Eastside

by Caleb Alexander

  “Catch him!” Travon ordered.

  “What?” Romeo shouted.

  “Drive through the fuckin’ field, Romeo!” Travon told him.

  The van jumped the curb and raced into the field. They rapidly closed the distance between themselves and Quentin, who was now merely twenty yards away. Quentin came to a large wooden fence that separated the field from a neighboring residential area and rapidly scaled it. Romeo drove up to the fence and stopped.

  Travon threw open the sliding rear door of the van and leapt out. Romeo, Capone, Lil Fade, and Robert Jr. watched in amazement as Travon scaled the fence in pursuit of Quentin.

  “Fuck it, he’ll be all right,” Robert Jr. told them. He tapped Romeo’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

  Romeo turned the van around and headed out of the field toward a strip filled with fast-food restaurants. From there, they entered onto a main strip, and then the highway heading home.

  Travon ran through the dark alley between the large wooden fence and the chain-link fences that marked the boundaries of the nearby houses. Quentin, unaware he was still being pursued, slowed considerably. Travon continued his pursuit at full stride until he came within ten yards of his prey. He didn’t want to fire his weapon just yet, because it would only bring the police. He did not want the police anywhere close tonight, as he was determined to finish Quentin off.

  Quentin hopped a chain-link fence and entered into a nearby backyard. Travon hopped the same fence. Hearing the rattle, Quentin turned and spied Travon in pursuit. He quickly picked up speed and hopped a gate leading into the front yard, where he pulled his weapon from his waistband. Quentin headed for the safety of a parked car and ducked behind the front fender.

  When Travon emerged from the shadows of the side of the house, he received a welcome present from Quentin. Bullets struck the corner of the house near Travon’s head, causing splinters to fly into the side of his face. Travon immediately dropped down and returned fire. His bullets sprinkled the front of the car from which Quentin had fired. Quentin himself was no longer there, as he had fled after he fired. The hunt was no longer a quiet one.

  Hearing the rattle of a chain-link fence, Travon rose and ran into the backyard of the house directly across the street. He arrived in time to see Quentin hopping another fence. Travon fired, missed, and continued his pursuit.

  Quentin jumped another gate and ran across the front lawn of this home. Travon followed. They ran across the street and entered into another backyard, but this time, it was not empty. A large Rottweiler attacked Quentin, and he quickly silenced the dog by putting a bullet through its head. Travon fired again, and this time, Quentin was struck. He cried out but continued to run.

  Quentin scaled another fence, ran into the front yard, and again waited just around the corner. Travon hopped the gate leading to the front yard, and Quentin stepped from around the corner and fired. Travon fell. He could feel a burning sensation in his side where Quentin’s bullet had grazed him deeply, but he was alive.

  Travon rose from the dirt, cursed, and continued forward. Quentin was crossing the street just as he was charging through the front yard. Upon seeing Travon, Quentin cursed, stopped, turned and fired again. Bullets peppered the house just inches away from Travon’s head. Quentin turned, ran up to the front door of the nearby house, blew the lock off, and ran inside. Travon ran up to the home and entered. Upon noticing that the back door was open, he continued through the residence, and ran into the backyard. Quentin’s gamble had failed; Travon had not paused as he had hoped he would.

  Two houses down, Travon heard another growl, and then a gunshot, followed by a loud yelp as a dog cried out in pain. He ran toward the gunshot and hopped two fences without even touching them. He happened upon the wounded dog, and spied Quentin running through a nearby alley. Without pause, Travon leapt the fence and headed into the alley.

  Bitten, shot, and exhausted, Quentin had slowed considerably. Travon quickly gained ground on him. Hearing a splash from a puddle of water, Quentin turned and spied Travon behind him. He quickly lifted his weapon and fired, but after only three shots his weapon clicked. He cursed and through it down in the mud.

  Now defenseless, wounded, and even more desperate, Quentin emerged from the alley and ran to a nearby house, where he began to pound upon the door. Travon emerged from the alley and fired twice. After the second shot, his weapon clicked, so he discarded it and pulled out Romeo’s gun.

