Then the sirens blew. "I wonder if they
ever stop…." She pondered to herself.
After living in the Washington D.C. area
for the last four years, not especially
in the "best" areas, it was a noise that
seemingly ran around the clock. As she
stood up from her seat in the confessional,
a creak echoed in the huge, empty church.
The church was in the midst of decay. She
remembered the scaffolding she saw erected
out front like a lunatic set of tinkertoys.
Were they remodeling or tearing it down?
She never saw anyone come or go, not that
she conscience noticed, but the congregation
must sue dwindled in the past, it sounded as
if no one had ever set foot in the church.
The creak of her chair mixed with the squeak
of the door as she stood. This mingled sound
seemed the only sound in the world. It was
silent..
Dead silent.
Almost eerily, every step she took sounded
like a thunderous clap. Clap!….Clap!….Clap!
Suddenly it became more like ClapClap..
ClapClap.."Shit! I'm running!" Suddenly her
heartbeat filled her ears with a pounding Thump!
Thump!ClickThump..ClickThump!
"ohshitohshitoh.." As she approached the old
oversized wooden door it all came at once.
No one was here! The priest was dead and,
judging by the newfound haze on red light in
the fog, it was his gunshot that brought the
police here at this time of night! For her!
In all the times she'd heard the sirens, none
sounded like these! These were special, more
important, more fearful! These sirens were
for her!
She took her first right into a dark,
damp alley. Even though it was pitch black,
she could always somehow sort of see the
walls. The one the blackened red bricks of
the church, the other a poorly painted wooden
building. She used to meet her dealer here.
Funny, she thought, they would both be
paranoid of the cops when they were here
doing their business. Luckily, there was
never a problem- not too many cops in this
area. They protect places worth money.
As she was thinking this, her ears
gave her an aural report. By the sounds
of the sirens, they would be in the church
now. The varying frequencies and speeds of
their wailing created the probable number of
four or so. No wonder, she thought, gunshots
in a church! Yeah, that's bad. The police
take their time coming to the aid of the
less fortunate. They don't put down their
donuts for a domestic affair, on a break while
you get beat by your pimp. But they do love
two kinds- other cops and priests. All these
cops on their days off go to church, and this
is sacrilege to their faux-religions. A
hooker, wasted, running from a church that
filled with innocent blood! Her brain started
to calculate a probability report. "Man, am I
fucked!" was the conclusion she came to as her
shoes flew off left and right, as gasping she
hurled into a sprint. She felt cold gravel
under her warm feet. All of her senses were
whipping her into a frenzy. Like some sadistic
form of shock treatment, they all took shots at
her. Her eyes were the worst. As she neared
the other side of the alley.
A dim light between the two buildings
lurked ahead. What she thought would be
freedom, suddenly convoluted into capture.
As she neared it, she felt a tingling starting
in her stomach, slowly creeping up her spine,
making her hairs and nipples erect, and
spreading like white heat into her temples.
She thought of a cop-No, two cops ready to
spring at end of the alley. They would throw
up a net and catch her like a wild rabbit, and
carry her away screaming and gasping for air.
She felt the inevitable. She would be caught!
She reached the end at a speed she would never
had thought her possible. Sensation took over-
it was the end!
As he left foot hit the sidewalk one last
time, the right foot SPRUNG! She was airborne
for what seemed like a whole minute. It felt
as though she had just jumped the Grand Canyon!
She never would have known for her eyes were
shut so tightly, wincing in fear. She felt
streams of water wring through the sides in a
lazer beam of salty tears. Then the leap of
life was ended.
It ended with a thud. She had jumped
across the street and hit the wall! As she
rolled to the ground, she looked at the black
hole in the town that was the alley. That jump
must have been twenty-five feet! She thought.
She visualized her heroic leap: sidewalk…the
whole street..another sidewalk..the wall? It
would do an Olympic longjumper proud!
