by J. Naomi Ay
One night, I went to pick up some of my girls who had found themselves locked up. I bailed them out and sent them home then made to deal out cards. The clink was busy that night, overflowing with the vermin off the streets.
"Next time, Reggie," the desk sergeant called. He waved me along, so I caught up with my girls and walked them home.
"You'd better watch out, Reggie," Tina advised while sucking on the cig I was sharing with her. "There's a new kid in town, and he's stealing your business. My last load of the white powder all went to him."
"What do you mean?" My business had been lower by half, but I figured it was seasonal or maybe the recession. I didn't know of any kid who had been cutting into my turf. If there was, he wasn't going to be alive for very long.
"Yeah, there is, Reggie," Claire agreed. "I've heard it too though it's kind of hard to believe. He's just a little guy, maybe nine or ten years old, but he's running an operation that's bigger than yours."
"You have got to be kidding me! Why didn't someone tell me this before?"
"We figured somebody else had already broken the news to you." Tina handed back the cig which I tossed into the gutter with disgust.
"Show me this kid so I can break his neck."
"I don't know where to find him," Tina replied. "Can I have a new cig now that you've destroyed our old?"
"I don't know where he is either," Claire cried when I looked to her. "He's around when he is, and he's not around when he's somewhere else."
"Can you tell me what he looks like or give me his name? I'll send my boys out to drag him in to my lair." I rubbed my knuckles together imagining the beating this kid would get when I turned his face into a piece of pulp and broke every rib in his lousy nine-year old chest.
"His name's Senya," Tina said, "but I wouldn't hurt him if I were you."
"He looks like a Karut," Claire added, "but also kind of strange."
"If you hurt him, he'll take you out. He's left bigger guys dead in the street."
"Even though he's really kind to girls like us."
My head was spinning from girl to girl as I listened to this. Some weird Karut kid was messing with my brain. As soon as I got to my loft, I would order my team to assemble and then I'd tell them to go out and snatch this little Karut.
I paced the floor while I waited for them to return. I sharpened my blade and checked the cylinders in my gun. I counted bullets and practiced a shot on the target I drew on the wall. I estimated exactly where a nine-year old's heart might be. My boys were gone for maybe six or seven hours. When they finally returned, they asked me to come to the roof.
"Where's the Karut kid," I demanded, pointing my gun at each one of them.
"He's waiting for you up top next to the chimney."
"Tell him to come in here," I ordered and turned my back although each one of them shook their head in denial.
"Sorry, Reggie," Smirt apologized. "You need to come up there instead. Ain't none of us going to argue with that Karut."
"Alright," I agreed though reluctantly as my curiosity was now more demanding than anything else. "Each of you arm yourselves for battle. We'll take out this Karut and all his men. We'll liberate our territory and save our business."
"There ain't no other men," Byl replied as we climbed the stairs. "The Karut's by hisself except for maybe his mutt dog."
"A kid and a dog is all that we're fighting? There's six of us guys each with knives and guns."
"Doesn't matter," Simon cried. "Just take our word, Reggie, and do as he says. Ye don't want to be getting into a tussle with the Karut. He can kill without a blade or gun in his hand."
Now, I wasn't scared at all. In fact, I was looking forward to meeting the kid. I had no idea why my guys were afraid of this child. I pushed open the stairway door that led to the roof outside and emerged to find a sky that was filled with stars and two gold moons. Trucks and speeders flew above as people walked the streets below; the noise of the city for a moment filling my ears.
"Where's the kid?" I looked across the roof and blinked my eyes, not seeing him there next to the chimney.
"Up." Smirt pointed in the air at the flue which rose twenty feet high. The Karut sat atop where the smoke came drifting out obviously not bothered by the heat or flakes of ash. He gazed down at me as I looked up, his silver eyes lighting the path between us. I recognized him as the kid I had seen before.
"Senya," I called and pointed my gun as I had a clear unobstructed shot at his head. "You're stealing my business from me and I don't like it on account of it being mine. Are you going to stop or am I going to be taking you out?"
