Rooskie came into the house with a
charge and it startled the woman causing her to almost fall out of the chair where she was sitting at the kitchen table counting her latest cash intake from her
week of scamming the sick and dying at private appointments. The woman reached
her arms out attempting to gather it all while at the same time covering the
cash that was spread all over the table when she saw Rooskie stop at the
doorway to the kitchen. He was out of breath and wild eyed and the woman knew
Rooskie needed a special touch to bring him down. She eased upward slowly making every move she made slow and
cautious and speaking calmly to him. Slowly she asked him to sit down and tell
her what had him so excited. Rooskie kept his wild-eyed stare on her. He didn’t
release that stare into the woman’s eyes until he finally sat down which felt
like almost eternity for the woman who for a moment felt a chill go down her
back.
Once Rooskie sat down the woman told
him that she felt they should both have a drink and grabbed the bottle of Vodka
taking a swig and passing it to Rooskie like old friends who knew they could
trust each other. Rooskie drank it as if it was water not Vodka and this
impressed the woman who always appreciated men more when they could drink
heavily. With each gulp his body relaxed further until finally he put the
bottle down and said firmly “We have to kill Johnny. He has been arrested now
and we are all at risk. I knew he was trouble and now that he has been arrested
he will bring us all down!” He felt his throat grumble and went on “We have to
end this with him and you must let me do it my way! I will get him out of jail
and whack him dead!” Rooskie felt further relaxed and when he finished what he
had to say he felt his shoulders hunch over. He knew in the end however that he
would ultimately do whatever the woman wanted though he was convinced this
opportunity might get her to go along with him. The woman sat silent for a moment wondering how much she
should tell Rooskie about the DJ deal she was cooking. It was going well she
thought and cashing it on it should occur any day now.
The woman questioned Rooskie as to
what he knew about the arrest and after a few more gulps of Vodka and the woman
telling him that she had the DJ ready to pay large sums of money, he knew this
would not be the time he got to take Johnny out. Rooskie walked out of the kitchen to his room to check on
his trunks. He didn’t feel defeated he only felt delayed in what he was sure
would be Johnny’s end; his life ended by Rooskie. As he looked over his trunks to make sure the seals were
secure and not tampered with he felt that soon it would be time to add to his
trunk collection but he did not know when it would happen. He lay down on the bed and closed his
eyes and knew today would not be the day as he fell to sleep.
Once Rooskie left, the woman picked
up the phone and after a few calls she arranged to have Johnny bailed out and
transported to the same spot in Venice beach where they had done all their
meetings. When Rooskie awoke later
and was informed by the woman that Johnny had been bailed out and they were set
for a meeting with him at Venice Beach again he wondered only briefly who the
woman had to bail Johnny out. But Rooskie didn’t care to know and he didn’t inquire,
as he liked to stay away from all of people who had anything to do with
jail. Frustration wouldn’t leave
him about the decision by the woman not to whack Johnny as he still thought he
was a risk and didn’t like it even if it meant a large sum of money. But he
didn’t want to leave the woman and he would do what she wanted to keep that
relationship intact.
When they arrived at the Venice
Beach Johnny was already there. He looked like a drowned skinny rat that had
washed up from some deserted island far off in the Pacific. His face Rooskie thought, looked just
like a rat and he wondered about what Johnny’s father looked like since the
woman was beautiful to Rooskie and Johnny was so ugly.
The woman approached Johnny with
the walk of conviction. This mishap was not something she wanted to have
repeated and she was ready to put Johnny in line. If he was going to be
involved in her scams she was going to make sure he was not going to be part of
her downfall. The woman was not willing to go to jail again. She had been there
plenty of times earlier on in life and though she knew she could survive it she
had no intention to be challenged in that environment again. She liked her life
the way it had been going for decades now with her religious scam and many
times she made a serious killing before they had to leave town. Thoughts of her freedom jeopardized running
through her mind the closer she got to Johnny the angrier she became.
When Johnny saw the woman and
Rooskie and saw the look on both of their faces he had fear of what would
happen to him next. But he told
himself we would not take any shit from either one of them when he was the wronged
one. The police should never have arrested him in his opinion and he was
innocent! He tried to stand up before the woman reached him but he couldn’t as
he had stayed awake in county jail all night and was exhausted from the
experience. His skinny legs fell
beneath him and he hit the sand.
When Rooskie saw the woman’s
demeanor of anger it exhilarated him and he kept in step with her march towards
Johnny. He knew this would mean he would get some action on Johnny and though
he wasn’t going to be able to kill him now he knew that this would give him
pleasure. Just as they reached Johnny the woman waived her hand at Rooskie and
he thankfully obeyed as he bent down to grab Johnny’s neck and bring him up to
his knees against the old dirty palm tree for the woman to tell him her piece.
“You stupid motherfucker! What did
you DO?! Are you trying to get us all BUSTED?! The woman’s voice started low and deep at first then changing
to fiercer and stronger “I’ll KILL YOU BEFORE YOU EVER CAN DO THAT TO ME
MOTHERFUCKER! NO ONE IS GETTING ME THROWN IN JAIL AGAIN BELIEVE ME! ARE YOU LISTENING?! DID YOU HEAR ME?! DON’T YOU EVER DO
ANYTHING SO STUPID AGAIN OR YOU ARE DONE!” the woman’s veins bulged as she
brought down her terror on Johnny. Johnny stayed silent his throat closed under
Rooskie’s strong grip and he could feel his eyes bulging from fear and
Rooskie’s hold on him. His mind
began to swirl as the woman spoke his view becoming blurred until finally he blacked
out.
Rooskie felt Johnny go limp beneath
his hold and he released his grip to allow Johnny’s body to fall to the sand
feeling victorious. The woman looked at him dismayed but forgivingly as she
scratched a note on a piece of paper and stuck it in Johnny’s pocket. Fog had
been their friend again and she left Johnny in the sand knowing that the next
time anything happened she would let Rooskie take care of the problem for good.
