You Don't Know Me

Just then Ki walks in wearing a baseball cap pulled down low over her eyes and one of them white masks over her face. For a second I almost laugh out loud as if she is just pissing about. Then I look again and see the rest of her and immediately I start seeing all kinds of colours, not just red.

‘No fucking way,’ I say. ‘No you ain’t doing it.’

She pulls her mask down. ‘You don’t know what I have done. You do not tell me what I can do. I am doing this.’ Then in a different voice she adds, ‘Do you even have a choice?’

I look at Curt hoping that he’s going to say something, but he has this look like, she has just done the only obvious thing there was to do.

‘Come on man, tell her,’ I say.

‘She’s right bruv,’ he says and puts his palms in the air.

‘Well at least stop fucking looking at her, dude,’ I say and throw her an apron.

‘I still haven’t agreed to this Ki. Put the fucking apron on please while I think.’

‘There’s nothing to think about,’ she says and right then there’s a knock on the door.

‘Fuck he’s here,’ I say and dart into the back room and get flat behind the door. I touch the Baikal to make sure it’s still there and then I look around for something to put in my hand. I find the metal bar bit of a dumb-bell in amongst the wreckage in the room and weigh it in my hand. It feels solid, but too heavy maybe.

My heart starts doing its thing. Bang bang bang. I wait for a minute and then hear the front door opening. Fuck this shit is too quick. Then I hear Curt’s voice. Then Ki’s. That is the strangest part. Ki should have her mask on, bent over the table. She should not be saying anything. She should be playing the role of a beaten-into-submission trap girl, not chatting up the punters. I start worrying for real now. I should have pulled her in here with me. What was I thinking?

I steal a look through the crack of the door but can’t really see anything. Curt’s massive body keeps getting in the way to block the view. Just then a voice is calling out and steps towards my door. The bar is clenched hard in my fist. I can feel the blood leaving my hand and the fingers throbbing, ready. Curt should be coming into my room first. Then Jamil. I need to hit the second head I see. Just then I see it. There is Curt’s head leaning into my room, the light from outside making a stripe of colour. Something is wrong. He is calling my name. He shouldn’t be doing that. Nobody is supposed to know that I am here, hiding in this room. With a fucking gun in my pocket. Am I being set up?

‘Fuck man! False alarm. False alarm. Put that fucking thing down man.’

‘Shit,’ I say and start deep breathing. It takes me a while to catch my breath again. Finally I say, ‘Who the fuck was it?’

‘A Blessing.’

Break: 15:40

20

15:45

So, yeah, it was Bless. At the door. Man I was furious. My sister? What the hell was he doing bringing my sister into this? It was bad enough that Ki was here and now her? Shit, we had like two minutes and we had no fucking way to get rid of her. I couldn’t leave her here. And I couldn’t send her back out in case she bumped into them coming in.

‘Bro. What the fuck we going to do with her?’ I say pulling Curt to one side as I step out of the bedroom and into the main room.

Curt says nothing but points his chin behind me to where Bless is standing. She is already undressed and has a mask on. I can’t even look at her. This is fucked up. How has this happened? Shit. I look at the floor when I speak to her.

‘Bless. Bless. What the –?’

I am proper vexed about seeing my sister there. My mind is going round in circles. I’m angry and I’m scared you get me. I look over at Ki at that time to see if she’s going to step up for me.

‘It’s okay,’ she says. ‘She’s fine. I will look after her.’

‘Ki what the fuck? Bless? Curt man, what the fuck we supposed to do with these two now?’

‘Bro do we have a choice? Boy’s going to be here in like two minutes.’

And that was that. There was really no choice. I couldn’t have them in the room where I was going to jack Jamil. There was barely enough room in there for me with all the crap in that room. And besides it was the last place I wanted either of them to be. In a room with a shooter. And a shotter.

‘Listen, Ki, promise me, as soon as he is in that back room, you throw your coats on and you leave. Straight away. No waiting, no watching, no nothing. Just please get the fuck out, both of you. Please.’

I am almost crying now and I don’t know whether it’s the tension of waiting to smash someone over the head or the worry of what might happen to the girls. Then the knock comes for real.

Curt is supposed to let them in. Jamil and his mans Shilo and Binks would want to have a quick check of the room, we knew that. They’ll check Curt for weapons, Curt will check Jamil. The two bodyguards will then leave. Curt will then come into the back room. Jamil then follows. I bang Jamil on the head. We take the money. Job done.