Authors: S. W. Frank
Domingo shook his head then
looked through the slit in the door
as Teresa secured the child in the safety seat.
“
It’s
fucking crazy, though.
If you didn’t get shot then it’s
your Italian friends, for sure.”
Alfonzo
rolled the bottle i
n his hand thinking. “I
’m done with all that, b
ut
now I’m in a
compromis
ing
position. Feel me?”
Domingo nodded, “
Definitely. N
ow Juan’s
homies
g
on
na
be on
your ass right alongside the cops.”
“That’s why I don’t want
Allie here until we’re ready to leave
.”
Domingo
lit a blunt then faced his cousin.
He knew
Alfonzo well and
when someone fucked with him or his family the dude lost it.
Except, in this instance he was going against a faceless killer, not some gang bangers from the street who usually bragged afterward. No,
this smelled like the mob and they were a far cry from the impulsive wannabe thugs roaming the
‘
hood.
Domingo
went
legit some
time
ago
,
the only thing he hadn’t given up
on was
weed. He re-opened Uncle Al’s
detail
shop and business was good. Everybody wanted customized rides nowadays
and
was
spending cash to do it.
Unfortunately, for
his cousin,
g
o
ing
straight
wasn’t as easy.
“I’m here for you
cuz
, you know that.”
“Yeah,” Alfonzo nodded, “just look after my kid
until I call you,
hear me?”
Domingo stepped out the door, leaning against it to smoke.
Teresa leaned on the horn, yell
ing
out the window, “
Vamos
!”
Domingo took a leisurely drawl, let the marijuana settle in his lungs then released a cloud of smoke, “She crazy.”
“Humph.”
Domingo offered
parting
advice, “
You might want to consider
that someone’s
set
ting you
up.”
“
Tal
vez
.”
“
Watch your back,
primo
.”
“I’ll get answers.”
The horn honked.
Domingo smiled, “See what I’m dealing with?” He
changed
the subject
, “
Yo
, by the way that kid
Raymond
died Wednesday
. H
eard he tried this new shit and it fucked him up bad.”
The news surprised Alfonso.
Raymond
was a quiet, good kid
who
lived on his mom’s block. The kid was smart
; h
e
’d received an academic
scholarship to
an
ivy league
college in New Jersey, it seemed he had everything going for him, f
ucking shame!
Lately, the stories about young suburban
kids whacked
-out on some illegal drug
escalated in the press. Although, he was
n’t in
the
drug
business, he
stayed in tune with what was going on in the streets and abroad.
A
pparently, the stuff those kids were taking absorbed quickly in the bloodstream.
I
n suburbia they called it S
uburban Candy, but
it’s
real
name was Anarchy, which he considered fitting due to the havoc it cause
d
internally
.
The high was described by one
stupid crack-head
on
cable news a
s
,
going on a roller-coaster
ride
to heaven
,
getting to fuck an angel then crashing down to earth with a taste of angelic pussy in your mouth
while Satan rips your intestines
out
.
The minute he heard the
dumbass
say that, he knew it would only be a matter of time before others tried it.
The producers hadn’t bothered to edit
the segment
and i
n
a
way
contributed to the surge in
its
popularity. The
media was like a drug dealer’s
public relations f
irm, unwittingly providing
publicity and testimonial
s to
help spread
the
poison.
He wondered if
Raymond
fell
victim to this illegal drug as well.
“Give my condolences to the family, you know how we do.”
Alfonzo said
.
“
I’ll hook ‘
em
up for you,
no
problemo
.”
Domingo responded taking one more pull then trotted down the stairs, tossing the clip in the gutter
and exclaiming
, “
Yo
, Teresa,
why you acting impatient,
huh?”
Alfonzo shook his head, those two were a trip but they loved eac
h other and he trusted they’d take excellent care of his daughter. Sal was having the time of his life
out in California
with his cousins. In light of everything going on, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
He
was about to shut
the door then spotted the Audi cruising up the block. It reversed into the unoccupied space Teresa
vacated
and re
lief flood
ed
his body.
He
tried to act cool about
it
,
yet
every minute
Selange
hadn’t returned, he’d been in a state of quiet panic.
She climbed out the car and hurried inside the house.
The moment the door closed, Alfonzo pounced,
“Where the hell were you for
four
hours
, why’d you leave your cell
?”
She
dropped
the duffle bag
in the foyer and
went to sit on the sofa. Exhausted
,
she
kicked
out of
her sneakers and reclined her head, “
Remember you said never discuss important stuff over the phone?” Her nose wrinkled,
“
What’s that smell, was Domingo here?”
Damn, he did say that.
“
Yeah,
w
here’d you go, I’ve been going fucking
loco
?”
“I had to make sure no one was following
me, so I drove out to Jersey.”
He sat down
grinning
and lifted her legs on his lap
. Slowly, he began to
massag
e
her calves, “
You’re something else.” He relaxed, “Seriously, I was tripping. Don’t scare me like that again, babe.”
“You
were
scared…that’s a first!”
She joked about it but he literally couldn’t focus, if Domingo hadn’t talked him out of leaving, he might’ve went out and tore down the whole
goddamn
city until he found his wife. “I can’t let you do something like that again. It’s too dangerous, besides
both of us
can’t
get hauled off to
jail.”
He saw her thinking before she swiveled her head to look around the room, “Is Allie still sleeping?”
“I asked Teresa to keep her
u
ntil this blows over. I don’t want her around in the event the cops decide to break down
our
door.”
“
Alfonzo, she’s still sick.”
“She looked fine to me. She was eating, laughing,” he shrugged, “besides, it’s not like Teresa doesn’t
have kids.
”
“I wish you would
’ve
waited
until I came home
.”
“Babe, she’
s
fine.”
“I hope so because your cousin is a pothead.”
Alfonzo laughed, “Teresa’s got him in check.
He won’t smoke around the kids
.”
“He better not or I’ll personally kick his ass.”
The tension totally evaporated
from his body, he was no longer incomplete
. Selange
was his other half. Her
presence and spirit are what quieted his rebel soul. She’s the part that held him together,
also
the
only
person he wanted desperately to please. His
hand caressed her leg
as he confessed
,
“
I didn’t shoot anyb
ody. I went to the club to meet
Danté
.
I left
early but
this dude I had beef with followed
and
we fought
. All of a sudden,
somebody starting blasting, that’s how I got blood on my clothes. That’s the
truth
.”