Entry #521224, added on 06-28-08 @ 7:47 pm EDT
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| Part Two - Chapter Seven: Yellow Bandana | Entry #521224 |
Chapter Seven
Les spread peanut butter across his toast as David opened the back door.
"Shit, it feels like a hundred degrees already." David walked through the apartment to the front door and opened it, too. He stepped out, and lit a cigarette as he allowed the screened door to slam behind him. I sat Sarah on the table, next to a jar of jam, and ate the toast Les spread for me.
David came back in the room.
"I'm going to Richard's to see if he's up yet. I don’t want to wait on him. Be back in a few minutes." He pushed open the screened back door, and fiddled with the latch.
"What now?" he asked as he looked at Les.
Les leaned over the back of the chair and said, "I got it, man." He fastened the latch on the screen from the inside. Then he turned and dipped a spoon back into the peanut butter jar, scraping the sides clean. He spread the small amount over the last bite of his toast.
He glanced at me and smiled. Les was always happy in the mornings, like nothing bothered him.
I stared at him blankly.
He picked up the plates from the table and put them into the sink. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his tee-shirt pocket and walked through the living room to the front door and out to the stoop. I walked outside, too, and sat beside him as he smoked. We watched as the cars drove by.
Several homeless people trudged on the sidewalk, wearing the same long faces, and though it was summer, the same tattered overcoats as the day before. I knew there was a shelter nearby for them to stay at night, but I wondered where they went during the day. One old woman caught my attention as she passed us. Her clothes were torn, her hair long and stringy. She pulled a grocery buggy behind her full of what looked like trash. She had a scraggly, little dog tied to the cart with a weathered rope used as a makeshift leash. The dog might have been white if the dirt was washed off, but I wasn't sure.
I said, "Look Les, she has a little dog with her today."
Les took a drag, inhaled more deeply than usual and stared at the old woman.
"Can we go over and see if it's okay to pet it?" I asked.
Les said, " No. Don't you remember the last time we tried to talk to her she started screaming and throwing things at David from her buggy? She's not mentally right Lisa. Stay away from her."
I said, "Yeah, I know, but she was afraid David was going to hurt her, Les. I'll just walk up and be real nice and ask her if I can pet it."
"No, Lisa," Les said. "David was trying to hand her some food. He didn't do anything and she just freaked out. You can't talk to her. She's crazy in the head. Hear me. Leave her alone. She might not understand and hurt you."
I could tell Les felt sorry for her. I guess he knew there was nothing we could do to help her. I was still disappointed, though. We never had a dog before. We talked about it, but mom said we couldn't afford to feed one.
We watched as the old woman walked by and her dog trotted along behind her, acting more like a puppy than full-grown. She turned the corner and disappeared.
David popped his head out the door to the front stoop, apparently returning through the back.
"Hey man, Richard's on his way over. Were going to the Berkley hotel to
talk to that manager about buying the soda."
Les jumped up. "I'm going with you,"
David shook his head. "Huh, uh. Just wait here. If you go, we gotta take Lisa."
I looked at David with my best frown and told him, "I'm going David. You promised I could have ice-cream, remember?"
"I know, but we have to sell the drinks first so I can even buy it."
"I'm still going with you," I said.
Les said, "Let her go David. She won't bother anything."
David shook his head and said under his breath, "Damn, have to take the whole playpen," as he glanced in my direction.
Les said, "Lisa, you have to be quiet and let us do the talking if we let you go. Okay?"
I nodded and rushed inside to get my shoes as Richard walked in the back
door. I put Sarah up in her box and set her back on the kitchen table.
"Make sure that back door is locked, Les," David said. He gave me another look as we left through the front.
We walked to the corner and turned in the direction of the hotel. I noticed over to the side the old homeless woman and her dog, still walking, still pushing her buggy.
David said, "Hey, let's cross the street. I don't want to pass that crazy witch and have her go off on me again."
We crossed the street in the middle of the block and dodged traffic. A horn from an irate driver in a red sports car with deep, rumbling mufflers, blared loud until it passed and faded. The old woman stared at David as if he made the noise. David asked, "Man, why does she hate me so much?" He returned the stare and we hurried along four more blocks.
