Street Soldier

by Silhouettes

  I got up from the table and told Raylo that I was going to the bathroom. I purposely walked to the other side, just so my old dude could see me. His eyes turned in my direction, and he couldn’t help but take a double look. I stared at him with a blank expression, then cut my eyes and went into the bathroom. I took a quick leak, and to my surprise, when I came out of the bathroom stall he walked in. Two of his bodyguards stood by the door, and he passed one of them his cane. I stood by the sink, washing my hands.

  “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” he asked.

  I didn’t even look at him. “Nah, I don’t think so.”

  “You a li’l young to be chillin’ in a place like this, ain’t you?”

  I shook the water from my hands and looked at him through the mirror. “Maybe.” I shrugged. “But, you see, my mama don’t give a damn if I come to places like this, and neither does my daddy. I’m pretty much doin’ my own thing, simply because nobody gives a fuck.”

  I walked around him, making my way to the door. His bodyguards blocked me from exiting. I refused to turn around.

  “It’s a damn shame how your mama raisin’ you. You tell that bitch I said so, and as for your father, well, you may wanna pat that nigga on his back for your good looks.”

  It took everything I had not to turn around and mess that fool up. I wished like hell that I had my Glock on me. If so, I would have shot him dead. His bodyguards moved aside and I left the bathroom. All kinds of bad feelings were going through me, and as interested as I was in seeing the women dance, a part of me was ready to go. Being in the same place as him wasn’t a good feeling.

  When I got back to the booth, Raylo and his friends had taken their seats. They were grubbing on some hot wings, and more drinks were on the table along with three slender rows of crystal white cocaine. I could see the white powder on Raylo’s nose, and he invited me to take a seat next to him. I did, and he slid the cut mirror with a sliver of cocaine on it over to me.

  “That there will clear your mind and relax the hell out of you. G’on and try it.”

  I looked across the way at my old dude, and he was certainly looking in my direction. I let off a soft snicker, then dropped my head low and sniffed hard. At first, my nose burned, then it felt like I had a brain freeze. I wiggled my nose with my finger and closed my eyes, taking in the rush. Raylo was squeezing the back of my neck, massaging it as I cocked it from side to side. I felt very lightheaded, and my vision was starting to blur. After a while, all I could hear was loud noise. I was slumped down in the booth, and could barely see out of my lowered eyelids. With his fur coat draped over his shoulders, I noticed my sperm donor and his partnas coming our way.

  Raylo shifted around in his seat, and that’s when I noticed the Glock .22 by his side. My old dude stood in front of our booth and reached out his hand. Raylo slapped it with his.

  “Well if it ain’t Derrick low-down, dirty-ass Jackson,” Raylo said. “What up, man?”

  “Nothin’ much. Just wonderin’ why you got this young nigga up in a joint like this, that’s all.”

  I sat up straight, and as I was about to speak, Raylo placed his hand on my chest. “I got this,” he said, gazing at Derrick. “Why the fuck are you worried about who I brang up in this muthafucka? You need to get the hell out of our view, ’cause we ain’t come up in here to be lookin’ at no chickenhead fool who don’t have the guts to take care of his own kid, let alone his son. Now, since I’ve been pickin’ up the pieces for you, nigga, I suggest when you see me, the only thing you do is bow down to me. ’Nuff said, enough done. Get yo’ pretty-boy ass out of my space befo’ I bust a cap in ya.”

  Raylo’s crew wasn’t nothing to mess around with. These were some old-school gangstas, and every last one of them was strapped. Derrick was gangsta too, but obviously he knew who not to mess with. He eyeballed Raylo and cracked a smile.

  “Tell Shante I said what’s up.” He took one last look at me and strolled away. That was fine by me, and, truthfully, Raylo was the only man I’d really known as a half-ass father. Derrick left Mama when she was pregnant, and marriage was never an option. I had no memories of his ass ever being there for me, so what Mama told me about him, I believed her.

