Once Upon a Time 21

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~~~

The voice on the telephone seemed to be sharp and peremptory, but I didn't hear too well what it said-- partly because I was only half-awake and partly because I was holding the receiver upside down. I fumbled it around and grunted.

"Uh. Say again?" My mouth felt full of cotton. What was it? Scotch?

It had been a male voice, urgent and demanding attention. I sat up and switched the phone to my other ear.

I'm sorry but would you repeat what you just said?

The voice boomed once more into my eardrum. "The car is parked in the back. The blond will give you further instructions. Remember what we agreed on last night. There's no turning back."

Agreed on last night? Where the hell was I last night? The remnants of cheap tequila danced on the tip of my tongue. The elusive memory a mysterious blond fogged my mind. I had only one thought. Where the hell are my clothes?

I stumbled into the living room and found my jeans heaped in a pile with some towels. What the?

I hurriedly and clumsily put on my jeans and weaved toward the back door, just off the kitchen that opened onto the alley behind my one room flat. The stale ashes of last night's cigarettes begged for a morning cup of joe to wash them from my mouth, and perhaps awaken my memories of last evening. Opening the door, there sat the blond behind the wheel of a red Jaguar X-type. Her hand held it note- "meet the fat man under the clock at the corner of Canal and Dauphine". I stared and gasped ...... "you?"

She definitely wasn't the broad from last night. I knew this blond. "We got time to stop for a coffee before meeting the fat man?" I asked as I slid into the seat beside her.
She looked me up and down, disgusted by what she saw. "I think a big mistake was made when they chose you" she said caustically. She pulled into a diner, Bob's diner. A little too much light for this piercing hangover, but coffee was all I needed.

As we drank our coffee I kept thinking about why she would look at me like I was so disgusting. Mabye during one of my drinking binges I had slept with her perhaps, and not remembered her. Therefore insulting her without words somehow. Her phone rang. She stood up and went outside. After a few minutes she tearingly said "You need to wait here for the fat man." I wondered why she was so upset.

I stared into her watery eyes wanting to ask her to take a seat. A part of me wondered if her emotional change was due to our doing coffee rather than going to my appointment. "Do you have time for a quick coffee while I wait?"

She waved me off, sighed heavily, and said "Wait!" I rubbed my eyes, trying to remember what happend last night. I have a foggy vision of a woman with a southern accent, but that's all I remember. When I open my eyes, the blond has left, and I sit in the empty coffee shop, looking for a fat man.

I waited about five minutes, the door pushed opened, there stood a fat man, but was he my fat man?

His piggy little eyes roved over the other patrons and landed on my face. Grunting noisly he headed in my direction.... I guess this was the guy.


Eyes scanning the parking lot, I noticed the pretty little Jag still there, but the pretty little blonde was gone. I couldn't shake the vision of her crying, telling me to wait, just before she disappeared. What would a woman like that have to do with a man like him, I thought, as my eyes locked with his.

"What the hell is going on?" I wondered as my heart started skipping beats. Am I seriously sitting here yearning for the blond, while watching the fat, balding, pig-eyed man approach me? And just then, I had to take a leak -- badly...

The fat man walked past me, hesitating with a slight motion of his head, signaling me to follow as he headed for the Men's room. Something in his eyes was very unsettling and yet I was intrigued to follow.


As I round the bend, following the Fat man,, I slide to a halt. In front of me is one of the most incredible sights I've ever seen. Upon closer examination, I see three males, each struggling to gain access to the female in the middle.

I couldn't hold it till the rest room. I found a tree, took a piss right there. I knew I was supposed to follow the fat man... but I had to take a moment to watch the three males, trying to gain access to the female. There is something more about this... something deeper I thought. I watched for a moment.. then hurried my way to catch the fat man...

As I caught the Fat man in my sight. I yelled hey wait ! The fat man glanced back at me and pointed toward the red jag, jumped into a gold 1972 chevelle and sped off. I ran toward the red Jag as I got close I saw the lifless body of the blonde covered in green slime.

The foul stench of the waste covered her body clotting in her hair. The flowing blonde hair matted into a mass of tangles. I searched around for anything to throw over her body to give the last moments some dignity her life never posessed. Nothing was near, so I pulled off my shirt, closed her eyes and covered her face.

Engulfed with rage at the blonde woman's loss of dignity, I ran into the red Jag with keys still in the ignition and sped after them. I was not going to stand by without making an effort. So I passed car after car, and finally, I saw the chevelle, pulling into a side road bordered with trees on both sides.

I followed the fat man along the side road for a good fifteen minutes, noticing how we seemed to be getting farther and farther away from civilization. The air was cooler, as the trees on either side of the road formed a canopy overhead that allowed only small amounts of sunlight through in places. I demanded answers, and thought about how I should confront the porcine bastard when we got to wherever it was we were going. I shivered a bit and wished I still had my shirt.

We kept driving. The pavement came to an end, and we started traveling down a dirt road. We had driven out of the woods, and were now in an open, hilly place. I saw that the fat man had pulled up to a little shack that looked like it was only barely standing.