“Is it safe to talk here?” Brenda said nervously as she looked over both shoulders.
“ Of course it is!” Mario hissed, his voice sounded like a snake if it could talk.
Brenda clutched her purse closer to her side as she nervously squirmed back and forth on her barstool. Mario’s eyes darted directly at Brenda’s purse exuding a predatory stare which sent a whirlwind of chills down her spine.
“ So how do we do this?” she asked as she leaned as close as she could to Mario. He looked directly into her worried eyes and flashed a slightly diabolical smile which did absolutely nothing to calm her nerves.
“ Well,” Mario began as his eyes turned to where his cigarettes were resting at the edge of the bar. He reached across the table, slowly grazing Brenda’s hand causing her to slightly recoil with a look of disgust. Mario, totally oblivious to Brenda’s concerns, focused his attention on his pack of cigarettes.
“ I’m not sure that you can smoke in here.” She mentioned anxiously while she glanced around the small bar to check and see if anyone else was smoking.
“ Well I can say that I am sure that I don’t give a shit.” Mario replied out of the corner of his mouth while he lit his cigarette. Brenda sat motionless as she watched him blow out a long stream of smoke that lazily rose to the ceiling. She coughed and waved the lingering smoke from her eyes as they slowly began to water.
“ Yeah. Sorry about that.” Mario said in a blatantly indifferent tone. She forced a weak smile and moved her barstool further away from him. Suddenly the coughing began once more.
“ I have asthma.” Brenda croaked as she pointed to her throat. Mario groaned and dropped his half lit cigarette into his empty beer bottle.
Taking a hiatus from her coughing, Brenda managed to say in a clearer tone,” So you know what to do right?” She asked impatiently as she looked at her phone.
“ This isn’t my first rodeo, lady.” He immediately replied with a disgusted look on his face.
“ I want it to look like an accident, a fatal one.” Brenda whispered louder than she should have.
“ No shit. Yeah. I got it.” His response did nothing to boost her confidence. Reaching out her phone, she briefly scrolled through her pictures and held the phone out to Mario.
“ Here. Look.” She urged as she pushed the phone closer to Mario. Groaning softly under his breath, he impatiently craned his neck to look at the picture.
“ On the back bumper he has a Semper Fi sticker.” Holding her phone towards Mario, he nodded his head.
“ A marine, huh? Wow!” Mario marveled as he reached over to where his cigarettes were waiting for him.
“ Yeah. An asshole marine.” Brenda scoffed as she gathered her phone and her keys. Mario just sat at the bar tapping his fingers.
“ Shit! I almost forgot !” she reached into her pocketbook and pulled out a thick envelope. The stern gaze that was plastered across Mario’s face slowly transformed itself into a big smile. He reached over and snatched the envelope from her hands and peered inside.
“ It’s not enough.” He uttered, his wide smile temporarily on hiatus after examining its contents for no more than 5 seconds.
“ Half now and half when its done.” Brenda announce firmly as she began to gather her belongings.
“ That’s not what we agreed upon.” Mario said as he placed the envelope back on the counter.
“ That’s the best that I can do right now.” She said as she immediately stopped and stared at him. Mario contemplated the situation for a few moments that fueled Brenda’s anxiety to even greater heights.
“ Don’t worry. Its fine. Just make sure you don’t all of sudden develop dementia over the next few days.” He added casually. Brenda gulped and slowly nodded her head in agreement. Mario searched her eyes and nodded his head in return.
“ His car will be outside the garage this evening and will be unlocked. The address and type of car is written inside the envelope that I gave you. Good luck and thank you.” Brenda finished her statement abruptly and rose to her feet. She nodded her head and made her way directly to the exit without looking back.
Mario sat quietly for a few minutes until she had completely left the building. He lit a cigarette, peered inside the envelope in a clandestine fashion and noticed the address that she had written inside. Extinguishing his cigarette in Brenda’s empty drink glass, he threw a few dollar bills on the bar and left.
_________________________________________________________________
The loud pulsing sounds emanating from the outdated alarm clock reverberated throughout the tiny apartment. Groaning loudly, Mario rolled over and grasped for the clock. Rubbing his eyes until he felt awake enough, he bent down , and grabbed his shoes as well as pants. Jumping up from the bed, he navigated his way through the errant piles of clothes that were strewn throughout the room.
“ Ok, Ok I’m up!” he hissed at his clock as he turned it off. Grabbing his car keys and phone, he headed right out the door. Marching straight through the parking lot he almost ran directly into a younger man who had his arms full of groceries. Mario managed to avoid the collision as he stared at the man.
“ Hey!” Mario stopped and beckoned the man to face him. Struggling with the groceries which were clearly more than he could handle, he groaned and stopped. Simply staring at Mario, he didn’t say a word but just waited to hear what he had to say.
“Aren’t you the motherfucker who parks so goddamn close to my driver’s side door? So close that I need a can opener to get into my own fucking car?” Mario asked in an angry and potentially aggressive tone.
“ Uh.. I am not sure. Which one is your car?” The man grunted as he almost dropped one of the bags of groceries in his arms.
“ You know goddamn well which one it is. You park next to it everyday.” Mario growled, appalled by the fact that this man dared to challenge his accusations. He just gulped , lifted his knee to halt one of the bags from sliding down his leg.
“ I’m sorry it won’t happen again.” The man finally replied as he lifted his knee once more to stop the other bag from falling onto the ground.
