by E. N. Joy
"You gotta show ID to do that, and not nary one of our ID's will match any of the stolen credit cards we got," Puddin' stated, putting an end to Junie's imaginary flight. "We'll save those and use them for like food and stuff. You know, places where if we spend less than twenty-five dollars we'll be okay. Because you know most places anymore don't ID you when you use a credit card and spend under twenty-five dollars."
"Yeah, so let's just catch the Greyhound," Saved agreed with Puddin', somewhat anyway. "But I think we should wait until morning."
"Why?" Puddin' asked. Saved could hear the disagreement in her tone.
"When kids escape from Juvie, that's the first place the authorities stake out is the bus station, because they know that's the first place the kids go," Saved explained. "That's the cheapest means of transportation besides hitching a ride with a complete stranger. I've seen enough movies in my life to know that that's a no-no."
Saved noticed that Puddin' tensed up. She rubbed her arms as if a chill had suddenly run through her body. But it was eighty-five degrees outside. The humidity level made it feel more like ninety. There was no breeze what so ever.
"Yeah, she is right about that," Junie agreed.
Puddin' shook off whatever feeling had latched on to her. "So what do we do, sleep on the streets until morning?" Puddin' asked as if the last thing she wanted to do was sleep on a slab of hard concrete.
"Even in my time of trouble the Lord doesn't turn His face from me," Saved said as she stared off with a huge smile on her face.
Puddin' and Junie's eyes followed the direction in which Saved was looking. That's when they saw a motel sign that read thirty dollars and ninety-nine cents a night.
"Bingo," Saved said, now pointing at the sign. "That's just ten dollars each we'll have to chip in. Hopefully that will leave us plenty to get a one-way ticket to Columbus on the Greyhound."
Puddin' smiled. "I knew there was another reason I brought you along," Puddin' said to Saved. "You're a good luck charm."
"Nope," Saved smiled, "just blessed and highly favored. And you, my friend, are benefitting from the overflow."
Both Puddin' and Junie rolled their eyes in their heads as they all headed toward the motel.
Once they arrived at the motel, Puddin' told Junie and Saved, "Wait outside while I go in the office and get us a room." She further explained to them that three young people trying to reserve a motel room might look like trouble right off the bat, and with her being older, old enough to rent a motel room anyway, the attendant would be more apt to rent her a room with no questions asked.
"Besides," Puddin added as she looked at the run down establishment. "It's not like it's the Embassy Suites or anything. It looks like one of those places where people only rent it by the hour anyway."
Saved had been in one of those places before...a couple of times to be exact. Most of the time she'd just tricked in an alleyway or the back seat of some loser's car. Getting a guy to actually come off some extra money for a room was a blessing. That meant that Saved would have some place besides the streets to lay her head for a while.
Puddin' wasn't inside the motel registration office five minutes before she came out jingling their room key.
"That was quick," Saved said. "They didn't ask for ID or anything?"
"Look around," Puddin' told her. "Does this look like a place that cares about ID?"
"Good old motels," Junie stated. "Where your hallway is the entire world."
The three chuckled as Puddin' led them to their motel room. She put the key in the door. Then she unlocked it as they all went inside, bracing themselves for what might lie before them. With a cheap place like that, there was no telling.
Upon opening the door, for the first few seconds, the threesome were dead silent. It wasn't too shabby of a place. But they did observe something that might end up being a problem.
"There's only one bed," Saved said, staring at the king size bed, allowing her backpack to slide off of her shoulders. She carried it in her hand by the straps.
"What did you think we were going to get for thirty bucks?" Puddin' asked, "a suite with a Jacuzzi?"
Saved looked around at the small living area. Everything else looked to be in order. It was pretty clean and had a nice smell to it, like the maid had used some type of deodorizer. "Well, it's only for one night. I guess it won't be so bad."
