Tori didn't take her eyes off the body. The dead shouldn't be seen like this. Don't touch the blade, she told herself. She could walk out and leave him there but no amount of consciousness would allow that. Mr. Ingram wasn't a hard man. He was around when they first got kicked out.
He was a like father. Tori looked around the back room. She had to around the body. As she went past Mr. Ingram, she saw what death looked like in the eyes. "I'm sorry..."
There was a white sheet in the back sitting on a stack of brown boxes. She thought it to be a blanket but it turned out to be carpet. Sometimes Mr. Ingram kept a carpet to put in front of the door when it was raining. She looked under it; just more carpet. To go to the right of the room, moved a bucket with a hammer, and drill inside. Tori kept shuffling things until she found a dirty blanket with paint. It turned out to be an old Halloween decoration.
It wasn't Halloween. And this wasn't a prank. She almost wanted to check his pulse just to play the imagination. But that wouldn't do any good.
The man was just laid out with blood coming out of his stomach. Who could have done this? This was the time to make decisions and find answers. Tori went by Mr. Ingram again, his eyes were open. Mouth dripping red.
Tori started considering what could he had done? Nothing. Canada had bad places but she knew Nova Scotia as boring. They lived near the harbor and Tori didn't know much about that. She knew Brampton which was mostly considered Indian territory. And Indian meals weren't bad. Vijay's father owned a small Indian joint. She smiled a bit thinking about Samosas, Chicken Masala, and Butter Chicken.
She recalled the time when she and Cece were eight. Davea kicked them out on thanksgiving. They had thanksgiving over Vijay's house. It wasn't a normal holiday for India and to quote Vijay, he wasn't a murderer. "You always celebrate thanksgiving but you don't know the context." At the time, Tori didn't think he knew anything about American standards or Canada. "I might as well be Native. Y'all treat me like a terrorist. Despite coming into my country. So, a nigga can't be home without the unknown showing up and claiming it's their house with no proof they own it."
Cedrica hung around Vijay more than her. She didn't want to go to Brampton. Vijay would probably make her sit outside again. She understood it was her fault the first time. She didn't define herself as racist. She just didn't like him. Cece told her it was ignorant to judge without no facts. But if she put thought into the situation.
They had no choice but to stay with Vijay in the end. Or at least Cece had a place to stay. She didn't understand it. Tori saw images flash across her eyes, an apartment with the door open and her walking out. She yelled inside, "I don't give a fuck!" Vijay was tall, an extra deep golden brown. She recognized his skinny frame with lean muscle. Tori rubbed her eyes, the image before her cut in half but she saw the same thing on repeat.
Torielle bore over her shoulder. He's dead, she told herself. As she left the room, she used the broom by the exit to turn off the light.
"Tori!" her sister called from outside. "What are you still doing in there?"
Tori didn't know herself. She shut the door and rounded the counter towards the exit. Tori met Cece outside the business with Moco in her arms. Her face stoic, she blinked to fix her eyes in the sun. Tori opened her palm to find sprinkles of rain falling above. "Damn, it rained." How ironic. "There's nothing we can do here." Cece covered her head from the droplets. "Brampton is miles away... we got to catch a bus or something."
Cece thought of the most outrageous plan. If she voiced it, her sister would probably explode. Cedrica bit her tongue, "Let's go see Calvin." And the prediction happened. Tori's mouth slacked Cece assumed it would fall off. "Fuck no!" Tori shouted. "Have you lost your mind. I'm not going over Calvin's house."
"At least we know him." It started to rain harder, Tori gazed at the above and witnessed a strike across the clouds. "Let's go over there!" Cece insisted. "He lives near the gas station."
"You make it sound so easy... we don't have bikes."
"Whatever, I'm not staying near a grave and soaking in the rain."
___________
The girls started jogging up the street. Cece found a new paper on the ground and covered her hair. It didn't protect a lot as her hair was frizzy and damp already. Tori didn't bother, as she said on the way to Calvin's house, it didn't matter if she was wet or dry cause life was gonna find a way to fuck it up.
They told themselves never go down Pentland View. Calvin Daniel could be described as a normal person that enjoyed chaos. The last thing Cece remembered about Calvin, about a month ago he was sent to Halifax Regional Police Headquarters. She didn't know what for. How the meant Calvin had to do with being kicked out.
