Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Abraham stood on the doorstep of a new client. He had on a new pair of pants and a nice buttoned down shirt. The door was opened and he was let in, he was led to a back office, which was a bedroom in the first level of the house. A man stood up from behind his small desk and said,”You are going to be my new best friend”
“And you will be mine as well”Abraham said to him as he looked at the slip of paper,”$650?”
“Yes, that’s me”the man said as Abraham handed him the envelope,”Can I count before I sign?”
“Sure”Abraham said. He stood there as the man counted. He didn’t count with him because he knew it was the right amount. The man finished counting and paused and then counted again. This didn’t faze him, lots of clients double checked.
“I only have $640 here”the man said angrily
“Oh no that’s a mistake sir-“
“Are you calling me stupid?Did you not see me count this money?Twice even?”he asked him.”Are you trying to cheat me out of my money?”
“No….ok there must have been a mistake on our part…my part-“
“Well then fix it or I swear I will cut you right here, right now”the man said angrily as he picked up his letter opener, which looked very new and very sharp.
“Can I count it?”Abraham said, trying to sound calm
“Sure, make it quick, you have been here too long already”he said to him.
Abraham counted quickly and sure enough, he was short 10 bucks. Shit. He must have gotten lazy counting. He sighed.
“How are you going to fix it?I need that money now!”the man said threateningly
“I don’t know…I…you are my last delivery for today-“he said and then he felt himself thrown up against the wall and his box dropped to the floor and he felt the letter opener being held up to his neck.
“I don’t know!?That’s not a good answer! You need to fucking figure it out and you need to do it now!”he said to him
Abraham panicked, this has never happened before. He then saw a red envelope on the floor, that was his stash. Then he smiled, his stash! “I have extra money….just in case”
“WHERE!”
“Its in this red envelope in my box….but now its on the floor, if you let go of me I can give you your 10 bucks”Abraham said. The man let go of him, roughly and he quickly bent down and picked up his red envelope and pulled out two fives.
“You are very lucky”he said to him,”Get out”
“It was nice doing business with you”Abraham said
“Bullshit!”he said and slammed the door behind him.Abraham walked out of the house quickly. That was close, too close.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
“YOU WHAT!?”Morietti yelled at him. Abraham told him about the 10 dollar shortage, he didn’t want to but he knew that the guy would probably make a call and complain.”DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT DOES TO OUR BUSINESS?!”
“I know but-“
“WAS HE A NEW CLIENT?!”
“Well yes-“
“DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT’S GOING TO DO TO MY REPUTATION!? HE COULD GET UPSET AND TELL THE COPS, HE MIGHT THINK THAT WE INTENTIONALLY WANTED TO ROB HIM OF HIS MONEY!”
“Well yeah that’s what he said but I don’t think he’s gonna call the cops-“
“HE SAID THAT!?”
“But I FIXED IT!”Abraham yelled back at him. This didn’t make Morietti any happier. The next thing he knew, Morietti pulled out a 38 revolver and threw him up against the wall and put the gun to his head.”SHIT! MORIETTI YOU DON’T WANT TO DO THIS!”
“SHUT UP!”Morietti shouted at him. Sweat running down his brow, eyes bloodshot. He was angry and about to go crazy.”See?If I don’t do this now, you will think that being short 10 bucks is ok. Then you will be short, 20 and then 30 and then I will have angry customers and that makes me angry”
“Look I fixed it, I took the 10 bucks out of my stash”Abraham said
“HOW VERY NICE OF YOU!”Morietti shouted in his face,”But giving money out of your stash aint gonna cut it! WHERE’S THE 10 BUCKS ABE!? WHERE IS IT!?”he shouted at him
“I didn’t lose it-“
“WHERE IS IT!? ARE YOU STEALING FROM ME!?”Morietti yelled as they heard three stomps come through the ceiling. Someone was coming.
“Someone’s coming, put down the gun, don’t do this. Lets talk like adults”Abraham said pleadingly
Vernon came down the steps and then stopped,”What the fuck is going on!?”
“Vern. Im ok”Abraham said
“NO HE’S NOT OK! HE STOLE 10 BUCKS FROM ME!”
“I DIDN’T STEAL IT! I MISCOUNTED!”Abraham shouted at him.”IM SORRY! I DIDN’T DOUBLE CHECK, I WAS IN A RUSH!”
