The Circle: Rain's Story (14 page)

Miss
Jackie looked in Rain’s fearful eyes and was stunned, and realized all at once, her friend was on the verge of losing her mind, or worse. In all the years, she has known her, even as a child, Rain feared nothing or no one, and certainly would not beg.

Rain watched
Miss Jackie lower her head and body go limp. She knew the old woman cared for her and was dying inside from seeing her like she was, but she simply had no one else to turn to. In a gentle, cracking voice, Rain watched her nod her head and say.

“Okay, what is it that you need me to do?”
Rain hadn’t had any strength to jump for joy. She was too desperate and got straight down to business.

“
I need you to hook me up with someone who can get me one those, you know…” Rain began to stumble over her words to remember. “Do you think you could find someone that knows how to make explosives that would detonate?”

Miss
Jackie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She been getting and supplying her with guns and grenades for the past decade, but nothing even close and deadly as TNT or C-4 explosives. Miss Jackie immediately voiced her dissatisfaction. “No, Rain. I can’t allow you to do another stunt like you did at the court house. No.” Miss Jackie continued and shook her head adamantly. “It was a miracle you got away the first time, and you had a lot of help pulling it off and barely got away. It ain’t no way you can do the same for Dayvid.”

“I’m not trying to break him out this time….!” Rain shouted.
The bathroom turned silent as her words echoed off the walls. Miss Jackie turned her head sideway, like a curious K-9, as she studied Rain’s face. In a deadened flat tone. “Rain, what you planning on doing with the explosives?”

Once again, Rain could not look her in the eyes and remained silent. It became apparent and clear to
Miss Jackie, what she needed the explosives for. Rain saw it in Miss Jackie’s face that she had figured it out.

“So, now
you’re going to kill yourself and take your brother with you?” She asked in astonishment. Just as she was about to ridicule her more, Rain stopped her cold. “Miss Jackie please!” Rain shouted tossing her hands up to her face. “When you were out on the streets killing yourself using drugs, I never questioned you nor did I try telling you what to do because you were a grown ass woman. So please, respect me like I always respected you.” Miss Jackie had nothing more else to say because she knew she was right and submitted and said simply.

“I hear you.”

Rain explained her plan to Miss Jackie for the next ten minutes; erratic, nervous and at times delusional. Miss Jackie could not help but look at her deceased best friend’s children, in that state of mind that she was in, knowing exactly what she was going to do. But, it was simply nothing she could do at that point.

“I’ll need some time to set everything up with my contact. Those things
you asked for are specialties.” Miss Jackie reminded her. “Not like the grenades and guns I got for you the last time.” Rain understood and nodded. She then asked with her eyes bugged out, encircled with dark shadow from sleep deprivation.

“How are we going to make contact
? When it’s gonna be ready and where the drop going to be at?” She asked in a panic. Miss Jackie inhaled and thought for a second then said               “You got to stay out of Maryland, it’s too dangerous. I want you to take some of that money, keep your ass in a hotel room until I can come meet you to make the deal.”

Rain nodded again. “You got a hotel in mind outside Maryland?” Rain tho
ught for a second and said.

“Yeah
.” Rain blinked, “at the, umm, Ritz-Carlton in McLean, Virginia, about an hour’s drive away from Baltimore. Have you ever been to Tyson Galleria Mall?” Miss Jackie shook her head.

“I don’t know, but I’ll find it. What name are you going under?”

“Karen White.” Miss Jackie nodded and took everything to memory, but warned. “Rain, I’m serious. If I see you looking like you do now, I’m calling this whole thing off. You hear me?” Rain smiled and promised that she will take care of herself. They hugged, and just before Miss Jackie walked out the bathroom, she turned around and said.

“Rain, I don’t know if I ever told you this, but I love you
,your brother and sisters more than you ever known. Your mother made me your Godmother, and I didn’t always feel good about that title in the old days, because she always told me that in case she wasn’t here, that I should protect you.” Miss Jackie gazed at her hard and long. “It’s about time I step up and do my job of protecting you and your brother.” Just like that, she turned and walked out the bathroom.

*
              *              *

An hour later, Rain was back inside her rental, distressed by the reality of events that just happened. It was no doubt in her
mind that she was at the end of her days, end of time, and was falling apart. She questioned was she really as strong as she thought she was her whole life? Blunt in hand, she lifted it up to her lips, lit it with her lighter and took a long deep pull of the dense herb into her lungs and held it.

She closed her eyes, leaned back into her car seat, and let the drug do
its job. After a few seconds, she let out an eruption of smoke, it oozed out slowly. As she sat in a drug induced altered state, her eyes widened as if she saw a ghost and suddenly became spooked when she heard a voice in the backseat behind her.

“Rain
.”
She yelped in panic and scrambled for her bag in the passenger in search of her gun. Desperate and fumbling for it, she felt strong hands on her shoulders, and then a hand cuffed her mouth.

Rain was struggling violently, she couldn’t
breathe. When she found the gun, she ripped it out of her bag, throwing caution to the wind and just started firing off rounds. She felt the hand remove from her mouth, fresh air again gushed down her throat and into her lungs. Rain turned quickly, to finish off her assailant, and realized that they were already gone. She kept batting her eyes, lurched over her seat, to see if he was on the floor. Nothing. She took a glance out the windows; all she saw were exiting church folks, running or taking cover. Rain was sweating and breathing rapidly as she tried to make sense of it. Her head swiveled to the back passenger doors, they were both locked. She looked around the car, blown windows and bullet holes peppered the entire car.

“Get out of here Rain.” Her mind told her. She quickly turned on the car ignition, and s
ped away like a bat out of hell towards the closest highway towards Virginia.  

