Unified Peak

Ja was naked all morning. His eyes broke free the crumbs of his night sleep.

Ja’s bed sat in the center of his small studio apartment. His mattress on the floor, a large piece of plywood acting as his bed frame. Near him sat a little black notebook. It was glowing as it had been the night before. All Ja could remember of the night before was the glow of the little black notebook. The book had emptied Ja.

Ja stayed in bed late. Thoughtlessly following the terrain of his popcorn ceiling. Eventually after hours of staring he slid slowly out of bed. The air inside of the apartment was warm. Summer in an apartment without air conditioning was unpleasant. Ja was unbothered by the heat.

BANG, BANG, BANG.

“LAPD open up!”

It was an eviction day. Ja knew this. The cops came through around this time. Cleared out the folks that were behind on rent. Eventually a sixth of the complex would leave. Most of them left willingly. For Ja and the many like Ja they did not come to the door. On other eviction days Ja would stand in the doorway naked. His beer belly pouring over his pelvis, his breasts resting on his stomach. When he heard the landlord fidget with the keys to unlock the door usually he liked to pose. Spread eagle, The Arnold, A Superman stance. The officers in the past swung open the door and there in his glory was Ja. An argument usually ensued, one between officers and Ja. They’d plead with Ja to dress and vacate the premises. Ja denied and denied until the officers threatened him with arrest. Today he was incapable of striking a pose. Today Ja was empty. So he laid in bed as the landlord’s key rattled in the locks. Half of his body still resting on the mattress, uncovered, bare for the world to see.

“Alright Ja let’s go!” stated the nasally accented voice of Alexi, his Slovakian landlord. Alexi led the way with three of LA’s finest behind him. One of the officers seemed familiar, perhaps a past evictor of Ja’s before. The two other officers were young and jumped at the sight of Ja nude on the floor.

“What the-” one of the stirplings spit out. He was only a year or two older than Ja.

“Nude I told you, this one’s always nude. Why you gotta do this every time man? Why can’t you just make it easy? Or if you’re gonna make it hard at least have the decency to cover your dick!” the familiar officer asked.

“It’s because you’ve never arrested him. He breaks in every week to my apartments and you do nothing! Send him to jail I tell you, and you never do!” Alexi seemed to have had enough of Ja’s antics. Ja continued to lie there, motionless, speechless, Ja’s head was empty.

“Alright go on and get dressed. Vacate the premises or else you’re going to jail.”

Ja didn’t reply.

“We aren’t playing your games today! Get up and get dressed or else you’re going to

County!”

Ja’s silence screamed. “Well what are you doing? Arrest him already!” Ja was sure Alexi had had enough of Ja’s antics. This day though was not one of Ja’s usual days of disobedience. Ja was intentionless this morning.

The officers yelled more until eventually sliding on black latex gloves and turning Ja to his back. They forced his flimsy arms behind him. Ja didn't resist. When he didn’t get up and the officers were forced to carry him down the staircase, handcuffed, Ja still didn’t resist. Ja didn’t tell his penis to start peeing but when they were carrying him to the patrol car, peeing began. Urine trickling from the loins of man to the polyester of police. When the officer dropped Ja face first onto the cement, Ja did not try to cushion his fall. He let his face slam onto the cement. Blood rushed out of his nostrils, painting the sidewalk a dark red. The officer turned Ja around, with the last droplets of urine leaving his urethra, and began punching Ja’s already bloodied face.

“Punk!” the young cop exclaimed, landing two blows. Ja didn’t wince, didn’t attempt to defend. Just took the blows, they were hard, heavy, strong. The other young officer wrestled his counterpart away.

“Dangit Jenkins, you broke his nose!” Ja’s old uniformed acquaintance said.

“Whatever we’ll write it up as resisting.” Jenkins replied. The officers in synchronisation looked around only to see tenants standing out on their apartment balconies watching a black cop beat a handcuffed black man.

“Get back in your apartments!” it was too late though. They had seen, their phones had seen. The world would soon see. Ja left a bloody silhouette of his face on the sidewalk, staining his mark forever.

-

The officers moved quickly,they put Ja into the patrol car laying him down across the plastic cushionless backseat. They did not attempt to stop the bleeding. The ichor was growing only stronger flowing across the patchy straggly long curls of Ja’s beard.

Jenkins went into his own cruiser while the other two white officers drove Ja. The younger of the two a man named Valmer seemed nervous. Constantly turning to check on Ja, Valmer was 23 maybe 24, Ja thought. He had a young brown mustache on his upper lip. Initially he seemed the more hardened of the two youthful cops, but now he was unraveled and scared.

“We’re screwed right? Absolutely screwed.” Valmar asked.

“Nah we should be fine. Jenkins is the one who’s gonna be in trouble. Probably put on suspension for a while. We’re fine though, you especially. You pulled him off right away.” the eldest officer, Ja’s old acquaintance, a man named Fischer stated.

“How do you know that?”

