Читать книгу 1 Law 4 All - Billy Angel - Страница 15

Kitiona walked over to the pile. She glanced back at Freddy. He was walking to the other side of the store. She was not interested in sharing some of her secrets with him or anyone else for that matter.

She looked at the bed, trunk, dresser, table and three chairs. These had represented home for her for the last five months. Just when she was getting familiar with her second-hand furnishings, her current nightmare started.

Kitiona began rummaging through her drawers. She found the CD copies of her notes. The original, ongoing notes she was gathering about her family's death were filed in Google docs.

She found the cigar-shaped wooden box in the dresser's bottom drawer. In it she kept her silver 'missile' USB digital pen recorder. The recorder held first hand testimony from those who witnessed the fire and about the two guys that chased her into the jungle.

At times like this she was thankful she had a safety deposit box. Kitiona rented a box in the Wells Fargo Bank on California Street. It contained her passport, an extra credit card, her 9mm Beretta Px4 Strom, 4 extra clips of ammonium and about $3,000 cash. After this last incident, she decided in the future to keep the Beretta on her and stash the CDs and recorder in the safety deposit box.

She packed the CDs, wooden box and the recorder pen into her backpack. She was in a hurry to be on the move. She started walking away when she suddenly remembered the gold 'ball' pendent. This pendent symbolizes her family's closeness and community solidarity.

Gruesome as the idea was, she kept the pendent close to her. The pendent was Jared's brainstorm. Jared was Kitiona's classmate and best male friend in high school. He took over his father's jewelry business during their senior year.

Jared had wanted to go to college in Australia. But, his father's arthritis progressed so rapidly he felt obligated to take over the business, Kapa's Jewelry. He had to help support the rest of the family, all five younger brothers and sisters.

Jared worked with his father since he was eight years old. At first, he would clean up the store. Then he became interested in the wax carvings that were casted into gold or silver objects. He asked his father if the wax could be carved into anything. His father wisely said. "Whatever you can imagine, you can carve into wax.”

From then on Jared became a carving maniac. He would carve little horses, flowers and mini spearheads. On and on his imagination shaped and carved.

His father kept an eye on his work. While critical at first, he recognized his son's talent. One day Kapa told his son that he was going to use one of his flowers to make a ring. Jared was pleased but felt anxious. He knew his father's high standards.

After casting and polishing the flower ring, Kapa showed the ring to Jared. Jared saw the proud look on his father's face and knew he had done good.

Jared was 11 years old and his father decided to start turning his son's flowers into rings and pendants. The flowers were so detailed and Kapa's refining techniques were so precise, that Kapa's Jewelry store became a tourist attraction.

Kapa began making custom jewelry products for visitors from all over the world. Jared even started to convert people's rough sketches into detailed wax patterns. Then his father would cast them into custom jewelry.

Jared knew Kitiona's heartache after the fire. Kitiona was alone. Her senior year in high school was supposed to be filled with happy family and community memories. Instead, it turned into a foggy series of events that when understood would eventually fuel Kitiona's desire for revenge.

Jared knew that Kitiona's parents both had gold on several of their front teeth. He told her to have the undertaker pull those gold teeth out and give them to him. He said he would make something in their memory. Kitiona was so unsettled that she blindly followed her close friend's instructions.

Jared melted the gold and created a symbol of oneness for Kitiona. Not only did it symbolize the oneness of her family but also the solidarity of her Samoan community. He fashioned a one-half inch gold ball with intricate Samoan symbols. Many of the same symbols were tattooed on Kitiona's back. He centered a chain-hole through the middle of the emblematic ball.

Kitiona was not sure what to think of Jared's creation. But, she knew it was shaped with loving hands and heart. The older she got the more she wore her solidarity ball.

She found the ball pendant in her underwear drawer. She saw the underwear and thought about taking some extra clothes with her, too. She threw whatever she could into her backpack.

She turned and nodded to Freddy as she walked towards the front door. She paused for a moment to look back at what remained of her most recent home. Then she stepped through the door out into the street.

As she approached her Honda Shadow, she glanced up and down the street. Checking the streets for bad guys was becoming a habit. The heavy feeling of the 9mm Beretta in her backpack was something new. She mounted her motorcycle centering the heavy backpack on the cycle's back seat. Comfortably balanced, she cursed away heading towards city center.