Chapter 202: 202
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He hadn't really known it until then but Deshawn's beef had been wrapped up in the perceived threat and opportunism he thought Al represented. Once their white 'friend' had actively done something helpful to the plan and not just give complicated and hard to completely understand advice, the older brother began to see his usefulness. Having something on the scales that was tangible proof of his goodwill was what the older brother had wanted all along.
Apparently, helping the man save his brother didn't really count because it had been too 'out there' and didn't really disprove that Devon was a useful pawn. Helping him detox had come with its own set of sketchy things that Deshawn's huge amount of skepticism still hadn't completely laid to rest. Devon's candidness with his older brother over how he and Al had started things off did little to help the cause. Even Al himself sometimes wondered why he didn't really hold any animosity over being woke up with a gun in his face.
Because of Deshawn's growing but shaky friendliness, Al couldn't couldn't turn down the man's invitation to go out to the man's favorite place to 'kick it'. Too little too late, Al found out that it was a strip club. And even though he hated such places on principle, he had fun despite himself. It probably helped that Deshawn was one of the most naturally intimidating people there that night and that stopped a lot of possible small harassment from bothering them.
As the older brother took him back home, barely but legal to drive, Al said, "Don't you feel bad for some of those girls? I mean, I know everybody's got their own problems but I have a hard time believing that most of them woke up one day and decided that being a stripper was what they wanted to do with their lives."
Deshawn smirked. "That's your problem. You think too much. The smart b*tches gets their money and go to school or whatever... and the ones that ain't so smart become hoes.
"The ones that were dumb hoes to begin with, you can't save them no matter what you do. Look at Hunter's mom. She a hoe but she ain't a dumb hoe and she's doin just fine. Think she just hooked up with a white dude that's like a manager at a factory or something. She's good."
When the man dropped him off at his house that he just barely decided to let them know of, Deshawn looked a little awkward. "Hey, uh, I wonder if you're up for a small favor?"
Ignoring the slight sinking feeling in his stomach, Al invited him in and the man gave his pitch. While he was locked up, he had a cellmate who helped him get his GED. It was a young man who was bound over from Juvenile for getting into too many fights. The brothers were thinking of ways to get crew that was a bit more respectable to flesh out their employee list and Deshawn brought him up.
The man wanted to know if Al could work his detox hoodoo on the young man. Apparently, after Deshawn left, the last few weeks hadn't been kind to the guy after he lost his protector. Before the 'kid' had even been taken into the system, his family life was pretty normal until he was caught stripping copper out of the house they had lost to the bank.
It was one dumb, impulsive move that had started a cycle of bad. Al was ready to talk his way out of it, however, when Deshawn brought up that 'Patrick' wanted to become an architect and had worked with his dad a lot before losing him in a roofing accident. It was eerily similar enough to an early Orison memory of someone that Al couldn't say no. The curiosity was just too strong.
"How did he get hooked on something AFTER getting in prison?" Al asked, confused.
Deshawn, looking embarrassed and oddly defensive, said, "Sh*t happens in there that you don't even want to know about. And the people leaving, they don't want anyone to know about it either. He's not fam but he's good peoples. Me and my brother got him out and want to give him a job. As long as you can get him off that 'trash brown' they got circling around in there, he'll be good."
Al sighed and said, "I can't believe I'm signing up for another round of this. At least let him know what he's in for so I don't have to go through attempted murder and r*pe accusations again. You can stick around and see the whole thing for yourself. Maybe it'll let you put the some of those old worries of yours to rest."
With wide eyes, Deshawn said, "You think I want to see that? I'd do anything for my fams but a few years back, I gave my home-girl's sister twenty bucks to look after Devon when he got the flu real bad and moms was... away. Give me a dead body to deal with over a real sick person any day!"
Al went to a drawer and pulled out a mints tin, handing it to Deshawn. "I don't know what it's like but I know some days are easy and some days are... harder. Hold onto that and if you're having a hard day, they might make the difference. Maybe they could help someone you know make it over a bad day too."
Confused, the man looked inside at the 'mints' that smelled of herbs. "What's in them?"
Al said, "I can tell you all but one of the ingredients and you'll bug me to death about that just like you did the smoothies. Just... remember you have them. They don't make you feel good or anything like that and they can be habit forming if you lean on them too heavy but they can ease aches and cravings.
"I just remembered how to make them not too long ago or I'd have already got you some. The last thing I want to do is have a round two with you. I think you barely kept yourself from killing me the first time. I sure as hell had to check my temper once or twice."
The man asked, "Will they make me fail a drug test?"
"No but if you take more than one in a six hour period, they can make you nauseous... Maybe mess with your vision and hearing or make you tired. That shouldn't happen, though. If you feel like you need more than two a day, you're probably already misusing them." Al added.