As we reached the front of the small grocery store housed by the hotel, Richard said, "Wait here, I'll go in and see if Pete is here."
"Who's Pete?" Les asked.
"He's that guy I told you about that runs the place."
We stood outside the door. David noticed an attractive young blonde passing by. She wore a short skirt and sleeveless white blouse. She stood at the corner waiting at the cross walk for the signal light to turn green. David whispered over to Les as she crossed the street, "Now that is some nice..." Before he finished Les nudged him and David looked over to me.
I inspected him. I wondered why he didn't finish the sentence. "Nice what, David?" I asked. Les burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" I asked. David shook his head and walked back over to the store entrance.
Richard popped open the door and motioned. "Come on, man. He's here."
We walked inside the store. Les took my hand and pulled me over to the produce section. It felt good there. Apparently the air conditioning was focused on that part of the store more than the rest of it. The smell of fresh fruit lifted my spirits a little.
I watched as Richard and David talked to a taller than average, but very thin man with a white shirt. I assumed he was the guy named, Pete. He wore a long maroon apron with large pockets that wrapped around. He held a plastic gun-like thing in his hand that had small strips of paper or tape hanging from the end of it. I watched as he slapped a sticker onto a box from it. Then he put it back in one of the pockets and wiped his hands on the apron.
Richard and David said something else to him and he pulled a note pad from the other pocket and started writing. They talked a little longer. David scratched his head, then shook the guy's hand.
Bored, I turned to where the bananas were on display. I looked back for David. They were gone. I stared at the bananas. I wished I could have one.
Les thumbed through a truck magazine near a counter, paying no attention to me. I grabbed three bananas and stepped back from the display. I walked to the end of the aisle, peeled one open. took a big, quick bite and laid the peelings on the shelf behind some can goods.
Still holding the other bananas, I turned. The man talking to the boys bumped into me. I almost choked. I held my mouth still. David came up behind him with Richard.
"Where's Les?" he asked me. With my mouth full of banana, I pointed to the magazine section. David passed me, but not before he tossed a puzzled look at me which became a glare. He headed toward Les and Richard followed. For some reason, Pete remained behind and focused his eyes down at me.
He asked, "You like bananas?"
My mouth still full, I looked up and nodded. I turned away and noticed David as he talked to Les. He looked in my direction and the puzzled gaze returned.
I saw him whisper to Les and point at me as they walked in my direction. They got close enough for me to hear Les respond to David. "I don't know, man. Any other time she would be rattling on. Something's up." Les cocked an eyebrow, apparently just as puzzled as David.
David walked back up to Pete with Richard by his side. Richard patted him on the back and said, "We'll be back later this evening."
The manager continued to stare at me as he told Richard, "Sure."
Les grabbed my hand, pulled me closer to him, and looked at David.
David said, "Pete, this is my little sister, Lisa. Lisa, this is Pete."
I said nothing, even though I had swallowed what had been in my mouth.
Pete smiled at me and said, "Well, you're a doll."
David noticed the bananas and the puzzled expression left his face. He said, "Put the bananas up, Lisa. We're leaving."
Pete said, "Hey, it's okay. She can have them. It's on me." He smiled at me again.
Without a word, I walked over to the display of bananas and put the ones I held back neatly in the stack. I walked to the door behind Les.
David shook Pete's hand again and said, "Okay, we'll be back shortly."
As we walked along the street back to our apartment, David asked, "Why didn't you take the damned bananas? He said you could have 'em. And what's up with the zipped lip? Any other time you'd be yakking your mouth."
I said, "I don't like him. He's strange. Don't you trust him, David."
"God! You get more and more like Kathy everyday. You're only ten years old. You don't know everything."
"He's a creep, David. I don't like the way he looked at me. I can't believe you don't see it. Even Les noticed it."
The scent that was present just after my morning dream, returned to me almost immediately and I recognized it then. I remembered my best friend, Benji and our wonderful times on the merry-go-round at the projects playground. She'd been murdered about six months before. The police arrested her brother, Brian. Pete reminded me of Brian.
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© Copyright 2008 L. A. Powell (UN: lisapowell at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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Content Rating Notice: Recommended for Readers 18 Years and Older Only
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