10. Exodus “Yin” Tan #2
“You know what comes next if she hurts you.” Sam’s voice was hard. “We’ve never kept that from you or pretended otherwise. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to you.”
Nodding, I was about to say something else, but Alisha returned.
Sam shared us some food and we ate and soon we were on our way home.
While I was sitting in the front seat beside Yang, I kept glancing in the mirror to where Alisha sat silently beside Sam.
At home, Mama fussed over me. Ever since we were kids, she would worry to the edge of breaking whenever we were hurt. From a skinned knee to a splinter, she’d stay by our sides, loving on us. The last time I was hurt in the ring, I gained five pounds.
I smiled.
Soon we were all seated in the living room.
Mama served us refreshments and Bambam called in.
Squirrel had yet to say anything to me about what Alisha had done. From the conversation he had with Blythe earlier, I knew the only reason she wasn’t on a flight to kick Alisha’s ass, was because he told her to stand down.
He was now seated on the arm of the sofa next to Sam.
Bambam wasn’t the same cheerful hacker she was even though she found time to call Yang Daddy like she usually did.
Tha’lab’s motorcycle engine filled the front yard and after getting her hugs from Mama, it was finally time to discuss what had happened.
“Kirby’s heard about your father.” Squirrel spoke up, his voice tight. “He hasn’t seen him in almost five years. Apparently, he owed some very dangerous people a lot of money.”
“Well, he couldn’t have just disappeared.” I added. “He has to be somewhere. Unless he’s dead and even so, someone has to know something.”
“If he’s still alive, he’s hiding it very well.” Bambam leaned toward the camera. “Usually, there’s record of a name change, bank actions, credit card—fuck, an Uber account. This cat is just gone.”
“What if he changed his name but didn’t do it legally?” Sam asked. “There was a kid in my class. On the first day he asked that we call him Sammy, but his legal name was Martinique—from Jamaica.”
“That’s a stretch, isn’t it?” Mama put in. “Sammy is nothing close to Martinique.”
“Yeah, but apparently, in Jamaica, you have your legal name and then the name everyone calls you.” Sam replied.
“Kinda like Thailand.” Mama Tan told us. “There is this actor. And for the longest time I thought his name was Joss.”
“What’s his actual name?” Alisha asked.
“Way-Ar Sangngern. But everyone calls him Joss.”
“And your father is Jamaican.” I looked to Alisha who nodded. “Does anyone know what his nickname was?”
“Moses.” Alisha answered. “That’s what my mom calls him in her journals.”
“Bam?” Yang looked up at the screen.
“On it, Daddy.” Bambam was already typing.
Yang smiled and shook his head.
In a flash, Bambam was gone and everyone dispersed.
Tha’lab went into the kitchen with Mama Tan. I could bet any money, Mama was giving her snacks she’d made for the Muslim woman. Whenever she was visiting, Mama made her snacks and treats special and set them aside so the rest of us couldn’t get to them.
Sam went away to talk to Yang and Squirrel, and I was left in the silence with Alisha.
Because of my injury, no one really wanted me moving around, but I kept my eyes on her.
She was nervous, scared even. The way she sat, shoulders drooped, eyes down while picking at the corners of her fingers worried me.
Leaning forward, I rested a palm on her hands and stared at her.
“What’s the matter?” I wanted to know.
“Squirrel is still angry at me.” Alisha met my gaze.
“Fair assessment.”
“I don’t know how to make it better.”
“He’s not a hard man, Kitty.” I replied. “Apologize. Be sincere.”
“Exodus, I’m so tired.”
“Come here.” I opened my arms to her.
She climbed into my arms, and I held her listening to my family around the house.
They made what could be a sterile building hum with life, with love. Their presence alone relaxed me in ways that I was never able to understand. Knowing they were close calmed my nerves.
But soon, my mind was back on the Maroons and what was to come.
In the back of my mind, I knew I’d have to start training soon. Whatever I was doing I had to make it fast, or this could drag out. When the madness of training began, something could fall by the wayside.
“Kitty?”
“Mm?”
“How about we go on a date?”
For a moment she said nothing then sat up to stare into my eyes.
“Shouldn’t you talk to Mama Tan first?”
I blinked.
“Are you forgetting that I’m grown?” I asked her. “As in a grown man. Do I need my mother’s opinion to take a girl on a date?”
Her face twisted into a thoughtful expression for a moment.
“A real date?” She questioned. “A real date where you hold out my chair and at the end of the night, if you’ve earned it, I let you touch my butt?”
For a moment, her words shocked me. Then, I tossed my head back and laughed. It was the kind of laughter I hadn’t done in a long time, but I liked it.
“Sure.” I laughed again. “You’re saying if I’m a good boy, I’ll get a reward?”