"Yeah, and first thing's first, I gotta take me a shower." Puddin' made her way into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
Saved flopped down on the bed. Junie made himself comfortable in one of two chairs that sat at a small, round dining table after retrieving the remote from the night table. A few minutes later, Puddin' emerged from the bathroom wearing the same thing she'd worn into the bathroom. Her once straight hair that she had been wearing in a ponytail was now down and curly. It was wet from being washed with a bar of motel supplied soap. Saved figured Puddin' must have had the kind of hair where it only took water to make it curl up, unless she'd been carrying a Jheri Curl kit around in her pocket.
"So, who wants pizza?" Puddin' asked. Both Saved and Junie expressed their want, so Puddin' located the phonebook and placed an order for three $5 pizza's from Pizza Hut. She placed the order using one of the stolen credit cards.
"Why'd you place the order with the credit card? They'll be sure to track us here now," Saved worried.
"Yeah," Junie co-signed. "That was a dumb move. And all along I thought you were smart. Guess now I'm just going to have to dig you for your looks."
Puddin' sucked her teeth. "By the time old girl reports all her cards stolen, files a police report, etcetera, we'll be long gone," Puddin' assured them.
Having not steered them wrong yet, Junie and Saved were okay with Puddin's theory of how everything would go down. So, they turned their attention to Judge Mathis on the television until the pizza arrived a half hour later.
By the time the three got full on pizza, their judge shows were off and the local news was coming on. The top story of the hour was one that had Saved and Junie's eyes glued to the television.
"We have some breaking news," the news reporter said as she stood on the side of the road of Interstate 71. Cars whizzed by her as she reported the news story. "There has been a man found right here off of I-71. Initially assumed to be just someone who had pulled over to the side of the road to get some rest, most cars drove on by without suspecting anything. When one passerby finally did decide to phone 911, the police arrived only to make a gruesome discovery."
Junie and Saved watched as if they were watching a crime show. They hadn't noticed Puddin's eyes wandering and darting off everywhere but at the television screen.
The reporter continued. "It has been determined that the man in the car had been stabbed and has been pronounced dead." The news reporter began walking as the camera followed her closely. "When that 911 call was made, no one had any idea it would be the twenty-second homicide for the city this year."
The news replayed the 911 call from the citizen as the news reporter waited patiently for it to end. She then continued with her report. "What that citizen had seen was not a body resting. In fact, it was the deceased body of Willard Jenkins. At the time when police and ambulance arrived on the scene to investigate the call, Willard Jenkins was still alive, but just barely, as he was suffering from a knife wound to the chest. Authorities say the knife was still in his chest when they found him. Unfortunately, doctors were not able to save Mr. Jenkins from the fatal wound. Although no one has been arrested as of yet for this crime, the police say that they have a strong lead."
At that point the cameras switched to a recorded interview with a police officer. "Authorities have recovered the victim's car, which leads us to believe this was some type of car jacking gone bad; very bad. The car was found parked near a Cleveland public park. There are several witnesses who say they saw a female park and flee from the vehicle."
The news went back to the original reporter. "Forensic artist have alr
eady been quick to create a sketch from witness descriptions. The Police Department has asked us to air this sketch in hopes that someone out there has seen this woman. If you have, please call the number at the bottom of the screen." There was a pause while the reporter just stood there looking at the camera. "That sketch should appear on the screen any second now."
A few intense seconds passed until finally a hand drawn sketch appeared on the screen. The familiar eyes from the woman in the sketch stared back at Junie and Saved. Then all of a sudden the television turned off. They looked to see that Puddin' had the remote in her hand. Then they looked up at her, only to see the same exact eyes that had just been staring at them through the television screen. Those same eyes were staring back at them again, only this time it was in the flesh.
Saved looked down at Puddin's nails, that were now bone clean. She couldn't help but to remember the dried up blood that she'd seen underneath them before.
Now, just like back on the park bench, Puddin' noticed Saved staring at her fingernails. "See, I told you it wasn't the blood of Jesus," Puddin' said with a serious look on her face.
