TBOS Day 14
Today was eventful. I was bored for only two or three hours during the entire day.
The first eventful thing was that when I woke up, Rhonda was puking. Because she’s PREGNANT! How did that happen, Mr. Nine? Hmm? Anyway, I felt bad for her, so I made her the last of the chicken soup.
Then Nine woke up. The lazy ass was sleeping when he should have been helping his pregnant puking girlfriend. He wanted to eat the soup. But it was gone ;< So we had to go shopping. Shopping means me and Nine get to go out!
We decided to go to Super Foods. Super Foods isn’t my favorite because it doesn’t have the big soft Texas Toast, which is the best for bologna sandwiches with sour cream and onion chips or peanut butter and honey with Cheetos. Basically, you make the sandwich like normal and then put on the chips. Don’t mix them up because they don’t taste the same. Sour cream and onion with bologna. Cheetos with PB and honey. Super Foods only has the thin bread, which is shit and isn’t even worth getting busted for.
However, it’s the best place to shop because it has big ass floors for skating. Wider than Rhonda’s ass, Nine says ;P. This is not true. I looked. But I think Nine is happy cause her butt’s gonna get bigger during pregnancy.
Hawk says I should describe everything when I write because that’s what good writers do. They describe every…little…detail. He says it’s important because it’s a matter of record, and someday, I might want to look back in TBOS and see how the weather was on Halloween. Which is bullshit because in Billings, Montana, the weather on Halloween is only ever snowy or rainy, and I confidently predick-t ;p that it is going to be wet. ;p
The first step to going shopping is to make yourself look nice. If you look like shit, they won’t even let you in the door. So I bathe. The water was so fucking cold because we don’t have hot water. We haven’t had hot water for a long time. Sometimes we heat it in the fireplace, but Nine says we can’t waste the wood. He says we can either go shopping or go wood hunting, but we can’t do both in one day. It’s too stressful. He just wants to cuddle with Rhonda. There’s your wood!
My room has a bathroom, but it’s a terrible color. The walls are like the color of limes. The floor is white and so is the bathtub. It has a white sink that has a crack in it, so you can’t lean on it when you brush your teeth, or it will break. And the mirror is really big. The shower curtain is also white, like the floor, and the ceiling is white, like the shower curtain. There are no lights, so I have to use my nighttime safety lights. I like the pink ones, so everything becomes pink, except for me, cause I’m Black, so I’m more of a brown-orangish. The best way to take a cold bath is to wash everything then rinse. So I wash my body with a washcloth and soap really good. The washcloth is blue, so in the pink light, it’s purple. Then I rinse off in the shower real quick and dry real quick with a purple and blue towel and jump under my covers until I stop shaking.
Okay. I can’t describe everything because that would take forever. So whoever reads this — Not Nine! DO NOT READ! — Whoever reads this, just try and use your imagination. Like, if I say it’s cold, try to imagine the cold. I’m not going to explain how it’s cold. Your cold is probably the same as my cold. Or my skateboard. I’m not going to describe how it’s an Edge Grinder 5 with BlackIce Formula Z wheels, the best wheels you can possibly get. Okay? Your board is probably very similar.
It takes about thirty minutes to get to Super Foods. It would be faster if we just walked there like normal people, but we are not normal people. First, me and Nine peek out the garage windows for like ten minutes, watching the street. We check out every car and make sure no one is in them or watching us. When it’s time, we take the alleys.
I’m wearing my white shirt and black tie, and Nine is wearing his prom clothes from last year. We both got black covid masks for the job. Rhonda said we looked hot. I think we look like we should be carrying Bibles. I told Nine that we could pretend we were just some of Pastor Tony’s Boys, and then people would give us anything we wanted. He hit me and said Black people can’t be Pastor Tony’s Boys. But we’re only half Black, and he said if you take one spoon of chocolate syrup and mix it in a big glass of milk, do you have white milk or chocolate milk? I said it was light chocolate milk. He said, Exactly! I asked him about Hawk. Can he be one? And he said, Asian people can’t be one either, that you gotta think along the lines of milk tea. I said, that’s fucking discrimination, and he said, I know. And then he hit me for cussing.
