Chapter 2

The pickup truck with a camper top lumbered slowly down the street. The three occupants of the truck were too busy looking at the scenery to be worried about the cars behind them, despite the fact that Los Angeles drivers are not known for having much patience. The drivers behind them first tried honking their horns to get them to move faster and then passed them despite the dangers involved. Most of the drivers gave them a one-finger salute although a few looked like they wanted to make it a little more physical than that.

By any definition known to man, this was an ugly neighborhood. Half of the buildings had bars on the windows while the other half of the buildings didn’t have windows. The whole place looked tired and rundown. Every building needed its façade refinished. The windows needed washing. The sidewalks needed to be swept. Like a hundred year old woman it was in dire need of a face-lift. Even with one it would never look new again.

Staring at a building that was boarded up, Donny said, “What a shithole.”

“I’ve seen outhouses better than this place,” Dan said.

Joe stared at a woman walking down the street. She was a very large woman wearing an outfit that was a little small for her build. He stuck his head out the window and looked back at her after they had passed her by.

Disgusted, he said, “A woman that big shouldn’t be wearing anything that tight. I could see every roll of fat on her.”

“She’s somebody’s love object,” Donny said with a grin.

“Boy, you are sick,” Joe said.

“I can’t believe that Sonny actually took a job in this place,” Dan said. “He should have just asked us for a little more money.”

“The only businesses around here are bars, beer stores, pawn shops, check cashing places, and strip joints,” Joe said taking a quick inventory of the signs around them. “I haven’t seen anything that looks like a grocery store.”

“You missed the bail bond joints and the law offices,” Dan said as they passed a bail bond place.

Joe said, “There’s a massage parlor. I’d bet good money that no one has ever gotten a massage there.”

“It doesn’t look to me like anyone around here actually eats food. Judging by the people I’ve seen, I would have to say that they drink their meals,” Donny said.

In fact, he had a seen a few folks that were drinking their meals.

“I can’t imagine living in a place like this!” Dan said. This was so different from the wide-open spaces that he called home, that it could have been a completely different planet.

“Even the trees are ugly. No wonder they drink,” Donny said while staring at a tree that was stunted from a lack of water and care. There was a scar on the tree trunk that suggested someone had once hit it with a car.

“I don’t see how they can even walk around, here, considering all of the broken bottles and trash that’s all over the place,” Joe said after watching a guy finish a soda and toss the can into the street. “It’s a pig sty here. Don’t they have any pride?”

Dan said, “The people who live here don’t own anything. They can’t take pride in something they don’t own. The owners don’t live here, so they don’t care how it looks. All they care about is the rent. The end result, is what you see around us.”

“That makes sense in a twisted kind of way,” Joe said. He stuck his head out the window and looked at the building they were driving past. All of the windows in it were broken, and the door was propped open. He could see people sprawled out on the floor, but couldn’t tell what they were doing. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to know.

“What in the hell is that guy doing?” Donny asked pointing at a guy who was staggering around the centerline of the street. The man was acting like he was going to jump in front of cars whenever they passed him. The whole time he was doing that he was talking to some woman who was standing on the sidewalk.

Dan answered, “He’s forcing us to admit he exists. If we hit him, he’s going to sue us for everything we own. He knows that we have to drive around him with care. This is as much recognition as he is ever going to get in his whole life.”

“That’s pitiful,” Donny said wondering what kind of world it was that required a person to be a nuisance in order to be recognized as existing.

“Sure is,” Joe said while Dan drove around the man.

When the traffic light started to change, Dan slowed down and stopped while other cars shot past. It seemed as if an eternity passed before other cars stopped. They hadn’t been sitting at the light for more than fifteen seconds when a man stuck his head inside the window of the truck.

With breath that could kill a skunk at five paces, he said, “Give me a dollar.”

Without missing a beat, Dan pulled out a handgun, cocking it in the process, and put the business end of it to the guy’s forehead.

Dan said, “Run.”

“Shit!” the man shouted taking off across the intersection. A car had to swerve to avoid hitting him.

“Subtle,” Joe said watching the action.

