Street Chic. Anthony Whyte

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СКАЧАТЬ teens. They felt they had to keep up with the latest in fashion and be current with all the new trends. It was this craving that Mimmy sought to fill, but always seemed to be coming up a little short.

      Neither sister tried hard in the classroom. They were average students who attended George Washington High School. Tall and athletically inclined, the sisters played sports and helped garnered many championship titles for the school. They excelled in basketball, baseball, and tracks for the school. In the Heights, the sisters were famous. Judging by the attendance in the church, the Osorio sisters were still revered and love.

      Sheryl Street felt pangs of guilt streaming through her body as Mimmy Osorio knelt down, made the sign of the cross and quietly prayed. She still felt the same urge to run away like when she first walked in, but Sheryl also felt glued to her seat. She bowed her head, wordlessly begging God for absolution.

      “There’s no friend we have like Jesus and only He can grant you forgiveness…”

      Sheryl looked up at the preacher with her mouth wide open. Suddenly her head hurt and she began to sweat profusely. Slowly, she got up and tiptoed to the exit. A series of nodding heads following her to the door.

      “That’s right! You better ease up outta here pig!”

      “Yeah, that’s it bitch, get to stepping!”

      Their nasty comments chased her. She walked out to tiny droplets of rain. By the time she reached her car, it was coming down in buckets. Sheryl hastily jumped inside the comfort of the rented car and sat shaking her head. Slipping the key in the ignition, the engine hummed, drowning her sobbing. She heard honking and looked up to see what the clamoring was about.

      Melanie Delgado, another childhood friend, had showed up with enough fanfare to stop any show. Cuban and connected to gangsters from all over the globe, Melanie was sitting in the black stretch. The dark tinted window came down. Melanie was screaming with a haunting greeting.

      “Had ya fair-share, cop-bitch? Ya can’t take it anymore, huh? No one wants ya ass around here anyhow. Ya know the way outta town bitch-cop…!”

      Sheryl Street stared at Melanie and a group of well dressed men. Without saying anything in response, she slipped her shades on. Sheryl gunned the powerful engine and took off with nowhere special to go. She knew she had to get away.

      Coming back to the city had proven a point. There was no further need to stay. But maybe there was one more thing she needed to do. She had wanted to talk to Mimmy. Her telephone calls had gone unanswered and she had never got a chance to say her piece. Now it didn’t seem likely to happen. Mimmy was too bitter. It was time to go, clear her head and try another time.

      She found herself going up the familiar steep hill. These were her old haunts. Sheryl guided the car through the neighborhood she knew all too well. She looked at Mimmy’s apartment building. It was where all the kids from the neighborhood used to congregate on the steps. Sheryl remembered the last time when they all gathered at the steps.

      “Yeah, here comes Orphan Annie,” Melanie teased.

      Sheryl’s cheek smart from the jibe, but she held herself in check. Instead she countered with a question about school.

      “I’m going to Florida for college. Where are you headed Melanie?”

      “If I’ve gotta live in Florida, it won’t be for no school, ya heard? After graduation I’m through with this school stuff. I’m gonna make me some money. It’ll be all about the money for me,” Melanie said.

      “Melanie’s right. School’s helped me enough already. I think I’ve learned how to count my money,” Candace smiled.

      “I agree with them. You’re wrong Orphan Annie,” Claire surmised. “But it’s good that you’re going to college in Florida. Maybe you might find a relative or someone for you.”

      That night, Sheryl had difficulty sleeping in her hotel room and couldn’t wait for the morning. When it came, she hurried through showering. After slipping into the same dark skirt outfit, Sheryl spent a lot of time at the make-up stand trying to cover the dark circles around her eyes. She wanted to face Mimmy one more time. Stopping at a café for breakfast, Sheryl couldn’t keep her mind off Mimmy. During her second cup of coffee, she read about the ordeal in a local daily newspaper.

       Mourners gathered outside a funeral home in order to get a glimpse of the detective whose bullets caused the deaths of her adopted sisters. “I’ve cut all ties to my former adopted daughter, Sheryl Street, before she killed my babies…’” Mimmy Osorio, the woman who raised Sheryl and her sisters Candace and Claire Osorio, said after learning that her daughters were killed in a fiery stand-off with police in South Florida. The girls, both twenty-three years old, were accused of a wave of shoplifting and were being sought by the NYPD for the murders of key witnesses involved in the case against them. Detective Shirley Street headed a team of investigators that included members of the NYPD larceny squad and detectives from the Dade County in Miami. For over a year authorities had been searching for the sisters who grew up in Washington Heights and were local high school basketball and volleyball stars. Somewhere along the line their lives took a whirl into the land of crime. The deaths of the two women have left questions. Detective Street has known the victims since she was eight years old. The victims were…

      Shaking her head, Sheryl couldn’t read anymore. She left the tearstained daily on the breakfast table. Sheryl put on her shades and headed to the parking lot. She turned the radio on and quickly changed the station from a newscast. The light, melodic jazz calmed her nerves and cleared the frown she wore.

      Sheryl gazed unexcitedly out the window, driving back across the George Washington and riding along 178^th Street. Approaching the old neighborhood, she eased her foot up off the gas pedal. Her mind raced to recollect all the memories that quickly fell back into place.

      Mimmy had tried to provide the best for all the girls, and was mostly out of the home. She worked as a nurse’s aide in a Jewish hospital in Staten Island. Mimmy used to travel back and forth from Staten Island to Manhattan to give her daughters the best. They were her only children and even though the marriage ended in disaster. Her husband and father of her girls, walked out with a younger woman. Mimmy worked hard to help the girls forget him. She went out of her way for the young Candace and Claire.

      They would get anything they wanted and Mimmy always obliged. A month after Sheryl was residing with them they wanted a new volleyball set for all their friends to play with at the park. The sisters were fourteen and hung out with older friends in front of the building. Mimmy clearly didn’t like their friends but she went out of her way to run to the store and get them the set.

      “I told you she…” Candace started, but Claire cut her off.

      “But Mimmy, you said you were gonna…”

      As soon as Claire started, Mimmy reached into her bag and pulled out a ball. The girls jumped and screamed, clearly excited by the sight of the volleyball and net. Jacque was a good friend and would be in the midst of everything, came running from next door.

      “Wha’ happened?”

      “Oh she got СКАЧАТЬ