literature

One way or another

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    Sunny walked cautiously down the street with a quick stride, glancing over his shoulder often in search of watching eyes, for he was afraid. He wanted to get home to his wife and young son and make sure they were all right. They didn’t know it but they were as deep in this as he was and he had to keep them safe.

    Sunny was in his early twenties, with a decent office job and a wonderful family, but the note he had found on his desk written in red ink had nearly scared him to death. It read “we need to discuss your poor finances.”

    They were coming for him.

    Sunny suddenly stopped in front of the gaping shadowed mouth of an alleyway. It was a shortcut home that he used all the time before he had developed such a paranoid fear of everything, but he wondered if he should go through it this time. Maybe the people who were after him wouldn’t expect him to take that route. He decided he would, and like a frightened rabbit, ran down the long stretch of shadows between the two tall buildings. Laundry hung above him on lines, strung around the railings of small balconies and fire escapes.

    Suddenly a shadow dropped down from up high, landing gracefully. Their long jacket shrouded them, and studded leather gloves helped Sunny identify which one it was as he strode towards him. Sunny froze in fear.

    “Robby, please, I can explain...”

    “You can explain to the boss. He wants a word with you,” the brunette with the bandana around his head replied.

    “Yeah,” came a voice behind Sunny now. He’d had no idea the second guy was there. “He wants his money, or he’ll cut your throat open and let you bleed out.”

    “I-I don’t have the money,” Sunny stammered fearfully.

    “That’s okay. You’re insured right?”

    That made Sunny gulp, and the two men dragged him off to a black car.

     

    Kile, the second man, plunked Sunny roughly into a beat up old metal chair. They had taken him to what he could only assume was an abandoned building...to see the boss.

    The leader of this opportunistic gang was a man named Ray. He sat behind a decent looking wooden desk, smoking one of those little flavored cigars. His hair was spiked with coloured red gel, and his sleeveless shirt showed off the ugly tattoos on his arms.

    Sunny was trembling. He knew Ray was angry and not letting it show quite yet. Sunny owed him money, about ten thousand dollars worth borrowed three months ago. He knew Ray wasn’t a patient man, especially after three months had passed with nothing to show for it. He was a gang leader, a murderer, and there was no telling what he might do to him, or his family.

    “So Sunny. How have you been?” Ray asked casually, as if they were chatting over coffee. He didn’t look at him though.

    “I’m barely managing, sir. My boss won’t give me the raise he promised I would get when he hired me. It’s been three months and I asked for it, but he’s not a very kind man...”

    “No Sunny. I’m not a very kind man. I lent you the money that you desperately needed to pay off your loans and hospital bills for the little one. I understand how everyone has their hand in our pockets nowadays. It’s a drag. But tell me. You knew what kind of man I was, yet you haven’t saved up to pay me back? That’s not very smart Sunny,” he warned. “I think you’re stalling, hoping I’ll just forget or let it go. I don’t forget nothing,” Ray snarled.

    “No! I would never stall! Please, Ray! I was so grateful for your money. I just need a little more time and I will have it. I just need to get ahead a little bit. Rent and medical, and everything was hitting me all at once and I had nothing left,” he explained, trying to get up out of the chair, but Robby shoved him back down. “Please, Ray, please give me more time. I have a thousand dollars in the bank. You can have all of it.”

    “I don’t do small payment plans,” Ray replied, stepping closer and puffing vanilla smoke in his face. “You will have the entire amount by tomorrow, midnight. If you fail to meet my deadline I will make sure that nobody finds your body, and I will make sure your wife hands over your insurance money to me. Do I make myself clear?”

    Sunny swallowed and nodded. My insurance? Silvia doesn’t work. How will she be able to raise our son without me, or at least the insurance money in my stead? He wondered, panicking inside.

    Robby gave his shoulder a firm squeeze and he whimpered. There were six guys in the dark dingy room, just waiting to make good on their boss’ promise. One or two held weapons. Robby stood behind Sunny with a handgun, cold steel pressed against Sunny’s temple and he heard him pull the trigger.

