Lost boy, p.16
Lost Boy, page 16
Double D checked in on Jabari from time to time making sure he was alright. Jabari needed to rest and eat something. He thought about the steaks that were on the table, uneaten. He finally realized why it was because everyone was too goddamned high to eat. Even if he didn’t eat, he had to at least get some rest. When he finally woke up, he felt one-hundred times better. That meth shit, that was it, he couldn’t do it anymore. He didn’t understand how muthafuckas did that shit on a regular.
Jabari showered and walked into the kitchen finally haunting something to eat. The refrigerator was laid, with eggs, chicken, juice and more. The granola cereal caught Jabari’s eye, so that what he went with. He was sitting at the table eating when Double D walked in.
“Yo’ wassup...you alright?” he asked.
“Yeah, took me a minute though,” Jabari replied.
“You’ll be alright. I see you like that granola shit, huh?”
“It’s alright, need to stay healthy.” Jabari looked at the box then back at him. “I need to let you know what’s going on, ya know.”
“I feel you.” Double D glanced out back around the house and turned around then smiled. “Pheeewww...hell, I need to do the same.”
Jabari laughed. “For real, cause this some crazy shit you got going on.”
“Yeah, well...” He smiled then stretched. “This is the life...for us. When you finish come outside and meet me in front of the barn. We’ll talk.”
“You sure it’s alright? The dogs...dudes with guns...”
“You straight.” Double D promised.
The inside of the barn looked more like a make-shift office, not at all what Jabari was expecting. Double D nodded as Jabari gawked around at tables and cushioned chairs set up in the middle of the floor. A wooden desk was off t the side with an electronic scale on top and medium-sized plastic bags all filled with a powdery whitish substance. This really set it off for Jabari, at this point he had a good idea what was in them...meth. The windows were tinted dark and when he got closer, he noticed that they were clean and spotless. Double D said it was so they could see who was coming, clearly and no one could easily sneak up on them.
On another table, a crackling sound from a handheld receiver caught Jabari’s attention. He walked closer and listened, it was a police scanner. A computer screen directly next to it showed images of satellite enhanced, area surveillance photos, shot in Google Earth. They had a scan of the whole muthafucking area. Double D came over and pressed a key and it flashed real-time images of the highway, the road in front and a place somewhere out in the woods that Jabari had never seen.
He pointed to the last one and said, “That’s where you’re going to be working.”
“Work!” Jabari repeated shocked.
“Yeah, work, you got to do something while you’re here. Hell, Jason’s already complaining and ‘sides we’re short the help.”
Jabari snickered. “Short the help? Fuck all y’all do ‘round here is get high. Hell, you’re high now and Jason...fuck that dude!” Jabari put up his hands and back away. “Naw, I don’t want no parts of this shit. Meth too, we talkin’ what twenty-five...thirty years...or even life. Naw, not me...” Jabari back into the pointed end of a rifle barrel. He turned quickly and Jason had an AK-47 pointed directly at his chest.
“Well, tell you what...if you don’t...then, uh...” he looked over at Double D. “...we can’t let you leave here.”
“Oh, hell naw!” Jabari screamed.
Jason slid one into the chamber. “It is what it is then. Hey, D, crank that boat up. We might need to take him for a little...swim, heh...heh.”
Jabari looked over at Double D and he actually started to walk off towards the door to the creek. “Yo’ man, you gonna let this go down,” I asked.
Double D spun around, his face was all screwed up. “I ain’t got no choices. You came here on your own. Said you was running from someone. You ain’t said who, you might be the muthafuckin’ man or somethin’.”
“The man, you think I’m the man?” Jabari walked closer towards Double D and got in his face. “All the goddamned dope I smoked and shit, and hell...you know me. And you think I’m the fuckin’ man!”
“Well, hell, ‘Bari. You might be one of those informants or something. Looking to kill some time, we done had them types before.”
Jabari damned raised his hands to slap the shit out of him, until Jason butted in. “Well, what are you here for?”
