Long Term Parking

" We're gonna move it slow..
when lights are low....
when you're moving slow
it sounds like a mo..
and it's alright, yeahhh it's alright"...I sang to the ipod that was now playing Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions as I drove slowly down route 611 out of Philadelphia and towards Jenkintown... I drove slowly through Abington, past the Abington Hospital, past "Keith Road" and straight to Jenkintown... As I pulled into Conrad's neighborhood and parked, a few feet down the road from his house...I saw the Jetta. Damn she must drive slow or she made a stop. I gave Bridget more than enough of a head start, she should of been here and everything should've been ready for phase two of my plan. Just then...my cell phone rang...it was just the person I had been waiting to hear from.

"Hi ya handsome." came the sultry female voice.

'Hey what's up? Is everything in play?" I asked....

'Everything is in play...we just waitin for the little chick a dee to get to the nest" she laughed.

"She's here..she's outside right now." I said.

"Okay...I'm ready.. hey Sean?" she asked..

"yeah?"I said, really wanting to get off the phone...

"Is it true what Conrad told me?"she asked.

"What did he tell you ?" I asked.

"That somebody you work with got your nose wide open and that
you're out of the game...off da market?" she said.

"Well uh...yeah, for the moment you might say that." I said, definitely not wanting to have this conversation with her and especially not now.

"Aww man, that's a shame...I missed out on gettin some of that huh? What is
goin on? First Kevin gets hooked up, then Cock Robbins, Now you? These
straight broads is takin all of the good guys out of the game." laughed Honey
Brown...

"Yeah, that's unfortunate but..look..get off this phone and just get ready." I
said.

"Okay, Okay.." she said.

I sat there and I watched Bridget ring the bell...wait a minute and then bam loudly on the door..Then she did exactly what I figured she'd do..She took out some type of burglary tool..a lock pick of sorts and attempted to jimmy the lock. She hesitated a minute and then went to her car...She wandered around back and cut a couple of wires. She had disabled the alarm system. She was good.. She was wearing latex gloves too. I could tell that she was an avid fan of CSI..
She then commenced to jimmying the lock...Just like I knew she would. I started to leave the door unlocked, but that would have been too much of a dead give away. I had all of the lights on and music playing....so the house looked like Conrad was indeed there.

'Cause I'm in lovvvee...with another man.....and I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry..."sang Jazmine Sullivan as Bridget entered the house. The fact that the music was blasting should have put her off a bit...but crazy people often aren't that analytical..

I'm trying to imagine the look on her face when she walked into Conrad's master
bedroom where the music was coming from and Honey Brown put that nickel
plated .45 caliber to her head and backed her Parliament-Funkadelic dressed
behind out the front door...real quick...Quick enough for my man Kevin to come out of the bushes and put a bag over her head. She attempted to holler but Honey Brown put the gun under her chin..She felt the cold steel and then heard
Honey say coldly...

"I wouldn't do that little chickadee....might be bad for your health...now just be
a good little chick a dee and this will all be over quick and hopefully nobody
will get hurt...you feel me baby.....damn ,them boots is tight gurlll, I wish we had
time for you to tell me where you copped them." she laughed maniacally. She was enjoying this way too much.

Kevin was wearing a lifelike George Bush Mask.... I had on a Bill Clinton Mask
and Honey was wearing a Hillary Clinton Mask...We took her and shoved her into the back of my rental car..Honey got in the back with her..Kevin and I got in the front seat and I pulled off...I drove further down route 611, way past the Willow Grove mall and past the old Willow Grove Naval Air Station...I drove to
an old empty abandoned air strip off the highway and stopped the car.

I could tell that Bridget was frightened out of her wits...I pulled the bag off of her head and I spoke to her in a disguised voice.

"How you doin Bridget?"

"How-How you know my name?" she said.

