Push Comes To Shove Part 19

He lay there with his small body pulled into a ball, s.h.i.+vering. His eyes were as wide as high beams.

"Come on, Junior. It's all right now." Secret reached out to him.

No response.

"He's scared s.h.i.+tless." Nise came closer. "Help him out and let's get out of here."

Secret used her leverage to pull Junior out with Nise's a.s.sistance. "What's the catch? Why are you helping us?"

"If I don't, who else will?"

The door hinges squealed.

Secret and Nise looked in the direction of the door.

Junior stood there, unresponsive.

"Granted, you've done some dumb stuff, but this...this is the epitome of r.e.t.a.r.ded." Kitchie gave GP a pillow and a sheet, then pointed at the couch. "You'd been better off keeping that to your-self." She sang the words, "If you think you're lonely now, wait until tonight, boy."

"Don't play. You're the one who wanted to know." GP leaned on the doorframe of Jewels's bedroom.

"We already have more problems than we're capable of handling. You should've known better than to gamble with somebody else's money and somebody else's life. Jewels could've been killed, and Squeeze ain't playing with a full deck."

"It was a sure thing."

She giggled. "Sure? You're still screaming that. Well, let's see about that." She held up a thumb. "We're exactly where we started from-broke." A second finger. "We have another debt that we don't have a clue as to how it's going to get paid." Another finger. "My babies aren't any closer to home-they're further. Do you want me to go on? I still have some more fingers to count on." She started to close the door. "Excuse me, I need to get some sleep. I'm going to visit the kids in a few hours." You're still screaming that. Well, let's see about that." She held up a thumb. "We're exactly where we started from-broke." A second finger. "We have another debt that we don't have a clue as to how it's going to get paid." Another finger. "My babies aren't any closer to home-they're further. Do you want me to go on? I still have some more fingers to count on." She started to close the door. "Excuse me, I need to get some sleep. I'm going to visit the kids in a few hours."

"Mami."

"I'm going to sleep. Good night, GP." She shut the door.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Mr. Reynolds flicked the light switch on lighting up the rear dock. "Denise, the cemetery is full of people who didn't know how to mind their business."

She shrugged her shoulders and turned to Secret. "Ain't no turning back now. It's his fat a.s.s or us."

"Without a doubt, it's fat boy. What you wanna do?"

"He can't walk from one end of the hall to the other without losing his breath. He can't handle both of us. We have to kick his a.s.s."

Junior's body was there, but he was definitely in someplace reserved for the traumatized.

Nise unscrewed the handles of two push brooms and gave Secret one. "Whatever you do, don't stop swinging."

"I can handle a stick. My aunt taught me." She twirled the broom handle, causing it to whip through the air, and rested it under her armpit. She a.s.sumed a fighting stance.

"Okay. You got to teach me that."

Mr. Reynolds laughed as he wobbled from one end of the dock to the girls. "I'm going to beat both of you b.i.t.c.hes raw."

"Who you calling a b.i.t.c.h, b.i.t.c.h!" Nise struck him in the center of his forehead.

Secret followed suit with a vicious blow to the sternum, then a sharp hit to the meaty part of his neck.

He staggered. "You little Black-"

Nise struck again. "This is for old and new."

She remembered when he had used that line each time he had beat her.

He latched onto Nise's broom handle for dear life.

Secret delivered a blow that broke her handle in two.

He fell on his face as the air escaped his lungs.

Nise hit and cried and hit and cried. "Mean old man, die." And hit and cried.

Secret grabbed her around the waist and pulled her away. "That's enough, Nise. Let's go." She took Junior's hand and the three of them left, locking Mr. Reynolds on the dock. "Think he'll be all right?" She was worried but was really more concerned about Junior.

"Who gives a f.u.c.k?" Nise lit a cigarette.

CHAPTER 13.

Mr. Reynolds awoke on the concrete floor. His bones ached and he suffered from an enormous headache that had Secret Patterson and Denise Holcut written all over it. He caressed his temples and felt the dried blood that had matted his hair. Secret and that despicable waste of a good nut, Denise, will wish they were never born when I'm finished with them Secret and that despicable waste of a good nut, Denise, will wish they were never born when I'm finished with them. He staggered to his swollen feet and checked his watch. 6:49 a.m.

Mrs. Patterson was scheduled to visit in less than an hour.

He rushed to the door only to find it locked. "Rotten b.a.s.t.a.r.ds." The metal door rang out when he kicked it. He turned to the coffins and thought ...

And thought some more.

He made his way to a phone mounted on the dock's wall. He poked in a number.

"What?" Tucker Reynolds put his cordless phone to his ear as his eyes focused on his one-room trailer home.

"Tucker, I need you."

He stretched in the thread-bare LaZ-Boy and wiped last night's crumbs off of his chest. "What do you want, Claude?"

"I need you to haul a load ASAP."

"Forget it." He swatted at two flies that were swarming around his lap. Then, he noticed the remainder of a pastrami on rye squished between himself and the chair. "Find somebody else. Brother or no brother, I'm through fooling with you."