Jabari looked at them and they were both right. He had to tell them something. “Okay, y’all right.” Jabari pulled up a seat and sat down in front of them, then he began explaining the whole thing from the beginning.
Jason lowered the AK and Double D just looked off out the window, then said, “Okay, okay, some muthafucka is lookin’ for you because he thinks you might tell on his ass...snitchin’ or some shit?” Double D sounded as if he had an attitude.
“Uh...yeah!”
Jason pulled up a chair and sat down with a look on this face that told Jabari he had a lot of fucked up questions.
“Hmm, ‘bout thirty-grand...and four keys, lot of fuckin’ money. But why’d you run? You ain’t have nothin’.”
Jabari rubbed both his hands across his sweaty face. “I got scared,” he confessed. “Rip was killed, then the woman that was in the fire, I mean...I didn’t have nothin’ to do with it but try tellin’ that to the cops.”
“It be like that,” Double D said. “You tell anyone you were coming here?”
“Hell, naw, I didn’t know where you was at until you met me at I-95 in town. Your own mother don’t even know where you’re at.”
“Now, you see why.”
“I see, now.”
Jason got up and tucked the rifle under his arm, then started walking towards the barn door. He turned around and looked at Jabari then at Double D. Jabari thought his life was over, he just knew they were going to kill him. He glanced over at a window thinking maybe if he dived through it, he could make a run for it. He’d be scratched and cut up, but at least he’d still be breathing. Jason studied where Jabari’s eyes were going and started laughing.
“It won’t work cuz. Okay, you can stay for a minute, but still, you gots to put in some work,” Jason said.
Jabari looked over at Double D, Double D nodded in agreement. “Okay...okay, but I don’t know shit about what y’all do here,” Jabari finally said.
Jason glanced over his shoulders and said, “Hmph, trust me...you’ll learn quick ‘specially if I paid you with pills.” Then he left out laughing.
“One day I’ma have to handle his ass,” Jabari mumbled under his breath.
“Damn, Jabari,” Double D said. “Don’t see how you got caught up in that dumb shit, but, you’re here now.” He walked over to Jabari and pointed around the room. “This is where people come to pick up the dope.”
“Pick up?”
“Yeah, we sell meth.”
“Okay...” Jabari nodded, looking around the barn, seeing something he hadn’t seen before.
“We sell it the same way muthafuckas sell crack, give or take. Ounces, half ounces, grams, hell even rocks of twenties. But, one thing for sure, we sell it all. We got to get rid of it one way or another.”
“A’ight, so this is the spot where everyone comes, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Suppose the man rolls up?”
Double D pointed Jabari to the computer screen, turned it around facing them and pressed some numbers. Images popped up on the screen, enhanced.
“This is out front, out back...hell, we got cameras on e’thing surrounding us, even the goddamned sky.” Double D pointed to an electrical pipe leading up to the roof.
Sure, enough a small disk was mounted pointing outwards, Jabari knew one thing, it damn sure wasn’t for cable TV.
“Yeah, we spends money, nobody ain’t trying to feel the time if you get caught.”
“I see you got those dudes out there with guns...ready!”
“We had to do something, oh believe me we done been tried before. So, Jason hired those two guys out front. They mind their business and they don’t get high.”
“That’s good, must pay them pretty good, too?”
“Good enough, to put their asses on the line if they have to.” Double D turned off the screen and walked Jabari to what normally would have been the horse stables.
Double D kicked some dirt and hay from around the ground and an o-ring appeared on the floor. He pulled at it and it sprang open, rather quickly. Inside were gun racks and cases of ammo from 9mms, .40s, then assault rifles and three M-14s. There were also bulletproof vests, they were dead serious about this shit. Double D pointed to the far left and showed Jabari a rocket launcher hidden underneath some canvas.
“What the fuck!” Jabari gasped.
Double D grinned. “Yeah, we picked that one up one night from some Arab boys. Fuckin’ around with that same trick that be suckin’ yo’ dick.”
“Hold up...hold up!” Jabari started tripping. “You mean to tell me they was getting high?”
