Sunni
Chapter Three
Leonardo whistled softly from behind the trash cans in the dark alley. Above him, hidden in the evening shadows, Michaelangelo clung to the steel fire escape stairs. Mike looked down and raised a finger, silently asking Leo to wait just a bit longer. He could feel Leo's impatience like a peppery dust blowing over him.
Hang on, Leo. Gimme a break here…
Michaelangelo listened again at the broken window to the two young women talking inside the apartment. They would speak first in Spanish, and then in English, but he had been able to discern that one of the two was Miguel's mother, and the other, probably a girlfriend.
"I am telling you I am doing everything they want me to do!" said Miguel's mother.
"What about Herve?" asked the other.
The response came in Spanish and both women laughed. Mike guessed whatever they had said about Herve wasn't very flattering.
"No, really, I am completely out of that life now. I am off the junk, I am working a straight job, no more on the street-"
"I can tell that, Carmella. You are not making the kind of money you were before."
"Ok, so this place is not so beautiful. But it was what I had to do. Look, I would do anything for my son. If ACS tell me they want me to stand on my head and sing the Star Spangle Banner, I would do that. They are not going to take him away from me. And you know the funny thing, I do feel better."
"Well, you look good."
Outside Leonardo whistled again and Mike looked down at him.
"So is he ok?" Leo hissed.
Mike nodded and soundlessly moved back down the fire escape ladder. Once at the bottom he whispered, "I just wanted to make sure his Mom was home tonight."
Leo nodded and motioned with his head. The two stole quickly back through the alleyway.
"Leo," said Mike. "What's ACS?"
"I don't know."
"Miguel's mom was saying ACS wanted her to stand on her head or something. Or they would take him away."
Leo frowned. "Administration for Children's Services?"
Mike looked at him. "Yeah. I bet that's it."
Close to a wide street Leonardo looked up. "I know it's early, but lets take the roof tops."
Using a torn awning they swung up to a storm drain, and shinnied up to the roof of the old brownstone. They began traveling east, jogging lightly over the tar papered roofs and leaping with casual grace between buildings.
"Hey, Leo," said Mike drawing up next to him at the edge of one decorative brick cornice. "What makes Children's Services decide to take a kid away from his family?"
Leo shrugged. He looked preoccupied, gazing out over Manhattan's glittering nightscape before them. "Lots of things, I think."
"Like what?"
"Oh, you know, like abuse. Like if a parent is hitting a kid."
"Drugs?"
"I think so. If the parents are on drugs and they can't take care of him." Leo turned to Mike. "You worried about them?"
"Nah. I don't think so. She seems like a good mom. She said she'd do anything for her kid."
"I'm sure the ACS has much worse problems to deal with."
"Yeah."
Midnight. Concealed in the shadows, he watched her sitting on the concrete step by the kitchen for a while. The yellow light over the doorway cast a halo of light around her. She scratched her head, freeing a few unruly, curly wisps of hair, and then undid the ponytail and impatiently shook her hair loose. It fell to her shoulders in spiral corkscrews, turning to gold in the amber light. He wasn't sure why he wanted to watch for a while. It seemed more natural to him than climbing the fence to talk to her. He knew she was waiting for him, but he was enjoying looking at her, unseen.
When she began to look restless and as though she might stand and leave, he climbed into the service yard, taking care to rattle the cyclone fencing just enough to be heard.
She looked up in his direction. "Hello?"
"Hey."
"I thought you weren't gonna make it." There was a smile in Sunni's voice.
"I've been here a while." Raphael crossed the narrow yard to stand in front of her, hands slung into his coat pockets.
"You makin' me wait on purpose then?"
Raphael didn't answer. In truth he didn't know what to say.
She tilted her head at him. "Ok, then Raphael."
He didn't know what she meant by that, either. She slid over on the step and motioned to him to join her. The little rush he felt go through his body at the thought of sitting beside her unnerved him. He sat down next to her.
"How you doin'?" Sunni asked.
"Ok," he grunted, then remembered to quickly add, "You?"
"Well, I talked to my cousin today," Sunni turned her lighter over in her hand.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. You know what? She wouldn't tell me anything about you. She said, 'You wanna know about Raphael, ask him yourself.'"
Raphael smirked.
"So I'm thinking you made her promise not to talk about you, because what ever else, she keeps her word."
Raphael gave a little shrug, staring ahead into the darkness.
Sunni watched him for a moment. "What are you afraid of, Raphael?"
He turned to her, scowling. "I'm not afraid of anything."
"You're not? Then you're not afraid of me?"
Raphael snorted. "No."
"Hm. Then you'll tell me about yourself?"
"No."
Sunni looked down and touched her nose, concealing a small smile. "Ok. Let's try this. You told me you were born here in New York. What neighborhood are you from?"
"Neighborhood? I don't know."
"Oh, come on now. Everybody knows what neighborhood they grew up in. I'm not askin' where you live now, just where you grew up."
"Look, it's not..." Raphael looked away, shaking his head. "This is stupid. I can't play Twenty Questions. I can't tell you anything. Thanks for the food, Sunni. That was a big help. But I shouldn't a'come. I shouldn't be here." He started to stand and Sunni laid a hand on his arm.
