A middle-aged gent at the next table couldn"t help but notice them. "Excuse me, but it"s my first time here and it"s great to see you two look like you"re enjoying yourselves. That food as good as it looks?"
"Better," Mintz said. "You eatin" alone?"
"Uh, well, blind date," the professorial gent said. "Internet kind of thing. I guess either something went wrong or she got cold feet."
"Tough stuff, buddy," Mintz said. "Might as well go ahead and order. This s.h.i.t"s too good not to eat once yer here."
The gent shrugged and nodded with a sad smile.
"f.u.c.k "er," Sandy added. "She don"t know what she"s missin", does she? Might as well enjoy your evenin"."
"I"d invite you to join us," Mintz said, "but this is kind of a special occasion, and, well, you understand."
"Oh, by all means," the tweedy gent said. "Enjoy your meal."
He thanked them with a nod when Mintz had the waiter put a gla.s.s of their Montepulciano on his table and then raised the gla.s.s in a silent toast.
After that, while the gent ate alone, he took sidelong glances to see Mintz and Sandy happily tucking into entrees of Lasagna Bolognese, Fettuccini Alfredo, penne in olive oil with broccoli, gnocchi, bragiole, veal Parmesan.
The gent was amazed when Mintz and Sandy ordered dessert: espresso, tiramisu, spumoni, and chocolate-covered mini-cannoli. Then they topped it all off with large snifters of Sambuca Romana, a sweet anise-tasting Italian liqueur sipped with three coffee beans floating in it.
They had of course ordered far more food than they"d consumed, and had the leftovers wrapped to take home with them, good Italian food always tasting even better the next day. The containers filled two shopping bags, which Mintz carried in one hand as they rose to take their leave. He turned to say goodnight to the gent, but the guy wasn"t at the table and Mintz couldn"t remember seeing him go.
The cool night air made their bodies glow with the alcohol and the great food, as Mintz and Sandy sauntered back around the corner toward where the new Navigator was parked. Just when the world seemed like a perfectly lovely place and Sandy hooked her hand around Mintz"s arm, the gent stepped out from behind a van, raised the gun with a silencer attached, and began pumping shots into them.
Head-shot, Sandy was dead before she hit the sidewalk. Unable to grab his off-duty gun and already hit in the chest, all Mintz could do was swing the shopping bags at the gent, who raised his free arm to fend them off. The bags burst open and the containers rained great food all over the sidewalk.
When Mintz also fell dead, the gent plucked a piece of penne from the shoulder of his cashmere overcoat and popped it into his mouth. Then he pocketed the handgun and walked away.
Within seconds, a big black stray mutt happened upon the bodies of Mintz and Sandy and straightaway began to enjoy the best Italian meal he"d ever had, although truth be told, he really didn"t care much for the broccoli.
THURSDAY.
BY K KENJI J JASPER.
Bedford-Stuyvesant There"re a lot of ways to deal with what "The Stuy" doles out. Some drink. Some get high. Some beat the s.h.i.t out of the spouse within closest reach. But me, I f.u.c.k. This is not to say that I do not engage in the act of making love. Nor is it to imply that I"m one of those dudes who suffers from that meeting-in-the-ladies"-room catch phrase known as emotional unavailability. emotional unavailability. I just know that when you"re bending her legs back as far as they go, aiming a stiff rod toward the uterus while her head indents the drywall, as your sweat lines the valley that runs from between her shoulder blades to the crack of her a.s.s, that it cannot be considered an act of I just know that when you"re bending her legs back as far as they go, aiming a stiff rod toward the uterus while her head indents the drywall, as your sweat lines the valley that runs from between her shoulder blades to the crack of her a.s.s, that it cannot be considered an act of intimacy intimacy They like it because what I have to give isn"t as watered down as what they get at home, the sum of what"s left after their men"s hard days at bulls.h.i.t 9-to-5s. I don"t care if she leaves traces of my s.e.m.e.n on her kids" cheeks. I don"t care if she picks up another ten pounds from eating Doritos and watching Divorce Court Divorce Court. I only ask that she leave before I start caring.
"You got any more of that tea?" Jenna asks.