Calvin was robbing Mr. Ingram. She immediately disconnected the two. Calvin was a mystery. He wasn't really the type to kill but annoying. He held Mr. Ingram at gunpoint, he bought chips, two Debbie cakes, three bags of M&Ms, and a drink from the soda machine. Mr. Ingram told the girls to hide and they did. What Calvin did was unexpected. Mr. Ingram gave him money and he took the chips and gave it to Tori. He gave Cece a bag of M&Ms and twenty dollars. The most confusing robbery of all time.
Not to mention he was a complete fucking stalker. But if he wasn't a stalker, the girls would be a part of sex trafficking by now. It was him that said don't go down Pentland View. Calvin warned that a man on the street liked talking to children in gibberish. At first, they didn't understand what that meant until they heard and saw the man.
He pushed a shopping cart on the street. The shopping cart usually had nothing in it. Two days after a boy who lived on Pentland View went missing. The boy's jacket showed up in the cart. His name was Pariot, no last name given. A man standing six feet two with hazy light brown eyes. Big lips with a clothespin hanging off the bottom of his lip and paper clips in his tangled dreads.
What Calvin meant by gibberish, Pariot spoke in a way that sounded English but spit flew out his mouth when he said certain things. Pariot visited a house on Pentland frequently. A home with blue planes and a flat roof. Mud thrown at the sides of the house and a set of rose bushes next to the steps.
Cece hoped they wouldn't cross his path. Tori kept her eyes squinted trying to keep up with her sister in the rain. Cece hovered the newspaper over her head and held Moco at the same time. she started slowing down as they came to the house. She yelled at the front door, "Calvin!"
Tori panted, resting on her knees as the rainfall drenched her. "He better be home." threatened Tori. Cece made her up up the steps and knocked furiously on the door, "Calvin!"
Tori hugged herself as the wind picked up, brushing her elbow. Calvin revealed himself with a joint of marijuana between his lips, no shirt and pants halfway across his ass. "She kicked us out again..." pleaded Cece. "That's a dog." he gestured to Moco in her arms. "He has a cord around his neck; he can't breathe." "Ok," he took the dog out of her arms. as Cece was going to step inside the warm abode. Calvin shut the door. "What the fuck!"
Torielle raced up the steps and kicked the door. "You fuck ass nigga!" Cece and Tori beat the wooden door until Calvin came outside again, "I AM FUCKING." he spat. "Don't no kids belong in the house. I got my dick wet, I'm fucking!"
"Calvin, it's raining!" Tori hollered. "You finna leave two little girls outside?"
Calvin licked his lips turning his head to the frame of the door. "I hate to say this," he wiped his lips. "Y'all got breast." the girl's stood stunned. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm leaving two nosey ass hoes outside."
"Nigga fuck you." spluttered Tori. "You ain't shit!"
"Fine. My girl think I'm the shit." he cocked his neck to the side. "Plus, I let you in my crib, my food finna come up MIA."
"Ooo, we hate you. Give us back Moco!"
Calvin took a drag from the weed in his hands. "I got to get the collar off." Tori contorted her lips, that didn't seem accurate. "He has a damn electric cord around his neck! He can't breathe!"
"I said imma take it the fuck off!" he stretched his neck out the door. "Damn, why my house."
"We thought we would go to Brampton--"
"Hold on," Calvin pointed a finger and shut the door again quietly. A few seconds later, the door spread, and Calvin pushed out a high bicycle. "Now, like I said. Imma take the collar off. Y'all come back then."
"How you gon let us know. He's our dog!" Cece argued. Tori pulled the bike out the doorway and set it on the sidewalk. She hoped on the bike cursing Calvin out. "Wait a minute." he closed the door, leaving it slightly ajar. He returned with the weed in his mouth and two phones in his hands. "I don't know what the fuck going on." he mumbled, "But this ain't y'all path." He handed over the cell phones to Cece. "I got the numbers in my phone. I'll call you."
"Do they work?" voiced Tori. "Ya daddy said they did. What else he say--oh, whatever happens happens. AND THEN HE SHOT ME IN MY FUCKING LEG!"
"Our daddy?" the girls looked at each other confused. Calvin took the weed out his mouth. "I'm not fucking with y'all. He said go back to ya mama house. That nigga shot me and then glowed like a pokemon. I don't know where the bullet went, I don't have the scar. All I know is I wanna live. Leave!"