YNs—The Street Spectacle

1990

Her heels clicked against the Wilmington, Delaware pavement. A trail of blood oozed from the corner of her mouth. Her hair had become matted to her forehead but she appeared immaculate in a business suit. She smiled with blood between her teeth. Her nails had chipped and broken. In her right hand she held a satchel of crisply unmarked bills totalling two million dollars. A strong gait accelerated her pace. She smiled.

A DAYS EARLIER

In a room the size of an insurance salesman’s office, Kaline Lollard leaned back. She pushed the purple marijuana leaf into the air, her lungs a haven for the psychoactive narcotic.

“Boss, I mean we can’t cross Devina,” Elder Tilden mentioned. He shrugged.

“Who said we can’t?”

Tilden looked at Welden Matt sitting beside him.

“Boss, what we’ve got is a war brewing. If we cross her, we won’t have the opportunity to do business in the future.”

“I don’t want to do business. I want to make money. If it takes crossing that bitch, then so be it.” She puffed one more and squashed the J out into an ashtray like a finger being crushed. “What we should be focused on is taking over this block anyway. What the hell?

Tilden and Welden looked at each other.

“I know one thing. We can shut down her whole operation with just a phone call.”

“Alright, we can do that and then what?”

“Then we move in and expand.”

“Let’s put runners in front of her building tomorrow,” Kaline mentioned. She pondered this.

“Problem. She has shooters. She can pick them off one by one,” Tilden related.

“Well, we’ve got replacements right?”

“Sure—but….”

“But nothing. Get those numbskulls down there and guard the doors to our place and issue some runners in front of her post.”

Matt looked at Welden. “Roger.”

They left her presence. She held up a vial of crack cocaine. A smirk crossed her face as she lit another J.

That next day, she saw couriers stand guard with M-16 like weapons. Devina called.

“What are you trying to do?”

“It’s a coup.”

“No it’s not.”

Kaline sighed. “This has to happen.”

“We must talk about this.”

“Please. We already called for the city—”

“The city, tuh!” Devina replied in disbelief.

“We’re allowed to show firearms if that’s what you were thinking….” Kaline.

“Of course, there’s that….”

“It’s all covered. We’re running you off the block. Salvage what you can. In two days, you’re going to be removed from the premises. Isn’t that what they say?”

“All of this for what?”

“What do you mean ‘for what?’ My curbs are swerving and you’re not. It could be because you’ve got a weaker product. I don’t know. I just need you to take up shop in Southbridge or the East Side. The West just got won.”

Devina hung up the phone. She took out a pencil and sketched the formation of capos and couriers. Her connections all aligned and made it into an entire unit. Firstly, she sketched out a way for her people to exit. She wanted to get that out of the way. What felt so enticing to her presented the plan for two couriers to enter the building at the same time. They would then dispatch her shooters with swiftness. They had kung fu and Taekwondo training.

With them in the building, she would allow her capos to take out their counterparts. The pen bled into the sheet of paper. With every stroke, she moved closer to her goal of usurping power from her foe. She lit a J and laughed.

The following day, the exchange of powers seemed to be at hand with no blood lost. The sun made a hazy sky on this spring day. It felt like her troops were well-fed with food and ammunition, just in case mayhem precipitated.

Devina peered out her window. Two runners with semiautomatic weapons appeared before her desk. Kaline strolled into her office and sat down in front of her. She crossed her legs and asked for a light to her marijuana cigarette. A courier for Devina extended a light.

“It’s over. Like, over over,” Kaline reminded.

“You’re not running me off the block. You’re going to go back with your people and stay away.”

“Away?”

“That’s right.”

“How’s that?”

“You’ll see tomorrow.”

“Let’s talk about today,” Devina protested.

Kaline shrugged. “We could, but everything’s set in place for tomorrow.”

Devina nodded. “Once you retreat from this ground, you will go up and rip up your plans. It’s not worth all of this.”

“‘All of this’ you brought upon yourself. Every bit of it is business. You lost your share of this corner because your product got weak. We maintained our standards and flourished. What must I explain further?”

“You’re not going to take this block.”

“You’re going to give up the block with no casualties. You will comply. You don’t have to die, but….”

“Hallow threats. That’s all they are.” Devina shook her head and smiled. She noted the trail of smoke lifting to the ceiling. It curled like a question mark hanging over both women’s heads.

“It’s going to happen and no soldier on my team will fall. If you get cute, your capos to your lowest courier will need to be put in Boxwood’s funerary care.”

“Hallow threats.”

“Do you not see the armaments?”

“We can match that.”

“What? With a tank?”

“You’ll see.”

“We’ll see. Tomorrow.”

“So be it.”

Keline raised from her chair and continued to the door as her capos followed her.