Mario just lifted his hand as if he was going to smack him and abruptly turned around. He continued to walk over to his car while he was shaking his head about his neighbor.
“ You fucking bet it won’t happen again. I guarantee that.” Mario mumbled as he fumbled momentarily with his keys until the door was open. He slid in immediately. “ Goddamn I need a bigger car.” He lamented as he managed to position himself comfortably in his seat. Glancing over to look on the passenger seat, he stared at the array of wire cutters and other tools that were scattered on the seat as well as the floor. Grinning, he started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.
Lighting a cigarette, he leaned back in his seat. The sounds of silence begin to appear, Mario shook his head. “ We definitely need some tunes.” Reaching down to navigate the radio, he soon found what he was looking for.
“ Here it is!” The song ,”Smoke on The Water “ by Deep Purple blared out from the speakers, making the recent silence a distant memory. Smiling , he started to smell smoke different from his cigarette.
“ What the fuck?” he uttered out loud as he reached for the radio. After he turned the volume down, he sniffed the air. “ Wait a minute!” he paused, a perplexed look emerging across his face, he laughed.
“ Why the hell do I always turn down the radio when I am trying to smell something? What a dumbass!” Mario shook his head as he contemplated the absurdity of it all when the car began to sputter slightly. Throwing his cigarette out of the window, he glared at the dashboard in disbelief as he attempted to begin to fathom what could be possibly wrong with his car.
“ Christ, I know I got the oil changed like last month.” He wondered out loud as the smoke began to pour out from under the hood. “ Well shit! That’s it!” Cursing loudly, he gripped the wheel as the car sputtered and gasped its way up the steep hill which was currently the norm for the landscape in the area. As soon as Mario guided his wounded car over the peak of the small hill he pulled off the road in a cloud of smoke.
Pounding the steering wheel, he shouted in frustration. Sitting there a few moments longer, he realized he was screwed. “ Fuck it!” he announced as he popped the hood and opened his door. Smoke began to pour out of the engine after Mario opened the hood.
Cursing and looking around his car for something that he knew wasn’t there, he cursed again. Mario started to pace in anger, thinking about how little patience he had for this bullshit right now. No more than five minutes of pacing, he noticed a car pulling over behind the disaster which was currently his car.
“ Hey brother, looks like you can use a hand!” The person shouted as he guided his car to a gradual halt. Mario immediately stopped his nervous pacing and approached the driver.
Exiting the car, the driver marched directly over to Mario and extended his hand. “ Vic Richardson.”
“ Tony Carboane.” Mario replied as he eagerly shook Vic’s hand.
“ Nice to meet you Tony.” Vic smiled as they released hands. “ What happened?” Vic asked in an inquisitive tone as he slowly strolled over to Mario’s car. . As he turned his head, he couldn’t help but notice a Semper Fi sticker on the back bumper. He stared a little closer at the sticker. “ Front or back bumper?” Mario said under his breath, trying to remember what Brenda said.
“ Hey chief!” Vic shouted over to Mario, breaking his trance. “ What do you want to do here?”
“ Fuckin’ leave it.” Mario quickly responded while he waved Vic away from the car.
“ Ok. That’s your business. I know more about eyeliner than I do about fixing fucking cars. You feel me bro?” Vic asked as he begin to snicker.
“Yeah.” Mario answered.
“ For real.” Vic announced as he nodded his head up and down, emphasizing how serious he was about what he had just said. “ You need a ride?”
“ If you don’t mind” Mario said with a smile as he tried to get another glimpse of the back bumper to look at the Semper Fi sticker one more time. “ Fuck it.” he muttered softly under his breath as he entered the car.
“ Where you headed?” Vic asked as he started the car.
“ My buddy owns a gas station like 10 miles ahead. If you could drop me off there, I would appreciate it.” Mario explained as he buckled the seatbelt.
“ No problem man. Just point the way.” Vic said with a twinkle in his eye, before turning on to the highway. “ Man good thing I came along. It would have sucked to have to walk up those fucking steep hills. We used to ski up over those ones out there.” Vic pointed to the right side of his windshield in the direction of the higher mountains off in the distance.
“ You a good skier?” Mario asked ,directing the conversation away from him as much as possible.
“ Not bad. My wife on the other hand. “ Vic shook his head as if he was having a hard time believing his own words. Mario looked over at Vic and then shifted his gaze towards the mountains, trying to remember which bumper that sticker was on. He shook his head and stared at the floor of the front seat.
“ So I take it your wife is a good skier?” Mario asked.. Vic smiled and stepped on the gas pedal. The car lurched forward. Mario shifted back and forth in his seat, slightly uneasy for some reason.
“ Fuck yeah. Just barely missed out on being on the Olympic team.” Vic proudly announced. “ But, bad news. She got into a bad fender bender and now she might not ever be able to ski again.” Vic said with a sad and dejected look on his face.
All of a sudden, it all came back to Mario. He instantly recollected which bumper had the sticker. “ Vic!” Mario shouted suddenly as Vic abruptly turned his head towards Mario. Before Mario could explain, a huge tractor trailer suddenly appeared in front of them.
“ Watch out!” Mario screamed as Vic slammed on the brakes. A look of horror and disbelief simultaneously erupted on both of their faces. Vic pumped the brakes to no avail. His car crashed directly into the oncoming truck sending both of them to the afterlife. The explosion sent billowing clouds of smoke and flames into the air for miles.