“THAT’S NO EXCUSE!”Morietti shouted back as he cocked the gun
“STOP! THIS IS GOING TOO FAR!”Vernon said as he stepped forward
“DON’T MOVE! THIS GUN IS FULLY LOADED!”Morietti said to him as he pointed the gun at him and then put it to Abraham’s head,”YOU NEVER MISCOUNT YOU HEAR ME!? IF YOU EVER PULL A LITTLE STUNT LIKE THIS AGAIN….I WILL GUT YOU LIKE A FUCKING FISH YOU LITTLE FUCK! YOU HEAR ME!? I WILL SHOOT YOU, GUT YOU AND THROW YOUR BODY PARTS INTO THE PACIFIC YOU FUCKING HEAR ME!? BUT THIS IS A LESSON TO YOU, YOU LITTLE GOOD FOR NOTHING BASTARD, NEXT TIME I WILL SHOOT YOU. BE SURE OF THAT!”he said and then pulled the trigger.
“SHIT!”Vernon shouted
Abraham closed his eyes as the gun popped, but nothing happened. The gun wasn’t fully loaded. He let out a sigh of relief,”Oh fuck”
Morietti gave him a sick smile and pushed him away,”Guess it aint fully loaded. Guess I miscounted”he said to him.”Now get the fuck out of my sight”he said to them. He went over to Vernon and took his slips from him,”You too!Get the fuck outta my sight”he said
They both left quickly. Once they walked outside, Abraham tried to not look too shaken. “God Abe what the fuck did you do?”Vernon said to him
“I don’t want to talk about it”Abraham said,”You heard him”
“I heard parts of it….he was pissed”Vernon said
“You think so?”Abraham said sarcastically as he walked. They walked in silence towards the trolley and got on the next one. They sat there in silence, still shocked at the events that happened minutes before.”Have you ever pissed him off like that?”
“Ive pissed him off, Ive miscounted once, 5 dollars off but he didn’t put a gun to my head-“
“You must be the favorite then”Abraham said
“No, he hung me off the side of the balcony, threatening to drop me, we were 5 stories up. High enough to kill me if I fell”Vernon said
“Oh”Abraham said
“But I made it up to him. I never made a mistake ever again. I got my deliveries done early, before the deadline and then I found you. You made me look good…well before today of course”
“I apologize”Abraham said.”I miscounted. I was never good at math”
“Well you better educate yourself”Vernon said
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Salomi smiled as the teacher asked them to subtract 8 from 10. She moved the 8 beads away. She raised her hand.
“Ms. Squires?”she asked her
“Its 2”she said
“Ok add 5”the teacher asked her
“7”she said without having to move the beads.
“Excellent work”she said to them,”Alright that is all for your arithmetics lesson. Time for lunch”she said to all of them.
Salomi smiled proudly as they all walked out of the schoolhouse. Salomi took the sandwich out of her paper bag and sat in the grass, waiting for Eveline. Eveline soon came out but a bunch of boys were following behind her, laughing.
“Eveline is stupid!”
“She cant add! She cant even read either”another said as he tugged on her hair a little bit
“Stop it!”Eveline said
Salomi got up quickly and went over to them, she pulled Eveline towards her,”Is there a problem?”she asked
“Oooh its little smarty pants. She thinks she knows everything about everything” he said to her
“I know that you are a dork”Salomi said to him
“Ooooh”the boys said
“You don’t scare me, you are just a girl that knows how to count. You cant do anything, go sew a blanket or go eat your little sandwich”he said to her
“Im just a little girl who knows how to count huh?”she asked him as she balled up her fists,”Whats 4 plus 1?”
“5 duh”he said
“Yeah and five fingers make a fist”she said and then punched him in the face. He fell to the ground.
“You little witch!”he said as he held his face
“Don’t ever tease me or my friend again!”she said to them as she and Eveline walked over to their usual tree.
“Ohmygoodness Lomi, you just punched him”Eveline said
“So?”
“Girls don’t do that”Eveline said
“Im not just a girl”Salomi said
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Ever since the incident, Abraham focused on getting his deliveries made early, however, it was hard when he worked 10 hours a day at the factory. Their business was secretly getting more popular everyday. Every day they had new clients. At times he would come home late which would make Millie even more suspicious. Salomi didn’t mind, this gave her more time to play with Eveline.
