HARDCORE: Storm MC(160)
As I rode, I thought about the mess I was in with Jamie. It was hard enough having Gigi around without Jamie getting in the way. And it was all hard enough without Rae being a pain in the ass. I went from having no women in my life to having three. It was almost funny.
I started going from club to club in the city, asking about Rae. I described her as last I remembered her. “She probably changed something by now,” I admitted. “But she’s short, and probably skinny.” I imagined she was, with the drugs and everything. “She has brown hair.” Gigi told me that much.
Over and over, they told me they hadn’t seen her. A few of them knew who I was talking about, though. “Yeah, I know Rae,” one of them told me, a tall dude with a lot of metal in his face. “She was here not that long ago. Hang on.” He went to talk to one of the bouncers. I wondered at Rae being in a place like that. Was she into piercing? When did that happen?
Metal Face came back. “Yeah, she was in here on Sunday night. I remember thinking it was weird since she’s not usually here on Sundays.”
Sunday. And Gigi showed up on Monday.
“Did she have a boyfriend or anything?”
“Yeah, she was in here with Bobby D. every once in a while.” I remembered Bobby D. from when I used to hang out at the clubs. I couldn’t believe he was still alive—he was a hopeless crack head even back then.
“Has he been around?”
“He’s here, I think.” I couldn’t believe it—good luck, finally. It was about time something went my way. Metal Face looked around the club. It was still early enough that there weren’t that many people there. He waved me over once he found who he was looking for. I slipped him fifty bucks for his trouble, and took a seat next to Bobby.
He looked like shit, but that wasn’t a surprise. He smelled like shit, too. I wondered when he last took a shower. What was his life that he sat there looking and smelling like that? And what the hell was Rae doing with him?”
“Bobby?” I nudged him. He looked half asleep, slumped over the bar.
He sat up, blinking hard. “Yeah?”
“You don’t remember me, do you? Lance.”
He squinted hard, trying to bring me into focus. “Lance? No shit?”
“No shit. How’ve you been, Bob?”
“Oh, ya know, the same.” He swayed a little, and I held him up by the arm without thinking about how much I didn’t wanna touch him. I didn’t want the guy to fall off the stool, though—especially if he had information for me.
“I heard you’ve been hanging out with Rae lately.” I stared at him so I wouldn’t miss anything in his face that might give him away. A look, a nervous tick, something. I spent enough years asking questions of both friends and enemies to know what to look for.
“Yeah, so what?” At least he didn’t deny it.
“So I was wondering where she is. And why she never told me I have a kid.”
“Oh, so you met Gigi, huh?” He grinned. I felt sick to my stomach.
“You know Gigi?”
“Oh, sure. I been to the house a million times.” He shrugged. I felt even sicker. My kid, around this walking sack of shit. I hoped to God Rae never came back from wherever she was.
“Okay, great. So you’re tight with Rae. Where is she, man?”
He shrugged. “I ain’t seen her in days.”
“Yeah, well, she left the kid with me, and I’m sorta worried about her. Gigi doesn’t know where she went. Nobody does.”
“Whaddya want with her?”
“I wanna be sure she’s okay. I wanna be sure Gigi is safe, that her mom didn’t get her into trouble. Maybe she saw something she shouldn’t have seen, you know? Maybe that’s why she’s hiding the kid with me.”
“Nah, that wouldn’t happen.”
“You seem pretty sure.”
“I am sure, man. Rae never let Gigi be around when anything was going down.”
“Like what?”
“Like, ya know, when she had people over to use. Know what I mean?” I wanted to kill the bastard. Shooting up, smoking crack, whatever he was doing—right there in the house with my kid.
“Yeah, she’s the mother of the year,” I snapped.
“She wasn’t using, though. So I thought it was funny…” He trailed off, like somebody flipped a switch and he was disappearing on me.
“What? What’s funny? Come on, Bobby. Talk to me.” I pulled him toward me by the lapel of his dirty jean jacket. “Stay with it, man. Stay with me long enough to help me.”