  Travon fired again, and bullets struck the door just inches away from Quentin’s left arm. Frightened, Quentin took off running again, but this time only as far as two doors down, where he dove through a large, living room window. Travon, like a wild animal who had tasted blood, dove through the window right behind his prey.

  “Please.” Quentin lifted his hands into the air and pleaded for mercy. He lay on the living room floor between the coffee table and the couch. “I’m sorry. I’ll pay you! Don’t kill me, please!”

  Travon rose from the floor, walked to where Quentin was lying, and pointed his weapon at him. “Lil Fade says that you’re one of the gods, so resurrect yourself, muthafucka!”

  Travon emptied Romeo’s sixteen remaining shots into Quentin’s face, and then turned and walked calmly out of the house, by way of the window from which he had entered.

  After struggling with himself for so long, Travon the human had lost. He had now become a full-blooded monster.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Next Day

  Aunt Vera’s House

  It was two o’clock in the afternoon. Lil Fade, Marcus, Romeo, Cibon, and Antwon were all seated around Aunt Vera’s porch. Romeo stopped in mid-sentence, although his mouth remained open. The others quickly turned and stared in the direction in which he was staring.

  Travon was walking down the middle of the street clutching his side. He walked with a pronounced limp, and the elastic waistband of his normally white boxers was a deep, crimson red. Lil Fade smiled.

  The news had given a fairly decent account of the incident, except they, like the detectives, were at a complete loss as to who had chased down the victim and why. Travon walked into the yard.

  “What’s up, Blood?” Marcus greeted him. “The news say that you pumped seventeen shots into that sucker.”

  Travon walked his gaze across the assembled group of boys. He did not return Marcus’s smile. “Where’s everyone else at?”

  “Out looking for you,” Antwon told him. “We was all worried when you didn’t make it back last night.”

  “I told y’all he would be all right!” Lil Fade told them. “Tre is a muthafuckin’ killa.”

  “You should have seen him in action last night,” Romeo said. “Tre took off after that fool like a madman. You really wasn’t gonna smoke me last night, was ya, kinfolk?”

  Travon shifted his gaze to the street, allowing Romeo’s question to hang in the thick humidity. Lil Fade broke the tension.

  “I knew you had it in ya, it just needed to be brought out. It was inevitable. From now on, we gonna call you Baby-Low.”

  A sarcastic smile spread across Romeo’s face. “Yeah, just like Too-Low.”

  “Dejuan called Darius today, he says that he wants to call it quits between us and them,” Marcus told Travon. “He says that he didn’t tell Quentin to kill Tamika and that he thought that it was fucked up that he did. He lost his brother and a couple of his homeboys last night, and now he just wants to bury his brother and homies in peace; and then he’s leaving town.”

  “In peace? Doesn’t he mean, in pieces!” Lil Fade let out a demonic laugh.

  “He offered two keys to call it quit so he can leave,” Marcus continued. “He says that he just wants us to respect his brother’s funeral, and leave his other two brothers alone after he leaves.”

  “What did Darius say?” Travon asked.

  “He said of course, leave the two birds with Missy,” Marcus told him. “And then he hung up the phone and we started thinking about how we could kill this dude be
fore he left town.”

  Travon laughed and shook his head. Deep down, he knew that Darius wouldn’t sell him out.

  “I got an idea,” Marcus told them. “Remember what Lil Fade said at the mall that time we jacked Dejuan?”

  Travon shrugged. He didn’t know which thing in particular Marcus was referring to.

  “Yeah, well, they ain’t gonna hold his dick for him when he fucks either,” Marcus told them.

  “What do you mean?” Travon folded his arms and shifted his weight to one side.

  “His bitch!” Marcus told them.

  Travon shook his head. “Nobody, and I mean nobody, knows where Dejuan lives.”

  “Not that bitch, I’m talking about his piece of candy on the side,” Marcus explained. “Sympathy pussy is the best pussy, and Dejuan’s been trying to push up on Tangela’s fine ass lately. I’ll bet you anything he’s gonna run up over there for a little TLC in the next couple of days. All we gotta do is catch his ass over there, and pop him.”