    Click.

    Sunny almost jumped out of the chair, but Robby shoved him down again.

    “Don’t worry. You still got until tomorrow before I put a bullet in this gun,” he teased.

    “You got that?” Ray asked.

    Sunny nodded, trembling worse than ever.

    “Good. I always liked you Sunny. I’d hate to have to do you in. It’s just business,” he turned to Kile and Robby. “Get him out of here,” he ordered.

     

    “Why do you guys work for him anyway? Besides the money I don’t see any benefits to it. He’s nothing but a bully,” Sunny muttered in the car.

    “Watch your mouth,” Kile warned.

    Robby snorted. “Oh leave him alone. He’s telling it how it is. The boss is a jerk and we both know it. He loaned money to greasy old Al. That man couldn’t keep sober for a minute and we know what he spent the money on. Ray knew he had no way to pay it back. Funny, I haven’t seen old Al down by the docks in a couple months,” Robby remarked bitterly. Obviously they hadn’t done him in, but somebody had.

    Sunny was entirely shocked that the gangster agreed with him on that, but decided all the same to hold his tongue until they got to his house.

    “We want the money more than your blood, Sunny, so you do whatever you have to. Get your relatives to fund you if you have to.”

    “I don’t have any relatives Robby. I came out of a foster home and married Silvia right out of high school. She and Jace are the only family I have,” he confessed.

    “Cry me a river,” Kile sneered, but Robby glanced at him in the rear view mirror, looking almost sympathetic.

    “All right, get out,” he ordered him, disengaging the power locks on the doors. “Say hello to your pretty wife for me,” he added with a smirk and drove off down the street. Sunny was left standing in his driveway, wanting to burst into tears. I have one day to come up with that money. Oh god, where am I going to get it from?

     

    That night Sunny couldn’t even think about sleeping. His beautiful blonde wife came out of the bedroom wearing a long coat, silent as she walked past him through the living room. “Where are you going?” he asked, getting up. “Silvia? Where are you going at this time of night?”

    “To try and make us some money so you don’t get yourself shot dead,” she replied, backing away when he grabbed for her. He got a hold of the jacket and pulled it open, startled to find her wearing a little red dress that she’d bought at the thrift shop and never worn. He knew what she was trying to do.

    “My love, you can’t. I won’t let you do that to yourself!” he protested, hugging her tightly to him.

    “I’m not going to stand on a street corner,” she promised. “The strip club will pay me for a few dances. I need to do something.”

    “Don’t go,” Sunny pleaded, but she squirmed out of his arms and stepped out the door. She didn’t return to the house until six in the morning, falling into bed exhausted. Sunny wrapped his arm around her and felt terrible about it.

     

    The next morning he arrived to work and was worried when the boss called him down to his office. What could this be about? I’m the hardest working employee he has. Maybe he’s giving me that raise, he prayed.

    “Sunny, sit down.”

    “May I ask what this is about sir?” he asked meekly.

    “Sunny, I don’t know how to put this gently, so I won’t. You’re fired,” his boss informed him without sympathy.

    “What? Why? I’ve done well here. I’ve gone above and beyond, and you know that! Please sir, I need this job!” he pleaded, getting up and setting his hands clasped on the desk. So this is what I’m reduced to? Begging from a man who doesn’t give anything? He asked himself.

    “I know how hard you work. I just don’t need that one extra person in that particular department. We’re losing profits with every paycheque I give you, and the heads of the corporation do love their profits. My hands are tied.”

    “Why don’t you fire Gisele then? She doesn’t know anything about this job.”

    “I rather like the view from here,” the boss smiled smugly. A nice pair of breasts was not a valid reason to fire him, and Sunny knew that, but there was little he could do.

    “Please, you don’t understand. I owe a very bad man some money. My wife and child are on the line here! My life is on the line!”