They shared a few more pieces of information and caught each other up to speed on plans moving forward before Deshawn had to call it. He had to jack a porch up and fix the foundation which sounded like an all day job that would start early.
"Moms is the only one in this world I'll apologize to but I was wrong about you... You need me, I got you," he said and then drove off.
Al muttered, "I have no doubt you mean that but I hope you don't ever have to prove it."
The next day, Devon stopped by and visited for a bit while they got Patrick ready for the first step. The young man wasn't anything like the Patrick in Al's dream memories but there was a hint of familiarity. He was curious to ask a few questions but judging by the slightly zombie-like state the young man was in, it was fairly obvious that the brothers had given him something to keep him from starting withdraws.
Since Devon was there, Al enlisted his help. And even though there were a few parts that the younger brother squicked at, he rolled up his sleeves and dived in. 'Work face' on, the younger brother watched through the first part while Patrick sobbed in the shower and said things Al made Devon promise not to bring up later. The scared pleadings of a sick person where something no one should use to amuse themselves in Al's mind.
Somewhere along the line, Patrick started getting weaker, dangerously weak. His pulse was starting to get thready and he hovered in and out of consciousness. Al was stumped while Devon started looking at him oddly. Al's soul hadn't reached a stage where he could do much with the feeble spirit sight he had and it was a joke to consider he had even a fraction of the honed intent dream Orison had.
Out of the weak stamina bolstering potion that Al had been taking little bits at a time from for use in the smoothies he had made for Deshawn and himself, there was less than half left, A couple of drops helped Patrick a little before he started slipping again. There was something greater wrong with the young man. Torn, Al thought about the one and only disease treating potion he had and weighed the situation against future need.
It would take some time but with diligence, Al could squeeze out a magic version someday. If he didn't use the potion on Patrick, they'd have to take him to the hospital and there was a chance he might not make it. If Patrick died, there would be a lot of lost trust and faith in Al's ability. With a bitterness welling up inside being contradicted with the feeling of being a 'good person', he administered the potion to Patrick and watched the detox fast forward while expelling some yellowish and watery pink discharges from various areas sporadically.
With mixed feelings, Al laid in with a heavier dose of supporting supplements and even a heal that left him feeling weak and drained himself before he finally managed to get the young man out of danger. Nearly nauseous from sudden fatigue, Al asked Devon to keep an eye on their 'patient' while he took a nap. Early the next morning, barely feeling like he'd been asleep for a few minutes even though it had been hours, a tired Devon woke him back up.
With a lewd and suggestive leer, the younger brother said, "There's a cute little white girl here to see you. Deshawn knew you were holding sh*t back on us, but damn!"
Scrambling out of the covers, Al padded his way to the living room to see that his niece was trying a little too hard to be 'chipper' which was a sure sign something was really wrong.
Stopping the rolling speed fire of pleasantries, Al said, "Myra, what's going on? You know you'll always be welcomed in my home and I'm happy to see you but you don't need to work me up to it. If there's something I can do to help, just say so."
His niece said, "It was a bad night. Chet tried to commit suicide and he won't tell anyone why. His mom's going to keep him held in mental health as long as she can... Al, we're going to lose the apartment. We were barely making it."
The last time such a thing happened, him and his ex helped her keep their apartment until Chet got back out. The biggest problem was that Myra was terrible at managing money. The more they helped, the more she seemed to need. It wasn't until the first time that Erika had given him an ultimatum, that he had stopped. Myra ended up living with Al's mom, the grandmother that raised her, nearly up to when Al's mom's health had taken a turn for the worse.
It was a bad and complicated time that ended with Al and his sister not being on good terms due to her boyfriend fighting for every bit of Al's mom's stuff as he could get. The man had almost taken them to court when Al's sister didn't get all the jewelry which was insistently split between Al's sister and Myra. One of the reasons why Al liked Chet even though the man had so many issues was because he calmly supported Myra through her grief and stood by Al's side to lend what help he could with things.
Al had a premonition that things weren't as they seemed. He had a hard time believing that all the little baby steps of progress that Myra's boyfriend had made in dealing with his demons would suddenly be thrown in the garbage. He seemed like he was doing relatively decent the last time they'd met a few weeks ago. Then again, depression wasn't something that easy to gauge. Add some relatively serious chronic health problems and it wasn't that clear at all.
"I'll get a moving company scheduled to come pick up your things. I got a spare room here and when Chet gets out, you guys can take a couple of months to figure things out. A COUPLE of months, Myra. You need to start saving up money now. Does that work?" Al said.
Wringing her hands and looking dissatisfied, she said, "Couldn't you just help with the rent for a little while? I promise, I'll take care of the rest."
Al sighed. "It could be months before he's released this time and it'll take time for him to find a job again once he's out. To be honest, I don't really know if I can swing that much your way and I don't think it would be a good idea even if I could because you'd still be broke and struggling. At least this way, you have the ability to save money and I won't be losing so much."