It wasn’t too cold, but I could tell it was going to rain.
Super Foods is stupid big. It takes up a whole block. We stood across the street, staring at it from the alley, waiting for the rent-a-cop to leave. The rent-a-cops are JTS, and they don’t fuck around. They have real guns. Nine pointed up, and I saw a big drone circling over the parking lot real slow. We hid under the back porch of the house on the corner and waited until the drone landed in the back of the truck and the truck pulled out of the parking lot.
The way we do it now is we split up. We stash our backpacks on the back porch of this BLUE house. No one lives there, as far as we know. It’s rundown, and there’s spray paint on the walls from the gangs. Nine goes in first, like he’s just a normal shopper. He always gets in easy because he’s a smooth talker. I have a temper, and so he says I have a harder time. This is propaganda, cause Nine’s the one with the temper. :p
I’m supposed to wait fifteen minutes to give him time to get the things on the list. I remind him he better get the fucking Cheetos. He says if he has time, but he’s gonna make sure he gets nourishing food first. He says I’m not eating enough vegetables. Which is bullshit. Peanut butter is a vegetable.
I hate waiting alone. I watched a cat come through the alley. It stopped and stared at me for a good three minutes, and then it jumped the fence and went into the yard on the other side. The cat was gray and black. At night, it would’ve been pretty much invisible. Then, two guys walked by. I’m sure they were spinners cause they were talking really fast together, and the fat one looked like he pulled all the hair out of his head. Then it was quiet except for one thing I didn’t tell Nine about cause all he does is worry, but I’m going to tell Hawk as soon as I see him. A black van with black windows slowly pulled through the alley and stopped right behind the house. I hid on the porch, and it didn’t see me but just stayed right there for like ten minutes. I started to get that feeling, and I used Hawk’s technique to relax. I’m pretty sure I can kick their asses if they ever fuck with me.
That made me late, which sucks because when you do a job. Timing is everything. I skated across the parking lot to make up time, which is breaking the rules. At the door was a really mean-looking lady with blue and yellow hair and big glasses and a fat ass. She said, No. I don’t think so, mister, and shook her finger in my face. I didn’t want to do it, but I started to beg. I was like, bitch, I’m wearing a tie. Can’t you see I just came from church or a wedding or something respectable? I knew that all I had to do was get past her, and I was home free cause Super Foods only has three human employees online at any time. The rest are bots with seriously narrow AI. So I did what works on Hawk and Rhonda, but not Nine cause he’s a dick. ;p I brought out the sad puppy eyes. Rhonda always says, put those big brown eyes away. Hawk says, Christ! and then he hugs me.
The way it works is you gotta tear up a little—waterworks is key. You gotta think about something real sad. That’s easy. I have a lot of sad memories. I think about my dad. I think about my mom. I think about going to bed hungry. I think about waking up hungry. I think about the dreams. Then, you gotta kinda look down at their feet, like that’s the direction you’re going. Straight to the grave, cause you’re so sad from just a sad, sad life you’re gonna throw yourself off the Rims, and the cops will be cleaning up your guts for days. The dumb bitch melted like ice cream and told me not to use my skateboard and to leave my backpack at the counter. I told her, Sure, not a problem, that it would be extremely disrespectful to skateboard in a business establishment as nice as Super Foods. She steps aside and lets me into the kingdom.
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My eyes are my superpower. But not my ultimate superpower. That’s top secret!
As soon as I’m through the door, the fun part begins. I dig in my bag and put on my sunglasses and a black face mask. I say thanks a lot! And do a backflip right in her face. I throw down, and I’m off. She yells something at me, but I just give her the middle finger. No retreat, no surrender! I shout.
