“OH! I’ve never cum so many times in my life!” Carl grunted as he thought over the last 24 hours.
“Me neither,” Anna sighed.
CHAPTER 10
Jorge was standing in the basement looking down at the specimen of a man that he found so pathetic. Don Angelo was beside him with a look of contempt in his eyes.
“So this is old man Reiner?” he pointed his cigarette into the corner.
“Yuh…. Says he ain’t seen Carl in years,”
“Is that so?” Angelo didn’t believe it either.
“Please. You gotta know I’m tellin’ the truth,” Reiner was desperate for them to listen.
“Be quiet!” Jorge lost his temper and kicked the old man in the side. “I’m thinking!”
Silence was brought to the basement momentarily as Jorge figured out a plan.
“You have Carl’s number?”
“Of course,” rasped the Don as he pulled his smart phone from his suit jacket.
“I have an idea,” grinned Jorge. “May I?” and he reached out for Angelo’s phone.
The Don handed it over with a sceptical look.
Jorge opened the camera and pointed it at the man on the floor.
“Hey, say cheese!” he mocked.
The old man could do nothing but cower, so said nothing.
“Hey! I said say cheese!” and Jorge kicked him the face.
Blood began to seep from his nose and cover his shirt. Reiner Senior seemed distraught at the attack and began to howl in pain. Meanwhile the other two men were oblivious, and laughed as they looked down at him. Jorge took a photo and examined it.
“Yep… Looks just as good as I expected,” and he handed the phone back to the Don.
“Good idea kid,” Angelo playfully punched his little assassin in the arm. “Now all we have to do is send this to Carl and he’ll be hurryin’ into our arms in no time,”
Angelo pressed the send button and breathed a sigh of satisfaction. Now all they had to do was wait.
~
Carl and Anna were still entwined on the couch.
“You know with you in my arms it’s easy to forget that we’re in this God forsaken hellhole,” he looked around at the abandoned apartment. “It’s a shame. Would have been nice once,”
“Hmmm…. Yeah,” Anna agreed sleepily. “I wonder who lived here,”
“Some poor bastard,”
Carl looked up to the ceiling and started to feel sleepy too. The couple were enjoying each other’s company so much and Anna wished they could lie here forever. But they knew they had to run.
“Would it be cool if we could just move in here and be you know… normal. And no one would ever find us,”
“That would be kinda nice,” Carl thought about what life could be if they were a regular couple.
He looked out the window and saw it was getting dark.
“We better make a move soon,” he stroked the top of Anna’s head and gave her a kiss.
“Yeah…” she seemed sad at the idea of having to run again.
Carl could tell she was desperate for a normal life and he wasn’t sure he could ever give her that. But what choice did she have? He at least vowed to try and make her happy. He got up from the couch and strode over the window. Lighting a cigarette he poked his head out on the fire escape and looked down. This truly was a gruesome neighbourhood, but in this moment they were part of the degenerate demographic and were fitting in nicely.
The air was frigid as it drifted across his face. It blew his smoke into the distance and Carl watched it fly away out of sight. He pulled himself away from his thoughts and turned to Anna who was sitting on the edge of the couch dressing herself.
“I’ll be two minutes,” she smiled at him.
To look at her, you could never have imagined the things she had been through; the pain, the violence and the loss. She was a real diamond in the rough.
“Hey Carl….” She seemed to be hesitating. “What are we doing?”
“We need a car,” he blew smoke out the window and looked down to the street. “And there’s a couple down there that look like they might not be missed,”
“Really?” Anna came over to join him.
“Like that old Hyundai over there,” he pointed down the way.
“Hmmm…. Think you can hotwire it?”
“I know I can,”
“Well… what are we waiting for?”
As they climbed out the window and onto the fire escape steps the wind caught them and Anna stumbled for a moment with her fiery hair drifting up to the sky like flames. They moved quickly and before long they were at the old, battered Hyundai.
“You really don’t think someone owns this do you?”
“Fuck, I hope not,” he laughed. “The state of it!”
And he pulled out a multi tool from his back pack and got to work. Soon they were inside the vehicle and were protected from the cold wind.
“Nearly there!” Carl’s lips were pursed with concentration as pulled out wires from inside the dashboard.
With a few adept movements and some muttering under Carl’s breath he soon got the car started. The engine roared sadly into action and soon they were away and back out on the open road. The highway stretched before them in streams of light.
“So Mexico…. Are you sure?” she asked
“I think so,” he wasn’t sure at all.
“Have you been before?”
“A few times?” he didn’t elaborate and quickly changed the subject. “So have you been outta Chicago before…. You know until recently?”
“Nope. Not ever,” she admitted sadly.
“That’s a shame. But you can go anywhere you like now…” Carl trailed off as he realized the ridiculousness of his statement. She’d never be able to live normally.
There was an eerie silence in the car and all that could be heard above the sound of the engine was the heating as it pumped hot, dusty air into the vehicle. Anna was looking straight ahead at the future and couldn’t believe the things that had happened over the last few days. She nibbled on a fingernail and shivered into her coat, feeling the constant need to keep glancing at Carl as though he’d disappear if she looked away too long.