After a little more back and forth, she left resigned and with a moving truck date.
Turning around to see a slightly hungry look on Devon's face as the young man watched her walk out, Al said, "My sister is all but lost to me which makes Myra my number one priority in this world. Her boyfriend is the center of hers. If you can manage to do what my mother and me combined couldn't before we gave up and accepted it, then more power to you. But if you hurt her, we are way more than done."
Face twisting up, Devon said, "Can't a brother look? Damn!"
Al threw his hands up and walked away to check on Patrick.
Starting at a lower point of health than Deshawn had, it ended up taking longer for Patrick to bounce back. He was a great deal more thankful and polite, even in his worst moments, than the older brother had been but he was also quiet, sullen and withdrawn. If not for Deshawn, coming in to give the occasional pep talk and almost fatherly like support, Al had no idea what the young man would have gotten up to after he was recovered.
It was like some vital spark had been blown out in him and the older black man's guidance and care was slowly building the kindling that would ignite it again. It was strange seeing that side of the older brother but it wasn't something new for Patrick. The young man had the ghost of a friendly smile every time Deshawn showed up to check on him.
As Patrick recovered and started helping out with some light work around the house, Al noticed that the young man's dull brown hair showed coppery tints. And once he'd gotten a little sun on him, a sprinkle of freckles started dotting across the bridge of his nose and upper cheeks. It was a subtle thing but it gave Al a little shock. The ghost of the Patrick from his earliest dream memories could vaguely be seen from time to time.
A couple of days later and Patrick was mostly still hanging around at Al's because he had just finished his first home repair job and didn't have enough money to get a place yet. That meant, when Myra came by two days before she'd be moving in herself, he was still there. She was hysterical because she'd gotten a text that said Chet was breaking up with her to 'focus on him' and wouldn't respond to her return texts or allow her to visit.
When Devon stopped by two days later, he saw that Patrick was being chummy with her and trying to cheer her up while Al was at work. His response was to give the young man enough 'forward pay' to get himself a place and sent him as 'emergency help' on a job that was light handed. By the time Al got home, it was Devon who was being all chummy and trying to cheer her up.
Myra's slightly alarmed uncle hadn't been overly concerned about Patrick's friendliness because that's all it really was. The young man was far too low on self esteem to make any serious plays and it was somewhat mutually beneficial but Devon was playing for keeps. THAT young man would take what he could get without hesitation and Myra was vulnerable enough that it wouldn't take long for something to happen.
Al asked for Myra to go with him, earning an irritated and slightly angry look from Devon. He grabbed up all that he could cram of Chet's stuff, still boxed up from being dropped off that afternoon, into his car and Myra was in the passenger seat with a determined look on her face. She had a pretty good idea about what was going to happen and was all for it.
Before he left, he turned back to Devon and said, "You like her, fine. But I'll be damned if you're going to waltz in here and take advantage of her while she's upset and treat her like a disposable f*** toy!"
Now fully angry himself, Devon said, "Don't act like you know me!"
Dryly, Al cut off the rest of the younger brother's tirade, "I don't have to know you to know what you were doing. Don't treat me like I'm stupid. Once she's had a chance to calm down from whatever is going on, I'm hands off. Until then, you're hands off unless you want to lose them."
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He hadn't really known it until then but Deshawn's beef had been wrapped up in the perceived threat and opportunism he thought Al represented. Once their white 'friend' had actively done something helpful to the plan and not just give complicated and hard to completely understand advice, the older brother began to see his usefulness. Having something on the scales that was tangible proof of his goodwill was what the older brother had wanted all along.
Apparently, helping the man save his brother didn't really count because it had been too 'out there' and didn't really disprove that Devon was a useful pawn. Helping him detox had come with its own set of sketchy things that Deshawn's huge amount of skepticism still hadn't completely laid to rest. Devon's candidness with his older brother over how he and Al had started things off did little to help the cause. Even Al himself sometimes wondered why he didn't really hold any animosity over being woke up with a gun in his face.
Because of Deshawn's growing but shaky friendliness, Al couldn't couldn't turn down the man's invitation to go out to the man's favorite place to 'kick it'. Too little too late, Al found out that it was a strip club. And even though he hated such places on principle, he had fun despite himself. It probably helped that Deshawn was one of the most naturally intimidating people there that night and that stopped a lot of possible small harassment from bothering them.
As the older brother took him back home, barely but legal to drive, Al said, "Don't you feel bad for some of those girls? I mean, I know everybody's got their own problems but I have a hard time believing that most of them woke up one day and decided that being a stripper was what they wanted to do with their lives."
Deshawn smirked. "That's your problem. You think too much. The smart b*tches gets their money and go to school or whatever... and the ones that ain't so smart become hoes.
