© Mar. 30, 2017. All Rights Reserved.
Viernes Night
Diamond, a 7-year-old girl (with bluish-green, short, frizzy hair, and hazel eyes) is winning a race against a trail of exploding firecrackers with her brand-new, blue bicycle. Each pedal is designed to have the appearance of a leaf while willow branches protrude from the end of each bicycle grip. She is wearing a black, chiffon blouse, a stainless, silver necklace of a small, transparent bottle of cyanide, an unbuttoned, white and bluish-green flannel shirt wrapped around her waste, yellow, denim shorts (with two ripped designs on the front of each side), and white tennis shoes. Simultaneously, with a visceral bliss, she passionately accelerates up a bridge, tossing several gas bombs at random strangers.
When Diamond decelerates around a corner, her black watch reads, “8:59 P.M.,” then a loud grandfather clock chimes nine times. She stops in the shade of a nearby bodega to form a malicious smirk. Pretending that the glowing stars are following her, she eyes the sullen sky. After hearing the screams, which gives her exhilaration, she proceeds pedaling. She can barely catch her breath from the long exercise.
A shrewd wind blows across the dead trees on the neighborhood lawns, following her. Her luck heads downhill when her bicycle careens down the road, running over a glass shard. Thus, she gnashes her teeth in rage when her front tire flattens. A majestic English Bulldog eyes her while resting on a mahogany bench, in a supine position. Into a gloomy, vacant, picturesque viaduct (with awe-inspiring, anime graffiti murals surrounding the area), she makes a full stop.
Diamond sees a stranger who has a curvaceous body in her early 20s (with a black, crew cut hairstyle, black eyeliner and a silver, nose stud on her right side), sitting on a black motorcycle. The stranger calmly ignites a lighter to a cigarette. With an alluring presence, the stranger has a leather jacket, wrapped around a long-sleeved, milk-white, gypsy blouse. Black willow designs are extended down her wrists as tattoos. She has a silver, studded belt, leather pants, and jackboots. On her pants, there are three silver, stainless pocket chains wrapped around both of her thighs. The pocket chains in the midst of each thigh are linked to a silver locket of a skull design.
As Diamond stares in awe, the woman removes the cigarette from her mouth, blows smoke, and says, “Hey kiddo. What ya doin’ out so late?”
As wisps of smoke soar into the air, Diamond says, “Don’t worry ‘bout me, girl! I’m out the same reason you’re out.”
The stranger says, “I’m listenin’”
Diamond verbally elaborates as best as she can, “Havin’ a good time. Ya know! Boys, boys, and boys. I use ‘em to do my chores, then I take all their cash.”
The woman steps off her motorcycle and moves closer to her, “I used to do the same thing. I see ya have a flat tire. I can take ya for a ride back home if ya’d like. What’s ya name, sweetheart?”
Sarcastically, Diamond says, “Wouldn’t ya like to know.”
“True. Ya name’s Diamond, ain’t it?”
“Yeah. How’d ya figure? They only like me ‘cus I do their chores.”
“Ya mean the boys do your chores. My people talk about ya all the time. Don’t worry ‘bout it. They say good things.”
“Oye!” she says, “Hey” in Spanish, then asks a question, “What’s ya name anyway?”
“Wouldn’t ya like ta know. Wanna blunt?”
A frightened Diamond recoils from her extended cigarette and nods her head sideways as the lady says, “Lighten up. Can’t ya take a damn joke? My people call me Patrice, but my real name is Pallavi.”
“I should be goin’, girl.” Diamond utters with a melancholic smile etched on her face.
“Five miles is a long walk to the crib ‘thout any company. I can drive ya there in no time. I know ya tired.”
“Adiós” Diamond shouts as she runs the opposite direction.