Chapter 22

After her
Sixth Sense moment, instead of going according to her own understanding, she decided to follow Miss Jackie’s advice, and get herself together and back to health— mind, body and soul. Her mind could no longer be trusted. Rain realized that she was breaking every rule of the game by not playing it smart and that disturbed her. She positioned her own self because of stupidity and a moment of weakness, but because of that incident, it gave her clarity and above all, she was a Porter, and Porters don’t lose. She reached in her bag and pulled out the ounce or so of weed she had left and tossed it all out the window. She smiled and thought to herself….

“You can’t play games with the girl who made the rules.”

*              *              *

She decided to pull off the exit, and the first stop was to
get her some food in her system, so she stopped off at Denny’s. Before she went inside, she put a change of clothes in her bag, and headed straight to the bathroom stall to change her clothes and appearance.

She was tired of playing girl, and all the girlish clothing she was wearing and wore her jeans and sweat shirt again. It felt instantly like heaven when she slipped on her black Nike Boots, instead of those a
trocious women heels, or flats. They dehumanized her when she wore them, and besides they ripped her corns and bunions to pieces. Rain washed her under arms and face the best she could, primed up her hair with her fingers, but for the most part, she felt better than she had in weeks. With the aromatic scent of breakfast that wafted in the air and into the bathroom, her stomach began growling. She had her appetite back and was ready to feed and mend her body back to health.

*
              *              *

It was nearing two
in the morning when she exited the restaurant, feeling upbeat, and stuffed. She had to go to the bathroom twice to throw up because she abused her body so badly, it was in severe starvation mode, and rejecting such gluttonous amount of food all at once. It didn’t matter to Rain; she ate with her eyes and felt fantastic.

Rain too
k in a deep breath of fresh air and looked up at the moon and stars. She knew she didn’t have that much time left, so she might as well enjoy every single moment she thought. She looked at the rental she was driving. It was blown to bloody hell, and didn’t want to take a chance of riding it again.

She reached in her jean pocket, and pulled out a wad of money, then walked back inside. Her eyes scanned the restaurant until she was satisfied that she
found what she was looking for, a young, black girl who was serving tables. Rain waited for the young girl, she looked no older than eighteen or nineteen, and approached her as she was about to pass.

“Excuse me, do they have cabs that run this time of night?” The young girl, who appeared jittery from the overwhelming load of customers she had, was courteous in spite of that fact. With beads of sweat forming on her forehead and brow, she smile
d and said, “Yes, they have cab service that run all night. My car broke down on me a number of times and I had to call one. You need one?”

“Yes, I’d like one, thanks.”

Just give me one second while I put in these orders. I have the number in my phone, I’ll call one for you, okay?” Rain smiled and nodded.

Five minutes later, the
young girl quickly and gingerly walked back over to Rain, as promised, cell phone in hand, already dialing the number. She handed Rain the phone, and Rain turned her back and spoke in a whisper as she spoke to the cab dispatcher. When Rain finished, she graciously handed the girl back her phone and thanked her.

“I appreciate that.”

“No problem. Get home safely and thank you for dining at Denny’s.” As she was about to walk away, Rain asked her. “Excuse me. Can I ask you a question?”

Still wide-eyed, the girl smiled and said
, “Sure.”

“Do you like working here
?” asked Rain, out of curiosity. The girl shrugged her shoulders and admitted. “It helps me pay my bills, plus it doesn’t conflicts with my school hours.”

Rain lifted a brow.

“You work at night and go to school?”

“Yup, I got to do what I got to do. Nob
ody isn’t going to do it for me, so I got to do what I got to do.” Rain stared at the young girl, and was smitten by her. Her determination and mannerisms reminded her so much of her little sister Autumn when she was younger.

“What are you going to school to become?” The girl gushed and hesitated. Rain chuckled and asked. “What’s that pausing all about
? You hiding something?” She stated coyly, almost child-like. 

“
No, it’s not that. It’s just that every time I tell people what I’m going to school for or what I want to become they laugh and try to discourage me.”

Rain grew serious and said flatly
, “I won’t, so try me.”

The girl put both hands in her back pocket and eyed the floor. Seconds later, she lifted her head and said with a tad of
defiance.

“I want to become a pediatric doctor and work with kids. The
n get my own practice and help poor families in my neighborhood for free.” The young girl awaited a reaction from Rain, but didn’t see her flinch. Rain then asked. “Where is your neighborhood at?”

“West Baltimore.”
Rain smiled and said. “So am I.” The young girl smiled.

“Why would you want to go back
there and open a practice and do it for free when you can make much more money opening up a practice somewhere else?” Rain said to test her.

“I guess I could, but sometimes you can’t always follow money, but you
can always follow your passion. That’s just what I want to do that would make me happy.” Rain stared at the girl flabbergasted.

“Are you okay, ma’am?” The girl asked. Rain snapped out of her momentary hazed and asked.

“Yeah, I’m okay, but, umm, what’s your name?” Their conversation was interrupted by the girl’s manager.

“
Tiara….” A 30- something white boy, with a blonde, military type, buzz cut hair, stomped towards them; loud, beet red, and fuming his displeasure. “What in God’s name are you doing chatting when you got all these people waiting to give their orders.” He demanded, not waiting for an answer.

“Get your butt back to work, now!”

Rain saw the girl named Tiara body become paralyzed in fear and grew angry and was about to obediently follow his orders.

“Hold up Tiara
!” Rain snapped, at high volume. She turned her wrath on the manager               “How the hell do you get off by talking to an employee like that in front of a customer she was helping….isn’t that part of service?”