But Abraham realized that things needed to change. He couldn’t do the deliveries and the factory job but he was afraid to quit.
Abraham sat there as the coal got hot. He had to wait for it to heat up and then unload it. He was so tired, he scratched his head and waited. Without realizing it, he fell asleep.
“SQUIRES!”was what woke him from his well deserved sleep.
“What?”he asked and looked and saw his boss, and a few men watching.
“What the hell are you doing sleeping on the job!?”his boss yelled at him. The other men that were working stopped what they were doing and witnessed what was going on. Vernon looked up and walked over.
“It was a mistake sir. Sorry”Abraham said as he yawned and stretched. That was a really good nap though.
“You aint taking me serious boy. I don’t pay you to sleep on the job!”his boss yelled
“Ok I apologized I heard you the first time”Abraham said,”Now go back to your office”he said as he started to unload the big lumps of coal.
“I don’t pay you to get smart with me either”his boss said.
“You’re right! You are absolutely right! YOU DON’T PAY ME SHIT!”Abraham said to him. His nerves were going crazy, his sanity was slowly fading away. He was under a lot of stress over a job that didn’t pay him anything and was losing sleep because of a job that gave him everything he ever wanted. But the bottom line was he was cranky, tired and stressed. He didn’t need anything else to worry about.
“What the hell did you say?”his boss said to him
“YOU DON’T PAY ME SHIT! THIS JOB IS BULLSHIT!”Abraham shouted at him. He turned around and stood up on a chair,”YOU HEAR THAT EVERYONE!? THIS JOB IS BULLSHIT AND IT DOESN’T PAY SHIT!-“
“Shut the hell up Squires!”his boss said,”This job puts clothes on your back and feeds that precious little girl of yours. You better watch your mouth and get back to work before you say something you will regret. I can send you home”
“You can send me home huh?”Abraham asked him
“Yes! And then you will have to resort to shining my shoes…how about that? Little maggot”his boss said to him and started to walk away.
“Im a maggot huh?”Abraham said to him, anger and pride taking over. “I don’t need this stupid job! I quit!”he shouted at him. The other men stared at him in disbelief.
“What did you say?”
Vernon stepped up to him,”Hey Abe,be quiet. This is going too far-“
“No, Ive been wanting to say this for a long time now”Abraham said to him,”I quit! Im sick of carrying around sacks of dirt and only getting enough to buy one piece of bread! One piece! But Ive found something better, I don’t need this shit!”he said
“Fine, get out!”his boss said to him,”I’ll make sure that you never work in this town again!”
“Sure, like you got that much power”Abraham said to him as he turned around and put on his jacket.”You coming Vern?You don’t need this either”he said to him.
Vernon smiled,”I quit too!”he said loudly
“Oh please”his boss said,”I don’t need either of you”he yelled as they both walked out.”Anyone else wanna quit?”he asked everyone that gathered around.No one said a word,”Good. Get back to work!”he yelled at them.
“Ohmygod!”Vernon said as they both left.”I cant believe we didn’t do this sooner!We need to celebrate!”he said to Abraham as he put his arms around his shoulders.Abraham smiled, feeling the best he has ever been in a long time.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
“I cant believe this, where am I going to hide these?”Abraham said to himself as he carried two big sacks of fives into the house. He was probably carrying two million dollars worth, that’s how big and heavy the bags were. He looked and saw that Salomi wasn’t around. She was old enough now to be in the house alone. She has become a responsible young lady. Just like her mother.
He tried to fit the bags under the small bed that they still shared. However,they wouldn’t fit. He tried to push it under but one started to rip.”Shit”he said, he then found a hammer and pulled some of the nails out of the floorboard and lifted it up. He dug through the dirt under it with his hands.Once he saw that there was a deep enough hole, he picked up the bags and put it in the hole.However, the rip widened and the money fell out.”Shit!”he said again and tried to put it in back in the bag. He knew that he would need to count it all again tomorrow.”Come on”he said as he tried to fit it all back. Then he heard a voice and it said something that he was afraid of.
“Daddy? Where did you get all that money from?”Salomi asked in shock
*_____________________*