Neighborhood Watches

One thing about new builds, their floors don’t creak like older homes, so when Malik popped up and saw Jasmine knocked out on the sectional, he got up, and it seemed like he floated to the landing at the top of the stairs. He stood there for only a brief moment to collect his thoughts. Malik was trying to recall everything that his boy, Rondell, told him when he was brought here to meet Andre Watts. Rondell, with impeccable accuracy for someone who had just suffered a concussion, told his boys the story of Sticks’ safe house. So, when Malik walked slightly down the hallway to a pair of French doors, he stopped and crouched slightly to peek in through the tiny window. He saw the obnoxiously large desk and slightly chuckled to himself. He put the palm of his hand under the old-fashioned crystal knob and lifted it upward ever so slightly. Then he gently bumped the doors open with his hip. Anticipating some residual creeks, Malik held his breath as the doors silently opened. He floated into Sticks’ lair and made a beeline behind the large desk and slid open the tray from underneath the desk. He then lifted all of the keyrings and placed them on the desk pad so the metal rings wouldn’t hit the mahogany and echo throughout the house. However, when he moved the desk pad it rubbed against a button that triggered an opening from underneath him. Malik felt the click. To be completely honest, it was relief to him because he didn’t have a plan. He just knew for his own safety and for his Moms, little sister, and shit even Dennis at this point, he needed to be gone before Sticks arrived.

He didn’t believe the story about a family emergency. Not one bit. That was Jasmine’s biggest slip up. No one back home has seen neither hide nor hair of the Martins nor the Watts family since the mistrial. So unless Jasmine was talkin about her own family which hadn’t factored into any conversation up to that point, Malik ascertained the family who was about to have the emergency was his.

That’s when everything clicked. So, when Malik felt the literal click beneath his onyx black ankle socks, he smiled, dropped to his knees and began caressing the floor with his fingertips.

He couldn’t help but thinking that this whole experience would be some super cool, action movie shit if it wasn’t for the fact his actual life was on the line. He felt for the bevel and then he wondered how he knew what to look and feel for. He didn’t. it was instinct. He whispered a thank you to whatever entity was looking out for him and that’s when the panel moved. Malik quietly pushed it aside and reached into it. He was surprised at the number of small gym bags that were actually under there. He knew he didn’t need them all. Malik, at the speed of light, began to unzip the bags while peeking in each one. Most of them were full of cash, and Malik just unconsciously tossed them to the side until he found a bag with some gift cards. That was because he was raised right and there was no need to rob the man who was probably headed there to bury him under the pool he never got a chance to swim in.

After putting the panel back, Malik grabbed the go bags and a pistol he found in a cheap plastic container along with some bullets, tucked them under his arm and tip toed out of the office, down the stairs, through the kitchen to the patio where he left his sneakers, and because he was raised right, Malik locked the door behind him on the way out.