Saved then turned to look at Junie. Junie had no idea what the two of them were talking about, but he did know what he'd just seen on the television. He'd seen a drawing of Puddin'. A drawing of the person the police said had killed a man earlier that day. Both his heart and Saved's were beating so loud, they didn't know whose was whose.
Junie swallowed hard and found the courage to speak. "So, you're a killer?" Junie asked Puddin'. "We're sitting in a motel room with a killer." Junie swallowed hard once again. He looked at Saved as if to say, "What have you gotten us into?"
"Don't worry," Puddin' assured him. "I only kill people who have it coming." She looked at the blank television screen. "And that bastard had it coming."
Finally able to speak, Saved asked, "So, what did he do to deserve it? What happened?"
A chill ran through Puddin's veins as she forced her mind to go back to all that had taken place in the hours prior to her arriving at the park where she'd first met Saved. It would be painful to relive, but now it looked as though Saved and Junie were snuggled up nice and comfy in the messy bed she'd made. For dragging them into the unknown, she at least owed them the truth. She just hoped they could handle it.
Chapter Eight
"I was on my way to Columbus to see my brother," Puddin' began to explain to Saved and Junie. "I should have known that old hooptie of mine wouldn't make it, but it's all I had; it's all I had left of him." She thought for a minute. "Well, almost anyway; the only material thing left of him I guess I should say."
"Him?" Saved questioned.
"My boyfriend. He got caught selling dope over in Michigan where we had been living together." Puddin' had a far off look in her eyes. "He moved me there and promised to take good care of me." She then snapped out of her daze. "And he did too. We had a phat, four bedroom, thirty-five hundred square feet house. It had a pool in the back." Puddin' smiled. "I mean, we had our very own pool guy." She shook her head as if she was still in disbelief of the life she'd been living.
Continuing Puddin' added, "The spot was laid out. I mean, the furniture was the best quality I'd ever seen. I'm talking a three thousand dollar couch. And then there were the cars. The Mercedes. The SUV." She laughed to herself. "And of course the hooptie." Now Puddin' had a serious look on her face. "The Feds confiscated everything though. I'm talking about when those bad boys got done, all I had was the clothes on my back and that hooptie."
"They left you the hooptie?" Junie questioned.
Puddin' nodded. "Yeah, but that's only because I was driving it at the time they confiscated everything else. Other wise I'm sure they would have taken that too."
Both Junie and Saved shot each other a look as if to say they didn't know whether to believe the hype. Finally Saved asked, "If you and your boyfriend had it going on all like that, then why were you in a hooptie? As a matter of fact, why did y'all even own a hooptie? He should have had you in something way better than that."
"Cos liked to ride around in the hooptie when ever he was driving into the city; into Detroit. That was his way of keeping a low profile. Cos figured cats wouldn't rob a dude in a hooptie like they would a dude in a souped up SUV like the one he kept in the garage-the one the Feds took." Puddin' tried to hide the anger she was feeling inside. "Cos loved that truck too. Not more than me though. He didn't love anything or anybody more than me."
The way Puddin's boyfriend's name rolled off of her tongue-the way she got stars in her eyes whenever she thought about him-Saved and Junie assumed she'd really been in love with this dude. Their assumption would be on point.
Although five years her senior, Puddin' being twenty-two, Cos had a way of allowing Puddin' to feel as though she was taking care of him instead of the other way around. Needed; he made her feel needed in his life-like he couldn't do anything without her. Like he couldn't breathe without her. To most girls that would have been a turn off.
"I ain't trying to raise a man," some women might have said. But to Puddin' it felt good to be needed. It felt good to be wanted. As a little girl, with her father being absent from her life, Puddin' had always longed for that feeling; what it would feel like to be loved, comforted and protected by a man. Cos had stepped in and filled that void.
Not to say that Puddin's brother hadn't stepped up at a young age and become the man of the house. He'd been the only man in her life. It wasn't the same though. He provided for her the best he could while he was in the home, but eventually he got too caught up in his own affairs to worry about what was taking place in the home. Puddin' couldn't blame him though. Their mother hadn't necessarily been "Mother of the Year."