  After Derrick left, I had a burst of energy. My eyes were wide open and my heart was pumping fast. More dancers came by, but none of them looked like, or could even be compared to, Ms. Macklin. One after another, the DJ continued to announce, “Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you Destiny, Dynasty, Peaches, and Pearls.” Fat Cat to Lady Ice. Raylo was hyped, and he kept telling me Ms. Macklin was coming.

  As soon as he said that, he looked at the stage, claiming that she was there. When I looked, it for damn sure wasn’t Ms. Macklin, but it was a black dancer who was hooked up like she was.

  “Man, that ain’t her,” I said. “I told you you had the wrong chick, and you need to give me the hundred dollars we bet.”

  Raylo looked at the dance floor again, then leaned over to get his wallet from his pocket. He gave the money to me, then let out a deep sigh.

  “Listen. I appreciate you comin’ with me tonight, especially since you know what’s up with me and yo’ mama. Believe it or not, I loves yo’ mama, but a woman needs to know her place. She oversteps her boundaries sometimes and that shit don’t sit right with me. I ain’t ever wanted to disrespect you by hittin’ on her, but a man gets tired of the bullshit sometimes. As you grow up, you’ll see what I mean. You gotta be in charge of yo’ shit. These women out here will use what they got to fuck a nigga up. If they start wantin’ to play the love game, move out. Young man like you don’t need to be lovin’ nobody but yourself. What I’m sayin’ is don’t grow up bein’ like yo’ damn daddy. If you got some kids, take care of them muthafuckas. I don’t care how many you have, take care of ’em. Them bitches, though, let them fend for themselves. Ain’t a woman up in here can replace yo’ mama, and even though she’s the only woman I ever loved, a player like me still likes to have his fun.”

  Raylo winked, and I could tell that he was beyond messed up. Then again, so was I. I’d heard what he’d said though. And even though I understood what he was saying about women, I didn’t like the fact that he had been abusing my mama.

  “I hear you, Raylo, but do me a big-ass favor.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Keep your hands off my mama. That’s some shit that I can’t handle, and if you can do that for me, you and me all good.”

  Raylo shot the glass of Hennessy to the back of his throat and cleared the burn. He nodded and massaged the back of my neck. “You got it,” he said. “Never again.”

  We got ready to go, and just as I was putting on my jacket, Raylo started laughing and slapping my back. His eyes were focused on the dance floor.

  “Boy, didn’t I tell you! Give me my damn money back! Now!”

  I looked at the dance floor and almost fell back in my seat. I wasn’t sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me; after all, I was tremendously fucked up. The dancer on the floor sure in the hell looked like Ms. Macklin, with extensions in her hair. Her long hair was down her back, and she wore a satin silver g-string and bikini top. Black tassels hung from her nipples, and her strapped black heels were tied up to her knees. I was in complete awe. She looked even better on the floor than she did at school. Realizing that it was her, I did drop back to my seat. Raylo and his friends were playfully fanning me.

  “I told you!” Raylo kept yelling while pushing my shoulder. “You’d better get up out of that seat and hook a nigga up!”

  After seeing Ms. Macklin, I was trying to hook myself up. Her performance was shocking. I’d had no idea she could shake that ass like she was. She was out of control, and was doing it to Mystical’s “Shake Ya Ass”: “Watch yourself . . . show me what u workin with . . .” Then again, from day one I’d visualized her working over a pole. I knew there was something about the way she strutted and walked as if she was on the tips of her toes. I’ll be damned, I thought with my eyes glued to he
r. She entertained the crowd, and I couldn’t wait until she made her way to the upper VIP section where we were. No doubt she was coming, and the men in our section already had bills all over the place. They were making it rain, big time! And we were like a bunch of kids in a candy store, waiting to be served. I sat back at the booth, relaxing with my jacket on and the hood with fur pulled over my head. I observed her coming up the circular staircase, and, finally, making her way over to us. Her back faced me, and Raylo and his partnas were touching every part of her body that they could. A bouncer was close by, making sure that no one went overboard. My eyes scanned the flowing hair on her back, then went down to the small of her bare, sweaty back. Her heart-shaped ass had a g-string on it, but that was it. My heart was pumping faster, and when she turned around, my eyes dropped between her legs that displayed a tiny gap. The sight was too much for me to handle, and that’s when I looked up and my eyes stared right into hers, causing an electrical shock for both of us. Neither of us blinked, and it was as if we were frozen in time. Her grinding hips slowed and she quickly closed her widely separated legs. I continued to look into her eyes, and when I licked my tongue across my bottom lip, she blinked. She turned around and quickly danced her way out of the VIP area.

