SPANISH RUN
by
Jamaine Johnson
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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PUBLISHED BY:
Jamaine Johnson on Smashwords
Spanish Run
Copyright © 2012 by Jamaine Johnson
Smashwords Edition License Notes
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SPANISH RUN
“Wait for me right there sonny” the old man said. “I do believe that’s Cheryl Brown in the 1000 antiques. I do believe its been a thousand years since I’ve seen her.” The old man limped into the antique store. I stood outside on the corner as I waited on the old man to come back out side. I didn't know him I was just helping him carry some groceries to the bus. This shows you never know what is going to happen to you in life. I had planned on killing myself before five o'clock and here I was standing in front of a store that looked a thousand years old waiting on a man I didn’t even know. Oh well it didn’t matter anyway. I was going to off myself one way or the other before the end of the day. I guess some of it had to do with money. I was poor and could barely pay rent I had a job but it wasn't going to take me anywhere. I was a telemarketing agent for a soap company a very small unknown soap company that paid seven dollars an hour without any benefits. I couldn't afford a car so I walked almost everywhere or used the city bus transit. It wasn't all that bad I guess. I wasn't homeless, yet. I was a little bit more fortunate than others. The real cause of the matter was it was all about a girl. I was falling deeply in love with her. She had feelings for me also but only as a friend. Yet I was determined, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever gazed upon. It was a sunny day when she told me the bad news, I'll never forget it. “Ryan, I am a lesbian I don't like men.”
I just knew she was joking with me, but she hadn't been she was a lesbian and I had failed to see it. I didn't have a problem with her sexuality. It's just we went out on dates, a lot of dates. I felt used she never mentioned once she wasn't into guys, she played the part so well like she liked me back, even gave me kisses good night. I knew she was a virgin she had told me that’s why I never pushed that issue she was waiting for the right man. Me, so I thought. The day she died I was at home trying to finish a novel I had been writing for five years. It was my first and things weren't going the way I imagined them to. I thought I would finish it in a year and be published by Dell or Simon and Schuster and make the big bucks. Wishful thinking but that's just not the way it works and I knew if I didn't finish it soon I would think of myself as a failure. Writing was all I ever really wanted to do. Time was slipping away though.
“Ryan open up.”
It was Brittany I opened up the door and she came in, before I could say anything she silenced me with:
“I love you Ryan and I want to make this work. I've been lying to myself all this time. My mother turned lesbian after being beat by my father for who knows how long she swore to never trust another man and I thought it right to follow in her footsteps. Since I was ten that's all I ever saw my mother with were women and when I saw her kiss the women she told me it was alright and that I should like women also. I've been telling myself I like women all my life when I never really did I've really only had one girlfriend which it was cool but I always loved you that's why I wanted to spend so much time with you. I was confused though because I really thought I was a lesbian and if I was I wasn't supposed to like men. But I do like you, I love you.”
My face lit up. Dreams can come true! We were supposed to go out that night she wanted me to make love to her for the first time. Things were starting to look up. I felt I could do anything. I could finish that novel after all and begin on my second one who knows what good things can happen. Look out world here comes Ryan!
I saw the yellow police tape first and I knew something was wrong. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Brittany's number but she didn't answer. It wasn't until I got up close that I heard someone say Brittany's name. Shot, shot by her own mother. Sitting there thinking about it bag in hand watching the pedestrians, it really hurt. What kept replaying in my mind was Brittany coming home telling her mother she decided to love a man and that ended her life but why shoot her? Why kill her own daughter? It was ultimately my fault. I couldn't live with that. I could hear some rap music blaring from an old school Impala on what looked like 24 inch rims. I didn’t understand a word of it but I bobbed my head to the music nonetheless. Now what happened next really happened. I wasn't geeked out or anything. I was good. No drugs in my system. This little girl appears out of nowhere dressed in this old ball room style dress. The scary thing was she had on what looked like a Halloween mask. Dora the Explorer. I had been seeing that little bitch everywhere. Now here she stood. Que onda cabron? Ella dijo. Que esta pasando para aca? I did not understand Spanish at all but little Dora was really determined to have a conversation with me. She continued speaking in Spanish for a couple minutes. I just leaned on the wall of the 1000 antiques and ignored her as best as I could. I was getting tired of the little Dora chick. I didn't like the tone of her voice. No, not at all. The fact that the mask covered her face and muffled her voice. I could only see her eyes. They were a beautiful violet but I didn't let that fool me. There was no telling what else was under that mask. Puedo ver cosas que pasara en el futuro. Como usted cabron va tratar a quitar la vida. I started inching away from the 1000 antiques. I'll be a mother fucker the little Dora chick was following me. I started walking. She walked even faster still speaking that shit.
