Lost Boy, page 15
He didn’t walk to driver’s side and get in like normal muthafuckas, instead he right past Jabari and straight to the trunk. He tried lifting it open when he couldn’t get it up, he shook his head and smiled.
Then his demeanor changed, he crawled into the passenger side grinning. “Hey, what’s up, dude? Ain’t seen you in years. What brings you to the sticks?”
Jabari reached over, dapped him up and they hugged. “Good to see you too.” Jabari got straight to the point. “Man, I need you...”
Double D pulled back towards the door and looked at Jabari oddly. “Need me, what...what do you mean?”
“Man, I ain’t no goddamned faggot!” Jabari blurted catching on to his hint.
Double D sighed. “I didn’t mean to say, or imply, anything like that. I mean you and me cool, whatever...”
“I’m on the fuckin’ run, I need a place to duck for a few weeks,” Jabari explained.
Double D took the cap he was wearing off his head and rubbed the beads of sweat into his already shined skin. It was starting to get humid and he insisted on keeping the windows up. he looked down, then back up at Jabari, all the while shaking his head. It looked more like a nervous tic than anything else.
“I don’t know about that dude. I mean, I got a lot of shit going on. Shit, you may not want to be involved with...” He jammed the cap back on his head and dipped into the seat when he saw a state trooper drive by. “They...slowin’...down!”
Jabari looked up the road and the car had jumped on the rampway going North, paying us no mind. “Naw, what the fuck is going on? You in some sort of trouble?”
He eased back up and said, “Look, man, I’ma be real. You always been real with me, so I’ma give it to you straight.”
Jabari moved in closer. “Okay, what’s up?”
“I got this bad cold.” Double D faked coughed. “I need to get some medication, quick. Follow me to the drug store, and help me out, then...I’ll tell you more afterward.”
Jabari looked at that muthafucka like he was fuckin’ crazy. “Why can’t you pick up your own shit?” Jabari grabbed him by his shirt. “You better let me know what’s up!”
Double D pushed Jabari away. “Said I was sick.”
“You ain’t got that shit, do you?”
“Shit...noooo, I ain’t got the virus.” Double D looked at his hands, then rubbed around his mouth. A thick brownish plague was built up right about the gums, and his teeth looked bad, real bad.
‘Damn,’ Jabari thought knowing exactly what his problem was. “Oh, hell you on that fuckin’ shit!”
“What!”
“That fuckin’ meth, damn, D...your moms was right.”
“Fuck her...that bitch! She don’t want to help me none. Don’t need her!” Double D reached for the door handle. “And if you don’t wanna help he...” He turned off. “I don’t need you, either.”
Jabari felt like Double D had put him in a bad spot, just that damn quick. Here it was he needed a place to hide out, to be real low-key for a minute, and Jabari had gotten up with a fuckin’ junkie. This didn’t look good at all, but he needed a place, bad. He didn’t have a choice.
“A’ight, where’s the drug store? And you...you got any money?”
Double D peeped his head back into the window after he got out. “Money?” he snickered. “We don’t need no fuckin’ money!” He jumped back in his truck and sped off, with Jabari right behind him.
They pulled in front of an Eckerd's somewhere downtown. It stood off from the main road and if the sign wasn’t there, you’d miss it every time. Jabari followed Double D into the parking lot, and he angled his truck outwards facing the back entrance of the parking lot. Jabari did the same, somehow, he knew to expect something crazy, so he stayed alert.
Double D got out and walked over to the car and bent over inside of the window. “Alright, I’ma go inside with you and show you where the stuff I need is at...”
“Why don’t you just go in and buy what you need?” Jabari knew there was some bullshit in the mix, but he wanted to hear it from Double D’s own mouth. Double D thought he was just going to use Jabari as a crash dummy or something.
‘Naw he got life fucked up,’ Jabari thought. Jabari knew he’d have to bring Double D’s ass back to reality real quick.
Double D looked at Jabari all crazy. “Hey, dude you gonna help me or what? I told you I needed some...”