Sábado Morning
It’s 8:00 A.M.. In a yellow t-shirt of a cobra and grey jogging pants, Diamond wakes up from a ringing doorbell. Distracted, she exhaustedly turns around to see her bicycle, which is (glinting in the scintillating sun) sitting beside her bed. She immediately steps out of her bed, and balances herself on one of the four purple walls in the room. Then, she rubs her blurry eyes in disbelief. The front tire doesn’t have a flat. After slipping on black sandals, she looks out of her bedroom window to spot the same dog from last night on the walkway, barking toward the front door.
Her crimson cell phone rings on the milk-white dresser, but she ignores it. Water stops spewing out the bathroom showerhead. She kicks a grey medicine ball out of her way as she dashes downstairs, but the ball bounces off of the wall, following her. Swiftly, she turns around, catches the ball, and throws it upstairs. Thus, the medicine ball lands in a plastic, blue hamper. Curiously, makes her way into the whitewashed living room.
Her mother (a brunette with a ponytail, a brown tank top, and black jeans) steps in front of her, saying with a husky voice, “Where do you think you’re goin’?”
“Buenos días,” the daughter sarcastically says.
“Con permiso! I’ll answer the door. Get back in your room.”
“Sí, señora” Diamond softly speaks in Spanish, speeding up the creaky, wooden stairs.
While her mother peeks through the peephole, seeing nothing, but a parallel house from across the street, Diamond curiously looks down the stairs. Her mother opens the front door, but there’s nobody in sight. The moment she slams the door, Diamond silently walks up the stairs. Coincidentally, the mother locks the front door simultaneously when Diamond shuts her bedroom door.
Her mother pulls hair strands from her own scalp, irrepressibly screaming with deep shuddering breaths, “Those stupid kids need to grow up before I teach them a lesson! My daughter knows better to behave like that!”
Diez Hours Later
While chewing on a strawberry-flavored gum, a ravenous Diamond sits on the curb of a sidewalk with her blue bicycle beside her. Her cell phone vibrates in her right pocket as her tongue clacks. She is holding a scrumptious, homemade hamburger with three layers of distinct savoriness; the hamburger buns are replaced with circular, crispy, pizza crust buns, which are the top, middle, and bottom. Starting at the bottom, there’s grilled, mozzarella cheese, three slices of Romaine lettuce, a lemony, tender beef (seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper) wrapped around grilled pepperoni, and sautéed olives. At the top, there’s four pieces of heavenly bacon, three, garden-fresh chanterelles with a dab of garlic, two, mouthwatering, garden-fresh, diced tomatoes, and two, garden-fresh, diced red onions (marinated in beef broth for an hour), and sautéed. Pizza sauce is the finger-licking topping covered by the pizza crust bun.
Suffering from polyphagia, she eyes a succulent Great Spotted Woodpecker as it descends from a dead tree, beside her. Then, she feels raindrops descending from the firmaments onto her sensitive face. She covers her hair with a hood that’s attached to her black jacket. An elderly man (with alopecia, reading glasses, a disfigured face, a button-down, fleece peacoat, and black slacks) limps by with heavy breaths. His hideous face is unbearable to stare at. Areas of his grey hair are surrounded by several nits, and he reeks as if though he never took a shower in ages.
The man speaks in a rough-sounding voice, “That lady you were with last night. … Stay away from her. She’s dangerous.”
Rudely, Diamond mumbles, “Fine. Whatever. … Quit buggin’.”
Behind Diamond (Kayla, her baby sister with black eyeliner) sits traumatized, on the roof of the local bodega. Her sister is a redhead with a puffy, double ponytail, dressed in mostly black attire. 6-year-old Kayla has a black jacket with an ensanguined, leather design on the back. Underneath, Kayla is wearing a choker with silver spikes, a laced blouse, fishnet armbands, a leather belt with silver, square studs, a pencil skirt, stockings, and roller skates. She has an organic, purple star apple in her right hand, but vomits organic oatmeal on the concrete pavement.
A concerned Diamond eyes her sister as if though she fell off the roof. It’s a relief. The elderly man leaves their presence. Diamond rises up, but refuses to speak. She fears tasting the odor with an opened mouth.
