Episode 6: "The Inglorious Past"

Usher's "Daddy's Home" was playing out the day at the knock-off warehouse. The machines, the printers...all the paperwork and computer entries were coming to a stop. Two solid days of hard work from Andre, Kareem, and their assistants, and the task was complete. The first truckload was ready to roll out, much to the pleasure of Carlos, who was smoking his cigar as the trailer's doors were being locked shut. With all documents accounted for, the two truckers said their goodbyes to the brothers, and rolled out onto Interstate 285 to start the journey to distribute the totally identical brand name clothing to stores throughout the southern states.


Andre, Kareem, and Carlos then walked into the smallish office towards the front of the warehouse, and popped open a few beers. They were tired, but felt good about getting the first load out of the way. The next load would be arriving in a couple of days, which gave the brothers ample time to reminisce.


"Brothers, a job well done," Carlos said, raising his bottle of beer to make a toast. "I just knew the two of you would come through. I may not have been around much, but y'all always had that tenacity about you to make things happen. Alright now, Andre, tell me. What was with the daydreaming act yesterday morning? For real, man, you were in another world."


Andre looked at Carlos, then to Kareem. He knew this time would come to talk about it. Kareem already knew, but not the whole story. He exhaled, then put his head down. "Okay, I'll tell you.


"I met this woman named Gloria on a cruise about two years ago. Our port-of-call was Grand Cayman. That was the first time I noticed her. We left the boat the same time, and shared a taxi together. The driver had us in stitches, saying that he was going to make sure we would never forget his kindness while we were on our honeymoon. We told him that we just met, and he said that's impossible, because, he being clairvoyant, already seen our wedding and knows how many kids we were going to have. With that, we bonded, and had such a great day. I found out that she was from Manhattan. It was perfect. We would stay at each other's place every other night.


"We always went back to Grand Cayman...to the spot of our first kiss...to the beach where we first made love. That was our place...our paradise. After a year of dating, we were seriously considering getting married, so of course we went back down to the island, where I proposed to her. We didn't have rings yet, but we each had something we gave each other from the island. I gave her a beautiful bracelet, make of shells from our favorite beach. Her gift to me was a charm made in Hell. Not the place where the Devil dwells, but the place called Hell in West Bay, Grand Cayman, where the black limestone that is formed there was cut and polished into a charm...this charm." Andre touched his charm, then became depressed again. But he went on.


"We eventually looked for property to invest in, and we put our money together and opened up an account; completely out of the States' jurisdiction, so no taxes were taken out, and no questions about what was going in. On the day we were suppose to fly back, we got into a huge argument. I...I found out that Gloria was doing drugs...heavily, but she kept it well hidden from me. Well this particular time she must have over did it because she wasn't making any sense. I tried to calm her down, but she ran from me, and onto the balcony of our tenth floor hotel room. She climbed the rail, and was balancing herself on it, watching me slowly approach her. I did my best to get her to come down, but she was still talking gibberish. then, once I got close enough I reached out for her," Andre stopped. Tears began to fall down his cheek. Carlos and Kareem were quiet, engrossed in Andre's story.


"You see, she never committed suicide. When I reached out for her, she reached back to grab my hand. I was moving so fast to grab her, that I bumped into her leg. Our reach never took hold, and she fell off...reaching up to me to grab my hand that I still had out reaching for her." Andre cried silently for a minute, then finished. "I turned away before she hit the walk, but I can still hear the sound that it made."


Andre got up and walked out the office for a few minutes. Kareem stared off in amazement, not knowing that Andre was the cause of Gloria's death. Carlos didn't say anything, but just finished off his beer and cracked open another for the brothers. Andre walked back in after a few minutes.


"Ok Kareem, what's your sob story," asked Carlos as he passed the beers to Andre and Kareem.