As I kick turn down aisle 9, I hear her crazy voice over the intercom. Code Yellow aisle 9. Code Yellow aisle 9. African American male on a skateboard. I’m half White! I shout, but I guess Nine was right. It only takes a little chocolate to change the milk. I stop at the candy bars and shove the best ones into my pack. Almond Joy for Rhonda. Snickers for Nine. Twix for me—cause you get two! And 5th Avenue for Hawk. Can’t forget Hawk. The woman and another guy come into the aisle. They’re both pretty much overweight so when they run toward me, I can feel the floor shake. That’s impressive cause the floor is cement.
I zoom out of aisle 9 into the large aisle that goes around Super Foods like a racetrack. Nine is right there at the frozen meats, taking his good old time. The shopping cart is almost full. He gets an oh-fuck look on his face, and I turn. A big, black roller bot is at the end of the aisle by the beer, coming out of the back. Fuck! They’ve upgraded since the last time we staked out this place. Someone has put a jacket and tie on it, so I figure it must be the manager. Its eyes are flashing yellow and pointing right at me, scanning my features for facial recognition, getting nothing cause I’m a professional.
Hawk always says you gotta be able to think on your feet. And timing is key. The human employees are barreling at me like a couple of rabid rhinoceroses. The roller bot is coming from the other direction. I grab a big bottle of olive oil from the shelf on the end and smash it on the floor. The shit goes everywhere. I just skate out of the way. The rhinos can’t stop and hit the oil. They go down hard, just as the roller bot hits the oil, and its wheels start to spin, then... Bam! They all collide! The bot wobbles and falls over on top. I feel kinda bad cause the woman is crying, and the man is cussing. I skate by Nine and look in the cart. No fucking Cheetos!
Get out of here, he says. To make it look real, I slap the meat out of his hands and push off for aisle 20 and my Cheetos. There are like a thousand kinds of Cheetos, but my favorites are the puffy orange ones. I shove two bags into my backpack and take a leisurely skate over to the magazine racks to check out the comic books. As I’m choosing a selection of unread new releases, I hear a tap, tap, tap. It’s one of those bots that looks like a dog. I’m thinking, like, you’ve got to be joking. I was just going to skate away, but I shouldn’t have ignored it. It reaches out and locks something onto my ankle, then it just folds up and lowers to the ground. I try to pull away, but it’s heavy. Maybe a hundred pounds. Fuck.
And that’s when the alarm goes off. Nine comes running around the corner and sees me, looks down at the bot, and I can tell he’s pissed. Fuck, fuck, fuck, he says. Three fucks is pretty bad.
It got me, I say. Just go. Save yourself! Maybe you can name the baby after me.
Shut the fuck up. Don’t be dramatic, he says and closes his eyes for a moment, and I feel it. I feel his power. It scares me because I know that if I can feel it, so can… other things. Just like he’s breaking dried spaghetti, he twists the arm off the bot, then grabs the cuff around my leg and rips it apart. Then he picks up the bot and body slams it on the cement, and a million pieces go everywhere!
Let’s go, he says, before JTS gets here.
We race with the cart across the parking lot, across the street into the alley, and we load everything into our backpacks. Nine has a huge green duffel that was our dad’s. He carries most of the heavy stuff cause he has muscles. We throw the cart into the backyard and head down the alley. We have to get some distance and go the roundabout way home so they can’t tell where we live. I take one last look behind and see that black van pull into the Super Foods parking lot.
The most non-boring day ever! Well, almost! ;)
Nine made us walk around in a maze pattern all the way home cause he said we couldn’t take the chance of being followed. We went all the way up to the canal and walked through the trees behind the big houses. He was pretty pissed most of the way home and wouldn’t talk to me cause I made him do an enchantment.
Finally, we got home and found a big surprise. Hawk was there! Him and Rhonda were playing cards. They’d been waiting for two hours. He also brought some wood ;p—a lot of wood. It looked like enough for a week, maybe two if we’re careful. And he brought some gas canisters for cooking and heating water for a hot bath. And lastly, he gave Nine five hundred dollars and said to lie low and not steal any more food.
