This is the 13th in a series of posts that starts here.
I don’t like violence, and I hate guns. In this case, I believed the two were necessary to save the lives of many innocent people. I held the heavy steel revolver in my hand. “What is this like a 9mm?” Seth stared at me and shook his head. He knew the extent of my knowledge of guns and I could tell he was unsure if I was serious or not. He said, “Yep, and it’s fully automatic so be careful.”
I had accidentally stopped petting the dog and she stood up and whimpered to remind me to continue. I obliged with my free hand, and I started laying down the plan I had developed in my head on the drive to Fountain. I had gotten away with a few small lies to the three idiots as I had cleverly nicknamed them, and I would need to get away with a few more in order for this plan to work. It was all going to go down tonight I decided.
I left Seth’s house with a pistol and a loosely knit plan of attack. I pulled out the phone that I had been given the night before and dialed the only stored number. Driver answered, “What’s up?” I hated how he answered like a friend would. I couldn’t wait to smash his face open with the butt of the gun. “I just got a call saying I have to bring all money I have over to my friend’s house A.S.A.P. You can probably guess what that means.” That seemed to rattle his cage a little bit. “You mean he’s going tonight?” I replied, “I don’t know, I just know that I need to bring a bunch of money to a certain spot right now. If I get there and I can’t leave with any more shit, that means that he’s going tonight I would imagine.”
We exchanged a few more words and I left it at me calling when I knew more. I really didn’t know anything at all, I just had to make it look like I did. I called another friend that I knew worked at the bus station as a janitor and asked if I could borrow his uniform for a little trade of meth. He was all for it. I made up a story about a costume party or something but he didn’t care, he was just excited to get high for free. I wanted to wear the uniform when I went into the station to take the brief case from King. I knew the three idiots would be watching from somewhere, and I knew they would like that I had come up with this much of a plan.
In reality, I had no idea how much money King had, or where he was, or even if he had any more drugs. With a little luck, Mason and King would never even know about this whole thing, and life would be back to as normal as it ever got for me, which was pretty fucked up. It was hard to think that all of this was set in motion just two days ago, and that already I had made these guys move up their plan to suit my desire to be done with them.
I drove around the city in circles for a while. As always, the road helped me clear my head. I needed to get another hotel room to set up in for a night or two. I had been running out of options for a while switching up spots every few days. I longed for the days of resting my head on a pillow that I owned and having friends that came over to hang out, not just for the drugs. Seth was the only friend I had left and I decided right then that I couldn’t drag him any farther into this. He would be tremendously upset with me if he wasn’t able to put a beating on these guys, but I knew I was going to take it all the way, and I couldn’t risk having him lose his life over these idiots.
I found a dump of a motel along Highway 52 and I found a place to park in the back. This place was the classic dope hot-spot. As I turned the mirror away from the shattered face I didn’t want to see anymore, I could see drapes parting only slightly in the ground-level rooms behind me. This was a betraying sign of a tweaker inside checking me out. You never know when the cops are coming, but they normally don’t drive a ’97 Sunfire. My only thought was that if this were a normal day, I could strum up some quick business here. Not today, I had a gun and I wouldn’t risk doing serious time over a $20 bag. I put the pistol in my waist band and stepped out into the afternoon sun.
I walked around to the front office and a clerk cheerfully greeted me. False. He buzzed me in through a solid steel door only after I passed $200 through a small slot in a thick glass window. This motel, unlike most others, ran on a cash-only basis. Of the $200, $150 was a deposit that I would get back if I didn’t trash the place. I thought it was funny that there was only $150 worth of damage I could possibly do in the room. I collected my key and headed back to my car which I had already parked close to the room I had requested. I got my bag out of the trunk, and continued up the stairs to the second floor.
The first thing I noticed was that I could never do $150 worth of damage to this place. There was no T.V., no air conditioner, and only a twin mattress on a queen box spring. This would do. I flipped a switch that activated somewhat of a strobe light effect, then a constant buzzing light. It was at least as bright as the dome light in my car. By contrast, the light in the bathroom was bright enough to be the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. I’m glad it was bright enough to show me that this was not the proper place to shower or have a bowel movement. No matter, I only needed a place to store my things while I went to take care of business.
I pulled the phone out of my pocket and dialed. Again, Driver answered. “Hey!” Fuck you.
“Listen, I just left my friend’s house empty handed. King was there and the last thing he said was ‘See you in four days.’”
“Holy shit. So he’s leaving tonight? Are you ready to do it?” He asked.
“Look, I just want to get this over with. I already checked the bus schedule and there’s a bus that goes down to Arizona tonight, and it leaves at 7:00pm.”
There was a moment of silent reflection on his end and then he said, “Well. Let’s do this.”
