Blind Fold, page 9
“Okay, I have a towel. I’m going to open the door and wrap you in it,” Nichelle said, opening the shower doors, turning off the water.
Yasmine Tamagotchi, a petite woman with two long braids hanging down each side of her face, looked tired. The odd hue to her skin indicated an organ failing in her small body. Nichelle knew the look well, since she’d seen it in her Aunt, and also in her own face the night One Way saved her life. Her Aunt’s heart had given out and the night she met One Way, it felt as if hers had as well.
This was her chance to repay his kindness, by helping with his mother. She led her to the bed, where One Way had laid out a change of clothing. It didn’t faze Nichelle one bit to help the woman dry and get dressed. As she sat on the floor in front of her, slathering the rough soles of Yasmine’s feet with petroleum jelly that looked as if they’d gone several winters without proper care, she looked up and offered his mother a smile. Yasmine wasn’t smiling back.
“Are you his woman?”
“Me...and your son? No,” she said, slipping on a sock to the right foot.
“Has he stuck his dick in you yet?”
Nichelle furrowed her brow as she looked up at his mother, not answering the question, but continuing to slather the left foot with the jelly. Yasmine flexed her foot, pulling it away from Nichelle making her look up again. She still wasn’t smiling. She was staring at Nichelle in the same manner as One Way often did, like she was reading the innards of her soul.
“So, the answer is no,” Yasmine said, “that makes you, his woman.”
Nichelle didn’t show any outward expression as she spoke, “wouldn’t the opposite make that a true statement?”
“No, not in his case,” Yasmine said. “If he had no intentions of making you permanent, he would have done the do and sent you packing. You’re here, helping me. I’ve only met two other women in his life. One was his prom date. The second was one of the girls on the UT Cheer Team with him. The third one is you. You’re his woman.”
“I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate you sharing so much with me,” Nichelle said, trying to ease away from the subject.
“Why? If you’re here, he trusts you. If he trusts you, then that says a lot,” Yasmine told her cocking her head to the side. “He doesn’t trust many people and he operates with a great deal of meticulous caution, especially when it comes to intimacy. I’m sure he’s fed you some line that he’s celibate as he completes his journey to understand the purpose given unto him by the Lord. Then right when you’re comfortable with him, he’ll make his move. Make it seem like it’s your fault for tempting him with your womanly wiles and he can’t stand for one more minute not having you.”
Nichelle found herself laughing aloud. “You have quite the imagination. Do you have any chicken broth in the house, maybe some potatoes that I can make to get a bit of food on your stomach?”
“Changing the subject heh? It’s fine. It’s fine,” she said getting up and walking towards the living room to spot Cool Guy. Her eyes grew wide as she stared at the boy then she frowned at her only child. “Uri. If you tell me that is my grandson, and I’m just now meeting him, I will find the strength to knock the Asian off of you.”
One Way attempted a brave face as he spoke to the woman who meant the world to him. “I see you’re feeling well enough to come put everyone on the spot,” he said, moving to help his mother to the couch.
“No, I still feel like a soggy shit sandwich, but is that my grandson and you’re only telling me because I’m dying and can’t ruin him,” she said.
Cool Guy took the cue, “I’m not your grandson, but I’m okay with you ruining me. I heard you bake cookies. I like to eat cookies, so this just may work out for us both.”
The boy offered her a large grin which got cut short by Yasmine giving him, “the look.” Every child, no matter what age knew “the look” and what it meant. In the grocery store, “the look” meant don’t pick up nothing and don’t ask for nothing. Cool Guy leaned back in the chair, looking down at his feet.
“What do you mean, this just may work out for both of us Young Man? From where I’m sitting, I can’t see what you have to bring to the table that would work out for me,” Yasmine challenged.
Unfazed, Cool Guy, still looking down at the hot red shoe laces against the stark white shoes added, “you want to know what it’s like to be a grandmother before you know...you go. I don’t have a grandmother, so I don’t know what it’s like to be ruined, baked cookies, and given warm, loving hugs by a MeeMaw. I say we form a partnership. You get to tell everyone I’m your grandson and fuss over me, and give me kisses that I’ll pretend like I don’t want, and I’ll get all red in the face, saying stuff like, cut it out Grandma, you’re messing with my cool guy image.”
