Zero Ave 1998: Chapter Thirty Five- Under the Stars
(This chapter is part of a series. Click here to read chapter thirty four.)
Derek’s tires crackle on the blacktop when he pulls into the parking lot at the elementary school that separates the neighborhood’s social classes. The school is an old white building with orange trim and serves as the meeting place for the boys whenever they’ve been separated by an extraordinary event.
“Hey,” Derek calls out to Leo, who is rolling a blunt on the hood of Richie’s car while Dre and Kevin converse nearby.
“What up,” Leo greets him without looking up from the unrolled cigar, his concentration fixed on evenly dispersing the marijuana within the open leaf.
“Let Richie know I’m taking Michelle home,” Derek replies. “Tell him I’ll call him in the morning.”
Leo sticks the leaf between his lips, responding while he licks the hollowed out cigar.
“Bet.”
Leo slides the blunt behind his ear and begins walking to where Richie is gently rocking back and forth on a chain strung between metal poles. He’s quietly working through a broken heart, conflicted as to why he should feel this way at all. He knew who Vanessa was when he met her. If anything, he feels foolish for believing their relationship could’ve ever been more than a series of casual encounters.
“Ay, come on y’all. Let’s smoke this,” Leo says to the group, walking along the pathway around the gymnasium to an open field.
Sparks fly out of the lighter before a flame ignites the tip of the blunt. The skunky scent of marijuana floods the stuffy summer air as Leo takes a few deep pulls before passing it to Richie. They’ve settled at a picnic table on the edge of a vast grassy field that rolls into a playground, and hills that serve as a prime sledding location for young children during the winter months. The homes in the surrounding neighborhood are shrouded in darkness; the twinkling stars in the night sky the only signs of life outside of these 4 young men.
“I just fucking left Karina there,” Kevin mentions worriedly, accepting the blunt from Richie.
“Don’t sweat it. She was with Julian,” Leo assures him. “Niggas know better than to fuck with him.”
Leo redirects his attention to Richie, who has been unusually silent since they arrived.
“You alright?”
Richie nods, “Yeah, I’m good. I’m just still calming down from the fight. That shit was crazy. I can feel some lumps coming through on my head.”
Leo laughs, “Yeah, nigga. That was some wild shit… Blam! You just hit that motherfucker with a bottle on sight.”
“You think your uncle will be pissed?” Richie queries.
Dre shakes his head, “Nah. I’ll tell my dad what happened. He’ll understand.”
Kevin passes the blunt to Dre, who refuses.
“No thanks. I don’t smoke,” Dre says, politely declining the invitation to get high.
“Nigga don’t drink either,” Leo cuts in, taking the blunt from Kevin. “Thinks he’s gonna be a preacher and shit.”
“I already am a pastor,” Dre corrects him before addressing the group. “I’m a youth pastor at Trinity Baptist. I only go to the club so this nigga can get in.”
“Ay yo, that word is a sin,” Leo jokes, referring to Dre’s use of the n-word while taking a pull from the marijuana filled cigar. “God might punish you for that.”
Dre chuckles, “Says the super pimp with a blunt in his mouth.”
Kevin’s beeper buzzes, interrupting the banter between Leo and his older cousin. He reads the number on the screen but doesn’t recognize it.
“Who is it?” Richie inquires, holding onto a faint hope that maybe Vanessa has Kevin’s beeper number and is trying to reach out to him after having a change of heart.
Kevin shrugs, “I don’t know. Probably just somebody looking to pick up. I don’t have a phone so I guess they’re out of luck.”
“Here,” Dre offers, pulling a Nokia cell phone out of his pocket and handing it to Kevin. “It’s free after five so take your time.”
“Thanks, dude,” Kevin says gratefully as he dials. “You know, it’s hard to believe you’re related to Leo. He would’ve only gave me a phone if I was calling some hoes.”
Dre laughs and shakes his head, “He’s got a lot to learn.”
“Kevin?” a female voice on the other end answers.
