Page 52 of One Last Chance

Chapter 20

I rolledover my plan to clear my name the entire day at work. One more week and I wouldn’t have the job working on the roads anymore. And I know the foreman said we could take this last week to do apply for jobs and all that, but I already knew what the job situation was like. I’d turned in enough application and gotten shot down, lowballed, and ignored enough times to know that resubmitting an application was like trying to shoot without a bullet in my gun.

As soon as I got off, I burst through the motel doors, eager to get started on my plan. Leroy wasn’t at his desk, which meant he was either in his office behind it, or in his apartment behind that.

As I approached the office door, a unique, subtly chemical scent greeted me.

Frowning, I knocked on the door.

“Go away!” His voice was lazy, but somehow, still had a sharpness to it.

I knocked again, just to get his attention. “Leroy, it’s Kash. I got a question for you.”

This time, he didn’t answer and so I knocked again. When no answer came, I said, ‘fuck it’ and opened the door. Leroy sat between clouds in his chair—a white, whirling billow around his knees, a blue haze above him. His head lolled back against the leather seat, pinpoint pupils tracing the path of smoke trickling off the cigarette which dangled between his fingers.

He dragged his head forward and grinned stupidly at me. “Kash! Come on in, I got a message for you.”

“You better come out here,” I said, taking a step back. “I breathe that air you got there, I’ll be pissing dirty for a week.”

I closed the door on his reedy laugh and frowned. On the one hand, he was more likely to talk now. On the other, I could almost smell the destruction on him. Destruction that I didn’t need to have seep into my own pores.

I shook my head and hopped up on the counter, waiting for him to drag himself out to meet me. If I knew drugs the way I thought I did, it would take him a while and so I didn’t count the clock. I just waited. And waited. He’d make his way out here eventually, that much I knew. And when he did, he’d be full of talk and energy.

I swallowed the guilt. I hadn’t been his supplier this time, and it was like Daisy said—Leroy had been an addict since before I was old enough to understand what that meant. Long before I’d swapped my drugs for his money. And maybe long before that, too.

After what felt like forever and an eternity, Leroy came out. He was moving like a cricket, and had his hands close to his chest, balled tight into two bony fists. His eyes all over the place, looking here and looking there, not able to focus on one thing or anything at all. At least not for a while. Coming to a stop in front of me, his eyes did a quick scan of my face before they went off roaming in every direction under the sun. His sloppy grin instantly switched to a grim expression.

“I have a message for you,” he said again.

“Yeah, you told me. What’s the message?”

Leroy wrung his hands. “I really hate to do this to you, boy.”

He paused. I waited. Crickets chirped. A dog or two barked in the distance. So much silence. Way too much silence. It wasn’t really the calm before the storm, but somehow, it still felt like it.

“Hey, did you finish the cabinets in the kitchen?” Leroy asked and I sighed.

I crossed my legs at the ankles and leaned forward, snapping my finger’s in Leroy’s face. “Leroy, focus. The message?”

He nodded and scanned my face with half lowered lids. “Oh! It’s from an important man. A very important man. He says—he says you best get your ass out of town right quick.”

I shook my head. “No can do, Leroy. This very important man must not understand the conditions of my parole. I can’t get out of town. I can’t even get out of this motel without written consent.”

Leroy grimaced, his hands twisting in agitation. “You got to! He says if you don’t, if you start selling again, if you don’t get out of town, you’re gonna end up dead.”

A flash of insight disrupted the indignation which tried to rise up inside of me. I hopped off the counter and got right up in Leroy’s face. “This very important man threatened my life? Interesting. Who was it, Leroy?”

Leroy scuttled backward, shaking his head in an awkward, erratic rhythm. “Uh-uh. No way, Kash. You know I can’t tell you that. Just trust me, you best believe him. He don’t want you here at all. You start up your business again, he’ll make good on that threat.”

I crowded him again. All six-feet plus of me hovering over the meekness of him. He was like an ant and I, the microscope. “Will he? How do you know? Has he done it before? Maybe with Hunter?”

Leroy paled and his lips thinned. If I said his bones shook beneath his skin, I wouldn’t be lying. “I-I-I don’t know, man,” he stuttered. “I don’t know! But believe you me, Kash, he’s capable. He’d do it, no question. None at all. No questions asked. Don’t cross him, Kash. You don’t wanna cross him. Just do what he says. Come on, man, don’t do this to me!”

I took one step forward and then another, not stopping until Leroy was backed into a corner – physically and metaphorically. I could see fresh chafing on his neck where he’d been lifted or dragged by his collar, and I knew it wasn’t my doing.

I glared into his eyes. “What’s the matter, Leroy? You in debt with your dealer?”

Leroy shook his head furiously. “Nope, nope, all paid up. Just guilty by association, I guess. He don’t want me buying from you. He’s real big on loyalty.”

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