    He just shrugged. “That’s your problem, not mine. Here’s your last paycheque. And your bonus is the opportunity to use the photocopier to print off some resumes for free before you go back on the job hunt. Nobody ever said I wasn’t generous.”

    Sunny trembled. There was no point in arguing with him. He was a cold man, and the gift of the photocopier would have been a welcome gesture if Sunny wasn’t literally on a dead-line. Still, he went back to his cubicle and cleared the space of his few personal items, handing folders to Gisele in the cubicle next to him. They wouldn’t get done. She was painting her long nails electric blue, but she gave him a cheerful smile as if she would see him tomorrow. Maybe she actually thought she would.

    She really has no idea that her chest just saved her from getting the boot, he thought, shaking his head to himself and opening his paycheque. The amount was meagre as usual. Realistically it gave him the excuse to stop by the bank, cash it, and then threaten to shoot the teller with a gun he didn’t have unless she handed over exactly ten thousand dollars.

    I could rob a bank, he tried to convince himself, pocketing the stapler from his desk. At the very least he could pretend it was a gun in his jacket pocket to look more convincing. No, no I couldn’t. I don’t have that kind of courage. But the situation might force me to swallow my fear and do it.

    He grabbed his box of things, the pile of freshly printed resumes, and left, heading down to the bank to cash the cheque. The teller was a cute little brunette with a cheerful smile. He smiled back and asked for everything out of his account.

    “Okay. Just one second. I’m still new at this,” she replied, and his heart sank. I wish I got a grumpy old woman for a teller. I can’t threaten this girl, he knew, forgetting the whole idea. “How’s your day going so far, sir?” she asked.

    “Not too well,” he admitted. “I have to go job hunting again.”

    “Oh. Well, I could take a resume if you’re any good with computers,” she offered, noticing them in his file box. Sunny figured, what the heck? And offered her one. “Have a good day, sir,” she said as he walked away.

    It would have been nice to go home and relax, but when he set foot in the kitchen to tell Silvia the bad news he froze in place and his mouth dropped open. Oh no, he thought, trembling.

    “Oh, hi Sunny,” Robby said at the table, grinning.

    Sunny’s wife was standing at the sink doing the morning’s dishes and gave him a nervous look. Clearly Robby had been here for a while, hassling her with questions and trying to make small talk.

    “Get out of my house,” Sunny warned slowly.

    “Hey, I was just checking in. Your wife was kind enough to make me breakfast. I never had a meal cooked by a woman before,” he remarked.

    She looked irritated.

    “So...you lost your job today, huh Sunny? That bites.”

    “How do you know that already?” Sunny exclaimed in shock.

    “Ray has his sources, and he informed the whole gang. I came over to make sure nobody got impatient and paid dear Silvia a visit. After all she doesn’t work. You’re the one who brings home the bacon don’t you? The wife and kid shouldn’t have to suffer, right?”

    Sunny went weak, feeling nauseous. He’s protecting my wife? Of course, any of those gangsters would happily hurt Silvia, he realised, having to sit down. Silvia went to him and rubbed his back, concerned. “I’m okay,” he tried to assure, but she knew he wasn’t.

    “Robby, you better leave,” she warned with a glare.

    The gangster got up, pulled on his long jacket and waved at them before heading to the door. “Remember Sunny. Tonight. Midnight. You still have time to do something drastic. I just want the money so don’t disappoint me,” he insisted, walking out.

    “What are we going to do? We need to think fast Sunny. Any ideas?” Silvia asked, sitting with him and holding his hands.

    “I thought about robbing the bank. The teller was so young and innocent I couldn’t do it. I’m sorry,” he apologised. “I’m sorry I got us into this mess, my love. I’m so sorry.”

    “Don’t say that. You got us a house. You got the medical bills for Jace paid. You got yourself a job. It’s not your fault that your boss fired you. It’s not your fault that this is all happening at once. I’ll pawn all the jewellery I got from my grandmother, and then we’ll go rob a store,” she decided firmly.

    Sunny was stunned to silence. After a moment he spoke. “You’re serious?”

