Chapter 8: The Downhill Slide

     I never had much taste for eating bananas while I was growing up in Oklahoma. Don't know why, but they just didn't seem to be around me that much. When I got out to California, suddenly bananas were everywhere. I used to go buy dogfood for Fitz from this old Greek guy name Theo. Theo sold feed for animals, but he had a part of this store partitioned off where he sold healthy stuff for humans to eat. Theo was the one who got me to eating oatmeal and stuff for breakfast instead of my usual gravy, biscuits, bacon and eggs, and he always sold lots of local honey, bananas, melons, seasonal fruit, and stuff like that.

      I took to them bananas pretty hard, loved them, would slice them up over my oatmeal and stuff, eat them for a snack. So, I went out  and bought me a couple dozen right off the bat, and quickly found out that you can't put them things in the icebox, and that they start going bad pretty quickly after a couple days. You could only buy what you needed for the moment. And I learned you had pick out the ones that were still a little green, almost ripe, to make them last a little longer. Then you had to go get more. It was almost the same with the yoghurt that Theo also got me hooked on.

       For some reason, thinking about them bananas reminded me a lot of something that Mama used to quote Jesus on, about storing up your treasures in the material world where things rust, decay, and stuff, so that what you need to do was figure out what was good for the here and now and worth stockpiling. Way I understood it, was that he was talking about money too. That money was only good when you were putting it to good use to make life less complicated, and stockpiling a bunch of it would only make people jealous so that they would try to steal it.

        At first, I thought it was a major inconvenience to have go to the market so often. I thought of it back then as if I was using up a lot of valuable time that I could spend playing cards or being with Rosa, but later I began  to like because it got me outside and mingling with people, and I started forming relationships and even developed some friendships with a lot of the people who I was meeting. Sometimes, I would even get up early and have coffee with the other Greek merchants that hung out and helped Theo unload the produce trucks in the morning. Every last one of them had interesting stories to tell.

     When I left Fitz's that afternoon, I didn't go straight home. I went to a thrift shop in Glendale and bought an old army blanket, a pillow and a used canvas and wooden cot. I had been wanting to set up a cot in case Pete needed something to sleep on if and when, he ever visited. That was what the pillow was for too. I already had an army blanket for that purpose, but I needed something to wrap up Lewellyn's body in. After that, I went back to Fitz's and got his body and wrapped him up. Then, I went home, took a shower and napped for a couple of hours. I had dinner plans because Rosa and Lennie had asked me to come eat with them, and afterwards I was going to play cards in an effort to clear my head. Poker was always good for helping me focus my thoughts.

     Dinner at Rosa's was wonderful. The meal was simple, just some meatloaf and some mashed potatoes, but I couldn't ever remember eating a meal that made me feel as good as I did eating with her and Lennie. Back home, at my Mama's table, no matter how hard she tried, it seemed like there was always a dark cloud hanging over us like it was fixing to rain inside our house, even before Daddy did what he did. We knew that good times, when he was drinking, were rare and would always be followed by something embarrassing and shameful, and it always made us kids act ashamed to be alive even though we knew we didn't deserve to feel that way.

       Lennie surprised us by volunteering to clean up the dishes, so Rosa and I stepped outside for our farewells. The moment we were outside, she put both hands on the sides of my face, and kissed me long and passionately. Then when I rubbed the back of my right hand against her cheek, she took it and kissed it and held it to her lips.

     Then she asked, "Why do you look so worried, my love? You act happy, but there's just a little bit of something behind your eyes."

       "I wasn't acting. Tonight was the happiest I've been in quite a while. I was thinking about how many nights we could have like this if things were a little less complicated. I'm just tired. Cleaning up that mess today was a lot of unnecessary work."

         "Be honest.That's not it. I've seen you come home tired. Tonight you look worried, so what's worrying you? Remember, no secrets."

         "I never want to worry you about anything unless I have to, and tonight I have to, Rosa." So, I went ahead and told her what Hortensia had shared about how Guadalupe was behaving at church and at confession.  I hated to stand there and watch the doubt creep across her beautiful face,  but I figured she would be safer knowing. "You have to talk her, at least to try get her to hold out a while longer until we can work something out."

            "I can do that. Do you think she's going to break down and spill the beans?"

          I shook my head yes, "Yeah, I think the guilt of killing her own son is too much for her. We should never had thought otherwise. We have to assume the worst, which means that she's probably already said too much and somebody's overheard it, someone who'll take it to someone who'll use it to cause us pain."

          Rosa instantly went from worried to angry. Her eyes flashed,"I know I owe her my life, but she's being a silly woman. It's the just the guilt, the Hector she loved, the boy who collected model airplanes died a long time before that night. Besides, she has a grandson who deserves a chance to be happy?"

        "She killed her son. Think about it. It's understandable; it's too late to argue about her motives. We have to do something though."

        That calmed her anger a bit,"What, what'll we need to do?"

