Chapter 23 ( Gabos ) Ruthless

After two hours of waiting, Trirena was finally able to go see her father. As she entered the room that held her father’s life in its hands, she mentally prepared herself for the worst. As she listened to the sounds of all the machines, she saw her father hooked up too. She almost shed a tear at the sight of her father lying helpless in the hospital bed. Making her way closer to his side, inch by inch, she looked around the room, hoping that all this was a dream. But the image of her dead mother is what made her realize this is all reality. As she held her father’s hand, she listened to his labored breathing, looking at her father like this made her question God. And she whispered, “Why, God? Why my mother had to get killed? Now you got my daddy fighting for his life.” As she rose up above her father and kissed him on his forehead, she said, “Daddy, I need you just like you need me. I lost my mother. Please don’t make me lose you too. Fight, Daddy, please. I know it’s more peaceful in the world you’re in now, but we got revenge to pay to what those niggaz did to Momma and you. I know you’re not going to let it go down this way,” she said, hoping to hear an answer from her daddy. But receiving none in return, the only answer she received was the sound of the machines and the heart monitor going beep, beep, and beep. As of right now, that was all the hope she had and needed.

As she prepared herself for the fight that’s about to go down, taking her seat beside her father and grabbing his hand again, she wanted to let him know it was time, time for her to step up. She will always be his little girl, but things were about to change in Ocala, all because they killed her mother, who was innocent in her eyes. “Fuck the rules of the game,” she said aloud. “As of now, I make my own rules,” she said, shaking her head at the sight of her father. “Daddy, you always told me to be prepared to take care of myself, if something every happen to you or Momma. Well, Momma’s gone, and them same niggaz got you on life support fighting for your life. So as I speak, it’s me against the world. I’m sorry this had to happen, I know you never wanted me to get involved in the game, but when you’re forced to do something, it’s nothing you can do about it but go with the flow,” she said, rising from her chair. Looking down at her father, who looked so helpless, she kissed him on the cheek.

As she made her exit, a major change took over. The once-sweet girl was now ready to get back. As she calculated her next move, she stopped at the nurse’s station. “Please don’t let nobody in his room, ’cause I don’t know who did this, or if they’ll come back to finish him off,” she told the nurse.

The nurse replied, “I can do that, but what about the man who was here three hours ago, Mr. Sico?”

“Listen, ma’am,” Trirena said in a nice voice. “If it’s not me or the doctors, I don’t want nobody in his room,” she said, walking off, but stopped and turned around to add emphasis. “Listen, if anything happens to my father, I’m coming for you. I promise you that,” she said, smiling politely, like they were the best of friends. And she made her exit, promising not to return until her father was doing better or she had to prepare for his arrangement to go to heaven. Either way, it was the only time she would step foot back in this hospital, ’cause she couldn’t stand the sight of how fragile her father looked. And she hopped in her ride with one thing on her mind, “Time to play the game.” As she heard the words play over in her mind that her daddy used to tell her: “Baby, life is not always a matter of holding good cards but sometimes playing a poor hand well.” As she prepared herself to face the ones who killed her mother, she knew she had to play this off to a T. She was thinking as she jumped on Highway 200, heading back home, ’cause tomorrow she would head to the projects to see her brother. Thirty minutes later, she was home, and as soon as she walked into the house, all the memories of her and her mother and father came back all at once, making her break down to her knees, but she stilled herself to get up and not shed a single tear. As she looked around the house, she noticed it was clean. Just like nothing happened. Looking at her uncle, who was asleep on the sofa, she wondered, “How could he sleep at a time like this?” Walking over to the sofa and tapping his foot, she whispered, “Uncle Sico, Uncle Sico, I’m back.”

As her uncle opened one eye, then the next, slowly sitting up, he asked, “How you doing, baby girl?”

“What kinda stupid-ass question is that to ask?” she was thinking, but she answered anyways. “I’m holding up.”

“So how’s my brother?” Sico said.

“Really, he’s still on life support, but he’ll bounce back,” she said. “He’s a fighter, it’s just a matter of time,” she said, sitting on the sofa beside her uncle.

“So you took care of my mother’s body.”

“Yes, I did, but why you didn’t wanna have her a funeral or something?”

“’Cause that’s a giveaway. I want whoever did this to feel like we just gonna let the shit blow over. That way they won’t be asking questions about my father,” she said.

“I understand,” Sico said, thinking, “Smart move.” And he looked at his niece again. “Baby, you sure you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, reaching for the picture on the table that was of her and her mother smiling together at the zoo. “Life is crazy. One minute shit is going good, next it’s falling apart,” she was thinking.

“Trirena, if you need me, I’m here,” he said, giving his niece a hug. “I got all the tires fixed on the rides, so you can get around.”

“Okay, thanks,” she said, as Sico got up to leave. When he reached the door, she called out, “Uncle Sico!”

“Yeah, sweetheart, what’s up?”

“Tomorrow morning I’m going to tell Pokey his father got killed and that they killed my momm.”

“And why you gonna do that?” Sico said, looking at his niece like she done lost her mind, ’cause her daddy ain’t dead.

“’Cause I want everybody to believe he is,” she said.

“And what if he asks about the funeral?”

“I’ll tell him you got rid off the bodies, till we find out who did this,” she said, slamming the picture down, watching glass fly everywhere as the pain flowed through her heart.

Sico asked, “Baby, you sure you gonna be okay?”

“I’m straight, Uncle Sico. Please go ’head and do what you gonna do. I’mma be all right. I’m just trying to put this broken puzzle in my head together, about who could have done this and why?” she lied to her uncle, knowing the whole time who did this. She just felt she had to throw her uncle off beat, ’cause she knew if he knew who did this, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill whoever did this. But her plan was to make whoever did this suffer a slow and painful death, like her mother did. She was in deep thought, when she heard the door slowly being closed, and that’s when she got up, plugged the phone back in, and made a few phone calls to a few trusted friends. Picking up the phone and calling her cousins, she knew they would be down with the plan. After three rings, a female voice said, “Hello, what’s up?”

Trirena asked, “Bre, where Blessing and Tahshama at?”

“They right here, why?” Bre asked.

“Look, I need y’all help. Something just went down, but I’ll explain it to y’all, when I come scoop y’all up, just be ready,” Trirena said.

“All right, Cuz, you know we with cha, no matter what it is. Do we need to bring our girlie-girlie stuff?” Bre asked.

“Yeah, do that,” Trirena said. “Look, be ready in about one and a half hour and dress to kill, and be ready to play a little cat and mouse game.”

“Word,” Bre said, hanging up the phone.

She almost felt bad about bringing her cousins in on this, but she remembered GABOS.

        As she took a shower and relaxed for a moment, she was thinking of a master plan! One, they would sidetrack her brother and his friends to make them believe she didn’t know it was them.