Yasmine’s eyes went to the silly tee shirt which actually read Cool Guy. For months, the discomfort of the cancer had almost taken everything from her including reasons to smile. Today, a warmth returned to the center of her chest, causing her heart to beat a wee bit faster. Next, she actually laughed aloud.
“Okay,” Yasmine said. “I’m a little weak right now, but once I get some strength back in me, I’ll make you some cookies. In the meantime, I’m waiting for my son to tell me who you are and why you’re here with him.”
“I came to help,” Nichelle said quickly. “Your son did me a favor and I’m repaying his kindness.”
Yasmine’s deep brown eyes went from her son, back to the woman and then to the kid. She knew her own child well enough to know there was so much more involved. She also knew, from the way he looked at her each time she walked past him, that he wanted her for his own. They needed alone time without the boy to figure out what was next.
“So, Uri, what’s your plan?”
“Mom, I want to gather a few things and take you home with me...I mean us,” he said. “Nichelle has agreed to stay on to help me with your care.”
“Mhmmm, and where is Nichelle going to sleep if the boy is in your office and I’m in the guest room? I’m not staying under your roof while you sin,” she said with pursed lips.
“No Mom, Nichelle will take the couch.”
“No Nichelle won’t,” Yasmie said, trying to stand but felt faint. One Way moved quickly, standing next to his mother, offering support. “I’m not going up into the woods to fight off the skeeters and buy food from a corner cabin where the entire staff uses the word ya’ll as a verb.”
Cool Guy asked, “how do you conjugate Ya’ll into a verb?”
“Easy, they started hee-hawing and chee-chawing, then cousin Ed, Bubba, June Bug and Jimmy Earl start ya’lling all over the place,” Yasmine said, laughing at her own words. “I have four bedrooms here. There are stores with fresh vegetables and fruits. We have four parks nearby and that little boy in back of me, his name is Yakob, he spends most of his time in the back yard being weird. He could use a friend. Cool Guy...go into the back yard, and go towards the fence, say Hey Yakob, and introduce yourself.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. If Yakob wants to go bike riding, you can grab one from the garage and have him show you around,” she said, pointing towards the back door. Yasmine didn’t speak as the boy walked past her, heading towards the kitchen. She waited until he was outside before she turned to her son. “Enough with the bullshit, who is this woman and child, what did you do for her to make her want to come and take care of your dying mother? Don’t leave anything out?”
The bowl of broth was brought to the table and One Way assisted his mother to take a seat. In between spoonful of warm broth, dotted with soggy oyster crackers floating in the soup, she listened. At the end of the whole tale, Yasmine checked the back door for the boy.
“I’m not dying up there in the woods, as well meaning as your intentions are, they don’t work for me,” she told him. “You two, go get the clothes for the boy and Nichelle. Bring back any food too and we’re staying here.”
“Mom, it would be best if you came home with me,” he emphasized.
“No, I’m staying in the comfort of my own home, and the comfort of my own bed,” she told him. “I have sidewalks, and I can’t drive anymore. Nichelle can have access to my vehicle if she needs to run to the Publix to pick up scripts, or juice, or eggs. It makes more sense. We’re staying here. Now, call the boy in to stay with me while you two go work out this tension between you.”
One Way frowned as he asked, “What tension Mom?”
“The tension of you wanting this woman so bad you can’t keep your eyes off of her; that tension. It’s so thick in this room I can cut it with this spoon,” she said holding it up. “Leave the boy, go handle your business so you can figure out how you’re going to deal with what’s coming next.”
“Mom, we don’t know what’s coming next,” One Way stated.
“Exactly my point. I sure as hell don’t want to be locked in my own damn house with two sexually frustrated people who ain’t got enough sense to rub against each other until the tension goes away,” she said. “Go, get your stuff...literally and figuratively.”