        "I don't know yet, but we have to try and delay  things until we can work something out, even if it means we have to leave here. I have to go somewhere tonight to take care of something. Soon as that's done, we'll start working on a plan."

          She kissed me again, "What are you going to do, Errol. Promise me, you won't do anything that'll put you in danger tonight."

          "I wish I could. I think it's better if I keep this one to myself. I can't promise you that I won't ever put myself in danger though. You remember that first night, when I told you I'd step in front of a bullet for you? It still goes, Rosa. I don't think it's going to be tonight, but there's a possibility that it is coming; I will never let anyone hurt you, or Lennie, as long as I'm alive."

         She got quiet for a while, then started crying. I cradled her face In my hands, then she whispered,"Things would have so much easier for you, if you had never met me."

         I laughed wrapped both arms around her, "My dad used to say that easy was overrated, that anything good comes out of struggle."

            "Then we are going to be very rich someday."

          "We already are,  never let 'em take  away from you.

           The front bar at Ernie's was almost empty. Armin his cousin was washing up some glassware when I came in.

           "Hey, Errol. Where you been, haven't seen you in a while?"

           "Been working. Your family OK?

            "Aw, you know my old lady. Spends more money than I make.
You still drinking Scotch and water?

            "That's my drink?"

            "I'll bring it in."

           When I walked in the card room, I had to adjust my eyes a little because as dark as the bar was, the card room was significantly darker, there was a separate light source for each table with a green circular shade made of tin and directed the light down toward the tables so that it looked like there were little of circles of light spotting the area. Ernie generally ran eight tables, but tonight there was only two going. I got lucky because Russian Mike went all in on a pair of queens and got ambushed by Old Man Lee's three tens.

             "Hey, Errol. I was just keeping this seat warm for you, but I'll warn you, it's full of bad luck tonight."

               I went to shake his hand, "You sure it's the seat, Mike and not all that Vodka?" Then I went around the table and shook hands with everyone, first approaching Ernie who sat in the  high seat overlooking the games like he was tennis judge. I knew pretty much every-one in the room. There was Old Man Lee who would be on my immediate left and Iron Belly, his best friend, a Swedish long haul truck-driver  who pretty much lived at Ernies when he was in town.

    To my right was Mexican guy whose real name was Henry Gonzalez but everybody knew as Balboa because he was always claiming that the explorer was on of his forebears. Everybody would tease him so much that he would pretend to get mad and jump up ready to fight, but then start laughing and pointing his finger like a pistol saying, "I got chu, got chu, and got chu." His other nickname was Got Chu; he answered to both. Across from me was the only lady in the room, and when I say lady, I mean lady. Jenny Sinclair was known as the Duchess in that room. She was a tall, slender gray-haired lady of about sixty, who always wore a black dress and string of fake pearls with matching ear-rings. She was the head of cleaning services at the Belvedere Hotel, a tough lady with a heart of gold who knew so much about the rules of poker that everybody deferred to her instead of Ernie when questions arose, and no-one ever disputed her rulings because to do so would have a shown a lack of respect. I knew everyone else in the room except the one guy who would be sitting directly behind me. He was new, so that threw up a red flag right away. He was a stocky, red-haired Irish looking dude with thick lips, large blue eyes, and a bulging forehead. His arms were covered with fine blond hair and freckles. That was odd too because he was the only man in the room wearing a short sleeved shirt. His demeanor was also suspect . He talked way too much for a newbie. The first thing I noticed was when the server brought his drink to his table, he didn't tip her. That was a major faux pas and said more about his character than anything else he could have said or done. It said that he was not only a hustler, but a cheap hustler, someone who would sale out his grandma for a buck.

      And he didn't do anything to dispel the notion when he started talking either. Right away he gave himself away when he asked Ernie, "Hey, Ernie, whatever happened that other girl who used to work here. You know the pretty one with the those big dark eyes."  The statement reenforced the idea that he was kind of dumb as I could tell Ernie knew he hadn't ever been there before much less long enough to know that Rosa worked there. Ernie started to close him down when he saw me give the signal to draw him out, to let him talk.

         "She left, she got a better job in the city and took off. Good kid. We miss her." Every person in the room nodded which should have been a warning for him to watch his tongue, a warning that apparently went unheeded.

         "Too bad, she sure was easy on the eyes."

        "That she was. As beautiful on the inside as the outside too, a real sweet-heart."

       The red-headed stranger let a second or two go by before he continued, "I heard a rumor that her boyfriend wasn't such a sweet-heart though. I heard he worked for the Big Guy, you know Jimmy DeLeo."

         Ernie was unsure about how much he should let the guy keep running hi mouth, as everybody knew who DeLeo was and were anxious about being part of any conversation that was throwing his name around so loosely."I'd be careful how I talked about Mr. DeLeo in these parts. It's an easy way to end up somewhere you don't want to be."

