SWEET CAPTIVITY

CHAPTER 10

My heart raced what the fuck had I just read. What did this mean? Was that mother fucker on to me? Had he told Gabe he saw anything? I flipped the page and saw Queso had took the proper caution by writing everything down instead of taking the actual papers. Glenda Norwood was her name from the looks of shit her youngest son was born 3 years ago which meant he'd been conceived during Gabe's stay here. The motha fucka with the dry skin was about my age or a little older which meant he was conceived during me and Mama's stay with Gabe. That wasn't hard to believe considering me and Mama would only see him at nights if that. Queso had gotten Glenda's number and address for me, damn I felt bad if Mr. Scratch and sniff wouldn't have beat me to the punch I would have been the one to kill Queso. Oh well, I had other shit to worry about other than mourning this pendejo. "Offender you can enter your cell now I brought you back bleach and gloves so you can clean up."  I got up slowly stretching as I placed the folded up paper into my jumper, the inmates started to come back in looking into my cell as they passed it. All I could think about was his blood being on my hands as I cleaned it up. The irony in that was more than tangible. I had every intention in killing this man and hear I was now cleaning his blood off of my cell floor. There was a knock at the door when I heard Gabe say, "That boy Yak sure is something, you stepped on his toes talking to Queso. Them two been having issues for weeks, Yak knew soon as you brought yo pretty ass in here Queso was gone start gettin' friendly. He been tryna talk to that boy all day and haven't bathed for a week or took his eczema medicine. Then Juarez say she seen them arguing on they way to the chow hall, she stopped ya roommate to see what was up but he said nothing. Then Queso walked past him in the chow hall just to talk to you, that shit set him off, so you know what that mean, when he come out of seg. yo lil pretty ass got a issue son. But I been knowing that boy since he hit the unit, he don't get visits nor does he get money on his books so I looks out for him so you play ya' cards right son I'll tell him to stay off yo' ass." Everything he'd just said had me motha fuckin' confused. Did Gabe or did Gabe not know that Yak was his son? If the Glenda chick came to see Gabe why didn't she come see her son? But the shit that had me pressed was they were fucking? I was confused on so many levels but I kept my confusion off my face. He didn't kno I had the information so there wasn't any reason for me to feel paranoid about shit. "You don't gotta say shit to me just know that motha fucka will come after you when he gets out that hell hole. If you need my protection you know where I'm at." I could hear him walking away from my door taking some of my tension with him. I needed to figure out a way to talk to Yak while he was still in lockdown. I looked down at the bucket and mop I had in my hand and I smiled for the first time in a long time, I had just assigned myself seg. janitor. "Aye officer I'm all done here come get this shit and clean it out." No one liked to be told what to do especially an officer by an inmate. He played right into my plan when he said, "What the fuck you just say? Naw you go take that shit and I wanna be able to see my face in the bottom of the bucket when you done." Bloody water sloshed back and forth as I pushed the half full bucket towards seg. I definitely was out of place but with the mop and bucket with me I looked like I belonged on any part of the unit I wanted to clean right now. Picture this doors lined up along a narrow hallway,  the hallway is only big enough for two people to walk side by side down it. Men yelling to one another trying to see who's coming in or going out of the seg. doors. It's darker than normal down here, lights flicker on and off quickly giving off an eerie feeling. The guard asked me where was the normal janitor guy. Being an inmate you learned to lie good enough for a guard not to think anything, so when I told him he'd gotten caught up cleaning the cell where the inmate just got killed in, it was believable. I looked inside every door as I mopped the floor with the bloody water. I saw sleeping motha fuckas, exercising motha fuckas, and dudes talking to them selves. When I was just about to turn to go back down the hallway I saw Yak pacing back and forth in his cell bloody clothes still hanging from his body. "Aye," I softly knocked on his door trying to get his attention without the guard noticing. "Aye, say man." He stopped and looked up at me like he was excited to see me, then he walked to the door and spit on the window and proceeded with his walking. I just needed to tell him one thing, "There was nothing going on between me and my roommate man real talk. He came to the chow hall to tell me he didn't want you to be mad at him anymore and he wished you would just talk to him without yelling." He stopped pacing and his shoulders dropped so I kept talking. "He told me something though, he told me before he left the chow hall that he was going back to the dorm to hopefully get some alone time with you. He told me that he loved you and was tired of fighting with you. Look I don't know what happened or what y'all were going through but I do know Queso loved me." He didn't say anything he just stood in the spot but when I seen the tear hit the floor I knew I'd gotten to him. I needed him to understand it wasn't shit going on, I was simply out for one person now. I realized my mission had one target, after reading Queso's letter I realized it was best to stick with killing that person I came for. Queso's death could have messed up my plan and I took heed of how shit went down. I walked off hoping that he'd be cool whenever he came out of seg. His voice caught my attention barely above a whisper but deep enough for me to hear. "I ain't kill Queso, I was trying to bring him back to life. I was behind him following him into the dorm when I saw Gabe stop him and tell him Juarez saw him leaving out his cell. It was two dudes with Gabe so like a pussy I sat there and watched them kill him. I could have  stopped them but I didn't. I let them kill him. I let them kill him man." He slowly looked up, eyes blood shot red, tears dripping down his face and said, "My mama wanted me to do one thing. Gabe don't know I'm his son, he knows he has a son he just don't know it's me. She want me to kill him and I know you want to kill him too anybody who knows him most likely want him dead. Only one person knew Gabe was my dad and now that one persons gone. Look, Gabe is a fucked up individual, he put me and my mom through hell. Ima tell you this we work as a team, we act like there's a beef because everyone will be expecting that. I'm no snitch so they will most likely let me take the fall for his murder. We only communicate through kites wrapped in saran wrap left in the number three shower drain. They'll most likely put me back in the dorm with you so our best bet is to stage a fight when I get out of here. Gabe thinks he's more powerful than he is when in reality he's crossed more people than he realizes. I loved Queso and Gabe knew that but he gets off by making people think they need him. You know what's so crazy to me? Gabe molested me for years and he doesn't even remember my face."