Nichelle blushed so hard that even under her dark skin tone, one could see the blush in her cheeks. “Ms. Yasmine, your son and I are friends. Nothing more.”
“Mhmmm, my son doesn’t look at you like he wants to be friends. He looks at you like he wants to stick his dick in you to see if you like how he works it,” Yasmine said, and burst into laughter.
“Mom! Really!”
“I ain’t saying nothing that ain’t true,” Yasmine said. “Go let that smart ass little boy know where you’re going and that he has Grandma duty until you get back. And tell him no, that weird ass Yakob ain’t coming in my house.”
“Yes Ma’am,” One Way said, going to the back door. Leave it to his mother to give him an opportunity to take care of what he truly wanted. Nichelle in his arms and under him, and his mother not to die alone while he was out killing a bastard. Suddenly, he thought of Mr. Merge. If shit got too bad, he’d make the call. It wasn’t his first course of action, but the thought had crossed his mind, more than once.
“First things first, clothes, food, I’m benched so no work for a minute, and I’m going to be alone in my house with Nichelle,” he said, taking a deep breath. “I can do this. I can do this. I’m a better man. I’m a good man.”
All it took was five minutes alone with the woman and he realized he wasn’t a good man. The only thing he could think about was pulling over to rest stop and sticking his dick in her until she made noises like a squeak toy. By the time they made it to the house, the tension had grown so thick between them, he almost didn’t go inside of his own home.
But the idea of making her squeak was entirely too much for his mind to bear.
Chapter Nine - Collapse
The blood seeped out of the hole in his thigh. A slow trickle of red life juice that soaked into his cloth seats. The belt, cinched around his thigh slowed the pumping of the warm liquid, but I he took much longer to get help, he wasn’t going to make it. His mind filled with all sorts of thoughts but the primary one was to live and come back and get that fucker for putting a hole in his leg.
“Ouch, ouch, and ouch,” Rami Slanecki cried out as he pulled into the back of the veterinarian’s office.
Dr. Elden Thomas ran a side hustle dealing meth, molly and most stuff that either got a body high or got a body dead. The Glitter Man had done him several solids in removing a few bodies that had ceased to breath after taking too much if his product behind the building. He was only twenty minutes from Warne, North Carolina, and he made it in record time.
He called the Doc who also lived in the attached home next to the Vet’s office. Elden came running out to help Rami into a patient room. His body slumped and the imminent collapse was coming, but he needed to stay awake. He needed the pain.
“Rami, let me give you something for the pain while I remove the bullet,” Elden said.
“No. No mind-altering drugs. I need to feel the pain. The pain fuels me,” Rami said, leaning back into the chair.
On the cold, metal table where a dog had more than likely shitted everywhere, he lay back. Is mind raced from one end of possibility to another. In some ways, it felt good to know his instincts had been right, Wrong Way, the Cleaner for the Southeast Construction Crew, and the woman who broke his heart and stole his business idea, had come to Blairsville for the Apex.
“A former lover?” He asked aloud.
“I don’t know,” Elden said.
“Bitch, I’m not talking to you! Fix my leg so I can get out here. The entire place smells like dog shit and cat piss,” Rami said.
“If you weren’t doing illegal shit, you could go to a real hospital, so this is what you deserve,” Elden said, wishing he’d take back the words.
Rami didn’t speak as he worked out the plan in his mind of how he would repay the Apex for hurting him. The other man in the diner, he pondered, had he too been waiting for him. Zeke. She called him Zeke. A code name? A handle? Short for Ezekiel?
“Shit that hurts like a son of a bitch,” Rami cried out as the sound of the metal bullet fragment clanked in the dish.
“Okay, I got the bullet out, but man, this is really gonna take a while to heal. The femur is chipped in several places. Lucky for you it didn’t completely shatter, but you’re going to be off your feet for a month or two,” Elden said. “Whoever shot you, must have intended as much. The shot is pretty precise to have missed the femoral artery.”