“Hey. What’s up?” he sensed her unease.
“Just thinking…”
“About what?”
“About a million things,” she looked back to the road and all the cars they were passing. She wondered where the people were going. Were they in as much trouble as her?
“I hear ya kid. I got countless things runnin’ through my mind too. We’ll be ok though. Just don’t look back. It’s not where we’re headed,” and he reached a hand out and squeezed her thigh.
She smiled weakly at him with her thumb still in her mouth.
“But you gotta stop this,” Carl pulled her hand down. “Try not to be so nervous,”
“I can’t help it!”
He couldn’t imagine how terrified she must have been. He’d make things alright for her soon though. They just had to get over the border.
The hours passed by quickly and soon they were the only car on the road. Anna was scared they they’d break down and not be able to get help or worse… they’d be found by the Mob and have no method of escape. But she calmed herself down eventually and dismissed her thoughts as childish.
As she looked into the darkness of the highway it seemed as though everything came to a head, or rather, she was suddenly conscious of her situation and the reality of everything hit her. For the first time she was acutely aware that her father was dead. She surmised that this was because the shock of the situation was eventually wearing off and leaving her raw with emotion. She looked to Carl, her saviour and her father’s murderer. She had given herself to him freely but did she even know who he was.
He sensed her anxiety straight away and looked to her:
“What?”
“I don’t know very much about you at all Carl Reiner…. If that’s even your name,”
“Where did this come from, eh?” he seemed amused at her befuddlement yet also offended. “What’s up? You can ask me anything you know,”
“Fine,” she thought for a second. “You said I reminded you of an old girlfriend, who was she?”
Carl shuffled in his seat anxiously and felt a twinge in his back.
“She was… she wasn’t really anything,” he lied.
She looked at him in disbelief.
Jesus, this girl can already see right through me… He thought to himself.
“Listen. I wasn’t gonna say anything but actually…. Your situation was so much like my old childhood neighbour. But she wasn’t so lucky. Her father killed her,”
“Oh……” Anna didn’t know what to say about that. “That’s terrible,”
“It was awful. It’s stayed with me forever. I always dreamed of saving her, you know, but I was too late. But at least I wasn’t with you,” he looked to her tenderly.
Anna felt tremendously special all of a sudden. “Thank you,” was all that came out. No words were good enough to describe what he’d done for her.
“Anything else you’d like to know?” there was a hint of annoyance in his voice because he didn’t understand why she cared about his past.
“Your family, you never talk about them,”
“I don’t have a family,”
“Not even a mother or father anywhere? Or a random cousin?”
“I’ve got no one but you kid. Like you said earlier we’re just orphans in an evil world,” his words came out sounding venomous.
The silence resumed to the car and Carl lit a cigarette with his eyes still on the road.
“Actually I’ve not been entirely truthful,” he exhaled smoke over the windscreen.
Anna looked to him suspiciously.
“I have a father….and a mother”
“Oh? Was your father as bad as mine? Is that why you never mentioned him before?”
“Not quite. In fact my Dad was pretty much perfect growing up. We were the best of pals. And he was prouder than anything the day I signed up for the navy,”
“So what happened?”
“Well… when I came back from Afghanistan… I had my problems for sure and not just my back. Just like you Anna, I have nightmares that haunt me every night. I can’t close my eyes without seeing them. But my Dad didn’t understand. Thought that all that crap was in my head and it was! But he thought I was just being overdramatic, that I was weak, that illnesses in the mind didn’t really exist,”
Anna looked out the passenger window with unflinching sadness. “I’m so sorry to hear that. That changes everything then,”
“No, it doesn’t,” he wound down the window and tossed his cigarette end into the road. “Anyway the last time I saw him, he said I was a lazy good for nothing for not being able to hold down a regular job after I was discharged. Said I enjoyed pretending to be ill, that I was doing it for attention. I’ve never spoken to him since.,”
The moment felt profound to Anna as she looked to the man beside her. She’d finally found someone that had stuck by her happiness and sorrow. In that second as the little car sped down the empty highway there was a palpable sense of trust between the new couple. They held hands and looked straight ahead.
“It won’t be long until we’re there. Just gotta keep going,” Carl nodded as he spoke.
CHAPTER 11
Don Angelo was in his favorite bathtub watching his favorite movie, ‘It’s A Wonderful Life.’ The tears always came to his eyes at the same point like clockwork and he was getting himself ready. He always loved ending his day with a luxurious soak but wished at times that he had someone to share it with. A nice lady perhaps, but he was rather romantically illiterate and often had to resort to paying for a woman’s company. It turns out that money can’t always buy you love.
He lay back and lifted his eyes to the gold ceiling as if he could see into heaven. He wondered if his parents ever looked down on him and felt proud of his wealth. They had the best marriage and were together until the very end. What he wouldn’t do for a love like that…
There was a knock at the door and it interrupted his thoughts.
“Who the fuck is it?”
“It’s Jerry!”
“Yeah yeah, come on in,”
The small, tubby man walked in with a plateful of fries.