  I had witnessed it with my own eyes. Ms. Macklin was a freak! She was pretending to be something that she wasn’t, and I always knew there was something up with her. Raylo couldn’t stop talking about her to his friends, and, like me, they watched as she made the rest of her rounds. She wasn’t shaking it like she was before, and when the music stopped, she disappeared. Ten minutes later, Raylo said that he was ready to go. I told him that I would tell Ms. Macklin about him again, and I couldn’t wait to get to school tomorrow so I could see her reaction. Tonight, though, I felt as if I had turned into a man. Raylo was now my idol, and along with what he’d said, this place had me looking at girls and women a li’l differently. I’d lost even more respect, but had gained respect for the man who was starting to teach me so much.

  Chapter 7

  The next day things went terribly wrong. I hadn’t spoken to Romeo at all, and I continued to try to get in touch with him throughout the night. I had planned to go with him to burglarize those people’s house, but going to the strip club with Raylo was my choice.

  During my first-hour class, the police came to my school looking for me. They hauled me down to the police station, and there I was, sitting at a table being interrogated like a brotha on The First 48. According to the detectives, they were looking for Romeo. Last night, he was involved in a robbery, and the white couple who owned the house was murdered. I knew Romeo well. There was no way he had killed anybody. Now, he’d kick ass in a minute. He’d stomp a nigga to the ground with no regrets. He’d blacken a bitch’s eye and think nothing of it. He’d rob a person blind, but, like me, murder wasn’t possible.

  I sat with my head on the table and my arm stretched out underneath it. I was still tired from last night, and it was difficult listening to these fools trying to convince me that I was with Romeo last night and that I knew what had happened.

  I scratched the part between my sweaty braids. My hands were wet because I was nervous, because the detectives didn’t believe me.

  “I swear to God that after he left my house last night I ain’t seen him.”

  “What time did he leave your house again?”

  “Around midnight,” I lied. “He was at my house for most of the night, so I don’t see how he could have been on that scene at nine o’clock.”

  “Where is he then?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. But I do know that he ain’t killed nobody.”

  The detectives had nothing and they knew it. They kept questioning me, but I really and truly had nothing to tell. There wasn’t a chance in hell that I would tell them anything about Romeo, but I was dying to find out what in the hell had actually happened.

  After several more hours of interrogation, they let me go. It was too late to go back to school, and, for now, I wasn’t even thinking about it. I wanted to find Romeo to see what was up. I stopped at his grandmother’s house, but she too said that she hadn’t seen him. She didn’t seem too worried, because Romeo was known for not coming home some nights. I kissed his grandmother on the cheek and left.

  At home, Mama and Raylo weren’t there. I went into my room and lay across my bed. I was worried like hell, but it wasn’t long before I fell asleep.

  The blaring ring of the phone awakened me. When I cracked my eyes, my room was dark, and I scrambled around to find the phone. I picked it up, and, thank God, it was Romeo.

  “Say, man, meet me under the bridge,” he said, then hung up.

  I jumped up from my bed, and it didn’t take long for me to catch the MetroLink to meet Romeo downtown under the MLK Bridge. We’d hung out there a lot when we were kids, and it was sort of like our meeting place. As soon as I got off the MetroLink, I tossed my hoodie over my head to shield the blistering cold wind from blowing in my face. My hands were in my pockets as I walked abruptly down the street to get to Romeo, who I could already see. Normally, he had a big-ass grin on his face, but today things weren’t looking so good. I stepped up to him, holding my hand out for him to slap it.