  “Why come nobody ever did this before?” Travon asked.

  “Because we never had any reason to just outright kill them niggaz,” Marcus told him. “We just used to serve them niggaz to get the message across to not fuck with us. Sometimes we would ride by and pop one of their homeboys whenever they popped one of ours. There’s a difference between banging and murder, Tre. Some of us just don’t know the difference.”

  Lil Fade smiled at Marcus’s little dig at him.

  “Whatever, just let me know what’s up,” Travon told him. “I gotta go and take a shower and get some rest. Mika’s wake is tonight, and the funeral is tomorrow.”

  Travon turned and went inside.

  Next Day

  Travon, Marcus, and Darius rode home together from Tamika’s funeral. Her family had totally shunned Travon during the services, and did not allow him to sit with the family. They blamed him for Tamika’s death, which disturbed him deeply.

  Travon reached into the front seat and tapped Darius upon his shoulder. “Drop me off at Poison’s apartment.”

  Darius shook his head. “I don’t understand you, Tre. Your ass is in love with Poison, but you was acting like you really cutted for Tamika. What’s up with that?”

  “I did cut for Mika. Me and her was having kids together. She was my heart, but Poison is my heart also.”

  “I think both of them is cool, but I just don’t understand how you can cut for both of them,” Darius told him. “They are like night and day. One is ghetto and one was Gucci.”

  “Shit, you know how it is. Sometimes I need to kick it real, and sometimes I needed to kick it different. Mika was from a whole different world. She turned me on to a whole lot of different things. For me, she kinda represented want I wanted to be and what I wanted to have. Poison reminds me of who I am, and where I come from. She keeps it real.”

  Darius nodded. “Yeah, if it’s one thing Poison does, it’s keep it real.” He pulled into the parking lot of Saddle Ridge Apartments, and Travon climbed out of the car.

  “All right, I’ll holler at y’all later,” Travon told them. He closed the car door, turned, and ran up the stairs to Poison’s apartment, where he pounded on the door.

  “Hey, baby,” Poison greeted him when she opened the door. “Come on in.”

  Travon bounded into the apartment, kissed Poison on her cheek, and then seated himself on the couch. She sat next to him and began to caress his arm.

  “I wish that I could have gone with you and comforted you,” she told him.

  Travon shifted his gaze to the carpet. “That wouldn’t have been right, you know that.”

  “Yeah.” Poison nodded. “So how are the babies doing?”

  “Better. The doctor says that it’s a miracle that they both survived.”

  “Have you given them names yet?”

  “Yeah, I named them Travon and Davon, after me and my brother.”

  “Oh, baby, that’s so nice!” Poison exclaimed. She wrapped her arms around him. “I can’t wait to see them, and hold them, and play with them.”

  “Huh?”

  “I said that I can’t wait to play with them. I really want to help you with them.”

  “You’re moving a little fast, ain’t you?”

  “What? Wait a minute,” she told him. “I didn’t say that I wanted to be their mother, or take their mother’s place, or anything like that. I’m not trying to be all up under you either, I just wanted to help you. If you don’t want my help, then cool.”

  Poison shrugged, rose from the couch, and walked into the kitchen.

  Travon rose and followed her. “There you go; tripping.”

  “I’m not tripping.” Poison pulled a large steel pot down from her cabinet and slammed it onto the stove. “I’m just thinking what a fool I am.”

  Travon extended his arms into the air. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Poison waved her hand dismissing him. “Nothing.”

  “Naw, don’t nothing me. Last time you nothin’ed me, we argued for two days.”

  “I know that you are going through a lot today, so let’s just drop it.”

  “Man, what’s with this attitude all of a sudden?”

  Poison pointed her finger at his face. “I’m just thinking how funny it is that I’m good enough to fuck, but I’m not good enough to touch your kids.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t have to say it, I know what you meant.” Poison turned away and walked to the refrigerator.

