Real estate turned-out to be
a
very lucrative
business if you know what you’re doing
.
A
sizable chunk of tax-payer dollars got spent in the borough of
M
anhattan
where t
ourists flocked for the Broadway
shows
and other landmark attractions.
The intruder
grinned;
if only the Mayor came here
to
witness
the squalor of some city housing units perhaps he’d
allocate more funds for
their upkeep. He’d been down near
Lincoln Center, walked
Fifth Avenue
, traversed midtown
down to Tribeca and everywhere you turned money stared back. Yeah, you need money to live comfortably in NYC, without it you were just like a cockroach crawling over leftovers.
T
here were visible traces of
litter
in
the corridor.
Gum wrappings, a tip of a blunt and what appeared to be fresh spit on the hard cement floor.
The smell of urine mingled with a variety of culinary aromas.
He proceeded down the corridor
until he reached apartment 4C.
T
he
re were voices inside. A man and woman
were t
alking then
it became
quiet. He waited a second as a set of footsteps retreated then faded. He could hear movement in the living
room;
someone was alone in the front. He had a fifty-fifty chance of getting his target
at
the door. No, he thought he had to do them all. No loose ends.
Damn……
I hate
doing freebies.
He
tapped on the door.
Footsteps
sounded
,
followed by a woman’s voice. “Yeah, who is it?”
“
Housing,
”
h
e answered calmly.
The door opened and a woman resembling the girl
he saw leaving the building peered from behind a crack in the door. She saw…she recognized death.
Too bad
!
He aimed
and
fired then quickly stepped inside catch
ing
her
by the
arm before she hit the floor.
He placed her gently on the floor and closed the door.
Al entered the room just then, “Hey honey….”
His eyes darted from the stranger to Darlene
lying
on the floor with
blood pouring from her forehead
. Like an angry bull
he
ran
at the intruder before being
hit by a hot
projectile in the leg
. He fell to one knee then sucked in the pain
,
regained his footing and closed the distance
.
Another explosion occurred at the center of his chest
just as he reached the man and
his fist
struck
hard
across
the intruder’s
face. The blow sent him
sliding
across the floor mopping up
blood
as he skid.
Adrenalin kept Al alive long enough to
stoop down and strike t
he
intruder
once more. The impact stunned the
man,
he hadn’t expected a struggle.
Often, it
t
ook
one shot
and
most men lost their
fight
, but this one took two and managed to keep coming. H
e’d allotted a mere ten minutes for completion of this job
, five were already used
.
Angered, he
lifted his weapon then fired into the side of
Al’s
skull.
Blood
splatter
ed everywhere
. H
e cursed
aloud when his
target
finally
slumped over
and
crashed to the floor.
“Goddammit, now I have to clean
the fuck up
!”
Ten
minutes
over time he appeared in the courtyard
wearing a
clean
white T-shirt, a Yankee cap, pants and carrying a borrowed duffle bag
and
s
trode calmly
past the unsuspecting residents to the
cheap rental
car.
***
Shanda
consistently
check
ed her text
messages on
her upgraded
iPhone
.
Her head twisted around to
Selange
as she surfed the net, “Hey
d
ig this
,
Rahin’s
a trip
. H
e’s asking what I’m wearing. Doesn’t the fool know it’s Friday night and I’m far from going to bed
?
I’m ‘
gonna
lie and tell him I’m wearing a thong and a baby doll lace bra.” She laughed then crossed her legs thoroughly pleased with herself.
Selange pseudo-listened
, she check
ed
rental ads
as she
consider
ed getting her own crib
. Hanging out with Shanda
was
a temporary diversion
. Eventually, she
had to return home and confront her
mother
.
She hit the log-out button and sat up. Maybe, she should go
now
and get it over with.
Remorse
was
starting to set in. What she said to her mom was cruel, it’s only she didn’t
want anyone taking advantage of her.
It’s
ironic the gigolo married her mom
after she won
the lottery,
who wouldn’t be
suspicious?
Then again, Al did seem head over heels for her mom
before the winnings,
Selange
admitted
.