"The ones that were dumb hoes to begin with, you can't save them no matter what you do. Look at Hunter's mom. She a hoe but she ain't a dumb hoe and she's doin just fine. Think she just hooked up with a white dude that's like a manager at a factory or something. She's good."
When the man dropped him off at his house that he just barely decided to let them know of, Deshawn looked a little awkward. "Hey, uh, I wonder if you're up for a small favor?"
Ignoring the slight sinking feeling in his stomach, Al invited him in and the man gave his pitch. While he was locked up, he had a cellmate who helped him get his GED. It was a young man who was bound over from Juvenile for getting into too many fights. The brothers were thinking of ways to get crew that was a bit more respectable to flesh out their employee list and Deshawn brought him up.
The man wanted to know if Al could work his detox hoodoo on the young man. Apparently, after Deshawn left, the last few weeks hadn't been kind to the guy after he lost his protector. Before the 'kid' had even been taken into the system, his family life was pretty normal until he was caught stripping copper out of the house they had lost to the bank.
It was one dumb, impulsive move that had started a cycle of bad. Al was ready to talk his way out of it, however, when Deshawn brought up that 'Patrick' wanted to become an architect and had worked with his dad a lot before losing him in a roofing accident. It was eerily similar enough to an early Orison memory of someone that Al couldn't say no. The curiosity was just too strong.
"How did he get hooked on something AFTER getting in prison?" Al asked, confused.
Deshawn, looking embarrassed and oddly defensive, said, "Sh*t happens in there that you don't even want to know about. And the people leaving, they don't want anyone to know about it either. He's not fam but he's good peoples. Me and my brother got him out and want to give him a job. As long as you can get him off that 'trash brown' they got circling around in there, he'll be good."
Al sighed and said, "I can't believe I'm signing up for another round of this. At least let him know what he's in for so I don't have to go through attempted murder and r*pe accusations again. You can stick around and see the whole thing for yourself. Maybe it'll let you put the some of those old worries of yours to rest."
With wide eyes, Deshawn said, "You think I want to see that? I'd do anything for my fams but a few years back, I gave my home-girl's sister twenty bucks to look after Devon when he got the flu real bad and moms was... away. Give me a dead body to deal with over a real sick person any day!"
Al went to a drawer and pulled out a mints tin, handing it to Deshawn. "I don't know what it's like but I know some days are easy and some days are... harder. Hold onto that and if you're having a hard day, they might make the difference. Maybe they could help someone you know make it over a bad day too."
Confused, the man looked inside at the 'mints' that smelled of herbs. "What's in them?"
Al said, "I can tell you all but one of the ingredients and you'll bug me to death about that just like you did the smoothies. Just... remember you have them. They don't make you feel good or anything like that and they can be habit forming if you lean on them too heavy but they can ease aches and cravings.
"I just remembered how to make them not too long ago or I'd have already got you some. The last thing I want to do is have a round two with you. I think you barely kept yourself from killing me the first time. I sure as hell had to check my temper once or twice."
The man asked, "Will they make me fail a drug test?"
"No but if you take more than one in a six hour period, they can make you nauseous... Maybe mess with your vision and hearing or make you tired. That shouldn't happen, though. If you feel like you need more than two a day, you're probably already misusing them." Al added.
They shared a few more pieces of information and caught each other up to speed on plans moving forward before Deshawn had to call it. He had to jack a porch up and fix the foundation which sounded like an all day job that would start early.
"Moms is the only one in this world I'll apologize to but I was wrong about you... You need me, I got you," he said and then drove off.
Al muttered, "I have no doubt you mean that but I hope you don't ever have to prove it."
The next day, Devon stopped by and visited for a bit while they got Patrick ready for the first step. The young man wasn't anything like the Patrick in Al's dream memories but there was a hint of familiarity. He was curious to ask a few questions but judging by the slightly zombie-like state the young man was in, it was fairly obvious that the brothers had given him something to keep him from starting withdraws.
Since Devon was there, Al enlisted his help. And even though there were a few parts that the younger brother squicked at, he rolled up his sleeves and dived in. 'Work face' on, the younger brother watched through the first part while Patrick sobbed in the shower and said things Al made Devon promise not to bring up later. The scared pleadings of a sick person where something no one should use to amuse themselves in Al's mind.
Somewhere along the line, Patrick started getting weaker, dangerously weak. His pulse was starting to get thready and he hovered in and out of consciousness. Al was stumped while Devon started looking at him oddly. Al's soul hadn't reached a stage where he could do much with the feeble spirit sight he had and it was a joke to consider he had even a fraction of the honed intent dream Orison had.
Out of the weak stamina bolstering potion that Al had been taking little bits at a time from for use in the smoothies he had made for Deshawn and himself, there was less than half left, A couple of drops helped Patrick a little before he started slipping again. There was something greater wrong with the young man. Torn, Al thought about the one and only disease treating potion he had and weighed the situation against future need.
