The Apostles (12 page)

Grove took off his hat and said, “Sorry about your boyfriend. I'm glad that you got out the County before you had that baby. We'll see you in court, sweetie.”

“Fuck you!” she screamed. “Fuck you, motherfucker!”

Grove replaced his hat and rejoined his partner. Bing's girlfriend continued to scream, cry, and curse in the back of the ambulance.

“Aw, c'mon, Hardy,” Big Ant Hamilton said to a tall, dark-skinned corrections officer. “Man, I'm finta go home in a few months and you giving me a cellie. A young dude at that.”

Department of Corrections Officer Hardy looked at Big Ant with a smirk. He liked the husky youth. There had been days when Big Ant had his sides aching with laughter from his jokes; plus he seemed to have his head screwed on straight. That was why Hardy decided to let Shawn Terson bunk with him. The quiet, slim youth with the schoolboy looks was going to have enough problems on his hands already, without being unable to sleep comfortably at night for fear of booty-hole bandits.

“Sorry ‘bout this, Big Ant,” Officer Hardy said, “but you know that shit is going to get crowded as hell around here. We're almost at capacity now and summer is just starting.”

Big Ant agreed, “I know, I know.” He got up from the steel desk and began removing his personal items from the top bunk. He looked at Shawn. To him the boy looked rail thin with big, serious eyes. He stood quietly holding his toiletries.

“All right, Terson, step on in,” Hardy commanded. He really didn't know what to make of Shawn. The boy was silent, but he didn't seem to be afraid; more like he was anticipating and adjusting to his situation. Hardy knew that he would have to keep his eyes on the quiet boy, if for nothing else but to try to keep the dogs off him.

After Shawn stepped into the small cell, Officer Hardy clanged the heavy steel door shut. Whistling, he retreated to his station and his freshly confiscated issue of
Black Tail.
Shawn stood facing Big Ant in the small cell.

“What's your name, my man?” Big Ant asked as he took his seat at the desk again.

“Shawn.”

“Well, they call me Big Ant, little fella. I ain't gone act like I'm happy to have no roommate and shit. The last silly little stud I had for a cellie kept getting us set up for shakedowns with all the bullshit he was on. I told that little nigga to get hisself sent to another house or I was gone mop his ass. I can't be letting no dumb-ass stud jag off the little time I got left on my fuckin' bit, you dig. The last stud that was up in here before that didn't believe in taking no showers. You believe in taking showers, don't you?”

“Yeah,” Shawn said.

“Well, we off to a good start then, cat daddy. You ain't got to stand there holding yo shit. The top bunk is yours, take a load off. The top shelf is yours, too.”

Shawn walked over to the bunk and deposited his bedroll there. He placed his few toilet articles on the shelf and walked back over to the bunk and began making the bed. When he was through he turned to Big Ant.

“Any other rules?” Shawn asked.

Big Ant looked at him quizzically.

“I mean are there any other stipulations that I need to be aware of so that I can at least make our time together cordial?”

Big Ant laughed. “Nigga, yo little ass sound like you done swallowed a dictionary. That was a real mouthful. Nall, there ain't shit else, but if something come up then I'll let you know, you dig.”

Shawn turned and prepared to jump up on his bunk.

Big Ant said, “Oh, there is one more thing.”

Expectantly, Shawn turned. Big Ant jumped up from the desk and
came toward him. The older boy faked like he was going to steal on Shawn, but the younger boy didn't flinch. Big Ant backed off, laughing
. He sat down at the desk again. Shawn did not appear amused.

“What was that supposed to be?” Shawn asked stone-faced.

“Just checking yo nuts, little partner. No harm, no foul. You gone get tested in here. That's how this shit go. Shit, I remember when I was on the new. Cats be trying to take yo food, yo asshole, anything they feel they can take and get away with. How did you know that I wasn't going to hit you?”

Shawn turned back to the bed and jumped up on his bunk. “Ant, do you mind if I borrow one of your books?”

Big Ant chose Donald Goines's
White Man's Justice, Black Man's Grief
and tossed it up to Shawn. “That's a good book there, kid. All right, now tell me. How did you know I wasn't gone jaw you?”

Shawn caught the dog-eared novel and propped himself up on his pillow. He opened the novel. “It's simple really. You don't strike me as being a stupid dude.”

Shawn's answer ruffled Big Ant's feathers. “What the fuck you mean by that?”

“Calm down,” Shawn said in his usual dry monotone. He never took his eyes off the first page of the novel. “I meant that only an idiot would go out of his way to provoke his cellmate.”

Big Ant couldn't see the boy's face but he was already beginning to like his character. He felt it was his duty to hip the naive youngster to the ways of jail. “Well, I'm sorry to bust yo bubble, but this place is full of idiots. But you don't have to worry about that shit in this cell. Like I said, I'm out of here in a few months. I got a crazy weed connect from my Mexican buddy that was up in here wit me for two years. When I get out of here, I'm get rich wit the prices this stud done told me he'd give me the shit for.”

Shawn sat up on his bunk. He looked at Big Ant earnestly. “Mind if I ask you a question?”

The look on Shawn's face made Big Ant laugh. “Man, you's a
solemn little cat. That's what I'm gone call you—Solemn Shawn.

Yeah, go ahead, Solemn Shawn, ask me anything you want.”

“How do you survive in this place?”

