The Year of Santa Ana

Episode Four: “Introducing Kiki the Great”

“OK, so you’re telling me she left El Super and they don’t know where she’s working or where she went?”

“Yeah, Kiki, that’s what I’m saying — we went there last night, me and Cheo. And that one manager, the one that thinks we’re all just a bunch of gang-banging hood rats — what’s his name, Cheo? Anyways, he wouldn’t tell us anything, but that one cashier, what her name? Anita, I think, she told us that Lupe just up an’ left four days ago, right after I moved in.”

“Yeah, they got out of town fast,” Kiki says as he listens to Memo ramble. He then becomes silent and leans all of his six foot two, one hundred ninety pounds of brawn in thought. “It’s obvious bro’ — they took the money and ran before the shit hit the fan, before you could figure out anything about their little scam. They’re in the wind.”

“Right, so, I mean, what’re we gonna do about it?”

“What you mean, ‘we’?”

“Well, umm, I was thinking, we could, or you could, y’know…”

Kiki knows exactly what Memo’s ramping up to, and it’s just a bit odd for him — even with everything the three have been through in their shared pasts, none of his three closest friends have ever asked him to take out an enemy.