    “You think that gang will stop pestering me after you’ve been killed? No. They’ll come knocking, and I bet Robby will be the first to show up. I don’t want to be pestered for the rest of my life, fearing for Jace’s life all the time. I’d rather have my husband by my side, so we’re going to resort to anything,” Silvia insisted.

    Sunny could tell she was just as desperate as he was about this. They got some food made, spent some time with Jace trying to act like everything was all right. The toddler clung to Sunny’s grey suit like he didn’t want him to leave, and Sunny knew that he knew.

    Once Jace was put to bed the two of them pulled out all of Silvia’s things that might be worth anything and took them down to the pawnshop to be haggled over. They managed to get a couple thousand dollars for everything.

    Sunny had the stapler in his pocket. They stole a pair of masks from the dollar store and set foot into a convenience store that sold booze. There was bound to be money here.

    He tried to be calm about it. Going up to the till with his hand in his pocket, the stapler aimed like a gun to make it look real. “Empty the register,” he ordered the young man standing behind the counter.

    “What?”

    “You heard me. You got a safe in the back you go empty that too, understand? I am not in a position to walk out of here empty-handed. Don’t you dare hit that panic button,” he warned.

    The kid opened the register and started pulling the money out, and Sunny told him to put it in a bag. “Now the safe,” Silvia ordered. She followed him to the back office. She came out with a few bundles of cash and said thank you politely, running out of there with Sunny quickly.

    A quick count of the cash told them that they had another thousand dollars. Business must have been good that night.

    “Another?” Sunny asked, shaking.

    “Yes. Come on my love. We have to do this,” she urged, rubbing his arm. “You did so good.”

    The next place they picked out was the grocery store. There were a few shoppers wandering up and down the aisles and Sunny tried to act casual, despite the mask on his face. They went to the checkouts, grabbed one of those reusable cloth grocery bags and told the first cashier to put the money in it.

    “I’m going to call the manager,” she retorted.

    “Good. We’ll need them to open up the safe for us,” Sunny informed her. Her eyes went wide and she called the manager, who came out of the office. Sunny pointed the “gun” at the man. “We want all the cash you have in the store, or I’ll start shooting people.”

    “Okay,” he replied calmly. “Girls, give him the money. Sir, promise that nobody gets hurt.”

    “That depends on everyone’s cooperation,” Sunny insisted. “Woman, go with him and get the safe money,” he told Silvia, purposely not using her name. He started getting the cash from the tills and a few shoppers came up, looking like they were plotting to overpower him. Sunny’s courage failed.

    “All of you mind your business,” he warned. “If I don’t get ten thousand dollars by midnight a gang boss is going to kill me, and my family could be killed as well. I am desperate,” he insisted. “Don’t any of you try anything!”

    Silvia came running with a bag of cash. “We’ve got to go!” she called. “Somebody hit the panic button!”

    He heard the cop sirens too, and bolted for the door. Oddly enough nobody chased after him. One of the cashiers looked to the customers. “Sorry folks, but we can’t give any change back at the moment,” she apologised, staring down at the empty register. They understood.

     

    The crime spree went well. Then at midnight a black car pulled up beside them on the street. It wasn’t the two familiar suspects. A couple of the men that Sunny hadn’t been introduced to got out of the car. “Glad you could make it, Sunny,” one of the men said, and Sunny looked down at his cheap watch.

    “It’s not midnight yet,” he insisted with a stammer.

    “Doesn’t matter. It will be by the time we get to the boss,” they replied, grabbing Sunny and shoving him roughly into the back seat of the car. Silvia stepped back against the wall of a nearby building, offering them the grocery bag of cash with a tremble. Even she was terrified. Sunny knew this might be the last time he would ever see her and he hadn’t even got to kiss her good bye.

    He couldn’t get the door open. It was locked, and he pressed his hands on the tinted window as it pulled away from the curb. No! This can’t be it. I never got to say good bye...

