Two Thin Dimes

by Caleb Alexander

  The pain he felt came not from disappointing so many people, but from a conversation between his father and his uncle. He had overheard Eddie Lee saying that he thought his son would rather have been in a cheerleader’s skirt, than wearing a football jersey. It hurt. It had hurt more than anything in this world, as Tameer had always done his best to please his father. His desire to please Eddie Lee had driven him to greatness. It’s what made him elevate himself to legendary, record-shattering, football demi-god status. He became the greatest student athlete in the annals of Texas football history, in an effort to make Eddie Lee say something nice about him. He would have almost killed for a smile or a pat on the back from his father. It never came.

  Once again, Tameer found himself alone in his bedroom after having another argument with his father. Once again, Tameer found himself removing his journal of poetry to make an entry. Finally, like all of the other times, he found himself falling asleep on his bed, haunted by memories of his mother.

  San Antonio International Airport was a thoroughly modern facility. Large, comfortable, efficient, and like most others, found itself not holding a candle to New York’s massive JFK International.

  “China, what is this God-forsaken place? Where have you brought me to?” Jamaica strode through the airport wearing a sizzling red leather ensemble from North Beach Leather. It was a three-piece with jacket, skirt, and a matching oversized leather hat. She completed her Vogue look with a red Chanel purse, and matching red oversized Chanel frames.

  “Jai, I’m not going to put up with your whining.” LaChina strolled alongside her friend, dressed less ostentatiously. Her cream-colored, soft-cotton, pleated bell-bottom pantsuit, and reasonably-sized Fendi frames barely registered a second glance. “We’re going to do the promo, then get the hell outta here and head for the Bahamas.”

  Jamaica waved her hand through the air, dramatically fanning her face. “I don’t see how Savannah and Jemia tolerate this awful weather. I feel like I’m going to bake.”

  “You’re the one who put on all of that leather,” LaChina told her. “Girl, this is Texas, not New York.”

  “You said to dress incognito,” Jamaica countered.

  LaChina stopped, turned, and stared at her friend. “Jai, girl, that hat looks like something out of a Doctor Seuss book. That is not discreet, nor incognito.”

  “You bring me down here to take pictures of me kissing a big, slimy, black fish, and then you talk about me? If you weren’t my sista, I would deck you.”

  “It’s a whale, and you have to hug it, and then kiss it.” LaChina smiled at Jamaica. “I hope it licks you in the face.”

  Jamaica slapped LaChina across her arm. “Yuck!”

  The airport was semi-crowded today, with people returning from the Thanksgiving holiday, or departing for their Christmas one. Airport patrons were darting to and fro, left and right, conducting their business. Still, the difference in atmosphere, ambiance, and energy made Jamaica yawn. She was anxious to conduct her business and leave the place.

  “Did you tell your cousin what time to pick us up?” Jamaica asked.

  Tired of answering the same question for an undetermined number of times, LaChina’s answer was brief. “Yep.”

  Frustrated, Jamaica exhaled loudly. “Do they have paved streets, or did she have to drive a mule cart?”

  “Shut up, Jai.”

  “Do they at least have indoor plumbing?”

  “Shut up, Jai.”

  “Well, what are we going to do about the luggage?” Jamaica inquired.

  The question brought a smile to LaChina’s face. She turned toward Jamaica, and upon visualizing her friend struggling through the terminal carrying her own bags, she laughed.

  Jamaica didn’t understand. “What?”

  “What do you mean, what?” LaChina asked.

  “The luggage. What are you laughing at?”

  LaChina shook her head. “Nothing.”

  “Well, you know there’s no limo, which means there is no chauffeur. There are no bodyguards, either, since we are going to sneak in, do the promo, and sneak out.” Jamaica whipped her head around toward her friend. “So, who’s going to carry it?”

  “We are.”

  Jamaica shook her head emphatically. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don’t you started speaking French on me now, what do you mean, we?”

  A voice from across the lobby called out excitedly, causing them to peer in that direction.

  “China! China! Over here!”

  A tall, slender young lady with caramel-colored skin and a short haircut approached waving. LaChina’s face brightened instantly.

