Chapter 2
May 10, 2023
Huey's Apartment
6:23 AM
"Freedom from what?" "Rage, depression, loneliness…" "Sin."
Huey stands on the balcony watching the sun rising over downtown Chicago with the conversation shared with his cousin fresh on his mind. He observes three seagulls as they appear to fly toward the sun.
'Freedom.'
His iPhone chimes inside his pocket. Huey pulls it out and checks the screen. It reads, "Facebook: JeNeil Miles requesting to be friends."
***
Gym
9:20 AM
Caesar throws back his head, sending droplets of sweat flying from his brown and thick dreadlocks. He wipes his forehead and takes a drink from his water bottle. He looks over at Huey to see him on his fifth repetition of s-curls with a sixty pound dumbbell. Both are sporting generic brand athletic clothing. Huey wears a black sleeveless top, while Caesar's is blue; and both have on a pair of black shorts.
Caesar picks his dumbbells up and returns them to the rack. "I talked to Neil on Facebook today."
Huey freezes mid-curl. "Okay."
Caesar sits down on the workout bench across from Huey and smiles. "That man is still crazy."
Huey returns to performing his exercises. "Delusional almost."
Caesar rubs his hands together as he ponders on his next thought. "Life really seems to be going good for him right now…"
"Did he give you the whole Jesus talk?"
Caesar pushes his hair out his face. "Sort of, but not really. He mentioned it, but did not go into deep details. The main subject was simply about living. The way he talked about it made me feel like I never experienced life before." He snorts.
Huey drops the dumbbell to the matted floor. "Caesar, don't tell me you buying into this." He says in a serious tone.
Caesar holds his hands up in defense. "Bro, be easy! It never hurts just to do a little research on things. This is nothing serious at all."
"Whatever. You better stay focused."
Caesar gives a small laugh. "Never, this business has come too far for me to lose focus."
***
May 12, 2023
Roots HQ Building- Presidents Office
10:03 AM
Huey lays his head down on his desk. His cell phone lies next to him as Mr. Branford's thick southern accent begins to repeat itself, but with different words. Huey turns his head to his left to come in view of two framed pictures. The one on the left showcases a beautiful woman with flawless and luscious brown skin, and brown, curly hair draped over her shoulders. Her smile is large showing off a full case of pearly whites. She wears a green sleeveless dress and stands with her hip poked out toward the camera. In the picture to the right stands Caesar and himself in matching overcoats in front of the Roots building after it was done being constructed.
"Mr. Freeman," Huey's attention is still drawn to the two pictures. "I say, Mr. Freeman, are you there, son?"
Huey sits up and grabs the phone. "Yea, I didn't catch that last part."
"I say, is Friday a good time ta meet with ya, son?"
"Friday will be great, Mr. Branford. See you Friday." Huey breaks connection and tosses his phone over his shoulder. He predicts today to be a long and boring day.
"Why do I do this to myself?" He grumbles before retrieving his laptop. He begins going through his email. The most fun he got out of that was deleting spam. Surfing the net became old a long time ago, leaving him with no other choice but Facebook.
After logging in, the icons to the top left of the site displays that he has two new messages, one wall post and one friend request. Without thinking twice, he goes to the friend request and accepts it. Next he makes his way to his messages. He easily responds to those and continues on to his wall. The post was placed by Cindy and all it said was, "Hi." Huey ignores it and goes to the newsfeed to view what everyone else has been posting today. Ironically, the first status he notices is Neil's which was posted three minutes ago.
"All I require is you." says God. When will we learn that God is far passed our human understanding? Changes are made when we are with Him. [Let's get deeper in His love and faith.]
"All God wants is you, Huey. Just you."
Huey blinks hard as he realizes he just escaped a trance. 'Let's not go there.'
Let's.
He remains still for a long moment. Did he just think that?
***
Huey's Apartment
3:28 PM
"What's up, Huey?" says Caesar. Huey stares at his phone in disbelief. He takes a seat on his couch and takes a deep breath.
"What's up? You tell me! I haven't heard from you in three days."
"Well…"
The laugh of a female fills the background. Huey can't help but to smile, as his anger begins to go away. "Dating again?"
There's a long pause. "No."
Huey props his leg on top of the other and stretches his arm over the couch. "Who is that laughing then?"
"That would be Ryan."
"Ryan?"
"I am a lady!" Ryan's voice is deafening in Huey's ear.
Caesar laughs. "She is really awesome, Huey. You should meet her."
"Where are you?"
"Who are you talking to?"
"Huey…"
Huey could even hear her gasping dramatically. "Your best friend? Hey Huey!"
Huey's clutch on the phone tightens. "Why does she know my name?"
"Bro, chill! Ryan is down to earth."
"I love you, Huey!"