  Travon stepped into her small kitchen area. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

  Poison closed the refrigerator and turned to face him again, holding two steaks. “I’m not putting words in your mouth.”

  She walked to the sink and sat the steaks down in the basin. Then she faced him again. “You know what, things have changed between us, Tre. It’s not your fault, it’s mines. When I met you, I was talking to Kilo, and you was already talking to Tamika. I fell in love with you, and I had already quit talking to Kilo.”

  She extended her finger into his face again. “But you kept on messing with me and Tamika at the same time. I should have stopped it then, but I didn’t. I liked being with you, the few moments that we did spend together, so I kept on. I accepted Tamika, because she was there first, and I knew about her. But now she’s gone, and I still feel like I’m second. That shit I will not stand for!”

  “I love you too!”

  Poison waved him off. “Bullshit!”

  “I do,” Travon whispered. “I love you.”

  “How the fuck can you love two people?”

  “Tamika gave me something that you couldn’t. You gave me something that Tamika couldn’t. I loved both of you for who you are.”

  Poison waved her hand through the air again. “That shit sounds like a bunch of bullshit! An excuse. And a weak-ass one at that!”

  Travon turned away. “I knew that I shouldn’t have come over here today! I don’t have to take this bullshit!”

  Poison jabbed her finger toward the door. “Then get the fuck out! There’s the door, nigga!”

  Travon stormed past her. “Crazy bitch!”

  “Bitch? Bitch?” Poison opened one of her kitchen drawers and pulled out a large revolver. She pointed it at his face. “Bitch? Nigga, don’t you ever disrespect me like that again. I don’t know who in the fuck you think you are talking to, but I’m not one of your little hood rat tramps. If you ever, ever call me a bitch again, I’ll blow your muthafuckin’ face off. Do you understand me?”

  Travon nodded solemnly.

  “Good. I’m from the muthafuckin’ streets too, don’t ever forget that.” Poison lowered the revolver and un-cocked the hammer.

  Travon walked to where she was standing, and once they stood nose to nose, began to kiss her passionately. With the gun still in her hand, she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her into the air. Kissing and breathing heavily, Travon
carried her off into the bedroom.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Later That Evening

  Someone knocked on the bedroom door, rousing them.

  “What?” Poison asked.

  “Girl, y’all come on out here and eat this shit before it gets cold,” Peaches shouted through the bedroom door.

  “All right.” Poison nudged Travon in his side.

  “All right, I’m up,” he told her.

  Together they climbed out of bed, got semi-dressed, and walked into the living room. Lil Fade was seated on the black leather sectional, eating a hamburger. Peaches was on the floor across from him, removing food from the McDonald’s bags and placing it on the coffee table.

  “What’s up, girl?” Poison asked.

  “Here.” Peaches handed her some bags. “Y’all need to quit making all that noise when y’all fuckin’.”

  “Girl, just put a pillow over your head, I gots to make noise when I’m getting my groove on,” Poison told her, as she rummaged through the bags. She pulled out a burger and handed it to Travon. “Where’s the sodas and fries?”

  Poison pulled out an order of fries and handed them to Travon, who was already devouring his burger. Satisfied, Poison unwrapped her burger and bit down into it. She chewed for a few moments, and then turned to Peaches.

  “Girl, this got tomatoes in it?” Poison asked.

  “I ordered yours with no tomatoes,” replied Peaches, shaking her head. “You must’ve given Tre the wrong one.”

  Poison spat the moist glob of chewed food into her hand, jumped up, and ran to the bathroom. Travon sat his food down on the coffee table, and walked after her. He arrived at the bathroom door just as she was flushing the toilet.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing.” She shook her head. “Tomatoes just upset my stomach.” Poison turned on the faucet and proceeded to rinse her mouth out in the sink.

  “Since where?” Travon asked. “We done ate a million burgers together and they never bothered you before.”

  “I just realized something; you’re a very nosey fellow.” Poison removed her toothbrush from its holder, rinsed it off, and then applied a generous amount of toothpaste.