Out of Focus |finished|

43- handlers and midnight ubers

As Malachi walked along in Jamal's neighbourhood, he remembered the last time he'd come there. It was in the day and was still scary; now it was a thousand times scarier.
He could hear arguments in some of the apartment buildings, an ongoing loud party and two cars raced past him once in what he assumed to be a car race.

He walked faster as he got nearer to Jamal's apartment building and hoped that no one would take him for a thief since he was in all black. When he climbed the stairs the stairs to Jamal's apartment, he chanced upon a make out session between a young boy and a clearly older looking woman. Malachi face palmed himself and shook his head.

When he got to Jamal's, his sisters were huddled against each other and awake even though it was nearly 1am. Jamal gestured for Malachi to enter and when he locked the door again, he pulled Malachi in a hug.

"I thought you'd never get here bro," Jamal said to him before pulling out of the hug.

Ama and Kali, Jamal's sisters waved at Malachi and a smile naturally formed on his face seeing those two.

"Why aren't they asleep?" he asked Jamal.

"They said Forson scared them when he came over. When I found him with my sisters, I wish I could kill him bro,"

"But he came to help right?" Malachi asked and placed both hands on the shoulders of a trembling Jamal. "Chill out bro, I've come to help."

"Yeah yeah," he relaxed and stopped in his tracks. "He warned us to get out of here as soon as possible. de Heer will order a hit on me tomorrow."

Even as he spoke, his hands were still trembling and Malachi wrapped his hands over Jamal's for reassurance. "Hey, listen to me Jamal. My place is safe, no one knows there. Trust me."

Jamal nodded and cast a glance at his sisters which calmed him down more. He said to the youngest, Ama, "Wear your shoes now Ama. We're leaving."

Ama got down from the bed to search under it. She found her shoes and as she was placing her foot in one, her sister moved to her side and helped. The scene was cute to Malachi and he wished he had more time to fawn over it.

"Will an Uber come here at this time of the night?" he asked Jamal.

Jamal shook his head, "Very unlikely. There's one uber driver I know though, he might come."

"Good, call him."

Jamal picked his phone and dialed a number. Malachi watched as he talked to the uber driver and gave a thumbs up to him. Malachi gave him a thumbs up too and smiled.
Now they just had to get to his house safely.