Chulito (34 page)

“What the fuck?” Papo threw his hands up in the air.

Damian jumped up and down, laughing. “I told y’all niggas, see?”

Chulito and Carlos held hands in a tight grip and took quick, sure steps. Chulito looked at Damian and some of the auto glass guys as they leaned on each other and blew kisses at him and Carlos. Chulito breathed heavily, like a bull ready to charge. He realized that he was gripping Carlos’ hand too tightly, and loosened it a bit. Carlos looked straight ahead and didn’t make eye contact with anyone.

“Yo, Chulito, you fucking serious?” Papo shouted out.

Chulito looked over at him and nodded a greeting.

Looney Tunes was laughing so hard he was stomping around on the corner. Davey was silent and just watched. “Yo, that is some shit,” Chin-Chin said. “I’m seeing it but I can’t believe it.”

As Chulito and Carlos reached the sidewalk across the street from the fellas, Papo said, “That’s the kind of shit that gets to me. You see that? Walking out like it’s nothing, and there’s little kids around here and shit.” Papo picked up a beer bottle and dumped out the dribble of beer that was in it.

“Yo, you ain’t gonna throw that,” Davey said nervously, licking his lips and walking toward Papo.

“Stay back, Davey, or I’m gonna hurt you.”

“Chill, Papo,” Chin-Chin said.

“You, too?” Papo said to Chin-Chin. As he leaned back to throw the bottle, Puti yelled. “Watch out,” but the bottle hit Chulito on his shoulder and shattered in a shower of gold glass. They let go of their hands.

Carlos wasted no time. “C’mon, Chulito. Let’s get out of here!”

Chulito shook the glass off and turned around to face the corner.

“Run, boys!” Puti called out.

“That’s right, I threw it.” Papo took a challenging stance with his arms outstretched.

“Let’s go,” Carlos urged.

“Listen to your boyfriend, Chulito,” Damian teased.

It was now or never. He could run, but he knew better. He had to stay and fight. And he had to protect Carlos if need be. Chulito took two slow steps into the street, looked out for traffic and headed toward the fellas.

“What you gonna do?” Papo said with his fists locked and ready. “I will fuck you up, Chulito.”

Carlos followed slowly behind Chulito.

As Puti saw Chulito walking toward Papo, she put on her slippers and grabbed a high heeled shoe.

“Yo, chill,” Davey told Papo.

While still looking directly at Chulito, Papo said through gritted teeth, “Don’t get in my way, Davey.”

Chulito charged and leaped on Papo, knocking him to the ground.

“Fight!” A kid on the corner of Manida Street yelled toward a group of children playing.

Martha, Debbie and Brenda saw the kids running in the direction of the action and followed.

When Papo landed on the sidewalk, he shoved Chulito off of him, quickly got up and kicked Chulito who was still on the ground.

The auto glass guys charged over and Damian yelled, “Fuck him up.”

Carlos pushed his way through the crowd toward Chulito, who had gotten up and charged Papo again and punched him in the chest, and the two shoved and punched each other. Davey got kicked by Papo when he tried to intervene. In between swings and kicks, Chulito kept shoving Carlos out of the way and told him to stay back.

When Brick and Julio saw people running past the travel agency window toward the corner, they went out to see what was happening.

Puti limped toward the crowd with her shoe held high in the air and yelled, “Somebody help him. Call the cops.” She swung her heel at Papo and caught him in the neck. With his flat palm, Papo hit Puti in her face with such a force that she stumbled back and hit her head on the pavement. Carlos ran to Puti who was bleeding from a busted lip and a cut near her eye. Puti’s mother, who had followed her out the house yelled, “You see! That is what you get! You wanna be a pato? Look at you.”

Puti covered her ears and yelled back, “Shut the fuck up!”

Carlos’ mother ran out the building and shrieked when she saw his bloody hands. “I’m alright, ma, it’s Puti’s blood. She’s hurt. Call an ambulance.”

“I don’t need no ambulance, carajo!” Puti got up, wiped the blood away from her eye, and picked up her heel.

Watching the fight unfold, Lee called the police.

Brick and Julio reached the fight as Papo hit Puti. Julio and Brick charged at Papo and Brick held him in a bear hug.

