last while. Excuse me. The new and improved guts are still healing, I guess.” He goes to the front door. “Back in five.”
“Makes me a little sad,” Shane says. “She deserves something better than divorce with nothin’, don’t you think?”
“Who?” Ed asks. He hasn’t made up his mind about divorce.
“Dude, where’s your head at?”
Seems Warren’s elected himself. He knocks on Ariel’
s open office door. “You busy?”
“You’re talking to me?” Ariel asks, truly surprised.
“I can come in?”
“What do you think about our talking only in questions to each other?” She earns a small smile from her former friend for it.
“I need to shut the door.”
“Go ahead.”
Warren’s mass fills the frame before he closes them off from all the dozens and dozens of prying eyes. He sits down opposite her. “You probably don’t know. I don’t know how you would, seeing as how nobody talks to you anymore.”
Ariel looks with ennui at the man’s familiar girth, listens to his baritone. She is beyond crying by a good number of weeks. Pain is just pain. “Yes?”
“Javier has—hum. I think Henny has a grip on his—” He clears his throat. “Look. He’s decided to go to the owners with sexual harassment. He’s telling anyone who’ll listen. Fuck, Ariel. You’re in deep.”
Ariel runs her hand over her face. “Mmm.”
“He’s saying you forced him to have sex or he’d lose his job.”
Ariel looks at her watch. “Well, I have to go get the kids from camp. Hubby doesn’t do anything anymore. Thanks for the heads-up.”
“Ariel.”
“No, really. Thanks.” She stands.
Muzzle come walkin in when the rest the family gone to bed. They dint change no locks. Pops out the house tonight long enough he not back till morning. Fearius feel like he starin down a ghost lookin at Muzzle, an right the same time, Fearius starin at his own salvation. His hit walking straight into the alley with no way out, cant even jump the fence.
Fearius stand. Cribs keep playin, showin some platinum record collection hung up in a room the people never barely visit but for dusting. Peace the only thing worth payin for, Fearius think.
Muzzle say, “Danny, I need me some cash money.”
What he call Fearius? “Say?” He squint his eyes.
“You heard me. Go get it.”
“For serious? You come here to do this?”
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