BLACK

After endlessly working day shifts and some days; night shifts, I had become an animal. My only concern was surviving, providing for my family and I. Returning to college at 25 years old, on the verge of 26, was harder than it sounds. I was paying for classes and bills. My wheelchair-bound father had surgeries and medicine that he needed to have, and as a family, no matter how destitute we were, we had no intention of letting our dad miss out on treatment just because it was expensive.

March 5th was the day my life would take a turn I never foresaw.

“Jules, take the front today,” my manager said to me as I walked in Classy, the beauty supply store I worked at.

“Alright yeah,” I obediently responded.

“Yo, dem those shoes I was showing you I wanted to buy the other day,” Christina, my co-worker, said as she pointed to a customer’s shoes.

Before we knew it, the customer had already gotten what she needed and made her way to the register. “I’d like these,” she said while not even looking up.

“o.. ok”, I took her things to check out. She looks familiar, I thought.

“Cash or card? Wait, take the card, I need the cash later,” she said.

“Sun?” I asked, anticipating the answer. Her head rose quickly and her eyes widened, followed by a tiny squeal and a big smile.

“You know her?” Christina asked.

I was right; it was Sun.

Sun was just a freshman straight out of high school when we meant while in Natural Sciences’ study group. Sun was the definition of her name. She was always bubbly. She was from old money. We were barely friends, acquaintances really. We stayed close only to pass the class, which we did.

“You know what?! When is your break? Let’s catch up!” Sun exclaimed.

Sun and I spent the entire day together, and she insisted on saying hi to my mother, who’d she only met once before.

Dinner wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be. My mom recognized Sun. We had a good time. It was 9:00 PM and Sun was still at our house.

“Hey… by the way, my sort-of boyfriend is downstairs,” Sun said. I raised my eyebrows and smirked, “oh, really?”.

She giggled innocently, “I gotta go”.

I laughed and said “ok”

The next morning, there was a loud knock on the door.

“Hi, did Sun stay here last night?” the lady asked gently while holding a daring stare. As I wiped my eyes, a hand opened the door further and then appeared Sun.

“Juliana!, this is Maria, I told her to come here to pick me up since I fell asleep at your place,” Sun widened her eyes giving me the cue to lie for her.

What the hell? ain’t this girl 20? Why does she still need to lie about her whereabouts? I thought. “Oh yeah, that’s fine,” I said as my instincts took over.

Sun laughed and said, “Maria, can you give me a second? I’ll be right down, I just remembered to tell Jules something.”

“Thank you does not even begin to express,” Sun said while holding my hands.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Sun opened her clutch and handed me a rectangular skinny red box with a white bow wrapped around the middle of it.

“This is for you. My dad’s birthday was 2 days ago, and people always send him a bunch of gifts. He lets my brothers and I each pick one of his gifts to take as our own,” she said while playfully rolling her eyes.

She continued, “anyway, it’s his way of showing fatherly love, I haven’t opened it yet but he always gets wonderful gifts, I want you to have it, it’s my way of thanking you for sharing your family with me yesterday and for this morning,” she winked at me.

As I untied the bow on the red box, my younger brother, Benjy, walked in my room, “I heard everything this morning, let me see!”

I took out what laid inside. It was a little black book, and what looked like two gift cards were taped on the front of the book. When I opened the black book, I saw the front page titled How to spend 20k. Under the title were bullet points, the first bullet point stated, a box of Milky Way candy jars… $23.35. It looked like this:

A box of Milky Way candy jars… $23.35

A 12 pack of toilet paper… $12.99

A tv set… $600

“Wait, do these cards have 20,000 dollars?, let me check the amount,” my brother said.

$20,000, why? What is this? I haven’t talked to her in a year and she gives me 20,000 for lying for her? My thoughts ran rampant.

“Finally, we haven’t been forgotten, God finally sees us!” my brother yelled out.

“Yo, there is $10,000 on each card,” my brother said while laughing hysterically, holding my laptop and the two cards.

$5,000, I thought. Just $5,000. I’ll use $5,000 from one of the gift cards to pay my dad’s bill installment that’s due today. I used the card, and I did it with ease.

I sat in my car in the parking lot of our condominium complex.

Brrzzzzzz brrzzzzz, my phone vibrated. An unknown number was calling.

“He..hello?” I answered calmly.

“Hello, that wasn’t yours to spend,” said an auto-tuned voice.

I clenched the steering wheel; I was on alert. I stayed silent, waiting for the voice to say more.

“What are you gonna do, you owe me,” the voice continued.

I gathered up every bit of courage I had, “what the hell are you talking about?” I asked defensively.

“Is this you Sun, are you messing around with me?” I asked.

“Sun took what wasn’t hers and handed it to you like a damn Christmas card,” said the voice.