He smiled and even gave a little laugh. "Ach, Reggie, you don't know what you're doing, me mate. Your business now is mine, but I'll let you have a piece for a while longer. Your path is going to be taking you somewhere else. You don't belong working on these streets. You ought to be thinking of another occupation." I hadn't a clue what the kid was talking about. All I knew was he wasn't about to give it up but I had no intention of folding my hand at this stage in the game. I had worked too long and too hard to walk away from my employees, and my coins and I was still enjoying my reign as King of the Streets.
"I'll give you one much chance, me mate." I smiled agreeably and offered a hand. "Come down here and let's talk like man to man. Perhaps, we can reach an agreement. This city ought to be big enough for us two." The Karut just shook his head and chuckled again. The light of the moons reflected in his black hair making it glow as his silver eyes sparkled in a mysterious way. He took a long drag on his cig and then tossed it in the air as he leapt down from that flue to land by me.
"Reggie," he said. "It's over for you, me friend. Your reign has ended although I'll keep you on as my lieutenant. Here have a coin or two for your own troubles." I looked at the coins shining in his outstretched hand. They burned through my heart and made it seethe with indignation. I put my gun to his head, which wasn't even as high as my shoulder, and I imagined his brains as they splattered across the roof.
"It's your last chance, you ugly Karut. If you don't leave this roof and these streets, you'll be riding home in the coroner's truck. Whatever's left of you that is, for there won't be much when I'm done. What's the word now, my friend, yes or no?"
"Ach Reggie" the Karut sighed again, so I pulled back on the trigger. The hammer snapped as the gun kicked in my hand. The bullet whistled as it shot free, but it didn't land in the Karut's head as he wasn't where he had been just a moment before. Instead, he was behind me with his blade jammed into my neck.
"Get on your knees," he ordered, "or you'll be losing your head." I knelt down as my knees were too weak to hold me anyway. I glanced from one of my guys to the next, but all of them were disappearing through the open roof door. When we were alone out there under the stars, Senya took away his blade. Instead of killing me, he offered me a cig. Then he sat down on the corner of the roof and waved for me to join him, so I lit the cig and tried to quiet my pounding heart.
"What'd you want?" I asked in a shaky voice. I didn't sound so tough after being bested by a nine-year old.
"Let's make a deal." He swung his feet over the ledge. I was terrified of heights and his swinging made my heart start racing again, so I paced the center of the roof a few yards away. "You can keep working the streets, but you'll be reporting to me from now on. I get half of everything you do from here on out. When I tell you 'tis time to be done, you'll pack up and leave this place. If you don't agree, I'll be killing you here whilst you pace."
"Alright," I agreed for expediencies sake and glanced at the way he leaned over the ledge. All it would take was a tiny push, eighty pounds were nothing to a big guy like me. He would end up splattered on the ground, or splashed on the window of a speeder, another lost street rat who had taken a dive. I leaned over, my hand extended, ready to give him a shove but just as I did that Karut took flight. He went soaring over the street, disappearing in the dark shadows of the buildings where the gas lamps' small radius could
n't possibly reach. I listened and waited for that tell-tale thump which would be followed by a scream or the sound of bones making impact on something hard. It was silent save a truck as it roared overhead until I heard a whisper as he called my name again.
"Reggie." I looked up for that was from where the sound had come only to discover him perched upon the chimney flue. He sat there with his cig as if this were common place for him, blowing clouds of smoke into the dark and cold night air. "Deals a deal, me mate. I'll be expecting me coins next week. You can find me right here waiting on you in this same time and place." Then he disappeared when I blinked my eyes, so quickly I wasn't certain he'd ever been here. All that remained was a giant black bird soaring amongst the stars and the two golden moons.
After that, I swore never to use Horkin again. I would deal it, I would sell it, but I wouldn't ever partake. I went back to my loft and slept like the dead until late in the morning the next day. The first thought I had when I opened my eyes were that kid was a dream and not real.