It would take some time but with diligence, Al could squeeze out a magic version someday. If he didn't use the potion on Patrick, they'd have to take him to the hospital and there was a chance he might not make it. If Patrick died, there would be a lot of lost trust and faith in Al's ability. With a bitterness welling up inside being contradicted with the feeling of being a 'good person', he administered the potion to Patrick and watched the detox fast forward while expelling some yellowish and watery pink discharges from various areas sporadically.
With mixed feelings, Al laid in with a heavier dose of supporting supplements and even a heal that left him feeling weak and drained himself before he finally managed to get the young man out of danger. Nearly nauseous from sudden fatigue, Al asked Devon to keep an eye on their 'patient' while he took a nap. Early the next morning, barely feeling like he'd been asleep for a few minutes even though it had been hours, a tired Devon woke him back up.
With a lewd and suggestive leer, the younger brother said, "There's a cute little white girl here to see you. Deshawn knew you were holding sh*t back on us, but damn!"
Scrambling out of the covers, Al padded his way to the living room to see that his niece was trying a little too hard to be 'chipper' which was a sure sign something was really wrong.
Stopping the rolling speed fire of pleasantries, Al said, "Myra, what's going on? You know you'll always be welcomed in my home and I'm happy to see you but you don't need to work me up to it. If there's something I can do to help, just say so."
His niece said, "It was a bad night. Chet tried to commit suicide and he won't tell anyone why. His mom's going to keep him held in mental health as long as she can... Al, we're going to lose the apartment. We were barely making it."
The last time such a thing happened, him and his ex helped her keep their apartment until Chet got back out. The biggest problem was that Myra was terrible at managing money. The more they helped, the more she seemed to need. It wasn't until the first time that Erika had given him an ultimatum, that he had stopped. Myra ended up living with Al's mom, the grandmother that raised her, nearly up to when Al's mom's health had taken a turn for the worse.
It was a bad and complicated time that ended with Al and his sister not being on good terms due to her boyfriend fighting for every bit of Al's mom's stuff as he could get. The man had almost taken them to court when Al's sister didn't get all the jewelry which was insistently split between Al's sister and Myra. One of the reasons why Al liked Chet even though the man had so many issues was because he calmly supported Myra through her grief and stood by Al's side to lend what help he could with things.
Al had a premonition that things weren't as they seemed. He had a hard time believing that all the little baby steps of progress that Myra's boyfriend had made in dealing with his demons would suddenly be thrown in the garbage. He seemed like he was doing relatively decent the last time they'd met a few weeks ago. Then again, depression wasn't something that easy to gauge. Add some relatively serious chronic health problems and it wasn't that clear at all.
"I'll get a moving company scheduled to come pick up your things. I got a spare room here and when Chet gets out, you guys can take a couple of months to figure things out. A COUPLE of months, Myra. You need to start saving up money now. Does that work?" Al said.
Wringing her hands and looking dissatisfied, she said, "Couldn't you just help with the rent for a little while? I promise, I'll take care of the rest."
Al sighed. "It could be months before he's released this time and it'll take time for him to find a job again once he's out. To be honest, I don't really know if I can swing that much your way and I don't think it would be a good idea even if I could because you'd still be broke and struggling. At least this way, you have the ability to save money and I won't be losing so much."
After a little more back and forth, she left resigned and with a moving truck date.
Turning around to see a slightly hungry look on Devon's face as the young man watched her walk out, Al said, "My sister is all but lost to me which makes Myra my number one priority in this world. Her boyfriend is the center of hers. If you can manage to do what my mother and me combined couldn't before we gave up and accepted it, then more power to you. But if you hurt her, we are way more than done."
Face twisting up, Devon said, "Can't a brother look? Damn!"
Al threw his hands up and walked away to check on Patrick.
Starting at a lower point of health than Deshawn had, it ended up taking longer for Patrick to bounce back. He was a great deal more thankful and polite, even in his worst moments, than the older brother had been but he was also quiet, sullen and withdrawn. If not for Deshawn, coming in to give the occasional pep talk and almost fatherly like support, Al had no idea what the young man would have gotten up to after he was recovered.
It was like some vital spark had been blown out in him and the older black man's guidance and care was slowly building the kindling that would ignite it again. It was strange seeing that side of the older brother but it wasn't something new for Patrick. The young man had the ghost of a friendly smile every time Deshawn showed up to check on him.
As Patrick recovered and started helping out with some light work around the house, Al noticed that the young man's dull brown hair showed coppery tints. And once he'd gotten a little sun on him, a sprinkle of freckles started dotting across the bridge of his nose and upper cheeks. It was a subtle thing but it gave Al a little shock. The ghost of the Patrick from his earliest dream memories could vaguely be seen from time to time.