7:30 P.M.
Like usually, they have the house to theirselves. They have not the slightest clue where their mother is at. Diamond is slumped down at a rectangular, mahogany table in the kitchen. She’s eating cornflakes from a bowl of cold water with a plastic spoon. With the intent of getting water to squirt out of Diamond’s nose, Kayla sits on the parallel side, effortlessly making goofy faces.
Diamond says one word in Spanish before getting interrupted, “Yo…”
Kayla asks, “What was that filthy, old man talking about earlier?”
“Don’t worry ‘bout it. Fix some cereal before ya starve ya self.”
“Can you promise me something?”
“Hmm,” she shrugs her shoulders, saying, “Hell naw! … Life’s too short for promises.”
8:00 P.M.
With Diamond’s back resting against the white, tiled wall, she sits on the opposite side of a silver drainplug. Bubbles and cold water is in the bathtub. In the kitchen, her sister boils hot water in a pot, turns off the stove, carries the pot in the bathroom, and sits it on the closed toilet lid. Kayla pours the water into the tub while Diamond screams. The water causes her to jump up from the tub with rage.
“It’ll get warm,”
“I’m fine, cupcake! Gracias!”
Her baby sister slowly puts the pot on the closed toilet lid, raises both of her thumbs in the air, and makes an adoring smile that no one can stay mad at. Diamond returns her body into the hot water and endures the temperature. Suddenly, the bathroom lights turn off. Their mother didn’t pay the electric bill. A disgruntled Diamond sighs.
Diamond screams, “Fuck this dump!”
A resilient Kayla speaks, “You want a hug?”
Domingo Morning
Diamond’s wearing a red, ruffled, lace bikini and black swimming trunks in a placid, outdoor swimming pool. Kayla wears a bluish-green tunic with black floral designs, black yoga pants, black fingernails and toenails, and brown sandals. Kayla rests on a milk-white chaise lounge in a supine position with a pillow behind her neck. Gas surrounds the area and five, teenage boys appear, (known as The Annexation) surrounding the area. The boys intimidate the girls. The shirtless leader of the gang (17-year-old, hunky Dardy Fontale), wears a black, wolf mask. Curly, demon horns protrude out of the skull mask while his long, black, perm hairstyle is still visible. He has a red lei around his neck, a grey button-down shirt, black cargo pants, and red dress shoes shoes.
As a breathless Diamond darts her head around in horror, Dardy wildly eyes Kayla with concupiscence. A shocked Kayla eyes her most recent boyfriend in return. With her adrenaline pumping, she runs, but not far. Each of the boys have tight grips on wooden bats. Four out of five of the teenage boys have disguised faces covered with black paint. Dardy’s gang wears black sweatshirts with hoods worn over their heads, black and grey, camouflage pants, and black jackboots.
Dardy Fontale snaps his fingers with his left hand. Two of his gang members drop their bats to dive in the water, and two run to hold Kayla’s hands behind her back. As a defenseless Kayla is carried to the leader, she screams, watching two gang members attempting to drown her sister. The water washes their faces away and Kayla recognizes them as her ex boyfriends.
Kahola holds Diamond’s hands behind her back as Tye passionately kisses her. All Kayla can do is watch. The leader of the group slaps Kayla in the face, then bites her lower lip until it bleeds profusely. She spits in Dardy’s face, but gets punched so hard, it rattles her left atrium. Dardy’s livid face reveals that he has no vestige of sympathy. They release her hands; in abject pain, Kayla falls in his presence, and she’s meticulously bruised on her right cheek. She turns around to see her two exes still attempting to drown Diamond. As her sister loses circulation of blood flow in the arms, the gang exits the pool.
Dardy speaks in a deep voice, “I don’t give a fuck how old ya is! The Annexation runs this goddamn country! If I find ya ‘round here again, next time I see ya is at ya funeral! Bitches!”
