On shaky ground,
you get shook.
— Foke
All I wanted to do was get out of the mark's house. The now-dead mark's house. But I barely made it out the door before I collided with a mountain of a man who was there, waiting for me. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight.
"It's aight, Hose. It's OK. It's over."
"Foke?"
"Wasn't s'posed to go down like that. But what's done is done. Yo' safe. It's aight."
As we stood on the mark's front porch, a deep voice called out from inside the house.
"POWER."
"Yo, wassup with the power, Hose?" Foke said. "You disable it?"
"I... I... I did."
"Where da box?"
"It's near the kitchen."
"Hey, Nono! She flipped the breakers! Look by the kitchen, yo!"
Then Foke's voice got softer, and he asked, "You find whatcha came fo'? Or you needa go back in?"
"I... I got it."
"Aight. You gotta go now. Nono gon' do his thing. Man's an artist, an' he gotta do it his way. You don't wanna be here. Feel me? But, yo, listen. Boogie don't work for me no more. Well, Boogie don't do nothin' no more. He left my crew a couple weeks back. He went freelancin', but we had eyes on him. Boog was comin' for you to send a message. Message received. He out."
Then the door closed, behind me, followed by the sound of... I don't know what. A grinder? It was too low, and too garbled to be a leaf blower, but it was bad.
"Gotta go," Foke said. "You don't wanna be here. Go on home. Get yo' drink on. Relax. Nothin' changes tween you an' me. We good. Take some time to get yo' head straight."
"I'll do that, sir."
"Hose, look at me. This ain't on you. You got that? Boogie fucked up."
Foke said Boogie was on shaky ground, and when you're on shaky ground, you get shook. But I was the one who felt shook.
I felt like I'd reached my breaking point, but I wasn't broken. Not quite.
So that's... something.
Foke was right though, I needed to get my head straight.
I got in my car. I took a deep breath and turned my key, but as the engine started, I didn't know what to do next. I didn't know where to go. I knew I couldn't go home. I couldn't let Claire see me like this. Shaken.
So I drove. Away. And then I drove some more.
I didn't know where I was going.
I just needed to go.