Then another reality check hit her- she
was wet and slimy. Barely noticing her fall,
she was now sprawled on her back in the middle
of a mud puddle. Her left leg and arm resting
on the cold cement of the gutter. Dozens of
rocks poked her spine as if to tell her to get
the hell up. Which proved much easier thought
than done. With all the adrenaline peaked and
pooped, she could barely get her legs to work.
They were a crazy kind of shaky, like that of
after a good orgasm. She almost laughed at how
shaky her knees were. Her elbow dared her to
distribute any more weight to keep her in an
upright position. As she stood, she trembled at
her sensations. As the adrenaline left her, a
dull pain came to her left hip and her elbow,
which was now bleeding. The tingling pins of
fear and confusion were amplified by the mist of
the rain. She stood for a second, trying to get
a grip. Trying to focus her eyes from the mix of
confusion, tears, and rain, when the church came
back into focus. Almost simultaneously the
belltower tolled. The clang sounding louder
than any noise she had ever heard.
I must be dead. I must be dreaming, she
thought. The pain reminded her she wasn't. It
was the blaze of two white headlights that
jarred her back. The police! She stood there
in the middle of the road, covered in mud,
fifteen feet from a murder site, unmoving.
Like a deer in the middle of the road, wearing
the same confused face. As the lights neared
she saw a glint of yellow. Yellow? on a cop car?
As it neared closer she saw it was a taxicab.
A cab! A knight in shining yellow! What
incredible chance!
Frantically she waived her hands to hail
his attention. As he slowed she realized what
this situation would look look to him. Surely
he would never stop for a muddy, bloody,
shoeless hooker, and did he know of the trouble?
Just as he seemed past where she was standing,
his light turned to on-duty" on top. Now relief
waved down her spine. It made her feel like
wetting herself right then and there. As she
opened the door, she tried to collect herself.
"Man, am I glad to see you!" she said. Good
one, dummy-be calm-"My car there broke down
and I slipped in the mud...I was gonna ask
these officers for help but they look like
they're busy, so..,I'll just go home" I just
wanna go home and forget about this crappy
night!! " Sure are alot of officers around.
"I know," the cabbie spoke," I must have seen
four out front, two here now, and another one
behind us." Behind us! she panicked! The cab
rolled on at what seemed like five miles an
hour as it headed forward. She froze. One
behind us..surely they'll stop us. She slowly
turned her head to the right, knowing she was
afraid to look. She tried to make it appear as
though her head wasn't moving in case they were
examining her shadow. Out of the corner of her
straining eye she saw a dark blue police officer
exit her dark, familiar alleyway. Stealthily like
black on black, he crawled out and met another
shadowman; this one holding her familiar black
pumps she bought only weeks ago.
'That was close' she thought. Too close.
"There sure are alot of them" she paused to
swallow, hoping the quivering in her voice was
only paranoia, "Wonder what happened?" "Got me,"
the small driver said, "It's always something or
another around here. I don't make it part of my
route. Between you and me this area scares me.
Weird vibes. I turn off my cab light and take the
back streets. I'm on my way home, saw ya and
thought I'd like someone to make small talk with.
I just had to stop in Georgtown quick to get some
comic books for my son. He makes me go to the
comic book store every month. He loves them funny
books, gonna rot his brain." As the cabbie started
to drone on she thought to herself" what a strange
night. No, maybe those weren't strange enough
words. What the..."Ma'am?" The driver cut into her
thought, "umm, yeah." "I need the destination."
"Uh, Dupont Circle, kinda by the metro>" "Gotcha!"
Leaning back with a sigh, she finally felt calm.
Well, calmer. She stared out the window at all the
lights and stores on M street. Before she knew it,
she was at the metro station. "Right here's fine."
she announced. The cab slowly pulled to the curb,
and the man put on his dome light. "5.75 tonight
Ma'am" on her way out she smiled at the lowly older
man. "Here's twenty, get your son some more comics,
my friend." "Wow thanks!" he replied as if it was
the first time he had experienced kindness. "Hey,
do you remember you're covered in mud?" she jokingly
commented to herself, and laughed at forgetting.
She should have gotten off at home. Oh well,
she knew why she wanted to get off here: she
definitely needed a breath of fresh air! She looked
down at her torn, muddied clothing and shoeless feet.