Huey brings his leg down and scoots to the edge of his seat. "Caesar, I need to talk business with you."
"Okay," Caesar excuses himself from Ryan. "Lay it on me."
"Are you ready for tomorrow night?"
Hesitation. "Yea, sure. I'm gamed."
Huey jumps to his feet. "YOU FORGOT!"
"I have been busy." He says timidly. "I just got a little sidetracked."
"Save the excuses. Just be there on time!" Huey hangs up and drops his phone. 'What could possibly take his mind off this?'
Connecting.
'With what?'
People. Building relationships.
'What?'
Huey tugs at his fro. "What am I thinking?"
Later on that afternoon, Huey sits in a chair out on his balcony with his laptop in his lap. Never could he understand how Facebook has become a daily pastime for him being that he usually never finds anything exciting about it. Eventually, his monitor shows the page of Neil. He figured Caesar's curiosity was beginning to rub off on him. Neil's last status was posted fifty-six minutes ago.
"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothed yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." –Colossians 3:12-14.
'How cute.' Huey notices a wall post underneath it. Ryan Bradley?
I love your face off, JeNeil! And your friend is soooooo FUNNY! ^_^ "Why go ham? Go turkey!" Bahahahaha!
"No way!" Huey places the cursor on Ryan's name and watches as a small list of mutual friends appears. It shows JeNeil Miles and Michael Caesar. He clicks on her name and pulls up her page. Her profile picture shows her blowing bubbles in the park. She has a tan complexion with red, bushy hair. Huey clicks on her info and begins scrolling through her details. He places his hand on top of his forehead. "What is going on?"
Heart exchange.
Huey wipes his hand down his face. "I just need sleep."
***
May 13, 2023
Elway's Manor
12:04 AM
Melanin places two fingers on the side of his mask operating the radio. "Status."
The first voice to speak is raspy and feminine. "This is Tic. All targets eliminated."
Next is a gentle male's voice. "Ivan. We're clear."
The third voice comes off chirpy and high-pitched. "Jill. I'm ready for the next phase, Mel."
The final voice is extremely low in tone. "Rice speaking. All is ready, boss."
"Excellent. Hold your positions."
Melanin motions for the other three members of his squad to move in on the pursuit into the Elway's manor. It doesn't take them long to scale the stone wall separating the pool area from the wood line.
After everyone made it over the wall, Blink is the first to move. His face is covered with a dark blue mask and he wears a black vest with matching pants. Robin is right behind him wearing a red mask, and her attire is similar to Blink's. A full five seconds later, Seek finally begins to make his way over to the two. Melanin rushes upon him and grabs him by the black fabrics covering his chest.
"Where is your head at?" he hisses.
Seek sighs. "She is just a child."
"Don't pretend like this is the first time we had to do this. Sacrifices are necessary and I did not think I would have to be giving this lecture tonight."
"This is not right." He says solemnly.
Melanin places the tip of his gun in his chest. "You are either with me or against me."
Robin and Blink gaze on at the scene. Robin crosses her finger while Blink folds his arms impatiently. Seek sighs again. "To the end."
Melanin lets go of him. "Good."
After the moment, the squad of four breaks through the back door unafraid of an alarm system due to the power being cut ten minutes prior. They navigated their way inside the house smoothly. Splitting the squad into two, Melanin and Robin goes off to retrieve Robert Elway's granddaughter as Seek and Blink pursues Robert Elway himself. It did not take long for the four to complete their tasks. Their rendezvous point is the manor's library. All but Robin makes their way there. Seek and Blink is the first to enter with Robert, whom they have taken hostage. After binding him to his seat, Melanin drifts in with his hands behind his back.
"Have I discussed with you what one of my biggest pet peeves are, Mr. Elway?" Melanin stops in front of the congressman. The wrinkles in his chocolate face stretches deeper as he looks into Melanin's visor. Suddenly, Melanin's right hand flies from behind his back and sinks into Robert's stomach. His head snaps forward as he emits a low groan. "Being mocked." Melanin grabs him by his graying hair and forces him to sit back up.
Blink places a laptop in his lap and begins playing a video of Robert's latest speech. "I will not fall to the likes of these masked fools!"
"That's you, pal?" Blink snickers.
Robert gazes at the screen with weary eyes. "What do you want from me?"
Melanin motions for Blink to move the laptop. "I am going to make an example of you, Mr. Elway."
Seek opens the door and Robin walks in with twelve year old Denise. Blink laughs. "She chose the wrong day to spend the night over gramps house."
"No!" Robert begins to fight with all his might to break free from the chair, but it is useless. Robin flicks out a knife, and the tears begin to pour from Robert's eyes. "Take anything! I'll give you whatever you want. Just leave my grandbaby out of this, Melanin."