  “Hey, girl!” LaChina shouted, as she rushed toward the oncoming young lady.

  The young woman with the smart pixie cut outstretched her arms widely, welcoming LaChina’s body. “Hey, cuz!”

  They embraced tightly.

  “Jemia!” Jamaica called out as she approached. She, too, outstretched her arms, and she and Jemia embraced.

  After the hugs, Jemia stepped back from Jamaica and outstretched Jamaica’s arms, examining her. “Oh, sister, you look so good! I saw you on the MTV Music Awards, strutting your thang!”

  Jemia’s hands flew up into the air, where she snapped them in a quick Z-type motion. “I said, you go, girl!”

  Jemia leaned forward again, and embraced Jamaica tightly. “Congratulations.”

  “Congrats to me? No, congrats to you.” This time it was Jamaica waving her hands through the air with fingers snapping. “Ms. Magna Cum Laude, future Berkeley Medical School Student!”

  Again, they embraced.

  “So, where is Kenya?” Jemia asked.

  Kenya Roleisha Rochelle was the younger sister of mega star Jamaica Tiera Rochelle. Kenya was just as talented, and even more gorgeous, than her older sister. Fortunately, she was able to escape the grasp of their mother, who had been preoccupied with Jamaica. Kenya had been able to go her own way.

  “She’s coming down later,” Jamaica explained. “She told me to give you all her love, and to tell you that she misses you.”

  Jemia smiled. “We had so much fun this summer, you wouldn’t believe it! She told me that she was going to come back down this winter so that we could get some private time in, before the sorority sisters got here. We’re all meeting here, and then heading for the beach on South Padre Island.”

  Jamaica tilted her head to the side. “Beach, islands, sand, sounds wonderful.” She turned toward LaChina. “Christmas should be spent somewhere tropical.”

  “C’mon, let’s get your luggage, I have a porter waiting,” Jemia told them. She interlocked one of her arms inside of Jamaica’s, and the other inside of LaChina’s arm.

  “I have so much to tell you, and we have so much to catch up on,” Jemia told them, as she led them off in the direction of her waiting porter. “Jai, what was that you were wearing on stage at the awards? It was stunning…”

  Chapter Three

  Tameer darted left, and then reversed himself and twisted to the right. The basketball landed dead center inside of the rusted, aluminum, garbage can and rolled around noisily inside.

  “Yeah, boy!” Tameer shouted. “I’ma take you to the hoop.”

  Tameer’s smile was genuine, as was his brother Savion’s. Savion jogged quickly to the brown spot on the lawn that played host to the garbage can, and retrieved the tattered leather ball. Bouncing it rapidly on the cracked, pebble-paved street, he dared his older brother to take it away.

  “Come on with it,” Savion taunted. “You want this, come and get it.”

  With that, a quick fake to the right, followed by a spin to his left, he was off. Savion’s six-foot-eight-inch height, stretched over a lanky two hundred and twenty-pound frame, allowed him to outmaneuver his six-foot-five, two hundred and fifteen-pound brother. His shot landed dead center, knocking the badly beaten garbage can over onto its side.

  “Yes!” Savion leaped into the air, pounding his fist.

  “Shit!” T
ameer’s labored laugh flowed out between his heavy breaths. He placed his arm around his younger brother and smiled. “I taught you too good.”

  The brothers’ laughter came to an abrupt end, leaving only their smiles, when a convertible Mustang GT pulled up. The car was magnificent.

  The Mustang’s burgundy paint glistened like wet marble, while the chrome twenty-two-inch wheels sticking out from beneath the wheel wells gleamed brilliantly in the beaming South Texas sun. The Mustang’s ground effects kit included not only lowered side skirts and front and rear air dams, but a massive burgundy whale tail that added a dramatic flair to the vehicle. The car screamed money.

  The two occupants were shirtless, revealing heavily illustrated torsos that were draped in gold jewelry. Their smiles sparkled brightly in the sunlight, revealing gold and diamond teeth that looked as though their teeth were worth a fortune. Raising his arms high into the air, the driver spoke first.

  “What’s up, Tameer?” Anthony asked. “What’s up, Savion?”

