Wolves among men (11 page)

“
Come on, baby, show me
some love!” a bald man in a brown tweed suit cried with a smile
over a game of craps. I watched for a moment as he tossed the dice.
I could hear them clacking loudly as they rolled across the green
felt table, bounced off the end and came to a stop. The small crowd
groaned and the man’s face changed to despair as a tiny blond woman
reached over and grabbed a handful of chips from the table with a
sympathetic smile.

My attention changed quickly to a
forlorn woman who sat hunched over a large loud slot machine.
Religiously, she followed her pattern, her system without fault;
slide a coin in, pull the handle, sigh and repeat. I almost felt
sorry for her as I watched her failed attempts and it didn’t take
long for me to see that she wasn’t the only one. Many faces watched
in sadness as the pictures on their machines failed to line up and
for a moment I was happy that gambling was never my
vice.

“
Can I help you, sir?” a
chipper voice called to me, pulling me from my daze. I turned
toward it and saw myself face to face with a young blond girl and
her tired smile. Her hair was tied back in a bun and the makeup on
her face had begun to smear, leaving her looking tired and worn out
as she waited impatiently for me to answer her.

“
Oh, yeah I was told there
was a hotel here.” She nodded and flashed me a snotty look. “I just
need to get a room for the night.”

“
Okay.” She sighed as she
turned and pointed me toward a large white desk near the bar. “You
want to go over there and talk to Jackie, she’ll get you set
up.”

“
Thank you.” I smiled
politely. She smiled back but it was far from sincere as she walked
around us and returned to her work.

“
She wasn’t very nice.” I
turned to my sister, playfully punching her in the arm.

“
Hey now be
nice.”

“
What?” She smirked as we
walked slowly toward the bar. “She was a snot.”

“
Do you ever not say
exactly what you’re thinking?” I asked quietly as we passed by a
cheering black jack table. She looked over it curiously before
turning back to me.

“
No.” She shook her head.
“You always told me to be honest.”

“
Okay well there is such a
thing as too honest.” We stopped at the edge of the desk and I
reached over to sound the bell as Cordillia lifted herself to get a
better look.

“
I know but the way I see
it,” She dropped back onto her feet and turned to me. “if you find
it acceptable to be a total bitch then don’t feel bad when someone
calls you on it.” She looked up at me with a smile. “Just
saying.”

“
Okay,” I chuckled. “I
guess I can see that.”

“
Hello, sir, how can I
help you?” an excruciatingly chipper voice rang from behind the
thick sheet of glass. A dark haired woman stared up at me from her
post with a flirtatious grin.

“
We just need a room.” I
rubbed the back of my neck as she looked to Cordillia and back to
me. Her smile turned sour as she twisted her chair toward a small
computer and began typing without giving either of us a second
glance.

“
Single or double?” She
sighed heavily.

“
Double.” Her grin
returned and somehow she seemed brighter as she continued to type.
I can’t say that the female attention was unwelcome, for the most
part I didn’t really mind. But when you’re tired, hungry and in
desperate need of a shower it can be a little tiresome. She
continued typing faster than I had thought was humanly possible and
looked back up at me.

“
That will be eighty
dollars up front please.” She smiled as she thrust her hand toward
me. I reached for my wallet and pulled out what she wanted, smiling
as she flashed Cordillia a nasty look and she stuck out her tongue
in response.

“
What are we like six?” I
smiled as I handed the woman her money not breaking my gaze from my
sister.

“
She started it.” She
smiled as she turned her back toward the glass and crossed her arms
at her chest. I felt the attendants hand brush gently over mine as
she took my cash, a little more contact than was needed for a
simple money exchange and after another moment of her typing madly
on her computer she handed me a receipt with a grin and a wink.
“Could she be any more obvious?” Cordillia sneered as she looked
behind her.

“
Okay now stop
it.”

“
Stop what?” She smiled.
“This lady is being weird.”

“
Not that I don’t agree,”
I smiled as I leaned in close to her. “But be nice.” Cordillia
shrugged me off as the attendant’s voice rang over the loud
speaker.

“
Quinn to the front desk
please, Quinn front desk.” She finished as she hung up the phone
and looked up at me. “So what’s your name?” She asked as she
twirled a lock of hair between her fingers.

“
Ethan,” I responded
quickly. Maybe if I sounded like I didn’t want to talk she would
leave me alone. As per my usual luck it didn’t work.

“
Is this your girlfriend?”
she asked nodding in Cordillia’s direction. I looked over at Cordy
as she eyed a row of slot machine on the other end of the room. I
just shook my head and turned my back to the desk, leaning toward
Cordillia and nudging her gently in the side.

“
We can play before we
leave,” I promised her.

“
I’ll win,” she spoke
absently.

“
Is that a bet?” I
grinned.

“
No,” She smiled. “It’s a
fact.” I couldn’t help but laugh as a small thin framed boy walked
up to greet us. He shook my hand and without saying a word led us
across the expansive room toward a large white staircase that had
been painted to look like marble. Silently, I wished for an
elevator as we climbed up three flights of stairs to what I assumed
was the top floor and followed him down a narrow hallway. After a
long bit of silence, he stopped at a large black door and slid a
white key card down the lock.