A couple of days later and Patrick was mostly still hanging around at Al's because he had just finished his first home repair job and didn't have enough money to get a place yet. That meant, when Myra came by two days before she'd be moving in herself, he was still there. She was hysterical because she'd gotten a text that said Chet was breaking up with her to 'focus on him' and wouldn't respond to her return texts or allow her to visit.
When Devon stopped by two days later, he saw that Patrick was being chummy with her and trying to cheer her up while Al was at work. His response was to give the young man enough 'forward pay' to get himself a place and sent him as 'emergency help' on a job that was light handed. By the time Al got home, it was Devon who was being all chummy and trying to cheer her up.
Myra's slightly alarmed uncle hadn't been overly concerned about Patrick's friendliness because that's all it really was. The young man was far too low on self esteem to make any serious plays and it was somewhat mutually beneficial but Devon was playing for keeps. THAT young man would take what he could get without hesitation and Myra was vulnerable enough that it wouldn't take long for something to happen.
Al asked for Myra to go with him, earning an irritated and slightly angry look from Devon. He grabbed up all that he could cram of Chet's stuff, still boxed up from being dropped off that afternoon, into his car and Myra was in the passenger seat with a determined look on her face. She had a pretty good idea about what was going to happen and was all for it.
Before he left, he turned back to Devon and said, "You like her, fine. But I'll be damned if you're going to waltz in here and take advantage of her while she's upset and treat her like a disposable f*** toy!"
Now fully angry himself, Devon said, "Don't act like you know me!"
Dryly, Al cut off the rest of the younger brother's tirade, "I don't have to know you to know what you were doing. Don't treat me like I'm stupid. Once she's had a chance to calm down from whatever is going on, I'm hands off. Until then, you're hands off unless you want to lose them."
He hadn't really known it until then but Deshawn's beef had been wrapped up in the perceived threat and opportunism he thought Al represented. Once their white 'friend' had actively done something helpful to the plan and not just give complicated and hard to completely understand advice, the older brother began to see his usefulness. Having something on the scales that was tangible proof of his goodwill was what the older brother had wanted all along. Apparently, helping the man save his brother didn't really count because it had been too 'out there' and didn't really disprove that Devon was a useful pawn. Helping him detox had come with its own set of sketchy things that Deshawn's huge amount of skepticism still hadn't completely laid to rest. Devon's candidness with his older brother over how he and Al had started things off did little to help the cause. Even Al himself sometimes wondered why he didn't really hold any animosity over being woke up with a gun in his face. Because of Deshawn's growing but shaky friendliness, Al couldn't couldn't turn down the man's invitation to go out to the man's favorite place to 'kick it'. Too little too late, Al found out that it was a strip club. And even though he hated such places on principle, he had fun despite himself. It probably helped that Deshawn was one of the most naturally intimidating people there that night and that stopped a lot of possible small harassment from bothering them. As the older brother took him back home, barely but legal to drive, Al said, "Don't you feel bad for some of those girls? I mean, I know everybody's got their own problems but I have a hard time believing that most of them woke up one day and decided that being a stripper was what they wanted to do with their lives." Deshawn smirked. "That's your problem. You think too much. The smart b*tches gets their money and go to school or whatever... and the ones that ain't so smart become hoes. "The ones that were dumb hoes to begin with, you can't save them no matter what you do. Look at Hunter's mom. She a hoe but she ain't a dumb hoe and she's doin just fine. Think she just hooked up with a white dude that's like a manager at a factory or something. She's good." When the man dropped him off at his house that he just barely decided to let them know of, Deshawn looked a little awkward. "Hey, uh, I wonder if you're up for a small favor?" Ignoring the slight sinking feeling in his stomach, Al invited him in and the man gave his pitch. While he was locked up, he had a cellmate who helped him get his GED. It was a young man who was bound over from Juvenile for getting into too many fights. The brothers were thinking of ways to get crew that was a bit more respectable to flesh out their employee list and Deshawn brought him up. The man wanted to know if Al could work his detox hoodoo on the young man. Apparently, after Deshawn left, the last few weeks hadn't been kind to the guy after he lost his protector. Before the 'kid' had even been taken into the system, his family life was pretty normal until he was caught stripping copper out of the house they had lost to the bank. It was one dumb, impulsive move that had started a cycle of bad. Al was ready to talk his way out of it, however, when Deshawn brought up that 'Patrick' wanted to become an architect and had worked with his dad a lot before losing him in a roofing accident. It was eerily similar enough to an early Orison memory of someone that Al couldn't say no. The curiosity was just too strong. "How did he get hooked on something AFTER getting in prison?" Al asked, confused. Deshawn, looking embarrassed and oddly defensive, said, "Sh*t happens in there that you don't even want to know about. And the people leaving, they don't want anyone to know about it either. He's not fam but he's good peoples. Me and my brother got him out and want to give him a job. As long as you can get him off that 