“Leave me alone!” I yelled. “I don't know you. I don't even understand you. Go home. You. (I made a shooing gesture) casa-casa-you-go.”
She started speaking to me really fast then screamed at me.
“Shut up bitch!” I started running, running faster than the wind, faster than I did back in my track days. I looked over my shoulder there she was still there. I kept running, I looked over my shoulder a second time. Her feet did not move but she was gaining on me. Son of a bitch! I had to be smoking something, or else I was asleep. Yes this was a dream. Voy a machetear tu dick! I didn't understand the other shit she said but I didn't have to, dick came out sounding like deek. Machetear sounded like machete those are two horrible combinations. I was so astonished to hear dick that I turned around for a third time. The little girl was still on my ass, running, gliding making this chopping gesture every step I made. I bore down the unknown street. Id left main behind and the street signs were zipping by so fast I couldn't make out what any of them said. I crossed the street dodging a Dodge and went barreling into a group of teenage girls as I long jumped the remainder of the street onto the sidewalk on the opposite side that I had been on. One of the teenage girls hit the ground hard like a small baby just learning how to walk and how they would plop down on their pampers, splat! In a sitting position. Another one went sprawling to the ground belly first. I felt bad about it but didn't have time to say sorry. I dashed through a black couple holding hands and smiling. I heard the male yell sorry motherfu- BEEEEEEEPPPP!!!!!! A car to my right almost plowed into me, it came to a stop. I slid over the hood, what looked like a rather clean and expensive hood. I didn't dare chance a look behind me. I knew the little spook was still there on my ass. I could hear her and feel her as well. It was a hell of a day to have eaten leftover chili for breakfast and it was boiling in my stomach. I finally saw something that looked familiar to me. It was Madea's Soul Food on the corner of 7th and Woodrow. I was pouring it on now. Sweat was rolling down my body in beads. My shirt and jeans were soaked. They had become heavy on my body but that didn't slow me at the least. I was only about three blocks from home. If I could make it-
Te voy a matar cabron! Te voy a matar!
Holy crap! How long would this go on? Would I really be safe when I got home? Was this some ghost? Or just a little girl amped up on Red Bull?
It didn't take me long to burn up three blocks how I was hauling ass. Out of all the times that I can remember the three or four little girls that stayed next door to me always played in their yard. Or out in the street. Today out of all the days they were on my front porch. When they saw me approaching they were all smiles.
“Hi neighbor the smallest one said. Can I have a hug?” I stiff armed her and kept going like I never slowed. As I came running up the stairs to my porch the two oldest girls with the jump rope came bounding down. There was no way in hell I could have stopped. I don't think I would have. Reflex kicked in and I went to jump over the rope between the sisters. But their reflexes kicked in too and they raised the rope higher so I could go under but I was already sailing through the air. I heard the littlest girl say oh shit. Needless to say, yes I flipped and landed hard on my back on them godforsaken stone steps. One of the girls screamed. That’s when I knew the little Dora chick was real, and she was about to castrate me on the spot in front of three little girls. I threw up my hands, that’s all I could think of to do.
“Noooo!” I screamed. But nothing happened. I raised myself up, dismissing the pain. No scary Dora chick in sight. I did see my neighbors in front of their house, that's when I heard another scream. At first I thought the screams were coming from far away. But then there was more screams and no mistaking where they were coming from. My neighbors the three little girls. For one second I had the idea maybe I had bust my head open and I couldn't feel the blood gushing out of my head. Then I too saw the flames.