I don’t like violence, and I hate guns. In this case, I believed the two were necessary to save the lives of many innocent people. I held the heavy steel revolver in my hand. “What is this like a 9mm?” Seth stared at me and shook his head. He knew the extent of my knowledge of guns and I could tell he was unsure if I was serious or not. He said, “Yep, and it’s fully automatic so be careful.”
I had accidentally stopped petting the dog and she stood up and whimpered to remind me to continue. I obliged with my free hand, and I started laying down the plan I had developed in my head on the drive to Fountain. I had gotten away with a few small lies to the three idiots as I had cleverly nicknamed them, and I would need to get away with a few more in order for this plan to work. It was all going to go down tonight I decided.
I left Seth’s house with a pistol and a loosely knit plan of attack. I pulled out the phone that I had been given the night before and dialed the only stored number. Driver answered, “What’s up?” I hated how he answered like a friend would. I couldn’t wait to smash his face open with the butt of the gun. “I just got a call saying I have to bring all money I have over to my friend’s house A.S.A.P. You can probably guess what that means.” That seemed to rattle his cage a little bit. “You mean he’s going tonight?” I replied, “I don’t know, I just know that I need to bring a bunch of money to a certain spot right now. If I get there and I can’t leave with any more shit, that means that he’s going tonight I would imagine.”
We exchanged a few more words and I left it at me calling when I knew more. I really didn’t know anything at all, I just had to make it look like I did. I called another friend that I knew worked at the bus station as a janitor and asked if I could borrow his uniform for a little trade of meth. He was all for it. I made up a story about a costume party or something but he didn’t care, he was just excited to get high for free. I wanted to wear the uniform when I went into the station to take the brief case from King. I knew the three idiots would be watching from somewhere, and I knew they would like that I had come up with this much of a plan.
In reality, I had no idea how much money King had, or where he was, or even if he had any more drugs. With a little luck, Mason and King would never even know about this whole thing, and life would be back to as normal as it ever got for me, which was pretty fucked up. It was hard to think that all of this was set in motion just two days ago, and that already I had made these guys move up their plan to suit my desire to be done with them.
I drove around the city in circles for a while. As always, the road helped me clear my head. I needed to get another hotel room to set up in for a night or two. I had been running out of options for a while switching up spots every few days. I longed for the days of resting my head on a pillow that I owned and having friends that came over to hang out, not just for the drugs. Seth was the only friend I had left and I decided right then that I couldn’t drag him any farther into this. He would be tremendously upset with me if he wasn’t able to put a beating on these guys, but I knew I was going to take it all the way, and I couldn’t risk having him lose his life over these idiots.
I found a dump of a motel along Highway 52 and I found a place to park in the back. This place was the classic dope hot-spot. As I turned the mirror away from the shattered face I didn’t want to see anymore, I could see drapes parting only slightly in the ground-level rooms behind me. This was a betraying sign of a tweaker inside checking me out. You never know when the cops are coming, but they normally don’t drive a ’97 Sunfire. My only thought was that if this were a normal day, I could strum up some quick business here. Not today, I had a gun and I wouldn’t risk doing serious time over a $20 bag. I put the pistol in my waist band and stepped out into the afternoon sun.
I walked around to the front office and a clerk cheerfully greeted me. False. He buzzed me in through a solid steel door only after I passed $200 through a small slot in a thick glass window. This motel, unlike most others, ran on a cash-only basis. Of the $200, $150 was a deposit that I would get back if I didn’t trash the place. I thought it was funny that there was only $150 worth of damage I could possibly do in the room. I collected my key and headed back to my car which I had already parked close to the room I had requested. I got my bag out of the trunk, and continued up the stairs to the second floor.
The first thing I noticed was that I could never do $150 worth of damage to this place. There was no T.V., no air conditioner, and only a twin mattress on a queen box spring. This would do. I flipped a switch that activated somewhat of a strobe light effect, then a constant buzzing light. It was at least as bright as the dome light in my car. By contrast, the light in the bathroom was bright enough to be the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. I’m glad it was bright enough to show me that this was not the proper place to shower or have a bowel movement. No matter, I only needed a place to store my things while I went to take care of business.
I pulled the phone out of my pocket and dialed. Again, Driver answered. “Hey!” Fuck you.
“Listen, I just left my friend’s house empty handed. King was there and the last thing he said was ‘See you in four days.’”
“Holy shit. So he’s leaving tonight? Are you ready to do it?” He asked.
“Look, I just want to get this over with. I already checked the bus schedule and there’s a bus that goes down to Arizona tonight, and it leaves at 7:00pm.”
There was a moment of silent reflection on his end and then he said, “Well. Let’s do this.”