  Still breathing heavily, Tameer stepped forward. “What’s up, homie?”

  Savion, entranced by the massive chrome rims, patrolled the car’s perimeter, examining every inch of its beauty. When finished, he peered up at the driver.

  “Say, Anthony, your shit is cleaner than a mother fucker!” Savion told him.

  The compliment caused Anthony to sit up a little high in his seat.

  Tameer reached over into the snow-white interior of the car and shook hands with the passenger.

  “Alonzo, where’s your Five Point O at?” Tameer asked.

  “Getting painted,” Alonzo answered, motioning in the direction from where they had just turned the corner. “We’re about to go and pick that bitch up right now.”

  Anthony and Alonzo were both members of the notorious Wheatley Courts Gangsters, or WCG’s for short. It was a brutal drug gang that infested the local neighborhood. In fact, it was the most violent gang in one of the hardest areas in the entire state of Texas. Anthony and Alonzo were two of its most prominent members.

  “Shit, T, why don’t you get down for the hood and get your serve on,” asked a smiling Anthony. “You could be rolling in a Five Point O, too.”

  “You know that you can get anything you need from any of us,” Alonzo added. “We’ll front you. Your credit’s good.”

  It was an offer that had been made several times, and each time it had been refused. Tameer shook his head and smiled. His steps toward Savion were slow and deliberate, as was his arm’s grip. Still smiling, Tameer pulled his brother close, and refused the offer for both of them.

  “Thanks, homie, you know we down for the hood and all that, but we gotta try to do it another way,” Tameer told them.

  Alonzo smiled. “I ain’t mad at cha. I know that y’all down, and y’all know that y’all got mad love coming from the hood.”

  “Shit, that reminds me,” Anthony said, snapping his fingers. He pulled out his wallet and removed several hundred dollar bills. He handed the bills to Tameer. “Here you go, homie.”

  Tameer smiled and took the money. “Thanks.”

  Alonzo put away his wallet and shook his head. “Ain’t nothing. You know you got that coming from me. Say, if you ever need anything, any snaps for school, or anything, just hit me on my cell.”

  Tameer and Anthony clasped hands.

  “I know you ain’t down for the dope game,” Anthony continued. “But it’s all good in the hood, homie.”

  “You know that y’all got much love coming from me too,” Tameer replied with a wide grin. His affection for Anthony was deep, as was Anthony’s affection for him. The two of them had been best friends since kindergarten, and had done everything together while growing up. Although they had chosen different paths after high school—Anthony the drug world; and Tameer, the academic one—their bond remained strong.

  “Shit, we gonna be kicking it around the corner later on,” Alonzo told Tameer. “Come on through and get you some of this bomb-ass boo-bonic.”

  Tameer and Savion laughed.

  “Lonzo, I knew you were the devil,” Tameer told him. He shifted his gaze toward Anthony. “I’ll probably be through to kick it for a minute. Right now, me and Savion are gonna go to the mall.”

  Tameer shifted his gaze back toward Alonzo. “You want me to bring you back a few job applications?”

  Alonzo threw his head back in laughter. The sun reflected brightly off his sparkling gold and diamond teeth.

  “I got a job,” Alonzo told him. “I make people happy.”

  “Did you file income tax last year?” Tameer asked.

  “Am I still out on the street?” Alonzo replied.

  “Then you ain’t got no job!” Tameer told him.

  The boys all broke into laughter for several moments, before Anthony turned up the volume on his car stereo. The throbbing bass notes resonating from his trunk-mounted sub-woofers were almost deafening. They had to shout to be heard.

  “I’ll get with you later, T,” Anthony shouted. He raised his fist into the air.

  Tameer returned the gesture, and then leaned inside of the vehicle and punched Alonzo lightly on his shoulder. “Y’all be cool.”

  The burgundy Mustang pulled away slowly, with its custom stereo blaring and rumbling the windows of each apartment that it passed. The stop at the corner allowed it to trigger the alarm systems of several nearby vehicles, before taking off again.