'trash brown' they got circling around in there, he'll be good." Al sighed and said, "I can't believe I'm signing up for another round of this. At least let him know what he's in for so I don't have to go through attempted murder and r*pe accusations again. You can stick around and see the whole thing for yourself. Maybe it'll let you put the some of those old worries of yours to rest." With wide eyes, Deshawn said, "You think I want to see that? I'd do anything for my fams but a few years back, I gave my home-girl's sister twenty bucks to look after Devon when he got the flu real bad and moms was... away. Give me a dead body to deal with over a real sick person any day!" Al went to a drawer and pulled out a mints tin, handing it to Deshawn. "I don't know what it's like but I know some days are easy and some days are... harder. Hold onto that and if you're having a hard day, they might make the difference. Maybe they could help someone you know make it over a bad day too." Confused, the man looked inside at the 'mints' that smelled of herbs. "What's in them?" Al said, "I can tell you all but one of the ingredients and you'll bug me to death about that just like you did the smoothies. Just... remember you have them. They don't make you feel good or anything like that and they can be habit forming if you lean on them too heavy but they can ease aches and cravings. "I just remembered how to make them not too long ago or I'd have already got you some. The last thing I want to do is have a round two with you. I think you barely kept yourself from killing me the first time. I sure as hell had to check my temper once or twice." The man asked, "Will they make me fail a drug test?" "No but if you take more than one in a six hour period, they can make you nauseous... Maybe mess with your vision and hearing or make you tired. That shouldn't happen, though. If you feel like you need more than two a day, you're probably already misusing them." Al added. They shared a few more pieces of information and caught each other up to speed on plans moving forward before Deshawn had to call it. He had to jack a porch up and fix the foundation which sounded like an all day job that would start early. "Moms is the only one in this world I'll apologize to but I was wrong about you... You need me, I got you," he said and then drove off. Al muttered, "I have no doubt you mean that but I hope you don't ever have to prove it." The next day, Devon stopped by and visited for a bit while they got Patrick ready for the first step. The young man wasn't anything like the Patrick in Al's dream memories but there was a hint of familiarity. He was curious to ask a few questions but judging by the slightly zombie-like state the young man was in, it was fairly obvious that the brothers had given him something to keep him from starting withdraws. Since Devon was there, Al enlisted his help. And even though there were a few parts that the younger brother squicked at, he rolled up his sleeves and dived in. 'Work face' on, the younger brother watched through the first part while Patrick sobbed in the shower and said things Al made Devon promise not to bring up later. The scared pleadings of a sick person where something no one should use to amuse themselves in Al's mind. Somewhere along the line, Patrick started getting weaker, dangerously weak. His pulse was starting to get thready and he hovered in and out of consciousness. Al was stumped while Devon started looking at him oddly. Al's soul hadn't reached a stage where he could do much with the feeble spirit sight he had and it was a joke to consider he had even a fraction of the honed intent dream Orison had. Out of the weak stamina bolstering potion that Al had been taking little bits at a time from for use in the smoothies he had made for Deshawn and himself, there was less than half left, A couple of drops helped Patrick a little before he started slipping again. There was something greater wrong with the young man. Torn, Al thought about the one and only disease treating potion he had and weighed the situation against future need. It would take some time but with diligence, Al could squeeze out a magic version someday. If he didn't use the potion on Patrick, they'd have to take him to the hospital and there was a chance he might not make it. If Patrick died, there would be a lot of lost trust and faith in Al's ability. With a bitterness welling up inside being contradicted with the feeling of being a 'good person', he administered the potion to Patrick and watched the detox fast forward while expelling some yellowish and watery pink discharges from various areas sporadically. With mixed feelings, Al laid in with a heavier dose of supporting supplements and even a heal that left him feeling weak and drained himself before he finally managed to get the young man out of danger. Nearly nauseous from sudden fatigue, Al asked Devon to keep an eye on their 'patient' while he took a nap. Early the next morning, barely feeling like he'd been asleep for a few minutes even though it had been hours, a tired Devon woke him back up. With a lewd and suggestive leer, the younger brother said, "There's a cute little white girl here to see you. Deshawn knew you were holding sh*t back on us, but damn!" Scrambling out of the covers, Al padded his way to the living room to see that his niece was trying a little too hard to be 'chipper' which was a sure sign something was really wrong. Stopping the rolling speed fire of pleasantries, Al said, "Myra, what's going on? You know you'll always be welcomed in my home and I'm happy to see you but you don't need to work me up to it. If there's something I can do to help, just say so." His niece said, "It was a bad night. Chet tried to commit suicide and he won't tell anyone why. His mom's going to keep him held in mental health as long as she can... Al, we're going to lose the apartment. We were barely making it." The last time such a thing happened, him and his ex helped her keep their apartment until Chet got back out. The biggest