Read Online Latter Rain by Vanessa Miller - Free Book Online Page B

money.”
    It had to be her. Not many people named their children Cynda, rather than plain ol’ Cindy. He only knew one woman with that name. The woman he had wronged. He took off running toward the breezeway where the voices were coming from.
    When he reached his destination, Cynda was clutching her poison, screaming at the big bellied man who’d given it to her. “I already paid you.”
    â€œTrick, please. What you put out wasn’t worth half the yank I gave you.”
    Standing there, watching Cynda clutch a baggy full of crack, sent Isaac’s mind reeling back in time. Years ago, he had watched her snort cocaine with an old friend. That same so-called friend was now Cynda’s pimp. He remembered telling Spoony to give him fifty cents, and he could have Cynda. Isaac hung his head. His memories weren’t sweet. They were the kind of thing that young children woke up screaming and running to their mommy’s room to get away from. But how could he get away from himself? From yesterday?
    Years of smoking dope and turning tricks had taken a bit of a toll on Cynda. She was still beautiful. But she now had a few splotches on her face. He’d never seen a woman as flawless as the one before him had once been. It took crack to put a pimple on her cheeks.
    Defiantly, Cynda told her pusher, “You got what you wanted. Now, get out of my way before I stick this in your throat.” She brandished a rusty box cutter and her enemy backed off.
    â€œYou’re crazy, you know that? Don’t come around here no more.” He backed into Isaac as he left the breezeway.
    â€œCynda,” Isaac almost whispered her name. He was ashamed of the manner in which he’d found her.
    She turned, glazed eyes in Isaac’s direction. Silence held them for a brief span of time. “What do you want?” she asked while shoving the baggy in the pocket of her mini, mini skirt.
    Isaac walked toward her. “Cynda, you don’t want to live like this. I’d like to help you.”
    Laughing in his face, Cynda closed her knife and put it in her jeans jacket.
    Her laughter wasn’t the ha-ha funny kind. It was mean and sinister. Isaac couldn’t blame her. He even understood the hatred he saw in her dark eyes.
    â€œDo you need anything? What can I do for you?” Isaac asked.
    Her hands were on her hips as she posed seductively for him. “That’s usually my line.”
    â€œLook, Cynda. I was horrible to you. I know that. I just want to help you out of the mess you’ve gotten yourself into.”
    She harrumphed. “Oh, I had help getting myself into this mess .”
    He opened his mouth, then closed it. What could he say? He had sold her to the devil.
    As if she knew where his thoughts had gone, she told him, “I’ve come up in the world, Isaac. I get up to a thousand a night for my services.”
    He wanted to ask why she was in the breezeway giving her stuff way if she was so high priced. But he knew—that monkey on her back.
    She strutted over to him and smiled wickedly. “A far cry from fifty cents wouldn’t you say?”
    He hung his head, then lifted it and stared into Cynda’s hateful eyes. He hoped the remorse he felt showed on his face. “I’m sorry about that.”
    She tilted her head back and hocked up some spit.
    Isaac wiped his face with his shirtsleeve as Cynda took off running out of the breezeway and down the street.
    He wanted to run after her. Help her to see that he truly wanted to help. Somebody needed to knock some sense in her head. Okay, one of those knocks would be for the spit she flung in his face, but the rest would be for her own good.
    He turned and looked at his father’s house and reminded himself that he had bigger fish to fry. He needed to deal with his own issues.
    Strutting back to the dilapidated house with determination and a twinge of unchecked anger, Isaac told himself that Nina was wrong