The Trolley Car Meet

 Early in the morning....a quarter to six in the city.....Unlike in the summer...the windows are closed....Passerby can't hear the sounds....the sounds of Debbie and I making furious ,passionate sweaty love in our bedroom...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuu....OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDD....OHHHHHHHHHHHH   REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!  OUUUUUUUUU" she moaned as I thrusted like mad into her....

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHH Deb...DEBBBB...You feel so damn goooooooooooood..." I moaned....

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHH Baby, so do youuuuuuuuuuuuuu...ouuuuuuuu weeeeeeeeeeee..." she cooed....

Debbie let out a guttaral yell like none I'd ever heard and then began kissing me...kissing me with such passion and abandon that I began to thrust even harder...

"Ohhhhh Reed, you're hittin my spot...ohhhhhhhhh..." she screamed......

What I couldn't know and what I wouldn't find out for hours is that not far from where we were in coital bliss..... George Bailey, the gangster father of 88 and my little protoge' and prodigy, Veronica Bailey was himself in the middle of some heavy love making....

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuu, George." yelled the woman...

"Ohhhhhh baby, give it tooo me...give it to meeeeeee...aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.." he howled as he and a young woman he had picked up in Josie's just hours before were in the middle of making the same type of passionate, hot sweaty jungle love that Debbie and I were making....

The way I later heard the story....A Black Caddilac drove slowly down the street....One young man, couldn't have been older than 18 or 19 got out of the car...He was wearing black skinny jeans, black penny loafers and a black hoodie....He approached a man standing guard outside the girl's house..

"Is George here?" he asked.

"Who wants to know?" asked the man....

The young teenager produced a gun and shot the man in the head...Killing him instantly...He kicked the door in and ran up the stairs of the boarding house... George had a guy sitting outside of the girl's room...Sleeping..
He must have heard the pop sound of the gun blast...He got up...

"Heyy who is you?" he asked... That was the last thing he  ever said in life because the young teen ager shot him and killed him also!

Meanwhile in the bedroom...George came furiously....

"YEAHHHH BABY YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed in ecstacy! Just as he heard his man outside questioning the intruder and being shot to death....

"Quick baby, get down..get on the floor." he whispered to the girl...

"George what's going on?" she asked...

"Hush up, get on the floor." he said as he fumbled to put on his boxers and slip on his pants....He also grabbed and loaded his pistol...

"George ,I aint got no clothes on..." she protested...

"Will you shut up and get on the floor?" protested George.

The teenager fumbled with the locked door , then kicked it open and came in the room with his gun blazing...

His shots missed...George's one shot didn't!!! ...It hit the kid square between the eyes and dropped him where he stood, dead!!!!

The girl was about to scream...but George cupped her mouth with his hands...He finished getting dressed and ordered his date to get dressed also...He told her to stay back....He then ran down the hall and crept down the steps...just in time to get to the door and see the driver of the Cadillac shooting it out with his man in his BMW...They traded two shots a piece...

George walks out into the street and calls out...

"Hey...Hey!!"

The driver of the Caddilac spins around...and George fires again...Hitting him square between the eyes and once in the chest...He too falls to the ground...Dead!!!

George runs to his car.... His driver slowly appears.....

"Good Lookin out Georgie." he says.... George looks at him with disdain..

"That's more than I can say for you." he said.

"They crept up on us and before I knew what was happenin....man ,they got the drop on us." he said.

"Yeah,Yeah,Yeah...come on." said George.

"Hey man, you leave anything behind?" he asks...

"No..Nothin.." says George...

"What about the babe?" he asks..

"She won't say nothin....She don't even live there...She borrowed that spot from a friend...She aint want her man to know we was uh having relations...She gone get out of dodge. She aint gon say a damn thing" said George...

"Well man ,I suggest we do the same." he said.

''Well what you sittin here for??, Let's get outta heah." said George as they pulled off.

II-

Many hours later,I got a strange text....I'm glad I saw it after I had gotten dressed later on that morning...It was surprisingly enough from George Bailey...  He asked me to meet him at the Trolley Barn...To get on a trolley and just wait for him...He said it was urgent...

