Chapter 1
As the ten-car, graffiti-covered, northbound Number Two train, commonly referred to as the iron horse, sped down the elevated train tracks toward the 176th Street subway station, it brought with it an unmistakable sound. A deafening, ear splitting, thunderous noise, it echoed off the various closed storefronts, car lots, parking garages, and buildings that lined Jerome Avenue. The train came to a sudden halt, making its designated stop at the station and depositing its minority residents back to their desolate urban neighborhood, back to their dismal reality.
This section of New York City was known as the South Bronx. First it was hit hard by a rash of tenement building fires started by greedy, unscrupulous landlords seeking a big insurance settlement from properties they deemed worthless, rundown, or beyond repair. They figured that torching their buildings was more profitable than spending the money to rehabilitate them for low-income residents to reside in. They'd rather rid themselves of these undesirable properties and turn a profit in the process. Their decisions were strictly from a business standpoint, motivated by pure greed, nothing more and nothing less.
What they never took into account was the effect that this crime would have on the buildings' residents or the Borough of the Bronx. Soon a rash of copycat criminals began repeating this crime, over and over again. Irreplaceable personal items went up in smoke along with these tenement buildings. Countless lives were ruined or altered. Many families were forced to relocate from their place of birth to even worse living conditions like the city shelters or the tough city housing projects.
Like a bad case of the chicken pox, this insurance fraud scam quickly spread across the South Bronx, making it resemble a ghost town in some war-torn foreign country. Where buildings once stood and life once flourished, there were now vacant lots with mounds of rubble. The concrete structures were replaced by shattered dreams and lost souls.
The abandoned and charred skeletal remains of these buildings were evident as far as the eye could see. Later, the crack-cocaine epidemic came along and finished off the job that the arsonists had started. It killed off any remaining hopes, dreams, or chances that the neighborhood had of recovery or revival, further crippling the Bronx for decades to come. This section of New York City was amongst the poorest in the nation. The boogie-down Bronx, the home of hip-hop, became known as the burnt-down Bronx.
On a chilly fall evening in the South Bronx, a trap was being set that would bring about some deadly consequences. Parked in a car underneath the train station was Kenny Greene, also known as Ken-Ken. He was a tall, dark-skinned, well-built ladies' man whose specialty was strong-arm robbery. He was also one half of a duo, husband-and-wife con team.
Ken-Ken's wife, Maria, was a gorgeous Puerto Rican woman with long straight red hair that flowed down to the small of her back. She had a light trace of hair just above her juicy lips and a beautiful black mole that sat atop them. It was the kind that women always artificially added with a black eyeliner pencil, in an effort to enhance their facial features. Maria was also naturally blessed with a body that could stop traffic. She had a pair of firm breasts that stood at attention, a butt big and wide enough to sit a drink on, a flawless caramel complexion, and long sexy legs.
Dressed in a red-hot miniskirt with a matching leather jacket and six-inch stiletto pumps, she looked every bit like the hooker she was desperately trying to portray. Unbeknownst to everybody except family and friends, Maria was seven months pregnant with the couple's first child.
But looking at her, one wouldn't be able to tell. Her pregnancy agreed with her. And besides that, the men, paying customers, tricks or Johns, were too busy lusting off her bodacious body to closely examine her stomach. Even if they had noticed, it probably wouldn't have mattered.
The mission that the couple was currently on had been Maria's idea. With a baby on the way she wanted to stack all the money she could, while she still could. Pretty soon she'd be way too big, too far along in her pregnancy, to even think about doing things like this. She came from a family where breaking the law was a way of life. It was accepted and maybe even expected of her. Both of her brothers and father were currently serving time in various prisons in upstate New York for their parts in various crimes. For the Torres family, lawlessness was in their blood.
Maria was taught the art of pickpocketing, or jostling, as it is known in New York City, by her brothers. She in turn passed her knowledge along, teaching her then boyfriend, Ken-Ken, how to pickpocket successfully.
