Street Pharm (12 page)

I dialed room service. “Burger and fries, please. And a Caesar salad and Coke.”

Then I called Sonny.

“Ty! I thought you was all shot up, lying in a ditch somewhere!”

“Don’t be joking like that, Sonny.”

“I ain’t joking! Where the hell did you go?”

“I went to the Dunsmore and fell asleep. Got into a fight with Mom. Po-po trashed the crib. And they told her you and me is tight.”

“Shit!”

“Tell me about it. Anyway, they kept me at the station all night. Grilled me. It ain’t you they wanted, Sonny, it’s me. Come over in an hour. We’ll talk.”

“Good. I’ll tell Jones and Menendez to come too. They
been bugging all day, but they didn’t wanna meet without you there.”

“Who’d you talk to?”

“Menendez.”

“How’d he sound?”

“Worried. He heard we got picked up.”

“Did he mention K-Ron?”

“No. But I bet they put it together.”

“Tell him they can show up between eight and nine. Room 42. You be here at seven.”

“A’ight.”

I hung up and switched on CNN. Soon the headline crossed the bottom of the screen.
Rap star K-Ron charged with possession of narcotics.
I flicked to CBS-2 and Fox 5, and caught the tail end of a couple of reports about K-Ron. They had the same information: that cocaine was found in his trunk, and that the arraignment would be early next week.

Room service came quick, and I stuffed a tip into the guy’s hand. I ate fast, stopping only for a few sips of Coke to make it go down smooth.

By the time Sonny showed up, I was showered and awake.

Sonny threw his coat over a chair. “The hell happened last night, son? I can’t believe they kept you there all damn night!”

My cell rang. “One sec, Sonny. I gotta take this.” I answered the phone. “Hey, Mom.”

“Ty, sweetie, where you at? Come home, we need to talk. Have you eaten yet?”

“Chill, Mom. I ain’t coming back just yet. Gimme a few days to think about things.”

“You ain’t at Sonny’s, are you?”

“There you go again, Mom.”

“I’m sorry, honey. I just—”

“Listen, I’ll call you soon. I’m staying at a friend’s and no, it ain’t Sonny.”

Sonny was watching me, smiling.

“Then who? Cheddar?”

“I’m not gonna tell you because I don’t want you coming over. Don’t worry, everything’s cool. Talk to you soon.”

“But—”

“Bye, Mom.”

Sonny smacked his knee. “Poor Georgina! First Orlando, then you. I’m surprised she didn’t murder you when she found out we was hanging together.”

“I’m glad there was no gun around. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, last night. They kept me waiting for two hours trying to make me sweat. Then this Detective Akindele grilled me like a
steak, but I stayed rare. I wasn’t gonna admit to picking my nose, much less hustling. They got nothing on me, so they had to let me go. Did you hear any more about K-Ron?”

“Just that he’s being arraigned on Monday.” He went to the minibar, unscrewed a little bottle, and swigged. “Guess you won’t be there to give moral support, huh?”

I grunted.

J
ones and Menendez showed up at eight. Sonny let them in.

“We heard you fellas got picked up last night.” Jones’s jacket hung open, his muscles tight under his wife-beater. “Rumor has it K-Ron fingered you as his connection. We want to know if that’s true.”

Sonny said, “Sorry, man, but we don’t name our customers.”

I shot Sonny a look, letting him know I’d handle this. He wasn’t sensing them like I was. “Yeah, we got picked up last night because K-Ron said we were his dealers. We supplied him in the past, but the stuff he was caught with wasn’t from us.”

“Then why’d he say so?” Menendez asked.

“Darkman must’ve been the one who supplied him,” I said. “He’s gotta be holding something big over K-Ron’s head to get him to rat us out.”

A vein popped out in Jones’s neck. “What the cops got on
you
?”

“Jack shit,” I said. “We’d still be locked up if they had anything on us. They won’t be pressing charges, and we won’t be needing no lawyer.”

“So you saying Kevin King is behind this?” Menendez stared at us. “Why haven’t you dusted him yet?”

I cleared my throat. “I’m taking care of it. You got nothing to worry about.”

Jones scoffed. “We been worried ever since this guy reared his ugly-ass head. You got a game plan in case you get charged?”

