Rude Boy USA (32 page)

This was John’s thank-you for their service. The Jet Mafia’s influence in Atlantic City and Philadelphia had dwindled somewhat because of the increased pressure from the FBI, due to their hits on rivals and their involvement in the drug trade. They were also misusing government grants that were meant to rebuild their communities. Some of them had already branched out in New York City and parts
of Delaware thanks to John, and they began dealing with other crime families. They had virtually moved into the Mafia ranks in New York City.

John and Celia were ready to head out of New York City for the last time. They had a late-night flight to Miami for the connecting flight to Jamaica in the morning. They decided to sell the house in Yonkers. The day was warm and beautiful, but the atmosphere in the city and the country was tense. Celia was packing her things and going through the clothes that she wanted to keep. She had retrieved the remainder of her items from Rose’s apartment. While packing, she located her suits from the Playboy Club. She had not worn them since she left, and her curiosity got to her. The launch of BunnyWine inspired her, and she decided to see if she could still fit in them. She took out the black suit and put it on. She added the ears, tail, collar, bow tie, and heels. She located the ribbon with her name on it and pinned it on. She looked in the mirror and said to herself,
I still got it
. Celia did not know that John was standing in the doorway watching her check herself out. She had a smile on her face. Seeing Bunny in her suit for the first time in years, outside of photographs, made him happy. John made a slight noise, and Bunny looked over to him. She smiled back.

“Bunny…” he said. She walked over to him and asked if he wanted her to bring him a drink. She went and poured both of them drinks in a couple of glasses they had not packed yet. She brought over the drinks and stood next to him. “Are
you allowed to do this? I mean, I don’t want you to get in trouble,” he asked her with a grin.

Bunny laughed. “No one’s looking,” she said. He put his hand on her butt, right under her tail. This time, she did not move it away. He leaned over to kiss her. They kissed each other with the wine glasses in their hands. He unzipped the back of the costume.

Later on, by the time they made it to the airport to catch their flight, the rumors were flying from earlier in the day that Richard Nixon had decided to resign his position as president of the United States. They sat in Kennedy Airport following the news like everyone else. An air of uncertainty lingered in the atmosphere as many people around them had conversations about what was going to happen to the country. John and Bunny felt good about their decision to leave and start a new life. For a moment, she was sad that she was leaving home for good. She was going to take everything she had learned from growing up as a native New Yorker and apply it to the rest of her life in Jamaica.

Celia had her hair pinned up with a white flower in the back. She wore an airy white slip dress, as the weather outside that evening was warm but breezy. There was not a cloud in the sky. John had on a white shirt and tan pants with sandals. Celia’s mother was dressed in her church whites. John’s mother and brother, along with his brother’s wife and kids,
were there. They had never had the opportunity to travel outside the Gulf area before. Mariana and the baby also joined them. Both John and Bunny wanted her to be there. Rose came in from New York, as Bunny’s maid of honor.

Rose was happy that Celia was happy, but on the inside she felt that her friend was making a mistake. Rose didn’t think that John was marriage material. She felt that he was poison to Celia, a bad influence. Rose would never tell Celia this, but she vowed to continue to support her friend in case she was needed.

Bunny’s father and her half siblings also joined her. John and Bunny’s father, Arthur Jones, appeared to be getting along just fine. Arthur walked her down the aisle. John’s associates came down from New York and Los Angeles. John paid everyone’s expenses to fly out and join them for the wedding. Bunny’s local Jamaican relatives attended.

That day was special. They were back at the Playboy Hotel in Ocho Rios. They rented the entire eight-hundred-foot beachfront for themselves and had the family celebration fully catered. This was their wedding day, and no one from either family wanted to miss it. Bunny found Karlus when she returned, and he agreed to officiate their ceremony. They wanted the traditional vows because their parents were in attendance. They had not known how the relatives would react to each other since this was the first time the entire family was getting together.

Agnes looked at John while the couple stood there in front of Karlus. She had not had the opportunity to spend a lot of
time with him. Agnes only knew what Celia had told her and what she had read about him in the papers or heard in the general gossip on the street. Some of the talks were not favorable; it mentioned his promiscuity. John reminded her of her ex-husband. Both were broad, handsome, fiery, arrogant, and full of swagger. Agnes thought to herself,
My God, she is marrying her father
.

Karlus read a Bible verse. He then blessed the rings, and the couple exchanged them. They said their traditional vows, and then Karlus read another prayer and they lit a unity candle. Once they finished, the officiant announced them, man and wife. He permitted John to kiss the bride. For the first time in his life, John felt sure of everything and knew that everything would be okay. He had lifted her veil before he kissed her. Everyone cheered and celebrated for the rest of the evening, and they all enjoyed the sunset.

John and Bunny broke away from the festivities. They had one more important part of the night to complete. They had another ceremony, just him, her, and a witness. The witness was his business partner from Chicago. John and Bunny pricked each other’s finger with a pin and held a picture at both ends with their pricked fingers. Blood from both of them spotted the edges of the photo. The snap was one of the pictures of the both of them taken with his old camera when she worked at the Playboy Club. The witness lit the picture with one of the candles on the side, and both of them held it as it burned.

John and Bunny spoke together. “If I betray you, may I burn as I do in the photo. If we betray each other, we will both perish.” They grasped the picture until they could not hold it anymore. The picture dropped to the ground between them, and they watched it burn in a small fire until it curled and then turned into ash.

John said to Bunny, “At ease, rude girl.” He kissed her as the smoke from the paper seeped up between them.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

W
riter Victoria Bolton lives in New York. A graduate of the College of Westchester, she works as a computer technician in schools and as a part-time actress. Bolton previously released the book
Looking for Mr. Potential
under the pen name La’Ketta T. Bolton in 2000.