Now Ken-Ken and Maria were the picture-perfect couple. Growing up as kids, they lived in the same building and couldn't stand each other. Maria and Ken-Ken constantly argued, staying at each other's throat. As they grew older the arguments became more heated, and several times they almost came to blows. Maria's brothers even contemplated doing severe bodily harm to Ken-Ken. They issued threats to him on several occasions, warning him what they would do to him if he laid a hand on their sister.
A long time ago older people in the building predicted that one day they would be a couple since they always fought like one. Sure enough, as they headed into puberty their hormones took over. Suddenly they stopped fighting and became strongly attracted to each another. After a few years of fooling around, dating, the breakups, and the make-ups it was decided by Maria's mother that they should get married. The couple agreed and they got hitched downtown in a small ceremony at City Hall.
It was a small, simple ceremony with only a select few friends and family members in attendance. Though the couple married young, they still managed to maintain martial bliss. Never second-guessing their decision, Ken-Ken and Maria never thought about what they gave up, only what they had gained—everlasting love.
Ken-Ken was old-fashioned in certain ways. He thought that the man should always provide for the woman. He took pride in being the family provider and hated the idea of having his woman in on a criminal caper, in harm's way. He knew that on the street nothing was certain and anything was possible. But he had no choice. Maria insisted that she be included. They were a family that did everything together, literally. They were a team criminally, codefendants to the end.
Besides that, Maria was critical to the success of the trap. She was the bait. While Ken-Ken waited in a car nearby Maria lured the tricks to a secluded side block under the pretense of prostituting. Then Ken-Ken would arrive just before she was to perform some lewd sexual act, preferably while they were discussing a price, and knock out the trick. If things went according to plan, the two would then relieve him of all his valuables, cash, and credit cards and flee the scene.
As the minority commuters began to trickle down the train station steps, singly, in pairs, or in groups, they quickly dispersed and went their separate ways, heading home. Amongst the last few remaining groups was a livid, young, black couple. From all the noise they were making and their body language, they appeared to be engaging in a heated argument. This scene captured Ken-Ken's full attention.
"Muthfucka, you ain't hardly slick!" the young woman yelled. "I seen ya black azz starin' at dat bitch on da train. Ya black azz thought I didn't see dat? Well, think again, nigga!"
The young man replied innocently, "Whut girl? You buggin'! I don't know whut da fuck you talkin' 'bout! I wuzn't payin dat bitch no mind. If anything she wuz lookin' at me! She wuz sweatin' me. I can't help dat."
"Nigga, don't play dumb! Ya azz ain't az stupid az you look! But since you got amnesia, you can forget 'bout hittin' dis tanite! Go get some pussy from da bitch, you lil-dick muthafucka! You can't fuck anyway!" The young woman picked up the pace of her walk in an effort to distance herself from him.
Unable to control his anger any longer, the young man resorted to violence, figuring it was the only recourse that he had. Since she had publicly insulted him, attacking his manhood, without warning he struck. Running up on the young lady from behind, he kicked her straight in the butt.
"Fuck you, hoe!" he shouted at the top his lungs. "Ya pussy iz trash anyway! You bum bitch!"
The woman stumbled, almost tripping over her own feet, from the unexpected force of the blow. After a few missteps she regained her balance. Instinctively she bent down in the gutter, picked up a half-empty glass soda bottle, and with all her might she launched it at his head.
Luckily he ducked just in time, displaying a catlike reflex to avoid the projectile. The bottle went whistling by his head before shattering harmlessly on the ground. It broke into thousands of pieces, littering the sidewalk with tiny shards of glass.
The young man suddenly began thinking to himself just how funny this situation was. He burst out in uncontrollable laughter. Running off into the opposite direction, he continued to laugh nonstop while taunting the girl.
He didn't care about the girl, anyway. She wasn't his girlfriend. She was just somebody he was trying to lay up with for the night. He only came around her when he wanted some sex.
