sidewayz glory (13 page)

“Things have changed,” Tito said. “The ‘no car' excuse doesn't wash anymore.” He glanced at his sister.

“I talked to Shinchou,” Angelita said.

Kennin stared at Tito, who'd promised not to tell anyone where Shinchou was.

“Look, I told my sister, okay?” Tito dropped his voice. “You know you can trust her. And I did it for your sake, so chill already.”

Kennin felt his fists tighten. He was seriously pissed, but there was little he could say in front of Angelita.

“How is she?” he asked Tito's sister. Kennin had been afraid to go see his sister himself. He was worried that Jack, or someone who worked for Jack, would follow him.

“She looked okay,” Angelita said. “I mean, I guess what she's doing is pretty stressful, but she seemed glad she was doing it.”

“Did she say anything?” Kennin asked.

“Just that it was really hard. I guess Sista Bertha insists you quit everything at once. Shinchou wasn't sure which she missed more, the meth or the cigarettes.”

“She's not angry at me, is she?” Kennin asked.

“I got the sense she thinks you're a good brother.” Angelita smiled, obviously happy with what she was about
to tell him. “Besides, if she was angry at you, would she say it was okay to use her car?”

“What does she have to lose?” Tito asked eagerly. “All we're gonna do is fix the thing up for her.”

“You really think a Corolla has much of a chance against turbocharged 240 SXs and RX-7s?” Kennin asked. But the words had barely left his lips when he remembered the five grand Mike Mercado was willing to invest.

“It might in the right hands,” Angelita said. “And on the right track.”

“Come on, Kennin, no more messing around,” Tito said. “You'll do it, won't you?”

Kennin could see the flicker of hope in Angelita's eyes. “I don't get it,” he said. “I thought you were all about going to California.”

Angelita lowered her eyes, then raised them again. “I am,” she said. “But I'd like to do this before I go.”

After school, as usual, Mariel met Kennin a few blocks from school to give him a ride to work.

“Chris is on the team,” Kennin said.

Mariel shrugged. “He's good at getting what he wants.”

Interesting comment, Kennin thought, since the same could be said about her.

Mariel glanced sideways at him. “I'm keeping my promise and not asking about you and the team.”

“Looks like I'm gonna have to decide pretty soon,” Kennin said.

“I don't understand what the problem is,” Mariel said. “You love drifting, don't you?”

“It's more complicated than that,” Kennin said.

“No one made you run in the tsuisos,” Mariel said.

There was no point in explaining that running tsuisos on mountain roads was different from sliding around cones on a track. Or that as soon as you combined the words “organized” and “drifting,” the BS factor increased a hundredfold.

Mariel dropped him off at the parking garage. As Kennin got out of the car, Tito came down the sidewalk on his BMX bike.

“What is she? Your personal chauffeur?” he asked after Mariel drove away.

“You should be happy,” Kennin said. “I'm leaving your sister alone, just like you want.”

Before Tito could reply, a big black Hummer pulled into the garage. Derek rolled down the window and looked out at Kennin. “You're a hard guy to find.”

“Looks like you found me,” Kennin said.

Derek pushed open the Hummer's door and stepped down. Without a word, Tony came out of the valet office and parked the car.

“Let's take a walk,” Derek said.

“What about me?” Tito asked.

“You stay,” Derek said. It was obvious that he was in a
bad mood. He and Kennin left the garage and started to stroll down the sidewalk, past the tourists and out-of-town gamblers who would soon be going home broke.

“Not living in the trailer park anymore?” Derek asked.

“What can I do for you, Mr. Jamison?” Kennin cut to the chase.

“It's time to stop screwing around, kid,” Derek said. “Mr. Mercado made you a very nice offer, and it's time you accepted it.”

“I told Mr. Mercado that I'd think about it,” Kennin replied.

“Let me explain something to you, kid,” Derek said. “People don't tell Mr. Mercado they'll think about things, okay? You do what he says or you suffer the consequences. Now, he wants a rivalry between you and Chris Craven, okay? Nobody wants to watch the Yankees play the Colorado Rockies, but when the Yankees play the Red Sox, you can't find a seat. Michigan versus Ohio State, Auburn versus Alabama, USC versus UCLA. That's what brings people out. Now, I've known Mike Mercado a long time and I've never seen him be this generous before. That's not a five grand
loan
he's talking about. It's a frickin' gift. No one thumbs his nose at a gift from Mike Mercado.”

“I guess he could break my other leg,” Kennin said. “Or is it time for that shallow grave in the desert?”

Derek let out a big sigh. “All right, kid, let me explain it to you in a different way. Car washers are a dime a dozen.
Mr. Mercado don't need you to wash cars. He can find a hundred other kids to do that. And he definitely don't need kids who borrow his clients' BMWs for a few hours without permission. So there's your choice, either Mr. Mercado thinks of you as a drifter on his team, or as a car washer who tends to borrow cars that ain't his.”

Kennin didn't like to be threatened. He didn't see the point in it.

“You know, Mr. Jamison,” he said. “You're right that car washers are a dime a dozen, but the flip side of that is that there are a hundred other jobs around here that pay just as badly. So if I lose this one, chances are pretty good I'll find another one.”

Like an experienced boxer, Derek came right back with another punch. “You're tough, and I admire that in you, but you haven't learned to recognize when the cards are stacked against you, okay? And this is one of those times. So which card would you like me to play next? How about the ‘I know where your sister is' card? And here's another one. I know there's a slimeball pimp and drug dealer who's looking real hard for her. How's that card sound?”

Kennin stopped walking and gave Derek an astonished look.

“Come on, kid, you're smarter than that,” Derek said. “You must've figured out by now that you can't keep a secret in this town.”

