Fifty-Boy
20
Short Attire For A Jitney
I'd ensconced myself in a luxury abandominium down on Ventnor Avenue. I had a journal full of notes, a briefcase and shoulder bag full of money, and a strong temptation to either fly on down to Florida or roll on home to Molly and try and buy her back.
But then there was Vivian. It'd be pretty cold to leave her holding the bag. She was the one who came to see me when I had nothing. She told me her dreams. She said I was part of her escape. I had to think about that.Outside the world was raw and wet. But for some reason I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Nearly a million dollars and me holding it. It made me laugh out loud.
Just because I was homeless didn't mean I was unintelligent. Four hundred thousand I took for myself. The other five hundred, the new stuff, I wrapped like bricks with wax-paper and duct tape.I sent Vivian a note on a Lucy The Elephant postcard that said: Short Attire For a Jitney, a clue as to where I hid the money, just in case.
Yeah, she said I was part of her escape, and she said she had dreams, but I never heard her mention me a being part of those dreams.Just because I was homeless didn't mean I didn't listen, I listened good. I didn't know for sure but I figured what I'd witnessed at 3am had been some kind of swap. I wondered if Vivian knew Paul Meanos hadn't swapped her even. From what I counted it looked like he took a ten percent fee for switching old bills for new. I guess Vivian knew the deal. She was giving him the five hundred thousand in her shoulder bag and he was giving her the four hundred thousand in old money in his briefcase. I just wondered where she got the half million in the first place.
One thing I did know, Vivian wanted it all for herself, the whole nine hundred thousand. So she got me to wait there under the Boards, and then called Wilmont Mathers, that nasty detective, told him she was doing research on her new crime series and was afraid to be out there alone at 3am with Pauly Meanos, so Mathers shows up, and she just walks away with the whole thing.
She said she couldn't tell me the details of her escape to paradise, but she intimated when everything was said and done, I'd have enough to get my own Jitney. Well yahoo. 
But I wasn't the same guy who got his dick caught in his zipper a year ago. What Vivian didn't know was, as I got to thinking things over counting the money in the abandoned tire store on Ventnor Avenue, I said, "This ain't never gonna' happend again, not to me, anyway... This is a once in a lifetime. Here's my chance to pass Go."I finished stashing the bricks iand put the wall panel back in place, strapped my plastic bag with the four hundred thousand to the small of my back, put on all my bulky cold weather rain gear, picked up the briefcase I had filled with sand, and took a peek outside - Looked clear from what I could see. I slipped out a cellar window smiling and feeling pretty good about life.
It occurred to me half way down the block to go back and check the rear door in the alley. I didn't want no homeless people getting in there.
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