"I know everything about you...where you live, where you used to work...your
bra size..your dress size..everything...now listen good, cause this is the only time you are going to get a warning like this...Mr. Young doesn't want you..Mr. Young has a woman that he plans to marry...You screw that up and we gonna make history here...IT's gonna be the first time two ex-Presidents and an ex First Lady asassinate a damn stalker. Do you understand me? If you call him, text him,e-mail him or his woman....the last faces you're gonna
see on this earth are Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush..now come
on Bridget..you're a smart girl...we just elected a Black President a few days ago.. now, you don't want to miss his whole first term do you....because you're dead?"

She was silent..Honey cocked the .45 and Bridget answered then...

"Yes..YES..I understand...He won't hear a peep out of me...Please just don't hurt
me..please..." she wailed.

Honey put the bag back over her head and we drove her back to Conrad's house.
She got back in her car and was so visibly shaken that she couldn't start the car.
I walked over to her and I said firmly-

"Come on now...get yourself together and get out of here...NOW!" I screamed.

She got the message and she put the pedal to the medal...She was gone...............
Honey, Kevin and I took off the masks and got in my rental and headed towards
611 to make sure she was indeed leaving and not thinking about coming back..

"Sean..you crazy...Man oh man... if you and Conrad weren't my homies..there
is no way in hell I would've been involved in a caper like this.." laughed Kevin.

Honey Brown weighed in-

"Sean, that young girl was tremblin so bad, I thought she was gonna pee herself
in the back of this car....then I would've had to of killed her." laughed Honey
as we all laughed and drove back to Philly.

A few nights later at Josie's Bar....Sheila and I were in a booth with Mabel Jenkins and her man enjoying drinks and hot wings...Clerow and Cora Beth were in a booth across from us with Kevin and Sepia and Blake and Paris were sitting with Cock and Vanessa Robbins...a good time was being had by all as we listened to this new Trumpet player and his sextet from out of town play their set.

Conrad and Jill walked into the bar...Jill was sporting a huge rock on her left hand. Smiling from ear to ear...All of the women ouuuued and ahhed at the enormus peice of jewelry. Conrad had this sheepish grin on his face that made him look like a child. Conrad had finnally, after twenty years, popped the question...Jill was going to make an honest man out of him.

"Sean, I can't thank you enough for what you did for me.." He said ,when we were out of earshot of Jill at the Bar.

"Conrad, forget about it...really...forget about it...We broke enough laws to put us in jail for 25 years..but I'm sure your problems are over." I said.

"Yeah, I don't think I want to know what you did." He laughed...

Gus the bartender called me over to the bar to get my drink and he said to me.

"Man, I don't know what this world is coming to...these kids today, got everything to live for." He said.

"What you talkin bout Gus?" I said...

"They found a young girl...twenty five years old, dead out by the airport in a brand new Jetta... over in long term parking ,They said she died from a self inflicted gunshot wound.. Said she was in law school and had just lost her job as a para-legal..Shit, I done lost plenty of jobs...I aint never killed myself over it..these damn kids they don't know how to deal with nothin..." He said.

It was Bridget...she had killed herself...I didn't want to spoil the mood of everybody else, so I didn't say anything... Had she been that distraught over not being able to have Conrad?? Conrad was a good 20 years older than her...Surely she could have had her pick of men several years younger and better looking too , I might add . What kind of demons had this poor demented girl been wrestling with? I would never know. I felt very bad about what had happened. I felt a twinge of responsibility for Bridget...but what would the alternative have been.? She would have
made Conrad's life a living hell...might have even caused him harm...or she might not,,,she could have been bluffing...but like I said..I'd never know now.

I grabbed Sheila around the waste and I ordered a double..

"Sean...you alright?" she asked....

"Yeah baby...everything is just peachy..I got you, Conrad gettin married...what
could be wrong?" I asked as I kissed her on the neck..

"You just look like you seen a ghost" said Sheila...

I felt very cold all of a sudden, like something unliving had just walked past me.
I held Sheila tighter than ever...like I never ever wanted to let her go.


( For O.G.)