CHAPTER FIVE
1999- The Set-Up II
Two-and-a-half hours later, I heard Mundo outside my window, calling my name.
“Eula!”
I looked down and saw Mundo standing on the sidewalk with 3 other guys.
He smiled up at me and said, “Hey, I brought my boys.”
I threw down the keys. It would’ve been nice to live in a building with an actual, working buzzer system but sometimes you gotta work with what you got.
As soon as I heard them lumbering up to my top floor apartment, I threw the door open, and gave Mundo a huge hug. The second our bodies connected I felt this insane surge of energy pass between us. I pulled back for a beat and looked up at him. Doe was so fine I wasn’t even sure I’d have a chance with him. But by the way he was smiling down at me, I think he felt the connection as well. I filed the feeling away in my memory to examine later on.
The moment passed and I broke off the hug. Then, with an airline hostess smile, I ushered everyone into my crib. After we were settled, I dapped up his boys who Mundo introduced as Biz, Cabrón and Luciano. Biz was short, chunky and goofy looking like the rapper Biz Markie, hence the nickname. Cabrón was a tall, slick talking Dominican from the border of Williamsburg and the Stuy. Luciano was Biz’s baby mother’s sister’s son, about 19 years old and obviously eager to get a leg up in the game. Biz was Mundo’s second in command, ‘Brón was his driver as well as the crew’s main advance man, their ear to the street, and it meant a lot that he brought them with him this first time to my little crib.
The second they crossed my threshold I was immediately included in the business at hand. I lit some Kush incense and put some music on. Luciano dug deep into the bottom of his teal blue North Face backpack and pulled out a pound of Saran Wrapped hydro and a smaller amount of heroin. Time to get to bagging. We stood around my breakfast bar, cramming buds into twenty-bags and funneling the dope into baggies. Low-End Theory was playing softly in the background.
I thought it was sweet that they’d want to start me out on an easy task, but it was quite clear that I didn’t really know the scope of Mundo’s operations. I had a feeling it was far more far-reaching than what I’d assumed, back when I was in Connecticut- but I was never one to ask questions.
Before they headed out, Luciano pressed a couple of baggies into my hand, and gave me a Kool-Aid smile.
I was in.