"You bitch azz nigga! I'ma get my brotha ta fuck ya punk azz up! Watch!" she cried out at the fleeing figure. "You gone get yourz! We see whut'z so funny when my brotha beats ya azz down! Nigga, laugh now and cry later! You gonna get yourz!"
"Whuteva, bitch! Fuck you and ya soft azz brotha!" he yelled back over his shoulder, not the least bit worried about her threat. As far as he was concerned, he had too much backup around the way to let anything happen to him. If her brother or her people came to his block looking for him, there would be problems for them.
From the comfort of his car, Ken-Ken watched the entire incident from start to finish. He was very much amused by the ghetto dispute.
As minor as the distraction was, it temporarily caused Ken-Ken to take his hawklike eyes off Maria, diverting his attention from the task at hand. This momentary lapse of judgment would prove to be critical. He would live to regret this moment. It was an instant frozen in time, one of those life-altering events that in retrospect, if he could have done it all over again, he would have been more observant. He would have concentrated harder, thus eliminating any distractions.
A few feet up the block, Maria had flagged down a potential vic. He was a thin white man dressed in a blue pinstriped three-piece suit, driving a burgundy 300E Mercedes Benz with New Jersey license plates. This particular strip of Jerome Avenue was frequented by white men from across the Hudson River, who came over to the Bronx in search of black and Hispanic female crack whores.
"Hey, good looking! What ya got cookin?" the trick calmly asked, repeating some corny line from some seventies TV show.
Maria replied, "Name ya pleasure. I got cable out here. HBO, head, booty, and other things. I'll take you around da world and back again."
To Maria, this white trick looked and smelled like new money. He was probably some big businessman from corporate America. She just knew he'd be loaded with cash and credit cards. Maria would bet her life his wallet was filled with Visas and MasterCards with an unlimited lines of credit. After this heist they were gonna be straight for a while, she figured. Maria was going to do a lot of shopping for the baby at the expense of this trick.
But what Maria didn't know was that this man was a demented regular customer out for revenge. He had caught gonorrhea from some Hispanic crack whore a few weeks ago. This set off a chain of devastating events in his life. After contracting the disease, he in turn took it home and gave it to his wife of twenty-some years. When she got diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease during a routine check-up, she then promptly filed for divorce.
Currently she was in the process of taking all his assets in court including the house, the three European luxury sedans, and his six-figure bank account. Everything she could get her hands on. And it was all because he had to satisfy his insatiable craving for minority crack hookers. In his sick mind the hookers were to blame, not him.
This homicidal maniac swore he'd find and kill the whore who burned him and ruined his life. It didn't matter to him that he might spill innocent blood in the process. So be it. It didn't matter that Maria wasn't the one who burned him, she'd do. In his mind somebody was gonna pay. Motivated by revenge, the man couldn't think clearly. It led him to strike out at the first Puerto Rican hooker he saw that night. And as fate would have it, that person was Maria.
Nervously the trick glanced around for any signs of the cops. He didn't want anything to interfere with his murderous intentions. He had an appetite for destruction that he had to satisfy, right now.
"Get in the car, sweetie, I'm trying to go around the world." He grinned slyly. "You think you can take me there? Huh?"
"Hell fuckin yeah!" Maria snapped. "I sure can! Quick, fast, and in a hurry!" From past experience, Maria knew she had to engage her tricks in this type of flirtatious conversation in order not to alert them to her larcenous intentions. She had to exercise a little patience in order to make the mark feel at ease, just long enough to rob him.
"You gotta pay to play, Daddy! No romance witout finance, as they say. Know whatimean, good lookin?" Maria seductively said while licking her lips. "Now first things first, let's see dat cash, honey. Money makes da world go 'round, Daddy. And money makes me freaky, ifyaknowwhutImean? Show me sumthin. Get my pussy wet!"
The trick quickly complied, removing a large wad of money from his jacket pocket. He hoped that the sight of the money would entice her enough to get into his car. He would then take her to some seedy motel to rape and sodomize her before killing her.