On the day where Kaline donned an all white suit, she looked like cuticles. She was so clean. Devina just wore a military camouflage uniform. She put sunglasses on her face as the sunny day invited the warring crack houses to come to a head in their actions. The House of Devina and Kaline’s Corner would be engaged in a total transition of powers in a few minutes. Kaline walked down the block with Tilden and Matt. More runners joined in and made a small parade with associates and even other business owners trailing them. With guns visible as fresh blossoms from trees, they marched in a V-formation to the House of Devina. They showed strength but didn’t display outright aggression. During this assembly, Kaline’s runners already ran into The House of Devina. The two women squared off right in the middle of the street.

“Okay ‘tomorrow’ is here.” She lifted her palms up in the air and leaned her head to the side. The satchel stood by her right leg.

“Your digital files are being seized…your data is being stripped from your hard drives…your runners are being rounded up, well, the ones not behind you…but they will be placed on buses under your name to go eastward.”

“What is happening?” Devina looked around her and saw the people retreat from her presence. They walked away from her and watched as she reared back and punched Kaline in the mouth. The muscle on both sides gripped their weapons. She took the shot and backslapped Davina.

“Alright. We’re even. Hand over the bag and I’ll be on my way.”

“That seems clever, but if you really have gutted my entire operation, I’m going to need to keep the contents of this satchel,” Devina sneered.

Then, the sound of photographers, street photojournalists really captured the standoff. On a corner, a writer jotted down the scene with precision and objectivity. There seemed to be humidity rising in the air. It became thick and soupy.

“I know you wanted to claim my spot so running me off the block was just something you yearned for, you wanted it.”

Kaline shook her head and raised her left eyebrow. “You don’t care enough about yourself to even consider the idea that you could do better….”

Devina laughed lightly. It sounded like a small crackle escaping from her throat. She turned around at the sound of clatter. She turned back to see a Desert Eagle in her face. Devina’s soldiers trained their sights on Kaline. Her people looked at the weapons of the other side, too.

“Even if I’m shot, I’ve got capos who will move in to take my place. I want you to know that,” Devina divined more to herself than to Kaline. What she felt was the queasiness of the moment, the soupiness, the fact the street remained flooded with people and cars honking. Neither woman gave a damn. They fixed their gaze upon the people who had to be recognized. They consisted of the shooters on the rooftops and those who had witnessed the two women accost the other. Not a shot whistled in the wind.

“I’m going to get that satchel. I’m going to walk away and your team is going to leave peaceably. That is the final stretch to all of this nonsense,” Kaline declared, her words hard and even.

The sound of large furniture being shifted around the space caused no one but Kaline’s team to stir. The firepower she had behind her could lay down all of her opponents. A twinge of victory sat well in her spirit. A sense of elevation bubbled up in her mind. They didn’t care about the babies crying or the old men going inside. No one called the cops through all of this. No one. You expect a squadron of cruisers descending upon the place. No one informed the authorities. Those that honked backed their car out simply. Or, they pulled over to the curb and watched the street spectacle. There seemed to be a bit of theater involved here. Each of the members on both sides of the female leaders kept their aim on the other side.

“What you’re going to do,” Devina started, “is go into your block and I’m going to reorganize my team. That’s all that’s going to happen here.”

Kaline smirked and licked the blood from the side of her mouth. “No, actually you’re going to pack up and go to Eastside. I heard it’s like paradise. No more of this competition on the West.”

“You said go there already….” Devina rolled her eyes.

“I’m not finished. I talked with some of the heads on Southbridge. They didn’t want you either. East Side wants you to revitalize that area. Push more product. Make the block bump.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes, we’ve found you a great location that will be even more accommodating to both of us. I rule the West and you take your operation to the other part of the map. There’s a complex set up just for you to conduct business.”

Devina cut eyes at Kaline. “I owe you.”

“Yes, you do,” Kaline replied. “Like the contents of that satchel.”

Devina brought her head back and shook her head in a sign of release or relaxation.

“You can have it. It’s been a rough time setting all that up for me.”

“It’s not for you. It’s for me. I have to expand on the block and you were in my way. I didn’t want to send anyone to Boxwood. If this open air deal remains kosher, I’ll have my territory and you can settle into your own turf.”

Kaline smiled at this last remark she made. The smear of her lipstick and the blood she tried to remedy right in the street with a mirror. Both women looked down and then up again. “This is all we have left….Take this. Because you have to do so.” The sound of a moving truck with its beep…beep…beep indicating that it was backing up did not deter the shooters from keeping their targets trained on Kaline.

“You’ve won! You achieved the high score! You beat the boss at the end. So I go but not before showing you that I appreciate this for being less violent, at least,” Devina admitted. She handed over the satchel. It took $300,000 to move all of Devina’s operations to Southbridge. With the $1.7 million, Kaline thought she would invest in some government bonds for her couriers.