whatever that is, the fuck out of my shop! Estúpido de mierda drogadicto traer algo de mierda demonio africana en mi tienda. Ahora tengo que conseguir salvia y cagar a quemar lo que coño te metiste en mi tienda. A la mierda fuera de mi tienda!”
“Fuck you old man!” She screamed back slamming her fist down onto the glass counter.
“Get your bitch and that thing out of here Laurence,” Pops barked. “Before I pull Big Bertha out! Now!”
“Aight Pops! Aight! Chill!” He held up a hand grabbing the scepter off the counter. “Rose, let’s go …let’s go!”
With his other hand, he grabbed Rosemary by her scrawny neck dragging her out of the pawn shop cursing and screaming while tucking the relic back into his coat.
Outside she wrenched herself free of his grip. She was now full blown into the next stage of withdrawal as she kicked over a garbage can.
Desperation.
“What do we do now?” she began to frantically pace. “What the fuck are you gonna do now? How are we gonna score without any money?”
“I don’t know, but I think I need to take this back to my pops,” he huffed.
“What? No!” She screamed.
“You heard what he said!” Laurence pointed. “This shit ain’t worth anything! The metal ain’t gold and the gems …”
“He said he couldn’t tell what the gems are!” She pleaded. “It doesn’t mean that they aren’t gems!”
“If Pops ain’t touching this thing, no one is going to touch it!” He shot back at her. “I’m taking this back to where I found it. My father was right …whatever value this thing has is not monetary …I shouldn’t have taken it.”
She held her hands up stopping him as a thought popped into her brainpan.
“Brick Bear … let’s take it to Brick Bear.”
“What?” His eyes widened at the audacity of her new plan. “No! Hells to the fuck no!”
“Listen!” She grabbed the front of his coat. “If it’s worthless, your father won’t need it right? It’s supposed to be yours right? As long as it looks valuable, which it does, we can sell or trade it for some shit! We take it to him, and say we lifted it from some rich folks.”
“And how the hell did we happen on these supposed rich folks?” He asked with a contorted face of disbelief.
“I went to go do a john on the East side for Skeeter!” Her eyes widened as she pulled her plan together. “He won’t question it, or call Skeeter cuz they’re still beefing with one another! I grabbed it from a luggage trolley while we were exiting a hotel! You were with me for protection, so you can verify the story!”
“And if he decides to go to someone like Pops to check what this thing is made of?”
“He won’t if we spin it right!” She pleaded. “We can do this baby! We can do this! Please! I need my fix! You know what happens when I don’t get my fix! I got to even out! Help me even out!”
“No!” He roared in her face putting his foot down. “I’d rather suffer through a thousand withdrawals then hand this over to that asshole. I’m taking this back, and we’re finding another way. That’s final.”
She furiously released his coat backing away.
“Then I’ll just go turn some tricks,” she scowled.
He hurled daggers at her warning not to test his patience which was over the edge. She deflected them with daggers of her own patience lost.
“No you won’t,” he called her bluff. “You’d never go back to that.”
“What part of I need to even the fuck out do you not get?” She screamed at him. “I’d let a pack of mutts run a train on me with half of Brooklyn watching at this point!”
“You promised me …”
“And you promised to take care of me, which you currently ain’t!” she shot back at him. “So, either by that stick, or on my knees, I’m getting paid and lit tonight. You decide which one is easier for you to live