Tim Green - The Big Time

Even so, he kept to the shadows, avoiding the glow of street lamps and hustling along with his feet swishing through the grass shoulders of the quiet streets. The maze of winding roads and mansions nestled back in the trees or on hilltops behind iron or brick fences led him to an enormous home on the biggest hill in Cotton Wood. With lights shining up from the bushes and grass, the huge white building looked more like a museum or an old government statehouse than one man's home. The stone wall that ran along the street was for decoration, not defense, and Troy scaled it with ease. He snuck through the bushes up along a curved driveway until he came to a courtyard with a hissing fountain in its center. The driveway was crowded with glossy cars whose glittering grillwork reminded Troy of the rap star's own teeth.

Amid the Bentley, Mercedes, and Lexus vehicles-all midnight blue or black-Troy spotted the orange Porsche his father had driven into Seth's driveway. His heart pattered, but he wasn't certain if that was because he knew his father was inside or because of the men in dark suits with walkie-talkies he now saw prowling the perimeter of the house. Troy looked down at his own gray hooded sweatshirt and simple white V-neck T-shirt with faded jeans and sneakers. He sighed and popped out of the shrubbery, heading up the stone walkway for the broad front steps. A man in a suit stepped out from behind one of the tall, fluted columns. He met Troy halfway up, arresting his progress with an iron hand. He spoke softly but urgently into his walkie-talkie about a kid appearing out of nowhere.

" YOU LOST, KID?" THEsecurity guard asked, scowling.

"I'm looking for my father," Troy said. "Drew Edinger. He's G Money's lawyer. That's his car."

The guard looked over at the orange Porsche and raised his eyebrows, retelling Troy's story into the radio.

The radio scratched the air, then a raspy voice said, "Bring him back to the pool."

The guard angled his head for Troy to follow him up onto the porch, through the massive front doors, and into a foyer that rose three stories. A curved stairway opened off to the left, and a fifteen-foot painting of G Money in a red three-piece suit with a fur hat towered over them on the curved wall to the right. Troy looked up at a glittering chandelier. The domed ceiling above was painted like a blue sky with puffy clouds and angels.

"Wow," Troy heard himself say as they passed a suit of armor and entered another enormous room, filled with furniture upholstered in the skins of zoo animals: zebras, leopards, lions, and bears. They walked through some glass doors and into the back, where the wings on either side of the house flanked a pool. It was like nothing Troy had ever seen. Instead of an aqua blue bottom with stone or wood decking, this pool's bottom was midnight blue with tiny glimmering stars. It looked as if you'd be jumping into space. The pool's rounded triangular shape made it seem to Troy as if he were standing on the deck of a spaceship from some Star Wars movie.

So fascinated was Troy by the pool that he bumped into the guard, who had stopped at the foot of a stone terrace. A handful of men sat around a circular table playing cards, drinking colorful drinks in tall, clear glasses. Most of them wore sparkling chains, rings, and sunglasses, even though it was dark. The night closed in around them, and the low lights surrounding the terrace and pool did little to battle it back. Strangely, the music that wafted up from hidden speakers was the furthest thing from G Money's rap that Troy could imagine. This music was calm and soothing: wood flutes, synthesizers, and the sounds of trickling water.

Troy's father stood up from the table. He wore only a button-down shirt, suit pants, and his diamond watch. He removed a cigar from his mouth, blowing a plume of blue smoke into the air before enthusiastically introducing Troy around the table. Men with more tattoos, scars, and gold than Troy had ever seen glanced up to briefly say hello. One of them was the enormous bald man with the cold blue eyes Troy had seen in the dome. G Money called them his homeys, and since the men were dressed in colorful silk, leather, and suede, Troy felt silly in his sweatshirt and jeans. He looked down and swatted at the smudge marks on his shirt before running a hand through his hair and shaking his father's hand. His father pulled him close and hugged him tight, patting Troy's back.

"Hey, Drew," said a short, fat man with a crooked Celtics hat and a face as round as a basketball, "that's your big-time ticket, right? The kid?"

Drew scowled at the man and looked to G Money, but it was the man with the bald pink head, rimless rectangular glasses, and a jaguar's head tattooed up the side of his neck who spoke.

"Bubbles, you're always talking," the big man said, his voice rumbling like a volcano ready to blow and flashes of gold teeth appearing from the midst of his furry black beard. "I need to put a rat trap on your chin and then maybe you'd keep that tongue inside your head."

The entire table went quiet, and Troy knew that each one of the men was afraid of the big man, even G Money. Drew quietly excused himself to G Money and nodded at the big man. Then he led Troy down some side steps to a swinging bench seat. Heat lamps on the terrace warmed them against the cool fall night.

"Ticket?" Troy asked.

Drew waved his hand dismissively and said, "Bubbles washes the cars. He's a moron."

"Who's that big scary-looking guy?" Troy asked.

"Just a friend of G Money's from Chicago," Drew said. "He helped G Money get started in the business. His name is Luther Tolsky. He knows a lot of people."

Troy nodded, then quietly said, "Weird music."

"G Money is into Zen," Drew said.

"Like, the religion?"

"He says it helps his rap to be pure," Drew said, scowling at his cigar and butting it out against the lip of a large clay pot containing a lemon tree. "Have a seat. Where's your mom?"

Troy folded his hands in his lap and studied them before he said, "Home."

"At Seth Halloway's?" Drew asked.

"No. We live just outside the wall," Troy said, pointing in the general direction of their house.

"Wall?"

"There's a wall around the club," Troy said. "We live in the pinewoods just outside. It's nice. I got a tire to throw footballs through."

"And she's there?" his father asked.

Troy nodded.

"But, how'd you get here ?" his father asked.

Troy waved his hand toward where he'd scaled the wall and said, "Just walked. I knew where G Money's house was."

Drew looked at his watch, then at Troy, and asked, "And she's okay with this? Walked, as in climbed-the-wall walked? Or you walked all the way around? Wait, don't answer that. I don't want to know."

Troy's mouth fell open.

"Troy," his father said, leaning toward him with all of the friendliness draining from his face, "don't even tell me that your mom doesn't know you're here."

"Why?" Troy said, laughing nervously. "It's no big deal."

His father shook his head and said, "Oh, yes it is."

" BUT," TROY SAID, HISvoice barely rising above the muted chatter of the nearby cardplayers, "you said you wanted to see me."

"And I do," his father said, nodding his head, "but not like this, not sneaking around. No, wait. Don't drop your head like that. You didn't do anything wrong. It's just that I don't want her to ruin it. If we give her an excuse to act out-any excuse-she'll use it. There are reasons I didn't stay with her, Troy, and none of it had anything to do with you. Like I said, I didn't even know about you."

Troy studied his father's face: the brown eyes flecked with shards as black as tar. They whirled like hypnotic tops. Troy thought of the annoying things his mom could do, the way she managed him like a circus tiger: cutting him off; making him sit, roll over, and jump through hoops of fire. She claimed it was all for his own good, but he knew how any little deviation from the rules, any misstep, led to consequences that were always severe.