“Fuck what you told me, D, fuck that! Now you either tell me what’s going down or I can leave your dumb ass out here to fiend, looking stupid. Fuck it, so, what is it, cause you wasting my goddamned time!”
A smile grew across Double D’s face as he looked up at the doorway of the green, stuccoed building, then twisted his hat around his big peanut-ass head. The freckles on his face were dulled pink from whatever dope he was doing, but still, he was that same reefer smoking lil’ ole white boy from back in the day.
“Okay...okay, you got that. Same old, Jabari!” Double D took a deep breath and said, “I need the Sudafeds...a lot of them. The last time I was in there, I almost got busted and I had to run off. I need you to throw them...keep their eyes on you.”
“Won’t they watch you? Hell, you was the one who tried to get...”
“To be honest, they gonna watch you simply cause you’re black. It is what it is!”
Jabari shook his head, knowing Double D was right. “Okay, so once they zoom in on me, you just grab a couple and dip, right?”
“Something like that, but we have to play it by ear. If it ain’t all good, then pull back, we can go somewhere else.”
That somewhere else shit wasn’t working for Jabari, he really wasn’t feeling that. This was where it was going down, he didn’t give a fuck about no place else.
Jabari got out of the car and walked through the door, and sure enough, all were on him. Immediately a small, petite, blonde white girl approached him.
“Sir, can I help you?” she asked.
Jabari looked at her and almost laughed, knowing that in the back of her mind she was really saying. ‘Can I help you out the front door?’
“I’m uh...looking for some medicine,” Jabari lied, then sniffled like he had a sinus problem. His eyes were already tearing up from the cold ass A-C that pumped throughout the place, and had the chick’s nipples hard as hell, but more so because he needed a good pill fix.
She directed Jabari t the back of the store to the Pharmacy and the shelf was sitting right behind the counter, with nothing but sinus pills.
“So, far so good,” Jabari said to himself.
He didn’t know exactly what he wanted so he stood there looking stupid. Then he heard the door open up front and there he was, Double D. The old grey-haired white man standing at the counter turned his attention towards him and started for the phone.
Jabari couldn’t let that happen, so he said, “What are those?”
The guy at the counter put the receiver down and turned toward the shelf. “Which ones?”
“Them.” Jabari pointed.
“Which ones, son?” He turned around and pointed at Jabari. “Look, boy, don’t play no games! Now which one you want?”
“I really don’t know, something for sinus...”
“Oh hell, no, tell you what. Why don’t you just come back later when you got it all figured out.”
Jabari knew what that meant. He’d have the police waiting for his dumb ass if he did return. In this old hick town, an ass whipping was probably the norm.
On cue Double D, stepped between them and said, “Hold up, what kind of symptoms you got?”
“Runny nose...eyes are teary!” Jabari said.
He pointed toward a lime green box that read. “Sudafed’s, that’s what you need.”
Jabari played it off, then smiled. “Thanks!” He told Double D.
The old man kept staring at Double D. he wouldn’t let up, hen finally, “Ain’t you that boy that was here the other day? The one we ran off? Yeah, you’re him!” He went for the phone and yelled up front. “Joan, lock the door, that boy done come back! I’ma call the goddamned police, this time I got your ass!”
He thought he had Double D, but he wasn’t even worried, Double D didn’t blink an eye. Jabari, however, was ready to haul ass, but he stayed cool. I hope this muthafucka didn’t have a gun, then it really was gonna hit the fan.
Instead, he walked towards the door and said, “Alright, alright, I’m going!”
The old white man was right behind him, taking all eyes off me. When they got out of view, Jabari jumped across the counter and snatched up two cases. He didn’t know how much he needed, but this would have to do, for now. Jabari eased back around the side in another aisle and waited for the old man to get the fuck out of the way, then he’d haul ass to the car. Someone tapped him from behind, scaring the shit out of him. That was the same old white girl from earlier, he was busted.
She snickered at the look on his face, then pointed towards the stock room. “Go in there.”