“Hell yeah. They couldn’t afford the shit either, after a while, next thing you know Jason’s on some ole wanting to hang the muthafuckas type shit. He was fuckin’ geeking up on them damn N’ratins.” Double D started laughing and Jabari couldn’t help but laugh himself. “Them muthafuckas ripped open the bottom of the SUV they were driving and bam...rocket fuckin’ launcher.”
“Still shoulda hung them muthafuckas!” It was Jason, he’d brought his crazy ass back in, being nosey. “You shoulda seen them muthafuckin’ rag-heads haul ass outta here.”
“That’s why Stacy...”
“Stacy?” Jabari repeated.
“Damn, she’s been suckin’ your dick and fuckin’ you for ‘bout a week and you don’t even know her goddamned name?” Jason said. “I see why nigga keep getting that goddamned shit...that’s fucked up.”
Jabari looked at the ground and kicked a rock. “Damn!” Jason was right, it was all fucked up.
“Her name is Stacy,” Double D confirmed. “And she was the one who bought them here. Hell, it was a good deal though, we made money. I ain’t mad at her, she ain’t had no place to go. So, she crashes here, steers customers to us, too.”
Jabari looked at Double D and smirked. He knew her ass wasn’t actually tricking.
“Trust me, she looks better after she takes a break from that shit.” Double D assured.
“So, Jabari?” Jason approached him. “You know ‘bout everything about us. So, you in or what?”
Jabari extended his hand to him and nodded. “I’m in!”
“That’s good, but don’t get it fucked up. It gets serious and can get bad real fast.”
“I’ll stick it out, Double Dd can vouch for me...”
“He done did already.”
“But, damn, you was about to kill me!”
Jason laughed. “Maybe...maybe not!” Jason closed the gun rack and covered it back up. Then he looked over at Jabari and cocked an eyebrow. “By the way, who’s this fella that’s trying to kill you anyway?”
“Some dude outta Charleston, I don’t think you know him.”
“Try me, you’d be surprised.”
“His name is, Hulie.”
“Oh hell!”
“What? Don’t tell me you know him!”
“Do I know him?” Jason walked over to the side of the barn and kicked the door, causing dust to scatter all over the place. One of the men outside peeped in and asked if everything was alright. Jason waved them off, then looked over at me. “You done got yourself caught up with one crazy-ass nigga!”
Chapter Ten
The situation Jabari was in was unlike anything he’d ever seen. Sure, they made good money, but there was a lot of paranoia that went right along with that. Everyone got caught up with the thought that someone was the goddamned police even him. Normally according to Jason, it would just take two people to make meth. One person was needed to go to the store to buy or either steal the pills they needed, that would most likely always be Double D. Then they needed someone else to get the other ingredients. They would punish the hardware stores for Denatured alcohol, sulfuric acid, lithium batteries, and STP starter fluid. They put Jabari on that, because Double D had become a hot boy, and him getting caught up with pops in Ekherds didn’t make it any better.
They had to be real careful that none of those items could be bought at the same time. Two or more could get you a manufacturing charge, easy. Then you had to be careful who was at the check out line with you. Jabari found out first hand that a lot of white folks fucked around with meth. They would end up following him to the truck, then cracking on where his spot was. Of course, Jabari played dumb, which wasn’t hard to do because he were, and he was glad Double D and them kept it that way. Anyone of them could have been the man.
The hardest thing to get and the most important was Anhydrous Ammonium Gas. Jabari tried going to a Welder’s supply shop to get some, but they wanted some credentials, a business license or a Welder’s certificate. Jabari had none of those and neither did Double D. It was a stroke of luck, fucking around the hardware store and casing it out. Jabari struck up a conversation with this older dude, who was a preacher. He’d preached around the same area where Jabari’s old man grew up. In a small, one-stoplight only town called Ruffin. Anyway, Jabari told him he was visiting the area and he asked Jabari if needed a job.
“No, I’m alright,” Jabari told him.
“Good, I don’t you’d want to do anything like I do anyway,” the preacher responded.
Double D started clowning Jabari, then for the hell of it, Jabari asked the preacher what was it that he actually did. The preacher worked on a fucking chicken farm.