“Hearsay ain’t enough to charge us,” I said. “But even if it happened, you wouldn’t get sucked in. You know that, right?” I looked from one to the other.

They didn’t say nothing, but Menendez took a brown envelope from his briefcase. “We brought this just to make sure.”

I reached out to take the envelope, but he dropped it on the dresser instead. “No hurry. Have a look at it when we leave. And don’t take it the wrong way, man. It’s just—”

“Insurance,” Jones finished for him.

My hands curled into fists. I wasn’t gonna like what was in that envelope. “So, is this all you wanted to talk about?”

Menendez said, “Yeah. That’s all. We gotta go. We still got business tonight.”

They left fast. Sonny got to the envelope before I did. He tore it open. The first page was a picture of a girl getting into her car. The next was a closer picture of her. She didn’t seem to know the camera was there.

“What the
fuck
?” Sonny roared.

“Who’s the girl?” She looked kind of familiar.

“My sister.”

The next picture was of my mom behind the cash register at her job. She smiled for the camera, probably thinking the person taking the picture was a tourist.

She didn’t know the picture would be used to threaten her life.

Sonny smashed his hand on the table. “I’m’a snuff those motherfuckers for this!”

“We ain’t gonna touch them, and they ain’t gonna touch our families. They just warning us not to sell ’em out.”

“After all these years, they don’t trust us? And they pull this shit!”

“They bluffing. They know that if they touch our families Orlando will take ’em down. These pictures are telling us they in control.”

“So what, we supposed to forget they threatened our peeps?”

“They don’t want us to forget it. But they know we won’t do nothing stupid.”

“They fuck with my family, I get stupid.”

“With Darkman around, we gotta play it cool. We don’t need more enemies.”

Sonny waved a picture in my face. “Ain’t this telling us we enemies? Y’ever had a friend threaten your mama before?”

“Look, Sonny, they ain’t the worst we gotta deal with right now. As soon as Darkman is out of the picture, we’ll find new suppliers. For right now, it ain’t smart to change.”

“That’s fucked up!” He went over to a chair and plunked down. “Where’s Orlando when you need him?”

I didn’t answer. My eyes were still on the pictures. The way I saw it, a bond was broken. It was a bond of trust that had lasted from the time they worked with my dad until now.

The messed-up part was, they didn’t need to go and threaten us like that. We’d never sell them out. That was our code.

First K-Ron stabbed us in the back, now Jones and Menendez were threatening us. Maybe honor among thieves was bullshit.

I looked at Sonny. Would he sell me out if the price was right? If we both got charged one day, would he testify against me if it meant he could walk?

Could I blame him if he did? After all, if I got locked up I wouldn’t have as hard a time as most brothers since I was Orlando Johnson’s son. Sonny wouldn’t get the same protection.

But Sonny wasn’t my partner, hadn’t been my dad’s helper, because he was smart. He was with us because he was loyal.

That kind of loyalty was rare, especially in this business.

M
onday morning I came to school halfway through Earth Science class. Alyse glanced back at me, frowned, and looked away.

I could’ve used one of her sweet smiles this morning, but I didn’t blame her for being salty with me. I ran out on her Friday night and ditched her Saturday—not that Knicks tickets weren’t a hot consolation. I had to think up a good family emergency if she was ever gonna talk to me again.

And then there was Mom, who kept leaving messages telling me to come home. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I should stay away for now. It’s not just that Mom would be
constantly in my business. With all the Darkman shit going on, it was safer for her if I stayed away.

Sonny kept asking me why I still bothered going to school. Fact was, I didn’t know. Maybe I needed a break from the streets, or maybe it was to be around Alyse.

Hell, maybe it was because, for a few hours in the day, my life felt normal.

When class ended, I tried to catch Alyse, but Ms. Millons caught me first. Her blue eyes stared right through me. “Where were you? And before you answer, know that I intend to verify whatever you say.”

“I slept in. It ain’t an excuse, and I know that if it happens again I’ll be sent to the dean.”

I took the words right out of her mouth except, “You’re doing well in this class, Ty. I think you have a seventy-five. But you know what? You have an aptitude in this field and you could be getting nineties.”

“I like it.”

“You’re a very capable young man. You just have to decide how to use those capabilities.”

“How about for Earth Science?”