The eyes never lie and
Al’s were always filled
with joy.
‘
Man…oh man I feel like crap!
’
“Jay and his boy Carlos are coming by
right now
. You should see Carlos, goddamn, he’s fine!”
“What happened to Rahi
m
, weren’t you texting him a minute ago
?”
“Selange, I’m not married
to the guy
. I’m young and plan to take advantage of my attributes before
I lose what I have,” she ran her fingers down her hip
s to exaggerate
the point.
“Well I’m not going to lie to guys and pretend they’re the only one I’m seeing
, especially
know
ing
it could lead to drama. You need to be careful Shanda, playing with someone’s emotions is not a game.”
“Ah lighten up, that’s what guys do all the motherfucking time. It’s only the dumb bitches who believe everything they tell ‘
em
. Rahi
m
’s probably going to some girl’s house right now and hit me up just to find out where I’m at so he can whore around.”
“Then why bother playing games?”
Shanda giggled, “Because it’s fun and that’s what young people do.”
“I’m not interested in
those types of
games
and I’m young
.
You’re just fucked-up.”
“Well
, I
’d
rather be fucked-up
,
then not-fucked,
Miss Honesty
.”
The doorbell rang and Shanda screeched, “That’s them, come on girl let’s go have fun!”
At the door
Carlos checked out the tall
chocolate honey
standing behind Jay’s girl with
unconcealed lust
.
Man,
was
she fine. When Jay
described Shanda’s
friend
,
he said she was gorgeous, but hot damn, he wasn’t lying. Th
e girl was
fa-yine
!
H
is ego r
o
se to new heights
when
later
she
sat
up front in
his
car. He inhaled her
sweet scent
and smiled
.
To impress her, h
e
previewed some of his
raps and she blushed. Yeah, she liked
him. He could tell.
Selange on the other
-
hand could not wait for the night to end. Carlos was everything she disliked
, he was
‘
h
ood
’
and immature.
The man was twenty-three and unable to hold an intelligent conversation without using profanity or talking about dead rappers. He
lacked basic manners, was rude to the waitress at
the restaurant
, tried touching her inappropriately in the m
ovie
theatre
and to top it off tried kissing her when she asked him to chill.
No, he wasn’t smooth
,
cool or interesting
and s
he considered him a
fucking
joke. A young man with nothing to offer except talk of what he wanted to do
, without a clue
on
how to get there
.
An
other
ignorant young man with
lofty
ambitions
to become a rapper who failed
to understand
the most prolific rap artists were also well read.
Carlos
seemed impressed
she graduated college and worked,
which show
ed
how limited his circle of friends were. They were probably all like Jay.
Young men wanting to take short cuts through
life, only
to find out
thirty years later,
there are none.
She saw them
every day
, hanging outside
the building complex
with their wine and weed
,
dressed like boys
.
These were g
rown-ass men wearing
baseball caps, oversize
jerseys
and
clean
construction boots. Yeah,
she passed them early in the morning
and
on the way home
from work
.
No
pe
, she didn’t see any man like Carlos in her future
; s
he saw a man like her father
, e
ducated, well-dressed and respectable. That’s the kind of guy who stood any chance of getting her attention.
It was after midnight when they returned to Shanda’s place and Selange sighed with relief.
“That was an experience.”
“
Wasn’t Carlos cute…
didn’t
I t
ell
you?”
“
He’s not my type.”
“Your type doesn’t exist. You
r
expectations are too high.”
“If you say so.”
Selange opened her purse
and took out her keys, “I’ll see you. I need to get home.”
“I’m coming, too.”
Shanda’s
house was quiet.
Her
parents were probably asleep. They didn’t keep tabs on their daughter. Her older brother Kevin was married and living in California with a wife and a kid. They probably figured she’d be out the house soon too
,
so why bother.
Shanda
trailed Selange to her new
car
; a
gift for her twenty-second birthday.
It was a
sleek black Mercedes which attracted onlookers
and
Shanda loved
attention.
“We look like
celebrities!
”
“
Celebrit
y
my
ass, you only want
to
stay over
to
talk my head off about guys
.”