|
meanwhile
TODAY ELSEWHERE ------------------
In a house in Las Vegas (or near enough, anyway), Jeremiah Washington laid, half-asleep, on the living room couch. Years ago there had been a lot going on here - back when he, Darcy, and Danny were living here together or at least using it as a home base for whatever trips and adventures they got up. Since then, though, Darcy'd moved on to Government Work at a nearby military facility - the kind of work he wasn't supposed to know about but did anyway.
And Danny had ended up with that magic ring, something to do with a wizard, and ended up with an entirely different kind of Government Work - for a few months, anyway, before forming various groups of super friends. Bouncing from Vegas to New York, to San Fransisco, then back to Vegas before ending up back in New York - he thought, anyway. Danny seemed to move whenever the move struck him.
Everyone had gone on their separate paths. Still, Jerry did his best to keep track of his friends, just in case they needed something.
His phone rang - muffled under a pile of old comic books and sci-fi paperbacks that he'd picked up from a yard sale - but the ring was important enough to wake him, anyway. Sitting up, he brushed the books and magazines to the floor to retrieve his phone and check his messages.
His notifications started with six missed calls from a contact labeled 'cindy???sarah???', followed by a text message from the same reading 'thanks for nothing, a**hole.'
Followed that was a series of text messages from an unknown number, demanding 'their money' along with various threats of bodily harm.
He barely registered all of them until he got to the most recent message, the one that woke him up, from a contact labeled "Danny's Super Secret Burner', the message read 'I don't know what i'm supposed to say help', though Jerry didn't actually have to read it to know what it was about - he still noted that it clearly wasn't Danny, and probably wasn't the girl who worked for him, either.
"Sh*t. Sh*tsh*tsh*t."
Jerry nearly fell over himself trying to get up off the couch - half awake and with no time to fix that.
At the same time - as if the universe was piling it on - there came a bang at the front door. Jerry ignored it, until he heard a man shout from the other side "Where's the f***ing money, Washington!"
"Don't know what you're talking about, man!" Lying, Jeremiah shoved the phone in his pocket, then checked his right hand. "Dammit." Where'd he leave that ring? He stumbled towards the kitchen, a pile of unopened mail and flyers tossed to the floor, then rattling through washed-but-never-put-away dishes as he searched the counters.
From beyond the door, he heard the man shout again - "You know, the boss is real pissed about this."
"Sounds like a bad time, maybe you should quit and get a real job!" The banging and shouting stopped, allowing Jerry a moment to think about where that ring had ended up. Looking into the sink, he spotted it - silver glinting in the light - right in the garbage disposal blades. Letting out a groan, he slowly went for it - staring at the switch on the wall that controlled the disposal, as if expecting it to flip on its own and go to work on his hand. And as if he could do anything about it quickly enough if it did.
The banging at the door resumed, louder as the goon on the outside slammed his shoulder into the door. Jerry wasn't worried about that, though - that door wasn't coming down, he knew it. Not by some random mob goon, anyway. Didn't that guy know how's house this was? Well, he probably wouldn't, on second thought.
He retrieved the ring with minimal effort, but maximum (if unnecessary) stress, and gave it a quick rinse under the faucet before putting it back on. "Alright, this better be worth it." Jeremiah spoke out loud - as if any of this has been particularly difficult for him - then took a moment to brush his hands through his hair - he could see his reflection in the kitchen window - then turned away, ignoring the resumed banging and shouted threats coming from outside. Jerry stepped into the hall, stopping at the door to the closet, and took a breath - this was always weird to him - then grabbed the door handle with his right hand. He felt the expected shock - not any worse than static - then pulled. The door opened to somewhere else, and his phone rang again.
"Alright, okay, I'm coming." Then he stepped through, yanking the door closed behind him.
0 Comments
|