“Five bucks”
The alarm buzzed on at 5:45 in the dank still dark room, stale with smells of cigarettes, old beer and piles of yesterday’s clothes. The dog stirred when he rolled to slap the radio quiet. His head throbbed from the night with the guys at that new place, “Bandits”, Two college football games and a dozen beers had sent his body into revolt and the four hours sleep hadn’t been enough for the repair. Somewhere through the haze he flashed back to a few images: Larry stuffing his wallet with bills from his perfect picks and that looker of a waitress who had not just a body but a mouth. She told some stupid joke about a monkey and a giraffe that blew the guys away. Her name was Kay or Kristy or something like that. He had gotten her phone number and written it somewhere. Just then he couldn’t remember where. By now the damn digital read 6:04 and he had to be downtown at 6:45 to meet Larry to head out to that apartment complex and the job they had just booked.
He pushed “Drifter” off the bed, pulled himself into yesterday’s clothes, picked his wallet, his keys and then a wad of loose bills off the bureau. One of the crumpled bills, a fiver, had “K 695-0684” written in his handwriting. What a break; maybe he’d call her later.
First stop, Dunkin Doughnuts for black coffee and a couple of doughnuts. He stood in line, got out enough words for the order, slapped some bills on the counter and made it back to the pick-up. It was only then he realized he’d used that damn five with the phone number. “Damn”, he thought, “but I know she’ll be at Bandit’s. No sweat.”
The girl at the counter dropped the bills into the register and watched him walk out. She sized him up as cute, good job, nice dog and thought: “Why can’t I find someone like that.” Since high school she’d had one lousy job after another. This was such a slow morning so far, she was bored and just wanted out of there. “Yes, Ma’am, What can I get for you?” It was that nurse who worked at the nursing home and came in every morning before her shift. Nice person, but that seemed like an even more depressing job than this one. She gave her her order, took her twenty and gave her the guy’s five and more change and a polite “Have a nice day.”
“Oh yeah, you too” said the nurse, but her mind was on the day ahead and the day behind. It had been a tough week, one of the long term patients had died, a new admission had dementia and was a real handful and one of her ward patients had taken a turn for the worse which had left her weak and depressed. Though she’d been an LPN for ten years it still was an emotional coaster ride. She couldn’t help but get attached. Single, with the type of family background you’d see on the Jerry Springer show and a series of unstable relationships (she always seemed to pick losers) so her patients were her family.
Today she had Lydia on her mind. Lydia had been on her ward for four and a half years, weak and in her eighties, with her only living relative her sister who was five states away in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s. She had bonded with her, heard her stories from her flapper period, her married years, of her travels and her losses. She wondered what she could do for her and thought that a present might work. She parked her car at the card shop, walked in and cruised the aisles waiting for inspiration. There it was in the shape of a small plaster rabbit with floppy ears, a silly grin and “Have a nice day” written on a heart shaped card hanging around its neck. “Perfect”, she thought so and pulled a five and a ten out of her purse for the sales clerk. She had it wrapped in colored tissue and bought one of those gift bags with daisys on it to add to it. “That ought to bring a smile” was her thought.
It was slow in the shop but the early hours of the day were always quiet. The sales clerk sort of liked it that way as it gave her time to straighten things up and dust a bit for she was the type that liked order. Things out of place made her uneasy. In her home everything had its place and she had taught her husband how it was to be. The smaller magazines on top of the bigger ones, edges parallel, lower left corners aligned, then placed in the center of the left side of the coffee table. On the right on a doily, a small fine china plate of non-pareilles. There was comfort in this. The store door bell jingled as a teen came in and started looking around. The clerk was irritated at having been interrupted at what was sure to be a small sale and continued arranging the bills in the register by denomination, president’s face up, heads to the right.
The young girl was looking for a birthday present for her younger sister. Their Mom was a working Mom and didn’t always remember important dates. Through the years she had learned to fill in for her, to keep the calendar and bring up gentle reminders. This was a sort of extra responsibility that she really didn’t mind as it generally made things easier and her Mom didn’t seem to mind or even notice. When she found a little Scottish doll with a tartan skirt and flowers in her hair it just felt like the right choice. She picked it up and looked at all sides of it, took it over to the clerk and put it on the counter with a twenty dollar bill saying that this was to be a birthday present. She had come here as the store offered gift wrapping for free. The clerk made a face but neatly cut and folded the paper to just cover the doll and tied a perfect bows with each loop the same and the ribbon ends cut at forty five degrees. In the change was a five dollar bill which she decided to put in her drawer at home to start saving for a blue top she had seen at the Gap.
Later that day, the mother was putting away laundry and saw a fiver that had fallen on the floor by her daughter’s bureau and wondered how that had gotten there. Was it hers or her daughters? If it was her daughters, what was she being so secretive about? She thought back to her teen years and damn, but she had given her parent’s fits. It had been a wild part of her life and she sure didn’t want her daughter to go down that path. She was around most days, but worked the cocktail hour and nights for the tips. Things were tight raising two teen daughters alone without alimony. She hadn’t been able to get a cent out of that bastard, but that was another sad story. But what’s with this. They always talked over what clothes she bought and she knew just what her allowance was. “I don’t know and I’m not taking any chances.” She said to herself as she put the five bucks in her pocket and left for work.
At work she eyed the tables to see if the regulars were there, “Yeah, the usual.” But she wondered about that new guy who had been in last night. “Bet he doesn’t realize I’ve got two grown kids.” She walked over to the bar to buy a pack of Kents. When she pulled out the five she noticed the “K 695-0684”. “That son of a bitch”, were the words that came to her. She had seen him write it and thought he might call, but she had been through that before. This was less than 24 hours and he sure had blown this one. Pissed, she took the bill back, paid with another and kept it as a reminder. She went back to working the tables and the tips were going good tonight.
It was around seven when he got to Bandits. It had been a long day and they had had a lot of heavy stuff to do. Drifter looked beat so he rolled down the window and let him stretch out in the pick-up. He was planning to have a drink and then head home to the showers.
She saw him take a seat at the bar and pretended not to notice, but her peripheral vision was good enough to see he was scoping her. “OK, what’s next?” she thought. Was she pissed or was she interested? She knew she was holding a wild card in her hand. How would she play it? She liked that feeling of excitement, challenge. This could lead to fun or disaster. It would be a good ride either way, she was ready.
This was a great deal of fun to write as I wove in some local locations, but all the people were totally make up.
You held my interest with crisp writing. I liked, Drifter, "eyes scanning the road, clearly the most alert of the two of them", your description of how "everything had its place.....", how would she play her "wild card". I hope they got together.
ReplyDeleteEasy to see what fun you had writing this!