“Tito told you?” Kennin asked.

Derek shook his head.

“Then how?”

Derek gave him a steady look and said nothing.

“If you know, maybe a lot of people know,” Kennin said. “Maybe it's not a secret anymore. So my doing anything for you won't help anyway.”

Derek gave Kennin a weary look. “I guess there's one way to find out. You willing to give it a try?”

Kennin didn't have to think about it for long. “If I take Mr. Mercado's five thousand and build a drift car, can you swear that no one else will find out where my sister is?”

“I can swear that they won't find out from me,” Derek said.

Kennin knew he'd been backed into a corner. “Okay,” he said. “But so help me, if anything happens to my sister, I am coming after you.”

Derek grinned. “I admire your spunk, kid.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope. “This is for the car and nothing else, understand? I find out a penny of this money went anywhere else, the deal's off, and I won't be able to vouch for what happens to your sister, understand?”

Kennin nodded and took the envelope. He turned around and started back toward the Babylon. By the time he got there, he had an idea.

“So what was that about?” Tito asked in the locker room a few minutes later while he and Kennin changed into their uniforms.

“I'll tell you when the time is right,” Kennin said. “Cousin Raoul still have his van?”

“I guess, why?” Tito asked.

“See if he can meet us after school tomorrow.” It was their day off from work.

“What's the deal?” Tito asked.

“I need him to return a favor.”

Tito called his cousin, who said he'd be glad to meet them.

“Tell him to bring about a dozen long screws,” Kennin said before Tito closed the flip phone. “Wood screws, not machine screws.”

Tito made a face. “Why?”

“Just do it.”

after school, Raoul's white van was parked in front of the building.

“What am I gonna do with my bike?” Tito asked when he and Kennin came out of the front doors.

“Put it in the back,” Kennin said. While Tito unlocked the BMX, Kennin went over and said hello to Raoul.

“Kennin, my man.” Raoul grabbed his hand.

“Stayin' out of trouble?” Kennin kidded him.

“Tryin',
amigo,
tryin'. So what can I do for you today?”

“I'll tell you on the way,” Kennin said. “Let's get Tito's bike in the back.”

Raoul pulled open the back doors. He still had the lawnmower back there, and the van smelled like dead grass. They picked up the BMX and put it inside, and then the three of them got into the bench seat in front. A plastic bag with screws lay on the dashboard.

“Where to?” Raoul asked.

“Know where the Sierra Ne-Vue trailer park is?” Kennin asked.

“I think so.” Raoul started to drive.

“Why are we going there?” Tito asked.

“Gotta pick up a car.”

“Your sister's?” Tito guessed.

“Right.”

“So what do you need the screws for?” Tito asked.

“You'll see,” said Kennin.

A little while later they drove past the dead palm trees at the entrance to the trailer park.

“Where we going?” Raoul asked.

“Straight to the end,” Kennin said. As they passed his trailer, he saw the black Escalade parked outside. He wasn't surprised that Jack had posted a full-time guard there to wait for Shinchou to come home.

“Okay, stop,” Kennin said.

Raoul stopped the van, and Kennin pointed through the window. “See that Escalade? We have to make it go away. Only there's a guy inside it who doesn't want to go away.”

“Oh, crap,” Tito groaned. “Here we go again.”

“So what's the plan?” Raoul asked.

Kennin told them.

“No! No way!” Tito protested when Kennin was finished. “No frickin' way.”

Kennin just gazed steadily at him, waiting for Tito to realize that he was going to do it.

“I know what you're thinking and I don't care,” Tito said. “Go ahead and tell my sister anything you want.”

“Tell her what?” Raoul asked.

“Well, you see, Raoul,” Kennin began. “You know that 240 SX that Angelita spent so much time and money building?”

“All right!” Tito blurted. “All right, I'll do it. But this is it. I swear. This is the end. Never again.”

“Gotcha,” Kennin said with a wink, then turned to Raoul. “You know what to do?”

Tito's cousin nodded.

“Okay,” Kennin said. “See you guys later.” He grabbed the bag of screws and got out of the truck.

Staying behind trailers, Kennin managed to work his way back to his own while keeping out of sight of the Escalade. As he did, he kept an eye on Raoul's van and watched as Tito and his cousin quietly opened the back doors and took out the BMX bike. A few moments later the white van left the trailer park.

Kennin had reached the corner of his trailer. Now came the tricky part. He had to get behind the Escalade without being seen. If Tiny happened to glance into the rearview mirror while Kennin was making his dash, he'd be toast. Clutching the bag of screws in his hand, Kennin took a deep breath, and then tiptoed as quickly and quietly as he could.
A moment later he was crouching behind the Escalade, trying to catch his breath. He didn't hear or sense any movement from inside the SUV.

He knelt down and started to wedge the screws, pointed end up, against the rear tires so that when the Escalade reversed, the screws would be driven straight through the tread and into the steel bands beneath. When he finished, he once again scampered around the corner of the trailer.

It was time for Tito to do his thing. Kennin waved, and Tito grabbed the handlebars of the bike and walked it out into the open about fifty feet behind the Escalade. He put down the kickstand, picked up a chunk of broken asphalt, and threw it at the back of the Escalade.

The asphalt missed. Tito gave Kennin a helpless look. Kennin gestured for the kid to try again. Tito picked up another chunk and hurled it.

Clank!
The asphalt hit the back of the SUV.

Tito gave Kennin a nervous look. Kennin gestured for Tito to throw another one. Tito did it.

Clank!

This time the door of the Escalade opened and Tiny got out. “You throwin' rocks?” the big goon yelled at Tito.