Deconstruction- The Complete series Box Set

by Rashad Freeman

  He paused and looked me up and down. Biting his lower lip, he put his hands on his hips then shrugged. “Federal Square is probably your best bet. Head two blocks over then it’s about half a mile that way,” he pointed. “They have payphones there.”

  “Thank you so much.”

  With a new purpose, I hurried off down the sidewalk. There was an alleyway between two apartment buildings that led to the next block, so I turned down there and picked up the pace. Faded, red brick walls towered on either side of me. The years of rain and abuse were imprinted on the buildings like a tattoo or old make up.

  Rusted fire escapes hung overhead. They looked like they hadn’t moved in years. If someone stepped on one it probably would’ve crumbled to ash under their feet.

  Rows of trash cans were piled on the sides, spilling their contents in the street. Rats scurried away as I approached, leaving their feast of Chinese noodles behind.

  A few clouds had blown in and when combined with the tall buildings and the narrow alley, it cast shadows all around me. The darkness gave the alley a sinister look, but I knew good things never happened in alleys anyway.

  The narrow cut-through was longer than I first thought. I felt like I’d been walking for hours and every step was burning energy I didn’t have. I was ready to lay down behind a dumpster a take a nap.

  “Wake up, MJ,” I mumbled and slapped myself in the face.

  Suddenly, a silhouette moved up ahead and I paused and clenched my fists. There was a rustle then several dark figures stepped out into the open.

  “There she is,” a familiar voice called out. “Hey lady! You still need that phone?”

  CHAPTER 9

  KARMA IS A VENGEFUL BITCH

  I didn’t move. I didn’t have the strength to run and I wouldn’t if I had. But there were four of them and as weak as I felt I wasn’t sure if I could offer much resistance if it went that way.

  I could make out their multi-colored shirts even in the faint light. The alley came to life with their stupid jeers and I smelled the seething testosterone like the rancid trash that littered the ground.

  “Look, I’m not in the mood fellas. I just wanna get to Federal Square,” I called out as I started moving forward again.

  “Oh, come on, babe. Harper has that phone for you,” the leader, a lean guy with ruffled black hair and a five o’clock shadow said.

  “No thanks. I’m good.”

  “I’m just kidding. My name’s Mason. I really have a phone you can use. Who you calling, a boyfriend or something?”

  “Dude, she’s probably married,” a blonde kid they all referred to as Junior weaseled out.

  “I don’t need the phone any more. I’m good.”

  “Guys, let’s just go,” the third one added. He was a short guy, about my height. He was wearing the same douchebag uniform as the others, but had an unusual look about him. Like cornering women in alleys wasn’t his thing.

  “Shut the fuck up, Charlie,” Mason snapped. “Harper, I told you not to bring him.”

  “I’m just gonna go,” I interrupted. “You guys will figure it out.”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Mason said as he moved toward me.

  I paused and tensed up. These guys had done this before and while I was busy trying to talk my way around them their friend had made it around the buildings and was coming up behind me.

  “Jesus Jeff, it took you fucking long enough,” Mason groaned as they closed in from both sides.

  “Look guys, I don’t know what you’re planning or what you think you’re doing, but I need to go. So, you go your way, I’ll go mine and we can pretend we never met.”

  “Why don’t we have a little fun instead,” Mason said as he reached out and stroked my shoulder.

  I slapped at his hand. “Don’t touch me you asshole.”

  Jeff suddenly grabbed me from behind, wrapping his arms around my waist and hoisting me into the air. I flung my head back and bashed into his nose. A spray of blood erupted, and he dropped me then stumbled backward.

  “Son of a bitch,” he groaned.

  “Don’t fight it,” Mason shouted.

  “Yeah, it’s easier that way,” Harper added.

  They both charged at me as Jeff slowly recovered. I shoved my shoulder into Mason’s chest and he keeled over, but Harper came right behind him with a wild right hook.

