“Boy, am I glad to see you! You okay?” I put my arms out the window and motioned him for a hug. I kissed him on the cheek.
“Okay, now, Shy, don’t get hurt. Don’t be kissin’ on my baby like that!” Jay jokingly threatened.
We all laughed.
Shy looked at me. “You okay fo’ real? Thought I was gonna have to pull my gat out on him! Out there trippin’ like that!”
Shy was no older than nineteen. I was proud of him. He was getting out of the streets, and as stated earlier, on his way to Bowling Green University on a football scholarship. He was a good kid with so many great qualities, but he got hooked up with the wrong people. Jason had met him from going to the football games and seeing him tear up the other teams, scoring.
“What’s good, Jay?”
“Where Kev at? Why y’all ain’t get him to come do this?”
Shy listened; then he got serious. “Kev said call you. He had somethin’ to take care of, so that’s what I did.”
Jason moved around in his seat a little like he was a little agitated that Kev didn’t come. I wondered where Kev was but I dared not say a word. I kept my thoughts to myself.
“Hey, Jay, when you gonna let me drive this?” He pointed to Jason’s shiny black Hummer, which was chromed out, with music blasting.
Jason never responded. He looked over at me. “Stay right here.”
I obliged and Jason got out of the truck. He turned and grabbed his fitted baseball cap that sat on the dashboard and put it on his head. He shut the door and then walked off with Shy. I watched as they talked in the middle of the street.
Jason reached his hand out and gave him dap. Next Shy reached in his pocket and pulled out a key and pointed at a car that was parked behind the Hummer. Jason gave him a stack of money then came back to the truck.
“Let’s go.”
“Where we goin’?” I replied.
“Get out the truck, Reese. I got to be somewhere now, baby.” Jason was still a little aggravated after hearing what Kev said.
I hurried out of the truck, trying to keep up with Jason. It was hard because I had on the Red Bottoms he’d just given me. I had both Jason’s and Shy’s attention as I walked.
Jason pointed to a brand-new dark blue Toyota Camry and told me to get in. I had to admit I was puzzled, but did what I was told so Jason wouldn’t get mad. We got in the car and he drove off, speeding down the street.
“Where we goin’ Jay?” I asked again.
“Why, Reese? You wit’ me, you safe.” He reached over and touched my knee as he sped down the freeway. “Baby, if I didn’t tell you . . .” He looked over at me. “You look beautiful tonight.” He smiled, took my hand and held it, then kissed it. I smiled at him, then reached over and kissed him on his cheek. Jason’s cell began to ring.
“Hello,” he answered it, then listened to what the caller had to say. “I know, I know. I’m pullin’ up now.”
Jason pulled up to the airport and got out of the car. “Stay right here, babe. I’ll be right back.”
He was still on the phone but had his hand over the receiver when he spoke to me. He shut the car door and looked down the busy sidewalk at all the people waiting for their rides.
“I see y’all. Come on.” He waved his hand in the air and two females began to walk toward him.
Upon seeing the girls, I knew immediately what was going on. Jason hired young girls to travel with their product from New York to Columbus, inconspicuously dressed as college students going home for a weekend. Jason was always at the top of his game and he knew if he used them more than a couple of times, the possibility of them getting caught increased. So he always tried to find new girls who wanted some extra money and were willing to carry dope on an airplane to get it.
He usually found the girls who were rebellious to their parents, the ones who were in the clubs with fake IDs, or boosting clothes for a living and looking for anything to do to get money. Jason looked for the ones with the nothing-to-lose mentality, the hardcore young chicks who were already headed for a downfall.
He could pick them out in a crowd, the bad girl, that is. He liked the ones who were looking for love in all the wrong places, and Jason knew how to turn on the charm to get what he wanted. Jason would lie to the girls, give them hopes of a relationship with him and a fairytale lifestyle; that was all it took to seal the deal and make the ladies do whatever he wanted. He always found the ones who never thought twice about what would happen to them if they were caught, and would never tell if they were.
The females traveled by plane through JFK Airport in New York straight to the Columbus International Airport with no problem. They brought back to the CO anywhere from two to five kilos taped to their bodies; and no one noticed a thing. When I found out what they were doing and how, I wondered how in the world they got away with it with all the security at the airport since 9/11. But they did, and they got away with it plenty of times. Jason would always be nervous until the plane hit the ground and they got their dope off the females.
When the girls got to the car I was shocked. They looked like two of the most innocent girls to ever go to college. However, they weren’t. They were young girls who were getting their hustle on.
They got in the car, but Jason didn’t introduce them to me. He acted like I wasn’t there. It made me a little mad to be ignored, but I understood that they were just doing business.
I pulled the mirror down on the visor, wanting to see what they looked like. When Jason got in he started talking to them. “So everything everything? No problems wit’ that weight on?”
“No problems. I got two and a half kilos and she do too,” one of the girls said to Jason. She nodded toward the other girl. “That’s five! You ain’t gonna find nobody like us, Jay. I don’t know why you keep tryin’!”
Both the girls laughed.
I couldn’t believe it. These chicks had just transported five kilos of cocaine on an airplane and were cool, calm, and laughing! Don’t they know how much trouble they would be in if they were caught? Then again, if the police pulled us over right now, I would be in for it too. Woo, God, help me! I got nervous and started sweating and moving around in my seat.
I looked over at Jason and he appeared to be fine, asking them questions like, “How was your flight? Y’all hungry?” He told them that he had them a nice suite downtown and a couple of friends were gonna take them out on the town before they went back tomorrow.
This was unbelievable! My heart was beating so fast, yet everyone else seemed as cool as a cucumber. I looked out the window and listened, and then watched them in the back seat.
The two girls couldn’t have been any older than eighteen. One was a heavyset Spanish girl with long black hair that she wore in one ponytail, which hung halfway down her back. It was probably her studious look that got her out of the airport.
The other female was a black girl, tall and slender. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and an Oxford shirt that matched her tights and a pair of black platform shoes. She wore micro braids in her hair and it was pulled up into one ponytail ball in the middle of her head. She also had some nice Vogue glasses on.
Yeah, they ain’t gonna get caught, I thought, not with that look.
They were in the back seat laughing and talking. They paid no attention to me, so I stopped paying attention to them. I flipped the mirror back up and continued to look out the window the rest of the drive.
