Get It Girls (30 page)

Chubby nodded and said, “Naw, it shouldn’t be a problem because they have rooms upstairs where they take them crackhead girls and freak off on them while they smoke.”

“Exactly,” answered Vonda. “So, if he can get me upstairs I can make it to the roof and dismantle the bombs myself and let you all in from the roof.”

Everyone was speechless as they waited for Vonda to tell them she was only kidding, but the look on her face showed them she wasn’t.

Chubby frowned. “Vonda, are you crazy? I’m not letting you risk your life trying to play a superhero.”

Vonda snapped, “What other choice do we have, Chubby? My fucking life is on the line, and I got to try something. These motherfuckers is playing for keeps, Chubby. They killed one of my best friends and cut her fucking head off just to prove a point!” She turned toward Johnson and challenged him, “Johnson, you said yourself that it was a simple process and you only needed to know what the detonator looked like to defuse it, right?”

Johnson shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, basically, the hard part is to locate them, and after that you won’t have any problem.”

Vonda quickly offered, “Can’t you give me a quick lesson and then test me and if I pass would you consider it?”

Johnson nodded again.

She looked at her concerned brother also and said, “Chubby, I promise you, if I didn’t think I could pull it off I wouldn’t do it, but right now time is running out and we got to make a decision.”

Chubby knew his sister had the heart of a lion and she was in it for all the way, so he looked at Johnson and said, “I’m putting my sister’s life in your hands, bro. Make sure you teach her all you can, ok?”

Johnson nodded. “Young lady, come with me.”

Vonda stood up immediately as Johnson announced, “I’m taking you back to my shop in the Bronx and teaching you everything you need to know.”

He nodded to Chubby and they both were out the door.

For the next five hours Cleveland, Doc, Shooter, Chubby, and Jessica devised plan after plan until they all agreed to the one they felt offered the least collateral damage. Their plan would be simple: take out anyone that was a threat, get in, and get out. Just as they were about finished, Vonda and Johnson had arrived back. They all awaited Johnson’s answer.

He took out the cigar in his mouth and said, “She’s ready.”

Everyone patted her on the back except Chubby, who still had reservations about his sister being in harm’s way.

They presented the final plan to both Vonda and Johnson and explained to them their roles, the time and location they should be there. Jessica’s role would be fairly minor; she would pose as a crackhead with Vonda to gain entry into the building and wait in one of the crack dens and simply serve as Vonda’s eyes while she disassembled the explosives.

Cleveland, Doc, Johnson, and Chubby would be on the roof waiting for Vonda to complete her task and open the roof door when so they could enter and raid the designated apartments where the money and drugs were located. Shooter, as always, would serve as their eyes and ears on an adjoining roof with his snipers rifle.

When they were sure they were ready, Cleveland suggested they all hold hands for a moment of prayer. They got in a circle, held hands, and bowed their heads as Cleveland said a heartfelt prayer. When he finished they all packed up their things and got ready to head out the door when Cleveland suggested that they keep all the weapons stored in the house until they were ready for the mission that night.

“It makes no sense risking getting stopped, so better we be safe.”

Shooter and Chubby were apprehensive, but complied anyway. When they exited the building, out of nowhere, a half-dozen plainclothes policemen jumped out of nearby parked cars and adjoining buildings pointing weapons at the group.

Seconds later, they heard, “We got her!”

The cops had Jessica on the ground as they cuffed and arrested her.

V
onda walked aimlessly around Harlem trying to settle her nerves before the giant task in front of her. No more than three hours ago, she transformed into a modern day vampire—a crackhead. She put on the most raggedy looking clothing she could find; a well-worn pair of jeans, a sweatshirt, and a funky pair of sneakers. To top things off, she wore the street girls’ headgear if choice—a blue bandana—over her head. After she was dressed, Chubby took his sister over to Sweets apartment ensure he knew exactly what she looked like and the rest of the plan. Chubby told him that it was important to get her upstairs into one of the crack rooms, and then come back and sneak up to the roof so she could do her job. The very last thing Chubby told him was to look out for her with his life. Afterwards, Chubby tried his best to explain to her the ropes, the mentality of a crackhead so she could be passable. She still had two hours to waste and asked Chubby to let her out on 116th Street and 8th so she could clear her mind.