  His fist caught me on the side of the head and I stumbled. Junior grabbed my arm and twirled me around until I slid across the ground. I slammed into a cluster of garbage cans and they toppled over. The noise was loud enough to wake the dead.

  I tried to get back to my feet, but my head was swimming and I didn’t have the energy. As Jeff lumbered over me I shot my foot into the air and caught him square in the nose again.

  “Fuck! I’m gonna kill you,” he spat out in blood and garbled words.

  Junior was steal tugging at my shirt, trying to tear it off. Mason and Harper joined in like it was a tag team match. Harper grabbed me by the waist while Mason tried to undo my pants. I squirmed and kicked away, but I was far too weak to put up much of a fight.

  “Get the fuck off me!” I snapped.

  “Stop fighting it bitch!” Harper shouted as he rained down an open hand.

  I slipped to the side as his hand swatted the air. Pushing with my hands, I slid across the ground and tried to get back to my feet, but it was useless. Mason yanked my leg back and Harper dove on top of me, pinning me to the ground.

  “Now we’re gonna have some fun,” Harper breathed into my ear.

  “Hey!” a voice shouted.

  Everyone froze as blue and red lights clattered down the alley. I turned my head so I could see and found a female police officer storming toward us with her gun drawn. She was wearing the standard black uniform and her hat had fallen off as she rushed down the alley.

  Harper jumped to his feet and took off. His friends followed him, and the sound of their footfalls were a rapid staccato of fear frenzied panic.

  “Get back here!” she shouted.

  I scampered to a stand and took a deep breath. The officer came to a stop a few feet away as she heaved, trying to catch her breath.

  “Are you okay,” she asked.

  I nodded. She grabbed the radio from her shoulder and spoke into it in short, punchy words.

  “One alpha one, I have five white males, multi-colored long sleeves, early twenties headed south on Frankfurt Ave. Possible attempted rape.”

  She scanned around the alleyway then turned back to me. “You know those guys?” she asked.

  “No.”

  She looked me up and down, evaluating my tattered clothing and disheveled look. I hated the feeling like everyone was always judging me. Always questioning if I was worthy of sympathy or help.

  “Where you headed?” she asked.

  I sighed as my mind started to spin another web of lies. “I think I was drugged. I was heading back to Virginia…I woke up here. I just need to call my husband, to let my family know I’m okay.”

  I managed to squeeze out a tear or two and put my hand over my mouth. The officer lowered her eyes and frowned.

  “I’m sorry ma’am. You can use my phone.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small black phone then handed it to me. “I’ll get you to the station and we can get you cleaned up.”

  “Thank you so much.”

  She smiled then walked a little way down the alley. Grabbing her radio, she started talking back into it, mumbling a string of codes I couldn’t understand. Her words faded as she walked further away and I began to punch numbers into the phone.

  “Bill, you’re so fucking dead,” I grumbled as I waited for his line to ring. “Thank you again,” I called out to the officer.

  The phone beeped in my ear then the call dropped. I tried it again with the same result. Scratching my head, I dialed the number for the secretary of defense and that didn’t work either. I was starting to think I really was going to have to walk home.


  With a deep breath, I punched in Toby’s number. Suddenly the ground moved, and I stumbled into the wall and the phone slipped from my hands. It passed so quickly I wasn’t even sure it was real. But when I looked up, the officer was running toward me with a crazed look in her eyes.

  The ground shifted again and one side of the fire escape tore free from the building with a horrible shrill. It swung down like a pendulum, the rusted shards slicing through the air.

  “Watch out!” I screamed.

  The officer was facing me, oblivious to the fire escape that screamed toward her. She whipped her head around just before it smashed into her torso, cutting her in two, leaving her bottom half standing in the road.

  I gagged and covered my mouth. I’d seen a lot, but nothing could’ve prepared me for that. The bottom half of her body fell over as the fire escape swung back and dropped her torso onto the pavement.