"Don't go, ok? I won't ask you anything else."
Her touch went right through him, like a small jolt of electricity. He paused, gazing out into the streetlight-shattered darkness, his mouth twisting into an ironic smile. "Not gonna be much of a conversation, is it?"
"Well, I could talk about me, instead." She looked up and gave him a dazzling smile.
"Ok." Without giving it a second thought, Raphael settled back on the concrete step. Sunni grinned, triumphant, and gave his sleeve a little pat before withdrawing her hand.
"Ok, then," said Raphael. "My turn to ask questions."
Sunni nodded. "Ok. That's fair."
"How come you asked me to come back here tonight?"
"Well, two reasons. First I was hoping I could convince you to drop another package off for me."
"Uh huh. And the other reason?"
"I'm kinda curious about you."
Yeah, thought Raphael, ignoring the painful little twinge of disappointment he felt. I'm probably about the weirdest thing you've ever seen, huh? Shoulda known that's what it was…Aw hell, I knew it all along…..
"I mean," Sunni went on. "Here you been friends with my cousin, and she won't tell me anything. I'm thinking you might be in one kinda situation, you know. The kind of situation I've seen a lot of folks in." She was choosing her words carefully. "But you don't seem like a lot of people I've known on the street. I mean you don't fit into any of my, ah, little boxes."
"I don't think they make a box for me," said Raph.
"See, now that's what I mean. I could hear some kid on the street sayin' that, and I'd know it was b.s. I'd know it was all just bravado and macho street stuff. But you say that, and something rings more true. I dunno." Sunni smiled, looking puzzled. "I mean, I don't see where you're playin'. I don't think you are playin'. You just seem like this interesting, but secretive….I dunno… guy."
"'Interesting', huh? Is that polite for 'weird freak'?"
Sunni frowned. "No. Why would you say that? What, 'cause you don't look like everyone else?"
Raphael swallowed, but stuck out his chest and raised his head higher. "Well, yeah. That doesn't take a damn Ph.D. to figure out."
She looked down and turned the lighter over in her hand several times again. "It bothers you, doesn't it?"
"What?"
"Being different."
"No. Hell, no. This is me; this is who I am, if someone doesn't like it they can kiss my a- " He stopped himself. "No. It doesn't bother me."
Sunni smiled gently. She flicked on her lighter. "I think it bothers you."
Raphael snorted. He noticed for the first time how warm the trench coat was. He also noticed he was breathing a bit fast. This whole conversation was turning out to be damned annoying and again he wondered why he had come.
Sunni still hadn't actually used her lighter. She was turning it over in her hand, as if considering something.
"When I was growing up, y'know, I kinda had a hard time," she said thoughtfully. "I mean, even though it was a rough neighborhood, everyone really cared about each other an' watched out for each other. I wasn't any worse or better off than any one else. But at school, I had a hard time fitting in. Partly 'cause I was so light. I mean, I sure didn't fit in with the white kids, or the Hispanic kids, but a lot of the black kids didn't like me either." Sunni scratched a finger nail on an invisible spot on the lighter. "I got beat up a lot. I woulda got beat up a lot more, but 'Cindra got in there and she'd back 'em down."
Raphael was watching her sidelong, looking at the curve of her cheekbone and the soft look in her eyes. "You got beat on?" The thought angered him.
"Heh, yeah. I mean, partly it was my fault, too. I really didn't fit in. I was such a loudmouth, and I guess I played up bein' different, and getting good grades to kinda rub it in their faces." She paused, gazing off into the darkness. "But a lot of those girls really hated me…."
"For bein' a loudmouth?"
"I said what I thought. People don't always like that."
"Heh, no kiddin'."
She grinned at him. "You know that, huh?"
"Shi-yeah…"
Sunni lowered her eyes, playing with her lighter, flicking it off and on. "Yeah. People can be weird. It's like some folks would rather live in some kinda sugar-coated fantasy world instead of facing the truth. You tell 'em the truth, and they flip out."
Raphael exhaled. "I got a brother like that."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. An' then I get called negative. I get told I have a bad attitude."
Sunni chuckled. "Boy, have I heard that one."
"You have?"
"Oh, yeah. I think if I hadn't dropped out of college when I did, I'd have been thrown out anyway."
"Why?"
"They didn't want to hear what I had to say."
"Which was?"
"That what they were trying to teach me was crap."
Raphael nodded. He was less impressed with what she was saying than with the fire that came into her eyes and the vehemence in her tone. The little scratchy quality her voice had when she had been singing came back with her anger.
"Oh, hey, that reminds me!" Sunni jumped up and ducked back inside the building, the screen door slamming in the night air. She came back out with a package wrapped in white butcher paper. "I thought this'd be easier to carry this way."
"What is it?" asked Raph, standing up.
"It's a package for a family I know. They live in the alley way behind Jones Locksmith and Shoe Repair."
"Where?"
"At 120th and McGuire."
Raphael opened his mouth to protest.