Carelessly, Dardy digs in both of his pockets and tosses out stacks of authentic money. Two gorgeous ladies in their mid-20s are eyeing him across the street, sitting in the backseat of a red lowrider. One of the ladies are a brunette with long, curly hair and the other one has short, pink hair. The ladies are in red bras and panties. Hydraulics are installed in the car and function perfectly, moving up and down. Both of the ladies get in a sitting position on separate side of the car windows with their bodies outward. The brunette on the left side has an automatic firearm and the lady on the opposite side has a handgun. Both of them extend their guns in the air and fire bullets at the firmaments for as long as it takes to tie shoes.
Pallavi (21-years-old in a black swimsuit) enters through the silver cantilever, sliding gate. The gang exits the area silently after seeing her arrival. Pallavi has black, curly hair, where every hair strand is symmetrical. Two silver, lip studs are perfectly aligned on separate sides, under her mouth. Black willow designs are extended down her wrists. More eye-catching, she has no blemishes and a lissom figure.
In a rush, Pallavi takes a deep breath, and dives in the cold swimming pool. She swims underwater, positioning Diamond on her back. Pallavi gingerly lays Diamond on the concrete surface to apply cardiopulmonary resuscitation. A worried Kayla stands by eyeing her sister. Diamond’s exotic eyes widen when Pallavi’s soft lips return to hers.
Citrouille Dream
Diamond wakes up in a pumpkin patch. She’s in a prone position with her face resting west of the crops. The sky is blood-red, drizzling over her numb body. Kayla walks by to sit on a large pumpkin and gives her a deathlike silence as lightning strikes a nearby pumpkin. The rain then pours.
“Where the hell am I?” Diamond asks her sister.
“A woman by the name of Pallavi saved your life in the pool. She dropped us off, but you walked outside and fainted in our childhood hideout.”
“This is your fault” Kayla’s heartbroken sister shouts.
Suddenly, Kayla’s deathlike face changes. As if though Kayla had a magnanimous heart her whole life, she silently leaves. A squirrel bypasses her footsteps. When her sister rises, Kayla is already out of the area. Diamond maintains her equilibrium, walking slowly in the direction Kayla went. Then, she wakes up near the swimming pool staring at the night sky, reflecting on the vicissitudes of her past dreams. None of her dreams ever felt so real, and she is momentarily puzzled.
Dos Hours Later
Her sister’s dream was real. Alone, Kayla has been traveling for two hours in the rain. Gunshots from two members of Dardy’s rival gang, “The Grams” can be heard inside a train station. They’re dressed in black robes and spots her from a distance. She runs away exhaustedly as they fly after her, mercilessly firing bullets her direction. One bullet grazes her left cheekbone. She bleeds, but increases her speed, running forward. This is the day she fears she’ll die.
Kayla makes a right turn pass an intersection, runs in a stranger’s lawn, which is between two, wooden fences. When she turns around, there’s nobody chasing her. She tries to catch her breath as she makes her way into a gloomy alley, hiding behind a green dumpster. Then, she attempts to silence her breaths. One member of the gang hovers over the alley without spotting her; Kayla panics, grabbing a rock to toss across the street. The gang members fly astray.
As she walks down a sidewalk, she hears more gunshots being fired. Ambulances and police cars speed down the road the opposite direction she faces.
Pallavi drives behind her with a white convertible. A bulldog that lives in her neighborhood runs in front of her. She picks up the bulldog and pats him on the back. Pallavi notices that Kayla is soaked and wet. The flashing headlights startle Kayla. She turns around seeing the coincidence that Pallavi is in the driver’s seat. Pallavi has cascading, ocean blue hair.
Pallavi lowers down her right car window to speak, “Need a ride?”
Without a single word, Kayla walks to the car. Pallavi unlocks the car doors. Immediately, Kayla opens the door and sits in passenger’s seat. Pallavi notices blood on her left cheek and grows concerned. The radio is playing a marathon of old-school, garage, punk rock bands. Kayla already forgot about the blood on her cheek, but the music in the car makes her night brighter.