“Yeah,” Kevin responds, expecting it to be a late night customer he has to turn away. “Who’s this?”
“It’s Karina,” she drunkenly slurs. “Come over and hang out.”
Panic flashes in Kevin’s mind. It’s one o’clock in the morning and ‘hanging out’ can only mean one thing.
“Seriously? Are you sure?” he questions.
“Come over… Now,” Karina coaxes him, her voice a mixture of tipsy mumbling and transparent teenage seduction.
“I’m on my way,” Kevin replies, his voice almost cracking with anxiety.
Kevin hangs up the phone and passes it back to Dre.
“I gotta go,” he announces to the group, already speed walking away from them.
“Where are you going?” Richie shouts as his friend begins to jog into the distance.
“Karina’s!” Kevin shouts back. “I’ll call you tomorrow!”
The soles of Kevin’s clean Jordan sneakers grip the pavement and propel him forward like a cannonball flying through city blocks. His feet are moving at a pace reminiscent of his night in the woods between borders, but this time the potential outcome is much more exciting than the possibility of earning some respect from mid-level drug dealers. The world moves around him like horses on a carousel as he speeds across apartment complexes and vacant lots. He doesn’t feel the strain in his legs or the wind in his lungs, in fact, he almost forgot he was breathing at all. In this moment, he feels like a passenger in a vehicle gliding along effortlessly toward his destination.
A group of young men sit on park benches in the common area of the co-op. They sip from 40 ounce beer bottles and observe Kevin sprinting in through the entrance to Karina’s house. His arrival has caused a stir amongst the small collective of late night hustlers and his disturbance is an unwelcome one.
Kevin slams the door behind him, gasping for air. He didn’t even think to knock, but if the door were locked he probably would’ve ran through it. The blood returns to his head and he stumbles while he flips his shoes off with his heart pounding in his ears.
“Everything alright?” a male voice asks from the living room.
Kevin pops his head around the corner and discovers Julian sitting on the couch watching TV with Patricia lying next to him.
“Yeah,” Kevin replies through coughs. “Didn’t think you’d be here.”
Julian leans his head back and grins at Kevin.
“Karina’s upstairs,” he advises.
Kevin takes the first step up the carpeted stairs and his tired legs ache as he climbs. He can’t decide whether it’s nerves or the frantic sprint across the neighborhood that has caused him to feel like a paralyzed jellyfish, but he’s determined to reach the top even if he has to crawl.
He exhales deeply when he arrives at the top of the flight and Karina appears in the bedroom doorway to his right. She has stripped down to a black bra and matching thong.
“Hey,” she says softly, swaying in the doorway with her arms against the frame. The act itself feels almost unnatural, as if she were attempting to replicate a scene from a movie performed by a much older actress.
“Hey,” Kevin stammers. His heart feels like it’s dropped into his shoes and he’s frozen in place. In his wildest dreams he had imagined this moment, but it had always seemed as probable as walking on the moon or winning the lottery.
“Come here,” Karina beckons him before turning back into the bedroom.
Kevin follows, his steps seemingly moving in slow motion as he struggles to push against what feels like a sudden increase in gravity.
Karina wraps herself around Kevin when he enters the dark room. She kisses him deeply and the scent of her perfume overwhelms his senses; a scent that in the past would cause him to stop in the school hallway mid-stride if he caught a faint trace of it. He rests his hands on her hips and her skin feels like butter against his fingertips.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
A pounding on the front door startles Kevin and causes him to pull away, scrambling to the window. Karina, in her inebriated state, is unbothered by the abrupt knocking.
“Come on,” she slurs, leaning back on the bed. “Fuck me.”
“Yeah, hold on,” Kevin says, pulling the blinds down to get a view of the walkway below. Three men from the courtyard with hoods over their heads are standing at the door, waiting to confront Kevin about his unannounced visit. They’re undoubtedly here to forcefully scare Kevin away. Rival dealers are never a welcome presence in this complex.