problem was that Myra was terrible at managing money. The more they helped, the more she seemed to need. It wasn't until the first time that Erika had given him an ultimatum, that he had stopped. Myra ended up living with Al's mom, the grandmother that raised her, nearly up to when Al's mom's health had taken a turn for the worse. It was a bad and complicated time that ended with Al and his sister not being on good terms due to her boyfriend fighting for every bit of Al's mom's stuff as he could get. The man had almost taken them to court when Al's sister didn't get all the jewelry which was insistently split between Al's sister and Myra. One of the reasons why Al liked Chet even though the man had so many issues was because he calmly supported Myra through her grief and stood by Al's side to lend what help he could with things. Al had a premonition that things weren't as they seemed. He had a hard time believing that all the little baby steps of progress that Myra's boyfriend had made in dealing with his demons would suddenly be thrown in the garbage. He seemed like he was doing relatively decent the last time they'd met a few weeks ago. Then again, depression wasn't something that easy to gauge. Add some relatively serious chronic health problems and it wasn't that clear at all. "I'll get a moving company scheduled to come pick up your things. I got a spare room here and when Chet gets out, you guys can take a couple of months to figure things out. A COUPLE of months, Myra. You need to start saving up money now. Does that work?" Al said. Wringing her hands and looking dissatisfied, she said, "Couldn't you just help with the rent for a little while? I promise, I'll take care of the rest." Al sighed. "It could be months before he's released this time and it'll take time for him to find a job again once he's out. To be honest, I don't really know if I can swing that much your way and I don't think it would be a good idea even if I could because you'd still be broke and struggling. At least this way, you have the ability to save money and I won't be losing so much." After a little more back and forth, she left resigned and with a moving truck date. Turning around to see a slightly hungry look on Devon's face as the young man watched her walk out, Al said, "My sister is all but lost to me which makes Myra my number one priority in this world. Her boyfriend is the center of hers. If you can manage to do what my mother and me combined couldn't before we gave up and accepted it, then more power to you. But if you hurt her, we are way more than done." Face twisting up, Devon said, "Can't a brother look? Damn!" Al threw his hands up and walked away to check on Patrick. Starting at a lower point of health than Deshawn had, it ended up taking longer for Patrick to bounce back. He was a great deal more thankful and polite, even in his worst moments, than the older brother had been but he was also quiet, sullen and withdrawn. If not for Deshawn, coming in to give the occasional pep talk and almost fatherly like support, Al had no idea what the young man would have gotten up to after he was recovered. It was like some vital spark had been blown out in him and the older black man's guidance and care was slowly building the kindling that would ignite it again. It was strange seeing that side of the older brother but it wasn't something new for Patrick. The young man had the ghost of a friendly smile every time Deshawn showed up to check on him. As Patrick recovered and started helping out with some light work around the house, Al noticed that the young man's dull brown hair showed coppery tints. And once he'd gotten a little sun on him, a sprinkle of freckles started dotting across the bridge of his nose and upper cheeks. It was a subtle thing but it gave Al a little shock. The ghost of the Patrick from his earliest dream memories could vaguely be seen from time to time. A couple of days later and Patrick was mostly still hanging around at Al's because he had just finished his first home repair job and didn't have enough money to get a place yet. That meant, when Myra came by two days before she'd be moving in herself, he was still there. She was hysterical because she'd gotten a text that said Chet was breaking up with her to 'focus on him' and wouldn't respond to her return texts or allow her to visit. When Devon stopped by two days later, he saw that Patrick was being chummy with her and trying to cheer her up while Al was at work. His response was to give the young man enough 'forward pay' to get himself a place and sent him as 'emergency help' on a job that was light handed. By the time Al got home, it was Devon who was being all chummy and trying to cheer her up. Myra's slightly alarmed uncle hadn't been overly concerned about Patrick's friendliness because that's all it really was. The young man was far too low on self esteem to make any serious plays and it was somewhat mutually beneficial but Devon was playing for keeps. THAT young man would take what he could get without hesitation and Myra was vulnerable enough that it wouldn't take long for something to happen. Al asked for Myra to go with him, earning an irritated and slightly angry look from Devon. He grabbed up all that he could cram of Chet's stuff, still boxed up from being dropped off that afternoon, into his car and Myra was in the passenger seat with a determined look on her face. She had a pretty good idea about what was going to happen and was all for it. Before he left, he turned back to Devon and said, "You like her, fine. But I'll be damned if you're going to waltz in here and take advantage of her while she's upset and treat her like a disposable f*** toy!" Now fully angry himself, Devon said, "Don't act like you know me!" Dryly, Al cut off the rest of the younger brother's tirade, "I don't have to know you to know what you were doing. Don't treat me like I'm stupid. Once she's had a chance to calm down from whatever is going on, I'm hands off. Until then, you're hands off unless you want to lose them."