"I'll pay you up front."

"You still owe me; pay that. Find Daddy's coin collection you claim was stolen, and pay the family what you owe us."

"Stop accusing me of stealing from my own family. I'll square you away on my debt and give you a thousand dollars for this load." He glanced at the coffins.

"You never have cash on hand, so you claim. Why the h.e.l.l would I believe you have eighteen hundred today?"

"Tucker, you f.u.c.k, I only owe you two hundred."

"The other six is for waking me up to talk to your lard a.s.s. It ain't like you don't have it. You've been spending the family's fortune for years now. That's my price, little brother. Take it or leave it."

"Be here in twenty minutes and you have a deal."

Mr. Reynolds went to the loading platform and pushed a red b.u.t.ton. The mechanical garage door was electrically raised, inviting the early morning sunlight to the rear dock.

Kitchie slammed on the brakes and pressed both palms against the horn. "Diablo!"

Tucker honked the horn on the big rig as he wheeled the semi out of the group home's lot with no regards for the stop sign.

Kitchie hummed along with an Avant and Lil' Wayne tune as she parked the Escalade near the front entrance. She saw her children and at least fourteen others sitting on the porch.

As she approached with a smile, she heard someone say, "Uh-oh, the s.h.i.+t is about to hit the fan now." Her smile went flat when she saw the distraught look on Junior's face.

Secret lifted her head, met her mother's questioning eyes, and burst into tears. "Mr. Reynolds done it, Ma."

Junior never acknowledged Kitchie's presence.

She set her purse on the pavement and knelt in front of the children. "He did what? What's wrong, Secret?"

The front door eased open. "Good morning, Mrs. Patterson. It's-"

The children screamed and dispersed.

Junior never moved.

Nise and Secret took cover behind Kitchie.

Nise's heart pounded hard. "Don't let him get me, Mrs. P. I was only helping Secret. I don't want no more black eyes."

Kitchie's heart sank when she looked at the dark rings around Nise's eyes. "He did that to you?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Mr. Reynolds stepped forward. "Don't pay that lying child any-"

"Ma, he locked me and Junior in caskets last night because we ran away."

"Sick cracker!" Kitchie went into her purse. "I swear I'm gonna kill you."

Mr. Reynolds backed into the group home and secured the door.

"Vivian, I hope you didn't have to go too far out of your way coming down here this morning." GP stacked some Street Prophet s.h.i.+rts on the table of his booth.

"It's quite all right," the lawyer said. "I have a friend in the business, an injury lawyer, who has an office in Terminal Tower and a view of Public Square. I might drop in on her while I'm down here."

"So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about? I have a lot of work to do; haven't made a dime going on two weeks now."

"Do you mind?" She rested her briefcase on the table's bare spot.

"Not at all."

"The light company is willing to drop charges, provided you pay your previous bill in its entirety-including the charges for the damaged meter and the electricity you stole."

"Borrowed."

"It was stolen, Mr. Patterson."

"If I have to pay them back, it must've been a loan."

"Whatever floats your boat. Just pay them within the next ten working days or no deal. Also, you can't get electricity in your name for a year."

GP held on to his airbrush gun. "How much do they want?" He stared out at the busy street as motorists added to the noise pollution, rus.h.i.+ng to begin their day.

Vivian flipped the briefcase open and handed him an itemized list.

GP scrolled the sheet until he saw the cuss word Total Total. "Thirty-nine hundred. Bulls.h.i.+t! Now who's doing the stealing? I didn't owe anything near this."

She pointed to the paper. "The fine imposed for tampering with the meter is what cost you. But that's the least of your worries."

"You need a drum roll? Don't stop now."

As the traffic congested, pedestrians filled the sidewalks.

"I can get Mrs. Patterson probation, but I'm afraid, because of your record, you're going to do a few years in prison."

"I'll be d.a.m.ned. Prison!" He took a deep drink of air. "Then tell me, Vivian, what the h.e.l.l is my family supposed to do while I'm in the pen? I thought you said you and the DA were buddy-buddy."

"He's going to do everything he can for you. The child endangering charges-dropped. Public disturbance-dropped. He's fully aware of the whole situation. The fact of the matter is, whether Mr. Tharp deceived you or not, you and your wife a.s.saulted the man with a deadly weapon. I a.s.sure you that Mr. Tharp has no intention of dropping the charges." She handed GP another doc.u.ment. "He's even pressing the DA so you can compensate him for the time he's been out of work."

"What's this?" GP wasn't in the mood for another bit of bad news that would anchor him deeper in debt.

"It's the criminal complaint that Mr. Tharp filed against Mrs. Patterson and yourself."

Kitchie sat on the porch of the group home, surrounded by the other boys and girls, rocking Junior in her arms as Nancy Pittman and two squad cars entered the lot. "Help is here now, baby." Her tears fell to his face. "No one is gonna hurt you again." She exchanged looks with the other children. "Any of you."

"Mrs. P." Nise slid an arm around Kitchie and leaned on her shoulder, imitating what Secret was doing at that exact moment.

"Yes."