We are nearing the end of this short story. I have appreciated the feedback so far and thank all of you for taking time out of your week to read these chapters. Let's keep it going!
No reason to write about anything else except for what happened today! Wow, is this crazy or what? Regis picked me as a part of the team of five that’s going to get our name out there! I’ve been working hard for this, so it was bound to happen anyways. And I’ve got a team that I can lean on.
So we were in the middle of a pretty regular meeting, though it started somewhat abruptly. Yeah, that’s about right. It started pretty quickly and Regis looked a bit more numb than he usually does. And then he takes on this really serious face after getting pissed at Orville (he annoys me so much too. I’ve never liked secretaries and all those people who take notes during meetings. They’re always half there half not, if you get what I mean). “Antoinette, Juliet… Maximus, my best man… Ares… and Orville,” he says before ending the meeting, maybe five minutes in. Some of the crew stayed behind for a few hours but I got time to discuss with my buddy Maximus.
He’s a swell fella. Doesn’t talk much, that’s for sure. His name is bigger than his confidence, that’s also for sure. And he seems a little lost all the time, that is the final thing that is for sure. If that’s not parallel structure, then I don’t know what is. Phooey, why am I even trying all this stuff in my own diary.
“Honor to be working with you, Ares,” he said a few steps out of the chamber. I laughed and told him not to use big words like “honor.”
“There’s nothing honorable about me, man. Let’s keep it simple. How about we talk strategy?” I asked, keeping my eyes on his wandering stare and permanently tilted eyebrows.
“Sure, I’ve been watching you. You know how to handle this kind of finesse quite well,” he said looking straight ahead. Once he got to talking, he couldn’t stop. “Maybe I should watch you take a spin at Bowling Green before I take a shot. And if you make a mistake, I’ll be your eyes. Don’t worry about doing it perfect the first time, but I’m sure you got it. Say you bump a gentleman’s elbow too hard and the card falls. I could bring out a deep voice: excuse me sir, what exactly do you think you are doing? Then I’d grab you by the elbow, snatch the card, and all suspicions would be erased. Just like that. What do you say, Ares?”
“I love it. It’s a good plan.”
“But maybe Bowling Green isn’t the place. Farmers’ markets are a gold mine for unsuspecting shoppers, especially in the dead center of the channel of people. All their heads are twisted towards the tents and you could slip a cat in their bags and they wouldn’t notice. You see, at those tourist attractions people are always looking at one another to make sure that they have the best spot or that they’re not missing out on something. But at a farmers’ market, all eyes are on the prize,” he said, becoming noticeably louder with each word. That is one hell of a kid.
“You’re eyes and brains, clearly,” I said, bumping him on the shoulder. It was funny to see his unbelievable discomfort when you did something like that. “I know a pretty good market— it’s a few blocks up from the university. It stays there all the time.”
“See, you’ve got some brains too!” he said in the phoniest way ever. Flattery will get you nowhere, I’ve learned. But I let it go and just kept my quick rhythm. Yeah, we spent the afternoon heading up to the market and checking out the best places to slip some cards in people’s coats. Only thing is that Sawyer still needed to get those from the press— tough job since we didn’t want anybody knowing the design we were printing— so we had to wait until tomorrow. We had a drink and then returned to the chamber in the afternoon for another meeting, which lasted a lot longer.
Sawyer came in ten minutes late, but it wasn’t a big deal since he brought a whole suitcase filled with them. He said it couldn’t have gone better. We went over the details before going out to dinner in small groups. I went with my assigned group of course: Maximus, Orville, Juliet, and Antoinette. We had a fine meal with Regis’s dough— he could cover us for years on end but won’t ever tell us where to find the trees where he grows his money. Then I detached myself from the crew after we laid out what everyone was doing to get this entry done, since I promised myself I’d write something today. A small, little oil light hangs over me as I write these last few words in an equally small bar.
Big day tomorrow and too many thoughts to put on the page, so I’ll save them for when we get our first attempt done. No point in writing just to write (is my philosophy), yet there’s something so soothing with spreading this ink across the page. I would have laughed at myself many years ago for writing something like that, but I’ve learned to appreciate this process. Yeah, I still wouldn’t tell anyone but I bet some of them write in their spare time. Enough for today or else I’ll be here all night.