    He started crying quietly in the back seat as they drove towards the gang hideout. I don’t have enough, he knew. Oh god, Ray isn’t going to find that acceptable. How am I going to talk my way out of this one?

     

    Ray wasn’t pleased when Sunny was sat down in the metal chair, and he dumped the cash out on the desk. He knew just by looking at it that there wasn’t enough. “Robby, put this through the bill counter will you?”

    “Sure boss,” Robby replied, getting on it immediately, counting out the coins while the money counter took care of the bills. Sunny waited. He had lost track of how much they had collected in the night. The pawn shop money was there, everything from his account, all of it.

    “You were very stupid to come here without all of the money,” Ray warned Sunny.

    I don’t care anymore. He’s going to kill me. Might as well grow a set while I’m here and go out with a bang.

    “Sorry. Your boys picked me up early. I wasn’t finished robbing convenience stores up and down the block with my wife,” he muttered, pulling out the stapler and shooting a couple stapes harmlessly at Ray. The gang boss looked surprised.

    You? Holding up a convenience store with a stapler?” he laughed. Some of the other guys snickered behind him.

    “Stole the stapler from work when I got fired by my prick of a boss. Can you believe he fired me because I’m not a woman with a nice rack? Can you believe that, Ray? Gisele sits around and paints her nails all day, talking to her girlfriends on the company phone. He’s probably sleeping with her on the side,” Sunny suspected, rolling his eyes. “He must be.”

    “Well that’s a very charming story, but it’s not making me forget the situation you’re in right now.”

    The money counter had finished. Robby raised his hand for silence as he counted the last of the change, added it all up. “Okay boss. We got $7,086 and ninety two cents.”

    Ray glared at Sunny, and he weakened. “I wasn’t finished. I was so close,” he whimpered.

    “I saw your wife stripping the other night. She gave a great show, didn’t she Robby?”

    He nodded.

    “Wonderful. I bet you didn’t pay her a bloody cent, did you?” Sunny retorted coldly.

    “Not a cent,” Ray agreed with a smirk. “It’s amazing what you can get done when you have a deadline to meet. Unfortunately you didn’t meet it. I need to make an example of you.”

    “Just like old Al? The drunk you knew couldn’t possibly pay you back, yet you loaned him money? You’re a bully, Ray. I bet you were picked on as a kid, or had abusive parents. Now all you want is to control other people. Good job. You’ve got your own group of losers that want a piece of that, and you get to terrorize the little guys like me all you like. I don’t owe you anything anymore Ray,” Sunny said bravely, holding his chin up in defiance.

    Ray grabbed a bundle of cash and hit him across the face with it. “Leave my personal life out of this. Guys, beat him,” he commanded, and suddenly Sunny was yanked out of the chair and hit in the face with a fist. He felt it and spat blood, just in time to get jabbed in the gut. They took turns hitting him in the face and gut, knocking him to the floor and kicking him sharply in the ribs and back. He cried out for mercy but they wouldn’t stop until Ray gave the order to.

    Sunny couldn’t see out of one eye. There was blood coming out of his nose and his lip had split. He thought his organs had been damaged as he lay on the wood floor gasping for breath. Somebody stomped down on his arm and he heard it snap, screaming shrilly in agony and going dizzy. Make it stop. Just get it over with, he thought.

    “Ray...” he pleaded. “Don’t hurt my wife or Jace.” He held his arm, sobbing from the pain. It was too much. He’d never been in a fight like this before. He’d never broken anything in his life.

    “You know what? She can come work for me for a little while before I strap a backpack of bricks to her back and toss her in the harbour with the others. The kid can starve to death for all I care,” Ray snapped at him. Kile pulled a knife, going to stab Sunny with it but Ray halted him and motioned for him to hand it over. He wanted to do it.

    Kile stepped back, and Ray stood over the whimpering young man. “Do you want me to end this, Sunny? Do you?”

    Sunny could hardly move. All he could manage was to spit blood on the floor at his feet, defiant. Ray grabbed him by the shirtfront and slammed him down into the metal chair again, jarring his broken arm and making him yelp. Ray grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head back the expose his vulnerable throat. He pressed the knife against his skin.