  The buildings beside me started to shake and the tarnished brick crumbled to the ground, covering the phone. I shuffled back to avoid the hail of debris as it smashed to the ground.

  The upper floors of the buildings slid inward like melting ice cream. The tops rested on each other for a moment, but I wasn’t staying around to watch them collapse.

  I ran for my life, sprinting into the open just barely avoiding the collapsing alleyway. I turned and shuffled up the street as the road buckled and warped. People screamed and scurried away in panic, running into buildings that imploded moments later.

  As I turned another corner I skid to a stop, just short of a bellowing cloud of steam. A pipe had broken and was sending a scolding trail of gas into the air.

  “Shit!” I grumbled as the heat nearly singed my eyebrows.

  On the other side of the crack there were five bodies lying on the ground. The skin on their faces had been burned away and their hands looked like melted cheese. It was a horrible way to die.

  I stared at them for a moment with mixed emotions. Blood stained their colored polo shirts as it ran down to their khakis. I tried to imagine their last moments as they fled the scene of their attempted crime in panic. They were just stupid kids.

  Who was I to say whether they deserved death or not. I doubted they cared much for my well-being. But there they were, dead, burned to death before they were even old enough to truly live or understand the consequences of their actions.

  But that was life and I needed to keep moving if I valued my own. In the end fate decided what was just.

  Karma.

  CHAPTER 10

  THE LAST CALL HOME

  In a matter of minutes Newark looked like every other place I’d been. Emergency responders clambering about, people running for safety and a city decimated by mother nature. I’d been trying to cover up the destruction, but it felt like I brought it with me.

  “Hey! Hey, you!” someone shouted to me from a crowd of people that were gathered on the side of the road.

  I stopped and turned to face them. It was an older Hispanic man with gray sideburns and a bald head. He looked like he’d been dressed for work or something, but now his pants were tainted with soot and his shirt was torn down the side.

  “You were in that building?”

  “What?”

  He jabbed his finger into the air. “That building, were you inside?”

  I looked back at the crumbled apartment that had been reduced to a smoldering heap. Fireman and paramedics were crawling all over the place like ants, but I didn’t see any sign of life.

  With a pause that let the air turn to brick between us, I shook my head from side to side. “No…no I wasn’t.”

  I crossed the street and made my way toward him. There was a small group, all chatting anxiously as they looked around. This was their community, their home, but I needed to get to mine and maybe one of them could help.

  “MJ,” I said and held out my hand.

  “Carlos,” he replied.

  I looked back at the building and frowned. “You know someone in there, Carlos?”

  “Yeah, my sister-in-law stays there with the kids. The cops, they ain’t telling us shit.”

  “Wish I could help, I was just walking by.”

  Carlos squinted, apparently soaking in my appearance. “Then how’d you get like that?”

  Everyone glared at me, thinking the same thing. I guess I did look like I’d climbed out of the rubble and in some ways, I had. If they knew what I’d gone through in the last two days they’d probably be more sympathetic, but that wasn’t the way of the world.

  “Sorry, I don’t know anything. I’m just trying to get home,” I said lowly.

  “Where’s home?” a lady standing next to Carlos asked. She was short with dark, tanned skin and brown hair that had streaks of purple dye running through it.

  “Virginia,” I replied.

  “Virginia? What are you doing up here?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “Roni, leave the lady alone,” Carlos jutted.

  “Just trying to be polite,” she replied.

  “Hey, yo boss man,” Carlos suddenly shouted to an officer as they walked by. “What’s going on in there? Everybody get out alright?”

  “Still trying to figure it out. Sorry, we’ll let you know once we sort this all out. It’s a mess.”

  Carlos grumbled and lowered his head into his hands. I could tell the waiting was tearing him up and his patience was thinning. He stormed off and walked down the riddled sidewalk, mumbling under his breath.

  “There’s a bus station,” Roni said as she looked at her watch. “You can probably catch the five o’clock Greyhound if you hurry.”