Alisha blinked at me, grinning.
“That’s what I’m saying—but I don’t have anything to wear on a date. And my hair?—”
“Why don’t you let me worry about that?” I asked, already hatching a plan that involved Tha’lab and Bambam.
“Ex—”
I nuzzled her neck with my lips.
“Mm.”
Alisha smacked my arm.
“Stop that.” She squeaked, glancing around. “I can’t think when you do that.”
“That’s the point. I’m trying to distract you with my charms and?—”
Bambam appeared on the giant screen in the room. Alisha squealed, leapt in the air and fell out of my lap.
“Damn it, Bam!” I roared, reaching down to help Alisha up. “What the fuck?”
“I’m sorry—I didn’t know you were—um, busy.” Bambam covered her eyes.
Alisha was hurt—she’d hit the center table.
“What do you want?” I asked, massaging Alisha’s lower back.
Alisha curled into my chest and moaned.
“I’m really sorry, guys. But there was an emergency call sent out to Kitty’s house.” She stopped speaking as her face disappeared from the screen and video of Alisha’s neighbourhood popped up on the screen.
A giant plume of smoke was floating skyward, and fire trucks were just pulling up to a stop in front of the quaint home.
Alisha screamed.
“Guys!” I yelled, shooting to my feet, ignoring the pain in my side. “Guys!”
“What’s all the—hole-e-fuck!” Squirrel exclaimed. “Is that?—”
“Yup.” I answered.
“I have keys!” Yang hollered.
“Me too!” Sam added.
We told my mother where we were going and she nodded. All of us bolted out the door and it was a mad dash back to the city. They firefighters were tired, but they were just watering down the wreck now, ensuring there wouldn’t be reflashes.
Alisha held the sides of her head, staring at what was left of her home and I saw it the moment something died in her eyes.
“What did I do?” She sobbed. “What did I do to deserve all of this?”
I tried holding her, but she was inconsolable.
“Kitty.”
“Don’t—touch me right now, please.”
When a firefighter came to speak with her, she ignored him. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was angry or rude—so, I stepped in.
When the firefighters were all gone, Squirrel ducked under the warning tape and made his way along the footpath.
While Sam worked to stop her from crying, Squirrel and I looked through the disaster zone.
In the kitchen, he stopped me and sniffed.
“Smell that?” Squirrel asked.
I sniffed.
“Nah, I don’t smell anything.”
“It’s there—that smells like—” He paused to sniff in one direction, then another. “It’s very faint—this was arson.”
“How do you know?”
Squirrel walked away for a little then stopped to hunch down taking another whiff.
“See that?” He asked when I was standing over him. “That’s all wax—see how it crusts? You can’t find that in a regular home. And this right here? That’s a pour pattern. The fire started there and went that way.”
He pointed.
“For some reason, it burned hotter in that spot.” He walked over to hunch down at the area. “Doesn’t make any sense.”
“Nothing about this makes sense.”
“They wanted to make sure this place burns.” Squirrel lowered his voice. “That’s why they used two set of accelerants.”
“Shit.” I rubbed my eyes.
“What’s this?” He used a finger to dig at a patch that looked like a dirt mound.
When he managed to get it free, it was a coin of some sort—kind of like what alcoholics received at AA meetings.
Squinting, both of us tried to see what was written on it but it was damaged.
“Maybe Bambam could figure out what this is?” Squirrel dropped it in my palm. “Whoever started this fire either didn’t care or is new. They weren’t very careful.”
“We have to get Kitty out of here.” I stood up and made for the door.
The moment I did, headlights tore around a nearby corner and headed straight for the vehicle with Sam and a sobbing Alisha.
Yang was standing outside the vehicle on his phone and Tha’lab was instructing a patrol.
“Get out of the way!” I yelled, waving my arms above my head.
Both Tha’lab and her officer drew their weapons.
“Stop! Police!” Tha’lab yelled in English then French.
The car didn’t stop.
Both her and her officer placed themselves in front of the vehicle and opened fire.
It swerved then crashed into a light pole.
Squirrel and I stopped as Sam and Alisha walked around the side of the truck. We all watched as Tha’lab and her officer approached the damaged car to pull two men front the seats.
One was already dead and the second was on the brink. By the time Tha’lab called an ambulance, the second man was dead too.
Alisha left Sam and walked into my arms and as I held her, Squirrel sighed.
That night, as the cops continued looking into the fire, Yang and I met up with Bambam and Kirby to look at the coin we’d found.
“Yeah.” Kirby nodded. “This is definitely Maroon. See the inscription right here? They give these out to new recruits.”
“Am I to guess that they take on the menial jobs?” Bambam asked, taking a picture of the coin.