Street Metals: Episode 10

Somethin bout the way the community took care of its own was pivotal in the way Malik moved. He remembered young shorty’s warnin about the sheriff’ s suppertime helped set the pace in how quickly he consumed his own supper. That was further influenced by this particular community bein what was less than affectionately known as a sunset community; so, Malik began packing up the scarce remnants of his supper to cart off to one of the tall, blue barrels with industrial strength garbage bags stuffed into them that were strategically placed in the corners of the perimeter of the makeshift gravel parking lot. Malik must’ve lost track of the days of the week because the barrels were almost so full that one could hear the buzzing of the swarming greenheads.

Recalling the burning, stinging pain that happened that one time he got bit because his curious younger self had wandered too close to the marsh. He also remembered screaming so loud from the pain that Malik embarrassed his mother Stacey, who comforted him the only way an annoyed, addicted young mother could, by back -handing him in the mouth and splitting his bottom lip from corner to corner.

She then drug the screaming child into the surf, cupped her hand full of ocean water and splashed it into Malik’s open, screaming mouth which caused the young boy to gurgle, hiss, and spit a frothy pink blob onto the hard, wet and below their feet.

“Shut yo mouth for that fly get in there and do the same shit to yo tongue!” Stacey snarled. Malik shut his mouth so fast his lips done made a popping sound which startled Stacey and made her laugh which startled Malik causing his eyes to become wide with shock. This caused Stacey to laugh even harder when a wave knocked her already high ass off balance sending her and her son tumbling to the surf splashing and screaming.

Malik shook his head and somewhat chuckled to himself at the memory until the buzzing coming from the barrel triggered his memory of getting bit by a greenhead, so Malik’s eyes widened again before he took a step back and flung the plastic bag full of trash into the barrel slightly jogging backwards as when the bag spun around the sides it aggravated the other greenheads who were more determined to bite than hornets were to sting. With that, he jumped back into the truck being sure to swiftly swat away any remaining stinging insects which may have followed him from getting into the truck and slammed the door shut.

But then he heard a long loud buzz which made Malik press his back into the seat of the truck and swat around his ears with his hand. His eyes darted around the vehicle, but he did not see nary an insect, but he heard the buzzing again. This time it was a long buzz followed by three short buzzes. It almost sounded like the horsefly was caught between window blinds and a window as it was struggling to survive. So,Malik scanned the truck one last time as he rested his arm on the center console, he heard the buzzing pattern again, and that’s when he felt the center console vibrate.

Frowning, he felt around for a latch, and flicked it until the top section of the console popped open. That’s when he saw the light blinking on a tiny flip phone. He picked it up, looked at the unfamiliar number on the display, flipped it open, pressed the button to put it on speaker and said,

“Yo.”

“Bout gat damn time you found this shit! How fuckin loud do you play yo music, kid?”

Malik raised his eyebrow at the phone now tilted in the corner of the dashboard of the truck. The voice sounded like Jasmine but lighter as if she were floating in the air.

“Jazz?” He asked in an octave his voice wasn’t used to reaching.

This caused the voice on the other end to giggle, “Yes, Malik, yes, it’s me. Look keep this on ya and instead of gettin off at the expressway, head down the parkway and to the Ocean Club. Everything you need will be at the front desk and in yo room.”

“Bet.”

“Call you in two hours.” And with that Jasmine hung up.

Malik sighed and chuckled again. He hoped this shit was almost over cuz not for nothin he had his own family to return to and deal with. Before Stacey did some more dumb shit.