Ah, on the corner the stands were just closing up
shop. She could buy something there. She worked her
way to the makeshift storefronts. They'll let me get
what I want. One guy sold all ties, one all
sunglasses, while they all informed her of deals,
Sera headed for a small Japanese woman. She was
hurriedly putting everything together in boxes and
closing the card table when she looked up. Her
small face brightened with a hello. "Have you got
anything for sale that I can wear? I fell down a
few blocks back and....." She was charming and
lying. Two things she could do well, and often,
unfortunately. Kind of came with the job. "Young
lady very beautiful in fine Kimono. Three colors
to choose." "Got green?" she laughed. "Yes, yes"
"How much?" she asked curiously. "You special, for
you only..you give me thirty. As Sera reached into
her pocket, the lady eyes met the ground. "Who I
kid? Me, no business...twenty." Sera extends a
twenty and a ten, "Here's thirty." "You are a
special lady..Very special.." Screech!! Crash!
BAM!! They were interrupted by the sound of a
four-car pile up. On the top of the mass of steel,
upside down, was a cab. It's wheels still turning
on what was left of an overturned crushed aluminum
can of a car. "Oh my! I wonder what happened?"
the lady says in awe. Sera dropped the thirty
dollars on the table, grabbed the Kimono, and
blandly answered: "I did. I guess I am a special
lady." turned and walked away.
As she walked, she mused to herself-someone
wasn't going to get their comic books. She inhaled
deeply thinking of only one thing: how nice the
breath of fresh air really was. It seemed to calm
her very soul. Sure, the air wasn't really fresh or
even clean, but the tiny molecules of after-rain,
like the dew of the air, crated a taste like no other.
The taste of Serenity. Her revelation was halted by
anger. Stupid cellophane! How goddamn hard do they
got to make things to open? Not that most people
just rip open and put on a Kimono, but this was
ridiculous! She had torn it in three places, and it
wouldn't budge. She stopped walking and bit into the
package like a rabid dog. Finally it gave. She
pulled it out and laughed aloud. It was a horrible
jade green color and had fold lines everywhere. As
she put it on, she admired the yellow and red dragons
and vines. She laughed again. "I look terrible!"
she giggled aloud again. It felt good to giggle,
like the bad thoughts were behind. Suddenly she
realized the music she had been enjoying was
belonging to a trumpet. A street musician...about a
block up. She felt happy that she would walk past
him.
'Do,Do, Doo,Do-Do' Ah, "Hello Dolly" Sera
deducted. Seems that what they all play. She
stopped right in front of him. She marveled at his
talent. She was expecting a man of sixty, while this
horn blower was more of thirty. "Beautiful, it's a
lost art y'know?" "Tell me 'bout it....I'm as lost as
I can be" the jazz man woefully replied.
She identified so much with the tone in the man's
voice and horn she thought it could have just as well
been her brain thinking. "Any requests for the young
lady tonight?" The thin dark, man asked. While
eyeing her up and down, a slight grin appeared at the
sides of his mouth. "I'm afraid I don't know any
Oriental tunes, though" With a huge grin herself, Sera
said "Yeah, yeah!" and giggled. "You know any Nina
Simone?" "aah! Girl knows Nina! Hmmm, on the trumpet..
um..'I Loves You, Porgy"? He asks. "It's pretty
common, but it'll do." Sera replied. "Oh! Tell ya
what! Catch this tune." the excited musician blurted,
"It's one of my all-time favorites! It ain't Nina,
but it is Porgy! from 'Porgy and Bess'." The
musician started a very beautiful sad song. Sera
placed a twenty-dollar bill in the man's trumpet case.
She noticed he didn't even look, or care, and that
made it better. "It's called 'Summertime'." Sera
meekly spoke and lit a cigarette. The man smiled from
under his mouthpiece. Walking again down the street,
she exhaled her thick, dark smoke into the dewy, clean
rain-air, and realized. She realized all the bad was
not gone, not even hiding.
***END OF PART ONE***