  A baby-blue 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, traveling from the opposite direction, had a stereo system that matched Anthony’s in volume, but its bass notes seemed to resonate somewhat louder. The Cutlass had a custom paint job, chrome twenty-six-inch wheels, and a custom dark-blue leather half-roof with chrome trimming all around it. This car, like Anthony’s, was also a work of art.

  As the Cutlass slowly passed Anthony’s vehicle, its occupants opened fire.

  Anthony Fernandez was twenty-one, and a father of two.

  The park’s aquatic stadium was the size of a large college football stadium. The main pool itself encompassed an area the size of a large suburban mall parking lot. It could best be described as a small ocean, or an extremely large lake. The seating was of the staggered-row, auditorium variety, except of substantially better quality. Anheuser-Busch owned the parks, and Anheuser-Busch had money—lots of money. For this even they had advertised well, and as a result, the stadium was packed to the rafters.

  Jamaica stood waiting patiently in a shallow pool of water that was elevated to the point where it encompassed a shallow deck within the larger pool. She wore a snug black-and-yellow Gortex body suit, provided to her by the park. Her hair remained neatly tied in a long, flowing, ponytail, and fell like strands of silk down her back. It was held in place by a matching yellow tie, which accented her body suit.

  Next to Jamaica stood Mark and Amy, two of the park’s highly trained, and extremely well-paid, marine biologists. They were also the Orca’s primary trainers.

  The stadium remained lit by a constant bursting of flash bulbs and camera lights from all of the reporters present. The spectators also contributed a considerable amount of camera flashes, as they took untold numbers of photographs of their idol, Tiera.

  Along with LaChina for tonight’s event, were her aunt, Savannah, and her cousin, Jemia. They stood watching the massive glass wall in front of them, which was actually a part of the main pool. They could see the massive size of the Orca each time it swam by.

  “I hope that she does well,” a nervous Savannah said, clutching LaChina’s arm.

  LaChina smiled and patted her aunt’s hand reassuringly. “She will, Jai’s a pro at this.”

  LaChina turned away from her aunt and uttered a quick, silent prayer.

  “Are you ready?” Mark asked.

  Nervous, but ready to get things over with, Jamaica nodded. To calm her jitters, she thought of the joyful revenge that she would wreak on her friend. Over and over she repeated silently to herself, kill LaChina. A smile slowly made its
way across Jamaica’s face as she thought of killing her best friend, bringing her back to life, and then killing her again.

  Mark walked to the edge of the platform, where before him laid the main aquatic performance pool. He lifted his arm high into the air to ensure its visibility, and at the right moment, he gave his signal. From the water before him, a massive killer whale leaped into the air, and upon returning to the surface of the water, made a tremendous splash. Jamaica’s heart fell to her bare feet.

  The second signal Mark gave commanded the whale to leap onto the platform where he, Jamaica, and Amy stood. The Orca obeyed. Its massive size required that it slide some distance onto the platform, where it stopped just short of a terrified Jamaica. She continued to play her calm, cool, and collected superstar role brilliantly. Smiling for the cameras, she waded through the water, placed her arms around the head of the massive Orca, and then slowly leaned forward and kissed it on its mouth. The flashes erupted simultaneously, lighting up the stadium in such a way that it appeared as though an atomic detonation were taking place.

  Holding her fingers crossed, LaChina silently begged Jamaica not to spit. On the platform, Jamaica prayed for the same.

  Please don’t vomit, she pleaded to herself. Please, just hold it in. Please don’t vomit, you can make it. Smile, Jai. Just smile, and everything will be okay. Remember, after this, you get to kill LaChina!

  Mark gave another signal and the killer whale slowly wiggled itself back into the main aquatic pool. The audience’s applause had been deafening.

  It’s over! It’s over! Caribbean, here I come! Jamaica turned and waved to the crowd of adoring fans. The applause grew louder. It made her turn back toward the whale.

  “Good-bye, my friend!” Jamaica shouted. “Good-bye! I love you!” Kill LaChina, she thought. I’m going to kill LaChina!

  Jamaica continued her smiles and friendly waves toward the crowd and the whale. She would have looked perfect on a float or in a beauty pageant. Her smile was as perfect as it was fake.