She"s the only one I"ve ever let stay, because I love her, or at least I used to, until she left me for another dude after she caught me in a three with Sarah and Dahlia, these two bi-broads I"d met at The Five Spot the night of one of my little book things. They were in the mood for d.i.c.k and I had one, not to mention a dub of weed and a queen-size mattress with fresh sheets.
Jenna didn"t live with me but she had keys, the unavoidable side effect of my dislike for feminine whines and complaints. Nothing gets to me more, not even the inevitable loss of privacy that comes with giving someone carte blanche access to your home. One night she started missing me just as I wasn"t missing Dahlia"s g-spot, with Sarah adding a little tongue to the mix.
I can"t even say that I remember their faces, only a fleshy set of b.u.t.tocks and thick nipples harder than granite. One Cuban, one Jewish, and both light on their feet when Jenna started swinging the antique coat rack.
My friends in other boroughs don"t believe me when I tell them stories like this one. They dismiss them as something like the fodder pa.s.sed off as correspondence in the pages of Penthouse Letters Penthouse Letters But they don"t live in The Stuy. They don"t understand that anything out here is possible as long as you believe it is, a crisscross grid of blocks and corners waiting to be remade just the way you want them, as long as you got juice, dough, or even better, both. But they don"t live in The Stuy. They don"t understand that anything out here is possible as long as you believe it is, a crisscross grid of blocks and corners waiting to be remade just the way you want them, as long as you got juice, dough, or even better, both.
I"m a writer, if you haven"t figured it out yet. The words are the way I live, except when the freelance checks come late, or sometimes not at all. Then I"m left to the mercy of the streets, and a pile of ma.n.u.script I"ll probably never sell. But this isn"t about writing, this is about money, money on a Thursday, and how I ended up with it. The "what" I needed it for comes six graphs away from this one.
Flakes of jasmine in the metal ball you drop into boiling water. Add exactly three tablespoons of honey and let it steep. This is what makes Jenna happy. She comes to see me whenever her man"s away, or when there happens to be a hole in my busy schedule, which is rather often. By the time I get the cup back to the bedroom, she"s already clasping the bra behind her lovely back.
"It"s gonna take a second for this s.h.i.t to cool," I say as she takes the cup. Her skin is the color of coal and without a single blemish. Narrow shoulders and torso spread into wide hips and delicious quads that could choke a small animal. I still love her, even though she ain"t mine no more.
"I might have to take it with me," she says, tucking the cranberry blouse into jeans of the deepest blue. "I got people in the chair all day."
Of all the women to fall in love with, I had to pick a braider. Twelve-hour days and one Sat.u.r.day a month off. Her man sees less of her than I do, even though he works at the home where they now live, three blocks over on Marcy and Jefferson.
If you have to know, I stay on Halsey and Bedford, though everyone will say it"s Hanc.o.c.k and Nostrand, where the more famous author happens to live. We"re both the same age and from the same town, and yet we"ve never been in the same place at the same time. But perhaps that"s a good thing. I read his last book and would be really tempted to hurt his feelings if he happened to ask me for a critique.
"He wants to take me to Brazil next month" she says, after sucking the hot liquid down to half. Her tongue has always been made of fire-r.e.t.a.r.dant foam.
She says this only to make me jealous, knowing that I hate when she goes away, not to mention with him. It is my punishment for that night two years ago. I can have her body for the rest of eternity, but someone else will always hold the t.i.tle to her soul.
"I"m sure he wants to do a lot of things," I say. "But that kinda trip costs the kinda cake he has to save up for a year for."
She zips her bag and wraps the b.u.t.ter-smooth leather I bought her around the blouse, and then smiles. She knows something that I don"t.
"He doesn"t have to save anything. He put his tax return in a nine-month CD at seven percent. He"s gonna cash it in on Monday." And after that bit of data she departs, down the three flights of stairs to the inner door, followed by the outer, and then to the street.
She still knows the tender spots, especially in the after-glow. Brazil was the only place she"d ever wanted to go that she hadn"t made it to yet. I"d sold a big article and used the check to get us advance tickets and a good hotel. I couldn"t even get a refund because she backed out too close to the departure date.