By now Maria was bent over slightly inside the passenger's window. From this vantage point, she could see clearly that he was holding nothing but hundreds, fiftys, and twenty-dollar bills in his hand. She flashed a bright smile at the trick as she began scratching her head. This was a signal to Ken-Ken that everything was good to go, that they had hit a lick. They had finally found a mark. Unfortunately for Maria, Ken-Ken never saw her signal. His attention was fixed firmly on the young couple carrying on in the middle of the street.
Suddenly a strange premonition came over Maria. She saw her life flash right before her eyes. For a moment she locked eyes with her would-be killer. Staring into his cold blue eyes she saw no signs of life, just pure evil. They betrayed the sly smile that spread across his lips. In an instant Maria quickly examined the contents of the car. The dim streetlight caught the glimmer of chrome from a gun, covered by a newspaper, lying in the passenger seat. Even that didn't frighten or deter her. Maria decided to try her hand anyway, believing that the trick didn't have the heart to shoot her. Acting instinctively, she quickly reached into the car and snatched the money out of his hand. Turning her back, she ran as fast as her high-heeled shoes could carry her. She ran directly toward Ken-Ken, her protector.
At that very moment Ken-Ken happened to glance up and see his wife running full speed in his direction. His gut feeling told him something was very wrong, as if the sight of her sprinting in high heels weren't enough. Though Maria may have thought she was running very fast, she couldn't outrun a bullet.
Calmly the trick raised his 357 Magnum and took aim, lining her up in the gun's sight. Then, with the precision of an assassin, he squeezed the trigger. The large chrome cannon roared twice and the muzzle flashed, simultaneously discharging two rounds.
The gun was loaded with the dumdum bullets. This was ammunition legally made to do the most damage to its victim. The bullets found their intended target. Two slugs slammed into Maria's back, momentarily lifting her up off her feet before sending her crashing to the concrete.
For a brief moment Ken-Ken froze up, paralyzed by the deafening gun shots. In horror he watched the deadly scene play itself out, knowing that he was powerless to stop it. The sound of tires screeching snapped him back into reality. He had a crucial decision to make. He could either chase the gunman or try to save his wife. Ken-Ken opted for the latter. With regret he looked on in disgust as the killer made his escape. He could only pray that their paths would cross again.
Exiting his car, Ken-Ken ran at top speed to the spot where Maria lay sprawled out, gravely injured and nearly motionless on the ground. Once he reached her he could hear the weak moans she emitted. He saw no evidence of entry wounds on her body until he rolled her over, placing her head in his lap. Then he finally saw the damage that the weapon had done. The gaping exit wounds in her chest that the bullets caused frightened Ken-Ken. He was shocked at how badly she was hurt.
"Maria! Maria!" he cried, while staring into her tear-filled eyes. "Hold on, baby, it's gonna be aiight."
"Kenny...Kenny," she whimpered in her thick Spanish accent, still clutching the blood-soaked money. "It burns! Kenny, it burns!"
"Mami, hang in there, ya gonna be aiight. I'ma get ya ta da hospital and they'll fix you right up as good as new," Ken-Ken said.
Even Ken-Ken didn't believe those words of comfort. He had said them only to keep hopes of survival high. Over and over again he desperately tried to reassure Maria that she would make it. As he did so, her heart was pumping out an incredible stream of blood at a fast rate, flowing out of her body and running into the gutter.
"Help! Help! Help!" Ken-Ken screamed frantically, trying to attract someone's attention on the deserted block. "Somebody help me! Somebody plueezzze! My wife has been shot. Help!"
Fortunately, God heard his cries for help. An alert transit cop, who just happened to be patrolling the nearby subway station, heard all the commotion and radioed for the police and an ambulance.
"Ken-Ken, I'm gettin' sleepy...," Maria said, fighting to keep her eyes open. "I can't keep em open...they keep closin'."
"Don't go ta sleep, Maria! Fight it! Fight it!" Ken-Ken commanded, as if she could control it.
