Chapter 36

I drove to Lucinda’s downtown gym via the doghouse restaurant, which was on the way. I stopped to pick up two hot dogs for my dinner. I had agreed to watch the cash drawer at the gym, but I didn’t agree to miss a chance for a hot dog from the Downtown Dog House, They made their own chili and the best coleslaw in the state.

As Lucinda passed she looked as though she would just as soon have a hot dog as a night on the town. I wouldn’t have blamed her, if that was how she felt. Everyone knew that the doghouse was a historical local landmark. They even ran a food truck during the spring and summer months.

I managed to finish my dogs before I had my first run in with one of the gym’s customers. The housewives were fine, it was just the WWA thugs who felt the need to test me. At the time I was sitting alone in one of the old wooden folding theater style seats. They had probably came from the downtown theater at some point in history, or maybe a public school’s auditorium. I saw the small group of thugs coming to talk to me. Yes I admit it made me apprehensive.

“Hey old man you reckon Gerome is putting moves on that one legged ho?” the obvious leader of the pack asked.

“I don’t know about that, but I do know that you need to either, show the owner some respect or wait for planet fitness to open a gym here,” I said.

“And if I don’t?” he asked.

“Then kid you are about to let your mouth overload your ass. I would hate to see you do that. It isn’t good for business,” I informed him.

“What if I just decide to kick your old white ass,” he said. He and his thug friend did that laugh and slap hands thing meant to intimidate me.

“Well the best you can do is hurt me a little, but I assure you I will have your ass arrested. I also assure you, it will not be an easy arrest. So that makes it a really bad idea,” I added.

“How about I just kill your ass?” he said showing his irritation.

“If you try that, I’m going to defend myself. Your hands are a deadly weapons, or at least dangerous weapons. So I would have to use real force. You know, the kind I could reach out and touch you with. Now if I asked you to leave and you refused, I’d have to call the cops. I know all of them, and I know how the system works. It would not be a pleasant arrest. Trust me kid you are better off to go back to your workout and keep your mouth shut,” I said.

“Nobody talks to me like that,” he demanded.

“Well, just pretend it was an old man giving you some good advice,” I said walking away.

It was the only way I could think of to defuse the situation without backing down. I was nervous to turn my back on the three of them. I had to do something and there was no way I could win a confrontation. I really can’t say that I hadn’t been expecting the thug confrontation, so I wasn’t surprised that my hands shook when I got alone. They left and I couldn’t wait for Lucinda to get back. I needed her to walk out with me.

Gerome came inside first, followed a long minute later by Lucinda. The look on her face made me decide to keep my mouth shut. I knew that look and knew silence was the better part of valor. I didn’t need to give my opinion on anything. That was a thing younger men felt they needed to do.

When Gerome came back from the upstairs apartment, which had served valiantly as a stock room in a former lifetime, I grabbed him. The three thugs had been gone a while, but I didn’t trust them. I had lasted thirty years on the road by not trusting anyone.