           If the guy was worried about that, he didn't show it,, he took no heed of the warning and instead looked around the room and waved his arm,  "We're among friends here. And from what I've always heard, Mr. DeLeo lets this part of the valley run itself, you kind of like the Wild West. That is unless you want to count that little pint-sized hoodlum Giancarlo and his two big dummies as something to worry about."

          Ernie had enough of the man's audacity, "What is it that you're trying to say here Mister. I've never seen you in here before, so what is it you want to know about Rosa?"

            The stranger just smiled, "Fair enough let's be direct. I'm a busy man and don't really have time to beat around the bush anyway. Hector, Rosa's boyfriend worked for Mr. DeLeo and ended up owing him a whole lot of money. Giancarlo told Mr. DeLeo about this Rosa dame, about how pretty she was. So, they set up a deal where Hector was to bring his girlfriend to a party at the Belvedere and in exchange Mr. DeLeo would wipe that debt clean. Problem was, Hector never showed up and neither did the girl. And the funny thing was that Hector's brother Johnny, that devil looking one everyone calls El Loco, was waiting there at the hotel, so they sent him to find his brother. He comes back a hour later, no brother, no girl, but says his mother was acting very strange. Bottom there's a very generous reward out for any information about where Hector disappeared to, and or information about the girl, this Rosa broad."

             I knew that Ernie was thinking at this point, it might be better to let him reveal as much information as possible, so he asked,"So, tell us, Stranger, what's in it for you? And what's to stop any one of us from going to DeLeo ourself?"

           If a snake could laugh, it would probably sound like the hissing sound that came out of Stranger's mouth, "None youse guys could get within a mile of Jimmy DeLeo. But me, I'm his barber, I cut his hair once a week, and I'm not a greedy man, I'll do sixty-forty split with anyone who knows anything." He stood up and looked to see if anyone was willing to take him up on his offer. When he turned my way, I hit him with the beer mug that Old Man Lee handed me, and he dropped like a ton of bricks.

         There was no place else to put him but in the passenger side of the truck. Nearly everyone in the card room helped with the trussing and the carrying him out to the truck. Old Man Lee even put a Chinese curse on him, and Iron Belly provided the rope we tied him up with. Balboa, who absolutely adored Rosa, wanted to urinate once we got him outside, but I told him I was going have to carry him inside Fitz's truck and didn't get it all smelly.

      "Can I spit on him, Errol. Kick him."

      "Help yourself." I was surprised that all of the ones who didn't know all that well, joined in the festivities and added a few kicks of their own. It was like of bonding experience of sorts, ordinary men who didn't a lot of chances be hero, in a mythological sense, getting a few kicks in on the personification of evil. We didn't kill him, but I'm not going lie and say the subject didn't come up, or that we didn't have to debate the issue.

     The Duchess, stepped outside to watch the action, When everybody was going back in the card room, she walked out to where I was holding up a cigarette in a long black cigarette holder for me to light. She knew I didn't smoke but she also carried around my grand daddy's Zippo just so I could play the gentleman and light other people's cigarette.

      She took a long drag and exhaled slowly looking a lot like one of them rich dames in the movies, which I knew was what she was looking for, "Thanks, Handsome,"

       "Always my pleasure, Duchess. You do know that I carry this lighter with me just so I have the honor."

           She laughed and said, "That ain't all I know, Errol. I was there that night that idiot was talking about. DeLeo takes up the whole top floor at Belvedere. One half is for his business affairs, and other half is where he entertains. I remember that evening because he was all anxious and even had us being up extra flowers, and put roses on the bedspread with some fancy chocolate." She leaned in a little closer, "I also caught one of my girls hiding a gun in the towel closet in the bathroom. Turns out she did it for Giancarlo. He was going to use that girl, I didn't know it was Rosa till this guy started talking, to get DeLeo to lower his guard so he could take him out."

          "The girl?"

         "You don't need to worry about the girl. She's where all the people like her end up."

         "Where's that?"

         "Let's just say, north of Fresno and leave it at that."

         I gave her big hug and kiss on the cheek after she informed me that the gun was still hidden and that she'd worked at the Belvedere since she was a kid and through the boot-leg years, and she knew every inch of the that hotel and corridors and tunnels that no-one else there even knew about.

         Ernie told me that Armin was already working on getting rid of the Stranger's car, "He's not my brother's smartest son, but he knows how to dispose of a car, so you won't have to worry about it topping up at the worse time." He patted the side of the truck, "You sure you got this one under control?" He was referring the Stranger who was tied up hand and foot and blind-folded on the passenger side of Fitz's truck. One of guys, I didn't know his name had taped his mouth shut with some packing tape and a handkerchief.

           "I can handle him. I don't rightly know what I'm going to do with him yet."

          "If it was me and he was.....,well you know. I'd feed him to the fishes. Not too late!"

           "Ernie, I forgot to ask. How's your mom?"

           "Mom? She's doing good, wait a minute, I see what you're doing that's not fair, Errol, bringing my mom into this discussion."

            I laughed and drove off, waving out the door.

           

 




         



          
 
            



 

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