“I’m hanging up,” I said

“I wouldn’t if I were you! That black book said nothing about using the money to pay daddy’s medical bills, you’re gonna have to pay that $5,000 back!” the voice exclaimed with an even more serious tone.

I closed my eyes and asked, “what do you want?”

“You can pay me back, by doing exactly what I ask you to do, in a little while I’ll send you a text message with instructions, follow them and I’ll change your life,” the voice then hung up.

Brzzzz! A text message popped up, it read:

Starting today, You’re gonna use the rest of the money to buy everything listed in the little black book, don’t do any outside purchases, I’ll know. Each time you make a purchase, I’ll send you the address to deliver it in person. keep each receipt. Wait for further instructions. -BLACK

The first delivery: Milky Way candy jars, was to an apartment complex.

B306, this is it, I thought.

I could hear the footsteps walking to the door. With each step, my heartbeat ran violently. The door was opened by a boy that looked 9 years old at most.

“Hi, um… this is for the head of the household,” I said nervously.

“Mama!” the boy yelled.

“Quoi?” a voice answered.

It was a woman. She looked at the box of candy jar and looked up at me in confusion.

“Um, BLACK sent it”, I said.

She sighed in relief and took it from me while signaling with her hand for me to come in.

“Please sit. You must be a new disciple,” she said

I smirked, not sure of what she meant.

“The day I quit working for Ronald Thomas Allen, I thought, money must be a powerful god, so much so that it gets away with injustice,” the woman said.

“Coffee or water?” she yelled from the kitchen

“Uh, Nah..ah, I'm good,” I responded.

Wait, Ronald Thomas Allen, does she mean, Sun’s dad? I thought.

“Uh, you worked for judge Allen?”

“Yes, I didn’t assist him in the office or anything, I tidied up around his house” she answered.

“Judge,” she scoffed, “that man don’t deserve that title,”

“He is the epitome of evil, I’m sure you know that, working for BLACK and all,” she continued, then smiled.

I forcibly smiled, I did not know what I had gotten myself into but I knew for sure that I couldn’t just blindly play BLACK’s “delivery boy” without paying attention to who I was delivering to.

I was on my 35th purchase done in 2 weeks. Ding! The text message read:

Gather all the receipts you have so far, be done by the end of this month. Tell Sun to invite you to the big masquerade party her dad and his friends are having next month. Bring all the receipts to the party with you. I’ll deliver you your mask and your fit.- BLACK

Sun’s dad was throwing a masquerade party at his house, and I had found my way in.

Ding! What is it now? I thought. The text message read:

Find Ronald alone, don’t disappoint me. Take out the receipts and tell him this….

I walked into the office that Sun told me about, the one where her dad often smoked during parties. I was shaking. I was beyond nervous. Ronald stood up from his chair “excuse me, can I help you?”

I would not introduce myself, I had to follow the instructions given to me. I took out the receipts, which I had rolled up in a rubber band. One by one I took out a receipt, slamming it on his desk. “What is all this?” he asked.

Tired of taking out the receipts one by one, I threw them, and they all flowed in the air and made their way to the ground. As Ronald picked up the receipts one by one, I began the speech that BLACK dictated to me.

“Marie Pierre, Rosa Rivera, Lili Etienne, Paul Victor, Layla Rodriguez…”

“Enough!” he interrupted me, “Who are these people?”

“They worked for you, undocumented immigrants, how did you spend 20,000 dollars on them huh?” I asked with fabricated confidence.

“I don’t know who you are but I'm giving you a chance to turn back now, I can tell you don’t know what you’re doing,” he said as if he was sure that I was being controlled by someone else.

Suddenly I heard my conscience tell me to get the hell out of here!

I turned around and made my way down the glorious stairs of the mansion. Everything and everyone seemed to slow down as I was leaving.

Crunch crunch! I could hear the rocks being crushed by the heels BLACK bought me as I rushed out into the front yard. BLACK had led me here, Black had brought me in the middle of a war that I was not prepared for. I took the heels off.

Ding ding! My phone was endlessly dinging with messages from BLACK. Suddenly the messages stopped.

I paused, catching my breath, then my phone rang. It was BLACK.

I answered and said angrily, “WHAT?!”

“Don’t you think you’re leaving too early?” BLACK asked.

I said nothing.

“You disappointed me,” BLACK said.

“I did what you asked!” I exclaimed while still keeping my voice at a reasonable level.

Sun appeared and shouted from the distance, “where are you going this early?”

“We’re not done”, said BLACK, then BLACK hung up the phone.

As Sun ran to me smiling, everything slowed down in my mind again. The bouncing of her hair while her eyes eagerly looked at me moved in slow motion. Her dress flowed everywhere. Was she innocent? I thought. Did she not know about this? BLACK and the black book?

I had entered Sun’s life at the wrong time, and what awaited me was just beginning.