Chapter 2

Jerry gave Lauren a friendly pat on the back. "Don't worry, Lauren. Salvatore's a real nice guy, and he can get you some nice stuff." Lauren exhaled. "That's a relief."

Jerry and Lauren were walking down the practically abandoned sidewalk of Corbin street.

There was not another soul to be seen, and the grey, rainy afternoon was adding to the sad, lonely atmosphere generated by the abandoned section of Corbin street. As soon as they reached the intersection of Corbin and 42nd street, Jerry turned and walked into a dark alleyway. The floor was littered with trash and debris; pieces of steel and glass carpeted the floor there. Halfway down the alley, Jerry led Lauren through a poorly lit doorway. A small floodlight gave a dim fluorescent glow over the entrance, and Lauren hesitated to go through it. When Jerry was halfway in, she followed him slowly and cautiously.

Jerry looked back at Lauren once she was inside. She was a small cat, with an agreeable face that matched her behavior, and fur that carried a creamy blend of brown and black. Judging by the looks of her, Jerry guessed that she was around eighteen years old.

It had been almost two months since Sam, Jerry and I had started dealing marijuana, and the little 'business' was attracting all sorts of customers. For our business, we decided that it was much too dangerous and informal to deal drugs on the street, so we found an empty room in one of the abandoned buildings of Corbin street, which was reasonably clean and it had a nice carpet. We spent about a week making the room look nice, we cleaned the carpet, placed a few chairs, a desk and two lamps inside of it. That was all of the décor that was inside of our new headquarters, except for an old item I had found among my dad's stuff in the basement. It was a photograph of my great-grandfather, in black and white, and it had a quotation under it.

"The most important lesson in business - you can sell anything."

-Guiseppe Dalsegno

Jerry and Lauren stepped into the warm, bright office, which was a calm relief from the pouring rain outside. I was sitting at my desk quietly observing them. Sam was standing up by the doorway, staring at Lauren happily from behind. As Lauren entered the room, I grinned and Sam let out an audible wolf-whistle. "What can I do for you, gorgeous?" Sam snorted and laughed at my bluntness and shook his head.

Lauren stepped up very close to me, about six inches away from my face. I could smell her perfume and she wrinkled her nose at my smell. I hadn't bathed for three days then. I was never really too fond of taking showers, anyway. Lauren held out four fifty dollar bills to me and motioned for me to take them. "How much will this get me?" I took the bills and counted them through. Jerry's eyes widened as he saw me pawing through two-hundred dollars as if it were just pocket-change. Sam slowly grinned, knowing that he would get sixty-six dollars, his 1/3 cut of our profit. I nodded. "This'll get you about two ounces worth."

She nodded and flashed me a pleasant smile. "Great."

"Jerry, go downstairs and grab Lauren two ounces of grade-B." We had so much marijuana growing in the basement of the building that we were able to divide it according to quality. The higher a customer was willing to pay, the higher quality drugs we would sell them. That way, we could satisfy a much broader range of customers. If they were broke OR rich, they could still buy marijuana. Grade-A was our premium stuff, Grade-B was pretty normal, and Grade-C wasn't really pot, it was just some old crabgrass that we kept around just in case we needed to fool somebody who didn't know what they were doing.

Jerry, with a smile on his face, and probably thinking about how nicely business was going, started to walk to the staircase when a loud *click* stopped him in his tracks.

"Freeze. Get your paws where I can see them." Lauren had pulled out a.38 caliber revolver and was aiming it at Jerry, who had his paws high above his head. Lauren glanced at me then frowned and aimed it at my forehead. "You too. Hands up, Sal- Vah Tore Ay." Lauren mocked the Neapolitan pronunciation that went with my name and she cocked the gun, just to show me and Jerry that she meant business. "If either of you moves, I'll kill you both quicker than you can say 'a dead guinea and a dead mick'." Lauren laughed at her racist pun and whipped out a shiny police badge. "The three of you are under arrest."