Excerpt
Colette left the meeting and came back to the shelter in hopes of finding some stragglers to bring to the meeting. When she came in, she spent a moment talking to Miss Bess, a local homeless woman who had been here longer than she had. She was getting ready to leave when she saw one of the night guys.
“Hey Ben,” she said.
“Hey, Colette what’s up? I thought you were at the meeting.”
“I was but the turnout was poor and I was hoping to pick up a few here to take back with me. Anyone come in that might be a candidate?” she asked with a hopeful look on her face.
“Not really, there was a guy who came in drunk, but he says he don’t need no damn AA.”
“Where is he,” she asked?
“Eating in the kitchen,” he told her.
Colette walked into the room and saw the guy he must be talking about sitting with his back to her. She walked up to him and put out her hand.
“Hi, I’m Colette.”
“I’m Mike,” the guy said, and ain’t you a pretty one.”
Colette was used to flirting from drunks and she handled it with a smile instead of any kind of a reply.
“I was just on my way over to a meeting and wondered if you would like to join me?”
“I know your buddy already told me,” Cage said. Maybe next time darlin, I have had a little too much to drink tonight.”
Now that she had sat down next to Mike, she realized what a bad idea it would have been anyway. He stunk of alcohol and hadn’t just been drinking, but was drunk.
“Okay then Mike, next time it is. I hope that you will stay with us here tonight and be safe.”
“I would like that,” Cage said.
As he watched her walk away he was 90% sure she would be his next student in the art class of death. She fit the profile, but he would have to plug her name as well as a couple of details into the profile when he got back to the hotel tomorrow. With only four days left to go, things were falling into place nicely.
****
CJ had decided to make the local shelter his place to crash tomorrow night, if for no other reason than to see if he could crash there on occasion when he couldn’t sleep out, which he always preferred. Making a habit of using a shelter set you up. If you developed a pattern, it was an easy matter for the police to find you whenever they might want to question you about anything. Also in this case, it would provide him with the shower and shave he was days overdue for. He told himself that he wouldn’t head there until tomorrow afternoon though.
****
Cage had been assigned a cot and was given a blanket and a pillow. The blanket smelled like mothballs and the pillow like old farts and sweat. It was a far cry from his room at the Marriott, but would suit him fine for the work at hand. He thought that he was probably in for a long night as he was a very light sleeper.
Two old bastards nearby were arguing loudly about who had won the chess tournament back in 1996. They had been told twice already to quiet down by staff members. Cage was sure that if the noise continued he must break the necks of the old bastards to shut them up. Just when he was sure he would have to leave and go back to the Marriott one way or the other, they quieted down.
Ten minutes later one of them was snoring louder than the argument had been. He was starting to lose hope for any sleep at all, no matter how brief it might be. Sometime in the middle of the night, the idiot, who was doing a fair impression of a chain saw, either rolled over or died. Cage was seriously hoping for the latter.
He got up at about five and mumbled thanks to a sleepy eyed girl who was sitting at the desk and reading.
After walking the five blocks back to the Marriott, he came in the back way and collapsed into his bed. He tried to sleep, but it was no good. He would just have to operate on the small amount of toss and turn sleep he had gotten.
He took a hot shower and then ordered room service. Following his pattern he ordered a variety of foods and picked at each thing only a little. Although he could not sleep this morning after reviewing his efforts of the last evening he would enjoy a nap sometime this afternoon.
****
CJ awoke to the feeling of something crawling on him. Thankfully it was only a fly. Three bright patches of sunlight were shining through the windows at the front of the garage. He lay where he was for a minute or two watching the dust particles floating in the bars of light. This site had always fascinated him even as a boy. He wondered, not for the first time, how breathing all that stuff could be good for a person. But in retrospective, drinking two pints of whatever was on sale every day would surely kill him long before breathing in the tiny particles.
When he stood up, he was surprised at how stiff he was. Although he had come through the night without purging his stomach, he had a headache and it was a world class whammer.
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