The sandwich guy stood there sweating, his mouth slightly
open but breathing loudly through his nose.
When he looked at me, it was never for more then a moment before his
eyes darted to the next things, and then eventually back to me again.
“Not now,”
I said.
“Why not
now?” the sandwich guy said.
“Because
I’ll get caught,” I said.
“If anything
goes wrong,” the sandwich guy said, “just go to the casino. Do you know what that means? I mean, if you find yourself out of fucking
options, then just take what you got and go to the casino. Why?
Because, dipshit, that’s the best you got. At least you know Rick. He’s not the kind of guy that’s gonna double
your odds, but he’s as good as you’re gonna get tonight, know what I mean? Look.
If you’re having second thoughts, don’t do the job, but if you’re gonna
do it, we’re gonna do it right and we’re all going to make a lot of money. But if you fuck it up, they’re going to find
you, and they’re going to fucking kill you.
Slowly! If that wasn’t already
clear. Ok? Ok, we’re all good? So what’s it gonna be? You want to say yes, for once in your life,
shithead?”
I’ve
been down on my luck before. I’ve been
at the tail end of a blackout night, covered in puke while my ride home was closing
the door on me. I’ve watched the guards walking
towards me, while the alarm was going off, and the eyes were on my
pockets. The dogs have had my scent, the
hammer was coming down, the lights were turning off. And I made it out. Every time. Unscathed.
I’ve made it through every single jam that seemed to be insurmountable
at the time. I’m very proud of
that. So why was I hesitant to go along
with the sandwich guy’s scheme? Because
of fucking fireworks.
The
sandwich guy knew, during lockdown in South Philly, there would be fireworks
going off over all the row homes. Every fucking
night of the summer. No one was going
down the shore, no one would be congregating around the usual fireworks displays
over the water. The police had other things
to worry about, and some people even thought they were responsible for some of
the loudest explosions, just to scare people into staying indoors.
….