CHAPTER 5
Omar slowly panned across Mamani’s old living room, the lump in his throat ensuring he didn’t speak a word.
With the last of her rooms documented, he lowered his camcorder and swallowed.
His parents had warned him that they would have to begin packing her things soon.
He didn’t see why the basement apartment couldn’t remain like this forever, a shrine to the woman they all loved.
His mother had said that it would help them heal.
He and his sister had been allowed to choose certain things to keep.
So had the extended family. The rest would go to charity.
Omar knew Mamani would’ve liked that, but he needed a visual record so he could revisit this place after it was gone. Or had changed or whatever.
He sighed and trudged upstairs with a heavy heart.
“Oh!” Yasmin said. “There you are.”
She glanced at the basement door, her face forlorn before she shook it off. “There’s some guy hanging around outside. And he seems pissed off.”
Omar was instantly alert. No doubt it was Troy or one of his goons. “I’ll take care of this,” he said, marching toward the front door.
“Are you sure?” his sister asked while following. “He looks tough.”
“I’m not scared.” He took a few more steps before hesitating. “How big of a dude are we talking here?”
“Huge!”
“Great.”
He swallowed and continued his march, taking comfort that he might be reunited with his grandma sooner than expected. When he reached the glass door and peered out front, he laughed. Diego was standing next to a motorcycle, glaring at the house.
Omar turned to his sister. “You don’t recognize him?”
“Wait,” she said, scrunching up her face. “Is that Diego?”
“Uh-huh.”
“When did he get so hot?”
“About the same time I did.”
“Gross!” Yasmin pushed past him and waved from the front stoop. “Hey!”
Diego gave an upward nod. “Long time no see. How’s it goin’, twerp?”
“I’m all right,” Yasmin said somewhat morosely.
“I know the feeling,” Diego replied. “Life kinda sucks that way.”
“Yeah,” she replied. “It does.”
Omar frowned. “Did you come here to give your condolences?”
“Big word,” Diego replied. “I’m impressed.” He patted the bike. “I thought we could go for a ride.”
Yasmin stepped forward. “Okay!”
“Not you!” Omar pushed past her, having to sprint to avoid the kick she aimed at his butt.
Diego nodded at Yasmin before she went inside. Then his expression darkened. “Where’s my weed, Jafari?”
“Oh! Is that why you’re here?”
“I didn’t come over to play hopscotch with you and your kid sister.”
Omar laughed. “I’d like to see that actually.” He reached for his camera. “Hey, we could make it a—”
“No sketches, no filming.” Diego grumbled, shoving an empty backpack into his arms. “Just fill me up.”
“I don’t have it here!” Omar hissed, glancing at the house warily. “Are you crazy?”
“Yup. So where is it?”
“In the woods. Out by where we had the race.”
Diego shrugged. “Let’s go. You can wear Ricky’s helmet.”
“Why is it pink?” Omar groaned after it was handed to him.
“Because I think it’s funny. And so people will assume I’m riding around with a hot chick on the back of my hog. Make sure plenty of that pretty hair is sticking out.”
“All right, fine. Uh… Actually, be right back.”
Omar raced into the house and back out again wearing a black denim jacket.
He’d never ridden on a Harley before. Soon he was perched on the seat while gripping the tubular backrest for support.
On the tighter turns, he clenched his legs together, squeezing Diego’s hips while trying to ignore the vibrations.
If he got a boner now, he’d never live it down.
Aside from that awkwardness, the trip to the outskirts of town was awesome.
They slowed and pulled over where black tire tracks veered off the road to become shallow trenches in the mud.
“All right,” Diego shouted over the sound of the engine. “Where is it?”
“Umm…” Omar twisted around to see. “I left it in the woods, close to a mile marker.”
“Which one?”
“I was walking toward town.”
Diego turned the bike around, cruising along the side of the road until they reached a narrow green sign on a post with the number twenty-three printed on the surface.
“This one?”
“Could be,” Omar said. “Or maybe it was twenty-four. Actually, it might’ve been twenty-five. I made it a ways before Dave picked me up. How far is the next one?”
“A mile,” Diego deadpanned.
“Oh. Right.”
“Tell ya what, how about we keep going and you pat me on the shoulder when you think we’ve reached the right spot.”
“Deal.”
They backtracked down the road, Omar’s certainty wavering the farther they went. Then he saw the branches of a fallen tree sticking out of the woods and tapped Diego before pointing. The bike swerved to the side, where they parked and got off.
“In there?” Diego asked after removing his helmet.
“Yeah,” Omar said while doing the same. “At least I think so.”
“You don’t sound very sure.”
“It’s gotta be!”
“Let’s find out.”