And now she is going with Mr. Right, a four-inch one-minute man who a few of my homegirls have sampled over the years, all less than impressed. She is doing it just to spite me. Jenna does everything just to spite me.
She has no intention of going on that trip in those weeks ahead. If that"s what she wants, she never would"ve told me about it. She knows how determined I am. And she knows that even though I write, I am also a man of action when it comes to handling my business. So she also has to know that there"s no way in h.e.l.l I"m going to let her roll anywhere below the equator with that clown. I"ll have this sewn up by the end of the day, no problem.
"Twenty-three-hundred, forty-seven, ninety-six," Winston utters, his eyes never leaving the calculator on his computer screen. "You want me to book it now?"
The Bogart Travel Agency is a custom-made 2000-megahertz computer system hacked into the DSL substation box at Fulton and Cla.s.son. In other words, Bradley siphons all his business and info from the big travel agency up the street. It"s nothing personal. They just happen to have what he needs for this season"s hustle. Come December he"ll be into something else, somewhere else.
I"ve got about six yards in my stash box over at Carver Bank, which is far from enough. Winston doesn"t have a layaway plan, nor does he accept bad checks. And his price is the best I"ll ever see on such short notice.
Winston"s almost forty years old and he still lives in the house he was born in, not far from the room he"s renting to accomodate his bootleg travel setup. Lewis and Madison used to be a whole lot worse than it is, which just means that you no longer need someone to cover you with a pistol every time you get the mail. He always talks about moving back to Guyana with his grandma, even though she"s on oxygen and hasn"t left the house for years.
"How long can you hold the fare?" I ask.
"End of the day, max," he replies, his eyes now locked on Judge Hatchett"s new hairdo, which means it"s after 11 and I need to get moving.
"So that"s 5 p.m., right?"
"It"s actually 6 in the travel biz."
"Then I"ll be here at 5:55."
"White people got ahold of everything now," Shango Alafia tells me between bites of french toast at the Doctor"s Cave, this little hole on Marcy where I take a meal every once in a while. Shango"s there every day though, mainly to eye Jean, the dreadlocked and beautiful better half of Tim, who prepares all of the meals he loves so much. Shango also happens to be Winston"s brother-in-law and third cousin twice removed. But that"s an entirely different story.
"I put in the best bid on that pair of brownstones down on Greene. Had the s.h.i.t locked for like three days, and then eight hours before the cutoff some whiteboy coalition comes in and chops my head off."
"Hey, real estate"s a cutthroat business," I say. The frown on his face softens into a smile. He knows something I do not.
"You"re right. That"s actually why I called you down here."
Shango and I never use land lines, cells, or even e-mail. If he needs to see me, the right corner of the front page of my Daily News Daily News will be missing. If it"s a little piece, I"ll find him at the gym over on Kingston. If it"s a lot, he"s over at Jean"s. will be missing. If it"s a little piece, I"ll find him at the gym over on Kingston. If it"s a lot, he"s over at Jean"s.
Shango"s sort of like my agent in this maze of a neighborhood, and has been ever since I moved here five years ago. He helped me out with a certain situation, involving certain people that you don"t need to know about, or at least not in the context of this particular tale.
"So what"s the deal?" I ask him.
"Reuben"s got a problem," he says, dabbing his lips with one of the moist towelettes he carries everywhere he goes.
Reuben Goren owns a nice piece of Fulton Street, mostly storefronts that have been in the family for almost two generations. Needless to say, any problem he has is likely to be an expensive one.
"What kind of problem?"
"Yardies want that corner building he"s got on Fulton and Nostrand, you know the one with the optician and the furniture store up top?"
"I see it every time I go to the train," I say. "So what, they"ve got him under pressure?"
"You could say that. But more importantly, they"ve got us under contract."
"Under contract to do what?"
"A little FYI."
"FYI?"
"We need to let him know they"re not f.u.c.kin" around."
"And let me guess, he wants me to come up with a plan."
"Plan and execution."
"For how much?"
"Five."