Vonda tried her best to put everything out her mind as she thought about Jessica, Tiny, and Lynn. She shuddered at how things were falling apart so quickly. As she walked down Lenox Avenue, she kept a close eye on every female crack addict she came across, which was quite a few. She watched how they walked, their body mannerisms, and if she was close enough, she listened to their form of conversation. Within the hour or so that she’d roamed street, many men and cars vied for her attention, either with a charming proposition of having a good time or blatant disrespect for her to suck their dicks for a hit. One thing she knew for sure and that was she altered herself into a believable addict and she felt the bitter coldness of their world.

Vonda finally arrived on the corner of 129th Street and Lenox Avenue at exactly 1 AM that morning. She looked around the block and it was swirling with activity, especially in front of and around the notorious Castle of Greyskull. A large group of addicts waited in line for the entry inside the building to purchase their drugs. The outside lookouts, teenage boys, would curse and bark orders at any addict who didn’t follow their instructions.

“Now, get the fuck in line and stay there. Have your money out and we ain’t taking no shorts, no change or singles! So if you have that get the fuck off the line!”

Most of these addicts were old enough to be the boys’ parents, or grandparents. They were slave to an addiction, and at that moment those boys were their masters and they would take any form of humiliation, so long as they got their fix. Vonda checked her watch and realized it was time and joined the amassed line ready for her performance. When she got in line she wrapped her arms around herself and began to rock side to side as if she had to pee real badly. That seemed to be what everyone else was doing, so she followed suit.

They allowed only five addicts in the building to be served at a time, so Vonda had been waiting over fifteen minutes at that point. Her stomach began to churn out of control as she got closer to the building’s entrance. Suddenly, the one of the young boys walked up to her and looked her up and down then asked, “Are you Sweets’ people?”

Vonda nodded and wiped her nose with her forearm, still trying to remain in character. He gestured with his head to follow him, and she did. He walked her to the front of the line and tapped on the door. When it opened, a huge, dark man holding an automatic pistol appeared. His distrustful, cold eyes zoomed directly at the outside worker who said, “Yo, this is Sweets’ people, let her in.”

The huge man never gave Vonda a second glance as he ushered her in and barked over his shoulders, “Somebody get Sweets and tell him his people is here.”

Once inside, the first thing Vonda did was survey the entire lobby and count the number of armed workers and where they were positioned. She counted five, including the man at the door. She stood off in a distance as she awaited Sweets and watched the full operation take place.

One man sat a table with a triple beam scale atop of it. The customers would tell him how much they wanted in grams—one gram was going for thirty dollars, half a gram was fifteen—which they weighed and wrapped in aluminum foil. The reason that customers patronized The Castle of Greyskull by the hundreds was because it was the cheapest and the crack was the most potent. It was a quick and simple operation, Vonda thought as she watched addicts buy their drugs and rush out in less than a minute.

Sweets finally came down from upstairs and greeted her and took her to the head of the line. You could hear a few grumbles of resentment coming from the addicts behind them, but they dared not go further than that and risk not being served. As she stood in front of the table, an older Dominican, in his forties, stared at the girl who stood before him with one of his workers. Vonda tried her best to avoid eye contact with him and simply gazed at a spot on the ground.

Suspicious, the Dominican man asked Sweets, “Who is this?”

Sweets stuttered and answered, “Oh, this is my friend, she going to buy something and then I’m gonna take her up and we gonna do our thing, you know what I mean, Tony?”

Sweets tried to keep his composure too, but was failing badly. Tony stared at her closely and questioned Sweets, “She smoke?”

Sweets chuckled and said, “Hell, yeah, she smokes. We smoke all the time.”

There was a long pause until Tony stood up from his chair to get a closer look at her. He looked her up and down slowly then finally asked one of his men who was behind him something in Spanish that neither Vonda nor Sweets understood. Vonda’s heart skipped a beat when she realized what he had asked him for—it was a crack pipe! When Sweets realized what he had in store for Chubby’s sister, he nearly panicked and stammered, “Tony, man, she don’t like smoking in front of all these people, she ain’t been smoking but about a month now.”