“Good answer.” She smiled, but her eyes didn’t trust me.

I didn’t trust me either.

I left the class, stopping when I heard my name.

Alyse was waiting for me. She hugged her books to her chest, looking so innocent.
Too innocent to be hanging out with me.

“I know you must be mad about Saturday night,” I said.

“Mad? Of course I’m not mad. I heard all about what happened. I know what you meant by ‘family emergency.’ Under the circumstances, I don’t blame you.”

I was blown away. “You know what happened?”

“It was all over the TV and the papers. Everyone’s been following the K-Ron story.”

“Wait, so you know . . . ”

“Yeah, I know he was caught with drugs. It’s so sad, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

She shifted her books into her left arm and took my hand. “It must’ve been hard for you seeing that happen to your friend.”

“Uh, yeah.” It took me a second to figure out what she was talking about. “His family was pretty broken up. I spent most of the weekend with them.”

“I knew you would.” She squeezed my hand, and I felt a stab of guilt.

I heard a security guard’s yells as he tried to clear the hallway. “I don’t want you to be late for class. Let me walk you.” I tugged on her hand.

We took a back stairway. Though we went fast, I couldn’t outrun her questions. “That was so good of you to be there for his family. Do you think they suspected he was doing drugs?”

“His family thinks he was set up.” Far as I knew, that was true. K-Ron’s mom said so on
Entertainment Tonight.

“How sad. K-Ron has everything he could possibly want, and he’s throwing it all away because of his addiction.”

I rolled my eyes. “Gimme a break. Any nigga would give his right arm to trade places with K-Ron.”

“Not
now,
I bet. It sounds like the charges are serious. Oops—this is my class.”

“If K-Ron’s lucky, he’ll get off with probation and rehab.”

“I hope so, for his sake and his family’s.”

Her sympathy for him made me sick, but I kept my cool, reminding myself that she didn’t know any better.

“You better hurry to class,” she said. “I’ll see you at lunch?”

“Sure.”

She held my hand a second longer. “I just want to say, K-Ron’s family is lucky to have your support.”

“Thanks.” But I wanted to puke.

T
hat night at nine, I knocked on Alyse’s door, half an hour late.

The door opened. Alyse pulled me inside, wrapped her arms around me, and kissed me. Her lips were irresistible.
Alyse
was irresistible.

“What a hello,” I said.

“I’ve been wanting to do that all day.”

I smiled down at her. “Then why didn’t you?”

“Maybe I’m afraid for my safety.”

“What do you mean?”

“C’mon, you know all the girls at school would love to get with
you.” She touched the diamond stud in my ear. “I don’t want to show off the fact that we’re together.”

All I could think was,
We’re together? Are we together?
I felt good and panicked at the same time.

“Sorry I’m late. I got caught in the rain and had to go back and change.”

“No problem. What do you say we do an hour of work, then chill for a little while? I’ve had a long day; bet you have too. Tomorrow night we’ll get together earlier, say six, and finish the rest. If we don’t have it done by Wednesday, Amullo’s going to take off ten percent.”

In the next hour we got a lot done. Alyse usually took charge when we worked on the project, but today she seemed out of it, and wanted me to make the decisions.

Later we closed up the books and went to the couch. Alyse curled into my side. I was gonna turn the TV on when she reached up and stopped me.

“No TV?”

“Not now.”

“You okay, honey? You look tired.”

She nodded against my side. “I am.”

“You want me to go?”

“Not yet,” she mumbled.

I stroked her hair. I didn’t say nothing because I didn’t think she wanted me to. Maybe she needed a few minutes of quiet. I was cool with that.

Suddenly she made a hiccuping noise. I looked down and saw her wiping her eyes.

“What’s going on, boo?”

She pulled away from me. “N-nothing.”

What was wrong with her? What was I supposed to do?

“Shh, don’t cry.” I pulled her against me, and let her cry against my chest. “Well, if you wanna cry, that’s okay.”

After a couple of minutes, she stopped. She got up, cleaned herself up in the bathroom, and came back.

“Ty, I’m sorry. I didn’t want that to happen. When I’m tired, I sometimes get emotional.”

It was more than being tired, I could tell. “You can cry all you want, I don’t care about that.” I smoothed her hair back from her forehead. “But I wanna know why.”