"That"s a little low, isn"t it?" I say, knowing that it"s more than I need. Greed is the most deadly of all sins.
"It"s more than what you need for those Brazil tickets," he says, signaling Jean for coffee just so she can show him her behind while she pours.
"Always ahead of my game, huh?"
"I gotta be to take fifteen percent." My brain calculates options at the speed of light. Then my compa.s.s points me north. "I already took my fee out of the number by the way."
"Figured as much," I nod, still pensive. Then it comes to me. "I"m gonna need to see Sam."
Shango smiles again. "I told him you"d be there in thirty minutes."
"You know anybody that needs four .45s with no firing pins?" Sam asks, twenty-three minutes later.
He"s a barber by trade. But he picked up a few other skills during the early nineties, when that nappy "fro trend kept a lot of his usual cake out-of-pocket. On the table before him are four lines of c.o.ke and a plate of short ribs. He snorts and chews in twenty-second intervals, using the nostril that isn"t outlined with crusted blood.
"I might," I say, the most strategic answer to give.
The rear of Sam"s Shears is the local a.r.s.enal. You come to him for both offense and defense, for gaining ground and covering your a.s.s. For pistols, rifles, hollow-tips, and even explosives, he"s the undisputed motherf.u.c.kin" man, and the key element to my equation on this particular Thursday.
"But what I need," I continue, "is something that blows. Compact with high impact."
"What for?"
"It"s on a need-to-know basis, my friend," I say with the wave of a finger. "Besides, curious cats end up in the carry-out."
"You make any money from that writing s.h.i.t?" he asks, just before doing another line, his gray t-shirt now smeared with barbecue sauce and pork grease.
"Sometimes," I say.
"What about the rest of the time?"
"I do this. But look, Sam, I"m kinda on a schedule. Can you get me what I need?"
"Already got it. It"s right there under the blanket." I remove the fabric to reveal a half-liter nitro glycerin charge with a twelve-second trigger. He makes them for a third of what seasoned pros might charge. A half-liter is a little much, but it"ll have to do.
"Did I hit the nail on the head?" he asks.
"More like a fly with a hammer. But I"ll take what I can get."
Sam and I don"t deal in cash. Favors are our particular currency. So while such equipment would easily go for five figures on the Stuy market, I"ll take it off his hands for no money down, as long as I get him what he wants.
"You know, there"s only one cruiser in each precinct with a shotgun?" he asks, as if making small talk. But I know what"s next. I"m finally one step ahead of somebody.
"Nabors," I begin. "He"s the dayshift patrolman for the Marcy projects. Pump-action Mossberg with a wood-grain slide. Takes a large curry chicken for lunch at 4:55 every day. Corner of Fulton and Nostrand."
"Right across the street from the optician and the furniture store."
"What a coincidence," I grin. "That"s what you want?" He nods. For some reason the c.o.ke makes him subdued instead of hyper. He doesn"t want the gun to sell, but for something more inventive. Perhaps one of his clients would enjoy the irony of killing the officer with his own weapon.
"Yup, that"s it."
"I"ll send my man by for the hardware," I say on my way out. "And pencil me in for a shape-up tomorrow at 4." a.r.s.enal or not, Sam gives the best cuts in The Stuy.
"I miss jail," Brownie tells me from the beanbag recliner by the window. He did six months in Otisville for intent-to-distribute before they gave him time served for rolling over on some whiteboys, one of whom, Brownie had discovered, was f.u.c.king his girl.
He is the clinical definition of a sociopath, a man who has raped and killed, six feet and 295 pounds of evil that just happens to deal the best weed in the neighborhood. Thus, I allow him into my home from time to time, for as long as the high lasts.
"What do you mean, you miss jail?" I ask, pulling on what that remains of the once-ample spliff. He is called Brownie because of his fudge-colored face. His real name can only be found on the lips of his elderly mother or on the rap sheet longer than my bedspread, or duvet, as Jenna describes it.
"A n.i.g.g.a like me needs some discipline," he says. "I realize that now. In there they told me what to be and where to go. Kept me in a cage and made me follow the rules. Out here I just get into s.h.i.t. Out here I"m a fuse ready to blow."