Shelton Family Saga

Chapter 54

Alex Callie, 2021 - 74 yrs old

Hustling the streets was never a goal of mine, but it had somehow become a lifestyle. From one hustle to the next, whatever it took to get me by is what I engaged in. Running the streets and everything involved with it all came so easy to me ever since the age of fifteen years old. I was young, ambitious, full of swagger and ready for the world, or so I thought. Between my twin sister Averie, my other sister Trilby and big brother Juntas, along with myself, my parents never really had time to invest in me. Don't confuse what i'm saying, cause my parents loved me dearly and my mother stood by my side every step of my journey through the good and the bad until she passed away in 1985. My niece Sharosta was twelve then, as was my son Robert. Averie and I were thirty-eight, and although Robert was still in Kansas, he showed up for the funeral and I recognized him instantly; cause, he looked just like me. We had all the same resembling features, hair grade, cut and style, body build and walk. There was no abrogating the fact he was the child I'd had with Brisha; so, I used that time to acquaint myself to him as best I could. I strived to enlighten him regarding some things I'd learned in my life, but not the bad things. I wanted him to know about opulent things like traveling, getting gussied up, fine dining and having goals. Those are some things I'd learned from my big brother Juntas. We did a lot of upscale living back then, but again the difference was Juntas always knew how to avoid trouble. That doesn't mean we weren't involved in some shady transactions, only that Juntas never let any of it disrupt his life with his wife Aniya; which is an astounding feat seeing how we were interlaced in so much back then. I had embarked upon a playful endeavor by venturing off the reservation a long time ago when I'd gone from Hardin down to Helmsville; but the escapades with Juntas led me into real-world adventure. He integrated me into society on an international scale. We ventured down into Mexico and that was definitely an experience, as the parts we explored offered a bit of everything. We ran into some talented people that could do whatever you could imagine, and if they couldn't do it, they had connections to someone who could. It was an astronomical  network that took us to a whole underground world of exotic cars, rare jewels, expensive furs, guns, drugs and money, both authentic and counterfeit. The chop shops I witnessed worked at an unbelievable pace. I seen them pull in a car one time, take it apart and completely rebuild it, new and better. It had transformed into a distinctive vehicle with new paint, upgraded wheels and a whole new plush interior. Two hours flat and the shit was done. We met an ol' guy named Cheppi and he seemed to be the ruler of everything. Everything operated by and because of his authority and nothing happened without it. He spoke no English, but it didn't limit any dealings for him with anyone; and, with him is where we discovered the fine jewels. He had some very rare stones and precious metals in the way of vintage coins. I later found out they'd come from royalty overseas. I found out this information from Juntas, cause he ended up with the missing link to a rare bracelet from one of the tombs in Egypt. Juntas had always been a heck of a negotiator. He orchestrated some of the best deals on everything, even taking some rare artwork back to my twin sister Averie. He got some of the longest, prettiest, exotic fur coats for his wife Aniya, some vintage coins for our mom, and antique silver pieces for our sister Trilby. As for me, I got diamonds. Very finely cut ones and had them encrusted in gold and permanently fitted to my teeth by a dentist in Juarez. Today, this type of thing has been capitalized upon in a deeply commercial manner, but years before anything like this came into being, I was already outshining everyone with my blinged out grill. Now, it is widely popular all over the country, especially in places like Houston, Texas where iced out custom grills have become commonplace.