Jabari obeyed, the girl was right behind him and opened up a back door that led to the alley and let Jabari out. Jabari crept around the backside and waited until Double D finished showing out and got in his truck and sped off. Everyone out front finally walked back into the store with the old man pulling up the rear, talking shit, and silently unnoticed, Jabari got into his car and dipped. He didn’t know where the hell he was going, so, he went down a side road that was flooded with trees and that’s when he saw Double D’s truck.
Double D pulled up next to Jabari and smiled. “Follow me!”
“Hey...what about the girl there, she won’t say anything?”
“Yeah.” He laughed. “How ‘bout I suck your dick.”
“What!”
“Trust me, you’ll see that whore later...trust me!”
Jabari dumped the cases in the backseat and followed Double Dd out of town down a long winding road and thought about what he’d said about the girl.
“Yeah, that would be nice,” Jabari said to himself.
A week had gone by and everything between Jabari and Double D was straight. Double D shared a double-wide trailer with a couple of dudes he quote-unquote, worked with, at least that’s what he told Jabari. One of the dude’s name was Smoak and Jabari thought his ass was crazy. He stood a little shorter than Jabari at about five-eight or so. He had long arms and sandy-blonde, scraggly hair with sad, sagging, bright blue eyes that made him look like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. He was a character, he had this wide ass smile that was inviting, but had a couple of teeth missing and some chipped up, mostly from fighting according to what he’d told Jabari. To Jabari, it looked like he stayed on the losing end.
Jabari often wondered why a guy that didn’t seem to pose a threat would be fighting all the time? That was what threw Jabari off, but it wasn’t long after that, that Jabari discovered the real truth. His M-O was popping and drinking moonshine, what a hellufied combination, it all made sense to Jabari after that. He stayed fucked up daily. Jabari had only seen him sober once or twice since he’d met the man. On the days he was sober Jabari would go hunting himself to find something for him to drink. Smoak suffered from manic depression and he was more manic than depressed. Jabari thought he was a borderline serial killer in the making, at best.
Double D and the other guys along with Jabari kept his crazy ass high, and of course away from any guns, but ironically Jabari later discovered that Smoak had the IQ of a genius. He’d sit down-high and would read books on Neuroscience. Then want to discuss what he’d read with Jabari of all people and debate about it.
‘A goddamned junkie, now ain’t that some shit?’ Jabari often thought.
The other guy that lived there was a real old-school dude named Jason. He was a short, pink, white dude that talked real muthafucking fast and kept his eyes locked on yours when he spoke. If you looked off, he’d feel some sort of way about it. He did a total thirty-years in and out of prisons starting with Juvenile-DJJ, then eventually the CCI, Allendale, Lieber, Lee and all of the other compounds that State called institutions. If you stood around listening to him long enough, you found out that he had these crazy conspiracy theories about incarceration in South Carolina that was half-decent.
He had to get to know before interacting with him because he had a bad taste in his mouth for black folks. The ones who worked hard and did good and went to church were considered the good black folk in his eyes. Then there were the ones who sold crack, robbed white people, and made that goddamned nigga music crap that he hated. He called them niggers, and the ones like Obama and General Polin were considered African-American. This made Jabari keep his distance, he didn’t want to be caught up in that racist ass shit.
Things got better though, one night when Jabari was feining for some pills. The man copped him half of bag full of Adams. He laughed like a baby as he watched Jabari choke them down like candy. He told Jabari niggers were easy to manipulate, he said pretty soon they’d be one for twoing their own shit. Jabari didn’t really get that at first until he started jonesing for more and he made Jabari work for it. The best thing about the place as far as Jabari was concerned was that it wasn’t too much traffic in and out.
Double D lived about a half mile off the main road. It was off of I-95 going into Walterboro, road 64, coming off of Savannah Highway out of Charleston and the subtle backwoods area they drove to was called Round O. When Double D and Jabari came from the store that day wit the case of Sudafeds Jabari had stolen. Double D had Jabari follow him on that, long ass, two-lane road until they got to his turn-off.