“You read my mind pal, I’m starvin’” and Angelo tucked in. “Any news on Carl?”
“Nothin’ nada,” Jerry waved his arm passionately. “With any luck he’s wacked himself and that girl too,”
“Chance would be a fine thing,” the Don mumbled with chubby, food filled cheeks.
The two men watched the TV for a few minutes until Jerry interrupted.
“This shit’s miserable pal. You watch this all the time and cry like a baby,”
“I can’t help it. It’s beautiful. Anyway… listen. I think I have an idea,”
“Oh yeah?”
“That cop you know… the Irish one,” Angelo thought hard.
“Callahan?”
“Yup, him. I think you oughta pay him a visit. Maybe time we enlist some more help,”
“Sure thing, I’ll call you if – I mean when - he agrees” and Jerry closed the door quietly to not disturb the movie anymore.
~
The sun was beating off Anna’s face as she woke.
“Fuck,” she rubbed her neck. “How long was I asleep?”
“Ages. Like 6 hours,”
“Urgh… must have needed it,” she looked about at the unfamiliar landscape and then to Carl who had dark circles under his eyes. “Where are we?”
“Somewhere on the edge of Oklahoma city,”
“Looks kinda bleak?” she looked out to the country.
“Bleaker than Chicago?” he laughed. “I think I prefer it here,” and he quickly pulled off the highway into a diner. “You hungry kid?”
“Always!”
He laughed and kissed her on the cheek. She hugged him tight and kissed him back.
“Hang on, I just need my backpack,” and Carl moved round to the trunk.
Pulling out the briefcase, then his backpack, something tumbled out but he didn’t notice. He never realized as he closed the door, that his phone had toppled out and fallen into a little nook in the trunk. The couple ventured inside and sat down ready to order.
“What can I get ya?” asked the overly polite waitress with the ginger Buffon.
“Coffee, black and pancakes,” Anna yawned.
“And I’ll have the same,” Carl nodded and smiled.
The waitress scribbled down their order while batting her false eyelashes before sashaying away into the kitchen in her kitten heels.
“She must get up real early to look like that first thing in the morning,” Anna thought out loud.
“Well I guess you’re lucky to get the chance to lie in then,”
They attempted to make small talk through their exhaustion but it was excruciating. There was no excusing the situation they were in. They were surviving hour by hour on the run in a stolen car and they hadn’t even known each other 3 days. Carl especially was feeling the pressure and as he looked to the young, gorgeous girl across the table, he couldn’t help but think of what would have happened if he killed her. He’d have his freedom, his house, his savings, his car and his life. But the more he pondered on it the more he thought he’d done the right thing in sacrificing all of those things for the safety of Anna. For the rest of his life he could sleep easy knowing he’d done the honourable thing.
However, in the moment Carl’s thoughts were scattered and bordered on paranoid. He felt that everyone was looking at them, and he saw danger in the eyes of all the diner’s customers. He began tearing at a sugar packet and pouring its contents onto the table. When he finished he opened another one.
“Hey,” Anna held his hand to soothe him. “What’s goin’ on?”
“Just stressed out. Just feel like I’m goi
n’ crazy,”
“I get it. I feel the same,”
“Of course you do. But I can’t help shake the feeling that we stand out. That people are noticing us,”
“Well I think that crazy crackhead over there is watchin’ us for sure,” she signalled with her eyes and Carl turned round.
His gaze was immediately met by the wide eyed insanity of a matchstick thin man in leathers.
“Shit. He looks…. Interesting,” Carl grimaced.
Anna looked to the man and saw him scratch wildly at his hands before muttering to himself and drinking a mug of coffee in one go.
“He’s freakin’ wired,”
“Poor guy,”
“Yeah. Some folk get all the luck,” Anna thought about how things could always be worse. “Well at least we’ve always got our health,” she held Carl’s hand.
The waitress strode over with the pancakes and winked at Carl before she left. Anna was instantly infuriated but did nothing. Instead she chewed on the cuff of her coat and began chopping up her pancakes into little pieces with her fork.
“You eat like a child,” Carl laughed.
“I wish I still was a child, kinda,” she mumbled into her plate.
Carl opened his mouth to speak but was quickly interrupted by a figure passing by the table. He looked up to see the poor, crack addicted man walk slowly past the table while making intense eye contact. He then twitched maniacally and started to scratch at the inside of his arm like a wild animal. Then as mysteriously as he disappeared he left. The couple watched him exit the diner furtively.
“That was…. Weird,” mumbled Anna with a mouthful of pancakes.
Carl had an uneasy feeling he couldn’t articulate. There was something about the guy he didn’t like. Something he just couldn’t trust.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost baby, what’s up?” Anna asked him worriedly.
“I just really don’t like the look of that guy,”
They both looked out the window to see him standing in the parking lot with his eyes darting all over the place.
“You think he’s connected to the mob in some way?”
“I doubt it. I mean they notoriously hate junkies and degenerates. But there’s something about him. It’s like he’s onto us,”
“I thought that too,” Anna agreed.
Then the waitress came back over.
“Refills?”
“Yes please,” Anna held out her mug.