Nine said to save it for the medicine. But Hawk said not to worry. He got a new job and would have enough for the medicine soon. That’s crazy cause mom’s medicine is super expensive. I figure he’s hacking ATM machines with one of the tech gangs in the BAT. That, or he’s robbing old ladies, which is fine by me. They’re easy to rob and have a lot of money.
Nine says he doesn’t want any handouts, but Hawk is like part of our team, and he’s the only way we can afford Mom’s medicine. And I’m not stupid. I’m not some little baby who doesn’t know what’s going on. I know the medicine is really Escape, and Mom got stuck on her spin just like all the other Escape addicts. Stuck at L3. And I know that’s not good. I know that’s like being stuck in Hell. But Hawk will help us. He’s Nine’s best friend. He’s Rhonda’s friend cause Nine got her pregnant. And he’s my best, best, best friend. Hawk will help us.
Hawk stayed for dinner! We made beef stew cause we didn’t have a way to keep the meat frozen, and Rhonda says you need to eat red meat to stay healthy. After dinner, Nine and Rhonda wanted some alone time. It’s not like he can knock her up twice! Hawk said he was going home, but I begged and did the puppy dog eyes, so he stayed with me, and we watched season three of Eternal Love on his phone. I’ve seen season three already, twice, but it’s the best one. I know Hawk likes it too, cause he’s gay. He doesn’t say he’s gay, but he is. It’s not a secret, but it is.
I let him read a little of my journal, and he said my writing was good, but I have to work on something called tense and paragraphing. I asked him why, and he said because that’s how life is. Our minds divide everything into sections, and we keep track of things by a series of past, present, and future events. I said no, life is one paragraph that happens all at once, so all tenses can live together in that paragraph. He laughed at this and said I shouldn’t have quit school. But we both knew I had to. And he pushed my nose, and pulled my dreads and tickled me until I cried, and I hugged him and thought of Dad and Mom and Nine and Rhonda and the unborn spawn, and Hawk, and we should all go camping up in Glacier National Park where Dad used to take us. We could go up to our special spot near the old log and the river.
I told him about my dream and how real it was. And I tell him about the black van that I didn’t say to Nine. He gets really quiet, and when I ask him what’s wrong, he says nothing and just hugs me and asks me if I remember the relaxation exercise. And I said, yeah. Close your mind and focus on breathing. Bad thoughts out. Good thoughts in. You must focus on it until you are only the breath. I can feel his heat. He’s hot, almost burning up. That’s Hawk’s superpower—he has the fire.
We’re down in my room watching Eternal Love on his phone. He brought an extra power bank. He lets me surf the internet and use my social. Our Super Food heist made the news. I watch the videos and read the stories. They get my backflip perfectly! The news says crime is up across the city, across the state, across the nation, and around the globe. No one has jobs anymore because of the bots. The People of the Earth are flooding in. The BAT is growing. Drugs are everywhere.
Hawk tries to give me some money, but I say, No, please keep it for Mom. She needs it bad. He says, Okay, he’ll work on it. He’ll have the money for her medicine soon. He’s got a new job coming up. A few days at most.
We stayed together all night. We watch all of Eternal Love season three— the gay season. It’s the best season because you never guess what’s coming. But we didn’t watch the last episode. I saw it once, and I’ll never watch it again. Too sad. He asks me how Nine is doing, and I say he’s good, but I say more and say he’s stressed. Sometimes he yells.
I know Hawk’s secret. I know he loves Nine, but Nine doesn’t love him. We talk about things until the early morning: dreams, fears, hopes, plans for the future, love.
I ask him about love, and he says he’s not good at that. But when you find love, try to hold on to it, because love has wings and can fly away. Then he shows me the picture on his phone of Love from the old myths, and he’s right—love always has wings.
When it starts to get light outside, Mom starts screaming. I know there’s nothing I can do. I hear Nine get up and go to her, and she screams at him. And Rhonda tries to help. Eventually, she stops, and Nine and Rhonda go back to bed. The house is quiet and cold, but I am warm in Hawk’s arms, so I sleep.