NaNoWriMi Day 12- The Shoes of Baltimore

Jamie’s mom wanted to believe him. Jamie was a smart kid, but he just made dumb decisions. He had this pride where he only sought out “real” people. He didn’t like the kids who were goody to shoes because he thought they were phony.

Jamie’s mom knew they were phony, but it was better to hang out with phonies in a classroom than to hang out with the people who Jamie thought were “real” in jail.

Jamie’s mom tried to numb herself to Jamie. She knew that was wrong. But in her heart of hearts, she knew he was going to get in serious trouble if he didn’t shape up. She wasn’t exactly sure how to handle him. She tried tough love. She tried giving him his space. Nothing seemed to work, which made her nervous.

But the straw that broke the camel’s back happened two weeks later.

The trio were walking around the streets of Baltimore at night. They had nothing to do and nowhere to go, which can always create trouble.

They talked about going to get this desert on North Charles Street, but they emptied their pockets and found that none of them had enough money to even get one.

“Shoot,” DeSean said. “We are a bunch of broke bums right now. Damn I want that desert.”

Rodney and Jamie agreed.

“You guys can’t get some cash from anybody?”

Rodney and DeSean shook their heads.

“Can you get anything from your mom?” DeSean asked.

Jamie laughed. “Man, you know I’m on thin ice after you kicked that stuck up chick’s door. She wouldn’t even give me a dollar to get a drink out of the vending machines this week.”

“Harsh,” Rodney said.

“We could try begging. Pretend we’re homeless. Got to look a little more dirty. Is there an O’s game tonight? Hit the people coming back?”

“Yea,” Rodney said. “But that shit won’t be over for a few hours. The place will probably be closed by the time we get back.”

“True, true,” DeSean said. “Damn. I went that desert.”

The wheels started turning in Jamie’s head.

“You guys want to check some of the cars at the meters? See if anything is unlocked?”

Rodney was hesitant.
‘We’re just looking for change and some loose dollars? Right? Just in and out?”

“Yea,” Jamie reassured him. “I mean, they are dumbasses for living their shit unlocked around here. But we aren’t going to steal the car or rip out their radios. We are just gonna check their cup holders and see if they got any quarters or anything we can take right quick to get the desert. No biggie. We won’t take anything else.”

“Honor among thieves,” Rodney quipped.

“Ah man, they aren’t even going to notice it. We just need one car or hit two or three and we’ll have enough. Not a big deal. Like I said, they won’t even notice it’s going. And besides, it will teach them that they need to lock shit up. Think if we weren’t so nice. They could come back to their spots and their cars could be completely missing. Instead, they might just be missing a few quarters. If we find a pen, we’ll just leave um a note that says thanks for the donation.”

“Ha!” DeSean said smirking.

Rodney chuckled. “Well, that note thing sounds like that might take a minute. We got to be quick.”

“Yea,” Jamie said. “I was just being funny. So, not a big deal, right?”

DeSean and Rodney nodded.

“Okay. Let’s get to work.”

The walked down to the parking meters behind the church on Hanover street. They tried their best not to be suspicious. DeSean stood at the top of the street and Rodney stood at the end to keep watch. Jamie walked next to the cars, pushing his body tightly against the handles to try and hid his hand. If it was locked, he quickly separated himself from the car and created a little bit of distance to make it look like he was walking away from the car if anyone started watching him. He looked suspicious, but since it was dark and they couldn’t see his hands, Jamie was hoping people would just mind their own business and not investigate what was happening. When he got to the fourth car, he felt the door start to slide open. He whistle to let Rodney and DeSean know he found a car that was unlocked. They whistled back to signal they heard him. Jamie got in and sat in the driver’s seat like it was his car. He adjusted the mirror, and started to spin knobs on the radio to make it look like he was adjusting something. When he felt comfortably that anyone who might have been watching would think it was his car, he started to dig around for change. He got a handful of coins and shoved them in his pants. He got out, looking around to see if anyone was rushing towards him, trying to knock him out or arrest him. But it was quiet and he saw Rodney and DeSean vigilantly keeping watch.

Jamie checked the final few cars before arriving the last one nearest Desean.

He put his hand on the door handle and it started to open. Just like with the other car, he hoped in and repeated the process in the other car of moving the mirror and fiddling with the radio. He looked in the cup holders, but didn’t see any coins.

Jamie cursed.

He opened up the dash just to see if there as any there. In it, he saw a roll of bills rubber banded together.

Jackpot.

He wasn’t going to be greedy and take the whole roll. He just wanted enough to treat his buddies and a little extra to get some drinks and maybe some other food. He took a $20 out of the hug wad of cash.

He stepped out and looked at DeSean who gave him a thumbs up. But then he heard a loud whistle from Rodney. Two loud whistles in a row.

That meant run!

“Hey you little bastard!”

Jamie couldn’t tell where the voice came from, but he could see Rodney was cutting through apartments. He saw DeSean how over the church fence and cut through the parking lot.

This was the plan. Rodney was the slowest, but he could easily hide in the row home complex. Even if the people chasing them were locals, they wouldn’t be too familiar with that area and would be intimidated to search through it. If they weren’t from here and in for the game, there was no way in hell they were going through those apartments. DeSean was fast, but not as fast as Jamie. He would be able to confuse them though by running through the church parking lot and running towards the stadium to get lost in the crowd. That was Jamie’s plan as well, but he took a different route.

They always agreed, no matter what happened, they wouldn’t rat out the others if one got caught. They would always just either take the heat or say they didn’t know who the other kids were. That what they were doing was part of an initiation from a group of older kids. That was what could help keep them safe. They could create a fake group of older kids who were the ones who were the real trouble makers. And this fake group was going around and recruiting younger kids to commit crimes.

That might work they reasoned. The whole bigger fish to fry scenario.

Jamie took off and heard footsteps pounding the pavement.

“You little asshole, get back here!”

He didn’t look back, but the voice sounded distant. He knew he had some space between himself and the person’s car he just robbed. It wasn’t cop, but the cop would have identified himself as such already.

No. This was the owner of the car. DeSean clearly started to pull away because he could barely hear footsteps of the person chasing him.

He heard some muffled threats far, far behind him. He kept running until he didn’t hear any of the footsteps. He cut through a few different alleys. He transitioned to a fast walk before he got to the stadium because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. He saw DeSean, and they casually walked past the convention center. There were cops everywhere, but there were a ton of tourists all over the place. And the cops were more focused on a group of homeless people aggressively hassling some of the tourists for money.

“How much you end up getting?”

“$20 and some change,” Jamie said triumphantly.

“Nioice.”

They walked briskly, quietly until they reached their destination. Rodney was waiting outside.

“You guys okay?” Rodney asked.

“We are 100 chief,” Jamie said smiling. “How about you?”

“I’m 100,” Rodney said smiling back. “I hid behind those big dumpsters for a minute and waited till the dude was out of sight who was chasing you. Then I just blended in with a bunch of tourists going to 7–11 and hit up here.”

“True. Did you get a look at the guy chasing me?” Jamie asked.

“Na. Nothing too solid. He was a heavy dude. He was huffing and puffing and out of breath by the time he got to the end of the block. I lost track of him from the dumpster after that. I don’t know if he kept trying to follow you or went back to his car. But I was out that bitch by that time. How much did you end up getting?”

“$20 and some change. We can get 2 of deserts a piece, get some drinks, or just get 1 and get some sides or something. Whatever you fellas are feeling right now.”

“Oh hell yea,” Rodney said. Let’s get two of those deserts. Don’t know the next time we are going to get two of those bad boys, time to load up now!”