NaNoWriMo Day 14- The Shoes of Baltimore

Jamie was feeling good about himself on his walk home. His mom had stopped trying to control when he came back at night. When she made his curfew 10 p.m. on school nights, he defied her by coming in at 3 in the morning. But having to be at school at 7:30 a.m. and waking up at 6:45 a.m. to get there, Jamie found out quick that being rebel came at the price of losing sleep. So they reached a compromise of midnight, although Jamie would normally come home much earlier than that.

Functioning on less than four hours of sleep wasn’t how Jamie wanted to go through life.

Why the hell is that orange shoe in the middle of the road, he thought to himself.

He casually walked back his townhome. There were a few stragglers walking back from the O’s game, but there were never many people walking around here at night for some reason. There were normally more on the weekends, with the drunk fuck boys stumbling around the drunk girls talking too loudly and falling down. But generally, there wasn’t too many people on this route.

He heard footsteps behind him. In general, he always tried to look back when he was walking back at night. His normal trick was to look like he was fooling around with his phone and walk to the side of the sidewalk, letting the person pass. He started to do that but the footsteps turned into a sprint, and before he knew it, someone was pointing a gun in his back.

“Keep walking,” he heard the voice say.

Jamie tried to look back to see if it was a cop or the guy he ripped off, but with his quick glance, he saw it was someone new. It was a bald white guy in a suit. Looked like your typical security guard from any cheesy movie you can think of.

“Eyes forward,” the rough voice said.

Tears started to form in Jamie’s eyes, but he resisted the urge to cry. He didn’t want to die.

God, mom was right, he thought to himself.

But he had to show he was tough. He had to show he was defiant until the end. If anybody heard this story, they needed to know that he wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

“Did I mess with your girl or something?” Jamie asked. “Yo, I’m sorry if it was Ashley man. I know she get’s around. You can’t lock that down man. You married the cow when you could get the milk for free and you’re mad at me? Come on dude.”

Jamie felt the gun shoved harder into his back. Then he felt the gun slide down to his butt.

“Kid, I don’t have to just shoot you. I can slide this up there and pull the trigger. Or I can just slide it up there and keep it up there as long as I like. There’s a silencer on this, so I could just kill you now and no one would know. Stop with the tough talk and just keep fucking walking.”

Jamie did as he was told.

It was all good and well to talk tough when at school or hanging out, but whenever someone has a gun pointed at you, you quit being a tough guy. You enter survival mode and do whatever you need to do to keep breathing.

They turned a corner before they reached Jamie’s house. At the end of the turn for a row of townhomes, a black Cadillac Escalade was running. The guy had his arm on Jamie’s shoulder, making it look like he was maybe his father or an uncle walking back from the game. But now instead of having the gun jammed in his back, it was jammed in his side.

He told him to open up the door.

“Get in,” he told him.

Jamie did as he was told. Sitting in the back seat was a larger Nguyen with a bunch of gold chains. He also made sure his gun was clearly displayed. There was someone in the driver seat and someone sitting in the passenger seat upfront. Jamie always made sure that he was familiar with his surroundings.

“You were that kid who was breaking into cars tonight?”

The voice wasn’t what Jamie expected. It was almost soft and kind for how big and aggressive the man looked.

That made Jimmy think the look was on purpose to cover the something up. To cover the way his voice sounded. He could be tough, but no one was going to take him serious with a voice like that.

“I didn’t break into anything,” Jamie said defiantly. “The cars where I got the change out of were unlocked. “

Technically, that was true. Jamie hadn’t smashed any windows or picked any locks. The cars were left open, which Jamie viewed as an open lesson to teach people to lock their cars.

If he ever had a kid, that would be one of the first lessons he taught him. Even if he was just five years old, he would make sure that his kid knew now only how to lock the car, but that he should always make sure his side of the car he was sitting on is locked and that he should always double check that his dad was locking the car. If Jamie didn’t, he wanted his son or daughter to call him out.

The man had a light chuckle to match his softer voice.

“I normally don’t have to have any of my cars locked. Normally, most people know who I am and aren’t stupid enough to steal from me. But I’m guessing you didn’t know who I was. Did you?”

Jamie shook his head. He knew he hadn’t ever seen this man before.

The man held out his hand. “I’m Trevor Gatz.”

Holy Shit, Jamie said to himself.

People around Baltimore made rap songs about Trevor Gatz. He was basically a character straight from The Wire. He had his hands in everything that went down but was still clean. They could never get any cases on him directly. He always was just one step ahead of anyone trying to get a case to stick to him, having one of his associates take the fall. And even from that associate, there were still six or seven layer before you could even begin to try and make a case to try and connect anything to Trevor Gatz.

“I heard of you,” was all Jamie was able to get out.

It really was like meeting a celebrity.

“Well, then you know I don’t relay appreciate anybody taking something from me that doesn’t belong to them. I didn’t think I had to lock my cars around Baltimore anymore. I thought everybody knew what ones were mine.”

“But, wasn’t that a beat up Ford Explorer?” Jamie asked.

Trevor nodded.

“You don’t want to draw too much attention. I’m not going to leave this Escalade down there.”

That made sense to Jamie. And he remembered hearing in a song recently somebody mention Gatz’s Ford Explorer.

“But you only took $20?”

Jamie nodded.

“Why was that?”

“That’s all I needed. I didn’t anymore than a $20. And besides, if you were missing that whole stack, that would bring some unwanted attention. If the cops found a 13 year old with $500 to $1,000 on him, there would be some questions asked. Especially around here. I didn’t think you would even notice, and I thought I could come back and check the car and take a little bit at a time.”

“Damn. You hear that boys? We got somebody actually using their brains.”

The men in the front seat laughed approvingly.

“That was a damn good answer young man. A damn good answer. I was trying to figure out why anyone wouldn’t run off with that wad. I wouldn’t have caught you, chasing you. But your damn sure something else would have happened if you stole all that money other than the two of us just sitting here talking right now.”

Jamie wasn’t exactly sure how Trevor had found him.

Trevor could sense that was the next thing Jamie was going to say.

“So I found you because you were dumb about something. You gave that cute girl at that shop your phone number and address. You’re young, but you can see how thinking with the wrong head can get you in big trouble. Some men know that but still avoid that important information. So hopefully, you remember this lesson and carry it with you for the rest of your life.”

Jamie was mad that he got played, but he had to keep his wits about him. He was still in a dangerous situation, and he didn’t know what was going to go down. He did think about visiting that girl and giving her a piece of his mind.

“Don’t think about going back there and messing with that girl,” Trevor said.

Jamie couldn’t believe how he could tell what he was thinking.

“She was just doing what she was supposed to do. If you play your cards right, I can formally introduce the two of you. But you better treat her with respect.”

Jamie was nervous but getting impatient.

“I don’t have the $20. You probably already know I spent it at the restaurant.”

Trevor didn’t say anything.

“So, I could get it back to you. But it’s going to take some time. It might take a week or two before I’m able to get it to you.”

“It’s not going to be that long. In fact, you might soon have more money then you will even know what to do with.”

“You’re going to give me a job?” Jamie asked surprised.

“I need someone who has a head on their shoulders. And I need someone who has some type of code. I’m sure your buddies egged you on about not stealing the whole stack. But you were smart about it, and you only took what you needed. I need someone who knows their boundaries and knows what they will do and what they won’t do. I need someone who is loyal to themselves and wouldn’t dare betray themselves or anyone they worked with.