Marlene didn’t need a signature to know where it had come from. She placed the card down and opened the tube. Inside was a rose the color of blood on a stem that extended nearly two feet. Sniffing its sweet fragrance, Marlene smiled. The rose was beautiful, but what was inside the second box was the kicker.

It was a necklace made of sterling silver and woven to look like two snakes wrapping around each other. The centerpiece was a sapphire so clear that Marlene could see her hand on the other side. Marlene held the necklace to her neck and the sadness she had been feeling a few minutes prior faded a little. She was still pissed off at Paul, but her new gift took some of the bite out of it. With the way he was acting and what she had learned on the phone testing her strength, she wasn’t sure how long she could take it. Though she loved the young man, she refused to sell herself short. Sadly, it was like her mother had always told her about Michael: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

“Yo, you seen this shit in the paper?” Groovy walked up, flashing a copy of the Daily News. The evening air was soothing, so Rel and Slick decided to play the benches. Though they were out in the open, they hadn’t forgotten about their beef with the elusive Jah. Rel had a hammer tucked in his Crunch ’n Munch box, and Slick’s P89 was in the bushes beside them.

“Fuck is you talking about?” Rel asked, sipping Henny from a plastic cup.

“Mo money, mo murder.” Groovy tossed the paper on Rel’s lap. When Rel began reading, his jaw dropped.

“Up and Coming Harlem Rap Stars Murdered,” Rel read the headline out loud.

Police arrived at the scene of what turned out to be a slaughter yesterday morning. Two drug crews turned the front of a popular Manhattan diner into the Old West, in a gun battle where as many as fifty shots were fired. Witnesses reported the young rappers Terrence “Pain” Pane and Raheem “Lex” Stewart of the group Bad Blood and an associate Jason “Jay” Brown got into a verbal exchange with a group of unidentified gunmen that turned deadly when a shot was fired. The rappers, whose gangsta anthem “Slap Ya Self “ is quickly climbing the charts, had just come out of the diner when they were approached by the rival gang. Sources reported seeing one of the rappers pull a gun, which sent bullets flying from both sides. When the smoke cleared, two of the group’s six members and Brown lay dead in the streets. No one knows exactly what sparked the shooting, but some say it may have been a dispute over drug turf.

“If that ain’t a crock of shit.” Slick sucked his teeth.