Blacktop Wasteland(76)

“Eat your breakfast,” she said. She got up and started for the door. As she went to answer the door, her cell phone started chirping. Kia stopped and turned toward the bedroom. Then she looked back toward the door. The cell phone stopped chirping. She continued to the door.

“Mama, you forgot the cereal,” Darren said. She barely heard him. She peeked through the diamond-shaped window in the center of the door. There was a white man standing on the porch. Two more white men were standing next to a late model LTD. The one on the porch was as big as her refrigerator. The other two were considerably smaller. The man on the porch was wearing a white button-down shirt and jeans. The two by the car were both wearing T-shirts and jeans. One had on a faded CAT baseball hat.

She opened the door a crack.

“Can I help you?”

The big man wrenched the door from her grasp. She stood in the doorway wearing one of Beauregard’s T-shirts and sweat shorts. She was painfully aware of how they clung to her ass.

“You married to a boy named Beauregard?” the big man asked.

“Why? What’s going on?” she asked.

The big man gave her the once-over. “Get your boys, y’all gotta come with us,” he said.

“I ain’t going nowhere with you and neither are my boys. Now tell me what the hell is going on,” Kia said.

The big man turned to the two leaning against the car and beckoned them. Without warning, he grabbed Kia’s arm and started dragging her out of the house. He moved with such astonishing speed, she was on the first step before she started fighting back. She scratched at his eyes and kicked at his balls. She got one grunt for her trouble. The white boy in the CAT hat brushed by them. Her heart shattered when she heard Darren start to scream.

“Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” he howled as the CAT-wearing man dragged him out of the house by his thin arm. The third man went into the house as Kia and Darren were being forcibly walked to the car. Kia twisted and fought with everything she had in her, but it was no use. It was like trying to wrestle a mountain.

The big man stopped dragging her. He pulled her close and put his forearm around her neck. She felt something cold and hard against her temple. No one was moving. Kia craned her eyes toward the house. The third man was backing out of the house with his hands up. When he got to the bottom step he stopped.

Javon was standing on the porch holding a gun. It was a Beretta 9 mm 92 series. One of his father’s guns.

The big man gripped Kia tighter.

“Now you just wanna hold on a minute and put that gun down. You don’t want nobody to get hurt now, do you?” he asked.

Javon didn’t move. He held the gun straight with his free hand bracing his wrist. “No, I don’t. So, let my mama and my brother go,” he said. He didn’t stutter or whisper. He spoke with a loud, clear voice that was on the verge of changing.

“Look, son, you don’t know what to do with that,” the man said.

Javon never took his eyes off the big man. He clicked the safety off.

“Let my mama and my brother go,” he said.

The big man was still trying to make up his mind how to handle this situation when CAT Hat raised his gun and mumbled under his breath.

“Fuck this shit.”

Javon pointed the gun in his direction and pulled the trigger. The pistol jumped in his hand like it was alive. The man in the CAT dropped to a crouch. The bullet zipped over his head and shattered the headlight of the LTD. Javon kept pulling the trigger. He moved from the man in the hat to the man standing right in front of him. A red flower bloomed on the man’s chest as he fell like a marionette whose strings had been clipped. He never even reached for his gun.

The big man pulled his gun away from Kia’s head and pointed it at Javon. As soon as he did a bullet slammed into his neck. He pulled the trigger reflexively but without aiming. CAT Hat dived to the ground and crawled back toward the driver’s side of the LTD. He raised his gun and fired over the hood.

The big man staggered back to the LTD. His gun slipped from his grip and landed in the grass. He fell into the car with his legs still hanging out of the door. CAT Hat jumped in the driver’s seat. He started the car and pulled at the big man’s shirt, dragging him further into the car. Bullets cracked the windshield as he put the car in reverse. The big man’s feet dragged across the ground as they backed out of the yard and tore down the lane.



* * *



Javon kept pulling the trigger even though no more bullets came out of the gun.

“Javon!” Kia screamed.

“Javon, call 911!”

Javon kept pulling the trigger.

“Javon, call 911!” she screamed. Her eyes were bugging from her head. Her face and chest were covered with streaks of red. She was clutching Darren in her arms. It was then that Javon finally understood. He ran inside the house and went to his mama’s bedroom. Her cell phone was on the nightstand. He dropped the gun to the floor. He grabbed the phone and dialed 911. His mother’s screams echoed throughout the house.

“911, what is your emergency,” a robotic voice asked.

“Somebody shot my brother,” Javon said. He dropped the gun and started screaming too.



* * *



Kia sat in the waiting room directly under a television that was showing an advertisement for the hospital on a loop. The light from the fluorescent fixtures reflected off the white floor tiles. It was giving her a headache. Her eyes were stinging. She had cried all the way from the house to the emergency room. They wouldn’t let her sit in the back with Darren. She stared at him the whole way to the hospital through a small window in the cab of the ambulance. The driver had tried to get her to put on her seat belt, but she ignored him. She had to keep her eyes on him. If she kept looking at him, then he couldn’t die. She told herself that as they careened down the road. As long as she could see him, he wouldn’t die.