“Fuck,” Kevin whispers. Of course this had to happen tonight- with his crush writhing on the bed and all but begging him to sleep with her. His first instinct is to get in touch with Richie, but since he lost his pager he’s virtually impossible to get ahold of, and Derek will be too occupied with Michelle to bother answering the phone if he’s home at all. Right now Kevin is truly a lone wolf, reduced to the status of a scared puppy hiding from angry members of another pack.
Suddenly Julian emerges from the house and confronts the neighborhood hooligans. From Kevin’s vantage point he can see Julian calmly conversing with the men, standing nonchalantly in front of them with his hands in his pockets and unafraid of the encounter turning violent. After a brief discussion the hooded men disperse and Julian returns to his post in the living room.
“That was close,” Kevin mumbles before turning back to the bed where Karina is waiting. She lifts her legs in the air and pulls her thong off slowly, every inch drawing Kevin closer until he crawls onto the bed next to her.
Karina smiles, “You ready?”
Kevin undoes the button on his Ben Davis jeans and rips them off hastily.
“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this.”
Morning sunlight pours through the kitchen windows and illuminates the steam rising from Jada’s cup of coffee. She’s lying on the couch in a pair of pajamas flipping through television channels when a news report catches her eye.
“Hey, mom,” Richie says, sleepily walking out of the hallway and into the kitchen.
“Good morning, honey,” Jada greets her son before taking a sip of coffee.
Richie searches the refrigerator for something to eat as Jada turns up the volume on the TV.
The body of a young woman has been discovered in Mahon creek.
The mention of the creek causes Richie to look up from the refrigerator and direct his attention to the television screen.
Eighteen year old Stacy Aikens was found brutally murdered by hikers early this morning.
A mugshot of Vanessa appears on the screen and hits Richie like a bolt of lightning. His knees nearly collapse beneath him as he steps through the kitchen into the living room.
The victim was known to police and her death has been confirmed as a homicide. Police are currently investigating.
“That poor girl,” Jada mutters to herself, peering into the potential outcome of a not so distant past. There were many times she narrowly escaped a similar fate and the news has hit close to home.
Panic explodes in Richie’s stomach and he darts down the hallway to get his keys and a t-shirt before racing through the living room to the front door.
‘There’s no way she’s dead. I just saw her a few hours ago,’ he thinks to himself, pulling his t-shirt over his head and trying to weave a convoluted story together in order to disprove the facts. This isn’t supposed to happen. This isn’t how Vanessa’s story is supposed to end.
“Where are you going?” Jada asks, watching her son rush to put his shoes on and sensing his dismay.
“I have to go,” Richie answers, tears welling up in his eyes with every word.
Jada grimaces in pain as she slowly stands and steps toward him.
“Wait… Did you know this girl?”
“Yeah,” Richie whimpers, his chin quivering. It’s the only word he can get out before breaking down.
“Oh, honey,” Jada says, embracing her grief stricken son. “I’m so sorry.”
Richie buries his face in his mom’s neck while he cries. He feels like a helpless little boy lost in a flood of heartbreak. His mother’s familiar touch is comforting- one that always seemed to act as a protective shield that could instantly heal his deep seated pain- but this time the anguish is too much to fix with a hug. As despair flows through him, he imagines what his future with Vanessa could have been; a beautiful home on the west side just like the ones she so often admired. Had she have just gone with him he would have found a way to get her there. He would have done whatever it took to give her a home where she could be happy and safe from predators like Ty.
“I have to go,” Richie sniffles, lifting his head from his mom’s shoulder.
“What? No,” Jada argues, loosening her grip and stepping back. “I don’t want you-”
“I’m fine, mom,” Richie interrupts. “I have to go.”
Jada stares quietly at her son, aware that he’s going to go whether she approves or not.
“Ok. But call me in a few hours so I know you’re safe.”
“I will,” Richie answers, wiping his nose with his forearm before kissing Jada on the cheek.
“I love you,” Jada tells him as he opens the door.
“I love you too,” Richie says before stepping into the sunlight.
