Jeff,
finds himself in Atlanta Magic
Town
Chapter 5 of Magic
Town …
Saturday, 12:48 AM: The House
meets up with Pick again!
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- Chris Lamela---------------------------------------------------------------------
Author contact: Chris Lamela,
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Magic Town, Chapter 5
Saturday,
12:48 AM: The House
Jeff pushed his way around tables to the curtained door. He started to
push through the curtain, the bouncer stepped in front of him, “Where you
goin’? You caint go out there. Yo driver out there?”
Jeff looked up at the black face towering over him, “Out. Back home. I
don’t have a driver.”
“What, did he leave? Dey’s no cabs out there, white boy could get
himself hurt out there,” he scowled, “even you!”
“Wait, yes, I do have a driver!” He looked up at the face towering over
him, “I do have a ride!”
The bouncer pulled back the curtain a bit, glanced through, got a signal
Jeff couldn’t see, shrugged stepping aside, pulling the curtain back so Jeff
could walk through with a thanks as he went.
The curtain fell back. Jeff stood in the darkness, the music came up
again THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP, the chorus of men’s shouts rising, definitely
fewer voices than before. Jeff stood in the dark of the short hall between the
front door and black curtain with just the outline of swirling lights around
the black curtain behind him, almost total darkness down the other direction of
the short hall toward the front door with the side door to the right that went
downstairs. He remembered Shonna’s words not to go outside so he guessed that he
could feel trapped if he cared to. Somehow he didn’t feel trapped. Just kind of
numb. Waiting.
He was surprised at how sober he felt given how much he’d drank tonight.
Shonna’s words shouted down from the runway came back to him, something about
not screwing this up, how she wished he wasn’t here. Wonder what that all
means? And who do people keep thinking I
am? He shrugged it off as just something that came out of all the craziness
in that god awful loud room with all those drunken men shouting, banging on
tables, the alcohol-sloshed high spirits. Jeff smiled, nothing like beer and
naked women to get a rise out of a room full of men!
Suddenly two men burst through the front door, Jeff felt a rush of cool
outside air gushing into the stuffy short corridor. The door closed behind them,
they wordlessly pushed past Jeff to the curtain that was pulled back, twirling
lights flooding into the small corridor. Even though they were both black, Jeff
noticed a tattoo, a kind of twisted up snake on a right arm reflecting the
light coming from the bar, gone as the curtain fell.
Jeff heard a voice. He was trying to figure out where it was coming from
when he saw light from a side door on the left side of the front entrance that
he didn’t notice before, across from the door on the right he went through
before. There was a woman’s silhouette in the doorway signaling to Jeff, he
stepped to the door into a dimly lit hallway seeing Shonna walking, turning
signaling him to follow her. They walked about thirty steps, turning left
facing a long, dim hallway. They passed a closed door on the left with light
around the edges, Jeff could hear faint laughing through the door, thumping
music could still be heard ever so faintly, so much much quieter. Continuing
for what seemed like another fifty steps they turned left again, went another
thirty steps, on the right he saw Shonna open a door. Jeff felt the night’s
coolness rushing into the stifling corridor.
He stepped through the door emerging into the darkness, the night air
feeling so good on his face coming out of the airless smoke-filled building,
some kind of back parking lot, a couple flood lights on the building shining
down. Jeff looked up, could see a few stars in the sky barely poking through
the city lights. There was a group of men on the far side huddled together in
the darkness, one glanced over, turned back to the group. Jeff followed Shonna
winding through the cars until she went around the side of what looked like a Mustang,
waving him to the passenger side. He sidled around the dark blue car opening
the door.
Settling into the seat, Jeff automatically reached for the seatbelt, latched
it; Shonna laughed quietly at this fastidious man, she didn’t say anything,
starting the car. Without a word, she pulled out of the parking lot, took a
left heading through isles of tall dark warehouses. Soon they were driving
through low houses with cars parked everywhere, everything crowded together.
Even at this late hour there were people walking around or sitting on front
porches or standing huddled in groups in the darkness occasionally turning to
look as they passed.
“Did you tell anyone where you’re staying?”
Jeff was startled by her voice. He thought, saying no he was sure he
hadn’t.
“Good, they won’t know how to find you.”
“Find me?”
Shonna didn’t answer, soon the car slowed, she turned into a driveway
that was blocked with cars. She slowly navigated around a car in the driveway
steering up onto the lawn. Jeff looked out seeing there was no lawn, just a
dirt patch in front of the house. He looked at the house, a tiny white
building, light coming around drawn curtains.
He saw her look at the light in the window frowning, shaking her head.
“You live here?”
Shonna laughed, “Yeah, if you can call this living. Pretty small, huh?”
Jeff nodded with a frown. “You probably live in some big house with lots of sunshine
and picket fences. I tell people my house is so small you can see all four
sides at once.”
Jeff laughed, “That’s funny!”
“Yeah, well you gotta have a sense of humor when you live someplace like
this. Best part is there is me and two whole families living here. I’m the only
one with a room to myself.”
“Really? Whole families live in one bedroom?”
“Yeah, our little three-bedroom one-bath paradise. Eleven people.” Jeff
didn’t answer looking around him, for the first time seriously starting to
regret how the evening had progressed.
The car engine stopped. Shonna stepped out. “Okay, we’re going in, but
don’t say a word unless I tell you.” Jeff nodded, his attention fixed on the
house. “Hope you like the couch, but don’t get used to it, you’ll be up in a
few hours.”
