Page 76 of Dozer

Shag had passed every test with flying colors. Going on patrol with me into a part of town where it was likely I’d have to deal with a problem meant Brain figured we were really close to voting him in, and I agreed.

“You know our territory,” I told him as we walked. “We have it divided up into sections. Think of a tic-tac-toe grid. The top, left to right, is One-B, One-C, and One-D. But our territory isn’t a perfect square, so, the second row is four squares across, with one jutting out to the left, and that’s Two-A, which means Two-B comes right below.” I glanced at him, saw him watching our surroundings, and approved. “It’ll make more sense when you can see it on the map, and you don’t see that unless you’re wearing a patch, but we’re headed to the edge of our territory. Peaches took over the Playas three weeks ago, and so far, it’s been quiet, but we expect him to test us sooner rather than later.”

“What are the parameters, if they encroach?”

“Beat the fuck out of them, toss any drugs into the storm drains, take their cash, send them on their way. Don’t break their legs because they need to walk away. No head injuries that might kill them, but it’s fine to whale on their face so long as you remember they’re human.”

“Do I keep my hands banged up, or do Ichangethem so there’s no proof of the fight, later?”

“Depends. If we’re gonna need to meet with management about the incursion, best we’re still sportin’ the evidence of the fight. If we fuck up and hurt someone worse than we intended, we almost always get rid of anything incriminating. You’ll have us to tell you what to do, for now, and by the time you’re out on your own, you’ll know how to figure out the best choice.”

Three minutes later, we rounded a corner and saw a drug deal going down on our side of the street. Technically, the streetitself is supposed to be a buffer, but they were six inches from the sidewalk, and no way was I letting this pass with just a warning.

“You take the Playa, I’ll handle the buyer,” I told Shaggy, and then stepped forward and said, “Too close, motherfuckers.”

Shaggy took the dude wearing Playa colors down with a single punch, and he pulled medical gloves from his pocket before he grabbed the bag in the asshole’s hand and poured the contents in the grass. There weren’t any storm drains close, so that would have to do.

I grabbed the buyer by the back of the neck and held him so he couldn’t try to hit me, and handed his wallet to Shaggy. “Grab his cash out of this and return the wallet to him.” I shook the asshole a little. “Got any more cash on you?”

“No, man!”

A lie. I squeezed the back of his neck enough it hurt, and said, “Where is it?”

“Inside jacket pocket!”

I nodded to Shaggy, who opened the asshole’s jacket, unzipped the pocket, and pulled three twenties out.

“Go, and make sure you tell all your friends it isn’t healthy to buy your drugs on Rolling Thunder’s territory.”

Dude was jonesin’ for a fix and we’d taken the last of his cash from him. No need to add insult to injury and give him a beatdown.

I kicked the man on the ground a few times, and another Playa showed up on their side of the street.

“Come get your man,” I told him. “Tell Peaches he needs to give ya’ll a refresher course in territory lines.”

I recognized the asshole but didn’t know his name. It was probably time for Brain to give us all a refresher in the known Playas.

We did a two-hour patrol, and thankfully, the rest of our time we got to be good Samaritans. We helped a harried mom carrygroceries onto her front porch, since I had the feeling taking them all the way into her kitchen would’ve made her nervous, and I checked in on a few elderly people sitting on their front porch. One had a jar she hadn’t been able to open, and I went inside with her and opened it, along with another she was going to want opened the following day, and she thanked me and told me what a nice young man I am. Another told me her friend had told her she needed new tires, and I looked at her car and saw she was desperately in need of them. Her husband had been dead a few years, and it was likely she hadn’t done anything to the car since he’d died.

“The next day you don’t have plans, drive it to our shop. I know it’s for bikes and classic cars, but we’ll take care of you. Ask for Bubbles or Bash, and tell them Dozer told you to bring your car to them. They can change your oil and see what other maintenance needs to be taken care of, and put new tires on, too.”

I texted Bubbles, Bash, and Brain as we walked away and explained the situation.

“What if she can’t afford the tires and oil change?” Shaggy asked.

“Brain will look into her finances. If she can’t afford it, whoever works on her car will make something up about having the tires on hand because someone ordered them and never got them put on, and we’ll tell her she gets a discount on the oil change, plus it was on sale right now, and we’ll give her a number she can handle.”

“Why?”

“Because we can, but also because having the goodwill of our neighbors has helped us more times than I can count. In Atlanta, during a gunfight, a young teen I’d helped when he was a kid came out with his gun and stood beside us and fought. He’s a patched member in Atlanta now. Also, you’d be surprised whatyou can learn when you stop and talk to the old people on their porches. They don’t miss much, and they know the score. It don’t cost anything to be nice, and the benefits can be huge, down the road.”

He was quiet. Thoughtful. I gave him about five minutes of silence before I asked, “Any misgivings about oathing in, if it comes to it? Any questions? I can’t promise answers, but I’ll do my best to give them to you without breaking any rules.”

“No misgivings. None whatsoever, and if there’s a way for me to prove myself…” he shrugged. “Rumor has it, you kill someone to protect the club, or do something else really big, you can get patched in early.”

“But if you kill someone unnecessarily, it might keep us from voting you in at all. We aren’t looking for hotheads, and so far, you’ve proven yourself levelheaded.”

“I’ve worked everywhere except the hotel.”

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