They tromped through wet overgrown grass to reach the woods. As soon as they were under the skeletal canopy, Omar felt lost.
“Where did you hide it?” Diego prompted.
“There was like, a rotten old tree that was hollowed out. I figured that was the best way to keep it dry.”
“I hope it did,” Diego said, sounding tense. “Nobody wants soggy weed.”
“I bundled it all up in my leather jacket, so it should be fine. Even if it’s not, couldn’t you toss it in a dryer or something?”
Diego’s eyes narrowed. Then he shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Is that the tree over there?”
“Probably. I mean, yeah. Definitely.”
They picked their way through the brush.
“Sorry about your grandma,” Diego said as they went. “She never put up with our shit when we were kids. I had a lot of respect for that. And her.”
“She was the best,” Omar said with a tight throat. “Nothing has been the same since… Never mind. You know better than anyone.”
“Yeah.”
Omar glanced at him. Being out here together felt surreal, but in a good way. Like the golden days had returned. He yearned for that more than ever.
“I’m glad the cops couldn’t pin anything on you,” he said. “I didn’t take off, you know. I waited in the woods, wanting to make sure you were okay.”
“I told you to run,” Diego grumbled.
“I know. But I was worried. You’re my friend.”
Diego didn’t say anything to dispute this claim. Which was progress of a sort. Instead he kicked at a fallen tree. “This it?”
The wood still seemed solid.
“Uh…” Omar walked around to the trunk, which had splintered but hadn’t yet rotted. “No.” He shielded his eyes and looked around, mostly to hide his own embarrassment. “Maybe that one over there?”
“It’s awfully small,” Diego said doubtfully.
“Yeah, but that could be it.”
Diego took a deep breath, as if needing to calm himself. Then they began walking in that direction.
“We’ll find it,” Omar assured him. “At least the weather is nice. The perfect day to hang out with my bro!”
Diego snorted. “I doubt we could fool anyone these days.”
“No kidding. I’d have to bulk up.”
“Remember the first time?”
“That we tricked people into thinking we were brothers?”
“Uh-huh. We were at the arcade.”
Omar laughed. “Oh yeah! You stood by the token machine and pretended to cry, while I went over to one of the employees.” He switched to a sniveling tone.
“My brother put a whole entire twenty-dollar bill into the machine, and it ate it, but then nothing came out and it was all of his birthday money!”
Diego chuckled. “You’ve still got it.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t have to dig deep.” Omar grinned. “Remember when we first met?”
“Yup. I was playing Dragon’s Lair and blew your mind.”
“No way! It was the sci-fi version of the same thing. Uh… Space Ace!”
“That’s right!”
“Man, those machines were such a rip-off.” The graphics were stunning though.
Instead of pixelated blobs on a black screen, hand-drawn animation was used.
The game basically involved watching a cartoon and hitting the joystick at key moments to keep the story going.
Which only sounded easy. “Four tokens per play!” Omar complained.
“An entire dollar, gone within seconds. For most people. I still don’t know how you were so good at it. ”
“You’ve just gotta keep your cool,” Diego said. “I swear you were jangling with tokens when you walked up to me. Every time I died, you’d dig in your pocket and pull out more.”
“I had to find out what happened! We blew through fifty bucks that day. It really was all of my birthday money.”
“And we still didn’t beat the damn game.”
“Worth it,” Omar said, grinning at him. “I made a new friend. And I got to see more of that hot babe. Remember her? The princess or whoever we were supposed to be rescuing?”
“You sure it wasn’t Dragon’s Lair?”
“I don’t know anymore. We played both. All I’m sure of is that they drew her so hot that it was like kiddie porn. Er, I mean porn made for kids, not…”
“You were always such a freak,” Diego said. “But at least you understood that sort of thing. Anthony never did.”
“Yeah well, now we know why.”
“I already did back then.”
“Oh! Is that because you’re both… Um…”
Diego shook his head. “I’m not like Anthony.”
“But you’re dating—”
“Ricky isn’t like him either.” They reached a fallen tree so spindly that Diego had no trouble lifting one end. “I don’t see my weed,” he growled.
“Hey, I’m just as eager to find my leather jacket.” Omar turned in a slow circle. “Uhh…”
“I don’t see any other fallen trees,” Diego spat.
“There’s gotta be more around here somewhere.”
“There’s a whole goddamn forest full, but that doesn’t help us now!”
“I know!” Omar said. “I’m sorry!” His shoulders slumped. “I fucked up. Like I always do. But this is even worse, because we were finally going to be friends again.”
“We’re good, Jafari.”
“I wanna be more than that! We were best friends and should be still, but I keep giving you reasons to hate me and—”
“Omar!” Diego roared.
He winced. “Yeah?”