"So we're all working for Senya now?" Smirt shook his head. "I 'spose it was bound to happen this way."
"Oh no!" I moaned and laid my head back down. It wasn't a dream after all. I was now the employee of a nine-year old Karut and no longer the King of the Streets.
****
A year or so later, I wasn't sure how long for we measured time in those days by the passing of seasons, I was awoken abruptly one morning when the city cops invaded my lair. They tossed us all out of our beds and into a van.
"What's the deal?" I cried as I had been paying my taxes. I was paying the Karut and all of my employees. It left precious little for me, barely enough to feed my face so much, so I had been thinking this business was past its prime. I wouldn't have minded a new occupation but as of yet I didn't know what else to do. I loved to watch the speeders and imagine myself aboard. Perhaps, someday I might learn to fly one. Maybe I could drive a bus or truck that crisscrossed the planet. In my dreams, I even ventured out in to space.
"We're cleaning up the streets, Reggie," a cop I knew replied. "The order has come down from the high command. "Prince Akan is visiting Old Mishnah and has demanded the streets be sparkling. If he sees any riff raff hanging around, he'll have you shot. So we're picking up all your employees and girls. It's for your own safety, you need to understand. The city belongs to the Royal family, and the Prince has decided this street is his. He's our boss so we can't help it even though we get along. It's been real nice knowing you and we'll miss our poker games."
"Prince Akan?" I sniffed as I had no love lost for that guy. He was our prince but not going to be our king. From what I had heard, his dealings were shaky, and every law that he passed was corrupt. Taking our homes away from us was par for the course. He didn't care at all if he left us homeless or killed our business.
"I'm not riff raff," Smirt declared as he sat next to me in the van. He was scratching his head, which unleashed a shower of lice. I scooted as far away as I could which was hard because twenty of us were in there. We were packed like sardines, and the van had stopped to load up more.
"You are riff raff. All of us are. All of us are nothing in the eyes of the Prince."
"Do you think they'll let us take a shower at the jail?" Byl asked as he scratched at his hair, too. This van was now over run with legions of head lice. If I didn't have it before, I surely would when I was released in addition to ticks, pink eye and athlete's foot.
"You're not going to the jail," the cop replied as he shoved more bodies in.
"Hey!" someone yelled. "Watch it! You're stepping on me."
"Where are we going?" I demanded. "If not to the jail, what will you do with us?"
"We're taking you to a field on the outskirts of the city."
"Why?" I cried as the door slammed shut. Was it so important that Prince Akan be deceived? Would they let us come back, or were we condemned to live in the woods like animals instead of civilized men who roamed the streets? With barely room for us to breath, we flew high into the sky although I couldn't look out and see where we were going. We landed a while later and were released from this repulsive van that was filthy from unwashed bodies that stunk like swine. We were herded into a pen, just like the animals that we were, and in there, we were given a cup, bowl and spoon. There was a trough to wash our hands, one small blanket each on which to sleep. Here, we were told to stay for the next few days.
"Not exactly a fancy hotel," Smirt mumbled as his blanket barely covered his ass. "How can they keep us like pigs when we're free men?"
"We're not free," Tina replied. "We never have been. It's only an illusion. Though you can't see the bars on the cages, it doesn't mean they haven't been there."
"That's right," I agreed, missing my gun, which the coppers snatched right way, first thing. "When they can round us up for no reason, it means we're nothing more than their slaves."
"We need to escape from here," Byl declared. "We have to show Prince Akan that those buildings are ours. We have enough money to pay. Let's just buy them from the Royal family, ourselves."
"We can't do anything sitting here in the woods," Smirt sighed, "and I'm so hungry I'm getting kind of weak. I've got no energy to escape. All I want to do is go to sleep." Unfortunately, that's all we did that night. We lay on the grass and slept beneath the stars. It wasn't so bad considering it could have rained. In fact, the next day we began to get complacent as Stockholm Syndrome set in.
"We could break out," Byl still insisted.
