Mango Inc. (A Short Story)
“So how’d you two meet?” The amber liquid in his glass sloshes as he gestures between the two of them. “You don’t seem like the type to be runnin’ around with the likes of him.'' he pointed to the man on his left. And he was right, with Larry’s fitted light wash jeans secured nicely with a brown leather belt, beige plaid sweater vest on top of a crisp white button up, and small wire frame glasses he looked more suited to a attend a business meeting than to be hanging out in a dingy bar on the bad side of town whose patrons mostly consisted of members of the cities biggest and baddest gang. And certainly not one to be best friends with a high ranking member of said gang.
“Oh you don’t wanna hear that story.” Larry takes a sip from his own glass and the sweet taste dances across his tongue. The man across from him smirks and sits back folding his arms over his chest, the wooden chair he’s sitting on creaks under his weight. He wears a dirty sweat stained t-shirt; the fabric strains across his large chest and arms. His jeans are covered in a smattering of bright red blotches from the job they just finished.
“Yea, honestly it’s kinda…” Larry drifts off as their eyes meet and he attempts to hold back a smile “boring.” he finishes.
“HAH, you two? Boring?” his eyes flick back and forth between them, waiting.
“Well” Larry sighs in faux reluctance dragging out the last syllables “I guess if you really want to know.”
-
Sweat gathers on my brow as I make my way down the street basically running at this point. I look down at my watch and realize that even running I’ll still be late to my interview. Desperate, I make an immediate left down a small alley figuring with a few shortcuts I might somehow get there on time. As I round the corner I only get a split second view of a large figure barreling towards me before we’re both crashing to the ground. While I struggle to get to my feet dizzy and groaning in pain, the other guy, hardly phased, jumps up. “Whoa there, watch where you’re going!”
“You bumped into me, asshole!” I puff my chest out to make myself look more intimidating, but from the way the guy just laughs at me I don’t think I’m doing a very good job of it.
“Eh, who’s to say what really happened? And it’s not like you’re hurt so stop complaining!”
“You’re kidding right? I’m fucking filthy” My clothes are wrinkled and covered in dirt and my back is wet from the puddle we landed in. The man takes in my appearance for the first time, eyes wide. Stepping closer he roughly brushes his hands across my chest and when he’s done he steps back nodding as to congratulate himself on a job well done. I just stand there, anger holding my tongue.
“What?” He questions noticing my expression. “Oh” He steps forward and reaches up to straighten my glasses which sit askew atop my nose. Before he can, I slap his hand away. “Just let me-” He reaches up again and I slap his hand away again. He reaches up again and I go to slap his hand again, but he redirects and slaps me instead. We pause staring at each other before moving simultaneously, arms tangled in a developing slap fight.
Preoccupied, both of us fail to notice three large guys approaching from the other end of the alley, only becoming aware when the big guy in the center clears his throat. We stop heads whipping towards the trio.
“I’d hate to break up your little date, but I believe we have some unfinished business.” The center one says looking at the other guy.
“Fellas, I think you got me confused with someone else” the other guy says unfazed.
“Oh so it wasn’t you that broke into our car, stole our shit, and slashed our tires?” the other guys pretends to think, head tilted.
“Now that I think about it, that was me. Don’t take it personal guys, it's just business, ya know?”
“Is that so? Well I hope you don’t take it personal when we kill you, after all it’s just business, ya know?” All three guys pull out giant blood stained knives with blades a good eight inches long and advance.
“WHOA WHOA WHOA WAIT” I scream. “Don’t come at me, I didn’t do anything! I don’t even know this guy, in fact give me a knife and I’ll help you kill him!”
“Wow!” the other guy looks at me with a hurt expression on his face. ”You really gonna do me like that man?”
“We literally just met!”
“Still, that’s cold”
“Both of you shut up!” the center one turns to the guy on his right. “Get the nerd!” The guy on the right advances toward me and I panic flailing widely. My now companion smiles as the one on the left swings on him and they begin to trade blows. The right one recovers and in an effort to preserve both my life and internal organs I drop to my knees crouching in on my body with my arms over my head in a move I lovingly call the armadillo. My companion disarms the guy on the left and sends him crashing into the guy on the right. Together the trip over my curled up form and the fall takes out one while the wayward knife takes out the other.
I uncurl and notice the center guy and my companion locked in a battle of blows. Seeing my chance at freedom I begin to back down the alley. I’ve only taken a few steps when the center guy gets the upper hand and my companion is knocked to the ground and is seemingly unable to get back up. I hesitate, tempted to leave and never look back, because frankly whatever’s going on here is none of my business and would have to be crazy to throw myself in the middle of it. But as I watch the center guy crouch down his knife held high all logic and reasoning are thrown from my mind.
I run straight at him. He turns around standing as he hears my footsteps approach. In a quick thinking move I can only blame on the adrenaline I pull out the peppermint flavored breath freshening spray in my pocket and spray him directly in the eyes. He screams and stumbles backwards and I take the distraction to turn to my companion. I reach down, grab him by the lapels of his worn black leather jacket, and hoist him up. He lands clumsily on his feet, still a bit disoriented. I take hold of his arm and pull him down the alley as the center guy gets his bearings.
We break right at the end of the alley and take a variety of left and right turns through a number of back alleys, the center guy behind us. We come up on a fork the right leading to more alleys, the left to a dead end with a set of double metal doors. I start to the right, but my companion stops me and instead heads to the left. It is then that I realize that one of the doors is being cracked open with an old brick. We hurry inside not sparing a glance at our surroundings as we peer through the gap. A couple of seconds later we see the center guy appear and after a quick glance in either direction dash to the right.
I breathe a sigh of relief and face my companion who is sporting a wide grin which I can’t help but mimic. A throat clears behind us and our heads whip towards the sound, eyes wide as we recall the situation that got us here which started the exact same way. Behind us is a group of older ladies all sitting in a semi-circle knitting needles paused in the air as they stare at us. A hand made sign in the doorway at the back of the room reads “SUNNYSIDE SENIOR COMMUNITY KNITTING CLUB” in big block lettering.
-
I groan as my latest stitch still looks wrong despite doing it again for the third time. Giving up, I throw down the needles and yarn and turn to the other guy.
“I never got your name, I’m Larry by the way.”
“Mikey.”
“So Mikey, you gonna tell me what that was about back there?”
Mikey laughs, obviously finding this whole thing funny. “That was nothing but a man doing good at his job.”
“Well at least one of us has a job” I sigh, mourning my lost interview. Mikey side eyes me for a moment.
“You know, you weren’t bad back there, and you could have left me but you didn’t so you must be pretty loyal…” he pauses, “You got any other skills?”
“Where are you going with this?” a bad yet resigned feeling pooling in my gut. Mikey smiles and the feeling gets worse.
“Well, you said you needed a job right?”