“Get back!” I yelled at them. “Get back!” I pulled out my cell phone to call the police when one of the girls told me their baby sister was still in the house. Before that could even register in my head my feet were already moving, headed toward the house losing my cell phone somewhere along the way. The front door was already off-limits. I could see the main door was open through the screen door. The flames were accumulating and rising quickly. I know I couldn't have heard the baby but it seemed I could hear the faintest cries in my head. I ran into the rear because I knew there was a back door. I turned the door knob but it wouldn't budge. I kicked it a couple times and lowered my shoulder into it, but I did not as much as dent the door. I am not a hysterical person but I was on the verge of losing it. There was a real baby in this burning house. I went to run back around front. Windows, there in front of me. They all had burglar bars on them. I looked closely to examine them. There were four screws holding each one in place. I tried the closest one to me and pulled with all my might. Thank God I did feel some give. I am a small man, have never weighed over one hundred and forty pounds. While pulling on the burglar bars I felt a surge of energy. The two screws in top pulled loose bringing wood siding with it. I turned into a maniac then looking nothing of heroic. Breaking a window is not as easy as I thought. I bent down the burglar bars and went to work on the glass with my fist. Hitting it over and over until it finally shattered. In my peripheral vision I saw the sisters huddled together. A few people had come out of the neighboring houses. In the distance I could hear the wail of a fire engine. Glass shards were all over the window frame. But I had nothing to work with. I pulled myself up cutting my hands immediately. I pulled my body through the window, gouging my chest and stomach as I went. The chant "gotta move, gotta move" kept going through my mind like a catchy song chorus. Once my hands were able to touch the carpet floor I did a front-ward flip into the room. Heat baking me I jumped up. I was in a bedroom but there was no sign of a baby. I can die right here I thought to myself, right here and right now. I would more than likely asphyxiate before the flames consumed me. I was going to kill myself anyway right?
Then I heard it. I ran into the hall and there stood a little girl no more than eighteen months old screaming and crying. In the unfortunate excitement, heat, and my pumping adrenaline I did not miss the fact the girl was dressed in a pink dress with the face of Dora the Explorer plastered on the front. I hesitated only one second. I scooped her up in my arms and headed left towards the back. The smoke was thick and hanging heavily all around us but I could see the floor just fine. I came into a small laundry room where I spotted the back door. I unlocked the dead bolt and staggered into clean air.
“I hear someone!” An unidentified person yelled. Someone I couldn't see because my eyes were burning. That someone or another someone, I couldn't tell took the girl from my arms. I remember being seated on the back of an ambulance and receiving oxygen from a mask. What I do recall quite well a fireman stopped by and said.
“You could have died in there young man. You are a hero.” He firmly grasped my shoulder gave it a squeeze and disappeared into the crowd.
The next day I was sitting on my porch looking at the burned skeleton of the house next door. I was able to save that little girl, to save a life. The firemen were also able to contain the fire and saved my apartment. I had stayed up thinking all night what if I would have killed myself, not just yesterday but the day before the fire. Would that little girl have died if I was dead? It was a lot to think about. Right now would be a great time to pray. I thanked God for the things I did have and asked that He bless me. As I got up to go into the house I saw a car pull up. It was the woman I was still in love with, Brittany.
“Brittany... you're alive?”
A tear slid down her face. “I'm sorry, I should have called first. I'm not Brittany, my name is Whitney her twin sister. We were adopted by different families at birth and we had recently found out we were twins. “She did care about you However I am the one that loves you.”
“Stop messing with me.” I almost yelled.
“I am so sorry but it's true. My sister Brittany really was a lesbian. I was the one here that night. I told you I love you. The story is true about my real mom and how Brittany started liking girls. I wanted to come out and tell you but Brittany told me you would hate her forever. You did go out with Brittany some nights but most of the dates were with me. Brittany thought it would be a good idea. Now I can see that it wasn't.”
“Why haven't I ever seen ya'll together?”
“I just moved here with my Dad two months ago. He lives all the way in Southwest Little Rock that's why you never saw us together here in Central. I wanted to meet someone really nice and Brittany told me it would be you. Can you ever forgive us?”
I was pretty pissed off. Some of the craziest things always happened to me. I looked at Whitney's hand. I could see something dangling from her car keys.
“What’s that on your key chain?” I asked.
She laughed. “Dora the Explorer, why?”
“No reason, I forgive ya'll.” I said.
“Come on let's go inside, everything I said still was the truth. I am a virgin.”
My eyes lit up and a smile came to my face and I lead the love of my life inside.