"I don't have a sob story. But I do have a story where I got my ass kicked for the first and last time. Happened one night when I was walking this lady I was seeing home. Got to the porch, and two punks came around, one of them calling her name: 'Diane, hey Diane! What's good baby?' I thought it was disrespectful, so I confronted him. After a brief argument with me all in his face, I heard Diane saying something about a bat, then she screamed. Like a second later...POW! I was out like a light. Ol' punk's boy had picked up a bat from the front lawn of a neighbor's house, and knocked the shit outta my skull. I had a fractured skull and was bleeding all down my neck and back, but I didn't know it at the time. when I woke up, Diane, was over me, crying. Soon afterwards, the ambulance came and got me to the hospital.


"Took about three weeks to a month before I was good to go again. And just like a young stud like I was, the first thing I did was to go look for Hammering Hank Aaron. Wasn't hard to find him, because he and my girl were kicking it while I was incapacitated. So I casually walk up to my girl's porch, where she and ol' punk were smoking a blunt. Diane was shocked to see me, while he tried to go in the house. Nope! Wasn't happening. I push the bitch out the way from trying to protect her new man, then caught him before his pussy ass got into the house. I didn't need a bat, or anything besides my fist and feet. Those kickboxing lessons I use to take back in the day sure paid off, because he didn't know what hit him. I had him in a grappling hold, and he screamed like a little girl. I let him up to see what he had, but being the punk that he was, he just backed away. I finished him off, and gave him a broken face. Yeah that's right, I broke just about every bone in his face. Before I left, I gave Diane a few words of advice: 'Fuck yourself, bitch!'" Kareem posed like Hulk Hogan, showing off his muscular arms.


Carlos laughed. Andre wasn't paying Kareem any attention. He was still grieving over the incident.


"Next!" shouted Kareem, as he pointed to Carlos.


Carlos still chuckled a bit. He took his time opening his story, and when he did, it took on a strange tone.


"Did you know I dream in numbers? Like binary numbers, my dreams take on a certain pattern. It may not make sense to anyone else, but I see the pattern, and I know it's meaning. When I wake up, a figure sticks in my head, giving me an idea on how the day is gonna be." Carlos was rambling on, causing confusion to Kareem and Andre, who was pulled from his thoughts by Carlos's strange story.


"The day I was busted for the bank robberies, I dreamt of the number 13. To me, it's not a bad luck number, or any kind of luck, but it is a number that brings on events. Thirteen years to the day that I was caught, was the day I was let out. That morning I had dreamt the number thirteen. Another morning I dreamt of thirteen, but nothing happened that day. I just knew something was gonna happen but I woke up, and went to bed later that night without incident. While eating breakfast the next morning, I got a visit from one of the prisoners in the know. He told me about a friend of mine who died. Johnnie Sutton. Died on the day I dreamt of the number thirteen. Died exactly thirteen months to the day that we robbed the banks. He was the third partner. The one who helped get me caught, and at the same time, helped partner numero uno escape to the good life. Bullet to the brain. Ha! The punishments you get for helping out your brother-man." Andre and Kareem gave each other a sideways glance, not really sure what Carlos was talking about, or where it was leading to. Eventually, the two got up and departed the room, leaving Carlos alone. After a few minutes Carlos made a call to Keith, and told him how well the two days went for the first run.


"So it's coming together real smooth. Do you part, and it'll get even smoother," Carlos reminded Keith. He agreed, then ended the call.




Later on, in the Powder Springs section of Atlanta...


Keith makes a call to Michelle, that goes straight to voicemail. He shook his head, imagining what the whore was up to now.


"Hey good evening. I'm just calling to tell you that it's on. Put on the hooker gear, and go to work on them brothers. You just make sure you keep 'em busy, so they don't go nosing around. You got less than three weeks to work your crimes of passion, bitch. So do what you do best." Keith bitterly ended the call, knowing he was bringing it on too strong. The more he thought about it, the more he hated messing with Michelle. Kami was still in his heart. He fell back onto the bed, and dreamed of better days with Kami.

Crimes of Passion in the ATL is collabing with The Dirty Sexy Chronicles . Be sure to read those articles so you can really know what's going on and meet the characters that are being introduced throughout Crimes of Passion in the ATL : http://dirtysexychronicles.blogspot.com/