“How’d ya get blood on ya? Ya good?”
“Real women are just as tough as the men,” Kayla says.
Pallavi reaches in the backseat, taking out a roll of toilet paper from a grocery bag and says, “I don’t want blood all ova my car.”
Kayla accepts the roll of toilet paper, tears off approximately ten pieces, and presses it against her wound, and says, “Good lookin’.”
“No problem,” Pallavi says, then turns her attention to the English Bulldog, “He a cute lil’ thang. Let me hold ‘em.”
“I named ‘em Delmont. He ain’t my dog though. He my peoples dog.”
When Pallavi reaches for Delmont in Kayla’s lap, she feels girl-soft lips. Pallavi recoils from Kayla’s lips; a mixture of shock and confusion is etched on her face. It gets very uncomfortable for Kayla as Pallavi shows no romantic interest in return. No words exchange and Kayla regrets her deplorable attempt to kiss her crush. Before Kayla adjusts her seatbelt, she allows Delmont to temporarily relax on her crushes lap.
Pallavi accelerates and crosses an intersection. Kayla lowers her head to her chest in shame. A half an hour later, she drives into Kayla’s neighborhood and witnesses an atrocious sight. Kayla screams in horror. Kayla’s mother’s house is in flames and “The Annexation” gang are running down the street. Kayla opens the car door and peers through the darkness, staring at Dardy with rage. Pallavi walks behind her. Kayla calls her mother’s phone number, but her mother doesn’t answer. She shred tears as Pallavi comforts her.
Once Years Later
Kayla’s miserable sister is wearing a blue green tank top, blue jeans, and black tennis shoes. Diamond’s in her bedroom playing an online game, called “Susie She,” which is free to download onto her black laptop. Susie She is a well-known fashion designer and punk rock star and Kayla (a diehard fan) is desperate to play the game. “Susie She” is a faith-based game about characters of different religions and concepts, where a player can select and interact in the game world with religious roles. Depending on the selected or customized character, a players morality level functions differently. If the player’s character is behaving wrong according to their chosen religion and selected concepts, her morality level decreases, which can lead to harsh punishments. In the game, Diamond customizes a gigantic brown bear to know telekinesis and mauls innocent civilians around a ghetto neighborhood.
“Diamond!” Pallavi calls her downstair.
Diamond sighs and tosses her joystick between her two, soft, yellow pillows. She glances at a picture of her smiling mother in the middle of a mahogany, picture frame, which sits on top of her black dresser. She rises up, opens the door, and heads downstairs. Her vivacious sister (wearing a black and white, polka-dot headband, a white camisole, tight, blue jeans, and black sandals) quietly sits at a rectangular, kitchen table. Pallavi sits on the opposite side of the table with short, black curly hair, black eyeshadow, red lipstick, a black corset, black stockings, and black high-heels.
Pallavi says, “I ain’t cookin’ tonight.”
Kayla giggles saying with ease, “Mom!”
They don’t care that she manifested severe depression. Her baby sister actually attempted to replace their biological mother. Diamond still in heartache, but it only gets worse. In front of her eyes, Pallavi does a magic trick where their warm dinner appears on the table without preparation. There’s two, large, clean plates on the table; on both plates are five pieces of fried, boneless, catfish, boiled lobster, and dirty rice. As powerful as Pallavi is, this trick is old. Diamond cracks a fake smile.
“You’re the best, ma,” her sister says.
Pallavi teleports out of the kitchen before saying, “See ya.”
Diamond sits down where Pallavi originally sat and speaks, “Did she tell ya she’s an original Grams member.”
“Mom tells me everything. It’s fine if you don’t accept Patrice as your mother, but she’s a mother to me. She’s done all she can. If you don’t like her so much, leave.”
“Your exes almost got mom killed. If I wasn’t strong, I’d be dead too and you walk ’round smilin’ like everythin’ fine. It ain’t.”
“I almost died too,” Kayla says with a soft voice.
Isaiah Lawrence 