  “Bus station?”

  “Yeah,” she pointed off into the distance. “Raymond Plaza, a few blocks that way.”

  “It goes to Arlington?”

  “Of course, it does.”

  My heart jumped. Then just as quickly it felt like someone punched me square in the chest. I lowered my head and sighed.

  “What’s the problem now?” Roni asked with an exhausted voice.

  “I don’t have money for a bus pass.”

  “They’re like twenty bucks,” a man standing next to her laughed.

  “Twenty I don’t have.”

  More people in the crowd started grumbling. Whispers erupted about panhandlers and homeless people clogging the city and how sick they were of it all.

  Roni wasn’t hearing it. “Come on,” she interrupted. “Look at her, you assholes can help out. I have ten you can have.”.

  She reached into her wallet and handed me a ten-dollar bill. I took it and felt the last bit of my pride wash away. All my power was gone and I was nothing more than a charity case, a person to pity and toss loose change.

  “Come on, somebody else gonna help out,” Roni continued her verbal assault, whirling around casting eyes of accusations into the crowd. “Romello, Olivia, come on.”

  Slowly, more people dug into their pockets and handed me what they could. With dirt-covered hands, I wiped tears from my eyes and thanked them all. It was more than I could’ve asked for.

  “Well…ain’t no time for you to be crying here. You got a bus to catch,” Roni said with a half grin.

  “Thank you. Thank you all so much.”

  I turned and hurried off in the direction Roni had pointed. Every step of the way I fought against the shame that grew inside of me. What kind of cruel bitch was I?

  It took a little over twenty minutes to make it to the bus station. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one fleeing the city as the line stretched around the corner. Dozens of frantic faces waited to get a ticket to any destination other than Newark.

  It looked like people had grabbed what they could and rushed out of their homes. Some had suitcases or stuffed duffel bags, but far too many were carrying boxes of their lives, wrapped in their arms, tightly squeezed to their chests.

  Finally, I boarded the bus for Arlington and we pulled off. We took several detours to make it around the parts of the city that had been dest
royed, but eventually we got on the highway and started the five-hour trip.

  “Crazy huh?” the woman seated beside me asked. Her name was Wendy and she had family in Arlington. She’d lived in Newark for a couple of years, moving there for a job, but she’d been ready to move back home for a while.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Earthquakes in Newark. Just crazy, I called my dad and told him, he couldn’t believe it.”

  “Can I use your phone?”

  “Huh?”

  “You have a phone, right? Can I use it? I need to call and make sure someone is home.”

  “Oh…of course.” Wendy grabbed her purse and pulled her phone out. I could feel butterflies in my stomach as she handed it to me and I started to dial the numbers to my home.

  “Hello?” Toby’s voice croaked in my ear.

  My breath lodged in my throat as I tried to speak. My heart tried to tear itself from my chest and dive threw the phone into his arms. Toby’s voice was an anchor, a life line in the dark, pulling me back home.

  “Toby,” I whispered, trying to contain my emotions. There was no telling what he’d been told.

  “I was starting to get worried,” he said in a calm tone. “They told me you missed your flight and had another meeting this morning.”

  “Yeah…yeah something like that.”

  “So where are you now? You finally on the way home?”

  “Yeah I am. Just wrapping up a few things and I’ll be home. Don’t worry about picking me up from the airport. I um, I have a ride.” I didn’t, but I would figure it out. I needed time to change before Toby saw me. I didn’t need him freaking out.

  “I’ve been calling you all last night. Why didn’t you answer?”

  “Oh, I um, was in such a rush I left my cell phone at the hotel. I spoke with them, they’re gonna FedEx it.”

  “I miss you,” he said softly.

  Tears started to pour from my eyes and I couldn’t stop them, I didn’t want to stop them. I was happy, I was sad, I was afraid, but Toby was there for me and until that moment I never realized how much he meant to me.