“Cause it’s LAPD and that’s a black homeless kid and he was getting beat up by a black cop. No one’s gonna care. It might barely go viral. The kid was peeing on him. The world’s gonna understand wanting to clock him. Now if it was you or me, shoot, then we might be in some trouble. How are you doing back there boy?”

Valmar turned around nervously. For the first time making eye contact with Ja’s yellow eyes. Valmar saw nothing in them, and in that he felt nothing inside of himself. Valmar wanted to speak to Ja, reach out to him. Show him that he was human and to acknowledge Ja was human. That their blood ran the same, even though Ja’s was outside and Valmar’s in. Valmar realized for the first time that the homeless kid was younger than him. A boy, 18, 19, maybe it was his beard that made him look older, maybe it was the blood, or maybe it was his skin. Valmar was going to let sympathy creep out of his mouth, but sympathy was already too far to grasp. He turned back facing forward, empty, but with many trapped words.

“Should we take him to the hospital?” Valmar asked.

“Nah he’ll be fine, they could probably stitch him up at County.”

“You sure?”

“Relax Valmar. He’ll be fine.”

Valmar took one last look into those empty eyes.

-

Annette was at home making her Chicken Parm for dinner, it was her fiance Brennan’s favorite. She felt like treating him to something special today. She waited eagerly at the kitchen window. Excited to see his car pull up out front of the house. She made sure to pick up his favorite beer and after maybe they could watch one of those comedies she hated but knew how much he loved. It was going to be a perfect night. Brennan’s car pulled up and Annette couldn’t help herself but smile watching her husband walk up in uniform. The door opened and in walked Brennan.

“Hi baby! How was work?” Annette greeted him with a kiss, “It was good. Yeah, Umm.”

Brennan was different. His eyes failed to keep contact, teetering their way to the ground. Seemingly studying the intricacies of the hardwood floor. Annette lifted Brennan’s face with her hands and kissed him gently on the lips. Brennan’s lips mashed against her attempted kiss. His eyes still focused on the floor.

“Did something happen today?”

“There was this kid, we were doing an eviction call with Jenkins, and Jenkins broke his nose. I don’t know? There was just something about the kid. He was, like, frozen. We put him into our car and the blood covered his face entirely. It was like red mud covering his whole entire face. And all I could see were his bright yellow eyes. His pupils were pitch black but around them bright yellow. He looked at me. It’s like he looked deep into me and I could see the things I did wrong, and the things my dad has done wrong, and it was like we were at some sort of comm-AAAAAAHHHHHH.”

Brennan’s jaw spread wide as he let out the wailing “AAAAHHHHH” his eyes rolled. He was unable to control his body.

“Brennan! Brennan! Oh my god!”

-

“AHHHHHH” went Ja, the sound of his jaw slowly breaking. Officers rushed into the holding area.

“We need a paramedic here immediately,” one officer said over a walkie talkie. The officers rushed into the holding cell. They both grabbed Ja’s shoulder in an attempt to lower him to his back but upon making contact the two officers, both flung backwards and the deep groan began raging from deep within them. It was an ethereal noise coming from deep in their stomachs. Ja’s body soon started rising and a soft yellow light came from his mouth. The other prisoners shielded their eyes from the light as it grew only brighter. Suddenly- BOOM- and the world grew quiet. The world was empty.

The day prior.

Ja was sitting on the edge of the corner. Drinking his forty. Leon would be coming around the corner soon. Leon and Ja would scalp some scrap metal. Take it to the recycling center. Make a quick dime. Go buy some more hooch and some good food. It was their daily thing. The LA sun sat high above the city. Roasting the world below. Roasting Ja who stood on the corner, cars rushing by, drinking his forty in his wife beater and red basketball shorts. Waiting, waiting, “You trying to make a buck kid?” a mousy voice from behind Ja squeaked. He turned around haphazardly only to see a small old white woman. Her hair was grey and large. Her clothes were pristine.

“Doing what?” Ja asked.

“Hold onto this book for me?”

“Why?”

“It gots important stuff in it for my son. The cops have been around his apartment and if they get their hands on it he’ll catch a case for some stuff in there.”

“How much will you give me for it?”

“40.”

“Alright but I want 20 now.”

“Alright then, now you have to meet me back here tomorrow and I’ll give you the other 20 alright?”

“Yeah ok.”

The woman pulled out of her pocket a large stacks of one hundred dollar bills.

“What lady!”

“Twenty thousand?” she said.

The woman extended her hand holding the money to Ja. Ja took a moment to himself, considering the gravity of this decision. What might be in this book? He said to himself. He took the money.

“Alright lady.”

“And don’t open the book ok Ja.”

“Alright then.”

“I mean it, Ja. Bad things will happen to you if you open that book. You won’t be able to stop them from coming. You’d be like a magnet to God’s wrath.”

“Yeah alright lady don’t worry I won’t open the book.”

The old woman walked away down the street and around the corner. Ja looked down at his riches planning, plotting, all the amazing things he might be able to do with it. But first he opened the book.