"But you gotta catch 'em before 7 am, before the cops make their first sweep and clear 'em out. Best to get there before it gets light."
"But, I…"
"Please, Raphael? I gotta go help a friend this morning. I have to get over there early and help Stewpot to get his place ready. The Health Department is gonna do their inspection today. Remember I told you about that soup kitchen?"
"But-"
"Please, Raphael?" Sunni lightly bounced up and down like an anxious child. Except the movement made her body move beneath her shirt in a way that caused Raphael to forget what he was going to say.
"Uh…."
"Thank you! You won't have any problem finding them. It's a mom and two little kids."
"I- ah- I'll have to go while it's still dark."
"That's ok. I need to go home try and get some sleep tonight. Early start tomorrow." Sunni gave him another one her breath-taking smiles and handed him the bundle.
Raphael couldn't help himself. He grinned back, realizing he'd been conned into doing something he knew he shouldn't be doing and had enjoyed every minute of it.
Sunni looked into his face. "You know what? You've got a really se- - ah, nice smile." She hid her own little giggle for an instant behind her hand. "Yeah, your face is different, Raphael. But, boy, you got a smilethere."
The half-grin hung on his features as Raph tried to imagine what she actually meant.
"Ok, thank you," she said. "See you tomorrow, ok?" She tossed her lighter into the air and caught it.
"Ok…" he heard himself say. He cocked his head. "Hey, Sunni, what's with the lighter, anyway?"
"What?" Sunni faced him, an impish light in her eyes.
"You messed around with it for the whole time you were out here but you never lit up."
"I quit."
"You did? Today?"
"Yep." She lowered her head and then let her eyes slide back up to his face. "I figured you didn't smoke, and I didn't want to be blowin' that stuff in your face."
"You quit so I wouldn't have to breathe your smoke?"
Sunni fluffed her hair, her dimples deepening, for an instant she almost looked self-conscious. "Good a reason as any, right?"
"Yeah, right."
" G'night, Raphael. And thanks." Sunni turned and lightly bounced back into the kitchen.
Raphael left the service yard with the sound of his blood pounding in his ears, like a freight train running though his head.
In the darkest corner of an unlit alley he found the pile of newspapers and dirty blankets, which was the bedroom of the family Sunni had sent him to find. He gently shook the shoulder of the person his senses told him was an adult woman. She awoke with a terrible start, rolling around to see him and babbling something incoherent.
"Whoa, whoa, it's ok, chill," he whispered and glanced around, crouching low to see which other piles in the alley were moving. He could hear the breathing of at least four other people, smell unwashed bodies and other things he would rather not identify.
"Habeas fem, eh? It's in the keys, the keys in the mat…behind…huh?" said the woman, her hair and eyes wild with confusion.
"Shh. It's ok. I brought you somethin' here. From Sunni."
"Who?" The woman was staring into the darkness, looking for Raph's face.
"From Sunni," he repeated.
"Who?"
"Here." Raph shoved the package into her hands. He sat back on his haunches to watch and be sure no one came along to try and steal the foodstuffs.
"Ma?" whispered a small voice near her.
"Hush!" said the woman, pushing herself up onto her elbows and quickly but quietly opening the bundle. With hurried animal movements she tore through the contents, stuffing some of the items into the plastic bags she produced from under the newspapers.
She whispered to herself as she sorted through the bags. "Cold, cold…television set made all the clocks go broke. All broke. Those little television eggs flushed 'em all. You can see 'em here…" She looked up, suddenly addressing Raphael. "You know that? You can see 'em here."
"What? See what?" he asked, confused.
"Here, Beck, Becky, here."
A small grubby hand appeared and the woman shoved a Pop Tart into it. Another dirty child's face with matted hair emerged from under the blanket on the other side and was rewarded with a treat as well. The children ate quickly and silently. One thrust out a hand for more and the woman slapped it.
"No! Hush! Save some for later!"
The Pop Tarts didn't come from the restaurant, thought Raph. Those had to come out of Sunni's pocket.
"Any cops?" asked the woman in a whisper.
"No. No cops yet."
"Good, good. Hate those black horses. Like Belgium soldiers. You know? Heh? Ha ha!"
The woman finished stashing the various apples and bagels and muffins amid her bags. "Go to sleep now," she whispered softly to her children. She looked up at the dark shadow that was the Raph, still squatting next to her.
"Thank you, Mister," she said, and turned over, pulling first the ratty blanket and then the newspapers over herself and the children. She scratched her head vigorously for a minute, settled down, and was soon snoring.
Raphael watched them sleep for a long while, thinking about the den he and his brothers were working nearly around the clock to create in the dark underground. He knew, by the time Don was done, that it would be warm and cozy. He blinked, feeling for a moment some shame at his own bitter complaints about how he and his brothers lived. Alongside of what some people had to endure, they were doing pretty well.
Still ain't right….
His anger shifted. He wondered why it was, with so much wealth and materials held by so many people in the city, that some people had to live like this woman. It was obvious to him there was something not quite right about her. Why wasn't anyone helping them? Or at least the kids?
Well, someone is. One person is trying to, anyway.
Raphael stood, and slipped away into the night.