We ducked inside the room and I took
the key from his fingers, replacing it with a tip and closing the
door as soon as he was out of sight. Sometimes it was nice when
they didn’t try to make small talk.

“
Wow,” Cordillia smiled as
she dropped her bag on the nearest bed and looked around. “This
place isn’t half bad.”

“
Kind of small.” I winced
as I noticed how close the beds were to each other leaving little
room to walk in between.

“
Yeah but at least it’s
not a rat hole,” She turned to me. “And I get my own
bed.”

“
You look like you’re
feeling better.” I smirked as I began rifling through my backpack
for a clean shirt. She shrugged and sat down at the foot of her
bed.

“
It doesn’t hurt anymore
but I feel like I went twenty rounds with a bottle of rum.” She
smirked before looking up at me quickly. “I mean... I uh, I’ve
never drank before I just imagine....”

“
Cordillia.” I laughed,
putting my hand up to stop her. “It’s alright, it’s not like I
don’t remember you sneaking in through the back door at three in
the morning from time to time.” Her face went red as she stared
down at her feet. I gave up on my quest for a clean shirt and
tossed my backpack down on the floor. “Or the sudden “flu” you had
after spending the night at Jackie’s.”

“
It was the flu,” she
muttered with a smile.

“
The flu doesn’t disappear
after a glass of Gatorade and three aspirin. I’m not stupid.” I
chuckled as I threw myself down on the bed. I closed my eyes as I
stretched myself as far as I could, I had only wanted to rest my
sore back but before I had the chance to realize how tired I was, I
somehow fell asleep.

I opened my eyes and
looked around me. It wasn’t the hotel room I had fallen asleep in
and just as soon as the thought crossed my mind, panic began to
rear its ugly head. My heart hammered in my chest and my breath
grew short as I took a few tentative steps down the dark and
deserted road.

“
Hey buddy,” I heard a
voice call from behind me.
Don’t turn
around
, I thought to myself. Not that it
did any good. As I turned against my better judgment, I saw a large
dark skinned man standing behind me. His eyes glowed menacingly as
he held out his hand to me and I looked him over before I took it.
He was homeless, that I could be sure of. His dark stained jeans
and torn green shirt screamed that over the clean shaven face that
stared back at me. “Spare some change?” he asked me with a hopeful
look in his eyes.

I just shook my head and
turned to walk away but before I could get my feet to move I was
face to face with a larger lighter skinned man. This one didn’t
look as ragged as the other. He wore a button down white shirt over
the top of loose black dress pants and his shoes shined, no
homeless man could afford shoes that nice.

His eyes were dark and
sunken in, he looked like he was in desperate need of sleep or
maybe on drugs I couldn’t be sure. He had an unmistakable five
o’clock shadow that grew over a finely chiseled face, the kind I
hoped I’d never have. My eyes trailed from his face down to his
hand and that’s when I noticed the knife. It was large and sparkled
even in the dim glow of the night lit street. I looked around
quickly, hoping for someone anyone that could help me out of the
mess I had gotten myself into. There was no one. I was alone with
only my fear to guide me.

Suddenly, I regretted my
better judgment to not stay home from work today. “If you don’t
have any change, how about your wallet then,” the man from behind
me spoke.

“
I don’t want any
trouble,” I said immediately damming my shaky voice.

“
Neither do we,” the man
with the knife said with a smug look on his face. The next thing I
knew I was being pulled into the alley by my hair. The man with the
knife walking in front of us was scanning the street for any sign
of a witness. It’s funny the things your mind thinks of when your
life is in danger. For instance my mind’s loud and angry grumble
about the state of my hair and how I should cut it when I had more
important things to think about like surviving. My back was slammed
into a wall so hard I lost my breath for a moment and the small man
moved leaving room for his hulking counterpart to take
control.

“
Wallet. Now!” he barked,
waving the massive blade in my face. I nodded my head and managed
to free my hand enough to reach into my pocket. As I fished around
my stomach dropped. I didn’t have it.

I left it at home when I
was at work, it kept me from spending the money I never really had
to spend. I dammed myself for not bringing it tonight. I dammed
myself for not staying home.

“
I… I don’t have it,” my
voice was almost pleading. For the first time in my life I wanted
to cry. I didn’t know if I was going to make it out of that alley
alive. I felt a sharp pain on the side of my head as something
struck me, hard. It was the smaller man. He was standing face to
face with me now, our eyes met and somehow I knew that I wasn’t
going to survive. My mind stopped and I began to run on auto
pilot.

You know those scenes in
the movies when someone is in trouble and they instinctively know
what to do? They fight off the bad guy, save the damsel in distress
without even so much as a thought to how.

This was not one of those
scenes. I froze. Of all the things I could have done and my mind
chose to freeze. I sluggishly and halfheartedly threw a punch at
the smaller man’s head and to my surprise I managed to knock him
back. He hit the wall on the other side of us and looked over at
his beast of a partner.