Finding Gideon(116)
“I stayed in the air. Since I left him, I have been on this plane. If I needed to land to refuel, I never left the plane or went into the airport. I let airport security be my first line of defense.”
“You slept with him to use him. He slept with you to use you. He fucked you, softened you up, and convinced you to call me, and you convinced me I owed him a debt. I sense no robbery, not between you and him. You pulled me into a world of trouble, Queen Scamz.”
“Call me Arizona, same as you always have. Just call me Arizona.”
“Is that your real name?”
“No. I haven’t used my real name since I was a teenager. I’ve been Arizona so long, this is the only name I answer to. This is who I’ve become.”
“Why the name Arizona?”
“Because a man saw me in the Nordstrom’s in Montclair, California. I had already done a Doris Payne number and distracted the salesman long enough to steal two rings from a jewelry store, and then we were trying to shoplift a dress. We had purses that were lined with aluminum foil, so the alarms wouldn’t sound at the door when we boosted tagged clothing. He came up to me and asked me my name. I didn’t tell him. Wouldn’t tell him. Then he told me I was hotter than Arizona in July. He told me that security was watching me, said they had been on my tail since I’d left the jewelry store. He offered to buy the things I had in my bag so I didn’t end up in jail. He told me that if I wanted to steal, if I wanted to become a grifter, he could teach me to be smarter at the game.”
“And I bet that man was Scamz. The original Scamz.”
“Yeah, it was. For a moment I felt like I had been saved by Prince Charming.”
“I won’t ask how Sierra got her name.”
“She was with me when I met Scamz. He drove us home. We lived off the Sierra Avenue exit in Fontana for a while. He called her the ‘PYT from Sierra Avenue’ because of that. Then he just started calling her Sierra. She liked it. And she’s been Sierra ever since.”
“Never knew that.”
“No one does. We had a mother on drugs. A father MIA. We raised ourselves. My brother. My sister. Me. We were girls and a boy from the gutter. I use to drive through middle-class areas like it was Disneyland, told myself I’d be on their level one day. Now I realize they had nothing. Back then I hustled, stole, did things to make sure my little sister and brother had food to eat. Stealing was a survival skill. We didn’t have it like the middle-class people. Anything I stole, I sold for food. Nothing was for me. Paid more than minimum wage. Stealing is how white people became rich. The rich have left many dead bodies behind.”
I nodded. “I’ve worked for the rich. I know their secrets.”
“Then Scamz took me to the pool hall in the valley.”
“I remember that place. Eight Ball Corner Pocket, run by Big Slim.”
She smiled. “Scamz taught me the basics of the game.”
“Big Slim’s pool hall was a witches’ brew of gangsters and con men.”
She said, “Thieves, pickpockets, and swindlers.”
“And killers.”
“And killers.”
“Will never forget the electricity I felt when I saw you that first time.”
“What was I wearing?”
I nodded. “You came in wearing your flight attendant uniform. You were a flight attendant by then. You changed. Came back in booty shorts. Sandals. A tank top with a white girl giving the world the middle finger.”
“You remember.”
“I remember. I could tell you were a hedgehog and a man had to get past the quills to get to the soft parts. I wanted you. I didn’t care if you were using your job to be a mule for Scamz. Thought we’d have some sort of Bonnie and Clyde, Romeo and Juliet thing going on. You told me to be with you, I needed to have a million dollars in the bank.”
Arizona asked, “Is it too late for us to see what this energy is that exists between us?”
“Yeah. It’s too late.”
“Why?”
“I could give you a million reasons.”
“I hurt your feelings. Rejection makes men become petty.”
“I’m not being petty. Just being real. Things are clear now. Back then, if you had made me that offer, I would’ve gone on Oprah and jumped up and down on her couch. You’ve changed. I’ve changed. So it’s like the night in New York and the day at the Carolina Inn didn’t happen.”
“They happened.”
“But they have no currency. They mean nothing.”
She gave me a wounded smile. “You’ll want me again.”
“We’re done, Arizona. We were done before Scamz the younger. We never really were because you never got over Scamz the elder.”