Me’shelle had called, too, and she left her number. This made Travis smile for maybe the first time that day. As much as he wanted to call her right away, he thought it would be best to call Jackie first. He went to a pay phone and called Jackie. “I’ll call you back in ten minutes,” she said.
Jackie went to a pay phone and called Travis back. He explained to Jackie that he was out of town on business and would return in a day or two. “We’ll all get together and talk things though when I get back. In the meantime, try to relax. Everything is gonna be fine. But maintain all security protocols until further notice.”
“Okay, Tee. I’ll do that, but this is fucked up.”
“I know, Jackie, I know. How is Ronnie?’
“He is on fire,” Jackie replied. “But I’ll keep him in check until you get back.”
“Do that. And keep him away from Freeze,” Travis said and hung up the phone. Then he went back to the room and called Me’shelle. “Hello, Me’shelle. This is Travis. I hope it’s not too late to be calling you.”
“Well, actually it is, Travis, especially on a school night. But for you I’ll make an exception this one time. How are you?”
“I’m good,” he lied. “Out of town on business. I should be back in a day or two.”
“Really? Where are you?”
Travis paused. “In South Carolina, but I’ll end up in Miami.” He didn’t think it was necessary to tell Me’shelle where he was going or why. However, he did give some thought to the mountain of lies he was building.
“I’ve never been to Miami,” Me’shelle said.
“Well, if this wasn’t a school night, I’d invite you down, show you the town.”
“Can I have a rain check?”
“But of course. Any time. Any time you want to go anywhere, all you have to do is say so,” Travis boasted.
“So, you got it like that, huh?”
Travis looked over at the suitcase filled with money and smiled. “I do all right. I’m not a rich man or anything like that, but I can afford to do most of the things that I want to do.”
“It’s not like that for me. Don’t get me wrong; I love kids and I love teaching them. I get real satisfaction knowing I have a hand in shaping their futures, so it motivates me to do the best job I can. I just wish it paid more.”
“Maybe I’m just stupid like that, but I think you and all teachers have the most important job in the world. I think your job is much more important than some guy who calls himself a CEO, whose biggest decision is what time to tee off. I think you should get paid based on level of importance. But like I said, I’m just stupid like that.”
“No, I don’t think so. I think you got it right. But anyway, you’re not gonna have me up all night talkin’ my head off like you did last night. I’m going to say good night. Call me tomorrow, but please, make it a little earlier, okay?”
“Okay, Me’shelle. Maybe when I get back you’ll do me the honor of having dinner with me.”
“I would be happy to.”
“Good night, Me’shelle”
“Good night, Travis.”
Me’shelle drifted back to sleep thinking of traveling to new and different places. She had never been anywhere except Columbia to visit her grandmother during the summer. Those trips ended when her mother died. She had planned to go to Jamaica with her girlfriends one summer, but that was the year her father died and she just wasn’t feeling it. Since then, Me’shelle hadn’t left New York, not even across the bridge to New Jersey.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go anywhere or that she was afraid to fly or anything like that. She just never had the time. When she wasn’t teaching during summer break, Me’shelle would volunteer to work with children in one program or another. It was her way of giving back.
She also never had anyone who wanted to travel with her. During her years in a relationship with Trent, he was the one who never wanted to go anywhere. He would always ask, “Why do we need to leave New York when everything you could ever want to do is right here?”
She fell asleep with a smile on her face, thinking about how eager Travis seemed to travel with her.
Meanwhile, back in the Bronx, Jackie met Ronnie at Cynt’s. When she got there, Ronnie was sitting alone at the bar, not surrounded by dancers as he normally would be after a job.
Jackie stepped up to the bar and motioned for Sammy. “Henny straight up, and one for my friend here,” Jackie said. As Sammy went off to pour the drinks, Jackie turned to Ronnie. He had been there for hours and had already had his share of Hennessey. “I talked to Travis.”
“Where the fuck is he?” Ronnie asked.
“Somewhere in South Carolina.”
“What the fuck is he doing there?”
“Says he down there on business and he’ll back in a couple of days.”
“This nigga gone and we in some fucked up shit up here!” Ronnie said.
“You ain’t gotta get loud about it. I know the shit is fucked up.”
“We were on the fuckin’ news, Jackie. The fuckin’ news. How the fuck could he have missed some fuckin’ cameras in the fuckin’ parking lot, Jackie? You tell me that shit. Travis is slippin’! You hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear you. Your voice carries. Keep it down before you get us put out of here. These niggas don’t need to know our business.”
“Fuck that. Let them try to put my ass out this mutha fuckin’ place, as much money as I spend off in this bitch. That nigga is slippin’ and he gonna get us all fucked up.”
Jackie leaned close to Ronnie. “Let me ask you a question. You were in that lot twice. Did you see any damn cameras? I didn’t.”
“No, but that ain’t my fuckin’ job.”
“I went there while we were in the planning stages and I didn’t see anything.”
“Travis is supposed to see all that shit and plan for it.”
“He can’t see everything, Ronnie. That’s why he brought us in on the planning, so we could be on the lookout for shit like that too.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” Ronnie said. “Look, Jackie, Travis been actin’ real funny for the last couple of weeks. He missed that camera shit, and now he’s gone. What’s up with that?”
“You sayin’ he did that shit deliberately then bounced on us?”
“That’s how it looks to me.”
“That’s because you’re drunk, Ronnie. You’ve known Travis just as long as I have, so you know he’s not like that. We’ve gone too far and too fuckin’ long together,” Jackie said, grabbing Ronnie by his shirt, “for you to believe some shit like that. Come on. Let me take you home.” Jackie pulled Ronnie’s arm. He jerked it away.
“I can walk,” Ronnie said, stumbling off the barstool.
“Yeah, just not straight.” Jackie laughed.
“All I know is that nigga ain’t right, and if he ever come back, we gotta watch him.”
Even though he was tired, Travis still couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned all night, only drifting off to sleep for a while before waking up again to look at the clock. At 7:00 a.m., Travis was back in the car. He had breakfast at a nearby IHOP then headed for Miami.
As soon as he arrived in Dade County, he called Pete’s charter service. Unfortunately for Travis, the woman who answered the phone said that Pete wasn’t available and wouldn’t be until the next day. “Do you want to leave a message for Pete?” the woman asked.
“No.”
After getting the address and directions, Travis continued his ride south on I-95 and got off at Biscayne Boulevard. He checked in at the Riande Continental, the hotel where he usually stayed when he was in Miami. Once he was satisfied that his money was secure, he changed his clothes and walked across the street to the Bayside Marketplace.
He went to the Latin Grill, which featured Cuban style cuisine. He sat alone enjoying a zesty Palomilla steak while he contemplated his situation. Finally, Travis began to relax. He recognized that if he continued to make decisions in his current state of mind, he would make the kind of mistakes that would get him caught. He convinced himself that there really was no need for the panicked state he was in. With a clearer head, Travis realized that this trip was going to take longer than he thought it would. And why not spend a couple of days in the Caymans?