Try as she might, there was nothing Maria could do to stay conscious. The two bullets had started her on an irreversible trip into the hereafter.
Seeing that Maria could barely keep her eyes open, Ken-Ken resorted to desperate measures. Gently he began smacking her across the face in an effort to revive her. The act had little success. Maria kept drifting further and further from the land of the living.
Ken-Ken resisted the overwhelming urge to break down and cry, but he had to be strong for the both of them. This is all my fault, he told himself over and over again. If only he had been on his job. If? The question echoed in his brain.
Suddenly, way off in the distance, he heard the loud wail from the sirens of the ambulance and the police cars. Ken-Ken began to get optimistic. By the grace of God, maybe, just maybe, they might be able to save Maria's life. Ken-Ken clung to that flimsy hope, because hope is all he had.
The police and ambulance arrived almost at the same time, and the emergency medical technicians rushed into action. They placed Maria's limp body on the stretcher and wheeled it toward the back of the ambulance. They immediately noticed that she was pregnant. Even though she had a weak pulse, they knew she wouldn't make it. Their main concern was to try and save the unborn child. The mother's life was virtually over.
"Who shot her?" the policemen inconsiderately asked Ken-Ken.
"Did you get a good look at the shooter?" "What in the world was she doing down here?" "Do you know what she got shot with?" "Does your wife have a history of prostitution?" The officers continued to barrage him with questions.
Ken-Ken shook his head no over and over again. He was going into a state of shock and didn't even have the presence of mind to respond verbally.
The ambulance took off like a rocket with Ken-Ken and Maria inside. Having radioed ahead, a trauma team was on standby once they reached their destination. Feverishly the EMT worker, placed an oxygen mask over Maria's nose and mouth and ran an IV into her arm. But secretly he knew, even before he started this procedure, that she was a goner. He had seen so many trauma patients over the years that he could just about predict who was going to live and who was going to die. She'd lost too much blood. He was just going through the motions, fighting a battle that only God could win.
"Maria, don't die on me!" Ken-Ken begged her while holding her limp hand.
Unbeknownst to Ken-Ken, Maria was already gone and nothing could bring her back. The Grim Reaper had silently separated her soul from her body. "I luv you, Maria! You hear me? I luv you."
The ambulance raced through the streets of New York, summoning all the horsepower the engine could muster, and in a few minutes it reached the hospital. The emergency room doors flew open, where about a half dozen doctors and nurses were waiting to assess the damage to the patient. They began speaking medical lingo that Ken-Ken couldn't quite understand. But he obediently followed as they rushed her down the long hospital corridors and into the operating room.
"Sir, you can't go in there. That's a restricted area," an obese white nurse said. "Medical personal only! No civilians beyond that point. Sorry, sir."
"But dat's my wife!" Ken-Ken said, not fully comprehending what was said. His only thought was to be by his wife's side. He wanted to be there for Maria in her darkest hour, when she needed him the most.
"I understand that, sir," the nurse said, "but the operating room is off limits to everybody except medical personnel. In there you would just be doing her more harm than good. Don't worry, she's in good hands."
Her vote of confidence did nothing for Ken-Ken's nerves. He managed to stop himself from entering the operating room against his better judgment and came to the conclusion there was nothing left for him to do but pray. This horrific experience suddenly renewed his belief in God. He walked slowly to the waiting area and kneeled down and prayed, desperately trying to recall all those special Christian prayers he had learned as a child.
Meanwhile, inside the operating room, the trauma team and doctors performed emergency surgery on Maria. During the complicated surgery she suddenly flatlined. All the monitors and machines of life support began to make a strange beeping noise, which signaled loss of life to the surgeons. Several attempts were made to resuscitate her. But nothing worked. Quickly they realized she was dead and there was no bringing her back. So the decision was made to save the life of the unborn fetus.