Jeff got out of the car following Shonna to the front door, looking down
at the old rain-stained couch and ripped stuffed chair to the right of the door
facing the street. She opened the front door to the sound of voices. There was
a small chorus of greetings, she signaled Jeff to follow. When he walked into the
room there was sudden silence, all eyes on him as he stepped uncomfortably into
the room dimly lit with a single shaded lamp sitting on an end table with a
broken leg, propped against the faded red couch for support, a second lamp
hanging above a small table with four people sitting around it, all staring at
him.
Shonna shook her head at them, “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s
not him.” She pulled up another mismatched chair, the others opening their
circle as Shonna stepped over to sit down, pointing Jeff to the couch which he
stepped over to, flopping down. He patted the couch on each side, small clouds
of dust puffed up tickling Jeff’s nose.
All faces were still turned toward him as Shonna smiled, “Something,
huh? Whoda thought. Fell right into our laps.”
Soon the faces were turned across the table, a quiet discussion ensued.
The tiny room could have only be five paces across each way, a filthy
stove covered with dirty pots and pans, a small refrigerator covered with
children’s drawings, school photographs of small faces peering into the dim
room. There was a small hallway at the back of the room on Jeff’s right with
four doors, three closed, an open bathroom door.
With voices so low Jeff couldn’t hear a word, the group huddled talking
softly. Every so often one would glance over at Jeff as though he was somehow part
of their conversation. He continued feeling uneasy. He sat listening intently,
he couldn’t hear a word sitting there, suddenly feeling a wave of tired wash
over him, he started to close his eyes, got up going into the bathroom to pee,
too many beers. The bathroom was disgusting with rust stains in the sink,
towels piled on the floor, a toilet that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in
a hundred years. He felt uneasy even about peeing into it fearing that something
might climb up the stream to infect him with god knows what. At least it
flushed.
He stepped back out into the living room, sat back down on the couch
leaning his head back. He was out like a light.
A loud laugh made Jeff jerk up his head. He looked around for a second
trying to remember where he was. Pick’s face was hovering in front of his eyes,
Jeff pulled back, “Pick!” The whole room burst into laughter, Jeff’s startled
expression made them laugh another round again. “Wow, Pick! What are you doing
here?”
“I told you I’d catch up with you later!” Jeff shook his head trying to
wake up, looked at his watch, glinting in the darkness to see a few minutes
after three thinking to himself, “A couple hours sleep.”
“Man, Pick. What are you doing here?”
Pick laughed, “The question is, what are you doing here?”
“I followed Shonna, or rather…Shonna drove me here.”
Pick signaled Jeff to move over, flopping down on the low couch next to
Jeff in a puff of dust, Jeff sneezed. “Bless you, brothah.” He waited for Jeff
to stop sniffling. “Well, remember I promised you an interesting evening.” The
words rung in Jeff’s ears; it seems that lots of people promised him an
interesting evening. “Why didn’t you leave like a nice white boy and go back to
your hotel?”
Jeff paused, reaching for a reason. Any reason. There was no reason. “Well,
I was having fun and just kind of missed the chance to leave, and then Shonna
drove me here.” He rubbed his eyes smacking his lips trying to get the taste of
stale beer out of his mouth. “Then I just kind of ended up here.”
Pick chuckled smiling, turning to see waving coming from the table. He stood
up to go over to the group at the table, Jeff flopped back against the couch.
He could recall hearing the word “tomorrow” as he drifted off again.
“Hey, wake up!” Jeff startled again, looking up at Shonna, the room
quiet, empty behind her. He glanced at his watch, after four-thirty.
“What’s going on?”
“We need to go pay someone a visit, we’ve got to go now.” Shonna reached
down pulling on Jeff’s left arm, “Come on, sleepy man, time to wake up, we
gotta go now.”
Jeff stood up, stretched, yawning he followed Shonna out the door. In
another minute he was in the blue Mustang again driving through streets crowded
with cars, deserted of people, all the houses now dark. Not a soul to be seen.
“Where are we going?”
“To talk a little sense into someone, but first to get some coffee.”
Jeff frowned. “What’s going on here, why are you taking me along with
you? I mean, in a couple hours I could probably find a cab back to my hotel.”
Shonna glanced at Jeff as she drove silently, Jeff could see she was
choosing her words carefully. “Look, your coming along like you did…we didn’t
plan it like this, but you came along…” She paused, paying attention to turning
left with only one car on the street passing as she turned. “Let me ask you a
question.”
Jeff sat silent.
“Have you ever been in trouble, like you got yourself in over your head
and you’re not sure what to do?”
“I’m kind of there now.”
Shonna chuckled, “Okay, fair enough, but you can make it back to your
hotel and fly back to wherever and it be all done, right? But let’s say you were
somebody else and you got really involved
in something that was really over
your head and you felt like you were stuck.”
He looked toward her as she drove, “You mean hypothetically.”
“Yes, hypothetically.”
“Is this something I did or something that happened to me?”
“Let’s say it was something you did to start, but then things happened
that made it really complicated and started getting all sorts of people
involved and some of those people are not very nice.” She glanced at him.
“Anything like that?”
Jeff looked off to the high rises of downtown Atlanta
“Well, sometimes people do get themselves into complicated things. When
that happens, sometimes they just need someone to talk a little sense into
them.”
Jeff puckered his brow in the dark. “Sense?” He looked around trying to
figure out where they were. “Okay, so someone needs to have some sense talked
into them. But why do I have to come along?”
“Because you’re the one who is going to be doing the talking.”
“Because you’re the one who is going to be doing the talking.”
-------------------------------------------------
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MAGIC TOWN!
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