Chapter 113: Opportunity

Nicolas Jordan was a homeless man, 38 years old in this midwestern city. He was just recently released from prison after doing twelve years for drugs and assault. Now, he was learning how live homeless in St Louis.

One of the first things you learn after walking out of prison is that there is no place to go. Homeless shelters have time limits and are often full up by nightfall. Outside the city there are no such places. Along the Mississippi River there were a few homeless camps. Here, small groups would stay together, work as a group to survive. Any kind of tarp would make a tent, so that took care of shelter. Everything else including food and clothing came from shoplifting mostly. The idea was to get to a nearby Wal-Mart or other large department store. Hit it during the busy hours. They always had a plan. One or two would be after something specific, usually food. The others would walk around looking suspicious but not taking anything. Later, they’d meet out back.

Sometimes they would steal a car to get to more distant stores, but doing that had risks. First, you always ditched the car at the store. Keep for as little time as possible. If you steal one for the trip home, don’t leave it near your campsite. That just attracts police.

Nicholas had ended up in this one encampment with four other people. All had criminal records and no job. Like him, they were just trying to survive. What other people had was just a dream to these five. One was a woman, Janice. An older obese black woman with scraggily grey hair. She had quite a temper so no one bothered her much.

The other four were Nicolas, Jason, Sammy and Elroy. All were addicts still to some degree, meth being their drug of choice. When high, they would sit around the camp dreaming of things they wish they were doing. Sex was a frequent topic, but these guys weren’t gay. Jerking yourself off was pretty common, and stolen pornography pictures were treasured, and well stained. Tonight, Nicolas and Jason went alone to the big strip mall a few miles away. They just needed food for dinner, so they didn’t need to take everyone.

The two walked to the stores. It was a lot farther than the expected, and all these hills didn’t help. Finally, they went to couple of smaller stores first. The drug store would have basics for making meth. Then to Aldi’s grocery story. At Aldi’s it was, of course, a mad house. People raced about everywhere doing shopping for the weekend, and the store was under-staffed as usual. After collecting a pretty good diner for the five, they got outside. Nicolas said he wasn’t hauling this stuff back through the woods again over all them hills. They went out into the parking lot, watching.

Nicolas was looking for a car that was just pulling in, close by. As the driver got out, he could knock them down, grab the keys and be gone in seconds. In this busy strip mall, nobody would notice until the driver came around. Being fresh out of prison, Nicholas had a pretty mean punch.

Then a mini-van pulled in just ahead of them. Nicholas handed his bags to Jason. “This one,” he said. He scrambled around the back of the minivan and ran up to the door just as it popped open. He threw it open, talking the woman driver completely by surprise. Wham! Wham! He punched the side of her head hard twice, then pulled her from the seat. The car was still running. He jumped in and then backed out as Jason jumped in the other side, throwing the bags to the floor. In less than twelve seconds they were driving off. Ah, the homeless life. Jason heard a noise behind him. He turned and couldn’t have been more surprised. Two girls sat there, eyes wide, mouths open. Both had on ear buds but were now staring at him, obviously scared shitless. Jason said, “Holy shit! Holy shit!” Nicolas said what, what? Then he looked back and saw the two. “Oh shit!” he said.

Jason asked what should they do with them. Nicolas said, “Well, we can’t kick them out here in all this traffic. Everyone would see. Hmm. Ah, well, you know, we could...” Jason sat there wondering what he meant for a moment. Then he said, “What, like entertainment?” Nicolas grinned and nodded as her turned onto the river road. Meanwhile, the two girls had started talking. “Who are you?! Where’s my mom?! Let us go! Let us out!!” Jason turned to the two girls, pulling out his pocket knife. He opened it up in front of them, yelling “Shut up! Sut up! Shut the fuck up!” He jabbed it towards one girl, then the other. They flinched back, getting quiet for the moment.

Nicolas thought about what the others had said to him recently, how he needed to contribute more. Hmm. “Ah, well, you know, we could...” he said. Jason sat there wondering what he meant for a moment. Then he said, “What, like entertainment?” Nicolas grinned and nodded as he turned onto the river road exit.

Still the two girls kept going on and on. “Please, just let us out! Please! We just want to get out of the car! Just stop!” Instead, Jason turned to the older girl. He grabbed some dog leash that was laying on the floor. He made her put her hands together, then instead tied her elbows close together in front of her. Jason couldn’t tell how much cleavage this had actually created, due to her coat and her clothes and the darkness in the car.

Marie Ann Stewart knew all too well. She was just fifteen and a half years old, but she had been getting boobs before everyone else since the fifth grade. Now in sixth grade at Parker Hill Elementary, Marie was actually starting to wear a bra. It was cool in one way, having these boobs. She always had to hide them though, or people would stare, like creepy guys at the supermarket.

Marie was in the back seat beside her younger sister, Bethany. Bethany was just fourteen, and unlike her sister, she was developing more normally. Her hips were wider; she had this cute butt. No boobs hardly though, yet. They pulled into a parking spot near Target. She and Britney were on their games with their earphones on. Marie only noticed when someone jumped into the front seat where mom had been, and a second person jumped in the passenger seat. The car leapt forward, driving away. She and Britney sat there, eyes wide now. No longer focused intently on their games, they stared wide-eyed and open mouthed at what was happening. Then her and her sister both started crying out when the two men in front started talking. Marie kept asking where was her mom, to let them out, stop, stop, let them out! Britney was also screaming, kept saying “I want my mommy!”

Then the man pointed a knife at them, lunging at them with it. He yelled at them to shut up, and so they did, sort of. They just stopped yelling so loud, but kept pleading with them. Then the man had grabbed Barnie’s leash and tied her elbows together in front of her. God, she could really feel her boobs pressed together under these clothes.

Nicolas was ecstatic. Bringing two girls to the camp would mean sex for everyone, and they were all way, way overdue. He’d contribute more alright. He wanted some of that meth Sammy had cooked up. He drove straight to the camp. He figured down that path no one would see this van. He could stop short and bring them the rest of the way on foot. Yeah, that was it. That was it. Suddenly, he turned off the road and on the grassy path. After a way, he stopped where it couldn’t be seen from the highway. He turned it off, got out, opened the back door and saw the girls for the first time. Holy cow was all he could say.