The doctors delivered a premature baby girl by Cesarean section. Under these strenuous conditions the baby appeared to be healthy, but any long-term birth defects had yet to be determined. After the successful delivery, a doctor went to give the grieving husband a mixed blessing, the good and bad news.
Still on his knees, Ken-Ken never heard the physician approach.
"Excuse me, sir. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but weren't you accompanying the Hispanic young lady that we bought in here about three hours ago?" the doctor gently asked.
"Yeah!" Ken-Ken said as he lifted his head up out of the chair. "How is she, Doc? Is she gonna be aiight?"
This was the part of the job that the doctor absolutely detested, the part medical school could never prepare him for. How was he supposed to explain to grief-stricken family members that their loved one had perished? How was he supposed to explain that they couldn't save their life?
Emotions tend to run high under these adverse circumstances. They overcame all rational thinking. Families wanted answers now. How and why did their love one die? And sometimes no matter how much diplomacy he used, it just wasn't enough to satisfy their inquiry. They thought that everybody who came through those emergency doors was supposed to make it. But he knew better. Modern medicine couldn't save everyone. He knew that only God knows why some shall live but others shall die. This was an enigma that stumped even the most skilled physicians. Situations like this only reaffirmed his faith in God. The doctor decided to give Ken-Ken the good news first, in an attempt to soften the blow. He took pity on him.
"Well, sir..." His voice began to trail off. "You are now the proud father of a beautiful baby girl."
His statement wasn't enough to make Ken-Ken forget about the love of his life. There was nothing that the doctor could say could that would make him forget about his Maria.
"But...but whut about my wife?" Ken-Ken asked, dreading the answer. "How iz she?"
The doctor swallowed hard as he struggled to find the words that would help him explain the tragedy.
"Unfortunately, we couldn't save her. She lost a lot of blood. The bullets severed some major arteries, causing extensive internal bleeding," the doctor solemnly explained, giving Ken-Ken the best definition he could of the extent of her injuries in layman's terms.
Immediately, heartbreak and anguish registered on Ken-Ken's face. Tears filled his eyes. He broke down and cried. There was nothing else he could do in his time of despair.
"No! No! Maria's not dead!" Ken-Ken wept. "She can't be. She can't be." He never realized he could lose so much and gain so much in a blink of an eye. But the game was funny like that. One day it will be your best friend and the next day it will turn on you like a jilted lover, stabbing you in the back.
Showing compassion to his fellow man, the doctor came over and tried to comfort him by rubbing his shoulders.
"It will be alright, sir. Everything is going to be alright. Things happen for a reason," the doctor softly repeated. "It's in God's hands. He knows best."
"Where's my daughter?" Ken-Ken asked suddenly. "I want ta see my daughter."
"Come on. Get up and follow me," the doctor said. "I'll take you to her."
He then reached down and extended his hand to Ken-Ken, helping him up off the floor. Quickly he placed an arm around his shoulder, and together they walked toward the ICU ward.
This genuine show of raw emotion was humanity and compassion in its truest form. Tragic events like death had a way of breaking down all racial barriers, bringing out the best in most people. And the physician was no exception. He embraced his fellow human being, and for a brief moment Ken-Ken's pain was his pain, too.
At the ICU ward Ken-Ken pressed in face against the clean thick glass, struggling to get a glimpse of his past and his future. A wave of relief washed over him. Finally, he laid eyes on his daughter. She looked frail in comparison to the other infants in the ward. Still, she was the precious fruit of his blessed but short union with his lovely wife, Maria. From the other side of the glass, Ken-Ken stood watch over his sleeping daughter, praying and thinking. From that moment on, he promised himself, he'd dedicate the rest of his life to his daughter. Like in a game of chess, she was the queen and he was the pawn. He would make any sacrifice to protect his queen, even if that meant losing his own life. So be it. He made a vow to himself to move heaven and earth before he would let any harm come her way.
God help anyone or anything that got in the way of Ken-Ken raising his child.
Copyright © 2007 by Shannon Holmes. All rights reserved.