“Get the fuck off me!” Papo yelled as he struggled and kicked. Chulito was trembling and bleeding from his mouth, but he had his fists up.

When Damian saw Brick he called a couple of his auto glass buddies, and they all rushed Brick. Puti whacked one of them as they passed her. Papo broke free and he and Chulito continued to fight while Brick and Julio fought with the auto glass guys. Then Julio ran back to his agency with two of the auto glass guys chasing after him. He reached his office and locked the door. The guys banged on the glass windows and rattled his door. Julio went to his desk and looked for his gun.

When Lee saw the guys chasing Julio, he grabbed a large kitchen knife and tried to go out, but his father shut the metal gate that kept the customers out of the kitchen and locked him in. “You are staying here.” Lee yelled and held up his knife to his father, but his father stood still and simply shut his eyes. Lee looked at his siblings and through tears said, “My friends are in trouble.” Lee ran to the small take-out order window and looked through the clouded glass to see what was happening. His mother was crying and praying in Korean, while Lee tried squeezing himself through the take out window where only his head could barely make it through.

The travel agency window shattered and Julio fired two gun shots, which sent the auto glass guys running. When Brick heard the shots he shoved Damian away and ran to the store. As he climbed through the broken window, Julio crouched behind his desk, took aim and shouted, “Stay the fuck out!”

“Yo, it’s me, Brick.” Julio saw him and got up. “Yo, Julio, put that gun down, bro.”

“No, our boys are in trouble and nobody is gonna help them.”

Brick blocked his path.

“Move, Brick. I will kill any of those motherfuckers even if I have to go to jail. They need to know that they cannot fuck with us. We are not a bunch of scared faggots who cower when they flex their macho attitudes.” Julio pushed past Brick, jumped through the window and ran toward the corner. He fired several shots into the air. There were screams and everyone ran in different directions.

“Stop it, you fucking animals!” Julio shouted as he charged the corner.

In trying to stop the fight, Chin-Chin and Davey were now fighting with Papo. Looney Tunes was trying to get Davey and Chin-Chin to stay out of it. Damian and the two auto glass guys took off across the street to the shops. Chulito was bruised and bloody with his right eye nearly swollen shut. Carlos’ shirt was covered in Puti’s blood but he went to Chulito and held him.

Papo stood defiant. He had blood oozing out his mouth and nose, and running down his right ear and the side of his head from a gash in his scalp.

Julio aimed the gun at Papo.

“Gimme the gun!” Brick yelled.

“Listen to your boyfriend,” Papo said, coughing.

“Fuck him, Julio. Just give me the gun.” Brick held out his hand.

Papo smirked. “You just a faggot with a gun, Julio. You ain’t gonna shoot me, and if you do, you better kill me with the first shot, ‘cause if not, you going down, no joke.” Julio cocked the gun and moved closer to Papo. “Enough.”

When he heard the sounds of sirens in the distance, Brick put his hand on Julio’s shoulder and traced it down his arm until it reached the gun. He took the gun out of Julio’s hand and put it in his pants. Julio trembled with pent up rage, and walked up to Papo and yelled from the pit of his gut, “Enough!”

“You better get out my face, bitch,” Papo said.

“Enough!” Julio didn’t budge. “Enough, enough, enough!”

“Yo, Papo, let’s bounce, man, the cops are coming,” Looney Tunes said.

Julio turned and shouted at Looney Tunes “Enough!” and then he went to Davey and Chin-Chin and repeated, “Enough!” Then he looked across the street to the auto glass shops and yelled, “Enough!” and then he turned to Puti’s mother and almost in whisper said, “Enough.”

Martha and Brenda held on to each other. Debbie left with Damian and the other auto glass guys as Kamikaze drove up to the scene.

Orlando from Rivera’s grocery store was handing out rolls of paper towels so that folks could clean up. When he offered a roll to Papo, he smacked it out of Orlando’s hand. He glared at Davey and Chin-Chin. “I’m sick of all y’all.” Papo wiped his hands. “I wash my hands of all of you niggas. You and the faggots are gonna burn in hell. You too, Chulito. You acting one way and being another.” Papo walked casually away as the police and ambulance arrived.

