Then he took them away.
“I’da’velikedto’veknown your dad,” he said quietly.
“And I’d have liked to have known yours,” Dutch replied.
“Carlyle, Georgie’sgonnatake meshopping!”Christian shouted.
Carlyle sniffed again, muttered, “Definitely theshizla,” lifted his chin to Dutch and turned.“Girl, youdon’t need more shoes.”
“A girl always needs more shoes,” Christian retorted.
“This is the God’s honest truth,” Tyra decreed.
“Jesus,” Tack grunted.
Georgie was smiling at Dutch, so as Carlyle headed hissister’s way, he started hers.
He felt something and looked right, to see Tamira Stephensstudying him.
Seeing that look on her face, a look that he’d seen carvedinto his mother’s face way too many fucking times his entire life, he gaveCarlyle’s mom a tight smile.
She closed her eyes slowly.
Opened them.
And returned it.
“I told you, a couple of days.I’m on vacation.Tomorrow’s my man’s day.It’s brownie baking and snickerdoodle-ramaMonday,” Georgie said on the phone to Kraken as theymade their way down the mountain.
It was early evening and they were headed home.
Georgie had been sharing they got the bad guy.
She was now listening.
Dutch kept driving.
She again started talking.
“I don’t know what getting tased by Luke Stark buys you.Imake a really good cheesecake with thiskindasourcream-like layer on the top.It doesn’t sound good, but it cuts the sweet ofthe cheesecakeamazingly.”Pause then, “Listen, just come over fordinner.”
Dutch choked on his own breath.
He felt her eyes on him when he did.
“We’ll see.I’ll talk to Dutch.Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday,”she said.“I’ll be in touch.”Pause then, “Yeah.Yalolaback at cha.”
Out of the sides of his eyes, he saw her phone hand drop.
“Before you ask, ‘yalola’ means‘catch you later,’ and I have no idea how that came about,” she shared.
“Tell me you did not invite those two men to your place fordinner.”
“They’re harmless.”
“They found, captured and tied up a six foot nine,three-hundred-pound seventeen-year-old.”
“They live on the streets so they know how to get by on thestreets,” she returned.“But Kraken is a graffiti artist, and a really goodone.Even at twenty years old, or maybe because he’s that young, Banga is amaster of spoken verse, and his poetry is honest and sometimes hard to take,but it’s unbelievably good.They’re African American men who are members of yetanother generation that has been let down by the system, so they don’tacknowledge the system in any way.Even dedicated non-conformists would think,‘Yeesh, these two need to get a job.’But I hope they never do.Because Krakenmight become the next Banksy.And there is no one like Banga.He’s so committedto what he does and how he does it, I don’t think he’s ever written down a wordof what he creates.But if someone listens, writes it down and shares it, Ithink his words could change the world.We might not understand everything theysay when they come over for dinner, because they hate the system so much,they’ve made up a language so they don’t have to speak white man’s English.Butthey’ll be a fun night in.”
