Read Bingo's Run for Free Online Page B

his feet; she was his floor mat—an ugly rug of death. But Gold Bikini, in her death, was beautiful. Her eyes were only half closed. As I looked at her, I felt cold, like in a windblast—as if her life had blown over me.
    All three were dead. I felt nothing for them. The siren sounded closer. My legs begged, “Bingo, run.”
    I ran back to the bedroom. I snatched the Hareef Food Supplies bag, which was heavy from the eight blocks. I pushed Wolf’s money back into it, on top of his white. My hands shook. “Take! Take! Take!” called from inside me. I reached under the bed and pulled out the businessman case. I grabbed it by the handle; it was heavy with money. I ran to the main room, knelt beside Head Bobber, opened the businessman case, and put the dark green steel gun into it. In Kibera, one free gun is more useful that a bus-ful of free condoms.
    As I left 19B, I shouted, “Goodbye, everyone,” as if I had just drunk some beers. “See ya’s,” I called behind me, and slammed the front door shut.
    I had seen killing before—lots of it—but it was always crazy. Death was never still like this. A twisting animal gripped my throat. My breaths were mixed up. I breathed out and gasped in at the same time. The blue carpet outside Boss Jonni’s apartment had been a still river; now it was deep and roaring, dangerous to cross. I feared it would drown me. Everything felt wrong. On the bank behind me was Gold Bikini’s beauty and Boss Jonni, asleep with his feet resting on an ugly floor mat. Ahead of me was the exit sign.
    Holding the brown paper bag and Boss Jonni’s businessman case, I ran across the blue river, pushed open the exit door and entered the stairway’s solid-gray-concrete silence. My head fired and sparked. “Bingo, run!” it cried. My legs obeyed. I started down the stairs carefully at first, but by the eleventh floor I was running as fast as fire licks the sky. I had to get back to Wolf. I had to behave like it had been a normal Boss Jonni run. If Wolf thought that I had seen him shoot Boss Jonni, my life would be less than a fallen hair. That was why Wolf had told me to arrive at nine; he wanted me to be his witness of death—but not his witness of killing. I had not obeyed Wolf, and this was the price.
    I needed to hide the businessman case; I could not be spotted on the street with it. A growth retard with a black businessman case is something people notice. I needed to hide it in the high-rise. As I have told you, growth retards look at the world different from tall people. We see ankles, calves, and arses, while tall people see heads, hats, and hair. To hide the case, I looked down. But as I ran down the stairs from floor to floor, there was nowhere to hide it—no gaps, no holes.
    At the bottom of the stairway were two doors: on the left was the exit to the car park; on the right was the building entrance. In the wall between them, just off the ground, was a small gray iron door just wider than me. I turned the metal handle and it opened. Inside was the lift duct. I pushed the businessman case through and it fell inside. I slammed the small door shut and ran into the car park. I waited for a car to leave. Then I ran fast through the car park, out of the gates, and onto Taifa Road. Outside, I bent over at the side of the road and was sick.
    Three boys in the street watched me and laughed. I was sick more. The boys laughed more. They thought I was drunk. As I watched my sick soak into the mud through a crack in the road, I thought how quiet it must be under the blanket of tarmac. There, everything is silence. But life is not that simple. Show me one road where the tarmac is smooth and even. You cannot. We are driven over so much that every road is cracked. No one knows quiet peace.

Chapter 10
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Bingo Reports Back to Wolf
    I was careful to wait until after nine. I ran into Wolf’s hut shouting, “Wolf Sa, Wolf Sa!” I