"But it's not so bad as we can still play cards." Lee dealt out a game.
"It's almost like a vacation when we don't have to work the streets," Claire and Tina added.
"The soup's pretty good in here." Smirt lapped up another bowl with his spoon. "And there's lots of entertainment watching everybody itch."
"Are you all becoming sheep instead of people?" I paced the pen. "Are we just going to sit here and wait until they let us out?"
"Pretty much," the crowd agreed.
"Well, I'm not," I declared although quietly as the coppers were watching every move that I made. They patrolled the perimeters, their guns loaded at their sides, their torches illuminating the dark. "Who's with me besides Byl? Anybody else want to go home? We'll march back into the city in time for Prince Akan to see us all coming. We'll stop his parade and demand that he let us back in our buildings. We just have to dig out under this fence during the night."
"I'm too tired for that." Smirt shook his head.
"I'll get too dirty digging in the mud," Lee replied. "Besides that, there's a whole lot of worms down there."
"I'm afraid of tight places, so I don't think I'll be able to crawl through the hole," Simon added.
"What if they shoot us?" Smirt asked.
"I'd rather be here then dead in the street," Claire said. At that point, I figured it was hopeless to try breaking out. I returned to my spot near the fence where I had spread my blanket and set down my bowl wondering if I could dig the way out all by myself.
"I'll help you," a quiet voice spoke. I looked up to see that strange kid who collected my coins every week up on the roof. "Tonight, it'll start raining real hard. The guards will run to their trucks to take cover. The wind will come up and knock down the fence over there. Whilst the lightning is striking that side, put your blankets over the wire on the ground. Then you can cross like a bridge to safety and run back to the city."
"How do you know this is all going to happen? Can you forecast the weather in your head?"
"Yeah," he replied and almost gave me a smile before turning to disappear in the crowds. "Ah, Reggie," he called one more time before he left. "Will you give Prince Akan a message from me, please? Tell him, the people aren't sheep no matter how stupid they may act. Everyone needs to be treated with dignity and respect. The way to clean the streets is not to remove the people but to help them to buy their own homes. I have already resolved the problem with your buildings. Just hand the Prince this letter should he protest."
"I'm not sure I understand what you said," I replied for this kid had spoken way above my head. "I'll give him your message if I see him but who should I say it's from? Shall I tell him it's from Senya of the streets?" This time the boy smiled in a very strange way, and his eyes sparkled with that eerie silver light.
"Tell Akan it's from me, the boy who took what was never his. He'll understand with no further explanation."
That night when the thunder boomed, and the lightning shot from the sky, as the cops ran to their trucks to escape the storm, we crept from our pen to the freedom of the fields and from there we hiked back to the Old City. We picked up sticks and stones as our guns and knives were gone and it would be unwise to return without munitions. I had no wish to fight and certainly didn't want to kill, but I wasn't going to be a sheep any longer. Instead, I would be a ram with a great rack upon my head and the power to defy anyone who tried to stop me. We arrived the next morning on the streets right at the same moment Prince Akan, and his retinue were parading. Respectfully, we knelt as he gazed at us with a handkerchief clutched to his nose and a pained expression upon his narrow face.
"The odor," he declared. "It's horrific on these streets and the people are filthier than any we've ever encountered. Get them away," he called his guards. "Send them somewhere else entirely. I feel they debase our beloved city of Old Mishnah."
"We won't go," I stood up and declared which prompted everyone else to rise to their feet, as well. "This is our home and you can't make us leave again."
"Go back to your marble palace," Smirt yelled while waving his stick in the air. "These are our buildings. They belong to us."
"To you?" the Prince sniffed. "You are nothing but a rabble of ignorant fools. I am only allowing you to live because shooting you would create a big mess. Now lower your sticks and get yourselves away as I tour the Old City before I make it New. I have a luncheon date at noon back at the Palace." The royal caravan started to move again as the Prince raised his chin high in the air and passed us by without even a pitying glance in our direction.