“Oh hell, no, I can’t be fuckin’ wit’ chicken shit all day long,” he damn near screamed at the preacher, then turned to talk shit to Double D.
Double D had a gleam in his eyes like he’d just won the lottery. In a way he did, because farmers used the gas to fertilize their soil, and wouldn’t you fucking know it, that’s exactly what needed to be done. So, Jabari was knee deep in chicken shit. Double D didn’t want to fuck his face up or cause any suspicion, being that the old dude knew people, so he laid low. Next thing Jabari knew, he was on his way to Moncks Corners in another town, this one was a lot bigger and he started working with the preacher for a few days.
Double D followed them and quickly and quietly scooped out the spot and eventually stole most of the shit they needed. Jabari felt sorry for the preacher. To make things worse he and the preacher had actually prayed for the thief who stole his shit. Jabari felt so bad, until later and he’d finally dove into a couple of pills. Then he was like fuck it, Oxycontin had that effect on people.
Once they got all the shit they needed together, they needed to show Jabari where it was going to be cooked. That’s how he got to know Smoak, cooking the shit was Smoak’s job.
****
Hulie finally caught up with Diplite in Liberty Hill and met him up on Montague and Abraham Avenue, where he was watching tricks. Diplite had control of the small, drug-heavy community but every now and then he’d have a little show of force, to let folks know he was connected. All the big boy hustlas from the Chuck rode through. Hulie was one of the ballas that showed his face every now and then.
Hulie figured it was a good opportunity to pick his brain. He hadn’t really kicked it with him since the time they rolled on T-Black. Diplite’s sister Cleo had spilled the beans about T-Black’s mother and Hulie definitely wanted to know more. He would have never thought Diplite had anything to do with the money that was missing, but he didn’t put it past him either.
Hulie pulled up into the lot outside of the candy store across from him. He jumped out, checking out the area and scenery. Runners, small-time hustlas, and fast ass young girls came out of the woodworks trying to flaunt in front of him, hoping to tap in on the quote-unquote, small, pocket change he kept. Hulie was that dude, but right now, he wasn’t concerned with all that. He had to stay focused on the bigger picture, Sunshine’s money, if not his ass was gonna do hard time and the asses he would see there damn sure wouldn’t be no young girls. He shivered at that notion.
“Yo...what’s up?” he said as he reached out and dapped Diplite, then sat down next to him on a bench underneath an oak, shade tree, hiding from the low country sun while Diplite choked down peanuts and soda.
“What’s up, ain’t seen you in a minute,” Diplite said.
“Been trying to handle some bis’ness, that’s all.”
“Yeah...what kind?”
Hulie smirked. “C’mon, now.”
“I know, none of my business.”
“Sum’thing like that.”
“Well,” Diplite threw some peanut hulls off into the dirt and turned slightly towards. “What’s up with the other business?”
“Other business...”
“C’mon now, Hulie, we got two...well...you got two bodies on your hands and so far, as I know, no muthafuckin’ money. Where we at wit’ that?”
Hulie grinned and turned towards Diplite. Diplite had gotten straight to the point and Hulie knew he had something up his sleeve because his body tensed up and he normally squirmed whenever he was around. So, he played the game Diplite had set up for him and went with it.
“Yeah, I got them bodies or at least your partners, partner...remember him? The one you put down...Jabari...he’s got them, kna’mean.”
“I know what you mean, but you ain’t got Jabari, though. And he could finger you easily, you know what I mean?”
“Finger me on what? Who else seen an’thing or even knows an’thing...except you? And, uh, I know you ain’t saying an’thing...right?” He peeped out the corner of his eyes.
“Naw...but supposed that dude’s moms...” Diplite fucked up that quick and had said too much already and Hulie caught it. Diplite stayed true to his character, a fuck up as far as he was concerned. He knew he shouldn’t have known a damn thing about T-Black’s moms except that she was missing and presumed according to the news. No one else would have known shit, except, of course, her. Like Diplite said, he hadn’t seen him in a minute, so now he knew, she was at least still alive.