“I thought the same thing,” Rami answered. “He shot from one direction but was fifty feet from me when he spoke.”
“You think he’s a professional? Hell, he’d have to be to make this shot and you not bleed out,” Elden replied. “Rami, what are you mixed up in now?”
“Just trying to find some answers. The more questions I ask, the closer I get the rougher it’s becoming,” he said. “I see the puppets but I don’t know who’s pulling the strings.”
“The only way to find out why the dog keeps getting sick is to follow it around and see what he’s eating, drinking and getting into,” Elden said. “Once you know the stomach issues are related to the water supply, you can cut off the water.”
Rami blinked several times looking at the man. “In your own fucked up way of talking to people who kiss their dogs on the mouth, that actually made sense,” he said.
“Yeah, you should try having an adult conversation with people who have a change a clothing each day for the cats,” Elden stated, “when I can get through to those people, I can get through to anyone. Now I’m curious too. Who do you think is pulling the strings, because obviously, whoever shot you wasn’t given an order to kill you?”
“Yep, he pretty much said so,” Rami said. “He said next time he would. I’m not giving him a next time. It was black as sin out in those woods. I had on night vision goggles and he the place was booby trapped. Trip lines everywhere and still he was fifty feet away. I’m getting the willies just thinking about it.”
“Sounds like you need to heed his advice and stay the hell away from these people.”
“These people are ruining our country!” Rami yelled. “A handful of idiots with connections believe they have the right to tell other people how to live. These people, I’m sure of, hid my wife and daughter from me. My brother-in-law had me committed to the crazy house for five years! Five, long, listening to screams in the middle of the night years! Pretending to be under the influence of a drugs while I watched orderlies do the unthinkable to mentally ill women. I fixed them all. I fixed them and will fix these fucking technicians.”
“Oh, okay then,” Elden said. “Let me patch you up and get you on your way Rami.”
“Elden, thanks,” Rami said as he pulled out his weapon, still loaded with the silencer and aimed it at the man’s head. The second the bandage was tightened, Rami pulled the trigger.
“I’ve never liked you,” Rami said, taking the time to wipe away any traces that he’d been there. Unfortunately, the rose gold glitter that he used as a calling card was always stuck to his skin or clothing. Basic movement made it fall to the floor and cling to surfaces.
It would be the start of the end for him. However, he had time to lie in bed as he healed. He had time to think. He had time to research. More importantly, he had time to plan.
“Some one is going to give me answers or someone is going to die,” he said, covering the bloody seat with blankets he’d taken from Elden’s office. He needed to head home.
Chapter Ten - Gather
Uriel Tamagotchi stood on his back deck, listening to the babble of the water over the rocks in Cosby Creek. To him, the status of the rocks was a metaphor to his relationship with women. Day after day, year after year, the slow-moving water rolled over the rocks in the bed, non-aggressively, smoothing the stones from the constancy of the movement of liquid. An unseen change happened in the creek bed, as rocks which were once jagged over time becoming smooth, giving in to create the path of least resistance. He guessed it was easier that way, to just give in, and allow the water to wash over him, changing him incrementally.
“I’m a weapon. A well-trained weapon,” he said softly into the night.
Lately, the edge on the weapon had dulled, and like the stones in the creek, incrementally, the water was altering him. He tried to gather these thoughts and figure out the best for all involved, but at this point, the frustration and start of his grief was taking hold. He’d spent half a million on chemo, treatments and specialized hospital stays to give his mother every fighting chance. And then, she looked him in the eye on Sunday and said no more.
Yasmine said no to the chemotherapy.
She said no to the specialized stays at cancer treatment centers.
Before, it had all worked beautifully sending the cancer into remission. Twelve months ago, it came back with a vengeance, eating away at what little resistance she had left. It had spread to her liver and now it was only a matter of months, maybe even weeks before the invasive parasite took over her organs and shut down her life force. His mother was dying and there was nothing he could do to help or save her life. He had to move forward with what little time he had left and stave off the loneliness as he tried to face the obvious. The other obvious stared at his back through the kitchen door.