Puddin' never saw her mother work a day in her life. She stayed home and turned tricks in their two bedroom apartment. Another thing Puddin' remembered was how Sunday might have been the best day of the week in which churches all over the world took in the most money in the collection plate, but it was one of the most profitable days for her mother as well.
While half the women in the neighborhood got dressed up in their Sunday's best to go worship an invisible man, the real live men of flesh they laid down with every night was giving her mother praise. And although they weren't putting ten percent of their earnings in some shiny collection plate, they were doing pretty good filling up Puddin's mom's Crowne Royal bag that laid on her nightstand, next to her bed.
The thought of her mother suddenly reminded Puddin' of her own predicament. Touching her belly as she sat there in the motel room spilling her guts, Puddin' wondered what kind of mother she would be. What kind of mother would she be raising the unborn child now growing in her belly all alone? Or worse case scenario, raising her child in jail?
"Why didn't I Just tell him?" Puddin' meant to say in her head, but spoke out loud. "Maybe he would have gotten out the game for the sake of our-"
"Tell him what?" Junie interrupted Puddin's conversation with herself.
Shaking her head, Puddin' looked down at her hands and began to pick at her fingernails. "Anyway. So like I said, Cos had seen to it that I had everything I could have ever imagined. Then in the next minute..." She snapped her fingers. "I had absolutely nothing. I wasn't really close to any of Cos's friends and their girls. They were all older than me. Cos didn't want them influencing me and our relationship like them chicks on that reality show Basketball Wives be doing. So he kept me busy with trips to the spa and the mall, which I didn't mind at all," Puddin' assured them.
"But material things can't be there for you when you need someone, and besides Cos, I had no one. My mom upped and moved out of the apartment she raised my brother and me in no sooner than I hit the road to Michigan. It was like she couldn't wait for me to get out of the house so she could have all the things I guess she couldn't have trying to raise kids."
Resentment now covered Puddin's face. "I mean, why not provide your kids the best they can have? Why wait until they're long gone out
of the house and keep it all to yourself?" Puddin' spat. "My only family is my brother in Columbus." Saved noticed that Puddin's eyes lit up every time she talked about her brother as well. "I haven't talked to him in a minute-so caught up in my life in Michigan I suppose. But the last we talked, he said he had started his own business and it was doing very well."
"What's he do?" Junie asked. "Maybe he can put me on when we get there."
"There's no telling with my brother," Puddin' answered. "He's always been a hustler. A self starter. He's probably selling igloos to Eskimos." She smiled and let out a faint laugh.
"From what I can tell, you seem to really care about your brother. So why haven't you kept in closer touch with him?" Saved asked.
"Like I said, I got caught up in the life of a hustler's girl. The nice house, cars, furs and bling-bling blinded me. I lost sight of what really mattered in life, especially now that it's all been taken away." Puddin' snapped her finger again. "And all just like that."
"So how did you end up at the park today?" Saved asked.
"And more importantly, how did you end up on the news?" Junie couldn't resist asking.
Puddin' closed her eyes as she spoke. She was visualizing everything as not to leave out a single detail. "Yesterday morning, after the police bust, I had to keep my distance from the house."
"Dang, so this was just yesterday your dude got jacked by the Feds?" Junie inquired.
Puddin' nodded. "It just so happens that at the time of the bust, I'd just climbed into the hooptie and gone to the store to get some syrup for the pancakes I'd made for breakfast. There's nothing worse than whipping up a nice batch of pancakes only to realize you're out of syrup." She smiled then continued. "Cos and I were going to have a nice breakfast and then I was going to tell him. I was going to tell him something- a secret I'd been keeping for three months."
"A secret?" Saved's curiosity piqued.
"Not really a secret." Puddin' thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, I guess you could call it a secret, but it wasn't anything bad; not in my eyes anyway."