In Tents by Andy Kaiser

Author:Andy Kaiser [Kaiser, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Digital Bits Network LLC
Published: 2019-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

I had my phone, the expensive fancy phone, so important back when I had a job to pay for it, and now that I didn’t have a job, I still owed plenty of money on it that I had no way of earning.

I had my wallet. I checked and saw that everything I had in there before was still there: my ID and a few remaining bills of what was the last of my money.

I had what I wanted but knew I still had problems. Half-a-Man, whoever that was, had attacked Dottie. He and I still needed to talk.

My feet felt like I was walking over burning coals with each step. Pain radiated from my feet and into my lower legs. I really wanted to lie down for a month, but I didn’t have time. Not yet. Not until I could talk to Half-a-Man. Dottie was still in the hospital for all I knew, but I could at least help punish the guy who put her there.

“Where is he?” I said to Ariel.

She folded her bare arms over her almost-bare chest and smiled. “You’re so demanding now.”

“I want to talk to him.”

“No,” a voice coughed from behind me.

I turned to see the little man—the one Sampson had called Sharp-Oh—standing behind me. Still dressed in his weird military-looking boots and jacket, he stood with crossed arms, a picture of compressed belligerence. The gigantic sword he had swung at me was missing. Since the blade was as tall as he was, I had no idea where he’d hidden it.

“Goddammit.” I pointed to Ariel. “She tells me to talk to Half-a-Man, and then you tell me I can’t see him. Make up your minds!”

Sharp-Oh’s response was to lift his lips into a smile. His eyes stayed dark and angry.

Sampson spoke, his voice rumbling.

“What my brother is so eloquently saying, gentle man, is to remind you of our conversation just a moment ago. We are all, ah, joined together. We are a family. Some of us closer than others, but undoubtedly we protect each other.”

“I’m going to talk to the guy.”

“You may talk to whomever you desire. But we will not be so blunt as to push him in front of you. If he wants to show up, he will.”

“Goddammit!”

Ariel and Sharp-Oh took a step back at my outburst. The massive barker, Sampson, held his ground. He tilted his head and lifted red shaggy eyebrows, as if tempting me to take my next step.

“What it’s going to take?!” I yelled. “Just get me to the guy! You want me to start tearing up this place? You want me to talk to the police about whatever I was drugged with last night? I will—”

“I think,” said Sampson, his voice rumbling, “the time for threats has passed. Perhaps you’ll come with me until you’ve had time to relax.”

Twice my size or no, bloody and blistered feet or no, I was about to launch myself at him until I caught the sudden smell of burning tobacco and the sound of a voice whispering behind us.

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