Tilting his head, Big Ant gave the question some serious thought. Finally he said, “Most dudes would never ask a question like that. That's why so many of them come in here and jag they bits off. I would have to say there's a number of ways. You got to learn to go with the flow mostly. Like you gots to be hard but not too hard. You gots to be cool but not too cool. Just like everything else I learned about in life. If you don't take yo time then you gone be giving up time.

“Also you got to learn to mind yo own business. That don't seem like it'll be a problem for you. You got to learn to read situations and adapt to the shit that's going on around you, you dig. But even after that, I ain't gone lie to you, Solemn Shawn. Motherfuckas is still gone try you up in here. A lot these cats be selling wolf tickets though. Punks be having a little crowd around and try to get tough with you.

“Man, if that shit happen you better blast one of these studs out the water, you dig. If you don't they gone think you a poot-butt. I know you heard that shit they say about one chance to make a first impression.”

Solemn Shawn looked at Big Ant earnestly, as if he were committing his every word to memory. “Is there anybody in particular that I need to be on the lookout for?” he asked stoically.

This little motherfucker ain't no joke. I got to sneak into the files and see what he in for,
Big Ant thought.

“Nall, ain't nobody in particular. You got to watch out for all these studs. Don't trust nobody. I don't know how much time you got and I ain't ask, but my advice is not to even worry about returning to the world. You'll get there when you get there. It's natural to get homesick, but you can't let that shit fuck yo head up. You got to be watching yo ass twenty-four/sev, you dig?”

“I will,” Solemn Shawn replied as he reclined again and resumed reading.

“
HELLO
,”
VEE SAID INTO HIS CELL PHONE AS HE EXITED THE
Dan Ryan Expressway on 95th Street. He headed westbound on the large thoroughfare.

“Uh, hello,” a female voice said. “May I speak to Vee?”

“This is him. Who is this?”

The voice purred, “Oh, you don't remember a sister, huh? You always said that you would never forget me.”

Pulling the phone from his ear, Vee looked at the caller ID, but it read “No ID.” He put it back to his ear. “Shorty, I don't know who you is, but you sound sexy than a motherfucka. What's the deal, is you gone tell me yo name?”

“Damn, player. You got that many women that you don't know a sister's name. You kinda making me jealous. This is Sakawa.”

Vee almost dropped his cell phone. “Who did you say?”

A seductive sound that would have to be called a laugh escaped from Sakawa. “I said this is Sakawa James.”

“What you want?” Vee asked, his voice dripping with suspicion.

“Damn, Vee. Why you say it like that?”

“‘Cause the last time I called you, you japped out on me and shit. Told me not to ever call yo fuckin’ house again.”

Sakawa apologized. “I'm sorry ‘bout that. It's just that I had a lot of shit on my mind at the time, you know. But if I'm bothering you…” Her words trailed off.

“Nall, it's cool,” Vee said hurriedly, afraid that she might
hang up. He heard only silence on the other end, so he said.

“Sakawa?”

“Yeah, I'm still here.”

“I thought you hung up on a nigga again, shorty. What you up to?”

Sakawa sighed. “Nothing heavy. Really, I was just laying back at the crib all by myself and I got to thinking about the old times we had.”

Vee wasn't lured in so easily. “What old times, girl? You stopped fuckin' wit yo boy over some bullshit. You ain't even give a nigga a chance to get back, you know what I'm sayin'.”

“Vee, you need to stop bullshitting yo'self. ‘Cause you shole ain't bullshitting me. I caught you up in the party with a nasty, baldheaded, ran-over-shoe-wearing hood booger. What was I s'posed to do. I couldn't have my man going out like that. How do you think that make me look?”

Vee conceded. “Yeah, you is right, shorty. I was trying to hit, shorty. It was only ‘cause you wadn't gone give me none.”

“How did you know what I was gone do? I was gone give you some that night. I was gone let you take my virginity, but you fucked that up. I come up in the party and you hugged all up with a hoodie-hood.”

“You was a virgin?” Vee asked incredulously. “Stop playing.”

“I was,” Sakawa assured him.

Vee banged the steering wheel with the palm of his driving hand. He took the cell phone's mouthpiece away from his lips and mouthed the word “fuck.” He decided to test the waters with Sakawa. “So what's up now, shorty?”

Sakawa wouldn't bite. “What you mean by that?”

“Are you still fuckin' wit that nigga Wayne?” Vee asked as he steeled himself for a sharp-tongued reply.

It never came.

Sakawa said, “I don't fuck with Wayne no mo'. That nigga ain't gangster enough for a bitch like me.”

Vee had to chuckle to himself at her answer. He said, “I always did wonder what you saw in that soft-ass nigga. But anyway, like I said, what is you doing right now?”

“Like I said. Nothing. Just laying back at the crib and I got to feeling like I wanted to holla at somebody, you know.”

Vee licked his lips. His voice lowered an octave. “What you got on?”

“You get straight down to it?” Sakawa asked seductively. “Well, I wasn't on nothing, so I really ain't got on nothing.”

“What you mean by ‘ain't got on nothing'?”

“I mean a baby T and some thongs. Nothing exotic like thigh-high stockings and high heels, though I do have some of them.”

“Um-um,” Vee muttered.

“What you mean by ‘um-um’?” Sakawa asked coyly.

“Nothing. It's cool. When can I see you in them thongs, shorty?”

“One day. If you act right,” she said.

“What you mean if I act right?”

“I mean if, and only if, I decide to give you another chance. To get another chance I need to know that you gone act right, Vee.”

The call waiting signal on Vee's celly clicked in his ear. “Sakawa, give me a second to clear this other line.” He clicked over to his other line. “What's up?”