  “What’s going on, man?” I asked.

  Romeo took another puff from his cigarette, then tossed it to the ground and smashed it with his shoe.

  “I’m in a lot of trouble,” he said. “I don’t even know where to start.”

  Since it was so cold outside, we started walking to a nearby Greyhound bus station. It was somewhat crowded, but we sat far away from people so no one would hear us.

  Romeo rubbed his hair back to wipe the sweat from his hands. I had never seen him so nervous, and when he started to tell me what had happened, I knew why.

  “My uncle asked two more dudes to go to that house with us, and I didn’t even know them cats. They were throwin’ shit around, makin’ all kinds of noises, and I told them fools to chill. We started arguin’ and shit, then the next thing I knew, we heard the people come into the house. We all panicked, and instead of gettin’ the hell out of there, that fool, Jake, went upstairs to confront the couple. He told me and that other cat to get the shit from the basement, and while we were downstairs, we heard a gun go off. I dropped that shit so fast, and when I got upstairs, he had put two in both of those people’s heads. I don’t know why he did that shit, and before I knew it, I started hearing sirens. I jumped out of a window and ran as fast as I could down an alley. Jake and that other fool broke off in another direction, but I think that other dude got caught. No doubt, that nigga been snitchin’.”

  I shook my head. “That’s fucked up. He may have gotten caught and snitched on you, too. The police came to school today lookin’ for me and you. They assumed that I was with you, but when they took me to the police station, I told them you were with me until midnight. You should tell them the same thing, and tell them that that fool lyin’ on you to protect himself.”

  Romeo rubbed his hands together and leaned forward. “I don’t know what I’m goin’ to do. I really need to get the hell out of here, ’cause I got a feelin’ that I’m goin’ down for this shit.”

  “If you leave, where you gon’ go? You know I’ll go with you. The last thing I want is to see yo’ ass behind bars.”

  Romeo nodded, and, for the first time, I saw the fear in his eyes. A part of me was so glad that I hadn’t gone with him last night, but it still felt as if I was going through the same pain with my friend.

  Romeo stood up and stretched. “As far as I can see, I’m on the run. I can’t go home, I can’t go to your house, and I definitely ain’t takin’ no chances. I’m gon’ let things settle, then I’ll get at you to let you know where I’m at.”

  “Hell, nah, nigga. Look, I’m with you on this shit. Wherever you goin’, I’m goin’. I ain’t got nothin’ to lose, and, like always, we in this shit together. Nigga, we street soldiers. So stop talkin’ that shit, and let’s de
cide what the fuck we gon’ do and where we gon’ go.”

  Romeo cracked a tiny smile, gripping my hand again. As I stood to playfully shove his shoulder, I looked over it and saw five police officers. I couldn’t get one word out of my mouth before they swarmed in on us with guns, yelling, “Put up your hands and get on the ground! Now!”

  I knew that I was fast like a lightening bolt, but there was no way in hell I could outrun them. The officers snatched us up so quickly, slamming us both to the ground. Always being aggressive, both Romeo and I resisted by swinging punches to keep them away. That caused a complete scene to be made, as the officers did their best to restrain us.

  “Calm down, you stupid muthafucka,” one said with hatred in his eyes as he lit my stomach up with powerful punches. I doubled over in pain as I noticed the smirk on his face. Another officer punched me in my jaw. It stung like hell! I could feel the billy clubs hitting my legs and they started to buckle. I had a burning feeling in my legs and started to feel numb all over. My body felt limp, and if I even wanted to yell, “Help,” I couldn’t do it with an already swollen lip. The numerous people at the bus station just looked on, with no one saying one word as we were called “dumb niggers” over and over again. I glanced over at Romeo and saw that the beat down he was taking was just as intense as mine.

  “It’s time to get all of you damn fools off the streets. Stand the hell up and keep still.” I slowly stood up with my hands cuffed behind me. Romeo did the same. Again, this shit was too embarrassing, and as everyone looked on, all they could do was shake their heads. At least one man had the courage to say something.