Donny said, “Real subtle.”

“He had a knife,” Dan said with a shrug, releasing the hammer. He put the handgun back in the holster under the dash.

“I guess we look like tourists,” Joe said.

Donny shook his head in disgust.

Getting angrier about his brother working in that part of town, he said, “I can’t believe that Sonny drove down here to work.”

“You don’t think much of your little brother’s survival skills, do you?” Dan asked looking over at the younger man.

“I don’t know. He spent so much time on that computer of his, that I have to be concerned about him. I used to have to drag him out of the house by his ears to get him to do his chores,” Donny said. It used to bother him that Sonny actually preferred doing things on his computer to going fishing.

The traffic light changed and Dan drove on. Once he was through the intersection, he said, “You forget that he bought that computer with money that he made off the furs he got on his trap line.”

“Sonny is a country boy at heart and by birth. He’s been hunting and fishing since he was a little ankle biter,” Joe said.

“I know,” Donny said.

Joe said, “I remember when you two were just little kids. Your dad, Dan and I, would go bird hunting. You and your brother would be our bird dogs. You’d chase down whatever we shot. I don’t think either of you ever lost a bird that we brought down.”

Dan said, “We taught both of you boys everything we know about surviving. Either of you could get dropped in the middle of nowhere with nothing, and come out having gained ten pounds.”

Joe said, “Your Dad would have taught you the same things we taught you if he hadn’t been killed.”

“He was our little brother and knew everything we know. Hell, our Dad taught him just like he taught us,” Dan said.

It had been a horrible day when that drunk driver had killed his brother when he was down in Oklahoma competing in that rodeo. Dan swiped a hand across his mouth to help get control over his emotions. Some things hurt even after years had passed.

“Don’t ever forget that Sonny is a Daniels,” Joe said.

Dan said, “He knows how to take care of himself. Sonny probably would have been killed by those robbers if he wasn’t a fighter.”

Donny said, “I know. It’s just that he’s my little brother and I can’t help but worry about him. He’s just so different from me.”

“He just doesn’t like being a rancher,” Joe said. “He marches to a different drummer than you. You got to respect him for that.”

“I do ... I guess,” Donny said.

He spotted to a bag lady pushing a grocery cart loaded with junk. From the way her mouth was moving, it was obvious that she was talking to herself continuously.

Pointing at the woman, he said, “Look at that woman. I bet she doesn’t have a home. Someone should be taking care of her.”

“This is not like back home where folks help each other,” Joe said. “We’re in the big city, now. Everyone is a stranger, and no one is a neighbor.”

Donny spotted a teenager with his hair cut in a Mohawk and piercings covering his face. He was wearing ripped blue jeans and a leather coat despite the heat.

He said, “Look at that punk kid over there. He looks like trouble.”

“He’s just a dumb kid trying to look tough. We haven’t seen anything yet. So far, all we’ve seen is the scum that floats on the surface of the water. We haven’t seen the barracudas or the sharks yet,” Dan said.

“Oh, joy,” Donny said sarcastically.

They drove two blocks down the street in relative silence. Each man was looking at things that had caught their eye. Joe said, “Speak of the devil. I think we’ve spotted our first pimp.”

A wildly dressed man was getting out of the black luxury sedan and talking to two nearly undressed women. Taking in the whole scene, Dan said, “I think you’re right. Of course, I’d consider that a parasite rather than a predator.”

Joe pointed to a building up one block and asked, “Is that the place?”

“Looks like it to me,” Dan said. The street signs at the intersection suggested that they were within a block of their destination and the sign along the street had the correct name of the store.

After running a hand into his boot, Joe said, “Dan and I should go in and talk to whoever is in there. Donny should stay out in the truck and make sure that nothing walks off.”

“What about Sonny’s truck?” Donny asked. He felt that they should at least check it out before doing anything else.

“We’ll see about that after we’ve gone in the store,” Joe said.

Pulling into the parking lot of the store, Dan said, “Besides, according to Sonny the keys to the truck are in the store. We’ll get the keys. Joe can check out the truck, while I have a few words with that Pepper fellow who runs the place.”