TEARS OF RAGE

Chapter 48

When darkness descended upon the city, money, and vice became like Christmas lights...

Everybody tried to make their trap shine.

The streets came alive with drug traffic, as drug addicts slid through the alleyways of apartment buildings, and backstreets.

From one corner to the next, people could be seen, moving through the shadows on a quest to satisfy a high.

Charmaine drove to Eastlake Meadows, searching for Swaylo.

She hit every location that she could think of, with no success.

He was not at his usual hangouts.

He was not at his grandmother's apartment.

He was not answering his beeper.

She was on the verge of crying, not knowing if she could find him before the cops had a chance to arrest him.

Almost an hour after she had left the ExxonMobil service station, and drove past her aunt Wanda's apartment, Charmaine saw one of Swaylo's friends exit an alleyway.

She stopped at the curb and honked her horn.

"Hey, Paul..." she called out from her car. "Have you seen Swaylo around?"

"I saw him earlier. He was headed over to the rec center, with Bald Bull and a bunch of other guys, but I haven't seen them since."

"Thanks, Paul," she called out and sped off in the direction of the recreation center.

That was the one place that she had not thought to look for him.

When she pulled to a stop at the curb, her heart dropped as she saw the white Saab parked at the corner of the block.

She jumped out of the car, and ran into the building, hoping that she was not too late to help Swaylo avoid being arrested.

Gathered about the rows of bleachers, at the rear of the rec center, Swaylo and fourteen of his friends were listening to Pie-Man attempt to sell them a pistol.

He had come upon them discussing plans on how they wanted to organize a crew.

Although they had no clue about the money that Swaylo was waiting to get, each of them was committed to the idea of taking control of their housing projects.

The meeting was to gauge how each of them felt about engaging other crews, to take command of the drug trade in their neighborhood.

When Pie-Man found them gathered about the bleachers, he approached with the pretext of purchasing drugs.

No one thought to question if he had an ulterior motive.

Several of them had served him drugs at some point in time, in their run on the block.

Where they sat, there were no lights.

Before they were a crescent-shaped chain-linked fence, with a baseball field spread out over red dirt and grass.

Beyond that stretch of open land was a broad patch of woodland that separated other houses, from the structure of the apartments.

The rec center was a favored hangout spot in their neighborhood, but not too many people would venture past the front of the building after dark.

The open expanse of the baseball field was like a deserted wasteland at night.

A person did not want to get caught in the darkness of that area, without knowing someone that could vouch for them being okay. It was not safe for an outsider.