It was dark, cold and raining outside. The balloon outside my home had deflated. I stood there and looked at it. As I stood there, the lights on his fantastic car came right at me. A tall handsome man got out of his car and asked, “Are you ready?” I nodded yes and closed the door behind me.
We headed down the road where other cars drove carefully along side us, except for one guy who was speeding in the rain. “Show off.” He said. “He’ll run off the road for sure if he doesn’t stop.” I said. But we didn’t care. We had a mission to complete.
The rain was falling heavy on the road. The wipers racing back and fourth to keep our view clear. We enter a parking lot and park. The rain continues to pound on the car. We look at each other and then get out of the car. He races for the umbrella and covers me, the Queen, under it.
“Are you ready for this?” He asked once again. “ No. Why don’t you take me back home. I have to bake a cake now. Yes!! Let’s do this!” He pulls out a bag from the trunk and shuts the door. We walk away a few feet and stop. He turns around to make sure the car is locked.
We weren’t afraid of the rain or the puddles as everyone around us were. They were running all over to find a dry place. Punk looking skate boarders running with their skate boards in their hands. Young blond bimbos walking extremely fast in heels they can’t walk in. Two men holding a sweater over their mother to keep her from melting. But we were calm. We had our LL Bean gear on. California folks don’t understand this. You just knew we were from out of town.
We stop at the location Mas had set up. He set up a time and a place for the transaction to go down at. That’s right. Transaction. We didn’t want to look suspicious, but since we were cool looking, it was hard to get people to stop looking at us. We looked at our watches to make sure they were in sync. “Check?” “Check. Roger that.” Confirms LJ. It was 6:45pm. We were 15 minutes early. As he stood there protecting the bag, I looked around to see who would show up. Would this man be early or show up at 7pm. With the rain still coming down, we thought he might be late. This would be the one and only time we would be there for this……transaction. Mas didn’t care for him after 7:15.
“What if the rain has caused major delays? We should wait until 7:30.” LJ says. “This will go down between 7 and 7:15 and nothing more. It’s not my problem. “How could you say it’s not your problem? This is big money here.” Noise from the crowd next to us caused us to silence ourselves. “We need to stay focused and watch out for this person. We don’t know what he’ll look like.” Mas said. “ I bet he’s tall, thin with brown hair. Any man name Grant must look like this. You remember Grant Show?” Mas looks at LJ and says, “You know, you talk a lot. Why is this?” LJ gives him a soft punch to the gut. “I like to talk! Talking is good. You should try it sometime.” “Why are all these people here talking? What do they talk about? Why do they talk about crap?” LJ looks at him as if strange and says, “People talk about lots of things. It’s what we do.” Tomas looks at the crowd and looks back at LJ and says, “That is not necessary. Silence is better.” She shakes her head back and fourth. “ You know, Mas…you’re not human. Do you hang upside down when you pee?”
The wind blows. The air was getting colder. The time was approaching 7 and no sign of Grant. A man walks by and looks towards Mas. LJ eyeballs him to see if he is just walking by or looking for Mas. But he continues to walk by. “I didn’t like that guy.” LJ says. “Why?” LJ watches as he walks away further. “He looked too bulky, like he was hiding something under that jacket.” “Perhaps it was his big gut. Muaw ha ha ha haaa” Says Mas.
Time went by and it was 7:10pm. No one was walking by anymore. The crowd had left and only two girls and one guy stood there talking and smoking. The smoke was annoying LJ. But the wind quickly blew it away. She turned around and noticed the girl’s rear. There was a lot of rear in the girl’s pants. She could hear it screaming. Suffocating. She needed a bigger size.
It was 7:14. “One more minute and I’m going to walk away and eat a burrito by 7:18.” But out of the corner came a man. He was tall, but not taller than Mas. He was thin and had brown hair. LJ was correct.
“Tomas?” Asks Grant. He looked like the type of man that would be interested in the package. He had that look. The look that made us think he would be trouble for us. “I have the money.” Grant says. “I have the goods.” Says Mas. “And I’m cold.” LJ mumbles to herself sadly.
The security guard at the door watched and wondered what was going on. Did he notice Grant handing Mas money? Yes, he did.
“I have 75 here. It’s all there.” Says Grant. Mas hands him the bag and tells him he can check it out if he wanted to. But Grant trusted him. And Mas trusted that he had the 75 dollars in his hands.
“Thanks, good night.” Says Grant and he walks away into the night. “He wore a rain jacket. Did you notice? He’s not from California.” LJ says. “Yes, I noticed. It doesn’t rain that much in California, so California people don’t own any. Nor do they own umbrellas, like this magnificent umbrella you see here.” LJ looks up at Mas and says, “Oh yes. It’s big and magnificent.” They head over to Chipotle and order their burritos. Mas holds his burrito in his hand and slowly pulls it towards his mouth for that first great bite. But before he bites into it, he looks at his watch. “The transaction went down as planned and my burrito is in my hand.” It was 7:18 on the dot. “I think he’ll like the camera bag. I did. But I like my new one better.”