“Where you think you going?” Martha said to Papo, who just turned and gave her the finger.

Carlos was not allowed to go in the ambulance with Chulito because he was under eighteen. Maria went with Chulito in the ambulance and Kamikaze drove Carlos to the hospital.

Brick and Julio talked to a female police officer in the travel agency and she filled out a report. Julio pressed charges against the two auto glass guys who smashed his window and assaulted him.

Kamikaze drove Chulito, Carlos and Maria back home from the hospital. When they pulled up in front of the building, the bodega on the corner was closed, the fellas were not hanging on the corner, and the block was fairly empty. Only Puti’s blood stain remained as evidence of the battle that had taken place.

“Anybody hungry? Micky D’s?” Kamikaze said.

Maria thanked Kamikaze for the ride but said frostily, “I’m going to heat up some real food. I don’t want any of that McDonald’s crap.” Then she got out of the car.

“I’m not hungry,” Chulito said through his swollen lips.

“Not even for a milkshake?” Kamikaze asked.

Chulito smiled and winced because it hurt.

“Even all beat up, you’re still beautiful, Chulito,” Carlos said.

“Awwww.” Kamikaze teased.

“Shup up, yo,” Chulito said.

Kamikaze looked toward the backseat at Carlos. “So, three shakes?”

“Not for me,” Carlos said. “I think mom’s cooking is more my style. You coming, Chulito?”

“In a few. I’m gonna get a shake.”

Carlos leaned forward and hugged Chulito, who sat in the passenger’s seat. “I’ll wait up.”

He patted Carlos’ arm. “Cool, ‘cause I think you wants to play doctor.”

Kamikaze covered his ears playfully. “Too much info, bro.”

Without making eye contact, Carlos thanked Kamikaze and got out of the car.

They rode the three blocks down to McDonald’s silently. Chulito knew every inch of those blocks as they passed—the order of auto glass shops, the colors in the giant Tats Cru mural, the cracks in the rose brick wall surrounding the Banknote building, the vehicle line-up of the school bus company and the ever changing oil slicks on the ground at the gas station with the Dunkin’ Donuts. Everything seemed the same, but it wasn’t. Whereas before the dirt and the grime were just a part of the neighborhood, he now saw them as disgusting. He had to live with the dirt all his life because he had no other choice. He had to just deal with it. But he realized that he had choices and living in Hunts Point was a choice. He tried to imagine a different life—a life where he could love Carlos and not have to fight or watch his back, where there was more good times and less dealing with shit, where he could find a new way of living, where they could wake up feeling relaxed, go to the movies, eat at restaurants without being hassled, where they could go to the beach and swim, feeling open and free. Would he have to leave Hunts Point to have this life he was imagining or did he have the balls to do it here? Was that even possible?

Kamikaze pulled up in line at the drive through. “Want anything else? Fries?”

Chulito shook his head. “Don’t think I can handle anything else. My jaw hurts like hell.”

Kamikaze patted his knee. “Then don’t talk, little bro.”

But Chulito needed to talk because every punch, shove and kick with which Papo came down on him didn’t keep him down. He fought back. He stood up. And even though it felt like every bone and muscle in his body was bruised, he felt powerful.

“If I have to, I will fight every single day, but I feel like I want to go live somewhere else. Someplace where being with Carlos is not the end of the world.”

Kamikaze nodded and listened.

“Look at me, Kaz, I’m wrecked and this was done by Papo. Someone I used to look up to. Someone who’s known me most of my life.” Chulito paused. He wanted to say the one thing he was afraid of saying to him up front. Maybe it was the adrenaline that was still pulsing through his body, but he felt it was now or never. “These streets look the same but everything is different, right?”

Kamikaze moved his head from side to side weighing Chulito’s question. The car moved up and Kamikaze placed the order.

Chulito closed his eyes and breathed evenly. This was his moment. He had to let Kamikaze know that he wanted out of the game. He felt the car move forward again and heard Kamikaze pay for their order. His heart began to pick up its pace as he felt the car move and stop behind the next car. Then he looked at Kamikaze, who’d been watching him attentively. “I’m thinking, that, maybe…” Chulito paused. “I’m thinking I should get out of the game. Find a job doing something. Go legit.”