The Foundation

The Death of The Ice Cream Man

The sun wakes me up, and activates my pounding head. I am lying in bed, in just my boxers. Desiree was sleep in the bed with me. I look over to the armchair in the corner of my room to see Scarlett hugging her self, gun in hand. She is wide-awake, and looks like she had been up all night. She was staring at me. I see some fresh bruises on her arms and face. Naturally, since she had her gun in her hand, I go to reach for mine. No guns to be grabbed. Where the hell are my guns?

“Jay came and took your guns last night. In your drunken stupor you decided that you wanted to challenge the world to a gun fight.” Scarlett says in full ice queen mode.

“Good, because I don’t remember anything, but I’m glad I didn’t do it.” I say to her. I sit up and put my feet on the floor. She is still staring at me, “What’s going on?”

“After you passed out last night, I told Desiree to watch you while I went to handle some business for Mister Brown. The guys ambushed me. Then said they were gonna come for you. I knew you were here unarmed and pretty much shyt-faced. I stayed to keep watch.” She explains starting to sob.

Judging by the crying, she didn’t give me the details. I wanted to know, but then I didn’t. Her sobbing woke Desiree up, who quickly moves to console her. This leads me to believe that she had been taking care of both Scarlett and me all night. I feel like a hung over chump. Desiree gets Scarlett up out the chair and leads her out of the room. I get up, head still throbbing and hop in the shower. The hot water eases the pressure of the headache a bit. I finish showering and get dressed. I would normally load up my guns, but I don’t have them, so I just head out to the office.  Desiree is at my desk straightening it out. As I complete the thought to tell her to call Jay, he comes through the door.

“I gotta special delivery my brother.” Jay says smiling and handing me my guns.

“Good looking out bro, I was starting to feel naked,” I respond putting my holsters on and checking the clips, “I know you heard some muthafuckas got Niecy last night.”

“Yeah, I heard, that’s another reason I came by this morning.  I’m willing to pay you, or work off the debt if you help me find out who did this. Can you help me, Ice?” Jay asks his facial expression of sadness and anger at the same time.

He is hurting. I want to tell him who did it, but I won’t. I don’t know the scope and the reach of Mr. Brown and his crew. I really don’t want anyone else hurt in this shyt. I’ll have to think about this some more, but for right now I will play it close to my vest.

“We can do that, Jay. You know what; I want you to stay here with Desiree while I go to the hospital to see Niecy. Who knows? Someone may stop in with the info you need to find out who did this to her.” I tell Jay. Let’s hope he bites.

“That sounds good.” He responds. The answer I wanted to hear.

Guns ready.  With things taken care of in the office, it’s time to go see about Scarlett. I begin the walk to her room right as she is opening her door and coming out. Her eyes swollen from crying and the beating she took last night. I was gonna ask her does this punishment fit the crime, but knowing her she’ll say ‘yeah’.  She was dressed very plain today; a gray pants suit and a black blouse. She stops as she sees me coming toward her.

“Mister Roman, let’s stick to business today. I really don’t want to hear anything about last night.” She says to me.

“Call me Ice. This ‘Mister Roman’ bullshyt is getting old,” I tell her, “I won’t mention anything about last night. It’s time to go to the hospital to see Niecy.”

She nods as I turn and head out the side door and out to the car. She follows behind me. The entire trip to the hospital she says nothing to me. I say nothing to her. I have my thoughts about a few things about her, but I’ll tell y’all later about that.