The first thing that hit Jabari’s nose was the smell of old, stinky ass socks. He thought Double D might have been raising hogs or something. It made Jabari think back to the times when his old man used to take him and his sister out to the country. The smell seemed the same, just harder and raunchy. Jabari remembered that he and his sister would run around barefoot, chasing chickens, then every once and while his dad would come across a rattlesnake. He’d kill it and cut the rattle off, then chase him and sister around the yard. It sounds crazy, but those were the good days, Jabari was glad those days and hopefully, his days of encountering snakes were long gone.
Reality set in the minute they came to a clearing and Jabari saw the double-wide trailer on concrete footing in the front and brand-new fucking pick up trucks in the yard. There were no signs of chickens at all. Off to the side-chained up were two big-ass pit bulls that stared at Jabari when he got out of the car like they were starving Africans in a McDonalds. On other side was a barn with two dudes posted up out front.
One had a .45 on his side. There were a couple of cars parked in the front. They were all new models, Beamers, and a 300 Chrysler. To the left of the trailer was another driveway with a car trailer next to it. On the side was a nice supped-up race car. Directly off to the side of that was a road leading to a bridge going across a winding shallow creek. An R-V was parked on the road and Jabari asked Double Dd about it and he ignored him. All he said was there was another one that looked better than his. This confused Jabari because, from the looks of things, they were far from the poor white trash type of white boys.
The front door was damn near immaculate. The kitchen was straight, but the bedrooms were like pig-stuys, well all of them except Smoak’s. He had an ass load of books all over the place. They had brand new plasma TVs with games consoles attached and plenty of cushioned, real leather sofas in the living room. AC buzzed through the place and Jabari could smell the steaks that were laid out on the table in the kitchen, along with the fruits, beans, and nuts. Jabari just kept his eyes on the steak, he hadn’t eaten shit in a long while, and his stomach raised all types of hell from the varieties of aromas.
In the back of the trailer, there was a pond that came in off the creek and Jabari saw small platoon boats for fishing. Off to the side behind some weeds on a boat ramp was a twenty-two-foot cigarette boat, like the ones on the Miami Vice TV show. It was chromed, shined and ret’ to go.
‘What they fuck these white boys into?’ Jabari thought.
Jabari knew they had something going on, maybe weed, but he didn’t see any traces of it. Actually, he didn’t even see a fucking ashtray laying around anywhere. But the smell that reeked throughout the house seemed to get a lot stronger towards the back. Double D pointed to a closed door and said, that was the room where Jabari was going to be crashing.
Double D opened the door to the room and Jabari stepped in to see a blonde, white chick bent over by a table, smoking something from a glass pipe. It was the smell he’d been inhaling since he arrived, Jabari knew it wasn’t crack. When the white chick pulled back, she smiled at Jabari. Jabari grimaced because she was in desperate need of a toothbrush. Double D laughed a little when he saw Jabari’s facial expression. Then he stepped out and shut the door behind him.
Jabari looked around, he didn’t know what the chick wanted, but he damn sure didn’t have any dope. She came closer to Jabari, timidly at first, then suddenly fell to her knees and started fumbling with his pants. Even though Jabari didn’t know her, he knew exactly what she was about to do and he damn sure didn’t put up any resistance. Her boldness and head skills made Jabari want to hold on to her.
****
After only being there for a few days Jabari was ex’ed the fuck up, smoking weed and then finally meth. The white bitch kept coming in and out, smoking dope and sucking his dick. At one point he’d tried to stop her, but she got on some freak shit. Jason the old school dude, talked him into fucking her while he watched, and she was down with it. Jabari was all jacked up and didn’t give a fuck...that goddamned meth had him doing crazy shit. Then Jason went too far when he wanted Jabari to fuck her in the ass, while he watched. Jabari had been up for the past three days, so he was too weak to check Jason. Then Jason pulled out some pills, Jabari went for them and it was on after that, he felt straight played.
