| Privileges: Part 1 of 2. (Another story from Jamieson.)
Prilileges: Part 1
The room was spinning when woke up. I hadn’t enjoyed the sleep. It was rough and not invigorating like sleep should be. The walls of my room were a dirty shade of yellow, which wasn’t exactly a welcoming hue.
As I pulled myself out of bed I racked my brain to try and remember what I had done the night before but it was blank. There was a huge gap were the memory should be. Some people might consider this a good thing but it simply worried me. I stumbled towards the bathroom and took a long look at myself in the mirror. Once again trying to remember the events of the night before. There was still no sign of the missing memory.
I dropped my head and stared down into the plughole of the sink. My mind began to drift and I had images of a man, a man with a gun in his hand wearing a dark suit. Then I looked down at the rest of my body, which was still aching. I was terrified when I saw the blood on my chest. I jumped back from the mirror and stood, my eyes torn open, frozen in shock.
“What have I done?” I asked myself under my breath.
I jumped in the shower and cleaned the crap off my body then I went back into my bedroom and tore the sheets from the bed. They were soaked in blood. Then I searched the room for what I was wearing the night before. I had no idea what I had worn but it became blatantly obvious when found a blood soaked black suit and white shirt.
I took the bed sheets and the clothes and threw them both into the washer. Then I got dressed and left the apartment. I headed towards the local coffee house. I was a regular in there I went in every morning for my wake-up call.
“Hey! Drew how ya Doin’?” asked Paul. The Bar man in the small coffee joint.
“I’m doin’ just fine, yourself?” I replied sharply.
“I’m great. Seen you about town last night. You have a good time?” he said
“Yeah. Amazing time thanks. I’ll have a double late with lots of sugar Paul.” I said
Then I headed for my usual table and waited for my coffee. I had been coming to this joint since it opened up about 5 yeas ago. It wasn’t the most popular in this part of town since it was known for housing the local mafia. There was even a rumour around that Don Marsini ran the place. Personally I didn’t believe that. It just didn’t seem the kind of place that you would imagine the mafia to be hangin’ around. It just wasn’t… Grimy enough.
I finished my coffee then left quickly. I decided to go for a walk around town since I had nothing better to do. I was getting close to the park so I decided to take a short tour through it. I reached a really remote area of the park were I used to sit for hours on end when I was younger and just think. I found my old tree. My father had planted it the day he found out my mother was pregnant with me and I had watched it grow it was now quite large. My initials were carved into the bark. I felt a warm glow inside of me as I got sentimental and remembered coming to the park as a kid with my parents and playing football and catch with my father while my mother sat at the bench and watched us running around.
I sat down next to the tree and tried once again to remember my actions of the night before but frustratingly I still couldn’t remember.
All I could see was a dark alley at the back of a nightclub. I think it was “The Door” since there was a bright green glow coming from the end of the alley and “The Door” had a bright green neon sign above the entrance and it had a long alley at the side of it. There was music breaking through from inside but it was indistinguishable over the sound of traffic outside. In The alley stood three men, all dressed in black, looking really angry about something. The Turned and faced me. One of them opened his mouth about to say something to me.
Then a car horn went and I was distracted from the daydream. As I looked up there was a huge limo stopped directly in front of me. I got up from were I had been sitting. Then the window began to roll down. The man inside the limo was an older man. I’d seen his face before but I wasn’t sure were from.
“Get in kid.” He said calmly.
I never said anything in return I just opened the door and climbed in. He rolled the window back up then signalled to the driver to get moving again.
“You know who I am?” he questioned.
“N, no” I replied with an ounce of fear in my throat.
“Well by the end of this journey you will know” he exclaimed.
There was a long silence and he just sat there staring right into my eyes. I was trying to find his face. I couldn’t.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I’m the Don.”
Another silence followed.
“Last night you witnessed a rather unfortunate incident. A guy who owed me a lot of money wasn’t paying and I had my men take him out. You’ve already met Paul I think? He’s one of my finest men. He was one of the guys I sent last night. In fact you’re lucky I sent him last night cos he saved your life. If he hadn’t insisted that you could help us out then you’d be dead right now.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Don’t say anything. Anyway, Paul and the guys took you home last night. You may have noticed you were a little messy today. Unfortunately the job was a bit messy. Your memory of last night might be a little blurred too. We were forced to give you a little bit of a hit to make sure you didn’t remember anything whilst we checked out your credentials. Now to the point, Drew I want you to join my ranks. Now before you make any rash decisions I’d like you to know all your options. ONE! You join my ranks and you get plenty of money and privileges in this fine city. TWO! You refuse to join my ranks and I put a bullet in your head right now and before you start thinking about jumping out of a moving car and risking your own life to get away I think you should know that all the doors in this car are unlocked and they can only be unlocked from the drivers compartment, which is behind that bullet proofed glass…
So what is your choice?”
“Guess I’ll join you.” I said reluctantly.
“Good boy. I knew you’d see things my way.”
“I’m gonna take you to the hotel. I’ll have my guess get you some new clothes and a gun. Then you can either take your pick of the 20 empty rooms in the hotel to stay in from now on or you can go home. If you choose to go home my men will be outside your apartment making sure you can’t leave.”
When we reached the hotel he got out and I followed. We entered the hotel and everyone stopped moving. They all stared towards us. The Don just said.
“Keep moving.”
And they all went back to what they were doing. We got in the lift and went up to the penthouse.
“Paul will be up here waiting for you. I want you to be as comfortable as possible while you’re here. So to make sure you get settled in properly you will be Paul’s new partner.” He ordered.
We entered the penthouse and sure enough Paul was inside sitting on the couch with a huge cigar in one hand and a glass of scotch in the other.
“Hey! Drew!” he laughed.
I smiled. This was just like Paul. I knew there was something more complicated to him than just selling coffee all day long.
“Hey”
“Enough f the pleasantries” said the Don.
“Paul I want you to take drew here under your wing. I want you to make sure he’s comfortable and happy. If there is anything that he needs or wants just tell me and I’ll get it.”
“Sure boss.” Said Paul.
“Good, now go and get him fitted out.” Said the Don excusing us.
Paul looked towards me.
“C’mon then.” He said.
I looked at the Don then turned and walked towards the lift with Paul. In one day I had gone from being a slightly alcoholic, messy, jobless, bum who beats people up every now and again for shits ‘n’ giggles to a gangster working for the top mafia family in the entire city.
It was almost unbelievable.
“You heard the boss. If you ever want or need anything just say and we’ll get it for you. That’s one of the perks of this job. You wouldn’t believe some of the privileges we get in this city. Things you never even imagined before, like free hookers, drugs, alcohol, smokes, cars, clothes. MAN! That’s only the start of it. I love this job.” Said Paul.
“Great!” I said with false enthusiasm
...:::JamiesoN:::... | 