    “Just think of all the things I’m going to do with your wife. I’ll make her beg,” he whispered in Sunny’s ear.

    No. Please not Silvia. She did nothing wrong. It’s you who are to blame for all of this, Sunny realised too late. Ray was about to draw a red smile across Sunny’s throat, when a loud bang erupted in the room startling everyone, and Ray collapsed on the floor with blood pooling at his head. Sunny and everybody else turned to see Robby looking down at the floor with his smoking handgun still aimed.

    “What you all looking at?”

    “What the hell have you done?” Kile gasped in horror. “He was our boss! Why?”

    “You know why, Kile!” he snapped at him. “What Sunny said. He’s been using us to control his world and we’re nothing to him. Does Sunny really deserve this? Huh? In one day he managed to scrounge up seven thousand dollars, despite getting fired from his job. We would have had the cash by tomorrow. Did you guys want the cash or did you think killing him would be fun?” he demanded, eyeing each one of the men. They looked away, ashamed. “You guys take what money is there and get out of here before the police show up,” he warned.

    They started hearing sirens and took his advice, quickly sweeping the money back into the cloth bag and clearing out of there. Robby helped Sunny up, being careful of his broken arm and getting him out to the black car that was his, setting him in the seat.

    “Why are you doing this?” Sunny mumbled through swollen lips as Robby got in the driver’s seat. They drove in the dark towards the hospital, passing four cop cars on the way there.

    “I was a foster kid too Sunny. I know how it feels to have nothing to your name. No possessions that mean anything, no one to call family. I joined the gang looking for that, but Ray just brought me in because I was good at stealing and counting money. You finally found something that meant the world to you, and Ray was going to take it away from you. That’s not right. It’s not. I started thinking that maybe I could have something like what you have,” he explained softly. “I had to get rid of him first.”

    “Thank you,” Sunny sighed, leaning back in the seat and blacking out.

     

    Sunny woke with a cry, sitting up in the bed. He didn’t know where he was, only that his arm had been put in a cast and a sling. It was a white room and there were two strangers coming over to check on him and tell him where he was. The hospital. The nurses were dressed in dull scrubs and his head ached.

    The doctor was brought to check on him, and Sunny asked how long he’d been here. “Since last night, sir. Your friend brought you in and he’s been in the lobby waiting for you to wake up. He didn’t say much. Only that you got beaten up by a group of muggers.”

    Sunny blinked, his eye was still swollen but it wasn’t as bad as last night. “That sounds about right,” he agreed, turning to see Silvia at the door with Jace in her arms. She was allowed into the room and went to sit with her husband, kissing his forehead as his cheek was bruised.

    “Are you okay?” she whispered. Jace crawled into his lap and he winced from more bruises, but held his son with his good arm.

    “I’m alive and Ray isn’t. I would say things are looking up,” he decided, managing a smile. “I’ve never felt so relieved in my life.”

    He frowned, hearing voices outside. Cops, Sunny realised after listening to some of the conversation.

    “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law...”

    “Where’s the woman who helped you rob those businesses?” another cop asked.

    “She was just some hooker. No big deal. It was my idea anyway,” Robby replied.

    “Oh no,” Sunny gasped. He’s taking responsibility for our robberies!

    Silvia hushed him softly. “If he didn’t want to, then he wouldn’t,” she assured him, holding his hand. “I think he cares about us, Sunny.”

    Thank you Robby. You saved my life, and my family, and I’ll owe you forever, he thought, hugging his wife and son.

    “The bank called this morning,” Silvia mentioned. “They want to hire you.”

    He chuckled in disbelief. “Really?”

    “Really. They said your resume looked good, and it’s so hard to find good hardworking people lately.”

    He chuckled again, resting back on the puffy pillow. “This is the cherry on the cake, my love.”

    “The silver lining on your cloud, Sunny,” she agreed with a smile.

     

Le fin
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