Melanin shrugs. "You had your chance. Now I must discipline you. Besides, you still have other grandchildren." Melanin signals for the death.
Robin's plans are to do it as quick as possible for the girl's sake. As her grip tightens on the blade, Seek grabs her hand and forces it out. She's caught off guard by his actions; however, adrenaline instantly kicks in. She tosses Denise to the side and throws a powerful right foot to Seek's head. Seek blocks it with his forearm and rams his knee into her gut. She doubles over, setting her up for Seek to deliver a quick elbow drop to the back of her neck, dropping her to the floor.
"Seek!" screams Melanin. Blink immediately withdraws his gun, but Melanin places a hand on his wrist. Seek picks up the girl bridal style and dashes out the room. Blink snatches away from Melanin and begins pursuing after him. Melanin glances at Robert, then back at the door. "Seek!" He finally follows suit and run out the door.
Once in the hallway, Melanin takes a right thinking they were heading the way they came. However, the sound of gun shots in the opposite direction changes his route. After a few seconds of running, he comes across Blink holding his shoulder while sitting against the wall. "He shot me! Melanin, he actually shot me!"
"I'll come back for you." Melanin continues running pass Blink.
"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine!" Blink screams out toward him as he watches him take a left on to the next hall.
Melanin finally comes into eyesight of Seek standing alone in front of the staircase leading down to the main doors. Before he could reach him completely, Seek points his gun at him. Melanin stops running and begins walking toward him at a quick pace. "Do it."
"No." Seek drops the gun and kicks it down the stairs. "You don't know God yet."
"I should have known!" growls Melanin. He bolts toward Seek. As Seek takes a step back, Melanin drops low and lifts his fist with much force delivering a massive uppercut. Seek's mask flies one way as Seek's body goes the other. Melanin quickly pins him to the floor and places his gun through the mess of dreads covering his face.
"You know what happens to traitors!"
Caesar takes a long breath. "I am your right-hand man. Of course."
Huey clenches the gun tighter. "Why didn't you kill me when you had a chance?"
"If I die tonight I am confident that I will be seeing God."
"He doesn't exist!"
Caesar smiles. "I'll take my chances. Besides, the Bible says to love our brothers."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Because I love you I won't take your life."
Melanin shoves the gun deeper into his skull as he tries to ignore the tears sliding on the inside of his mask. As he begins putting pressure on the trigger, he could feel the inside of his heart experiencing a fissure. The vibrations from his heart seem to spread, because now he has a wobbly hand and his vision begins to double.
"Caesar!" He removes the gun from Caesar's head and fires off two shots down the hall. Caesar opens his eyes, surprised that he's still alive.
Melanin stands to his feet and puts his gun away. He stares down on Caesar for a full thirty seconds before deciding to help him up. Caesar can only wonder how that face looked behind the mask right now.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" Huey says so low, that it almost sound like a whisper. "You are giving up on our dream for a wild goose chase?" he shouts.
Caesar shakes his head. "No. I am giving up your dream. This is not my calling. I was designed to make music, not take over a nation that's going to wither away."
"What does any of that has to do with God?"
"He has given me life. Life that I have not felt since I was a child." Caesars lets out a hearty laugh. "Huey, I am so alive now!" he exclaims with open hands.
"You are being ridiculous!" he says hopelessly.
"You just don't understand."
"So start making sense."
"Come." Caesar holds out his hand toward Melanin. "Leave all of this behind and come with me. We can take this walk together!" he says pleadingly. "We don't have to be separated."
"Separated?" Melanin clenches his fist. "Let me guess, God is now your everything? Twenty-seven years of friendship counts for nothing? You are going to be disloyal to me because of some made-up man that sits in the sky?"
Caesar gives him a sympathetic look. "Bro, I can't live a double life."
Melanin's body rattles like an erupting volcano. His fist flies from his body like a canon ball and sinks into the wall creating a small crater.
"Just like her!" His voice echoes throughout the manor. Melanin breathes heavily as he stares down his best friend of many years. No words could describe the feeling he feels inside toward him at the moment. A part of him wants to execute the punishment for betrayal, but he just couldn't get over the fact that the person in front of him was his best friend. His brother!
"You never existed to me."
The words hits Caesar harder than that bullet would have. "Huey…"
Melanin picks up Caesar's mask and begins walking back in the area where Blink has fallen. "If we cross paths again you die."
Caesar begins to follow after. "But Huey…"
Melanin pulls out his gun again and points it in his face. "We are done."
Caesar looks directly into the visor. "I am going to miss you." A tear rolls from his eye. Melanin returns the gun to its place and storms off. Caesar has a strong urge to chase after him and try apologizing, but he resists.
"God, give me strength."