Tony paid no mind to what his underling had to say and clipped off a small piece of crack and pressed it into the stem. He added one more piece to ensure that she would smoke every bit of it and extended it out to her.

Vonda thought back to the chilling words Tiny had said just days earlier, “If you ain’t a smoker or a tenant they ain’t letting you get into the building. And even if you do get in to cop the drugs, if they don’t remember you and become suspicious they make you hit the pipe right in front of them to be sure. And trust me; none of y’all want to hit that glass dick.”

Vonda stared at his outstretched arm and saw the plan falling apart. She had to make a decision quickly, so she took the glass pipe from him and put on a false smile. Sweets attempted to make a final plea but was quickly cut off by Tony.

“Shut the fuck up and go back to you post!”

Sweets reluctantly followed his orders and walked away slowly.

Tony turned his attention back to Vonda and extended her a lighter. Tension began to mount as all eyes were glued to her.

Tony reminded her, “Now, take a deep, long pull, my dear.”

She never saw anyone smoke crack before, so she decided to follow his instructions to the letter in order to convince him. She put the stem in her mouth and flicked the lighter and inhaled deeply. It took but seconds for Vonda to feel the powerful effect of the potent drug as it raced through her bloodstream and register in her brain.

Tony smiled when he saw Vonda eyes light up like a Christmas tree and said, “Yes, my dear, I got more where that comes from.”

Tony spoke to one of his workers to take over serving the customers and gave him a devilish smile and said, “This one here is still fresh, and I want some of this black pussy.”

Vonda could no longer hear or feel a thing as she stood stuck in place, unable to move as the drug took over her being. Sweets stood by petrified, unsure what to do next as he watched Vonda be led away by his boss and up the stairs to one of the rooms. He cursed himself for not being man enough to stop it, but he knew he had to do something to protect Chubby’s sister if he wanted to live to see another day.

**********

The four men crouched patiently on the dark roof, eagerly awaiting the door to be opened so they could take action. As time ticked away, doubt was becoming a factor with each fleeting second as they kept in close communication with Shooter, who was on another roof eyeballing the front of the building.

Vonda took unsettling steps up the stairs with Tony’s assistance as he held her closely in his arms. It went right back to business as usual as the addicts were relieved and waited long enough to get served. Suddenly, from the bottom staircase, Tiny, who was watching the entire episode go down, emerged.

Sweets could no longer stand still and realized that it was now or never and had to make a life changing decision, so he ran up stairs to retrieve the guns that Chubby had given him. Sweets entered the empty apartment where he’d stashed the bag of guns and checked them to see if they were loaded—they were. Sweating profusely, he quickly put two guns in his pockets and one behind his waist and was about to stand up and run out the door when he turned and saw Tiny standing behind him. He nearly lost his bowels as he collapsed backwards and fell into a wall.

Tiny put her finger to her lips and whispered, “Be quiet, it’s me.”

He adjusted his eyes and when he saw who it was he was relieved. Tiny looked over her shoulder at the entrance door.

“We got to stop that motherfucker from raping my girl!”

Sweets nodded and whispered back, “I know, that’s why I came up here to get some guns to try to stop him.” He showed Tiny the guns.

Tiny quickly snatched one of them. “We can’t shoot him because if we do, they going to hear it and we are fucked!”

He agreed and asked, “So what we gonna do?”

Tiny looked around the room for a moment and said, “I got it.”

Inside the room, Vonda was still in a zombie-like state as trails of saliva leaked from the side of her mouth. Tony smiled wickedly as his penis hardened at the thought of being in total sexual control. He felt Vonda’s breast and then lifted her sweatshirt over her head. She offered him no resistance because the drug he gave her was too powerful for a first-time user. He marveled at the size and perkiness of her breasts, and he stood up to unbuckle his pant. Just as he was coming out of his shoes Tony heard a knock on the door and immediately yelled, “Go away, I’m busy!”