Any other time I would have ignored it or thought it to be a trap....I wondered what would my friend, Kevin Morris have done?  I wasn't Kevin and I wasn't trying to take him down....I had flirted with the idea of dropping a dime to Tray's crew on his whereabouts...But I thought better of it.. I certainly didn't want George dead...I just wanted him to see the light before it was too late!!

I got on a Trolley and waited...This trolley had just been washed  and there was no driver on it... Like clockwork, George Bailey appeared...

"Hey Reed, glad you could meet me here man..." he said.

"What's this about George?" I asked.

"I guess you heard about the shootout , a few blocks from you early this morning.?" he said.

''Yeah I heard...Some kid, 19 years old got killed....and it looks like he killed two guys...and somebody killed him and his guy...." I said.

"That would be me..." said George non-chalantly...

"WHAT?? You??" I said.

"Reed, they were from Tray's crew...I was in that house with Wilona McGhee..." he said.

"Wilona McGhee?? The babe that be in Josies?" I asked.

"Yeah...She borrowed that spot from one of her friends so we could uh go there to uh, you know, be alone." said George...

"And what happened...Her man found out?" I asked.

"Nah..Nah, Tray found out somehow that I was there and he sent a hitter...Cat killed the man at the door and the guy I had watchin the room, but I got him...before he woulda got me." said George.

"Then what happened?" I asked.

"His driver was about to shoot the last guy I had....When I popped him...I'm gone let the cops sort it out...I aint stayin around ." he said.

"So you called me here to tell me that you're leavin town....Really George??...Really?...I don't even like you like that." I said....I paused for a minute...Then I smiled.

George looked at me and busted up laughing.....I laughed too...

"I know right." he said...continuing to laugh... He went in his pocket and pulled out a paper bag and passed it to me...It was loaded to the gip with money....

"Reed....You told me that my daughter can be anything she wants right?" he said, no longer laughing.

"Yeah...she's good..." I said.

"This is 125G's...I want you to give it to her...It's for her schooling.." he said.

"George....She won a four year scholarship to Julliard Music School..." I said.

"Then give it to Vee and her....They can ...They can do whatever.." he said.

''What are you going to do man?" I asked.

"I'm gettin as far out of Philly as I can for now...I got dough stashed away and I got enough to support me until I can find another hustle.....I think I'll go south...Where the drinks are cold and I don't know the names of the playas..." he said.

"You think you'll ever come back?" I asked.

''Who knows? Anything is possible." he said. "We kind of hit it off on the wrong foot Reed, but you done good by my daughter.....You was a man of your word....You alright  with me man..." he said.

We were silent for a long time....Then finally he smiled weakly...

"Thanks...Thanks for lookin out for my daughter man....Well Reed, I got to sky up man...Be easy baby!" he said. We shook hands.

"Always ." I said...He got up, slipped off the trolley...He looked both ways and then he got into what looked like a cab, but probably wasn't.....and that was the last time I saw George Bailey.

EPILOUGE:

One warm fall Saturday, a few weeks later, Veronica Bailey and I sat on the wall in a playground, not far from where we lived, eating Ice Cream of all things and talking...I didn't tell her about the shootout or her father's departure....I didn't tell her that he was wanted for questioning in the shootings...I just told her that he had to leave town and that he would be back soon...

"I don't care if I never see him again." said Veronica.

"Don't say that Ronnie...Your dad isn't perfect, but in his own way he wants the best for you." I said.

"That money is nice." she said and laughed that mischeivious laugh that all young girls laugh.

"Yeah, I figured you wouldn't have a problem with the money he left." I laughed.

"Mama put it in a bank account for me...Gave me a debit card....It'll help with books and other things." she said.

"I know you're responsible...you won't blow all of that money, will you?" I asked.

"I plan to get a job once I get settled...I might not even touch it." she said.

I looked at her and winked...

"Oh?" I said.

"Well...a girl has got to have a couple of pair of shoes Mr. Reed." she laughed...

I laughed too and we sat there , eating ice cream and laughing and talking for a long while!

I still play at Josies and every now and then, Veronica comes to Josies to listen to me and my band and to take notes....I go up to the high school to listen to her play whenever 88 has the school jazz band perform....for the same reason....to take notes!

For SLC